The game is Final Fantasy XIV. I had a friend wanting me to give it a try, and he bought the standard edition. So my hand was kind of forced. Here’s a screenshot i took of the city i started in, Limsa Lominsa, after it started raining. You can see the tail of my Carbuncle there peaking over the top.
I have 3,400 hours in this game. What I enjoy is that I’m not expected to dedicate my life to it. I pay for 30 days at a time and play when new content is released every 3 months.
I know the last expansion Dawntrail is being slated on Steam reviews, but gameplay wise it was great. The music was solid as always, the Arcadion content was fun and the new zones looked great. Given how good the story has been in the past expansions I can understand how hard it must be to write a whole new story arc and make everyone happy. Some people want something entirely new, while others want to keep it all the same.
I can understand how people can sink 3,400 hours into it. I alone sank 14 hours into it yesterday. I will say I personally don’t like the idea of paying a subscription for my time after buying the standard edition, but I do understand they need to make income somehow and for live service games like this that is hard without a subscription.
The subscription fee imo is warranted given they release new content every 3 months, which includes voice acting, new dungeons, and new raid content. If it was a monthly sub with nothing released between expansions it wouldn’t be acceptable imo. Highly recommend not having a recurring sub
Don’t forget the servers cost. Those things cost a lot. I have a pretty good gaming setup, 2k€+, but my home server costed me more in the end.