Final Fantasy XIV was a 2010 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Windows, developed and published by Square Enix. It was the original version of the fourteenth entry in the main Final Fantasy series and the second MMORPG in the series after Final Fantasy XI. Set in the fantasy realm of Eorzea, players take control of a customized avatar as they explore the land and are caught up in both an invasion by the hostile Garlean Empire and the threat of the primals, the deities of the land's beastmen tribes. Eventually, they are embroiled in a plot by a Garlean Legatus to destroy the primals by bringing one of the planet's moons down on Eorzea.

Final Fantasy XIV had been in development since 2005 under the codename "Rapture", and was announced in 2009 for Windows and the PlayStation 3 video game console. It ran on Square Enix's Crystal Tools middleware engine, which was adjusted to suit the game's specifications. During development, the team carried over multiple aesthetic elements from Final Fantasy XI while attempting to create something that stood on its own. Due to several factors, the development was beset by problems that would later have drastic effects on the game. Attempts to bring the game to Xbox 360 consoles fell through due to disagreements with Microsoft about the use of Xbox Live.

After its alpha test and a delayed beta test, the game went live on September 30, 2010, remaining active until its servers were closed on November 11, 2012. At launch, the game was met with a negative response: while the graphics and music were praised, other aspects were unanimously panned, including the gameplay, interface, and the general impression of the game being unfinished. Critic and fan backlash caused Square Enix to suspend subscription fees, indefinitely postpone the PlayStation 3 version, and replace the development team leadership, with Naoki Yoshida brought in as producer and director. Yoshida decided to make marginal improvements before the game's shutdown, ultimately replacing it with a new version initially subtitled A Realm Reborn, which met with a favorable reception upon its release.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy XIV was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in which the player controlled a customized Adventurer avatar from one of the five playable races. Each race had two tribes, and all but two allowed for the selection of male or female characters. The avatar could have their eye and hair color, facial features, and skin tone customized, and features such as birthmarks and scars were able to be added. Their chosen tribe, along with their chosen patron deity, affected their stats and elemental attributes. The game's opening varied depending on which starting location was chosen. Two different types of quests were available for players: story quests, which were unlocked as characters accumulated experience points (EXP) and raised their experience level while unlocking new abilities, and Levequests (leves), side quests accessed through the Adventurers' Guilds. Leves were broken down into multiple types, focusing on gathering or combat. Levequests were associated with particular non-playable characters (NPCs). As the player completed leves, they gained favor with three different factions and unlocked new abilities, with rewards only coming from the NPCs within the factions who issued the quest. Gaining favor also unlocked a new type of level called Faction leves, which depleted a character's favor when completed.

Compared to Final Fantasy XI, where party-based gameplay is forefront at all times, the gameplay in XIV was adjusted so that players could go for longer periods without joining a party. There was no auto-attack option, with each action needing a manual input while an enemy was targeted. Each action used up a stamina bar. Through defeating monsters, crafting items, and completing quests, players accumulated EXP which, when a certain threshold was reached, automatically incremented the player's level. The player's level affected attributes such as HP (health/hit points), MP (magic/mana points), and the number of abilities available to them.

Under the Armory System, a character's equipped weapon or crafting tool determined the player's character class, allowing them to switch roles at will. Some classes were associated with a particular starting point. Classes were divided into four disciplines: Disciples of War, masters of physical combat; Disciples of Magic, practitioners of the magical arts; Disciples of the Hand, crafters and handymen who synthesized and repaired items; and Disciples of the Land, gatherers who collected resources from the environment. Certain abilities learned under one class could be equipped and used by other classes. The Job System (a post-launch addition) built upon the Armoury System for Disciples of War and Magic. In exchange for restricting the range of equippable abilities from other classes, players gained access to powerful skills, magic, weapons, and armor exclusive to the Job corresponding to that class. These Jobs, based on the classic Final Fantasy character jobs, were more suited to party-based combat.

Synopsis Setting and characters The story of Final Fantasy XIV takes place in a high fantasy setting. The main location is Eorzea, a geopolitical region on the larger planet Hydaelyn: this contrasts Final Fantasy XI which uses one name to refer to the entire world and its regions. Eorzea is broken up into three main powers: the forest nation of Gridania; the desert-based Ul'dah sultanate; and the thalassocracy of Limsa Lominsa, Eorzea's dominant maritime power. Other important locations include the scholarly city-state of Sharlayan and the Garlean Empire, a hostile northern power with highly developed technology. Five years prior to the start of the game, the Garlean Empire invaded the land of Ala Mhigo, but was prevented from conquering Eorzea by the attacks of the ancient dragon Midgardsormr and his dragon hordes. In response to the Empire's threat, the three nations of Eorzea reformed the Grand Companies, comprehensive centers of command which combine the cities' military and economic assets. The Grand Companies attracted people from all walks of life, who take up the mantle of Adventurers.

The player character is a customizable Adventurer avatar taken from the five main races of Eorzea. The playable races are the human-like , the elf-like , the physically-imposing , the diminutive , and the feline . Playable Roegadyn and Miqo'te are gender-locked to male and female respectively. Aside from these races are the beastmen, tribes who worship ancient gods called the primals, which require aether-rich crystals and whose presence damages the planet.

Plot Beginning in one of Eorzea's three main states, the player character awakens to the Echo, a power granting them the ability to see the past. The Adventurers are initially involved in both conflicts within the nations provoked by the Garlean presence, led by the Garlean Legatus Gaius van Baelsar, and the beastmen's attempts to hoard crystals and summon their primals. Eventually, a greater threat is brought to the attention of the nations by the Sharlayan scholar Louisoix Leveilleur: another Garlean Legatus named Nael van Darnus is using arcane magic and technology to summon Dalamud, the planet's second moon, down on Eorzea to purge the beastmen and primals whom the Garleans hate as violent pagans. With the aid of Garlean defector Cid nan Garlond, the Adventurers discover that Nael has set up a beacon for summoning Dalamud in the new fortress of Castrum Novum. While each nation makes individual attempts to storm the fortress, they are repelled. Faced with this, their leaders form a pact and unite the nations under the banner of the Eorzean Alliance.

Now united, the nations, aided by Adventurers, successfully storm Castrum Novum and destroy the beacon. Nael, insanely committed to her plan, makes herself into a second beacon. Though she is defeated by the Adventurers, Dalamud has descended too far for it to return into orbit, so Louisoix proposes a final desperate plan: to summon the Twelve, Eorzea's guardian deities, and return Dalamud into orbit. The Adventurers pray to altars dedicated to the Twelve across the land, then rally with the armies of the Eorzean Alliance to fight Nael's legion on the Carteneau Flats, the predicted impact site of Dalamud. In the midst of the battle, Dalamud disintegrates and reveals itself to have been a prison for the elder primal Bahamut. Enraged after his imprisonment, Bahamut begins laying waste to Eorzea. After the attempt to summon the Twelve fails, Louisoix uses the last of his power to send the Adventurers into a time rift, separating them from the flow of time so they can return when Eorzea has recovered.

Development

Planning for Final Fantasy XIV began in 2005, four years prior to its official announcement. At the time, it was codenamed . While it had been decided within the company that MMORPGs would be mainline entries rather than spin-offs, the team was worried that the final product would be too radical for the main numbered series. The main staff included multiple developers who had worked on previous entries in the Final Fantasy series: producer Hiromichi Tanaka had acted as the original producer for Final Fantasy XI and been involved in multiple early Final Fantasy games, director Nobuaki Komoto was a director for XI and had been among the staff of Final Fantasy IX, writer Yaeko Sato had been the main scenario writer for XI, and Akihiko Yoshida had previously also been art director for Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. The game's logo and some other artwork was designed by Yoshitaka Amano.

The game's story, primarily written by Sato, was based on a central narrative complemented by side stories. The setting and gameplay were decided upon before Sato was brought on board, with the result that she needed to consult the rest of the team when she wished to use one of Eorzea's main locations in a certain way. The story's main conflict was to be among the five main races of Eorzea and the beastmen, with the Garlean Empire acting as a third force. The placement of the Garlean Empire to the northeast of Eorzea was not meant to simulate a real-world location but naturally ended up there as the map of Hydaelyn was being created. The game's logo, designed by Amano, was designed around the importance of weapons and the concept of a wheel: the "wheel" in question was a wheel of adventurers, arranged so their backs were exposed and they needed to rely on their comrades and friends for support.