Final Fantasy XIV: Should You Buy Levels To Get To Shadowbringers?
Buying levels to get to new content is tempting, but there are some arguments to be made for just playing the game as-is.
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Final Fantasy XIV: Shdowbringers, the third major expansion to Final Fantasy XIV(FFXIV), was just released earlier this month on July 2nd. As part of the expansion, the game’s developer Square Enix is allowing players to buy levels to ready their in-game characters for the challenges of the expansion. But is it better to grind or buy your way up to the level requirement for Shadobringers?
A common practice among online games, from Destiny to World of Warcraft, is allowing players to catch up to the current level requirements of the latest content by purchasing levels. The practice usually accompanies and expansion or update to the game and is intended to allow new or lapsed players to rejoin the rest of the game’s player base without needing to grind for hours and hours. FFXIV is engaging in this practice for the first time since its launch in 2013.
How To Buy Levels
Square Enix is offering four in game items, called Tales of Adventure, that level up a player’s character to different points in the game’s story corresponding to the games major expansions. The first three will complete the quests for the A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, and Stormblood content. A Realm Reborn was a full scale revamp of FFXIV which is widely credited with turning the game from a nearly unplayable mess into what would become the foundation for one of the best Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games in recent years. Heavensward and Stormblood are the two largest expansions to build on A Realm Reborn by raising level caps and adding major story quests to the game. These upgrades do not level a character up but complete the story quests up to the end of each expansion.
The fourth Tale of Adventure, One Hero’s Journey, will prepare characters for Shadowbringers and all the content that came before. Unlike the other Tales of Adventure, the Shadowbringers upgrade only affects the character’s Job Level and provides high level gear but does not clear out the questlog. In FFXIV, difficulty is mostly a function of a character’s equipped gear, the higher level gear a character has the more powerful it is. A character’s job level determines what level of gear they can equip and characters can change jobs on the fly. For example, a player might have a character that is level five in the thief job but level 10 as an archer. So what this upgrade offers is a character that is as strong as can be at one job but is brand new at everything else.
Purchases of these Tales of Adventure are made via the Mog Station, FFXIV’s online client for subscription services and real money purchases. Once the upgrade is purchased players will receive a letter, by visiting the in game Moogle Delivery Service. The letter includes the Tale of Adventure which they can use in any major settlement in the game. So anyone who abandoned a character in a dungeon will need to run back to town to level up. Once the in game delivery is unpacked the new gear can be equipped and the high value items can be sold for in game currency. If this seems complicated, that’s because it is, but Square-Enix does provide a detailed step by step guide on the FFXIV website.
Do You Like People?
Like any other MMO, FFXIV is very complicated and offers players a very wide array of challenges, activities, story arcs, side missions and loot. Depending on which of these aspects of the game is more interesting to a player, the answer to whether to buy levels or not will change. Someone who is primarily interested in collecting loot doesn’t really need to buy levels, for example, because they will gain levels naturally as they collect loot throughout the game. Another player who is mostly concerned with story could absolutely be satisfied by buying levels to play the newest story missions and then simply blast their way through the main quest lines as an overpowered juggernaut. A reward included in the Tale of Adventure upgrade may be a major selling point for one player and a complete miss for another.
But in general, the way the Tales of Adventure trivialize early game difficulty, allow for the skipping of content and boosting of individual character power makes them great for solo players who want to experience the game without engaging too deeply with the FFXIV community. For players who want to engage with the community, on the other hand, skipping content and becoming instantly high level just means less time hanging out with friends.
Finally there’s the actual monetary price to consider. To complete the questlog up to Shadowbringers and level a character up to be ready for the expansion, the Stormblood and One Hero’s Journey Tales of Adventure must be purchased. The Stormblood Tale costs $25 and the Hero’s Journey is another $25 for a total of $50. Player’s who don’t already own FFXIV would need to buy that and the Shadowbringers expansion as well for another $60. So $110 plus a monthly subscription fee, which seems like a lot. On the other hand, conservative estimates on time needed to play to reach level 70 in FFXIV come in around 150 to 200 hours so the subscription fee multiplied by the number of months it would take to put in the hours to level up to Shadowbringers might make the $50 boost more reasonable for some players.
So are you willing to drop $110 to avoid an MMO community as much as humanly possible? Or is the real journey the friends you made along the way? Your answer (and wallet) will tell you if it’s worth buying levels in FFXIV.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/final-fantasy-xiv-buy-levels-get-shadowbringers/