Full ReleaseXbox · Switch · PC · PlayStation

Final Fantasy XIV Online

Square Enix Product Development Division 3 · MMO, RPG, Open World

Overview

Join over 30 million adventurers worldwide and take part in an epic and ever-changing FINAL FANTASY. Experience an unforgettable story, exhilarating battles, and a myriad of captivating environments to explore.

The FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Free Trial includes four award-winning titles - FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn the base game, FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward, FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood and FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers. This edition also includes a 30-day free play period*

Join over 30 million adventurers worldwide and take part in an epic and ever-changing FINAL FANTASY. Experience all the hallmarks of the best-selling franchise - an unforgettable story, exhilarating battles, and a myriad of diverse and captivating environments to explore.

Party up with friends or play solo! Experience all the main story dungeons on your own by calling upon NPC allies to fight by your side.

Your journey takes you ever higher in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward:

Take your first steps in the reclusive nation of Ishgard, locked in a seemingly never-ending struggle with dragons.
Three additional jobs: channel celestial magicks to heal your allies as the mystical Astrologian. Attack from afar using firearms and mechanical weaponry as the daring Machinist. Wield a mighty greatsword and the power of darkness as the valiant Dark Knight.

Rekindle the fires of hope in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood:

Journey to the East and rise up against the might of the Garlean Empire.
Two additional jobs: master the balance of martial and arcane arts as the rapier-wielding Red Mage. Draw your katana and let steel sing as the noble Samurai.

Become the darkness in FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers:

Travel to a world where light ushers all unto oblivion. But hope is not yet lost, for where there is light there is shadow.
Two additional jobs: wield the aether charged gunblade wielding Gunbreaker. Weave deadly steps into dazzling displays as the rhythm guided Dancer.

IMPORTANT:

*The 30-day free play period included with purchase can only be applied once to each platform on a single service account.
Square Enix Accounts registered to the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - Starter Edition will not be eligible for the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - Free Trial. Certain features currently contained in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - Starter Edition, and additional content, may become available in the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - Free Trial in the future.
All editions of the game require user registration. All editions of the game other than the Free Trial require an active paid subscription to play.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Online game packages available on Steam may only be registered and added on a Square Enix account that has the base game “FINAL FANTASY XIV Online - Starter Edition" (or formerly known as "FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn”) purchased on Steam.

To view your 20 digit registration codes after purchase, simply right-click on “FINAL FANTASY XIV Online” in your Steam “Library” and select “View CD key” on the Steam client. The codes will always be accessible from this location should you ever need to reference them again.
The registration codes can be redeemed immediately on the Mog Station. If this is your first time installing and registering "FINAL FANTASY XIV Online", you may redeem your registration codes during the initial installation process.
Age restrictions and other terms and conditions apply. Please refer to the User Agreement and Square Enix Account Terms of Use for the terms and conditions of registration and service. Please visit the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online website for additional information.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,999 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Final Fantasy XIV reads as an MMO that players stay with for its story. One review in five talks about the story, much of it praise for the stretch from Heavensward through Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Reviewers also praise the music, the boss fights, a generous free trial and a single character that can learn every job. A few dozen reviews call the community the friendliest or best they have found in an MMO, sometimes comparing it with World of Warcraft. Getting to the good part takes time: several dozen reviews call A Realm Reborn, the base game, or the patch quests after it a slog, and the usual advice from fans is to push on to Heavensward.

The frustrations come from two very different groups. New and returning players get stuck before they play: account linking between Steam and Square Enix, password and one-time-password loops, launcher black screens, and a purchase that turns into a subscription after 30 days drive more than half of the negative reviews from people with under 10 hours. Veterans with thousands of hours aim at the game itself: Dawntrail's story, long gaps between patches, jobs that play alike and a mod crackdown that split the community in August 2025.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A story that becomes the reason to playHigh

The story praise centres on the expansions, Heavensward, Shadowbringers and Endwalker in particular, and some reviewers say the story made them cry. One player put the payoff this way: "the last two hours of Shadowbringers are such ridiculous peak fiction you forget any complaints you ever had". Some fans call it a Final Fantasy game first and an MMO second, and several call it the best Final Fantasy they have played. Not everyone connects with it ("Story is really, really mediocre (at best), despite what a lot of people say"), and long-time players draw a line at Dawntrail, covered under the split topics.

Raids, trials and boss fightsHigh

Dungeons, trials, raids or bosses come up in 12% of reviews. Raiders praise the Savage and Ultimate fights, a few calling them some of the best boss fights in any MMO, and one player notes the game has "over a hundred hard 8-minute-long bosses" and that they are very fun. A few critics of Dawntrail still say its raids and dungeons are good. On the other side, some find normal-mode dungeons boring, a few describing them as the same corridor of trash pulls and bosses every time, and a few say high-end fights feel more like memorising choreography than reacting.

Crafting, gathering, fishing and glamourMedium

Side activities such as crafting, gathering, fishing, the Gold Saucer, housing or glamour come up in 8% of reviews. Players single out crafting as a game of its own ("Very solo friendly, and has the best gathering and crafting since Fantasy Life"), fishing as a favourite pastime, and fashion as the real endgame for some ("Fashion Show is the real end game!"). Complaints here are about storage space, glamour slots that do not cover every job, and paid retainers for extra inventory.

A free trial that covers hundreds of hoursMedium

Reviewers who bring up the free trial (5% of reviews) describe it as the base game plus several expansions with no time limit, up to level 70 and later level 80 once Shadowbringers was added, and several say they played a hundred hours or more before paying ("The free trial has an absurd amount of content"). The advice that comes with it is to finish the trial before buying, because buying moves the account onto the subscription; that catch is covered under the frustrations.

A friendly community, with caveatsMedium

Players describe veterans teaching newcomers mid-dungeon, one recalling that "they stopped a whole dungeon just to explain to me the rotation of healing big pulls", and gifts of gil and items to new players. The community comes up in 10% of reviews, and explicit praise (4% of reviews) outnumbers explicit complaints (under 3%). The complaints come mostly from long-time players: toxicity in Party Finder raiding, a loud erotic-roleplay and nightclub scene in the main cities, a few reports of moderation they call heavy-handed for mild language, and "toxic positivity" that shuts down criticism ("Good game, toxic community.").

MusicMedium

About 3% of reviews praise the music. Players name composer Masayoshi Soken, say they listen to the soundtrack outside the game, and one wrote that it is "worth going to the live concerts for". Some negative reviews still exempt it: "A 4/10 game with a 9/10 soundtrack."

Every job on one characterMedium

Players like switching between tank, healer, damage, crafter and gatherer by swapping a weapon, with no alts to level: "Being able to swap to any class on the fly as well as gathers and crafters is amazing." The job system comes up in 3% of reviews, and the downside raised is one shared inventory and limited glamour plates for so many jobs.

Where players are split

The long road through A Realm RebornHigh

The base game, the slow start or the promise that it gets better come up in 7.5% of reviews. The usual account is that A Realm Reborn and its post-story patch quests drag, and that the game opens up in Heavensward: "Just get to Heavensward bro I'm telling you." One reviewer summed up the two outcomes: "you either quit through ARR, or you become a walking, talking advertisement for the game." For others the promise never pays off ("50 hours in, not enjoying it"), and they object that almost every system and dungeon is gated behind the main story, which one negative review called "a GOOD MMORPG buried underneath a game that desperately does not want you to play it". Some recommend buying the story skip; others resent paying extra to skip content they already bought.

The subscription on top of the purchaseMedium

Fans say the amount of content justifies the monthly fee ("worth the subscription. loads of content and a really good community."). Critics object to paying for the game, each expansion and a monthly fee, with comments like "having to pay monthly to play is garbage", and a couple of players outside the US say the fee is steep where they live. The fee comes up in 6% of all reviews and in 15% of negative ones.

Dawntrail and the direction after EndwalkerMedium

Dawntrail comes up in 6% of reviews, and its critics are overwhelmingly veterans: 83% of the negative reviews that mention it come from players with 1,000 or more hours in the game. They describe a slow story, a lead character, Wuk Lamat, they found grating, and a sense that the story ended with Endwalker; some advise stopping there. Defenders say the expansion is better than its reputation, often because of its combat ("made up for it by having really fun dungeon and other combat experience"), and some reviews credit later patches with a rebound ("While Dawntrail had a rough go 7.3 has been a sharp rebound."). Some pin their hopes on what reviewers call the next expansion, Evercold ("Dawntrail was a huge disappointment, but high hopes for Evercold.").

Third-party mods and the plugin shutdownMedium

Half of the reviews that discuss mods or plugins (4% of all reviews) were written between 18 August and 15 September 2025, after, as reviewers describe it, a popular plugin that let players see each other's appearance mods was shut down. Mod users, roleplayers among them, were angry ("imagine destroying the modding community that is almost as big as their player base.."). Others welcomed it and pointed out the rules were never secret: "Mods are against the Terms of Service. They have always been against Terms of Service." A smaller thread, separate from the shutdown, complains that bots, rotation helpers and gil sellers go unchecked.

HousingMedium

Owners enjoy decorating, but the lottery for plots, the shortage of houses and the rule that a house is demolished if the subscription lapses draw steady criticism in the 3% of reviews that mention housing ("Unsubbed for a month and they demolished my house."). One long-time player wrote that the "only reason I'm currently subbed is to maintain my housing plot, which is insane."

A solo-friendly MMO, or not much of an MMOLow

2% of reviews praise how solo-friendly the game is, including dungeons run with NPC companions: "Being able to run all the dungeons with AI party members is a really nice touch for people like me who are socially awkward around groups of strangers." A smaller group sees the same design as a flaw, saying story instances keep forcing groups of friends apart ("Unfortunately it's more single player than multiplayer.") and that open zones feel empty.

What frustrates players

Getting in: accounts, the Steam version and the launcherHigh

Logging in, accounts, the launcher and refunds come up in 6% of all reviews and in 19% of negative ones. Reviewers explain that a Steam purchase is tied to its own service account, so players with an existing Windows or console account find "the Windows and Steam service accounts were completely separate and will not combine". Returning players get trapped in password resets, one-time-password and security-question loops or "suspicious activity" locks ("If you ever decide to take a break from the game, good luck trying to log into your Square Enix account"). Others hit a launcher black screen that, in one player's words, has an "only fix is to close steam after the launcher has opened". A typical line: "Was easier to file my taxes than it was to try and log into this game." Because the 100GB-plus download runs inside the launcher and counts as playtime, buyers say they lose Steam's refund window before playing ("Genius idea to throttle download speeds in the client so refund is impossible."), and some add that the subscription has to be active before the download can even start. Buyers also say the store page does not make the subscription clear ("there should be something to make that more clear"), and that buying the game ends free-trial access to content they could have played for nothing. Several advise buying from Square Enix directly instead of through Steam.

Fetch quests and cutscene paddingMedium

The image players use is a courier job ("If you want to deliver NPC's mail, play this game."). Complaints about errand quests, walk-and-talk story steps or the volume of cutscenes and text come up in 4% of reviews, with some noting that much of the dialogue is unvoiced and that quests send players across a zone for a single conversation. A few reviewers with little playtime describe their opening hours as mostly cutscenes.

Long gaps between patches and recycled contentMedium

Veterans describe four-month patch cycles that hold a few hours of content, field areas and raids built on the same formula expansion after expansion, and, for some, a cash shop that gets new items faster than the game gets content. Content droughts come up in 2% of all reviews and in 11% of negative reviews from players with 1,000 or more hours. One negative review puts it this way: "The game hasn't had any meaningful gameplay changes in five years, patch content is comically minimal".

Combat that veterans call homogenized and newcomers call slowMedium

Criticism of job design or combat pace comes up in 2% of reviews. Veterans say every job within a role now plays alike around a fixed two-minute burst window, with healers and Black Mage named often after balance changes ("Every class in this game is maximally similar and balanced into one formless blob."). Others find the combat slow, especially early on, with few buttons and a 2.5-second global cooldown; one negative review put it as "Press a button and then take a nap before you get to press your next." Defenders say the combat gets faster and better at higher levels.

Disconnects, full worlds and queuesLow

In December 2025 and January 2026 a run of reviews from North American players described daily disconnects they blamed on DDoS attacks ("you get kicked out of this game DAILY because they constantly get DDOSed"), and at least one player later switched back to a recommendation once access was restored. Servers or queues come up in 2% of reviews. Other complaints are worlds closed to new characters, long waits for unpopular story dungeons ("After 10 hours in the queue (on the weekend) for the main quest dungeon I gave up."), and, from a player on Oceanian servers, thin populations there.

Cash shop pricingLow

1% of reviews complain about the online store. Players object to premium outfits, mounts and emotes in a subscription game, items sold per character, and rising prices ("25 dollars for a cosmetics set when others in the past have been 5?").

Glare and stutter after the graphics updateLow

A small group of reviews says the graphics update made bloom and glare impossible to turn off and caused headaches, eye strain or stutters ("If you are sensitive to light I do not recommend it.").

3. The player conversation

The tone is warm and often jokey, and a running joke has players with thousands of hours writing "it's alright I guess". Negative reviews come from two camps that rarely overlap. Among negative reviews from players with under 10 hours, 55% are about access, the subscription or refunds, so many never reached the game itself. Among negative reviews from players with 1,000 or more hours, only 5% are about access; instead they target Dawntrail and the story after Endwalker (20%), the mod crackdown (13%) and content droughts (11%). Some long-time players who stop recommending it say they still love the game and are voting against its direction, and several suggest new players play through Endwalker and stop there.

Sentiment moved with events. Positive shares ran at 95% in November 2024 and 89% in December 2024, then settled between 74% and 80% through the first seven months of 2025. August 2025 was the low point at 56% positive across 913 reviews, the busiest month in the slice, when the mod-plugin shutdown brought a wave of protest reviews and a counter-wave of players defending the decision, alongside veterans airing longer frustrations with Dawntrail and patch pacing. September 2025 stayed low at 67%. November 2025 rebounded to 86%, December 2025 dipped to 75% during the run of disconnects, and from January through October 2026 every month landed between 79% and 87%.

4. What the developers could do

Fix account recovery and Steam linking. Access problems account for nearly one in five negative reviews, which describe password, one-time-password and security-question loops and Steam service accounts that cannot use an existing Square Enix license.
Let the game download before the subscription clock and refund window run out. Buyers say the launcher's long download counts as playtime and can need an active subscription, so they lose both paid days and Steam's refund window before they ever play.
State the subscription and the free-trial trade-off at the point of purchase. New buyers say they did not realise the game needs a monthly fee after 30 days, or that buying would end the free trial they could have kept playing.
Shorten the gap between patches and vary the formula. Veterans complain about four-month cycles with a few hours of content built on templates they have seen for several expansions.
Restore distinct job identities. Players with thousands of hours say jobs within a role have become interchangeable, and they single out healers and Black Mage after balance changes.
Fix the Steam launcher black screen and patcher failures. Players report having to force-quit Steam to launch the game and downloads that fail partway, and some say the launcher problems have gone on for years.
Trim the A Realm Reborn and post-ARR quest chain. Even fans who recommend the game warn that the base story's fetch quests drive friends away before the game reaches the expansions reviewers praise.
Harden North American servers and open space on full worlds. The December 2025 to January 2026 disconnect wave and worlds closed to new characters cost players paid time and kept friends from playing together.