It’s still a considerable time investment, but a lot of the filler quests have been streamlined.
Whereas ARR used to take up to 50 to 60 hours to complete, you can now beat it in around 40 hours or so. I’ve been going through the ARR arc on an alt character over the past week, and the difference is definitely noticeable. All that has changed with patch 5.3, though, and ARR has become a lot more bearable.įor starters, the rework has shortened the ARR completion time considerably. Listen, telling someone they have to suffer for about 50 hours just isn’t the greatest way to sell them a game, and A Realm Reborn always made it difficult for FFXIV fans to really convince new players to give it a go. That recommendation always came with a caveat: “Look, Final Fantasy XIV has one of the greatest stories in the entire series! But uh, you just gotta power through the first 50 hours of A Realm Reborn. With the release of last week’s patch 5.3, it’s finally here, and the wait has been worth it.įor the longest time, it was difficult for me to give FFXIV a wholehearted recommendation to friends. It was easily one of the most highly anticipated changes for the game since the 2.0 launch, and for good reason too. A year ago, Square Enix announced that a rework of the A Realm Reborn storyline for Final Fantasy XIV was in the works.
