10 Video Games You Shouldn't Have Played At Launch
7. Final Fantasy XIV
Ending support of their previous MMO and starting a new one, Final Fantasy creators Square-Enix had to make sure what they released next would be worthwhile for new players as well as those jumping from XI to what would be Final Fantasy XIV.
Players were immediately critical of many aspects of the game. It was pretty on the surface but the interface was a mess and the game seemed to demand a pretty intense (not to mention boring) grind for levelling up characters. Moreover, it wasn't a game that was free of the standard fare of performance issues.
Square scrambled to find solutions which consisted of extending free trials to keep people playing and firing its director and producer from their roles. For the next two years the game struggled but, in all fairness to Square, they made the right move by looking at its flawed existence and putting it out of its misery.
In a stunning turn, Final Fantasy XIV would have a cataclysmic event that was so grand it was purposefully designed to end the world. The servers were shut down, to be reopened nine months later as a totally new take on FF14, built from the ground up.
And wouldn’t you know it, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a solid MMO that has only grown in popularity in the last decade. All’s well that ends well.