Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Details

Overview

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (ファイナルファンタジーXIV: 新生エオルゼア Fainaru Fantajī Fōtīn: Shinsei Eoruzea, lit. Final Fantasy XIV: Reborn Eorzea) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Sony Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was developed by Square Enix with Naoki Yoshida as producer and director, and was released worldwide on August 27, 2013. The game is currently available in Japanese, English, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, and Korean. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn takes place in the fictional land of Eorzea, five years after the events of the original release. At the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIV, the primal dragon Bahamut escapes from its lunar prison to initiate the Seventh Umbral Calamity, an apocalyptic event which destroys much of Eorzea. Through the gods' blessing, the player character escapes the devastation by time traveling five years into the future. As Eorzea recovers and rebuilds, the player must deal with the impending threat of invasion by the Garlean Empire from the north. The original Final Fantasy XIV was released in September 2010 to overwhelmingly negative reviews. As a result of this poor reception, then-Square Enix President Yoichi Wada announced that a new team, led by Yoshida, would take over development of the title. This team was responsible for generating content for the original version as well as developing a brand new game which would address all of the previous release's criticisms. Initially dubbed "Version 2.0", Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn features a new engine, improved server structures, revamped gameplay and interface, and a new story. The game released to largely positive reception; reviewers praised the game for its solid mechanics and progression, and commended Yoshida for turning the project around. The first major content patch—"A Realm Awoken"—was released on December 17, 2013, and introduced player housing, player versus player arena battles, new quests, and the first 24-man raid, Crystal Tower. Subsequent content patches have been released every three months. Square Enix executives attributed the company's return to profitability in part to the game's strong sales and subscriber base, reaching a cumulative total of 5 million subscriptions as of July 2015. The first expansion pack, titled Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, was released on June 23, 2015.