Final Fantasy 14: examining the complete saga

Final Fantasy 14 is a game with a rich and storied history, stretching back through generations to the PlayStation 3 era – and before that, until a PC release in 2010. Its MMO status separates it from offerings. Square-Enix’s usual Final Fantasy games, but this game is quite worthy of its entry-level status in the main series. Today we can play Final Fantasy 14 natively on PlayStation 5, but getting to the point of having a quality gaming experience on consoles seemed impossible when it was first released, to the point where the game was even temporarily released. out of order. This all brings us to the Digital Foundry video that we present today. Yes, you’ll learn more about Final Fantasy 14 on PS5 – and how it compares to the PS4 and PS4 Pro offerings – but we take it a step further by revisiting its misguided beginnings, rebirth, and various expansions over the years.

We’re very excited about this Final Fantasy 14 cover. Marc ‘Try4ce’ Duddleson is working on the excellent My life in the game YouTube channel and occasionally guests on Digital Foundry – and while not a huge MMO fan, he loves Final Fantasy 14, having the authentic voice needed to assess the game as it is today and how it looks. has evolved over the years. And in approaching this project, it was also fascinating for the DF team to see how an experienced video producer appropriates our performance analysis tools and adapts the presentation according to his vision of the current project.

And while the core DF team have been little involved in production, you get the same level of detail as any of our projects – if not more thanks to their in-depth knowledge of the game – which brings us to the point. evaluation of the built PS5. . Expectations need to be controlled – while FF14 is constantly evolving, it’s still fundamentally a 2013 video game and the engine has never been overhauled since. Even on PlayStation 5, the game retains the very old FXAA anti-aliasing technique, shadow resolution could be higher, and screen space effects often fade well into the margins of your TV. The vegetation density and fade distance are the same in both the PS4 and PS5 versions – and in fact, from what we can see, there are no visual improvements on PS5 over runtime. of the PS4 Pro version of the game, at least when it comes to comparing the two at the top level of detail.

The complete Final Fantasy 14 saga, including analysis of all currently available PlayStation versions in service.

Yes, perhaps due to its PC origins Final Fantasy 14 has a huge range of editable options and a quality setting is one of them – the PlayStation 5 runs efficiently with the PS4 Pro high setting enabled by default, adding to the richness of the presentation with effects such as parallax occlusion maps. Pro has been given the ability to run at resolutions of 1080p and 1440p and this is kept for PlayStation 5, with native 2160p feature added as well. It’s nice to see it there, but performance drops dramatically if you go for the fat-laden 4K. On PS5, it looks like 1440p is the sweet spot when it comes to balancing image quality and resolution – but there is no visual functionality enhancement set on PS4 Pro and in reality it does. There is also no 60 frames per second locked. And beyond that, in many scenarios, it seems like running the backward compatible PS4 Pro version delivers the same and even better performance than the native PlayStation 5 app, while still looking nearly identical.

A highly touted feature of the PlayStation 5 version is the improved load times and it can be quite impressive, easily beating the PS4 Pro running from its mechanical hard drive. However, it looks like getting that kind of speed might not have required a lot of optimization effort on the part of the developers, as there is hardly any improvement over running the. backward compatible game. That said, one area where the PS5 version has a clear advantage is the quality of the various icons and HUD elements. According to Shoichi Matsuzawa, senior project manager of FF14 via the PlayStation Blog, AI scaling was used to perform this resizing, with various manual adjustments as needed. The elements of the minimap are definitely sharper and the action icons are much better in the PS5 version. So it will be interesting to see if the textures of the game will benefit from any improvement in the future.

The PS5 version of Final Fantasy 15 also supports the unique features of the DualSense controller, but with mixed results. As with the PS4 version, left and right clicks on the touchpad cycle through the HUD elements on the screen that you might want to interact with and it can also be used as a mouse if you want. Adaptive triggers are very occasionally used to give a fun (if unnecessary) click when identifying points of interest during certain story events. The implementation of DualSense force feedback, however, is a bit of a sticking point and could be a problem for some people. It is used for a satisfying effect when riding on flying mounts, synchronizing to the sounds of the wind as you fly close to the ground or through arcades. However, for the majority of the gameplay, the DualSense feedback is actually rather intrusive as it gives a slight jerk with every step you take. This kind of haptic feature was cute in Astro’s Playroom, but it doesn’t really correspond to a game you’re going to spend hours and hours in and a toggle to turn it off should be built in. Being able to use the rumble without feeling every step you take is another argument in favor of just playing the PS4 Pro version on PS5.

Ultimately, the current version of Final Fantasy 14 for PlayStation 5 is a bit odd. There are some nice improvements for the console – especially in terms of user interface clarity – but there are few visual improvements for the PS5 version over the PS4 Pro equivalent and remarkably, the most performance. consistent results from running the latest generation version under backward compatibility. But FF14 is a game that has persevered over the years and may not have caught your attention, and it is most definitely a good game worth experiencing. Whether you download the native app or the PS4 Pro version, the PlayStation 5 offers the best console experience.

Not only that, but the current open beta has a great deal: you can play the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the first and excellent Heavensward expansion without paying a dime – it’s a great place to start seeing. what is it about. What about the game itself? Final Fantasy 14 is much more inviting for fans of non-MMO JRPGs and can primarily be enjoyed as a breezy, non-social, and not-so-cranky affair, with each expansion storyline keeping you mostly high enough and well-equipped though. you I just want to play the main quest and get on with your life, re-signing up later if and when more content comes in – because FF14’s story is far from over. A fourth expansion, dubbed Endwalker, will be released later this year.