Winter of 2021 was a huge year for the gaming industry, as many anticipated titles finally saw their release in that year. One of the most anticipated releases was Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion: Endwalker. The expansion put an end to Final Fantasy XIV’s main story that had been running since 2013, and it had been met with a majority of positive reviews since its release. Endwalker introduced many new elements to the base game of Final Fantasy XIV, including two new playable jobs: the reaper and the sage. Additionally, many new zones were added to explore, and along with them came new dungeons, trials, and raids to run through.  

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker is, “Packed with hours of meaningful cutscenes and unforgettable new zones,” as stated by Leif Johnson, a journalist for IGN who gave the game a score of 9 out of 10. Johnson continues to praise the game by saying that, “Endwalker marks a satisfying conclusion to Final Fantasy XIV’s story as it has existed to date.” Alongside IGN, Metacritic also gave the game a high score of 92 out of 100. “The main quest has tons of unexpected twists and turns with satisfying payoff for fans both new and old,” states David Flynn, a reviewer featured on Metacritic’s page. Due to its popularity upon release, the game’s parent company Square Enix, was forced to suspend sales of the game in its entirety starting on Dec. 21 of last year to preserve server integrity and lighten congestion issues among the servers. Since then, Square Enix has recently resumed sales of the game on Jan. 25 of this year. 

After seeing the success and praise Final Fantasy XIV has received since Endwalker’s release, many potential players are left wondering if they would like to give the game a try themselves. As a long-time player of the game who has locked in a healthy 1,839 hours of playtime into the game, I can say that it definitely is a story worthy to be experienced with well-polished gameplay features but is not for everyone. Since Final Fantasy XIV is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG for short, players are forced to eventually interact with other players around the world, which helps build community but may be intimidating for those looking for a solo experience. Additionally, Final Fantasy XIV requires a paid subscription alongside paying for the game, meaning that players must pay an additional $15 a month to keep playing the game. The game also requires a time commitment of roughly 100-200 hours to go through the story in its entirety. If players have the time and money to invest in the game and do not mind the multiplayer aspect of the game, then they will find Endwalker to be a beloved entry and conclusion to the long-running story.