I start the beginning of the year dedicating a lot of time to FF XIV and with the release of the Shadowbringers expansion to look forward to in July, it might be a short list this year. I do want to dip back into older Final Fantasies I missed.
Finished Feb 2019. It took 100+ hours to finally get hooked on FF XIV. Now that I'm in the end-game I am looking up things like best in slot gear, the best materia augmentations, boss strategies, and skill rotations. Stormblood is the second expansion to the rebuilt Final Fantasy XIV and has a surprisingly sophisticated story for an MMO. To weaken the evil invading empire, your task is to foment rebellion in two separate occupied territories on either end of its borders. The story does a good job conveying how hopeless this seems and could fail at any time and you somehow manage to pull it off. I played through the story as the new samurai job but ultimately returned to my original scholar job. The game still has an issue with an imbalance of DPS players vs healers and tanks. As the healer scholar my queue times are much shorter and I feel more rewarded learning how to play well.
Finished July 2019. I used to play video games now I play Final Fantasy XIV. I am slightly saddened by how few other games I play besides FFXIV. There is just so much to do when you login. They've really perfected the grind. Every day I want to accomplish six or seven things and probably finish four or five. The hype Shadowbringers is receiving is well deserved. As good as the last two expansion's stories have been, this one has taken it to a new level. Plot, music, voice acting, and dungeon and boss mechanics have all improved. It's hard recommending a game that you will only get the most out of if you play 200+ hours of it. Hopefully I can squeeze other games into my free time so this list is longer for 2019.
Finished July 2019. A very forgettable walking simulator that I neglected to add to this list until months after completing it. It started off ok with an interesting story taking place in an abandoned Norwegian coastal town in 1920. The plot unravels into nonsense and the English voice cast was annoying.
Finished November 2019. Completed after 110 hours over a year and a half. I can't believe how long I've been plugging away at this game 30-40 minutes at a time before bed most nights. I ended up getting every character up to level 99 and maxed out every job for each. This was a much longer grind until I found the item that doubled xp. Even brute forcing my way I found the boss fights challenging. Unlike Final Fantasy you really have to think about job synergies. The plot was surprisingly dark and the game was only hampered by the number of times you need to redo content. I wish I had a more streamlined 60 hour experience.
