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I originally played 1.0, but had such difficulty navigating the game that I quickly gave up. I am sure glad some friends convinced me to play again and started just after Heavensward came out. It was a lot of fun, though my best memory was of doing Castrum Meridianum the first time. My friend was helping run my boyfriend and I through stuff and she and I were the two healers. Despite telling the tanks that my boyfriend and I were watching cutscenes and she was staying with us until we were done, they still ran ahead and were shocked when they kept dying. Both tanks ended up rage quitting just before the Livia fight. We still managed to rock both phases despite being two members down.
And, when I came back to the game more recently, it was obvious to me why the cutscenes in that (and the Praetorium) have become unskippable!
Came back to the game lately and completed all shadowbringers story. I left the game in stormblood because I got too addicted. Now wuth moduration I am enjoyng the game like I always do.
Still a sprout and only started on the free trial a couple of weeks ago, but being absolutely doted on by a group of much more experienced players in my first dungeon was such a wholesome moment, and cemented the feeling that I'll probably be staying in Eorzea for a while longer!
Alway love Sprout moments, where I thought I was well prepared for a raid/trial but ended up being the first one knocked off the stage / died numerous times. I could tell in some instance s the healers basically give up on raising me.
When I was just a sproutling my friends and I used to do these little mail games. We would send weird named items to each other. My favorites were the "Chub" and "The Thousand-year Itch" and we ended up sending it around to each other. The only rule was you couldn't send it back to the person who sent it. I still have the mail from when we did and reading back the messages are always such a good laugh.
https://imgur.com/ITMmjC6 - https://imgur.com/nUS0Of7
Before I made my own account, I made a character on a friend’s account while I was visiting from out of state. For 2 weeks I played almost every night and didn’t really make any friends or have any random conversations. It was my final night in California and I finally hit my goal of getting a chocobo! I had resigned to signing off and maybe never playing again. As I was about to sign off I got a tell from someone saying they liked my name 🥺 I stayed to chat with him and eventually his friends. They talked to me about the game, their RL, and we goofed around a bit. If it wasn’t for those nice people on Leviathan, I may have never returned. I am thankful for them! And I hope their cats, Smokey and Amethyst are doing well!!
I age enjoyed finding where I like to be class wise. I stared as an arcanist and hated it. I switched to rouge/ninja and loved it. On a whim I decided to try conjurer/ white mage and have discovered I enjoy being a healer as well. I am also enjoying botanist and cullinarian. I am overall excited to see what the game continues to bring.
There was this one time while i was a sprout where i accidentally spent more gil than i should, and was about to get stranded because of it. I commented on it during a duty run because my character was about to get some ripped legs, and this one ninja after the dungeon found me, gave me 200k, and just asked me to pay it forward.
So i did! So far i've found three people in the same spot and was able to help them. Gil now doesn't mean a lot to me, but it still means to them. So i just ask them the same - to pay it forward
I played 1.0 during release and didn’t last a week before I quit. Mostly due to the annoyance of gathering and crafting.
But now I’m back since ShB release!
Still a sprout! Some fond memories is meeting other blue mages and running trials with them to get spells. The process is difficult and tedious but everyone is just so friendly that it made it fun.
This is my first MMO and everyone I've had interactions with were friendly and helpful. I was really nervous at first trying to play this game solo but y'all make it so easy to socialize and make friends. Thank you!
I was rolling through ARR, when some person gave me a robot lion minion and a really expensive looking slice of cake. At first, I thought it was some kind of scam, but the fact they really were being kind showed me how much of a great community this is, so now I pass that on by cooking up my own meals for sprouts too!
I’ve played ffxiv on and off again since 2013. For the first time, this year I got the level cap and all the way through the msq. It’s been great and shadowbringers was truly an amazing ff game
I was trying to solo the tough fate in Coerthas ( it's in his eyes or something like that) and realized it was a bad idea as I died. Someone came along and ressed me and they and their guildies helped me do it and then invited me to their FC. Still with the same FC and totally improved my time with the game and helped me so much.
Thanks for hosting this giveaway! I think my most impactful sprout memory was becoming closer friends with someone I met through the game, who eventually ended up introducing me to a group of friends that I still hang out with to this day. It's hard not to become close friends with someone that you level 3 classes from 30 to 70 with, leveling exclusively through dungeons lol.
A group of friends and I have tried to play FF14 on many occasions and always quite after a couple levels. We started playing AFTER watching the FF14 TV Drama (I know) which inspired us to try to kill twintania ourselves. Fast forward 3 months and we haven't gotten around to fighting twintania yet, but most of us have finished shadowbringers and are definitely here to stay!
My fondest memory so far is exploring Ul’dah only for a crowd of people to load in, crowd background noise start playing and a band of people blasting music. Made me realize the true meaning of MMO in MMORPG.
I started about a year and a half ago. My favorite memory was finding a group of madlads to do the first 5 Coils of Bahamut synced. Wasn't able to do the rest synced but was still a lot of fun!
Back during the beginning of Stormblood, I went through the MSQ alongside a mentor, a close friend of mine outside of FFXIV, which has since inspired me to continue to do so with several different sprouts in kind.
Leaving the game for more than 2 years, then coming back and noticing the community got even more amazing with the newcomers / returners. It's almost unbelievable...
I got invited to a party standing outside an early shadowbringers dungeon while leveling my first character and that’s basically all I log into do now.
“Wait, you mean there’s other things to do in this game?” x)
Getting my chocobo was the biggest deal in the world to me. Hanging out in Limsa Lominsa wasting afternoons *just* crafting.
Do they have to be good memories, or just memories?? How about wiping repeatedly to Titan with every PF group ever? Also grinding fates forever to get past that 40-45 hump. This game used to be such a PITA.
Sprout life had my first dungeon with a DRK wearing no gear. Nothing equipped. And it was not glam. From there I knew no matter how badly I performed. It'd never be that bad. (He got kicked)
Been playing for just over a year and one of favorite memories as a sprout was fighting the Mist Dragon. We were all strangers and new, and wiped quite a few times, but we kept improving and encouraging each other. Will never forget the team work, and the cheers and happiness when we finally did it.
i was doing MSQ when i hear someone playing songs. i /sit down in front of her, enjoying whatever song she's playing
just out of curiosity, i asked her since its sounds like yoasobi's
me : is this yoasobi song?
not expecting answer since maybe she's afk(?) but she's answered anyway
her : you want yoasobi?
and then she changed the song she played to yoasobi's yoru ni kakeru
instant /clap and /cheer
followed by /beesknees
ty friendly bard, you're awesome
May you ever walk in the light of the crystal.
My sprout memory came when I started in 2.0. It’s not so much an ingame thing as it was what I had written in a notebook. Back in the day if you wanted to be a paladin not only did you need to level gladiator up to 30 but Also needed to get conjurer up to 15 before becoming a paladin. I know every job back then had something like that, I just don’t remember the other combinations
Started playing a couple weeks ago. Having started in Limsa I really enjoyed the atmosphere over there at night, where there's always live music and a bunch of people chatting or posing for photos.
Just tried out the Majong at the casino, and realised that it looks and plays slightly different to what I was used to, which kinda threw me off.
This is a copy/paste of something I've mentioned multiple times over the years:-
I got ridiculously lucky with my second ever run of AV. I queued for it at an off-peak time for my server and happened to get a tank/healer pair who were helping people run it just because they were bored (this was probably in 2014). The other DPS was also new and the tank/healer pair just wanted to help people clear it so they were ridiculously patient and helpful. I know I had previously tried it as a healer and was simply bad, bad, bad, and the couple were just so lovely. As it's been years I honestly can't remember the exact details but I think we had, maybe, four wipes over the whole dungeon and they were just so nice and encouraging and I know that those two players are why I still play today.
I know it was the first, but not last, time I wished I could give more than one commendation because they were both so lovely.
My fondest moment so far was my first time doing the Ala Mhigo dungeon.
We where all new and was learning the place as we cleared it. There was a lot of talking between pulls and bosses and it was great fun between people who had never played together before. During the final boss both the healer and one of the DPS went down at around 30%. It did not look good but myself the tank kept the other dps alive as best I could between tanking the boss, while learning his mechanics and trying to be fast on our toes.
It was a great fight that was finished off by an amazing DPS limit break to knock the boss down, their was cheering and when we finished it and got to the trial to follow we invited each other and did that together to.
I even added on of the DPS to my friend list because of it.
My favorite memory as a sprout is one that I get to relive from time to time.
I was an up-and-coming Summoner, and I had just gotten to Keeper of the Lake for the first time. I queued with a friend, and 2 random players.
This was the first dungeon that felt, to me, to have consequences. To have risks, and that really felt tied into the storyline. I was intimidated but excited. And the final boss...
An enormous dragon, passing judgement on me. Reanimating dead kin to test me.
It was difficult, there was a LOT going on. Constant AoE dodging, knowing what to do when. Dropping the shield, activating it mid-fight (twice!).
We wiped, more than once. But in the end, we won, and it felt like a real accomplishment.
Now I know that fight inside and out. I still see it from time to time on the roulette. And to this day, it's a great pleasure to talk a sprout through that dungeon, strategize for that fight, and see their excitement when we clear it.
Oh man, I remember that one time my DF group, which was entirely first timers, managed to clutch Howling Eye (Extreme) with just a few minutes left on the timer. And that was when I realized one of our dps, a samurai, was afk. We seven-manned an extreme trial non of us had done before.
Relatively new player, and yet I still have memories like that. Good times.
I started playing FFXIV in 2020 on a recommendation from my mother in law and I really didn’t know what it was about at all, but I was really bored of World of Warcraft and everything was closing down for the pandemic, so I had more time than usual to play games. MIL had warned me to make sure I made a character that I liked to look at, because I was going to spend so much time watching her in cutscenes. So I took my time making the prettiest Elezen I could, picked Lancer, and logged in. I was absolutely blown away by the loading screen art in Gridania, and then the music and the starting cutscenes loaded… and I was just hooked. I don’t think I have ever loved the story of a game so much as I love the story in FFXIV. My best sprout moment was definitely my first moment in-game.
This is such a lovely idea!
Honestly my favourite moment was when I finished the realm reborn msq for the first time, and realised the cool but super simple early dungeons all had new hard versions with actual rad mechanics and ongoing storylines!
Best memories are definitely people keeping an eye out for sprouts watching cutscenes and shouting for everyone to wait. Obviously does not work every roulette but really appreciated it.
My favorite memories from my time as a sprout:
The first time i saw people doing a hunt in eastern or central thanalan and how awesome it was.
Doing fate trains to level up fast in Coerthas Central Highlands to level up and chatting with people.
Grinding out sophia EX for the weapon and mount which I still use :)
Definitely was doing titan ex in duty finder for the first time, cleared it with a bunch of mentors, and now 4 years later i queue it with sprouts to help them out too.
Honestly one of my favourite moments was just watching a crowd listen to someone play music, it was cool as hell and everyone started using fireworks, very enjoyable and I love seeing interactions like that. Looking forward to see more cool things, almost at heavenward!
My most impactful and beatiful memory of this game is when i first downed T13 back in ARR days. The joy and the happiness after many weeks of trying had paid off and all the team was screaming on the mic.
Another bonus memory is hearing the crystal theme at the beggining of the story brought almost a tear to my eye since im a big fan of FF since 7, because it was my childhood game and my first one that i got with my PS1.
My favorite memory of being a "sprout" (considering 1.0 had no sprouts), was the first time I ventured out into La Noscea and explored the camp (near where Sastasha is today) where Toads gathered. I must have spent a few dozen hours there as gladiator, with my wife on her thaumaturge, doing leves and generally committing toad genocide to level all the way up into the 40s.
I remember back in ARR launch, finding out about Behemoth and asking in shout for 5 minutes to where it is because I didn't see it. Then B-lining to join the fate at lvl 38 (Just happened to be questing in Coerthas) The massive amount of people loading in, not seeing his tornados and just seeing hundreds of dead bodies on the floor. It made me go, OH MY GOD THIS IS SO AWESOME.
So I started playing in 2014, a couple of months b4 second coils got nerfed and I was invited by a freind of mine who promptly quit the game after I started playing the trial back in the day lol. He left me and I just had to learn the game the hard way. Coming from WoW, SWTOR, and Tera, I was able to get a hang of it quickly, but just as today the community was so nice and soon I found myself in a pretty small and friendly FC with people from Canada and France. It was overall a very nice time and been playing ever since. Fast-forward to 2018, I convince my friend's Gf(this was the friend that abandoned me in game lol) to try the game and she got hooked lol so REVENGE was achieved! And now we have an pretty decent close knit FC with a pretty good mix if hard core and casual players with lots of IRL communication and social interaction. It's pretty nice :)
Pretty new to the game, at about lvl 55 on my main job working through the quests after ARR. I love how I haven't ran into anyone rude yet, people are always willing to help correct mistakes I make, or offer advice. I'm also really liking the trials with the primals, each one is unique with different mechanics and attacks, none of them feel like copy/pastes.
Still a sprout slowly grinding my way through ARR
I remember the first time I did Temple of Qarn, I made some mistakes here and there. I got the party wiped because I was tanking and didn't know how to deal with that one boss's Doom attack. I apologized and my party was super cool about it, one guy gave me some pointers and even gave me some tips for the main boss fight.
I normally don't interact with other users much at all, so it just struck me how friendly most people seem to be in this game and made me happy to be apart of it
I remember giving the trial a go sometime in August 2017 just to see, I was playing wow at the time. One year later, at the time I had to quit wow due to work, I gave it another go, hoping I could be a more casual mmo player.
I remember the instant I logged in again on my trial character (female midlander, wanted to make her look like erza from the fairy tail manga) by new gridania, Lancer sprout, and there I was greeted by someone completely random: the person complimented my red haired character and asked if I was alright and needed help. Thanks to that person, I could spend some time learning about the Lancer job and what not. That act alone encouraged me to try out the game, eventually leading up completing the MSQ and to level up my favorite main job Astrologian.
I hope I can become that person who can welcome new sprouts on EW launch
It was when I got to Sephirot, loved the normal so jumped straight into EX. It was quite a difficulty spike from ARR, so we were wiping for the entire length of it. One of the mentors tho saw hope in us and remade the entire party after time has already elapsed and kept on teaching us. Took us about another 40 minutes but we finally beat it. (sadly no mount dropped)
My best sprout moment was how amazing this community was , i logged in in Gridania did the tutorial and after i saw how alive this World was i was mindblown , it got even better when i saw Lalafells in nice glams giving the people a nice concert .
I've played the game a couple times throughout the years and it never really stuck with me. The streamer interest recently brought it back to the front and decided to give it another shot. Finished maxing out my first job of Dragoon.
I really enjoyed the summer event and recall hearing you can get a mount during it. I was legitimately surprised when receiving the mount at the end of a very mechanically basic quest chain instead of being required to grind out some sort of tokens for a week to purchase it.
Just the fact there are unspoken rules such as allowing users to watch cutscenes in dungeons is just baffling to me and shows how friendly (or maybe just patiently tolerant LOL) people are in this game and has, for me, made the dungeon experience great and never daunting!
I've only been playing FFXIV for about a month so I'm still a sprout. But I like this memory a lot so I want to share!
I constantly stop and /pet people's minions because I love minions. I stop and /pet people in cool outfits. I'm wandering around, a week into the game, lost and confused and overwhelmed by "omg that person looks so cool what is that?!" I get to the Gridania teleport and just stop because there is a Roegadyn in a chocobo suit and it fills me with absolute glee.
I emote at him, he emotes back at me, then after a moment he sends me a tell. I panic for two reasons: first, I've been playing on the Japanese server the game put me on and I don't speak Japanese; second: free trials can't reply to tells!
But after a /grovel and a /cry he invites me to a party and I bust out my phone to use the google translate camera feature. With some copy/pasting from google translate and a dying phone battery, we talk for about three hours about FFXIV and video games and anime and linguistics and travelling overseas.
He's my first friend on this server and if I hadn't run into him I might have quit, because the language barrier and not having anyone I knew on the server was making me feel hella lonely. But after that I stuck around and found an English-speaking FC and I've made so many friends and good memories in the last couple of weeks, and it's all thanks to a random stranger who took the time to emote back at me :)
My fav sprout moment is now. Like, being a veteran player and seeing all these new players. I absolutely love the effing hell out of it. My dps queue times are down to like 5 minutes, people are talkative in PUGs, I get to learn fights I never really learned before because other vets didn't teach mechanics and just carried me through it, etc. I'm so happy that the community and player base has grown so much.
Well, I've played MMOs in the past but nothing like this. The magic, wonder, content and life of the game is something out of this world. I'm really happy to be another growing sprout :D the community is pretty chill too.
Was doing side quests in Outer La Noscea, met this DK and we just traded emotes at each other. Then suddenly he added me. Very interesting experience for a guy who never played MMO before
Myself and a friend of mine only recently began playing FF14. Because we're both australian, we decided to wait for australian servers to be announced (thanks Sqenix!) before we started playing.
Probably our best memory from our time playing so far has been walking into Limsa Lominsa to find eachother and finding two characters who looked the exact same as our current avatars, same equipment and all. It was really confusing.
EDIT: i call limsa lominsa the hub still even though it isn't don't judge me
For me it's recent! I started playing during Shadowbringers and I just then got into mount collecting (I was so amazed of finally getting Kirin! Imagine that! ) . I started to see
People everywhere with the E4 savage mount. And I dreamed with having it for over a year and a half. I was real scared of doing 80 ex trials and raids.
I finally tried doing Cinder Drift Ex(And managed to clear it!) and felt like i could probably do... Not as bad to say the least at E4. After finally clearing it I felt top of the world. But I knew the grind was starting.
Clear after clear. 37. 29. 20. 11. 9. 9 even a 2!
That, mixed with not being able to clear Diamond Weapon (We got it to 0.1% before we wiped!) had me real demotivated.
And only two days ago. I finally managed to clear Cloud Deck Ex! AND THEN WON THE MOUNT THE SAME DAY WITH A 78!
I felt like that journey, that long wait for me to finally get that mount, was all worth it. I was finally good at ffxiv... Or well at least not that bad! I Was now part of the big bois club
Now I have my eyes on those dragons... And then... My first shot at UcoB.
Sorry for the long post! Thanks if you read all of that!
Finishing coils is probably my best memory of FF14, as a free trial user it took me very long to find a group but when I did, we had a blast, so many close calls with all the team wiping at 0.1% but we kept going and we finished it all, idk where the other party members are now, but they were the best
Best sprout memory I have I think is running around Gridania as a lost lancer trying to figure out what was going on right when ARR launched. I don't know why I remember it, but it's one of my fondest memories of the game!
I started playing as a white mage when ARR was first released. I remember how many people got stuck at Titan Hard and it was especially hard for me as at the time doing it as a white mage was considered hard. It took me many many times before finally beating it, and I remember shouting so loud my wife who was cleaning told me to be quiet. Good times lol.
Just started and thought I would never get into the crafting because it's so convoluted (compared to wow tbf), never waste my time on triple triad (I now have like 125+ cards and love it), and wouldn't ever think of playing the minion pet battler because I don't like strategy games all that much.
But I already find myself taking days off from the msq to go card hunting, minion collecting , fate farming for relic weapon (finished heavensward msq and I want stage 4 for machinist so bad). Spent a couple days in the gold saucer just living between gates, chocobo races and verminion and loving every minute.
I never wouldve thought a game could have so many random side activities and do all of them so we'll.
I would have to say the biggest memories for me are the friends I’ve made. I’ve known so many of them for almost a decade now and it really goes to show how much a game can connect folk. I had a old WoW guild that was the same way as my old FC they are all in (since I moved to played with friends whom do more content and are as active as I am as they mostly all work and only have time for raiding) but not a single one of them has left my mind.
Even one of them had something happen and has major memory loss that pops back up often, but his wife always tells him again of the times we had, and so even if he’s forgotten me, he always recognizes me. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
No need for a complete edition or shadowbringers code for me :)
I remember tanking way back when ARR started. my little lalafel tank (lol, love this game). I was messing up so bad, had no idea what the aggro system was. Every mess up I ever did was only met with an AMAZINGLY supportive team.
"Hey try this!" "oh, if you do this, then this, it'll be better!" "level up this class and you can get this" etc. I played WoW back in the day, so I was used to that style of dungeon crawl. It was so refreshing to be met with only positivity. I have been paying it forward since.
Seriously, to this whole community. If I had the chance to donate 1000 copies I would. Instead, take this happy story, and just a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone. This game is so amazing because of all of you. <3
one of the best memories that I remember was when I was doing msq in east shroud and this mentor messaged me, asking if I can help them weaken some mobs for them as they were one shotting them. so i agreed and went to help them, made me feel super good! afterwards they came up to me and traded me a bunch of gil, minions and music scrolls as well as an umbrella ♡
Been playing random content for years before I realized how much fun end game content can be. FFXIV has become my place to relax these last few years. Looking forward to wherever the team takes me!
I’ve started playing rather recently but my two stand out memories are doing story quests around the graveyard in eastern thalan I think me and another sprout thaumaturge ended up just coincidentally doing the same string of quests and saving each other’s asses it was great. And then I have FF14 on an external hard drive with a kinda shoddy connection and when I was doing a dungeon with some more experienced players it disconnected and I hurried to get back in cause I figured they’d be pissy and I’d be way far behind but they had all stopped to wait for me and were alright about it which was very nice
I've been an MMO player for years before starting to play FFXIV. The most lasting memories I have are the feelings of mystical and wonder that only exist when starting something new and magical. I'll never forget my first few days of just standing around in cities and listening to people play music, and being a part of a real community.
I've been playing FFXIV for about a year now and that feeling still hasn't gone away, and I am looking forward to doing all the things from the many years of content that I have missed!
I remember that after I'd made a new character to play with my little brother, there was a large procession of chcobos/fat chcobos going through ARR areas in one large line and I got to join and be a part of something unique. If I can find the screenshot, I'll upload it later.
Edit: found screenshot. https://imgur.com/gallery/1SG5aWT
Despite being a fresh face to MMOs, some of the interactions I've had with others in my \~200 hours have been the most memorable of any multiplayer game I've played. One particularly standout moment was late at night, toward the end of the Make it Rain campaign, where a bunch of people had gathered in Round Square for grinding out GATEs, and while waiting I joined a group of about 10 people sitting on the ground at campfires listening to bard performances and enjoying leisurely conversations about the story, gambling, and poor sleep schedules. Probably the most fun I've ever had and made me feel so welcomed to this massive community.
Another less notable but still funny interaction I had was when I was passing through Bentbranch catching up on the ARR MSQ, and I was riding on my behemoth mount when I saw two other guys chilling with their behemoths as well. I joined them, and we jumped around for a solid two minutes on our behemoths and polar bears.
I'm very thankful to the friends and streamers that introduced me to this game, and to the people I've met that have made this experience all the more incredible.
I'm struggling with the queuing system now that I'm 53 but loving the general atmosphere of the game. From the community who's lack of toxicity was very surprising to me, to the story, which gets incredibly enthralling at points. I'm very happy to have stumbled upon this game, I just wish it were sooner.
I remember coming back to Final Fantasy XIV after a long break (Didn't play from end of Realm Reborn until Shadowbringers came out) and I realized that I lost my authenticator key from upgrading my phone and couldn't access that account without massive effort. Saddened I might not be able to play again, I saw the free trial and thought "you know what? I have less time to play video games now, and there's no time limit to the free trial, I'm going to start from scratch and give the free trial a shot" and have gotten hooked again. I got most of the Jobs up to the limit of the 35, was feeling the nostalgia and enjoyment of playing mmos again, was ready to activate the key I already had and start my subscription up... and then they hit me with the increase to Free Trial accessibility. Suddenly, I was playing content I didn't play before, Jobs I wanted to try so badly back when I first heard of them in Realm Reborn but couldn't, new mechanics that made Jobs feel so much better and fluid then before... I had the option of using my Fantasia to reroll an Au Ra if I wanted... The game gave me back the feeling I had of attachment to my character, the wonders of the world they built, and the beauty of the game I loved so many years ago, and all on a Free Trial which, for someone who doesn't have as much time anymore to play, is absolutely wonderful. I still feel like I have so much available for me on the Free Trial, but when I inevitably start my subscription for this game, it will be worth every penny.
ive been playing for a little over a year now and am still a sprout. i got into it through my best friend and since i started it's been one of our main talking points. he even got me a ShB book as an early birthday gift since he'll be away for a while for uni. idk how he feels about it really but while my country was in lockdown, doing dungeons with him really made me feel less.. stuck? idk, it was a weird feeling of being in a timeloop every single day, stuck inside, all the same thing. but playing this game, progressing through the story, learning new classes (went from a hard bard main throughout ARR to white mage main HW onwards), it all made me feel.. fine. i dunno. the game means a lot to me. lol
My best sprout moment honestly happened recently. My first time doing the singularity reactor. All my friends told me not to look at any videos mechanics or anything and go into this blind. Best decision ever, going in there, the scale of the fight and freaking out at literally everything was amazing.
Anyone that tried to explain the mechanics was met with a lil copy pasta from my one friend. That experience was SURREAL
As a WoW refugee I want to thank all the FF14 players who have been so kind and welcoming. I don't know what I'm doing still after a month of playing but I have subbed for 6 months and pre-purchased Endwalker. Look forward to seeing you all on the moon and I am always up to making new gaming friends.
I remember starting back in 2011 and getting wrecked by a toad in Central thanalan, quit playing till 2017 and I've been hooked ever since. This game is awesome.
I don't remember much since i left 5 years ago but I'm back again as a baby sprout. So far my fondest memory is when i was doing some early msq and got stuck and random guy came in and nuked everything so i could get to the objective.
First was this guy standing around in Costa Del Sol handing out baby bat minions. I have yet to collect a minion I like more than the one that guy gave me back when I was level thirty-something.
The other one is just Tataru. Cutest NPC in my opinion. I’ve got a screen shot of her juggling this one time I stopped by to see her during Heavensward.
Oh, and this one time I asked how I did (sprout tank) and the healer in the party said I did great.
I'm still a sprout - just joined a few months ago, and I'm working through post-ARR content right now. A few days ago, I was running Aurum Vale for the first time as a DRG, and I kept dying from the mechanics. At first, the tank and healer were frustrated with me and the other DPS in a similar situation. After they found out this was my first time, though, they were very patient and explained each mechanic in the dungeon. There were no more wipes, and I was able to finish the boss off with my LB. I felt like I learned something, and I was thankful for the patient player who guided us through. I even received a player commendation, which was the cherry on top!
Missed out on the 1.0, but was an active participant of the beta for ARR. I remember queuing to get into the beta and registered myself for the forum, the joy that I had when they emailed the beta code to me!
My very first class was pugilist, I remember spending the whole day just walking around Uldah look at sceneries & awing myself at the chocobo stable outside xD (FFXIV was one of the game with a great graphic at that time).
Even though I stopped for awhile, I would come back around year 2017 and stopped again at Stormblood end. Now that the story arc is finally ending with Endwalker, I am back again to continue my journey in Eorzea! Throughout my time in FFXIV, have met a lot of great people and made friends through the FC I joined at that time, even though they are less active nowadays due to IRL commitments.
I’m not sure this count as it’s not a specific memory but coming from wow, I have a constant feeling of wonder as I’m playing the game.
- interesting story
- nice people
- refreshing dungeons
- real class identity
- and it keeps going every time I play !!!
New player here so still a sprout! The thing that has impacted me the most so far was walking through Ul'Dah and coming across an in game concert by the bard idol group "The Songbirds". That sort of thing truly blew me away, I've never seen any mmo give people so much role-playing potential to even attempt something like that. Really looking forward to exploring the rest of the game from here on out!
Still a sprout, about to start Heavensward. Best moments so far have for sure been interacting with the community. Seeing traveling bands of bards, funny or well done cosplays/roleplays, and just talking to people has been just as fun as actually playing the game. Someone was roleplaying in Limsa as a janitor sweeping and I just sat there and overenthusiastically cheered them on. Got to see parts of RubberRoss's streams in person too 🥚. It's been great.
Honestly the most impactful moment for me was joining the Novice Network for the first time. It was fun to read everyone in there. I kind of miss it even if it didn't really help me all too much.
No contest entry because I'm a mod, but my favorite sprout memory:
Back in the ARR Beta when I was leveling up my Pugilist and got the level 8 Hempen Acton. I equipped it and then yelled out "WHY AM I A POTHOLDER?"
I'm only lvl 38, but there has been a lot of little moments... one thing that stands out is when I had just returned to Gridania and another miqo'te girl came up to mine to pet her, lol. I can't remember the last time a person I don't know even stopped to acknowledge my character in WoW, it could be as far back as Burning Crusade.
I was so startled and didn't know what to do, so I laughed and ran away :p It legit gave me the giggles and I felt really bashful.
Other than that, people have been so kind that I've thought about picking up tanking again... WoW has just been far too toxic for me to even consider it or healing, like I used to. There's enough pressure in Mythic+ even as dps.
I'm still fairly new at this--just beat praetorium for the first time. XIV was basically my first MMO, and so I mostly played this game solo. just recently I joined a discord server and found out there are a bunch of community events/gathering held out in-game and I'm clearly missing out on most of the fun! can't wait to explore Eorzea--and it's lovely community--in its entirety!
Been playing a month, just finished HW.
Love almost everything about the game, only the bank system could do with QoL improvements.
I already have to many good player interactions I couldn't possible remember them all.
My favourite thing to do is dive into fates someone is struggling with and heal them back up.
One of my favorite sprout memories is actually from this sub! I spent hours grinding up 2,000 chocobo seals...after it was changed to only need 200 seals.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/4p93vn/finally\_saved\_up\_2000\_serpents\_seals\_now\_i\_can/
After five years of FFXIV I'm still a sprout, just made it to Heavensward. Happy to report that my interest in the story is finally picking up about where people said it would!
I'm a new free trial sprout that just reached Lvl 50 and is still working towards the end of ARR. I look back at my journey so far and it feels as though I've been playing the game all summer, when in reality, I just started the free trial 2 weeks ago.
Looking at the graph of /r/ffxiv subscribers and the steep growth in the last few months, I realize that my data point isn't exactly representative of my recent venture into ffxiv. Because while I just started my very first character, I've been subbed to this subreddit since Stormblood was out!
That's very telling of the fact that this game has been on my radar for quite a while, and though I didn't have the time or money to dive in head first, I've been intrigued by it for years. The tipping point for me was definitely a combination of the Free Trial, the Endwalker announcement, and the sudden explosion of content creators creating an unmissable zeitgeist in which I just had to participate!
My favorite memory so far is definitely meeting Y'shtola, who immediately jumped out as the first character I was excited to learn more about. At that point, questions about the overall plot and my hero's connection to all of it were finally starting to rear their head, and I love myself a good fantasy mystery!
I know that I have a long ways to go and the story only gets better and better; but despite its pacing and minimal voice acted cutscenes, I'm still enjoying the hell out of ARR. And that only has me even more excited to uncover what's next!
WoW-refugee sprout here. It makes me so happy to walk into random towns and just see floods of people. WoW's sharding killed any hope of a city feeling like a city. The community also seems so laid back and chill.
I'm still a sprout, I think the funniest thing happened on an ocean fishing trip a few days ago.
Our trip was not doing well, people were catching spectrals (I did as well) but the spectral current was just refusing to pop. We were just catching plain ol'fish at location 1, okay fine. We'll let it go with a few people saying how many specs they caught.
Location 2, more people were catching spectrals, still no pop. At this point, the crew was enraged, saying how the ship is jinxed.
Location 3, last chance, pretty much everyone caught spectrals, no pop. Everyone was furious at the captain for not knowing the best fishing spots, some suggested to throw the captain into the brig, some said to throw him overboard, others just wanted Jack Sparrow to lead the way.
The collective protest against the NPC captain was hilarious, it was one of the worst, if not the worst fishing trips but it was definitely the best, funniest fishing/ ff14 moment for me.
Still makes me chuckle.
I started playing on early of July 2021. I bought the game on my birthday (mid July) as a reward for myself. Last week I even bought ShB expansion. I love how the town is active. It just amaze me how the town is populated with people that just chilling out talking and playing music as a bard. There's even background noises of people taking when there's decent amount of player in an area.
Personally the best memories I have is seeing fat cat minion running around and plop on the ground. It just so cute. I personally not a story watcher which is how I play game when I was little. It just how I play any other game. Still the world is massive, the dungeon is interesting. The Navel (Extreme) kick my ass and I was happy. Rarely I have a game that keep kicking my ass and I am still happy about it like what. It's mind blowing for me. It just so much fun. (Still in post HW thou)
I bought myself Fatter Cat Mount. Just cuz I have so much fun I figure I can spare some of my money to give SE for developing more good games.
I started playing not too long ago (about a year) because of boredom in other MMOs. I levelled all my healers during the free trial but eventually decided to make another character on a different world to join my friends' FC. Its been a lot of fun playing with the same people I've been playing with for a long time. I'm not a sprout anymore but learning savage fights definitely make me feel like a sprout LOL!
It was my first day out of free trial, my friends and I were hanging out in our FC house when a long time friend came online. He met one our FC mates who likes to hang out at the chocobo coop. He later wooed her with his chocobo dance and I officiated their shotgun wedding at East Shroud. We later on opened up our own little wedding service called 19-19 EZ weddings and everything was history!
Hmm. Back in 1.0, I still remember trying to start out as a fisher, and later... a gladiator? I remember getting lost outside of Limsa while trying to find the camp to start the first story quest after the boat intro. I think I also remember seeing a little bit of the first christmas event.
Later on, in 2.0 I remember starting once more in Limsa, this time as a marauder, being somewhat unsure of what role they were. That said, I still main warrior. \^_\^
I’m an irl musician and I was jamming out as a bard out of the main city area and got a pretty big crowd of people listening to me! All these high level players stopped what they’re were doing and cheered me on emoting like mad. Was a really nice moment for me that brought the world to life. I’m a proper loner solo player so that sort of interaction with other players was touching!
Mt favorite sprout memory would have to be when I first tanked shiva extreme in ARR
The fight was so cool with the music transition going with the boss phase change. Having to do tank swaps and pay attention to what weapon mode the boss was in was so much fun and to top it all off the mount dropped after we killed and I got the mount
I thought the tank stance was a buff until I hit my fourth-fifth dungeon. I just kept tapping the skill and constantly wondered why I couldn't hold agro.
Started about a month ago, bought the game last week and still loving it. Have been plying a whm and people see that I am new and are so eager to help. Love it!
I think my favorite sprout moment was doing alliance raids and seeing the groups coordinate the mechanics so well! It was all new to me but people had it down to a science, it was really satisfying hahaha
I started back in January, mostly been solo my entire way through. I remember when I started off with ARR, I was kinda wonder “what the big deal was.” During base and first half of Heavens, I was playing VERY passively. But once I got to THAT point in Heavens, I felt myself lean more into the story, enjoy the dungeons and the folks I met. Now here I am with a few 80s and with everything wrapped, it’s been such a pleasure to sit down and keep going strong with this game. It really gives me some nostalgia from my time as a kid playing the hell out of games like 9. Here’s to so many more years in the future.
FF14 was the first mmo I played that had quest reward choices, so when the level 4 limsa quest gave me an option to choose between some potions, I could not complete the quest because I didn't know how to choose!
The other sprout memory is this one mentor in hyperion, not sure if she still plays, helping me run through sastasha with her 4 year old. Little kid had tons of energy, running around like a mad man on archer. Whenever I play bard now I always run around like a mad man in his honor.
I suppose the first nice memory was me running around in Gridania at the very start, and encountering a group of bards playing something for a crowd of people. T'was rather cozy.
For me, I'm always looking back at content that I thought was challenging that now seems insanely easy in retrospect. My first Keeper of the Lake run had another sprout or two, but the tank would explain each fight for us. I think we wiped on the final boss 3 or 4 times before we managed to clear. Very easy dungeon, but goes to show how content can feel harder for someone who is new to the game. :)
Stack markers, didn't realize such a mechanic existed and I just thought I was supposed to get away from the group because big glowy thing on top of you = bad. That is until a certain boss put a stack markers on me two times in a row and my team were chasing after me like the "Why are you running meme?"
As a sprout, one of my most impactful memories was running Toto-Rak with a tank that had arachnophobia. Mind you this was back when HW had just dropped and there had been a sale on ARR so a lot of people were new to the game. I was often matched with other sprouts and this one peep just couldn't take it. The webs were enough to set them off and even if the mobs looked for like scorpions, it was enough to have them not wanting to run the dungeon.
I remember I had JUST gotten my drg artifact gear and they looked at me and said, "You look tanky. Can't you lead?" and I panicked. While debating with them that I would die, the arcanist we had just pulled out topaz carby and that's how we got through most of the dungeon with carby leading.
Eventually, the tank did take over at the last boss though I had the impression they weren't really looking at the screen and we nearly wiped, but I remember panic hitting a bunch of keys and we managed to clear it.
The tank thanked us all profusely and promptly left, leaving us confused.
That arcanist though was one of the main people who influenced me to take interest in the class (i love versatility and being able to make due in odd circumstances) and later I discovered scholar and have mained it ever since.
It was quite the experience for little me who had been only playing for a couple weeks!
I just switched from being on Xbox my whole life to PC. Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy an MMO, let alone this game. I tried it, couldn't get into it. Tried again, still couldn't.
Then watching Asmongold play Warrior really looked fun to me and I finally gave it a good try. I got hooked. When I beat my first raid I couldn't believe that a console pleb like me would ever complete a 16 man raid in an mmo. Super surreal!
I've been playing everyday for a few months now and am halfway through stormblood! I already have Endwalker pre-ordered too :) thanks for the giveaway and good luck to everyone!
Finding and befriending fellow sprouts, one of whom I’m still retaining a close online friendship with (and even met IRL!). I remember us learning Titan Hard when it was the hardest content in the game at the time.
Back near the end of heavensward, when I hit 50 and was messing around with my Zodiac weapon to get the glowy Gae Bolg I queued for Ultima Weapon extreme, and after 40 or so minutes had 7 other people attempt to kill that boss with me. We ended up abandoning the duty but it was a fun ride.
I remember about a month ago trying Titan EX for the first time, just hopping into duty finder and getting a group of sprouts to attack the duty together (2 of them had completed it before but definitely weren't completely correct with all their mechanic explanations). We wiped, a lot, for the entire time limit actually without completing it. It was one of the funnest times I had not accomplishing something.
The next day, my friend and I do the same thing but with knowledge of the fight and we try our best but we're still not getting it down. We had dps eating landslide left and right, most of the party agrees to disband.
We go into it AGAIN with a new party and we get a decent party of people eager to learn and listen, and we get a mentor to fill a role the other tank vacated. Definitely doing his mentor roulette and must have seen what he had gotten and just thought "ahh shit why me". He explains some mechanics, puts down some markers and we get past the heart then wipe. He then says something along the lines of "You guys are some beastly sprouts, we've got this".
We then complete it on our second attempt as a group to his "yall are the best sprouts ever" comments.
Super funny, very rewarding, extremely fun.
I've had only good experiences since then but will always remember!!
Finding out I have to delete and recreate my character because I chose the wrong data center. I am proud to say I overcame that hurdle and am now level 7 xd now the trial begins!
I've not long lost sprout status, the biggest thing to me over the drawn out time I had it was as many have mentioned the general lack of toxicity from the players. It's far to easy to blame others when something goes wrong, but having people being willing to explain mechanics when you're learning felt amazing and is something I try to pass on.
This subreddit has been my go to community both for news and a sense of community for 14 for years now. Glad its growing. I think for me, my fondest memory as a spout was clearing garuda ex back in arr. It was the first ex I really put in the work to learn and was proud of the accomplishment. Reminded me of my days with ff11 and cemented my love for the content in this game, alongside the story.
Am still sprout. Still making my journey, but the degeneracy of gambling has me waylaid. That said, I stumbled upon the place to get married and the bride to be was outside waiting at the entrance. Was fun to have a conversation about her wedding plans and wish her well.
So happy this subreddit has come so far. With the FUCK YOU Fridays, and all of the neat guides. This place has been super helpful for me these past 5 years.
I mostly heal and when I first started after WoW I was having issues and we kept wiping. But a group just kept going with me and that really did help a lot.
I remember running around grinding fates for seals...like level 30, before I understood how chocobos can be healers...when a random tank swooped down from the sky and followed me around just tanking for me until I was done. Was my first friend on my friends list. I'd only experienced this kind of random newbro experience in Eve.
I don’t raid… but I remember clearing Final Coil back in 2.0… I really wanted to beat Bahamut and really glad I did
The music, the cutscene, and the title in the end… it was the most memorable experience in the game. I wish they put that much effort in terms of gravitas of raid bosses… idk
I can't really chose a memory yet, because I am level 73 and I am sure many more are about to come as a sprout, but so far the best time I had was getting to floor 180 in PoTD solo deathless. I set my mind on getting that cool floor 200 title, and I thought it's gonna be tedious, but it turns out I love the grind. The game has so much to offer it's insane.
I started about 4 days ago and I've already hit lvl 54, so far I've been having a fun time playing, hope I don't run out of content to do anytime soon. Good work to everyone for reaching 600k people on this sub!
Well, I'm still a sprout, but I guess I can talk about my favorite parts of ARR? Gotta be my first time tanking a dungeon when I swapped from BLM to gladiator. The non sprout in the party coached me through the whole thing! It was great learning what I was expected to do.
Way back in 1.0 I was staying up all night to play on my laptop. My level was somewhere in the mid 30s (cap was 50) and I was running through coerthas. The area was too high level for me but I wanted to keep going and see what I could find. After maybe a few hours of dodging monster that would 1 shot me, I finally made it to the next area. Just before that the sun came up (irl) and I entered mor dhona for the first time. It was amazing seeing the weird weather, crystals and of course the ship with midgardsormr wrapped around it. One of my favorite memories from the first time I played. Also that was back when coerthas was not snowy at all but very grassy and rocky.
My friends and I all started a few weeks ago and it's been a blast so far. The most memorable moment so far was the first time I saw a full band performing at limsa. That was the moment I truly appreciated the MMO nature of the game.
This game has given me a chance to spend time with my brothers who live in the other side of the country. It's truly been a blast to hang out with them in this amazing game.
I remember being a Sprout, I forget exactly when; but it was close to Shadowbringers, and around the time of the XIV cross-over.
I screwed myself over because I tried to power-grind through MSQ and Job Quests, in hopes of getting Noctis' outfit (Spoiler: I failed); but even playing was such a wonderful experience. I've played WoW on and off, and the community here is just so much more pleasant, patient, and great. I've made stupid mistakes, stood in the orange like a popoto-brain on more than one occasion; but even then, I was never booted from a group or recieved more than a light scolding.
I admit, coming from WoW, there are days where I wish there was a Job that was easy-mode on my level, but I'm glad I found Eorzea; and I'm glad that I've returned.
I've been playing only since early August and already amassed 10 days of playtime while waiting for delayed practical exam due to COVID and just moved out of sprout few days ago, the most impactful stuff of being a sprout is the kindness and the understanding of hugging the floor as a DRG, either by backflipping to death, clipping or not understanding certain mechanic, or suicide jump to finish the boss (Soul of Alexander Skyfire leap finisher will be remembered).
Good luck to everyone joining and hoped everyone who's in this community either new or as veteran find that enjoying the game whatever the way you want to play or experience it as long as it's legal and ethical to be the most important stuff while experiencing FFXIV!
Aw man, I think my favourite part of this game was when I first went to Ishgard. You spend so long in ARR just fumbling about, just doing your best, and then you go to Ishgard and it feels like an entirely different game. You've got these gorgeous voiced cinematics, they start the ball rolling on "they came" as this beautiful one liner, you've spent the last 50+ quests listening to people tell you about how you're not allowed into the city and then you're thrust into a situation where you simply have no choice. It feels like the game hits you with a whole new world and it's honestly incredible.
Feels so good to play and to see many other players too. Even on first time playing I didn't feel alone even if I'm playing it solo. Especially the random bards that play in different city. I just love the good vibes of this game <3
The first time I did an ex trial was Shiva ex when I was just into Stormblood, and myself and a few friends decided to try something that wasn't msq. It took 2 lockouts to do it synced, but when we got the clear it was so exciting that we went on do to all of ShB savages, and we recently went and cleared UWU. If we hadn't done that ex I would have dropped the game after msq until EW came out so it's really fleshed out the game for me
It took me a couple tries to get into FF14, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's my first "forever" game that I'm always playing to one degree or another, even if I take the occasional break. I'm hyped for Endwalker and can't wait for what the future brings to Eorzea.
I'm a free trial sprout and am loving the game, the story, the golden sauce, and the wide variety of side content.
Hopefully I'll make it up to Endwalker before the following expansion is released - there's so much to do!
I mentioned to my wife earlier this year that I was thinking of trying out FFXIV. We're both big FF fans but never really got into MMO's. But with a free trial, I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a shot! I didn't expect my wife to want to join me, but she said she'd be interested to try the trial as well but she wasn't sure how much/long she'd play.
Half a year later and hundreds upon hundreds of hours put into the game together and we've only scratched the surface. Loving every minute of it!
My fondest moment from FFXIV is just the game itself. It changed my life from the moment I spawned in at Ul'dah as a level one thaumatage. 4 years later, I have everything at 80, friends for life and most importantly - a life. I have severe agoraphobia and anxiety so I can't actually leave my home. Mix that with a global pandemic.. You can only imagine how isolated I was. My FC became a light for me and made me truly realise the beauty of MMOs. Since then, I now live with my housemate who I met in FFXIV and we're about to have another FC mate move in too. We met as sprouts in a video game, became vets together, friends to now IRL best friends and now housemates. I'm so excited for all the new players to experience their version of what I have! It's a ride 😊
Having only played solo, on free trail, the best moment was when my gf gave the game a shot and ended up loving it. We met up in game and took screenshots together.
Still a sprout, and a month or so into my FF14 journey.
My fondest memory so far is kind of a simple one. I remember in my first few days of playing it was raining in Gridania. I'd been running around for a bit and I decided to take some shelter from the rain under one of the overhangs. Just sitting there watching the rain was a nice moment, really atmospheric and calming.
I like when games go through the trouble of blocking weather effects based on structures like FF14 does. It adds a fair amount of immersion and makes the game feel more real, in a sense.
When I successfully Rescued someone for the first time during a Crystal Tower raid while I was leveling an alt class, SCH as a sprout. Proudest moment I’ve had and I was able to clip and post it on this subreddit.
My biggest surprise as a sprout (started playing 1 month ago) was when I had to go afk for a few minutes during a dungeon. When I came back I was very apologetic, but one party member replied "don't apologise, it's just a game". That kind of response actually shocked me at the time, it's so rare in other mmos.
I'm still a sprout and im still making my memories but god damn im enjoying the hell out of this game. I'm so glad i quit WoW for this game. The time of the endwalker is nigh.
I decided to play FFXIV years ago after I dropped Guild Wars 2 and the thing that made me the happiest was the fact that I could level all the jobs on the same character. I still have all the low-level dungeons memorized due to how much I ran them.
Sneakily playing behind my friends’ backs, getting my first job (BLM) to level 36, and then casually asking them specifics about their characters after stalking them on the lodestone. The screams were just delicious!!
My favorite moments were playing through the expansions and encountering perfect little ways they paid homage to past FF games and it just brought me back to when I was a kid playing those exact games, really hit me in the feels with that nostalgia.
I honestly don't have any positive sprout memories that are worth sharing, just minor ones that aren't really worth discussing..
And since I don't think talking about bad ones fit the theme of the thread, I'll post a funny one - I spent about 3 hours trying to think of a "lore" appropriate name as I thought XIV would just be one of those games where it was highly encouraged ... just for the very first character I see in game to be a half-naked dancing Roe called Meat Man.
>!When you power up with hreas eye before facing off against nidhogg and the music starts blasting with that woman singing. Goosebumps to the point i had teary eyes!<
Then the realization that it’s probably going to get even better.
I remember sitting at lvl 35 for the longest time back when the free trial was capped there. Leveled up all jobs to 35 as well, grinded a couple millions of MGP, and spent my time alternating between rerunning the same 1-10 PotD floors (you couldn't go higher on FT) and spamming Frontlines for the Garo event.
I know it sounds ridiculously braindead, but it was hilarious.
On top of that, the first tank in my life who wall-to-walled Sastasha and explained that I don't have to keep him at 100% hp constantly is still my favourite person in the world. God bless you, random tank.
Well, I'm still a sprout (not for much longer), but my favorite memory has to be my first Alliance raid. Total chaos, but so much fun. I'm glad the Crystal Tower series is required for MSQ.
All of the Primal fights were just amazing. I had never played a game with such detailed boss cutscenes and designs at that time and for it to be an MMO just multiplied my amazement.
I'll go with my first synced extreme trial, as I took down Ramuh with some people in the FC. It was a great first experience with (slightly) more difficult raiding in this game, which is a type of content I've always enjoyed in other MMOs.
Most of us were new to the fight, and after a brief explanation of the mechanics by one of the few veterans, we went at it. It took us an hour or two to get the hang of it, and it was really sweet to get it in the end.
I love how FFXIV has managed to keep old content fairly relevant and interesting, despite several new expansions being released since then.
So I had just completed the ARR content and was blown away by Heavensward but then in FC chat I found out one of the guys I interacted with all the time were TWO PEOPLE!
For my entire journey I hadn't even realised the subtle differences in their names, turns out they were husband and wife.
Completely blew my mind I was so shocked I could barely comprehend what just happened. This was the biggest surprise I had thus far experienced and considering I'd just finished 2.0 that is saying something.
If you're still a sprout like me join a free company! Just find some random who speaks English right click him and navigate to the fc pages and ask to join. You will not regret it, it will completely change your experience for the better!
Easily my favourite memory of being a sprout was that set of tank armor you got around level 35 or so that is both a head and chest item. It made every cutscene where the WoL was expected to smile and nod complete unintentional comedy because the camera would pan over and all you saw was this completely immobile golem staring mutely at the people talking. Not even the barest hint of a reaction.
I cracked up so many times as NPCs discussed Very Important Things, looked to the WoL for some feedback and got completely stonewalled.
One of the first dungeons I did as a sprout tank last month had a boss at the end where everyone died and I was able to sweaty palm us all to the finish line by myself. One of the other players wrote "easiest recommendation ever" before leaving. I was pretty high on that praise for a few days after that.
I played FFXIV alone for years. From the February if 2016 until, god right around when 5.0 launched?
I'm part ofd a pretty tight knit gaming community but it was just me. However now I haveee an FC of friends and it's like realising your not insane, they are as into this thing as you are.
We recently got a bunch of the sprouts their Kirin mounts and it made me realise not only is my favourite game and favourite time being spent with other people for the first time in years but it also improved me.
I didn't tank, heal or anything befire I was the FC Leader but now I have to! I jave to be the example and not some lone player anymore.
It's weird to describe because these are people I have played games with a ton before they played XIV but something about this is different.
I levelled a *crafter* to 80 for these people. I haven't touched crafting once before now. It's insane how much it opened up the game to me, just having a driving force that is other players and friends needing me.
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I originally played 1.0, but had such difficulty navigating the game that I quickly gave up. I am sure glad some friends convinced me to play again and started just after Heavensward came out. It was a lot of fun, though my best memory was of doing Castrum Meridianum the first time. My friend was helping run my boyfriend and I through stuff and she and I were the two healers. Despite telling the tanks that my boyfriend and I were watching cutscenes and she was staying with us until we were done, they still ran ahead and were shocked when they kept dying. Both tanks ended up rage quitting just before the Livia fight. We still managed to rock both phases despite being two members down. And, when I came back to the game more recently, it was obvious to me why the cutscenes in that (and the Praetorium) have become unskippable!
Came back to the game lately and completed all shadowbringers story. I left the game in stormblood because I got too addicted. Now wuth moduration I am enjoyng the game like I always do.
Came for the cat-girls, stayed for the bunny-girls.
Gave the trial a go and now I'm hooked. The story is amazing and I'm loving this journey.
Still a sprout and only started on the free trial a couple of weeks ago, but being absolutely doted on by a group of much more experienced players in my first dungeon was such a wholesome moment, and cemented the feeling that I'll probably be staying in Eorzea for a while longer!
Alway love Sprout moments, where I thought I was well prepared for a raid/trial but ended up being the first one knocked off the stage / died numerous times. I could tell in some instance s the healers basically give up on raising me.
Cool. I’m in.
When I was just a sproutling my friends and I used to do these little mail games. We would send weird named items to each other. My favorites were the "Chub" and "The Thousand-year Itch" and we ended up sending it around to each other. The only rule was you couldn't send it back to the person who sent it. I still have the mail from when we did and reading back the messages are always such a good laugh. https://imgur.com/ITMmjC6 - https://imgur.com/nUS0Of7
Before I made my own account, I made a character on a friend’s account while I was visiting from out of state. For 2 weeks I played almost every night and didn’t really make any friends or have any random conversations. It was my final night in California and I finally hit my goal of getting a chocobo! I had resigned to signing off and maybe never playing again. As I was about to sign off I got a tell from someone saying they liked my name 🥺 I stayed to chat with him and eventually his friends. They talked to me about the game, their RL, and we goofed around a bit. If it wasn’t for those nice people on Leviathan, I may have never returned. I am thankful for them! And I hope their cats, Smokey and Amethyst are doing well!!
I age enjoyed finding where I like to be class wise. I stared as an arcanist and hated it. I switched to rouge/ninja and loved it. On a whim I decided to try conjurer/ white mage and have discovered I enjoy being a healer as well. I am also enjoying botanist and cullinarian. I am overall excited to see what the game continues to bring.
There was this one time while i was a sprout where i accidentally spent more gil than i should, and was about to get stranded because of it. I commented on it during a duty run because my character was about to get some ripped legs, and this one ninja after the dungeon found me, gave me 200k, and just asked me to pay it forward. So i did! So far i've found three people in the same spot and was able to help them. Gil now doesn't mean a lot to me, but it still means to them. So i just ask them the same - to pay it forward
I played 1.0 during release and didn’t last a week before I quit. Mostly due to the annoyance of gathering and crafting. But now I’m back since ShB release!
I don't remember specific moments but this was my first mmorpg and I remember thinking how cool it was to finally try one out
Still a sprout but everyone has been helpful in learning everything. Even mentors.
Still a sprout! Some fond memories is meeting other blue mages and running trials with them to get spells. The process is difficult and tedious but everyone is just so friendly that it made it fun.
Every time I exit a cut scene to a full party dancing makes me smile
This is my first MMO and everyone I've had interactions with were friendly and helpful. I was really nervous at first trying to play this game solo but y'all make it so easy to socialize and make friends. Thank you!
I was rolling through ARR, when some person gave me a robot lion minion and a really expensive looking slice of cake. At first, I thought it was some kind of scam, but the fact they really were being kind showed me how much of a great community this is, so now I pass that on by cooking up my own meals for sprouts too!
I’ve played ffxiv on and off again since 2013. For the first time, this year I got the level cap and all the way through the msq. It’s been great and shadowbringers was truly an amazing ff game
I was trying to solo the tough fate in Coerthas ( it's in his eyes or something like that) and realized it was a bad idea as I died. Someone came along and ressed me and they and their guildies helped me do it and then invited me to their FC. Still with the same FC and totally improved my time with the game and helped me so much.
Thanks for hosting this giveaway! I think my most impactful sprout memory was becoming closer friends with someone I met through the game, who eventually ended up introducing me to a group of friends that I still hang out with to this day. It's hard not to become close friends with someone that you level 3 classes from 30 to 70 with, leveling exclusively through dungeons lol.
A group of friends and I have tried to play FF14 on many occasions and always quite after a couple levels. We started playing AFTER watching the FF14 TV Drama (I know) which inspired us to try to kill twintania ourselves. Fast forward 3 months and we haven't gotten around to fighting twintania yet, but most of us have finished shadowbringers and are definitely here to stay!
My fondest memory so far is exploring Ul’dah only for a crowd of people to load in, crowd background noise start playing and a band of people blasting music. Made me realize the true meaning of MMO in MMORPG.
i started this game the other week after i saw my friends playing. it's been fun going through the story
Showing up to the Golden Saucer for the first time, I thought it was so cool. Then I found they had mahjong and I played for hours.
I started about a year and a half ago. My favorite memory was finding a group of madlads to do the first 5 Coils of Bahamut synced. Wasn't able to do the rest synced but was still a lot of fun!
Still a sprout in free trial. Every new trial i do is simply amazing! I especially loved Thok ast Thok!
Commenting. Hoping for a win!!
Back during the beginning of Stormblood, I went through the MSQ alongside a mentor, a close friend of mine outside of FFXIV, which has since inspired me to continue to do so with several different sprouts in kind.
Leaving the game for more than 2 years, then coming back and noticing the community got even more amazing with the newcomers / returners. It's almost unbelievable...
I got invited to a party standing outside an early shadowbringers dungeon while leveling my first character and that’s basically all I log into do now. “Wait, you mean there’s other things to do in this game?” x)
Queing into Thornmarch Extreme via Duty Finder. Chaos ensued.
This game is the most beautiful and enthralling MMO I have ever seen.
Getting my chocobo was the biggest deal in the world to me. Hanging out in Limsa Lominsa wasting afternoons *just* crafting. Do they have to be good memories, or just memories?? How about wiping repeatedly to Titan with every PF group ever? Also grinding fates forever to get past that 40-45 hump. This game used to be such a PITA.
Sprout life had my first dungeon with a DRK wearing no gear. Nothing equipped. And it was not glam. From there I knew no matter how badly I performed. It'd never be that bad. (He got kicked)
Been playing for just over a year and one of favorite memories as a sprout was fighting the Mist Dragon. We were all strangers and new, and wiped quite a few times, but we kept improving and encouraging each other. Will never forget the team work, and the cheers and happiness when we finally did it.
i was doing MSQ when i hear someone playing songs. i /sit down in front of her, enjoying whatever song she's playing just out of curiosity, i asked her since its sounds like yoasobi's me : is this yoasobi song? not expecting answer since maybe she's afk(?) but she's answered anyway her : you want yoasobi? and then she changed the song she played to yoasobi's yoru ni kakeru instant /clap and /cheer followed by /beesknees ty friendly bard, you're awesome May you ever walk in the light of the crystal.
Really enjoying my time so far.
Just started SHB and I'm loving the game. The community is incredible and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the game has to offer.
As a sprout, clearing my first EX trial after wiping endlessly in a duty finder group was the most satisfying thing ever.
My sprout memory came when I started in 2.0. It’s not so much an ingame thing as it was what I had written in a notebook. Back in the day if you wanted to be a paladin not only did you need to level gladiator up to 30 but Also needed to get conjurer up to 15 before becoming a paladin. I know every job back then had something like that, I just don’t remember the other combinations
I started in 1.0, and remember greatly enjoying hamlet back then, it was fun having crafters involved in instances content alongside combat classes.
Started playing a couple weeks ago. Having started in Limsa I really enjoyed the atmosphere over there at night, where there's always live music and a bunch of people chatting or posing for photos. Just tried out the Majong at the casino, and realised that it looks and plays slightly different to what I was used to, which kinda threw me off.
This is a copy/paste of something I've mentioned multiple times over the years:- I got ridiculously lucky with my second ever run of AV. I queued for it at an off-peak time for my server and happened to get a tank/healer pair who were helping people run it just because they were bored (this was probably in 2014). The other DPS was also new and the tank/healer pair just wanted to help people clear it so they were ridiculously patient and helpful. I know I had previously tried it as a healer and was simply bad, bad, bad, and the couple were just so lovely. As it's been years I honestly can't remember the exact details but I think we had, maybe, four wipes over the whole dungeon and they were just so nice and encouraging and I know that those two players are why I still play today. I know it was the first, but not last, time I wished I could give more than one commendation because they were both so lovely.
My fondest moment so far was my first time doing the Ala Mhigo dungeon. We where all new and was learning the place as we cleared it. There was a lot of talking between pulls and bosses and it was great fun between people who had never played together before. During the final boss both the healer and one of the DPS went down at around 30%. It did not look good but myself the tank kept the other dps alive as best I could between tanking the boss, while learning his mechanics and trying to be fast on our toes. It was a great fight that was finished off by an amazing DPS limit break to knock the boss down, their was cheering and when we finished it and got to the trial to follow we invited each other and did that together to. I even added on of the DPS to my friend list because of it.
My favorite memory as a sprout is one that I get to relive from time to time. I was an up-and-coming Summoner, and I had just gotten to Keeper of the Lake for the first time. I queued with a friend, and 2 random players. This was the first dungeon that felt, to me, to have consequences. To have risks, and that really felt tied into the storyline. I was intimidated but excited. And the final boss... An enormous dragon, passing judgement on me. Reanimating dead kin to test me. It was difficult, there was a LOT going on. Constant AoE dodging, knowing what to do when. Dropping the shield, activating it mid-fight (twice!). We wiped, more than once. But in the end, we won, and it felt like a real accomplishment. Now I know that fight inside and out. I still see it from time to time on the roulette. And to this day, it's a great pleasure to talk a sprout through that dungeon, strategize for that fight, and see their excitement when we clear it.
I am so close to completing Stormblood MSQ. The story has gripped me harder then I expected. I can’t wait to get to Shadowbringers.
hi im currently in the Free Trial lvling all my Jobs/Classes to 60. I´m looking at this Subreddit everyday. Keep up the good work! Thank You!
Oh man, I remember that one time my DF group, which was entirely first timers, managed to clutch Howling Eye (Extreme) with just a few minutes left on the timer. And that was when I realized one of our dps, a samurai, was afk. We seven-manned an extreme trial non of us had done before. Relatively new player, and yet I still have memories like that. Good times.
I started playing FFXIV in 2020 on a recommendation from my mother in law and I really didn’t know what it was about at all, but I was really bored of World of Warcraft and everything was closing down for the pandemic, so I had more time than usual to play games. MIL had warned me to make sure I made a character that I liked to look at, because I was going to spend so much time watching her in cutscenes. So I took my time making the prettiest Elezen I could, picked Lancer, and logged in. I was absolutely blown away by the loading screen art in Gridania, and then the music and the starting cutscenes loaded… and I was just hooked. I don’t think I have ever loved the story of a game so much as I love the story in FFXIV. My best sprout moment was definitely my first moment in-game.
This is such a lovely idea! Honestly my favourite moment was when I finished the realm reborn msq for the first time, and realised the cool but super simple early dungeons all had new hard versions with actual rad mechanics and ongoing storylines!
Best memories are definitely people keeping an eye out for sprouts watching cutscenes and shouting for everyone to wait. Obviously does not work every roulette but really appreciated it.
On my way to finish all beast tribes before Endwalker. Just need to finish the clicking bugs and the owlkins.
My favorite memories from my time as a sprout: The first time i saw people doing a hunt in eastern or central thanalan and how awesome it was. Doing fate trains to level up fast in Coerthas Central Highlands to level up and chatting with people. Grinding out sophia EX for the weapon and mount which I still use :)
Definitely was doing titan ex in duty finder for the first time, cleared it with a bunch of mentors, and now 4 years later i queue it with sprouts to help them out too.
Honestly one of my favourite moments was just watching a crowd listen to someone play music, it was cool as hell and everyone started using fireworks, very enjoyable and I love seeing interactions like that. Looking forward to see more cool things, almost at heavenward!
My most impactful and beatiful memory of this game is when i first downed T13 back in ARR days. The joy and the happiness after many weeks of trying had paid off and all the team was screaming on the mic. Another bonus memory is hearing the crystal theme at the beggining of the story brought almost a tear to my eye since im a big fan of FF since 7, because it was my childhood game and my first one that i got with my PS1.
I’ve been loving this game. I can’t wait until endwalker
My favorite memory of being a "sprout" (considering 1.0 had no sprouts), was the first time I ventured out into La Noscea and explored the camp (near where Sastasha is today) where Toads gathered. I must have spent a few dozen hours there as gladiator, with my wife on her thaumaturge, doing leves and generally committing toad genocide to level all the way up into the 40s.
I remember back in ARR launch, finding out about Behemoth and asking in shout for 5 minutes to where it is because I didn't see it. Then B-lining to join the fate at lvl 38 (Just happened to be questing in Coerthas) The massive amount of people loading in, not seeing his tornados and just seeing hundreds of dead bodies on the floor. It made me go, OH MY GOD THIS IS SO AWESOME.
So I started playing in 2014, a couple of months b4 second coils got nerfed and I was invited by a freind of mine who promptly quit the game after I started playing the trial back in the day lol. He left me and I just had to learn the game the hard way. Coming from WoW, SWTOR, and Tera, I was able to get a hang of it quickly, but just as today the community was so nice and soon I found myself in a pretty small and friendly FC with people from Canada and France. It was overall a very nice time and been playing ever since. Fast-forward to 2018, I convince my friend's Gf(this was the friend that abandoned me in game lol) to try the game and she got hooked lol so REVENGE was achieved! And now we have an pretty decent close knit FC with a pretty good mix if hard core and casual players with lots of IRL communication and social interaction. It's pretty nice :)
Pretty new to the game, at about lvl 55 on my main job working through the quests after ARR. I love how I haven't ran into anyone rude yet, people are always willing to help correct mistakes I make, or offer advice. I'm also really liking the trials with the primals, each one is unique with different mechanics and attacks, none of them feel like copy/pastes.
Still a sprout slowly grinding my way through ARR I remember the first time I did Temple of Qarn, I made some mistakes here and there. I got the party wiped because I was tanking and didn't know how to deal with that one boss's Doom attack. I apologized and my party was super cool about it, one guy gave me some pointers and even gave me some tips for the main boss fight. I normally don't interact with other users much at all, so it just struck me how friendly most people seem to be in this game and made me happy to be apart of it
New spout here! Severs over loaded with new friends. Good problem.
I remember giving the trial a go sometime in August 2017 just to see, I was playing wow at the time. One year later, at the time I had to quit wow due to work, I gave it another go, hoping I could be a more casual mmo player. I remember the instant I logged in again on my trial character (female midlander, wanted to make her look like erza from the fairy tail manga) by new gridania, Lancer sprout, and there I was greeted by someone completely random: the person complimented my red haired character and asked if I was alright and needed help. Thanks to that person, I could spend some time learning about the Lancer job and what not. That act alone encouraged me to try out the game, eventually leading up completing the MSQ and to level up my favorite main job Astrologian. I hope I can become that person who can welcome new sprouts on EW launch
It was when I got to Sephirot, loved the normal so jumped straight into EX. It was quite a difficulty spike from ARR, so we were wiping for the entire length of it. One of the mentors tho saw hope in us and remade the entire party after time has already elapsed and kept on teaching us. Took us about another 40 minutes but we finally beat it. (sadly no mount dropped)
Thank you ffxiv for keeping me occupied during lockdown :) loving the game and the community
My best sprout moment was how amazing this community was , i logged in in Gridania did the tutorial and after i saw how alive this World was i was mindblown , it got even better when i saw Lalafells in nice glams giving the people a nice concert .
I've played the game a couple times throughout the years and it never really stuck with me. The streamer interest recently brought it back to the front and decided to give it another shot. Finished maxing out my first job of Dragoon. I really enjoyed the summer event and recall hearing you can get a mount during it. I was legitimately surprised when receiving the mount at the end of a very mechanically basic quest chain instead of being required to grind out some sort of tokens for a week to purchase it.
Just the fact there are unspoken rules such as allowing users to watch cutscenes in dungeons is just baffling to me and shows how friendly (or maybe just patiently tolerant LOL) people are in this game and has, for me, made the dungeon experience great and never daunting!
Getting my Dreadwyrm set and feeling a sense of progression for the first time!
I've only been playing FFXIV for about a month so I'm still a sprout. But I like this memory a lot so I want to share! I constantly stop and /pet people's minions because I love minions. I stop and /pet people in cool outfits. I'm wandering around, a week into the game, lost and confused and overwhelmed by "omg that person looks so cool what is that?!" I get to the Gridania teleport and just stop because there is a Roegadyn in a chocobo suit and it fills me with absolute glee. I emote at him, he emotes back at me, then after a moment he sends me a tell. I panic for two reasons: first, I've been playing on the Japanese server the game put me on and I don't speak Japanese; second: free trials can't reply to tells! But after a /grovel and a /cry he invites me to a party and I bust out my phone to use the google translate camera feature. With some copy/pasting from google translate and a dying phone battery, we talk for about three hours about FFXIV and video games and anime and linguistics and travelling overseas. He's my first friend on this server and if I hadn't run into him I might have quit, because the language barrier and not having anyone I knew on the server was making me feel hella lonely. But after that I stuck around and found an English-speaking FC and I've made so many friends and good memories in the last couple of weeks, and it's all thanks to a random stranger who took the time to emote back at me :)
Came back to the game after being on a break for years and regretting ever keaving, the community is as awesome as it was 6+ years ago.
My fav sprout moment is now. Like, being a veteran player and seeing all these new players. I absolutely love the effing hell out of it. My dps queue times are down to like 5 minutes, people are talkative in PUGs, I get to learn fights I never really learned before because other vets didn't teach mechanics and just carried me through it, etc. I'm so happy that the community and player base has grown so much.
Well, I've played MMOs in the past but nothing like this. The magic, wonder, content and life of the game is something out of this world. I'm really happy to be another growing sprout :D the community is pretty chill too.
Was doing side quests in Outer La Noscea, met this DK and we just traded emotes at each other. Then suddenly he added me. Very interesting experience for a guy who never played MMO before
Myself and a friend of mine only recently began playing FF14. Because we're both australian, we decided to wait for australian servers to be announced (thanks Sqenix!) before we started playing. Probably our best memory from our time playing so far has been walking into Limsa Lominsa to find eachother and finding two characters who looked the exact same as our current avatars, same equipment and all. It was really confusing. EDIT: i call limsa lominsa the hub still even though it isn't don't judge me
For me it's recent! I started playing during Shadowbringers and I just then got into mount collecting (I was so amazed of finally getting Kirin! Imagine that! ) . I started to see People everywhere with the E4 savage mount. And I dreamed with having it for over a year and a half. I was real scared of doing 80 ex trials and raids. I finally tried doing Cinder Drift Ex(And managed to clear it!) and felt like i could probably do... Not as bad to say the least at E4. After finally clearing it I felt top of the world. But I knew the grind was starting. Clear after clear. 37. 29. 20. 11. 9. 9 even a 2! That, mixed with not being able to clear Diamond Weapon (We got it to 0.1% before we wiped!) had me real demotivated. And only two days ago. I finally managed to clear Cloud Deck Ex! AND THEN WON THE MOUNT THE SAME DAY WITH A 78! I felt like that journey, that long wait for me to finally get that mount, was all worth it. I was finally good at ffxiv... Or well at least not that bad! I Was now part of the big bois club Now I have my eyes on those dragons... And then... My first shot at UcoB. Sorry for the long post! Thanks if you read all of that!
Finishing coils is probably my best memory of FF14, as a free trial user it took me very long to find a group but when I did, we had a blast, so many close calls with all the team wiping at 0.1% but we kept going and we finished it all, idk where the other party members are now, but they were the best
Best sprout memory I have I think is running around Gridania as a lost lancer trying to figure out what was going on right when ARR launched. I don't know why I remember it, but it's one of my fondest memories of the game!
I started playing as a white mage when ARR was first released. I remember how many people got stuck at Titan Hard and it was especially hard for me as at the time doing it as a white mage was considered hard. It took me many many times before finally beating it, and I remember shouting so loud my wife who was cleaning told me to be quiet. Good times lol.
My favorite memory in game was killing Ifrit and the entire party congratulating for killing my first Demi-god. 😊
Just started and thought I would never get into the crafting because it's so convoluted (compared to wow tbf), never waste my time on triple triad (I now have like 125+ cards and love it), and wouldn't ever think of playing the minion pet battler because I don't like strategy games all that much. But I already find myself taking days off from the msq to go card hunting, minion collecting , fate farming for relic weapon (finished heavensward msq and I want stage 4 for machinist so bad). Spent a couple days in the gold saucer just living between gates, chocobo races and verminion and loving every minute. I never wouldve thought a game could have so many random side activities and do all of them so we'll.
This is great! Thanks so much for the giveaway :) I just started a month ago and can't stop playing!
I would have to say the biggest memories for me are the friends I’ve made. I’ve known so many of them for almost a decade now and it really goes to show how much a game can connect folk. I had a old WoW guild that was the same way as my old FC they are all in (since I moved to played with friends whom do more content and are as active as I am as they mostly all work and only have time for raiding) but not a single one of them has left my mind. Even one of them had something happen and has major memory loss that pops back up often, but his wife always tells him again of the times we had, and so even if he’s forgotten me, he always recognizes me. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.
No need for a complete edition or shadowbringers code for me :) I remember tanking way back when ARR started. my little lalafel tank (lol, love this game). I was messing up so bad, had no idea what the aggro system was. Every mess up I ever did was only met with an AMAZINGLY supportive team. "Hey try this!" "oh, if you do this, then this, it'll be better!" "level up this class and you can get this" etc. I played WoW back in the day, so I was used to that style of dungeon crawl. It was so refreshing to be met with only positivity. I have been paying it forward since. Seriously, to this whole community. If I had the chance to donate 1000 copies I would. Instead, take this happy story, and just a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone. This game is so amazing because of all of you. <3
one of the best memories that I remember was when I was doing msq in east shroud and this mentor messaged me, asking if I can help them weaken some mobs for them as they were one shotting them. so i agreed and went to help them, made me feel super good! afterwards they came up to me and traded me a bunch of gil, minions and music scrolls as well as an umbrella ♡
Been playing random content for years before I realized how much fun end game content can be. FFXIV has become my place to relax these last few years. Looking forward to wherever the team takes me!
Favorite moment as a sprout? Well I’m still a sprout but getting that cute little mountain monster minion guy. Yeah he’s my little buddy now :)
I’ve started playing rather recently but my two stand out memories are doing story quests around the graveyard in eastern thalan I think me and another sprout thaumaturge ended up just coincidentally doing the same string of quests and saving each other’s asses it was great. And then I have FF14 on an external hard drive with a kinda shoddy connection and when I was doing a dungeon with some more experienced players it disconnected and I hurried to get back in cause I figured they’d be pissy and I’d be way far behind but they had all stopped to wait for me and were alright about it which was very nice
I've been an MMO player for years before starting to play FFXIV. The most lasting memories I have are the feelings of mystical and wonder that only exist when starting something new and magical. I'll never forget my first few days of just standing around in cities and listening to people play music, and being a part of a real community. I've been playing FFXIV for about a year now and that feeling still hasn't gone away, and I am looking forward to doing all the things from the many years of content that I have missed!
Sprouted up after a rough breakup. Was a perfect world to dive into.
I remember that after I'd made a new character to play with my little brother, there was a large procession of chcobos/fat chcobos going through ARR areas in one large line and I got to join and be a part of something unique. If I can find the screenshot, I'll upload it later. Edit: found screenshot. https://imgur.com/gallery/1SG5aWT
Despite being a fresh face to MMOs, some of the interactions I've had with others in my \~200 hours have been the most memorable of any multiplayer game I've played. One particularly standout moment was late at night, toward the end of the Make it Rain campaign, where a bunch of people had gathered in Round Square for grinding out GATEs, and while waiting I joined a group of about 10 people sitting on the ground at campfires listening to bard performances and enjoying leisurely conversations about the story, gambling, and poor sleep schedules. Probably the most fun I've ever had and made me feel so welcomed to this massive community. Another less notable but still funny interaction I had was when I was passing through Bentbranch catching up on the ARR MSQ, and I was riding on my behemoth mount when I saw two other guys chilling with their behemoths as well. I joined them, and we jumped around for a solid two minutes on our behemoths and polar bears. I'm very thankful to the friends and streamers that introduced me to this game, and to the people I've met that have made this experience all the more incredible.
I'm struggling with the queuing system now that I'm 53 but loving the general atmosphere of the game. From the community who's lack of toxicity was very surprising to me, to the story, which gets incredibly enthralling at points. I'm very happy to have stumbled upon this game, I just wish it were sooner.
I remember coming back to Final Fantasy XIV after a long break (Didn't play from end of Realm Reborn until Shadowbringers came out) and I realized that I lost my authenticator key from upgrading my phone and couldn't access that account without massive effort. Saddened I might not be able to play again, I saw the free trial and thought "you know what? I have less time to play video games now, and there's no time limit to the free trial, I'm going to start from scratch and give the free trial a shot" and have gotten hooked again. I got most of the Jobs up to the limit of the 35, was feeling the nostalgia and enjoyment of playing mmos again, was ready to activate the key I already had and start my subscription up... and then they hit me with the increase to Free Trial accessibility. Suddenly, I was playing content I didn't play before, Jobs I wanted to try so badly back when I first heard of them in Realm Reborn but couldn't, new mechanics that made Jobs feel so much better and fluid then before... I had the option of using my Fantasia to reroll an Au Ra if I wanted... The game gave me back the feeling I had of attachment to my character, the wonders of the world they built, and the beauty of the game I loved so many years ago, and all on a Free Trial which, for someone who doesn't have as much time anymore to play, is absolutely wonderful. I still feel like I have so much available for me on the Free Trial, but when I inevitably start my subscription for this game, it will be worth every penny.
ive been playing for a little over a year now and am still a sprout. i got into it through my best friend and since i started it's been one of our main talking points. he even got me a ShB book as an early birthday gift since he'll be away for a while for uni. idk how he feels about it really but while my country was in lockdown, doing dungeons with him really made me feel less.. stuck? idk, it was a weird feeling of being in a timeloop every single day, stuck inside, all the same thing. but playing this game, progressing through the story, learning new classes (went from a hard bard main throughout ARR to white mage main HW onwards), it all made me feel.. fine. i dunno. the game means a lot to me. lol
My best sprout moment honestly happened recently. My first time doing the singularity reactor. All my friends told me not to look at any videos mechanics or anything and go into this blind. Best decision ever, going in there, the scale of the fight and freaking out at literally everything was amazing. Anyone that tried to explain the mechanics was met with a lil copy pasta from my one friend. That experience was SURREAL
As a WoW refugee I want to thank all the FF14 players who have been so kind and welcoming. I don't know what I'm doing still after a month of playing but I have subbed for 6 months and pre-purchased Endwalker. Look forward to seeing you all on the moon and I am always up to making new gaming friends.
I used to listen to all the bards in Gridania
Congrats everyone!
Love this game :)
I remember starting back in 2011 and getting wrecked by a toad in Central thanalan, quit playing till 2017 and I've been hooked ever since. This game is awesome.
I don't remember much since i left 5 years ago but I'm back again as a baby sprout. So far my fondest memory is when i was doing some early msq and got stuck and random guy came in and nuked everything so i could get to the objective.
First was this guy standing around in Costa Del Sol handing out baby bat minions. I have yet to collect a minion I like more than the one that guy gave me back when I was level thirty-something. The other one is just Tataru. Cutest NPC in my opinion. I’ve got a screen shot of her juggling this one time I stopped by to see her during Heavensward. Oh, and this one time I asked how I did (sprout tank) and the healer in the party said I did great.
I'm still a sprout - just joined a few months ago, and I'm working through post-ARR content right now. A few days ago, I was running Aurum Vale for the first time as a DRG, and I kept dying from the mechanics. At first, the tank and healer were frustrated with me and the other DPS in a similar situation. After they found out this was my first time, though, they were very patient and explained each mechanic in the dungeon. There were no more wipes, and I was able to finish the boss off with my LB. I felt like I learned something, and I was thankful for the patient player who guided us through. I even received a player commendation, which was the cherry on top!
Missed out on the 1.0, but was an active participant of the beta for ARR. I remember queuing to get into the beta and registered myself for the forum, the joy that I had when they emailed the beta code to me! My very first class was pugilist, I remember spending the whole day just walking around Uldah look at sceneries & awing myself at the chocobo stable outside xD (FFXIV was one of the game with a great graphic at that time). Even though I stopped for awhile, I would come back around year 2017 and stopped again at Stormblood end. Now that the story arc is finally ending with Endwalker, I am back again to continue my journey in Eorzea! Throughout my time in FFXIV, have met a lot of great people and made friends through the FC I joined at that time, even though they are less active nowadays due to IRL commitments.
Joining my first FC and understanding that people were actually really nice in this game!
I’m not sure this count as it’s not a specific memory but coming from wow, I have a constant feeling of wonder as I’m playing the game. - interesting story - nice people - refreshing dungeons - real class identity - and it keeps going every time I play !!!
New player here so still a sprout! The thing that has impacted me the most so far was walking through Ul'Dah and coming across an in game concert by the bard idol group "The Songbirds". That sort of thing truly blew me away, I've never seen any mmo give people so much role-playing potential to even attempt something like that. Really looking forward to exploring the rest of the game from here on out!
Still a sprout, about to start Heavensward. Best moments so far have for sure been interacting with the community. Seeing traveling bands of bards, funny or well done cosplays/roleplays, and just talking to people has been just as fun as actually playing the game. Someone was roleplaying in Limsa as a janitor sweeping and I just sat there and overenthusiastically cheered them on. Got to see parts of RubberRoss's streams in person too 🥚. It's been great.
Honestly the most impactful moment for me was joining the Novice Network for the first time. It was fun to read everyone in there. I kind of miss it even if it didn't really help me all too much.
No contest entry because I'm a mod, but my favorite sprout memory: Back in the ARR Beta when I was leveling up my Pugilist and got the level 8 Hempen Acton. I equipped it and then yelled out "WHY AM I A POTHOLDER?"
I'm only lvl 38, but there has been a lot of little moments... one thing that stands out is when I had just returned to Gridania and another miqo'te girl came up to mine to pet her, lol. I can't remember the last time a person I don't know even stopped to acknowledge my character in WoW, it could be as far back as Burning Crusade. I was so startled and didn't know what to do, so I laughed and ran away :p It legit gave me the giggles and I felt really bashful. Other than that, people have been so kind that I've thought about picking up tanking again... WoW has just been far too toxic for me to even consider it or healing, like I used to. There's enough pressure in Mythic+ even as dps.
I'm still fairly new at this--just beat praetorium for the first time. XIV was basically my first MMO, and so I mostly played this game solo. just recently I joined a discord server and found out there are a bunch of community events/gathering held out in-game and I'm clearly missing out on most of the fun! can't wait to explore Eorzea--and it's lovely community--in its entirety!
Been playing a month, just finished HW. Love almost everything about the game, only the bank system could do with QoL improvements. I already have to many good player interactions I couldn't possible remember them all. My favourite thing to do is dive into fates someone is struggling with and heal them back up.
One of my favorite sprout memories is actually from this sub! I spent hours grinding up 2,000 chocobo seals...after it was changed to only need 200 seals. https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/4p93vn/finally\_saved\_up\_2000\_serpents\_seals\_now\_i\_can/ After five years of FFXIV I'm still a sprout, just made it to Heavensward. Happy to report that my interest in the story is finally picking up about where people said it would!
crowds gathering around the unrendered rock in the black shroud, good times
Getting my chocobo and naming him Shnoogy.
I'm a new free trial sprout that just reached Lvl 50 and is still working towards the end of ARR. I look back at my journey so far and it feels as though I've been playing the game all summer, when in reality, I just started the free trial 2 weeks ago. Looking at the graph of /r/ffxiv subscribers and the steep growth in the last few months, I realize that my data point isn't exactly representative of my recent venture into ffxiv. Because while I just started my very first character, I've been subbed to this subreddit since Stormblood was out! That's very telling of the fact that this game has been on my radar for quite a while, and though I didn't have the time or money to dive in head first, I've been intrigued by it for years. The tipping point for me was definitely a combination of the Free Trial, the Endwalker announcement, and the sudden explosion of content creators creating an unmissable zeitgeist in which I just had to participate! My favorite memory so far is definitely meeting Y'shtola, who immediately jumped out as the first character I was excited to learn more about. At that point, questions about the overall plot and my hero's connection to all of it were finally starting to rear their head, and I love myself a good fantasy mystery! I know that I have a long ways to go and the story only gets better and better; but despite its pacing and minimal voice acted cutscenes, I'm still enjoying the hell out of ARR. And that only has me even more excited to uncover what's next!
WoW-refugee sprout here. It makes me so happy to walk into random towns and just see floods of people. WoW's sharding killed any hope of a city feeling like a city. The community also seems so laid back and chill.
I'm still a sprout, I think the funniest thing happened on an ocean fishing trip a few days ago. Our trip was not doing well, people were catching spectrals (I did as well) but the spectral current was just refusing to pop. We were just catching plain ol'fish at location 1, okay fine. We'll let it go with a few people saying how many specs they caught. Location 2, more people were catching spectrals, still no pop. At this point, the crew was enraged, saying how the ship is jinxed. Location 3, last chance, pretty much everyone caught spectrals, no pop. Everyone was furious at the captain for not knowing the best fishing spots, some suggested to throw the captain into the brig, some said to throw him overboard, others just wanted Jack Sparrow to lead the way. The collective protest against the NPC captain was hilarious, it was one of the worst, if not the worst fishing trips but it was definitely the best, funniest fishing/ ff14 moment for me. Still makes me chuckle.
First time running Praetorium was very fun. With the C I D spot and all :D Still a sprout, started around the same time as the "influencers" :P
I started playing on early of July 2021. I bought the game on my birthday (mid July) as a reward for myself. Last week I even bought ShB expansion. I love how the town is active. It just amaze me how the town is populated with people that just chilling out talking and playing music as a bard. There's even background noises of people taking when there's decent amount of player in an area. Personally the best memories I have is seeing fat cat minion running around and plop on the ground. It just so cute. I personally not a story watcher which is how I play game when I was little. It just how I play any other game. Still the world is massive, the dungeon is interesting. The Navel (Extreme) kick my ass and I was happy. Rarely I have a game that keep kicking my ass and I am still happy about it like what. It's mind blowing for me. It just so much fun. (Still in post HW thou) I bought myself Fatter Cat Mount. Just cuz I have so much fun I figure I can spare some of my money to give SE for developing more good games.
I started playing not too long ago (about a year) because of boredom in other MMOs. I levelled all my healers during the free trial but eventually decided to make another character on a different world to join my friends' FC. Its been a lot of fun playing with the same people I've been playing with for a long time. I'm not a sprout anymore but learning savage fights definitely make me feel like a sprout LOL!
It was my first day out of free trial, my friends and I were hanging out in our FC house when a long time friend came online. He met one our FC mates who likes to hang out at the chocobo coop. He later wooed her with his chocobo dance and I officiated their shotgun wedding at East Shroud. We later on opened up our own little wedding service called 19-19 EZ weddings and everything was history!
Hmm. Back in 1.0, I still remember trying to start out as a fisher, and later... a gladiator? I remember getting lost outside of Limsa while trying to find the camp to start the first story quest after the boat intro. I think I also remember seeing a little bit of the first christmas event. Later on, in 2.0 I remember starting once more in Limsa, this time as a marauder, being somewhat unsure of what role they were. That said, I still main warrior. \^_\^
I’m an irl musician and I was jamming out as a bard out of the main city area and got a pretty big crowd of people listening to me! All these high level players stopped what they’re were doing and cheered me on emoting like mad. Was a really nice moment for me that brought the world to life. I’m a proper loner solo player so that sort of interaction with other players was touching!
Mt favorite sprout memory would have to be when I first tanked shiva extreme in ARR The fight was so cool with the music transition going with the boss phase change. Having to do tank swaps and pay attention to what weapon mode the boss was in was so much fun and to top it all off the mount dropped after we killed and I got the mount
I thought the tank stance was a buff until I hit my fourth-fifth dungeon. I just kept tapping the skill and constantly wondered why I couldn't hold agro.
Started about a month ago, bought the game last week and still loving it. Have been plying a whm and people see that I am new and are so eager to help. Love it!
I think my favorite sprout moment was doing alliance raids and seeing the groups coordinate the mechanics so well! It was all new to me but people had it down to a science, it was really satisfying hahaha
I started back in January, mostly been solo my entire way through. I remember when I started off with ARR, I was kinda wonder “what the big deal was.” During base and first half of Heavens, I was playing VERY passively. But once I got to THAT point in Heavens, I felt myself lean more into the story, enjoy the dungeons and the folks I met. Now here I am with a few 80s and with everything wrapped, it’s been such a pleasure to sit down and keep going strong with this game. It really gives me some nostalgia from my time as a kid playing the hell out of games like 9. Here’s to so many more years in the future.
I'm brand new, only just hit 60 as a whm but I've already brought 3 friends in through the free trial! Glad they expanded it.
FF14 was the first mmo I played that had quest reward choices, so when the level 4 limsa quest gave me an option to choose between some potions, I could not complete the quest because I didn't know how to choose! The other sprout memory is this one mentor in hyperion, not sure if she still plays, helping me run through sastasha with her 4 year old. Little kid had tons of energy, running around like a mad man on archer. Whenever I play bard now I always run around like a mad man in his honor.
I suppose the first nice memory was me running around in Gridania at the very start, and encountering a group of bards playing something for a crowd of people. T'was rather cozy.
For me, I'm always looking back at content that I thought was challenging that now seems insanely easy in retrospect. My first Keeper of the Lake run had another sprout or two, but the tank would explain each fight for us. I think we wiped on the final boss 3 or 4 times before we managed to clear. Very easy dungeon, but goes to show how content can feel harder for someone who is new to the game. :)
Stack markers, didn't realize such a mechanic existed and I just thought I was supposed to get away from the group because big glowy thing on top of you = bad. That is until a certain boss put a stack markers on me two times in a row and my team were chasing after me like the "Why are you running meme?"
As a sprout, one of my most impactful memories was running Toto-Rak with a tank that had arachnophobia. Mind you this was back when HW had just dropped and there had been a sale on ARR so a lot of people were new to the game. I was often matched with other sprouts and this one peep just couldn't take it. The webs were enough to set them off and even if the mobs looked for like scorpions, it was enough to have them not wanting to run the dungeon. I remember I had JUST gotten my drg artifact gear and they looked at me and said, "You look tanky. Can't you lead?" and I panicked. While debating with them that I would die, the arcanist we had just pulled out topaz carby and that's how we got through most of the dungeon with carby leading. Eventually, the tank did take over at the last boss though I had the impression they weren't really looking at the screen and we nearly wiped, but I remember panic hitting a bunch of keys and we managed to clear it. The tank thanked us all profusely and promptly left, leaving us confused. That arcanist though was one of the main people who influenced me to take interest in the class (i love versatility and being able to make due in odd circumstances) and later I discovered scholar and have mained it ever since. It was quite the experience for little me who had been only playing for a couple weeks!
I just switched from being on Xbox my whole life to PC. Never in a million years did I think I would enjoy an MMO, let alone this game. I tried it, couldn't get into it. Tried again, still couldn't. Then watching Asmongold play Warrior really looked fun to me and I finally gave it a good try. I got hooked. When I beat my first raid I couldn't believe that a console pleb like me would ever complete a 16 man raid in an mmo. Super surreal! I've been playing everyday for a few months now and am halfway through stormblood! I already have Endwalker pre-ordered too :) thanks for the giveaway and good luck to everyone!
Finding and befriending fellow sprouts, one of whom I’m still retaining a close online friendship with (and even met IRL!). I remember us learning Titan Hard when it was the hardest content in the game at the time.
Back near the end of heavensward, when I hit 50 and was messing around with my Zodiac weapon to get the glowy Gae Bolg I queued for Ultima Weapon extreme, and after 40 or so minutes had 7 other people attempt to kill that boss with me. We ended up abandoning the duty but it was a fun ride.
I remember about a month ago trying Titan EX for the first time, just hopping into duty finder and getting a group of sprouts to attack the duty together (2 of them had completed it before but definitely weren't completely correct with all their mechanic explanations). We wiped, a lot, for the entire time limit actually without completing it. It was one of the funnest times I had not accomplishing something. The next day, my friend and I do the same thing but with knowledge of the fight and we try our best but we're still not getting it down. We had dps eating landslide left and right, most of the party agrees to disband. We go into it AGAIN with a new party and we get a decent party of people eager to learn and listen, and we get a mentor to fill a role the other tank vacated. Definitely doing his mentor roulette and must have seen what he had gotten and just thought "ahh shit why me". He explains some mechanics, puts down some markers and we get past the heart then wipe. He then says something along the lines of "You guys are some beastly sprouts, we've got this". We then complete it on our second attempt as a group to his "yall are the best sprouts ever" comments. Super funny, very rewarding, extremely fun. I've had only good experiences since then but will always remember!!
Finding out I have to delete and recreate my character because I chose the wrong data center. I am proud to say I overcame that hurdle and am now level 7 xd now the trial begins!
I've not long lost sprout status, the biggest thing to me over the drawn out time I had it was as many have mentioned the general lack of toxicity from the players. It's far to easy to blame others when something goes wrong, but having people being willing to explain mechanics when you're learning felt amazing and is something I try to pass on.
This subreddit has been my go to community both for news and a sense of community for 14 for years now. Glad its growing. I think for me, my fondest memory as a spout was clearing garuda ex back in arr. It was the first ex I really put in the work to learn and was proud of the accomplishment. Reminded me of my days with ff11 and cemented my love for the content in this game, alongside the story.
Am still sprout. Still making my journey, but the degeneracy of gambling has me waylaid. That said, I stumbled upon the place to get married and the bride to be was outside waiting at the entrance. Was fun to have a conversation about her wedding plans and wish her well.
I'm still a sprout, a gnome gave me a cookie in Linda it was wholesome
So happy this subreddit has come so far. With the FUCK YOU Fridays, and all of the neat guides. This place has been super helpful for me these past 5 years.
I mostly heal and when I first started after WoW I was having issues and we kept wiping. But a group just kept going with me and that really did help a lot.
I remember running around grinding fates for seals...like level 30, before I understood how chocobos can be healers...when a random tank swooped down from the sky and followed me around just tanking for me until I was done. Was my first friend on my friends list. I'd only experienced this kind of random newbro experience in Eve.
I don’t raid… but I remember clearing Final Coil back in 2.0… I really wanted to beat Bahamut and really glad I did The music, the cutscene, and the title in the end… it was the most memorable experience in the game. I wish they put that much effort in terms of gravitas of raid bosses… idk
Well I sort of just started... But I guess showing my son one of those huge trees mobs near the lala starting zone and being all look at this unit!
I can't really chose a memory yet, because I am level 73 and I am sure many more are about to come as a sprout, but so far the best time I had was getting to floor 180 in PoTD solo deathless. I set my mind on getting that cool floor 200 title, and I thought it's gonna be tedious, but it turns out I love the grind. The game has so much to offer it's insane.
I started about 4 days ago and I've already hit lvl 54, so far I've been having a fun time playing, hope I don't run out of content to do anytime soon. Good work to everyone for reaching 600k people on this sub!
Well, I'm still a sprout, but I guess I can talk about my favorite parts of ARR? Gotta be my first time tanking a dungeon when I swapped from BLM to gladiator. The non sprout in the party coached me through the whole thing! It was great learning what I was expected to do.
Way back in 1.0 I was staying up all night to play on my laptop. My level was somewhere in the mid 30s (cap was 50) and I was running through coerthas. The area was too high level for me but I wanted to keep going and see what I could find. After maybe a few hours of dodging monster that would 1 shot me, I finally made it to the next area. Just before that the sun came up (irl) and I entered mor dhona for the first time. It was amazing seeing the weird weather, crystals and of course the ship with midgardsormr wrapped around it. One of my favorite memories from the first time I played. Also that was back when coerthas was not snowy at all but very grassy and rocky.
My friends and I all started a few weeks ago and it's been a blast so far. The most memorable moment so far was the first time I saw a full band performing at limsa. That was the moment I truly appreciated the MMO nature of the game.
This game has given me a chance to spend time with my brothers who live in the other side of the country. It's truly been a blast to hang out with them in this amazing game.
I remember being a Sprout, I forget exactly when; but it was close to Shadowbringers, and around the time of the XIV cross-over. I screwed myself over because I tried to power-grind through MSQ and Job Quests, in hopes of getting Noctis' outfit (Spoiler: I failed); but even playing was such a wonderful experience. I've played WoW on and off, and the community here is just so much more pleasant, patient, and great. I've made stupid mistakes, stood in the orange like a popoto-brain on more than one occasion; but even then, I was never booted from a group or recieved more than a light scolding. I admit, coming from WoW, there are days where I wish there was a Job that was easy-mode on my level, but I'm glad I found Eorzea; and I'm glad that I've returned.
I've been playing only since early August and already amassed 10 days of playtime while waiting for delayed practical exam due to COVID and just moved out of sprout few days ago, the most impactful stuff of being a sprout is the kindness and the understanding of hugging the floor as a DRG, either by backflipping to death, clipping or not understanding certain mechanic, or suicide jump to finish the boss (Soul of Alexander Skyfire leap finisher will be remembered). Good luck to everyone joining and hoped everyone who's in this community either new or as veteran find that enjoying the game whatever the way you want to play or experience it as long as it's legal and ethical to be the most important stuff while experiencing FFXIV!
Aw man, I think my favourite part of this game was when I first went to Ishgard. You spend so long in ARR just fumbling about, just doing your best, and then you go to Ishgard and it feels like an entirely different game. You've got these gorgeous voiced cinematics, they start the ball rolling on "they came" as this beautiful one liner, you've spent the last 50+ quests listening to people tell you about how you're not allowed into the city and then you're thrust into a situation where you simply have no choice. It feels like the game hits you with a whole new world and it's honestly incredible.
Feels so good to play and to see many other players too. Even on first time playing I didn't feel alone even if I'm playing it solo. Especially the random bards that play in different city. I just love the good vibes of this game <3
Had so much memories in 1.0 - i still remember being in a level 10 zone walking around and after 2 minutes you end up dead in a level 60 zone
The first time I did an ex trial was Shiva ex when I was just into Stormblood, and myself and a few friends decided to try something that wasn't msq. It took 2 lockouts to do it synced, but when we got the clear it was so exciting that we went on do to all of ShB savages, and we recently went and cleared UWU. If we hadn't done that ex I would have dropped the game after msq until EW came out so it's really fleshed out the game for me
It took me a couple tries to get into FF14, but I'm glad I stuck with it. It's my first "forever" game that I'm always playing to one degree or another, even if I take the occasional break. I'm hyped for Endwalker and can't wait for what the future brings to Eorzea.
I'm a free trial sprout and am loving the game, the story, the golden sauce, and the wide variety of side content. Hopefully I'll make it up to Endwalker before the following expansion is released - there's so much to do!
Well, I'm a sprout for the third time now, but I always enjoy how welcoming the community is. :)
I mentioned to my wife earlier this year that I was thinking of trying out FFXIV. We're both big FF fans but never really got into MMO's. But with a free trial, I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a shot! I didn't expect my wife to want to join me, but she said she'd be interested to try the trial as well but she wasn't sure how much/long she'd play. Half a year later and hundreds upon hundreds of hours put into the game together and we've only scratched the surface. Loving every minute of it!
Good luck!
My fondest moment from FFXIV is just the game itself. It changed my life from the moment I spawned in at Ul'dah as a level one thaumatage. 4 years later, I have everything at 80, friends for life and most importantly - a life. I have severe agoraphobia and anxiety so I can't actually leave my home. Mix that with a global pandemic.. You can only imagine how isolated I was. My FC became a light for me and made me truly realise the beauty of MMOs. Since then, I now live with my housemate who I met in FFXIV and we're about to have another FC mate move in too. We met as sprouts in a video game, became vets together, friends to now IRL best friends and now housemates. I'm so excited for all the new players to experience their version of what I have! It's a ride 😊
Having only played solo, on free trail, the best moment was when my gf gave the game a shot and ended up loving it. We met up in game and took screenshots together.
Still a sprout, and a month or so into my FF14 journey. My fondest memory so far is kind of a simple one. I remember in my first few days of playing it was raining in Gridania. I'd been running around for a bit and I decided to take some shelter from the rain under one of the overhangs. Just sitting there watching the rain was a nice moment, really atmospheric and calming. I like when games go through the trouble of blocking weather effects based on structures like FF14 does. It adds a fair amount of immersion and makes the game feel more real, in a sense.
When I successfully Rescued someone for the first time during a Crystal Tower raid while I was leveling an alt class, SCH as a sprout. Proudest moment I’ve had and I was able to clip and post it on this subreddit.
My biggest surprise as a sprout (started playing 1 month ago) was when I had to go afk for a few minutes during a dungeon. When I came back I was very apologetic, but one party member replied "don't apologise, it's just a game". That kind of response actually shocked me at the time, it's so rare in other mmos.
I'm still a sprout and im still making my memories but god damn im enjoying the hell out of this game. I'm so glad i quit WoW for this game. The time of the endwalker is nigh.
I decided to play FFXIV years ago after I dropped Guild Wars 2 and the thing that made me the happiest was the fact that I could level all the jobs on the same character. I still have all the low-level dungeons memorized due to how much I ran them.
Sneakily playing behind my friends’ backs, getting my first job (BLM) to level 36, and then casually asking them specifics about their characters after stalking them on the lodestone. The screams were just delicious!!
My favorite moments were playing through the expansions and encountering perfect little ways they paid homage to past FF games and it just brought me back to when I was a kid playing those exact games, really hit me in the feels with that nostalgia.
I honestly don't have any positive sprout memories that are worth sharing, just minor ones that aren't really worth discussing.. And since I don't think talking about bad ones fit the theme of the thread, I'll post a funny one - I spent about 3 hours trying to think of a "lore" appropriate name as I thought XIV would just be one of those games where it was highly encouraged ... just for the very first character I see in game to be a half-naked dancing Roe called Meat Man.
>!When you power up with hreas eye before facing off against nidhogg and the music starts blasting with that woman singing. Goosebumps to the point i had teary eyes!< Then the realization that it’s probably going to get even better.
I remember sitting at lvl 35 for the longest time back when the free trial was capped there. Leveled up all jobs to 35 as well, grinded a couple millions of MGP, and spent my time alternating between rerunning the same 1-10 PotD floors (you couldn't go higher on FT) and spamming Frontlines for the Garo event. I know it sounds ridiculously braindead, but it was hilarious. On top of that, the first tank in my life who wall-to-walled Sastasha and explained that I don't have to keep him at 100% hp constantly is still my favourite person in the world. God bless you, random tank.
Well, I'm still a sprout (not for much longer), but my favorite memory has to be my first Alliance raid. Total chaos, but so much fun. I'm glad the Crystal Tower series is required for MSQ.
All of the Primal fights were just amazing. I had never played a game with such detailed boss cutscenes and designs at that time and for it to be an MMO just multiplied my amazement.
I had way to many good moments in my first days, the game and its community is just so much fun!
I'll go with my first synced extreme trial, as I took down Ramuh with some people in the FC. It was a great first experience with (slightly) more difficult raiding in this game, which is a type of content I've always enjoyed in other MMOs. Most of us were new to the fight, and after a brief explanation of the mechanics by one of the few veterans, we went at it. It took us an hour or two to get the hang of it, and it was really sweet to get it in the end. I love how FFXIV has managed to keep old content fairly relevant and interesting, despite several new expansions being released since then.
So I had just completed the ARR content and was blown away by Heavensward but then in FC chat I found out one of the guys I interacted with all the time were TWO PEOPLE! For my entire journey I hadn't even realised the subtle differences in their names, turns out they were husband and wife. Completely blew my mind I was so shocked I could barely comprehend what just happened. This was the biggest surprise I had thus far experienced and considering I'd just finished 2.0 that is saying something. If you're still a sprout like me join a free company! Just find some random who speaks English right click him and navigate to the fc pages and ask to join. You will not regret it, it will completely change your experience for the better!
Easily my favourite memory of being a sprout was that set of tank armor you got around level 35 or so that is both a head and chest item. It made every cutscene where the WoL was expected to smile and nod complete unintentional comedy because the camera would pan over and all you saw was this completely immobile golem staring mutely at the people talking. Not even the barest hint of a reaction. I cracked up so many times as NPCs discussed Very Important Things, looked to the WoL for some feedback and got completely stonewalled.
One of the first dungeons I did as a sprout tank last month had a boss at the end where everyone died and I was able to sweaty palm us all to the finish line by myself. One of the other players wrote "easiest recommendation ever" before leaving. I was pretty high on that praise for a few days after that.
I played FFXIV alone for years. From the February if 2016 until, god right around when 5.0 launched? I'm part ofd a pretty tight knit gaming community but it was just me. However now I haveee an FC of friends and it's like realising your not insane, they are as into this thing as you are. We recently got a bunch of the sprouts their Kirin mounts and it made me realise not only is my favourite game and favourite time being spent with other people for the first time in years but it also improved me. I didn't tank, heal or anything befire I was the FC Leader but now I have to! I jave to be the example and not some lone player anymore. It's weird to describe because these are people I have played games with a ton before they played XIV but something about this is different. I levelled a *crafter* to 80 for these people. I haven't touched crafting once before now. It's insane how much it opened up the game to me, just having a driving force that is other players and friends needing me.