Final Fantasy XIV Online

Genre: MMORPG

Players: MMO

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Review:

Final Fantasy XIV has had quite a long journey over the years. Launching in 2010 on PC, Final Fantasy XIV was the second game in the Final Fantasy series to be an MMORPG after Final Fantasy XI. Unfortunately, upon release, the game was immediately met with a strong negative response that forced Square Enix to shelve the game in 2012, reworking the game completely to be re-released a year later in 2013 on PC and PlayStation 3 with the new subtitle “A Realm Reborn”. This time around, it was generally agreed that Square Enix got things right, as the reaction was much better, with this game continuing on strong, with announced major updates continuing through 2027 at least.

In the years since, Final Fantasy XIV was ported to multiple other platforms, but in 2026 it finally received a port to a Nintendo platform, with a release on Nintendo Switch 2.

Before getting into things, I should talk about how this game handles monetization, because it’s kinda’ odd. Players can download a “Free Trial” of the game, but this seems like a huge misnomer, because this “trial” dwarfs the size of countless other full-release games. It includes the original Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn release plus the first three expansions to the game, and players can play without limits to their heart’s content up to a level cap of 80. At that point, if you decide you want to keep going, then you’re looking at dropping $40 or more for the game’s remaining expansion content, and you’ll also be locked into a monthly subscription of $13 to keep going.

That’s some pretty nasty monetization… but it comes after a free “trial” that can potentially last players hundreds of hours. And, you know, I feel like by that point you’ve played the game long enough that it may very well be worth it to you. However, if you’d rather avoid the extra expense and the monthly fees, you can always just stick to the free content, and you’ll have an absolute ton of gameplay to get through.

There’s one other thing I need to mention here before getting to the game itself, and that is the file size. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said this was a huge game, and that’s borne out in the file size – this game will take up a whopping 108 GB of your Nintendo Switch 2’s internal memory or MicroSD Express memory card space. As of this writing, it is the single biggest game in terms of file size on Nintendo Switch 2, and if you want to play it you really need to make room for it.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s actually discuss the game. Final Fantasy XIV is, as I’ve mentioned, an MMORPG set in the medieval fantasy world of Hydaelyn, which five years prior to the start of the game suffered due to a massive calamity caused by a war that ended with the summoning of Final Fantasy series monster Bahamut. Afterward, the land is in a sort of uneasy peace as everyone tries to rebuild, with the damage from the war so great that recovering from it is taking the main focus for those who survived it. Players take the role of an adventurer looking to assist the people of this world in the recovery efforts, and perhaps make a name for themselves in the process.

When it comes to the gameplay… honestly, this strikes me as typical MMORPG territory. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s very good – this is an excellent take on the genre, but it’s one that doesn’t look to revolutionize anything. Players select one of numerous classes divided into tank, healer, and DPS, and later will get other opportunities to add alternate job classes and upgrades as well. The game is absolutely filled with things to do, including story and side-story quests, various events and challenges, and the like.

Combat in Final Fantasy XIV has players automatically attacking enemies once you engage them, making use of skills that are on a cooldown timer. You can customize shortcuts for different abilities and items… like I said, nothing revolutionary here, but everything is well done.

When talking about the port to Nintendo Switch 2, the first thing people will want to know about is the presentation and performance, and the Nintendo Switch 2 performs admirably here, presenting the game’s 3D visuals without needing to make much in the way of compromises. I did notice some aliasing and some shadow flickering, but otherwise the image quality looked good. By default, the framerates are uncapped and fluctuate between 30FPS and 60FPS, but players who prefer more stable framerates have the option of capping the framerates at 30FPS. Either way, I think the game looks very good, with wonderfully detailed characters and environments, and even some nice lighting effects.

This is in addition to a superb orchestral soundtrack befitting what one would expect from a Final Fantasy game. Really, if there’s one thing that’s dated here, it’s that apart from cutscene narration, there’s no voiced dialogue whatever, and the game throws walls of text at the player.

This ties in with one of my other complaints about the game. The tutorial here leaves a lot to be desired, overwhelming the player with numerous windows and tons of gameplay mechanics and HUD elements to get used to all at once. I could easily see new players getting scared away from the massive amount of stuff thrown at them in the opening minutes of the game.

This is exacerbated by controls that don’t seem all that well-integrated to a gamepad, with the game making it awkward to so much as open and explore the map. Honestly, I have to wonder how PlayStation and Xbox players even put up with it. But this is one area where the Nintendo Switch 2 can shine over those competitors, because this game supports both touchscreen and dynamic Mouse Mode, and both are immensely helpful when it comes to directly interacting with the countless screens and menus this game throws at you. Unless you’re a stickler for graphics, I might even go so far as to say that the Nintendo Switch 2 may be the definitive non-PC platform to play Final Fantasy XIV, simply because what the Mouse Mode controls in particular add to the gameplay here.

There are a few other more subtle benefits on Nintendo Switch 2 as well. This game makes good use of HD Rumble 2, with even the normal footfalls of your character creating a subtle rumble on the controller. In addition, Square Enix has added an in-game bonus for Nintendo Switch 2 players, enabling them to get an additional free Aetheryte crystal fast-travel location.

Overall, I think Final Fantasy XIV is fantastic on Nintendo Switch 2, and offers players an absolute treasure trove of gameplay. If you’re unsure about this game but you have the file storage space to download it, I highly recommend you to get the Free “Trial” version – even if you don’t spend a penny, you’ll have enough content to keep you playing for the length of multiple traditional RPGs, and what’s here is genuinely great, and in some ways it’s arguably even in peak form on Nintendo Switch. And if you’re a Nintendo-platform gamer who has been disappointed with the MMO offerings on Nintendo Switch over the years, you can finally rejoice, as Nintendo Switch 2 has received a truly great entry into the genre.

tl;dr – Final Fantasy XIV Online is an MMORPG with a “Free Trial” that has multiple times more content than most full-length RPGs, and this port to Nintendo Switch 2 is superb, making few compromises and actually adding some features that make the experience much better, most notably dynamic Mouse Mode support. It still suffers from clunky menus, as well as a pretty poor early-game tutorial, but despite these flaws, Final Fantasy XIV Online is a truly great MMORPG that you should absolutely download onto your Nintendo Switch 2… as long as you have the 108 GB of file storage space it requires.

Grade: A-

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