FF XIV crafting and gathering parts of the game

That about sums up my thoughts on the crafting and gathering parts of the game, but I’m nowhere near level 50 with a Disciple of the Hand or Land, so you may want to take them with a grain of salt. So what’s the takeaway from all of this? As far as I’m concerned, it’s this: Final Fantasy XIV has come a long, long way since its… let’s say “humble” beginnings back in 1.0, but it’s still not quite where it needs to be. There are a number of adjustments that could (and in my opinion should) be made in a variety of different areas, but somehow, they don’t entirely rob the game of its appeal.

I really enjoy the way that crafting forces you to evaluate your options and find the best possible combination of abilities that can be used with the available crafting points, which — as mentioned — makes it feel very satisfying when you find that perfect rotation that maximizes quality without wasting precious CP. But unlike crafting points, which regenerate between each item crafted, gathering points do not regenerate between each node, but instead replenish themselves very slowly over time, meaning either you have to be very sparing in your ability use or simply blow all your abilities straightaway and again each time you have the GP to do so. Whichever way you do it, once you run out of GP and are waiting for it to regenerate, harvesting is simply a game of hoping the RNG comes out in your favor.

Sure, it’s an imperfect game, but its imperfections largely come from the fact that it tries to do things differently and, occasionally, falls short. But for every time that it falls flat, there are many instances where it knocks things right out of the park. If you’re willing to put up with some of those imperfections (maybe even a lot of imperfections) which will hopefully end up fixed sooner rather than later, you’ll discover an enchanting game that, despite some derivative features, feels like something novel and exciting. For that reason alone I’ll remain an inhabitant of Eorzea for at least a while longer.