Through a surprising turn of events, I was able to get FF XIV to the table much sooner than I expected!

These actual play reports will not be session recaps as I don’t want to spoil any specifics from the scenarios in the starter set. However – there will be light spoilers for the scenarios in this series. If you plan on playing through the scenarios and want to be totally surprised, STOP HERE.

As last night was the first session I have had with this group in a few weeks, by the time we finished catching up we did not have a lot of time for the actual game, so this was a combined Session 0/1. Since all 3 players are familiar with Final Fantasy, the Session 0 portion was largely pointing out the differences between FF XIV and typical f20. Then the players selected their party (white mage, warrior, dragoon, attack chocobo companion) and we jumped straight in.

The first scenario in the starter set feels just like the opening stages of a JRPG: the setup is quick and the boxed dialogue reads right out of any game in the series (kudos to Hobby Japan), down to the phonetic cockney accents of certain characters.

I gave the characters a little spending money (25 gil each) and then priced a few items just outside their reach of any one character so that they could pool their resources if they wanted and purchase an additional potion or ether. (They opted to go for broke and purchase an extra ether, carried by the party leader, the white mage)

It doesn’t take long before the party is set against their first combat encounter. Once again, I cannot stress enough how much this encounter feels like the first encounter you would face in a JRPG, specifically, FF XIV. And I do not mean that as a slight in any way, this game is very clear about what it is. But it did take a moment to break out of my Trad GM Brain and let the players ROFLstomp the encounter as that’s what its purpose is: it is designed to let players see how the game works.

And I think this is a key part of FF XIV that I missed in simply reading over the materials. The game seems designed to let the adventurers shine. And though I have no doubt that the encounters will get more complex and challenging as the scenario goes on, even if the entire party gets reduced to 0 HP, there’s always quicksave.

Whether the GM should have the first encounter open with the adventurers being surprised is up for debate (I didn’t) and this strongly affects how the encounter plays out, so something to keep in mind. (I wish this was called out in the scenario.)

My bigger actual concern involves the chocobo companion. As the first encounter is so light, the companion seems overpowered to me. If this lack of balance bothers you, my suggestion is: If you are using chocobo companions, add one additional enemy for each companion on the field. I think this will flatten out the results a bit and make the first encounter a little less one-sided. HOWEVER, I think this would be going against the design intent of the opening encounter.

Aside from that small niggle, I have zero complaints about the game itself. The players had a blast, as did I and I am excited to see how things play out now that the “tutorial combat” is over.

My other suggestion would be to do a little Google-fu and find images and maps of the places and people the players will be encountering during the scenario. This goes a long way towards immersion. And, of course, there’s plenty of Final Fantasy music you can play in the background to complete the mood!

Playing the chocobo theme whilst describing to the players the surrounding landscape and dust plumes being kicked up in their wake was a very enjoyable experience for me as both a GM and longtime fan of Final Fantasy.