Verdict First – Final Fantasy XIV Review Score 9.1 / 10

Our Final Fantasy XIV review for 2026 lands at 9.1 out of 10. Square Enix’s flagship MMORPG is the easiest game in this category to recommend – the leveling experience is forgiving, the community is welcoming, the class system lets you play almost every role on one character and the story is genuinely good. Dawntrail’s slower content cadence is the only meaningful soft spot.

Gameplay – Tab Target with Real Decision Density

Final Fantasy XIV uses tab-target combat with a global cooldown system, which sounds dated until you actually play it. The decision density inside each two-and-a-half-second GCD – oGCDs (off-global cooldowns), positionals, party utility, raid mechanics – is high enough that even the simpler jobs feel rewarding to master.

Every job has its own kit and progression path. Reaper and Sage from the Endwalker expansion remain two of the most enjoyable jobs in the game; Dawntrail added Viper (a high-mobility melee) and Pictomancer (a ranged caster with stance-switching mechanics) that both land well after a few weeks of practice.

Where Final Fantasy XIV beats most competitors is the way class flexibility works. One character can level every job in the game – you do not roll five alts to try a tank build. That single change rewrites how a player relates to a long-term MMORPG.

World, Story and Pacing

The base game (A Realm Reborn) is the slowest part. Even after the 2024 quest-pruning patches, the first 40 hours of new-player MSQ (Main Scenario Quest) can feel like a homework assignment. Push through. Heavensward (the first expansion) is where the MMORPG genuinely transforms into the best narrative experience in the category, and Shadowbringers – widely regarded as the high point – delivers a story that few single-player JRPGs match.

Dawntrail (the latest expansion at the time of this final fantasy xiv review) is a more measured story arc focused on a new continent and a new political tier of intrigue. It is not Shadowbringers, but the in-zone art direction is the strongest in the game and the new dungeons and raids carry their weight.

Progression and Endgame

Endgame in Final Fantasy XIV is built around weekly tomestone caps for the current best-in-slot gear, plus quarterly raid tiers (Savage and Ultimate difficulties) that test mechanical execution at the highest level. The gear treadmill is intentionally slow and predictable – you will not feel forced to log in every day – and that pace is exactly why FFXIV holds players across years instead of months.

Side activities round out the endgame: the Gold Saucer mini-game park, the Mahjong implementation, Bozja and Eureka relic systems, Deep Dungeon roguelikes, and the slow-burn crafting and gathering jobs. None of these are afterthoughts.

Monetisation – Subscription with Honest Cosmetic Cash Shop

Final Fantasy XIV uses a traditional monthly subscription (USD 12.99 to 14.99 depending on character slots) plus an optional Mog Station cosmetic shop. The cash shop is purely cosmetic – mounts, glamour items, hairstyles. Nothing in the shop affects power, progression speed or PvP balance.

Combined with the unusually generous free trial – which now covers A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood content up to level 70 – Final Fantasy XIV is one of the cleanest monetisation models in the MMORPG genre. That alone pushes the score meaningfully higher.

Performance, Platforms and System Requirements

Final Fantasy XIV runs on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, with full cross-platform play. The engine is showing age – the 2024 graphical update helped, but a modern open-world engine would unlock more – and CPU single-thread performance still matters more than GPU horsepower.

On our reference rigs the game holds 144 FPS at 1440p maxed on a midrange GPU and runs comfortably on entry hardware at 1080p. Console performance is solid on PS5 and Series X; the Series S build is a step down. No serious frame issues in instanced content.

Who Should Play Final Fantasy XIV

Play it if: you want a story-led MMORPG, you like the idea of leveling every job on one character, you value a predictable weekly schedule and you appreciate a monetisation model that does not pressure you.

Skip it if: you are looking for fast-twitch action combat (try Black Desert Online or Throne and Liberty instead), or you want a faster content cadence than Square Enix can deliver under its current production model.

For more context, see our full MMORPG Reviews hub and our Editorial Standards page.