Final Fantasy 14's Free Trial is Now Officially Bigger Than a Juiced-Up Goobbue

Greetings, Disciples of the Blood God!

If you’re living in America (🎶at the start of the Millennium🎶), you’re probably having a particularly hard time with the COVID-19 outbreak. The numbers keep rising, and many counties are reinstating quarantine to get things back under control. Up here in Canada, the numbers are generally under control but flare-ups happen all the time. Even here, there’s talk about walking things back, closing stores again...the whole song and dance. We all know it by now, unfortunately.

Quarantine is rough. Life, in general, is quite rough right now. For everyone. It can be difficult to remember to take care of yourself, but try not to forget.

This might be a good time to pick up an MMORPG, in more ways than one. First, nothing eats up free time like an MMORPG (pace yourself!), and the genre's sense of escapism is unmatched by any other. Second, Square Enix recently extended its already-generous Final Fantasy 14 free trial to include the first expansion, Heavensward.

That's nuts. That's bananas. That's a lot of free RPG. 200 hours worth. Easy.

Now, I can't tell you all the nitty-gritty in the disclaimer. As far as I know, the Final Fantasy 14 trial no longer has a time limit, and I think that's still the case. You can only play up until level 60 ("only"), and there are chat restrictions. Still, at the risk of repeating myself...that is a lot of free content for you wade through.

I encourage you to give Final Fantasy 14 a try. I admit its mechanics had me intimidated at the start, but every question I had was answered by a Google search. Innumerable fans are happy to help you out on Twitter and Reddit, too. Story-wise, Final Fantasy 14 might be my favorite behind Final Fantasy 6. The story for A Realm Reborn is fine, but the events of Heavensward and the Dragonsong War are the reason I'm probably going to wind up a Final Fantasy 14 lifer.

Pray for me. And join me. Make sure to balance out your game time with your daily routine, though. Try to spend time on creative output, too. Draw, sing, write, dance. Shave your cat's fur into exotic shapes, like one of my former groomer friends did. Well, maybe don't do that before consulting an expert (and writing your Last Will and Testament).

Stay Safe and Happy Adventuring,

Nadia

This Week on Axe of the Blood God

GameXplain's Andre Segers joins the podcast to review Paper Mario: The Origami King with Kat and Nadia. Why is the latest game in the venerable series proving so contentious among Nintendo fans? Is there a way to revive the series's fortunes? And what would a Super Mario Persona 5 game look like? We answer all of these questions, plus delve further into the recent glut of RPG adaptations, talk Ghost of Tsushima, and more. [Listen here!]