When comparing Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn vs ARK: Survival Evolved, the Slant community recommends Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn for most people. In the question“What are the best MMORPGs on Steam?” Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn is ranked 1st while ARK: Survival Evolved is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn is:
The combat in FFXIV is incredibly polished. It requires quick, real-time decisions and reactions, as well as a plan for how your team is going to take on whatever you're fighting. Like many games, it begins as simply hitting your attack buttons and waiting for your abilities to be ready again. FFXIV, however, has taken it a step further and has implemented complex combos and other interactions. These other interactions often have wildly different end results, so you must decide how best to use them.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Combat is very in-depth
The combat in FFXIV is incredibly polished. It requires quick, real-time decisions and reactions, as well as a plan for how your team is going to take on whatever you're fighting.
Like many games, it begins as simply hitting your attack buttons and waiting for your abilities to be ready again. FFXIV, however, has taken it a step further and has implemented complex combos and other interactions. These other interactions often have wildly different end results, so you must decide how best to use them.
Pro The story is incredible
Most MMORPGs don't offer much in the way of a story line, but that is not the case with FFXIV. The story will span the entire world, and is completing it is actually a requirement to get into most of the game's content. However, it doesn't feel like you're being forced into following a story you don't care about, the characters get into your head and you begin to feel like an actual hero.
It's very well written, and can be listened to in multiple languages if you prefer that.
Pro An absolutely stunning game
Final Fantasy XIV is gorgeous. The developers clearly put a lot of time and energy into creating all types of climates, ranging from harsh, desolate deserts to untamed, icy wastelands. The cities and villages in this game are vibrant and alive, while the cinematics can be dreary and depressing.
Apart from the landscapes, the spells and abilities of this game will take you by surprise. Every ability is animated very well, and has gorgeous pixel designs to pull you even further into the game.
Pro Play all classes with one character
You don't have to create a different character for every single class. Your one character can be every single class. Each class has a specific weapon (bow for archers, daggers for rogue, axes for marauders, etc.), and you just equip that weapon type and your character switches classes. Each class starts at level, so you have to level each class you want to play, but there are numerous ways to get exp so it feels a little less like a grindy chore.
Pro Plenty of side-quests to keep the player busy
For those that would like to level their character without having to d a lot of grinding in dungeons or the main story, There is quite a lot of side-quests on offer in this game. So many in fact that the player could level up through mainly side-quests if they liked. Every area the player reachers will see plenty of NPCs that will offer a new quest to go out on (an even sometimes multiple quests), which not only means a ton of content but an actual story to the game (that is different from the main quest) that can keep the player involved without feeling like they are repeating the same things over and over again.
Pro Increased customization thanks to player-created servers
Ark has hundreds, if not thousands, of great custom servers. You can control things such as PvP, experience, gathering, and taming rates, set things up so there's no griefing (constantly bullying a player or group of players), and the difficulty of the creatures.
Pro You can share materials, dinosaurs, and structures by forming (or joining!) a tribe with your friends
Users can form a tribe with other online users to for a community. This community can now band together in order to build and grow as well as team up against other tribes. This makes for a fun experience with friends and other players as it requires teamwork in order to be successful.
Pro You can tame and mount nearly every creature in the game
From the small, quick raptor to the massive, vicious giganotosaurus, you can mount nearly any dinosaur in the game. There's huge, flying dinosaurs, aquatic dinosaurs, some that are like walking fortresses, and others that can take those down.
Pro The game makes you want to explore, craft, and fight to make the most of its progressive crafting system
Ark is unlike many survival games in that you attain levels as you progress. As you level higher and higher, you gain access to more craftable items. Some are just more powerful versions of lower-tier items (such as leather armor vs. cloth armor), but most are brand new (such as firearms, scuba gear, and saddles for more powerful dinosaurs). This really drives you to explore more areas to find rarer resources and fight stronger dinosaurs.
Pro An absolutely fantastic community
The community for Ark is simply great. Whether you're talking about custom servers, the modding community, or just the playerbase in general, there's always people around to help out with any questions you might have.
Pro Stunningly beautiful
The landscape, creatures, structures, even other players are all gorgeous. The textures are seamless, and the character/dinosaur models are just great. The environment ranges from lush green forests, to snowcapped mountains, to incredible coastal views. When you combine all of these things, it adds up to being simply breathtaking.
Pro Good character creation
When starting a new game the player is allowed to choose between a man or woman, from there is a plethora of options for making a character with a personalized look.
Cons
Con Pay to play
The game itself has a base price of $19.99, but also has expansion pack prices that could be added on top of that. This is just to get the game, once purchased the player will also need to pay a monthly subscription of $12.99 to continue playing the game, which can add up over time making for a pretty steep investment for some.
Con Anti-cheat issues
ARk has started using an anti-cheat tool called Battleye, this has so far broken Linux and Mac support for using official servers. Battleye has also had some issues with banning legit users and does not have a very good reputation. These issues add up to many angry players who paid for the game but now can not play it.
Con No more Early access, still buggy
Ark has been fully released on August 2017, but bugs are still easily found and many areas of the game lack polish.
Con The game can become a grind
At the higher levels, it begins to take a very, very long time to level up (unless you're playing on a custom server). This can make the game tedious to play for some people.
Con Hard for some PCs to run
Ark is kind of a resource hog - it's not very well optimized and that can cause many players to experience slow graphics.