Speaking of grouping, the game makes it pretty easy to jump into pre-made parties with other players to encounter dungeons and bosses (though you can admittedly find groups faster if you are playing a defensive “tank”-type class or healer class). Part of this is that my old-man wrists start to get carpel-tunnely if I play MMOs too long on the keyboard and mouse, and partially because controlling a character with a controller simply feels more direct with the controller. Once I got the hang of it (I was playing on PC, but primarily used the controller) it made the experience feel far more comfortable than playing the game with the keyboard and mouse. The controller support in the game is really good. However, once the game ‘clicks,’ it really starts working.

These quests ostensibly exist only to teach new players exactly how this whole MMO thing works - an especially important task given how many PS3 players will be taking on this kind of game for the first time - but they are presented in such a way that said new players might be overwhelmed by the plethora of players surrounding them and the complicated controls. In fact, the first few hours of the game are fairly rough as you get sent on perhaps the most banal series of fetch quests across whichever starting city in which you begin. This isn’t to say that the game is perfect.

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Final fantasy realm reborn