Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

'Every End Marks A New Beginning,' the hopeful slogan for Square's attempt to correct the mistakes of the past. It was supremely disappointing to see Final Fantasy XIV disappoint in every way imaginable as a result of a rushed development cycle, a title that had promised to improve on it's previous online installation, XI. I was one of those customers, and was treated to an MMO that was pretty much unfinished, including baffling decisions made in regards to fundamental gameplay mechanics, lack of content and a slew of other issues. The game was so universally panned that Square had to issue a formal apology, promise to address the shortcomings and admit that the title had 'Greatly damaged the Final Fantasy brand.' After Final Fantasy XIII, I didn't know if they could salvage players overall perception of the franchise, myself included.

Fast forward about a year and a half later, and as of today the servers for the original game have pretty much ceased to exist, following an in game event which pretty much wiped out the entire world in both a fictional, and physical sense. I didn't expect them to create such an epic cinematic to mark the end of a failed world, including the truly haunting images of the  but in a sense it gave me a mild speck of hope that they might actually care about putting out a title worthy of carrying the Final Fantasy name. The followup and rebooting of the title, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is set to go into alpha shortly and promises to address every single aspect that its predecessor couldn't deliver on. A general skepticism still looms, but deep down I somehow hope that the company can redeem itself with this one.