Lost Ark V.S. Final Fantasy XIV: A Comparison Thus Far
A New Challenger Has Arrived!
Lost Ark was released on Dec. 4th, 2019, in South Korea and was developed by a company called Smilegate. The game has only been alive for three years so far. In that time span, the game has been released in Russia, Japan, the USA, and Europe. It’s gaining traction with each addition of these new regions over the past few years. However, it stands against a game that failed during its initial release but, was revitalized into a masterpiece once game director Naoki Yoshida aka “Yoshi P” took over in the year 2013. Will Lost Ark be able to have the same longevity that Final Fantasy 14 has seen so far?
Is Lost Ark the Game for you?
Lost Ark is a new MMO released to the West on February 11, 2022. It is a top-down action RPG MMO. The game offers different playstyles between the classes given to us in the title’s current state. These classes are not set to traditional roles of Tank, Healer, and DPS; which you would typically see in other games of the genre.
Instead, Lost Ark classes fall under damage (DPS) or support (providing heals and shielding). The game has five base classes with multiple subclasses underneath it for a total of fifteen to choose from at launch. The base classes are Warrior, Mage, Martial Artist, Assassin, and Gunner.
Over the last few months though, we got two new subclasses. One is called Destroyer, and the other is called Glaivier. The next subclass coming to the West is called Arcanist. It will release in the July 20th update: Spells in Spades!
The endgame has been a fun experience thus far, Once you get a class to level 50, you will gain access to an activity called Chaos Dungeons. This is how your new level 50 will get its “Tier-1” gear set and start going down the path of “honing” to improve your gear score. You will go through this process until you reach Tier 3.
Honing rates have been a topic of controversy within the community. This is because honing success rates are extremely low from the item level range of 1340-1370. However, the developers have taken notice of this and have recently been pumping more materials into the game to give players more chances to hone via in-game events and login bonuses! Along with these events, in the new update (set to release July 20th ) the Developers pledged to buff honing rates up to the 1370 range!
“Are You Up For The Challenge? “
Lost Ark has been out for just five-six months and still has plenty of time to improve over the year. The Western version is still playing catch up to its Korean and Russian counterparts, so we still have a lot of content headed to the West. Speaking of which, the game has recently released two new end-game raids.
These two fights are called Legion Raids; at the moment they gave us the Valtan Legion Raid and the Vykas Legion Raid. These fights bring new gear called Relic gear; a complete set (six pieces total) will give a massive boost to players’ stats and “engravings”. This will allow the class you play to feel more fleshed out with its abilities and overall damage done.
Enter the World of Final Fantasy
Prior to Lost Ark, I invested a lot of time in an MMO called Final Fantasy 14 (You may have heard of it). This game is your traditional MMO, where the classes are locked into three roles: Tank, DPS, and Healer. The classes in this game are called Jobs & there are a total of 20 different ones to choose from. One of the best draws of this MMO is that you can play all jobs on a single character. Unlike Lost Ark, where players need to create a new character to adopt a new Job.
Final Fantasy XIV has an expansive and rich storyline. So much so, that it brings me back every time a new chapter is added to the tale. The story makes you feel attached to all the characters you meet along the way. I will say, the story can feel dry during the base game “A Realm Reborn“; although, the storytelling has become superb with each iteration of DLC that has come out thus far.
“But How’s The Combat?”
I’m glad you asked. The gameplay for FF14 is broken down like this:
All your skills have a Global Cooldown (GCD) of ~2.5 seconds except for a few actions that are Off Global Cooldown (OGCD); these have a separate cooldown timer usually longer than 2.5 seconds.
General criticisms seen online are that the game’s combat is “slow” or can feel boring. Personally, I think this makes the gameplay feel smoother. Once a player’s “Job” hits level 50, the combat begins to feel more complete with a wider variety of skills and rotations at players’ disposal.
Lost Ark’s combat is the opposite of this with its fast-paced rotation out of eight skills for most classes; a few classes have the ability to change weapons that allow for more than the standard eight actions to be used during battle.
Each skill has a “Tripod” system that allows players to tweak those eight skills to do more such as, adding elemental damage, critical damage boost, and can even change how the skill operates from its standard description. It really makes the classes players pick feel unique with this system added to the skills.
“Is There Just Combat?”
There’s much more to do in these games besides combat. FF14 has activities such as crafting and gathering, where players can make their own gear as they level their Jobs. It’s also, a great way to make money at the Auction House within the game. There’s also a location called the “Gold Saucer”; At the Gold Saucer, players enjoy a variety of mini-games with friends and rivals.
Lost Ark provides some cool things to do as well. Especially for those who like to collect items and gain rewards from their efforts. The collectibles include items such as Island Souls, Giant Hearts, Masterpieces, Continent Completions, Mokoko Seeds, and World Tree Leaves. These activities allow players to take a break from the fast pace and intense challenges Lost Ark’s end-game has to offer.
On their path to level 50, players even get to take the role of captain, with a full crew and ship. It creates a wonderful change of pace to hit the open seas and sail around Arkesia!
Which Community is Better?
My favorite aspect of Final Fantasy 14 is the community itself. Everyone is accommodating and friendly, especially to new players. In the major cities of the game, you can find players just hanging out either RPing (Role Playing) or even putting on a concert with in-game instruments; some are even talented enough to play entire tracks from famous artists. Check out these Bards playing a famous song by Queen.
As you can see from the video above, another highlight of FF14 is the end-game fashion! There are so many different ways to dress your character in-game and make it unique to others. This website has plenty of examples of how distinctive you can make your characters in FF14.
Lost Ark’s community in the West does not compare to the community found in FF14. When running around the major cities in each continent players won’t find other players just hanging around interacting with one another. It honestly feels bland at times without having a sociable engagement like FF14 can have.
The fashion in Lost Ark is pretty interesting. The game has released serval sets of “skins” which can be bought from the in-game store with real money. Some of these skins have the ability to be dyed in all sorts of different patterns and colors. This helps players have an exclusive look from one another even when wearing the same skin set. In my opinion, FF14 takes the lead here in this topic. Players in FF14 can customize their characters without having to spend real money on the outfits they created. A lot of it can be found in-game and they use in-game currency to purchase the pieces they like.
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble! PVP Between the Two
The Lost Ark PVP might be a hit or miss for people. It has three main game modes: Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch (Free for all), and Team Elimination. They also just released a ranked team deathmatch mode for competitive players.
However, PVP in Final Fantasy has been lackluster over the many years. Mainly for one, it uses a different set of action skills than outside of the PVP game modes. This threw me off when I first started with very little knowledge of how PVP worked. FF14 has a few different competitive game modes, one called “Frontlines” where the three main factions of the game face off in a large-scale battle to hold and capture territory to win the game.
The other game mode, Feast, is a 4v4 or 8v8 team deathmatch mode. It requires a lot of bursting and stuns/interrupts to capitalize on getting a kill; there’s a competitive mode of the Feast as well. The developers just released a new mode recently called Conflict, a 5v5 small-sized game mode where each team has to seize the crystal in the middle of the map and then push it to their opponent’s side.
If PVP is more of your speed, then Lost Ark’s game modes would be more entertaining to play/watch than FF14 game modes. Although, PVP is not massive among both communities. The collective communities prefer to engage in PVE activities, and I feel the same way.
Closing Thoughts – MMO Players are Thriving.
Lost Ark is still new compared to its predecessor Final Fantasy 14; however, it has a lot of potential to strive for the same longevity. It stands against a staple giant within the MMORPG genre. The gameplay along with challenging endgame raids and frequent events have proven to keep players engaged with its content. Although, I believe Final Fantasy 14’s story and community enable this game to be great. Even if some players are not fond of the game’s combat or PVP system. Both games have their differences in gameplay but both are worth checking out if you have a history of enjoying MMORPGs or are just now getting started.
Play Them Yourself!
If you want to try out Lost Ark for free, the website can be accessed at the following link:
Lost Ark | Lost Ark – Free to Play MMO Action RPG (playlostark.com)
You can also check out Final Fantasy 14’s Free Trial; this includes the first DLC content and advancing your Job’s level to 60! Play FINAL FANTASY XIV’s Free Trial
