World of Warcraft (WoW) and Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) are two of the biggest names in the MMORPG world, but they offer widely different experiences, especially when you pit WoW vs FFXIV directly.
When you have two of the biggest MMOs in the world, there’s bound to be some differences. From their stories and game mechanics to their art styles, there’s a lot that sets them apart. Here’s the major differences between WoW vs. FFXIV.
Image Credit: Square Enix/Blizzard
Differences Between WoW vs. FFXIV
1. The Game World and Story
In World of Warcraft, you dive into the high-fantasy world of Azeroth, where you’ll find orcs, humans, elves, and more battling it out in a long-running conflict between the Alliance and Horde. The game’s story continues with each new expansion, focusing on a core cast of characters, however, more often than not, your character is not the main character. It’s a world full of epic battles and ever-growing backstories, but it’s focused on the world itself.
FFXIV, on the other hand, takes place in Eorzea, a world full of its own rich lore, heavily inspired by classic Final Fantasy elements like crystals, powerful summoned creatures (primals), and magic. The story of FFXIV dives into political struggles, ancient wars, and cycles of rebirth. It is more player focused, putting your character at the center of the narrative.
Image Credit: Blizzard
2. Gameplay and Combat
Both games have classic MMORPG staples like quests, dungeons, and raids, but their combat systems are pretty different.
In WoW, combat is more fast-paced, with lots of abilities on short rotation-based cooldowns. When you’re tackling group content like raids or dungeons you’ll need to keep your skills in a good rotation to maximize damage or healing. Rotations are generally complex with lots of varied cooldowns.
FFXIV, meanwhile, has slower cooldowns, with the GCD (global cool down) timing being an average of 2.5 seconds. The game instead focuses more on positioning, especially in group content, rather than complex rotations. Rotations are designed to be simple and last under a minute, before being repeated. The boss fights feel more like puzzles, or a choreographed dance.
Image Credit: Square Enix
3. Art Style and Aesthetic
WoW has a colorful, cartoonish art style with bold designs and exaggerated features. It’s designed to run well on a wide range of hardware, focusing on performance. Cutscenes are a rarity and are often hyped-up as big occasions.
FFXIV, wowon the other hand, has a more realistic, yet still perhaps anime-inspired stylized look, with gorgeous landscapes, detailed character models and armor designs. The game’s visuals are heavily influenced by Japanese fantasy, and its cinematic cutscenes are a focus, with dozens of cut scenes every patch and expansion.
Image Credit: Blizzard
4. Community and Multiplayer
World of Warcraft has a reputation for being a quite toxic community, but really this due to how the game often promotes solo levelling vs. the group experience. Apart from end-game raiding, and dungeons, there’s really not much incentive to play with others in WoW.
In FFXIV, the community has often been said to be more welcoming, especially vs. WoW, but this perception has changed in recent years. Again, this is partially due to the systems in the game allowing players to now play almost the entire game without other players. As a result, only players who seek out other players have to engage with the community as a whole.
5. Free Trial Potential
FFXIV has a huge free trial, that encompasses almost half the game experience. WoW on the other hand has a very limited free trial which only allows you to play up to level 20, compared to level 70 for FFXIV. Additionally, you’re locked off from almost all the expansion content in the WoW free trial and have a very limited cope of what you can do.
Both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV are incredible games, but they each cater to different types of players. WoW is perfect if you want a fast-paced, expansive world with a dynamic experience. FFXIV, however, is all about a story-driven, community-focused experience with complex gameplay systems. It all depends on whether you’re looking for more traditional MMO fun or a more immersive, narrative-driven adventure.