I Should Try To Finish Judgement, but Final Fantasy XIV Keeps Bringing Me Back

Games are great, aren't they? Except when there's too many to play at once. It's even worse where there's too many amazing games to play at one time, and every day is constant internal struggle of which you should dedicate your rare, ever-precious free time to. 

In the last week of June, I picked up Sega's Judgement, the Yakuza-like game with some Ace Attorney-like investigation sprinkled in. From what I've played so far, the game is extremely immersive in its semi-open world with decent cast, great voice acting (for the most part), and a compelling mystery story. Unfortunately, I only managed to sink just under 10 hours into it, and it's all Final Fantasy XIV's fault. 

Part of the blame lies in FFXIV's newest expansion Shadowbringers releasing around the same time. (Don't these developers know I need sleep?!) Anyways, Shadowbringers brings so much new content that it only reminds me of how far behind I am. For context, every FFXIV expansion can be considered its own game based on the amount of game it provides, and I'm on the MMO's first expansion out of three, Heavensward. FFXIV Stormblood will be next, followed by Shadowbringers. So yeah, I have quite a ways to go.

For an MMO, your experience is all about the journey, and I just want to keep on trekking in Final Fantasy XIV. I'm currently level 70 in my first-picked job Dragoon and intend to get it to level 80 before moving on to the Ninja, Gunbreaker, Dancer, or Dark Knight job. The climax to FFXIV: A Realm Reborn took an insane twist I didn't anticipate and sets itself perfectly into Heavensward while also dropping nuggets of Eorzea's deep-rooted mythos and lore, which is something my nerd-ass is all in for. Along with my list of in-game priorities, I keep finding new little projects to do in the game, whether it's completing the daily challenge log, going through Duty Roulettes for level grinding, playing minigames at the Gold Saucer, putting together new outfits and looks for my character, and... well, you get it. 

I even dedicated a solid three hours the other day on creating outfits for my character, Stella Tenebries. Three. Hours.

I also love taking posing shots Stella

It also doesn't help that Final Fantasy XIV's world is so... homey. I've been exploring the realm of Eorzea for over 170 hours now, and I don't want it to end.

Sadly, the older I get, the more trouble I have dedicating my time to longer (two - three hours) gaming sessions because of my nagging attention to other non-immediate responsibilities. It's hard to decompress and spend time gaming now when there's other adulting duties, even for the extremely simple ones that can wait like cleaning dishes.

With FFXIV however, five hour play times feel like a fifth of that. It's truly my getaway experience from reality, something I've adored in video games since the first Kingdom Hearts game. 

Like Monster Hunter World, I have at least two to three friends dedicated to playing Final Fantasy XIV, so I'll nearly always have company to join me in raids or whatnot. That multiplayer experience is what made Monster Hunter World so special to me and one of the reasons it was my game of the year for 2018. MHW dominated my PS4 and time for 150+ hours and months after. FFXIV is definitely doing the same at the price of Judgement's sacrifice. 

This is not to downplay Judgement, however. The more time I dedicate to the characters and narrative threads of this mystery action game, the more engrossed I get. I'll admit that the first four hours felt like I was on strict story rails, but reaching the second chapter opens up more content, making me feel guilty every time I look at its icon on my PS4 and keep going to FFXIV.

To wrap this up, Judgement is the extremely fancy ramen dinner that I will have to keep reheating whereas FFXIV is the open 24/7, 5-star buffet that's immediate comfort food. My aim is to finish Judgement before Monster Hunter World Iceborne and Catherine Full Body drop in September 2019, but that's looking less and less likely now since FFXIV is just absolutely addicting. In a way, having too many great games to play is a good problem to have. Sorta.