Best Live Service Games of 2022

By now, most people have heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14. With an extended free trial and all, you know everything at this point. More importantly, though, this year was the year we all finally walked to the end. The game’s fourth major expansion, Endwalker, was released and concluded a decade-long story in the making. A story that took us from protecting our own homes to the literal edge of the universe, and I know it’s not one I’m going to forget anytime soon. We’ve got it all along with a bunch of new features and content to see us through the year.

You might say the most important thing for an MMO is to have tons of content to keep players busy, and while Endwalker may have seen more space between updates, those updates have been wonderful. New alliance raids with interesting themes, great boss designs, and amazing music were all highlights. Even with the slightly more difficult Savage Raids, I know my party had fun clearing the levels. Where can I have a good time beating up a sexy vampire theater nerd with seven of my best friends while an amazing boss theme plays that includes silly little surf-rock breakdowns? It’s Final Fantasy 14 Online, baby! That’s not even mentioning the new Adventurer Plate system, PvP overhaul, and Overwatch-like payload mode that’s a blast to play. Or even the survival game and the Animal-Crossing-like Island Sanctuary mode that lets you relax and gather materials while building your own island. The development team has been busy trying to give us a lot to do, and it shows how much they care.

The most important thing to me, even so long after its release, is the story. The game showed how we wrapped up a decade-long story and started a whole new adventure. The themes and moments leading up to the end really had a big impact on me, and they all hit particularly hard after the standout expansion that preceded it, Shadowbringers. I’m not going to spoil anything because I still think FFXIV is a game for everyone to experience, but it’s something to see how far this game has come in all the years I’ve played it. The stories and characters that follow you on your journey grow and change, and seeing them all come together in one wonderfully emotional end zone is something I won’t forget. It does a lot to go beyond just asking your character for things and will sometimes even directly ask you as a player to reflect on your journey and what it meant to you. It’s a story of endings, of accepting that death is inevitable, and even though things may get difficult or seem impossible, it’s still important to do your best, not to lose hope, and to move on. ‘before. The pain of a thousand worlds weighs heavily, and yet we can all walk. — Ben Janca