Platinum Log: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Ah yes, MMO Platinum trophies. They’re right up there with Fighting game Platinums in difficulty at times. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is, in general, no different. After a year long journey, I have finally achieved the Platinum. And boy, what a ride it has been.

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I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on PS3 since it launched last year. I had played the original release some back on PC, but that’s not the point here. When I first started out playing I had set my hopes on being able to claim the Platinum as mine. I knew it was hard and that it would take awhile but I wasn’t prepared for how long it would take.

A good amount of the trophies in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will come naturally. At least they did when I was playing. Some, such as the complete a certain amount of FATEs one, may not come AS naturally anymore since they’ve dropped slightly in popularity, but they’ll still likely come naturally. A lot of it was made easier as I set off on a quest to get every battle class to 50.

That said, not all of them will come naturally. Surprisingly, one of those was the Fish 1,000 trophies. Fisher was the first (and only) gathering class I got to 50 and yet… Even when I was 50 I didn’t have that trophy. Well it turns out that for some reason reusable bait such as lures don’t actually COUNT for it. Considering I did a majority of my leveling WITH lures and such.. Well then. That was a fun time grinding out even more fishing for that trophy.

Another one that sort of does and doesn’t come naturally is the 1,000 Levequests trophy. This was one of the last trophies I actually got, and I really only got it because I did almost the entirety of all my crafting levels off of them. I also did a huge majority of my fishing levels off these as well. It still took a really long time, especially since you’re limited to how many levequest allowances you have.

Melding 100 Materia is another that may or may not come naturally, depending on how much crafting you actually focus on. I ended up grinding it out off of cheap Materia I got from my armor I no longer needed. The introduction of Ninja did help a lot with this, as it gave me a lot of armor to get Materia off of to make the push for 100.

The biggest trophies people are likely to have issues with ARE the crafting ones though. Personally, I didn’t find them THAT difficult though some I got impatient on and just crafted a bunch of level 1 items. As long as you do most of your own crafting, you’ll likely get each 1,000 synths with each crafter around the mid-40’s range. So while these may be some of the hardest trophies for some, the hardest one for me was…

Seeker of Truth

Clear the Binding of Coil

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When Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was first released, The Binding Coil of Bahamut was the hardest raid in the game. In the past year it has lost that title, however it is still one of the hardest fights in the game for many. Not only do you need to get a LOT of gear to clear it (again, made easier throughout the past year), you need a group of competent people. Time after time I tried it and kept failing, with my best attempt making it to around 30%. Finally, when I was nearing the end of my ability to play (again), a good friend carried me through it (and a lot of the Extreme Primals the same night, though those aren’t needed for the Platinum at all). While I had been trying to avoid being carried through it, I finally just had it done. I had put a lot of work into it, mostly with random people (tip: terrible idea unless you get insanely lucky).

So here I am, 1 year and 4 months after release. That Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Platinum is finally in my list, claiming the spot as my 34th Platinum trophy. What’s next? Well, if and when I can ever afford to play again (both in money and in time), I’ll be playing the PC version. The PS3 version has absolutely horrendous loading times, even if it is nice to be able to play on my TV. What’s next for Platinums though? Well… Probably Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. I’ve already done a good portion of it, though I have a lot of work ahead of me.

In any case… As is expected, the Platinum trophy for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is not for the faint of heart. While it will get easier (in a sense) as the game gets older, it will never become insanely easy. Stuff like clearing Turn 5 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut is still going to be a huge wall for people. A lot of people aren’t really into crafting, even if those aren’t really that hard of trophies. The 1,000 levequests takes a LOT of time and patience. So if you do decide to dive in to trying to get this, you have been warned…

Oh and also, one last thing: While some progress will carry over towards the Platinum, not all of it will. Yes, you will have to clear Turn 5 (Twintania) on console to get that. I’m not sure what else doesn’t carry over but I imagine there’s quite a few that you’ll have to completely do the progress of on console.

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Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Platinum Difficulty

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