Final Fantasy’s naming scheme broke down the moment Square decided to make a second one, but that was only the beginning. Now we’re having a second go at a realm that’s a distant relative of a different realm that wasn’t supposed to be reborn 43845952 installments ago. The series has taken a long, strange road to get to this exceedingly confusing point, and the first version of Final Fantasy XIV was one of its lowest dips. To its credit, Square Enix quickly came to understand that after nobody bought it, and they’ve been hard at work on a complete revamp ever since. But were they able to salvage FFXIV’s best bits (a hyper-flexible class system, lavish story scenes, lovably fluffy horse birds) and reforge them into a sharp, sleek modern MMO? Sounds like we’ll finally (XXXVII Delta: Advent Crystal Cerberus Thunder Core) find out in August.

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