Final Fantasy 14 has finally arrived on Xbox Series X/S consoles more than a decade after the MMO’s relaunch in 2013, joining players on PC and two generations of PlayStation consoles. With an ever-expanding free trial and plenty of positive buzz, how does the game fare on Microsoft’s current-gen consoles ahead of a big graphical update scheduled for July, and what’s the score with the recently updated PS5 version?
Let’s start with that relatively more mature PS5 version as the basis for our comparisons, given that the game has been available on Sony’s current-gen platform since 2021 – and had some baffling performance issues even then. The PS5 version ran at a comfortable 60fps at 1440p, but suffered from distracting and regular frame-rate dips during traversal, even in basic areas, away from other players or when set to a 1080p output. This was fixed a year later, but the game still ran with a frame-rate in the 30s and 40s at 4K.
Now, the PS5 version finally seems (mostly) playable at that native 4K. Frame-rates seem to have improved by ~10fps in most scenarios, which is enough to (usually) stay within the PS5’s 48Hz-60Hz VRR window and therefore avoid judder. The PS4 version also benefits from these optimisations, and the ‘high draw quality’ toggle is now a viable option when it tanked performance heavily before. A locked 60fps still isn’t on the table on PS4, with plenty of judder evident, but at least things have improved somewhat.
