My wife doesn’t play video games, that’s a simple fact that I have resigned myself to over the years. There has been a few times here and there that she WILL get into a game (Bioshock & Rage are 2 examples), and she will often play some co-op games with me such as A Way Out and Borderlands 2… But ultimately she has never been a gamer, and I am absolutely fine with that.
…At least I thought I was until I experienced the immense joy of seeing her get into Final Fantasy XIV with me, and I realised that my life partner had become my dungeon partner as well.
The experience of playing Final Fantasy XIV has been one of such pure unbridled joy; not only am I getting to play a video game with my wife, but I am also playing with some close friends. On top of all this it just so happens to be a Final Fantasy game which has me hype beyond belief, because (As anyone who knows me can tell you) it’s my favourite series of all time.
Currently I play as a tank character, and she’s a healer, whilst a few of our friends play as overall damage dealing characters. This works perfectly for her as she isn’t stressed out by all the incoming enemies coming to attack her – Instead she gets to stand back and heal us, and feel like she is helping us out (I mean she really is to be fair). I feel this was the secret to getting her into the game, as more often than not I have tried to get her to play a co-op game with me, and she doesn’t like it if I don’t help out when the enemies swarm on her and I have my own things to deal with; instead this allows us to have a chilled Sunday afternoon on the sofa playing together.
I have to say as well, after years and years and years of wanting to get into Final Fantasy XIV, but simply not knowing anyone who has a similar schedule to me, it is so good that I now have someone who’s schedule I know back-to-front, and can organize a session as easily as organizing who is going to cook dinner that night.
For anyone looking for a rather inexpensive activity with their spouse, I cannot recommend this enough; with the ability to cross play between PC and PS4 (PS4 is a little clunkier so I play here, whereas the PC version’s “point and click” ease of use is better for her), there is a free trial available on both which allows play up to level 30, so you can easily get in and see if you enjoy it yourself, and by this time you will have a real feel as to whether or not you want to invest so money into it.
Also for the Final Fantasy nerds out there: You can play Triple Triad, which is more than enough reason to dive into the game!