The FF14 free login campaign is back, right as Square Enix finds the spark it was missing

The Final Fantasy 14 team at Square Enix has just done the smartest thing possible right now by capitalizing on the hugely positive response to patch 7.4 with the return of the FF14 free login campaign. The special event allows lapsed players to come back and check out the latest additions, from the new story content to the final act of Dawntrail's Arcadion raid series, along with all of the quality-of-life tools that have just been rolled out. With player sentiment at its highest since Endwalker wrapped up, it's a good time to find out why.

There was no question at the end of the Endwalker story that Final Fantasy 14 had ascended to the highest echelons among the best MMORPGs. Since then, however, Square Enix's Creative Studio 3 has had the tough job of trying to start something new, and the mixed reception to both the post-Endwalker story patches and Dawntrail's MSQ as a whole have been well-documented. The graphics update is stunning, the battle content is better than ever - but the narrative has been FF14's driving force, and when you're not vibing with that it can be hard for many people to push through.

I'm on the record as a Dawntrail enjoyer, though certainly not without criticism. But the post-patch story has continued to improve, and that's a sentiment I've seen echoed across the entire playerbase, even those who found Dawntrail lacking. Even following that trend, however, FF14 patch 7.4 feels like something more; despite not dramatically pushing the main narrative forwards (and sparking concerns about whether poor Jonathan Bailey has finally been overworked into the ground), it delivered on almost every count.

The writing is certainly doing its fair share of the work in giving Krile the extra love that we've been waiting for since 7.0 wrapped up, but there's more at play. The voice performances for all the new characters are excellent, and I'm eager for more of everyone who made their debut in this patch. The real star, however, might be the animation. I've long held up that laid-back balcony scene at the end of post-Shadowbringers as a high bar, and it now feels like we're getting that standard in basically every cutscene.

As MMO players, we're all too used to scenes where characters stand stiffly in a circle talking to one another. It's impossible to overstate what a difference the little touches of characters holding hands, hugging, dragging each other about, or even bodily shaking one another make. The legacy of Hildibrand as FF14's over-exaggerated animation testbed looms large, but this is bigger than that; this is the level of love and care that Final Fantasy 14's writing has long deserved. I really hope it's here to stay.

Jump in now, and you'll likely also have time to run through the entire Arcadion raid series in full. These wrestling-inspired bouts have consistently delivered, with a dozen vibrant and high-octane opponents standing in your way. They've kept me coming back more than any previous set of raids, both because they're so much fun to play and to keep relishing in the glorious soundtrack. There's a unique, themed song for every encounter, ranging from '70s disco to surf-punk, and it's punctuated at the end by an explosive guest appearance from Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and Beartooth's Caleb Shomo.

The FF14 free login campaign runs from Friday January 9 at 12am PT / 3am ET / 8am GMT / 9am CET until Monday February 9 at 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm GMT / 4pm CET. You must have an account that owns the game and was previously subscribed, but that has been inactive for at least 30 days. Check the full details here.

You'll have four days to play, starting from when you first log in and running until midnight PST on the fourth day, so make sure you start at a time when you've got a bit of free space ahead of you - there's a full month to take advantage of the offer, after all.