After what many consider a Phoenix-style resurrection appropos of the franchise, Final Fantasy XIV continues to persist as one of the best MMORPGs available. The title’s original launch in 2010 can be categorized as a total disaster not befitting of one of gaming’s most legendary franchises. Fast forward 3 years later and series mastermind Naoki Yoshida (aka “Yoshi P”) completely redefined the title for audiences via the “A Realm Reborn” relaunch. Since 2013, Square Enix and the talented team at Creative Business Unit 3 have provided fans with not only the best online Final Fantasy title, but one of the best Final Fantasy games, period.
A large portion of the game’s success comes from a positive and welcoming community of fans. While some MMORPGs can have a high barrier to entry or intimidating fanbases to contend with, Final Fantasy XIV is notorious for supporting and welcoming new players. Many of the most dedicated members of the game’s community are also avid modders, actively working to improve one of their favorite games. While the title is still impressive in 2023, it can sometimes be hard to ignore that it’s a 10-year-old game. Here is where the active community and its excellent mods come in to save the day.
How to Install Final Fantasy XIV Mods
Before we begin, please note that mods are only available for PC players. Although Final Fantasy XIV is available on PS4 and PS5, console players will need to contend with the game as-is. To install mods on the PC version of Final Fantasy XIV, there is some initial legwork that each mod will require. Mods will either be hosted on a Nexus Mod or Github page, meaning there’s no “catch-all” single launcher players can use. Still, installing any of these mods is very straightforward. The same welcoming community of players in Final Fantasy XIV has also worked to ensure that mod installation instructions are straightforward and easy to implement.
Some mods may require downloading and installing another plugin, but the Nexus Mod or Github pages for each mod will detail this process. For most of the mods we list here, it’s a simple process of downloading files and placing them in the right folder. With the right mods and a good party, Final Fantasy XIV is some of the most fun players can have online.
Advanced Combat Tracker
Most Final Fantasy XIV players will refer to this mod as the “DPS Meter” or ACT for short, but it’s an essential mod for raiding parties. The Advanced Combat Tracker keeps tabs on all data during boss fights to provide parties with valuable insights afterward. Having a hard time with a Raid boss? Running the ACT will provide useful data on which players deal the most DPS, which are providing support via healing, and so on. Data from the ACT can be used to help party members rotate jobs, allocate different skills, or change strategy during encounters.
XIVAuras
If you’ve ever played an MMORPG you’ve likely noticed that there are almost always buffs and debuffs at play in combat. For years, Final Fantasy XIV had no way to display all active buffs or a timer to show how long they would last. Thankfully, the XIVAuras mod solves this problem by providing players with a list of all active buffs as well as a countdown timer showing how long they’ll be active for. With players well aware of their buffs as well as the buffs of their party members, players’ job rotation is improved and party effectiveness ratchets up a notch.
Compass
Every once in a while a game’s community will come up with a mod so ingenious that it’s a wonder the developers didn’t implement it themselves. Such is the case with the Compass mod for Final Fantasy XIV, which provides players with a handy compass bar on the screen. While the standard navigation in Final Fantasy XIV is functional, the Compass mod adds a Fallout or Elder Scrolls-style navigation bar to the HUD. This allows players to quickly see where they need to go without needing to expand the mini-map or go into menus.
VisibilityPlugin
Anyone that’s playing Final Fantasy XIV (or any other MMORPG, for that matter) can attest to how cluttered the screen can get. Between the player, their party, NPCs, other players, and various mounts like Chocobos, the screen can get really busy really quickly. The VisibilityPlugin resolves this issue by giving players the ability to simply eliminate in-game objects from view. Don’t want to see any other players? The VisibilityPlugin will let you remove them from the field of view with a simple click. The same goes for pets and Chocobos, allowing you to prevent a ton of fauna from cluttering up the screen.
XIVCombo
Hardcore players already know that PvP requires players to press a button that changes an ability based on job rotation. But what if that same functionality were available in PvE mode? XIVCombo allows players to do just that, customizing multiple abilities to a single button for your character. For anyone hoping to get themselves and their party to be successful in the highest-level raids, this mod will make your life so much easier. The best part? Players can customize as little or as much as they want based on their class and jobs of choice. Condensing multiple abilities into a single keystroke eliminates a majority of the micromanaging necessary for high-level encounters.
Owl’s Eyes of Eorzea
It’s no secret that FFXIV is a 10-year-old game, but that doesn’t mean that it looks bad. Quite the contrary, the title still holds up as one of the better-looking MMORPGs still being enjoyed by millions. Still, there’s always room for improvement, and the Owl’s Eyes of Eorzea mod does just that. While it’s likely that many players haven’t ever thought how their character’s eyes look, their appearance has a distinct effect on how realistic characters look. Thanks to the Owl’s Eyes mod, characters look more lifelike and less like digital mannequins. Not only that, the creators of the mod have implemented different textures and shading based on each of the game’s races.
Beautiful Eorzeans
The Beautiful Eorzeans mod replaces all of the existing facial textures with newer high-quality ones. There are several different mods that improve the visual fidelity of the game and its characters, but Beautiful Eorzeans is a “one-size-fits-all” approach to improving the game’s visuals. Instead of needing to install several different mods that improve the facial textures and appearance of characters, this one does all of it at the cost of slightly reduced quality.
Hydaelyn UI
The Hydaelyn UI mod is a simple but useful quality-of-life upgrade for the game’s menus. Instead of the grey textured menus and beveled border, players using this mod will see simple blue-tinted menus that are less distracting. Menu navigation and management are crucial in any MMORPG, and the Hydaelyn UI mod will be a breath of fresh air for anyone that’s spent countless hours in Eorzea.
TPie
The TPie mod is very similar to several of the other UI mods shared so far in that its a simple, yet effective, QOL upgrade. TPie allows players to access a ring-shaped hotkey menu that makes several of the game’s most important actions a breeze to cycle through. Before TPie, selecting actions and managing menus could get hectic during those times where constant keystrokes are needed (such as during a high level raid). Now, players can download and install TPie and completely customize a radial menu for all of the most-used critical actions.
Moogle Maps
Outside raids, monster and treasure hunting likely take up a lot of time for advanced FFXIV players that have completed the main story quest line. Instead of hitting ALT+TAB over and over, the Moogle Maps mod automatically populates area maps with hunt zones and treasure chests. This simple change eliminates a lot of the downtime spent switching between maps and the game screen, allowing players to get the most of their time in-game.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©PlayStation.