The game is Final Fantasy XIV. I had a friend wanting me to give it a try, and he bought the standard edition. So my hand was kind of forced. Here’s a screenshot i took of the city i started in, Limsa Lominsa, after it started raining. You can see the tail of my Carbuncle there peaking over the top.
The subscription fee imo is warranted given they release new content every 3 months, which includes voice acting, new dungeons, and new raid content. If it was a monthly sub with nothing released between expansions it wouldn’t be acceptable imo. Highly recommend not having a recurring sub
Don’t forget the servers cost. Those things cost a lot. I have a pretty good gaming setup, 2k€+, but my home server costed me more in the end.