Final Fantasy 14 has been in a bit of a weird state. Endwalker’s post-launch patches failed to hit the ground running, despite the main expansion absolutely nailing the climax of its 10-year story. Dawntrail carried these problems forward, and with a lukewarm main quest, it couldn’t rest on that good ol’ patch story hype to keep folks enthused.
Things have been improving, slowly but surely, with Creative Studio 3 seemingly keen to experiment and shake things up after years of a stale, sluggish formula—and it looks like those efforts are continuing.
Watch On
Yoshi-P invoking this sort of language, then, actually means something. In op-eds I’ve written about this game, I’ve noted that FF14’s problem is that it’s history repeating itself. Nowhere near as dramatically as it did in the 1.0 days, mind, but still—1.0 operated on outdated assumptions about what MMO players wanted, and present-day Final Fantasy 14 has been doing the same.
Yoshi-P appears to recognise this: “In the past, MMORPGs were built around repetitive tasks, known as grinding, and time-consuming gameplay. However, things have changed since World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy 14 as well.”
He then goes on to mention the Allagan Tomestones system, which typically lets players grab 450 tomestones a week for gear as the weekly incentive to keep logging in. However, he seems to understand that players’ priorities have changed:
“To put it bluntly, even 450 Allagan tomestones might not be particularly meaningful to those who don’t care about item level. Therefore, we could consider exchanging them for mounts, attractive gear, and other items. I believe these things, which have been taken for granted until now, can be taken to a higher level in online game services and entertainment, and that’s why I’m currently considering this direction.”
I’m absolutely reading patterns in the tea leaves, here, but to my eye this seems akin to FF14 shifting over to what I’ve seen other MMOs do: Broadening the pool of rewards, and making every patch release feature something for everybody.
Right now, if you don’t care about gear in FF14, you’ve not really got much reason to do your daily roulettes—contrast this with, say, WoW’s Trading Post system. Do almost anything in that game, and you’ll get access to monthly cosmetic rewards.
If my soothsaying is right, I’m onboard. FF14 often seems like a solid, well-built stick without a proper carrot. Fun, engaging fights with no real reason to keep doing them; Variant Dungeons you put away once you’ve explored them; Levelling dungeons that vanish into the ether once you’ve got your jobs to level 100; Exploration Zones that go underused if they aren’t a part of the relic weapon grind this cycle. It doesn’t use the whole cow.
As for the scale, whether we’re talking a full Realm Reborn-style reboot is up to interpretation: Other translations use “Reborn” language, but I highly doubt Creative Studio 3 is going to drop a second moon on Eorzea.
What is interesting is this tidbit: “MMORPGs are a genre that requires a lot of time, so I don’t think they’re well-suited for today’s times. Many pioneers have already played for a long time, and catching up requires a significant investment of time, which is difficult. I don’t think it’s acceptable to not experience the joy of a game unless you invest hundreds of hours.”
I’ve often described Final Fantasy 14 as a JRPG turducken, because it’s essentially five very good singleplayer RPG stories (and one so-so one) encased in an MMORPG shell. This means that it takes over 400 hours to actually get to the endgame—I can’t help but wonder if this means we’ll finally be getting a second starting point in the game’s future. The proof will be in the pudding when the Fanfests roll around next year.
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