Square-Enix just announced that they will be making another online Final Fantasy game. Mr. Nash chimes in with his thoughts on this, and what he hopes to see in this new game.

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Final Fantasy XIV

Thoughts and Theories

Of all the games to get announced during E3, the one that really made me perk up my ears was Final Fantasy XIV. Back when Final Fantasy XI came out, I quite enjoyed that game, flaws and all. Now that we know Square-Enix is working on a follow-up MMO, I’m quite curious to see how it pans out.

Obviously, a lot has changed in the MMORPG landscape since Final Fantasy XI came out. Before that game, the most prolific games in the genre were still Everquest and Ultima Online. Since then, Blizzard has released World of Warcraft, garnering such a level of success that it’s impossible for a developer to overlook what that game has done, and how it has changed the way we look at MMOs.

While those involved with Final Fantasy XIV’s development haven’t released a ton of information about the game as of yet, what is clear is that there will be some substantial retooling to the gameplay in this title. Arguably the biggest gripe levelled against FFXI was that there was such a high level of grinding involved, compounded by the fact that after your character reached level 10 it was extremely difficult to play the game solo unless you happened to be a beastmaster. This could prove exceptionally frustrating, as the process of putting together a party was sometimes quite difficult, as particular player classes would sometimes be sorely lacking on a particular server such as finding a decent tank or healer for the group. I’ve lost track of the times I was stuck sitting in Jeuno, trying to get a party together for an hour or two, and when we finally have enough people together, a key player inevitably needed to log off because they had to go to work, or it was ridiculously late at night where they were and they wanted to sleep.

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With FFXIV, Square has stated that they would like to make the game far more accessible to a wider variety of players by making the gameplay more varied, accommodating solo play far more, and making it viable for someone to log in, play for 30 minutes, and come away feeling like they’ve accomplished something. At the same time, and as the footage in the game’s

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trailer alludes to, this new game will also have plenty of opportunities for players to party together, sometimes for very large scale raid situations. Trying to make this new Final Fantasy Online appeal to a wider variety of MMO players is welcome news as far as I’m concerned. One of the main problems I’ve had with FFXI in recent years is that I, more often than not, just don’t have the time to play MMOs for more that 30-60 minutes at a time, which made it extremely difficult to stay with that particular game, causing me to gravitate toward WoW instead. If I can play FFXIV for half an hour and make some real progress in that time, I will be quite happy.

This isn’t to say that I’m not looking forward to grouping in FFXIV. When a party is running on all eight cylinders in Final Fantasy XI, the battles are amazing. The whole combat system is leaps and bounds beyond that of most other MMOs out there, especially in how the game introduced the idea of chain attacks. Dropping enemies like flies because everyone knows which special attacks to do in which order, which spells to cast when, and nailing the timing for the whole thing is immensely satisfying. I’m really curious to see where Square takes the combat in FFXIV. They’ve mentioned briefly that they are working on a new system of some sort, so it’ll be interesting to find out how they’re going about combat this time around.

One thing that will probably make a lot of people happy is that there are plans to completely retool how characters get stronger in FFXIV. Characters won't be gaining experience points and gaining levels here, following the contentious grinding system discussed earlier. Instead, character growth appears to be centering around weapon usage in some way. Square hasn't gone into detail as to how this works, but it does suggest that this game will step away from the level grind that many complained about in FFXI. My only concern with this is that weapons will get stronger through continued use in a fashion similar to, say, World of Warcraft. If they go this route, I fear that one form of grinding will just be replaced with another. This change in how characters get stronger could be a key feature in whether FFXIV can appeal to a wider audience like the game's developers seem to want.

Another nice thing to hear about with this new game is that Square is trying to keep some familiar touchstones between this title and FFXI. While the Final Fantasy series has traditionally been comprised of unrelated, standalone entries (barring FFX-2, and some of the handheld spinoffs), it does look like there will be some points of familiarity between FFXI and XIV. While the game doesn’t take place in the world of Vana’diel this time, the general art style appears to be staying the same for player characters, and it even looks like we may be seeing a return of the Galka, and the Elvaan. I’m not sure if the Galka and such are still being considered the same race, or just one with strikingly similar physical features to their FFXI counterparts (the development team hasn’t outright said they’re the same races, just that they want similar looking avatars for players to choose from in FFXIV as they transition from XI). Hopefully we’ll see some more aspects of FFXI return, as it does make for a comfortable transition between the two MMOs, and it tugs on one’s sentimental sensibilities in a pleasant way. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that the Tarutaru will make a comeback, and judging by some of the artwork on the game's official site, it does look like there are some diminutive, pointy-eared humanoids in the game, so maybe we'll see them again.

A couple of things about FFXIV that haven’t been discussed yet, and that I would very much like to learn more about, is how gear will work this time around, and what kind of crafting system will be in place. While the armor designs in FFXI looked great, I always found them to be a bit too cookie cutter. A lot of classes follow very similar paths for the gear they use at certain levels. Some areas will see a bunch of people in silver armor, or leather jerkins, or whatever, with little to no variation in appearance. There is a very set way in which one goes about accumulating gear with hardly any deviation. It would be nice to see a little more variety in this area, not just from an aesthetic standpoint, but in terms of stats as well. Let players exercise their in-game fashion skills a bit more, and be more free to manipulate their characters' stats through the gear that they equip. I’m also wondering how crafting will work this time around. Like leveling a character, leveling crafting in FFXI could prove grueling at times depending on what someone wanted to level up. Will Square-Enix be changing this aspect of the game FFXIV just as they will character growth?

One other question on everyone's mind will be how the job system is going to get implemented here. The game's producer, Hiromichi Tanaka, has said that he really likes this system and feels it was core to FFXI, and thus should again be so in XIV. At this point, there are tons of jobs to choose from in FFXI, especially as characters get higher in levels, and can unlock more advanced jobs. With that, I'm left wondering how many jobs will be available from the get go for XIV. Will Square just port over all of the jobs from XI? Will some get the axe? Which new jobs will be introduced. Many of the classic series jobs have already appeared in FFXI, so I'm left wondering what new ones could show up in XIV.

Square-Enix are saying that they want to try a number of new things with this game, while keeping it familiar enough to fans of XI so as not to alienate them. I do think there is plenty of opportunity to make FFXIV something that can be enjoyed by casual and hardcore gamers alike, as more gameplay features are implemented into the game. The genre has changed a lot in the last five years as developers have come to realize that there are a wide range of people interested in these sorts of games. Some people will play for hours on end, while others want to be able to hop on for a quick few quests before going to bed. There’s no reason that they can’t co-exist in the same game. It makes for a more interesting, varied online community that is fun to interact with, and if the game proves successful, it’s just that much better for a developer’s bottom line. I, for one, am quite excited to see how Final Fantasy XIV turns out.

Mr. Nash

June 6, 2009

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