At PAX East, the release date for the new expansion of Final Fantasy XIV – Dawntrail – was finally announced. However, the head of the MMORPG also spoke about a shift in the developers’ focus: away from optimization for solo content and back to multiplayer content.
What was announced? During the presentation at PAX East, Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV, talked about future plans for the MMORPG. On a PowerPoint slide, he listed the following points:
- Refined multiplayer gameplay
- More extensive content
- A more fulfilling player experience
- Improved rewards
These points are intended to pertain to the upcoming content and patches following the release of Dawntrail.
Specifically, Yoshi-P mentioned new content like Eureka from Stormblood or Bozja from Shadowbringers. These are contents that include a side story as well as their own instances and maps. Each instance can hold up to 72 players, which still conveys a sense of fullness on the smaller maps.
What are Eureka and Bozja? In Eureka and Bozja, mobs, bosses, and smaller group content spawn that need to be completed. After players, who sometimes form so-called FATE parties, have completed all content, the endgame is unlocked. This endgame can be, for example, a 48-player dungeon with extra tough enemies, at the end of which special rewards await.
Older content is popular among players for various reasons: In both instances, players grind levels, defeat world bosses together with other players, and cheer each other on. In Eureka and Bozja, Final Fantasy XIV feels very much like a traditional MMORPG.
Additionally, Bozja is perfect for leveling secondary classes. You can also acquire many great items there and meet other players.
Why an MMORPG needs to announce that it wants to bring multiplayer content
Why is this so exciting for an MMORPG? In the development of Final Fantasy XIV, the development team focused on single-player experiences for the past two years. This included expanding the Trust system, where NPC companions could be taken into 4-player dungeons.
The background to this is that Final Fantasy XIV aims to appeal not only to the traditional MMORPG player base but also to pure RPG fans:
The common thread that connects almost all content of the game is the strong main story, with which the game also advertises. To make it easier for fans of story-focused games to enter Final Fantasy XIV, the development team invested many resources in single-player-friendly adjustments and content.
Theoretically, you can now also play the game alone and view other player characters in the overworld as NPCs, similar to Diablo 4.
The focus on developing solo content caused ongoing dissatisfaction in the game’s community. Content like Bozja was painfully missed in the current expansion, although of course, there were simply other content instead. Nevertheless, there was often talk of content drought.
However, if the focus in Dawntrail is again more on multiplayer, it should make the player base much happier: Now that older content has been streamlined for single players, this will likely also be taken into account in newer content. The developers of content types for both target groups will most likely run simultaneously.
In fact, it currently looks as if the release of Dawntrail at the beginning of July will be quite crowded in the game. The digital pre-orders caused Square Enix’s website servers to crash: Play this MMORPG now – In the summer, it will be so full that you’ll complain about hours of waiting
