For several months now, it seems that Final Fantasy XIV has not been running as smoothly as it should: player decline and negative feedback dominate the discourse. In a Korean interview, the director mentioned a new rebirth or even a second A Realm Reborn.
What exactly did the director say? Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV, spoke during an interview with the Korean website inven. He mentioned that Final Fantasy XIV is currently moving towards the next 10 years of development:
Final Fantasy XIV is now moving towards the next 10 years. A fan festival is also planned, and a significant announcement is being prepared. With the determination to carry out a second rebirth, we are rethinking everything from the ground up to further develop the game with new goals.
Naoki Yoshida in an interview with inven, 17.11.2025
With the second rebirth, Yoshida is presumably referring to the ongoing new 10-year plan for the MMORPG. After the last major storyline was completed, the following expansion Dawntrail was supposed mark the beginning of a new era, similar to the base game A Realm Reborn. This includes the so far mostly secret 10-year plan for story and expansions.
Dawntrail is now over a year old and was supposed to lay the foundation for the following expansions. However, the game has been suffering from several issues since the 6.x patch series, including player decline. MeinMMO has the specifics.
A restart like with A Realm Reborn? Unfortunately not quite yet
Why might the game need a soft reboot? The expansion Endwalker for Final Fantasy XIV concluded the much-praised storyline that started with the relaunch in 2013. Later on it was announced that the fifth expansion Dawntrail would create a sort of second A Realm Reborn. It was meant to lay the foundation for the next 10 years of development and story.
However, Dawntrail is struggling with mediocre to even partially negative feedback. This includes, among other things:
- The story is repeatedly criticized as weak. Moreover, important NPCs have not been consistently written, and the player character takes on an unusual mentor role instead of the spotlight.
- Multiplayer content is continuously criticized. Most recently, the new field expedition was criticized because the newly implemented relic weapon grind is too hard.
- The classes (jobs) play too similarly in the endgame.
- The mobile version launched in China has some features for customization that are better than in the main game.
Since the release of Patch 7.3, player feedback has been improving. However, player numbers have reportedly declined according to the census from the blog Lucky Bancho.
This is how the Lucky Bancho data was derived
- Max level is 71 or higher OR the job is a job not available in the Free Trial OR the character belongs to a Free Company (FC).
- HP, level, and experience points have changed since the last survey (16.03.).
- The number of companions (minions) and mounts has changed since the last survey.
- New characters that were not present in the previous survey.
- Characters with a public profile, minions, and mounts in the Lodestone.
- Owns at least one mount.
- Characters that have leveled a job with a Jumping Potion at the time of the data collection (identifiable by main weapons with item level 390 at level 70, IL530 at level 80, or IL660 at level 90) are excluded.
While declining player numbers during patches are quite normal for Final Fantasy XIV, they have never been as high as today:
Players are complaining, the director reassures
Did the feedback reach the developers? Indeed: Yes, the developers are aware of the mixed feedback from players. This has been reiterated by Naoki Yoshida multiple times:
- In June 2025, he stated that the development team has become too comfortable.
- In September 2025, he criticized the somewhat harsh feedback from players.
- Also in September, Naoki Yoshida mentioned that Final Fantasy XIV might break out of its established release structure in the future.
The assurance that they are indeed working on the 10-year plan and the implied determination to pull the MMORPG out of its current slump, as they did in 2013 with A Realm Reborn, is the latest statement in that direction: We see that there are problems and commit to improvement. We have a plan.
With Patch 7.3, Final Fantasy XIV seems to have already taken a first step in the right direction. It will be particularly exciting with the announcement of the next expansion 8.0 expected at the next fan festival, when the next major adjustments and new features could be showcased. Recently, the development team also responded to players in another way: Because the favorite mod of many players in Final Fantasy XIV was turned off, the director is saying goodbye to old traditions.
