The MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has announced a collaboration with gamescom 2025 for Monster Hunter: Wilds. MeinMMO author Sophia Weiß is really excited about the new content, but the thought of all the newcomers worries her.
My name is Sophia, and I have been playing Final Fantasy XIV since 2016. I have been subscribed continuously since then, participating in most in-game events, and have also attended several fan festivals in Europe for my work. Currently, I am at endgame, but I am not completely up to date with the latest patch 7.3.
Final Fantasy XIV is one of the games I have played the most in my life. At gamescom 2025, there was a new content announcement during the Opening Night Live that I am really looking forward to: A collaboration with Monster Hunter: Wilds!
There was already a collaboration with Monster Hunter World years ago, which brought the flagship monster Rathalos as a mount into the MMORPG. Not to mention the pretty cool battle. In the teaser trailer for the new crossover, Square Enix doesn’t leave us much room for speculation. We will face the Wilds’ supreme monster Arkveld:
Perfect for veterans, but newcomers face a 600-hour investment
So far, we don’t know much about the new collaboration between the games. We do know for certain about the new content in Final Fantasy XIV:
- The boss enemy is Arkveld
- The start is early October
- Your character must be level 100
- The main quest Dawntrail must be completed
And that’s where I see the catch. As a veteran in Final Fantasy XIV, I check my gear before the gig, maybe repair it, throw on a stylish glamour, and off I go.
But players who see the collaboration and think, hey, I liked Arkveld in Wilds, let’s see what the beast can do in Final Fantasy
, face a pretty big hurdle.
The main quest Dawntrail is the last quest of 7.0, the main scenario of the current expansion. Before that, the quests, dungeons, and battles of the base game A Realm Reborn as well as the expansions Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and of course Dawntrail itself must be completed.
This means that anyone wanting to smash Arkveld in Final Fantasy XIV has to grind through about 600 hours of quests, dungeons, and boss fights first.
Some may enjoy that. Those who start now and hurry could be ready to dive right into the coop by early October.
However, I personally can’t imagine that this applies to most potential new players. Besides gaming, most people have studies or work, friends, family, maybe pets, and other games they want to play. Not everyone can and wants to grind 600 hours of MMORPG in one go – no matter how good the content is.
Of course, there’s another way to skip at least the content up to Dawntrail: the adventurer stories. These are items that can be purchased for real money in the Final Fantasy XIV shop. With these, you can level a new class (job) to level 90 and skip the grind. Alternatively, you can skip the story up to the start of the current expansion.
If you want to skip directly to the start of Dawntrail, you need to pay an additional €21.75 on top of the price of the game itself. And yes: The free trial version only includes all content up to Stormblood. So if you want to play the new collaboration, you also need to pay the price for the “Complete Edition” of the game, which is €23.99 on top.
Well, €45.74 isn’t the nearly 80 € that’s due for a current Mario Kart. But the quests in Dawntrail aren’t finished yet, and the class isn’t leveled up. To the approximately 40 hours you need for Dawntrail, there’s also the level grind, which you could also skip for another €21.75.
When your favorite game turns you into a cynic
I am not without reason a fixed subscriber to Final Fantasy XIV for years: I love this game for the great times with my friends, for the story that regularly brings me to tears, for the fantastic battles, the graphics, and much more.
But I can now completely understand that it scares away many potential players. If you want to play a new game, you might look forward to 12 years of still playable content. However, the fact that it must first be slowly unlocked or purchased within approximately 600 hours of gameplay dampens the enthusiasm.
And when I look at the collaboration with Wilds and the long road to it, I feel like I’m turning into a cynic. I wish Final Fantasy XIV every new player, every new long-term subscriber, and I hope that newcomers have at least as good a time with the game as I do.
But to ask so much commitment from a player who has just started and may just want to enjoy the current raid is, from my perspective, too much. I already have friends who quit during Stormblood saying: Sorry, but I don’t have time, even though I would like to
.
I am also not sure if saying, well, just buy the starter pack
, is the right solution. My colleague Karsten Scholz already expressed his opinion last year because the developers of the MMORPG around Naoki Yoshida actively decided against a new entry point with Dawntrail:
Dawntrail is meant to be a complete restart of the story and, similar to A Realm Reborn, initiate the next 10 years of expansions and storylines. Accordingly, starting with Dawntrail would have been the perfect point for an alternative start into the game for Karsten and me.
Anyone wanting to experience the completed Zodiarc X Hydaelin
saga starts with A Realm Reborn. Anyone just wanting to play the current content begins with Dawntrail.
But that’s not how it happened, and it actually makes me incredibly sad. I have tried before to level a new character and failed miserably. Exit rates are not publicly disclosed, but I can’t imagine that many people would take on that 600-hour mountain.
I sincerely wish that all Wilds fans who are excited about Final Fantasy XIV come, have fun, and stay. But if you say, wow, no, that’s too crazy for me
, then I believe many will fully understand.
Well then.
What I can very well imagine is that the reverse collaboration, meaning the Final Fantasy XIV content in Wilds, is much easier to achieve. In Wilds, you will get to face the time- and dimension-traveling entity Omega Planetes. Omega was the enemy in the Stormblood 8-man raid and has some nasty tricks up its sleeve.
In addition to this collaboration, there were a whole host of other exciting announcements at the Opening Night Live of gamescom 2025. Yesterday, you could also watch the big FYNG Show live from the fair. Included was a new game from streamer Hänno, Viva la Dirt League, and Warhammer 40,000: In the new role-playing game for Warhammer 40,000, you are not a genetically engineered superhuman, but just as dangerous
