Final Fantasy XIV will receive a lot of new content in the upcoming patch, according to the recent “Letter from the Producer” stream. This includes the revision of the story quests from “A Realm Reborn”, which have often been criticized. The lengthy story quest is considered a major point of criticism for the MMORPG.
What is being criticized? One of the points of criticism that is often raised in connection with Final Fantasy XIV is the long introduction to the MMORPG.
The somewhat outdated story quests in FFXIV are mandatory for all players, and no one can bypass them on the way to the endgame. Everyone must play this linear campaign and complete the individual quest steps.
This point of criticism has been frequently raised on reddit and in the Steam reviews of FFXIV. The developers are also aware that the initial quests of “A Realm Reborn” take a very long time for new players.
The director of the MMORPG, Naoki Yoshida, stated in the developer stream:
[…] Many players get stuck in this area of “A Realm Reborn” and stop playing the game. Players who stop playing FFXIV surprisingly often do so after [patch] 2.1. […]
Patch 2.1 was released back in 2013. Many people therefore stop playing Final Fantasy XIV in 2020 after having played quests from 2013.
Final Fantasy XIV reduces its story quests and introduces flying
What will be adjusted in patch 5.3? The upcoming patch 5.3 is set to address this issue. The development team has taken several steps:
- About 13% of all “A Realm Reborn” quests have been completely removed.
- The number of individual steps in many quests has been reduced, allowing them to be completed faster from 5.3.
- The amount of EXP and other rewards has been adjusted.
- The quests related to the Crystal Tower raid and “My Little Chocobo” will become mandatory.
- Flying will be possible in “A Realm Reborn” areas. It will be automatically unlocked after completing the story of 2.0. Swimming in ARR waters remains impossible.
Flying in the old areas is a significant change. Yoshida commented on this:
We thought that the costs for this update would be astronomical, but the team said: “We will never be able to change it otherwise. So let’s do it now.”
However, Yoshida has already emphasized that these measures will not affect the story of Final Fantasy XIV. All important NPCs will still be introduced and events will take place.
The director also noted that similar changes are expected to happen with the expansions of FFXIV in the future. This should further accelerate the slow entry into the MMORPG.
New content in patch 5.3
What else is coming? Patch 5.3 will be titled “Reflection in Crystal”. For players, it will bring a range of content in the usual pattern:
- Continuation of the main story, concluding the story of Shadowbringers.
- Side quests related to “The Concerns of Werlyt”.
- A new Primal fight in normal and EX mode. It is related to the story and will therefore be kept secret.
- New dungeon “The Heroe’s Gauntlet”.
- Dwarves as a new Beast Tribe. Their focus will be on crafting.
- New 24-player raid from the quest line “YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse”. It’s called “The Puppets’ Bunker”.
- Balance adjustments for jobs.
- New quests for the upgradable Queen’s weapons with their own instance “Bozjan Southern Front”, where more than 100 players can be active. Players will receive two different options for weapon upgrades.
- Upgrades for gatherers and crafters, as well as upgrades for their “Relics”.
- “Unreal Trials”: Old Primal fights that are scaled up to level 80. They will be available for a limited time. The first Primal in the series will be Shiva. Weekly victories grant access to a mini-game, which offers various rewards.
The update is expected to be released on August 11.
Until then, you can test your knowledge of dungeons from Final Fantasy XIV in our quiz.
