Final Fantasy XIV – on familiar paths
This is the situation of Final Fantasy XIV: More traditional and conventional than Final Fantasy XIV, it cannot get, but it is all wrapped in the typical colorful Final Fantasy brand with all its quirks and lovable traits, making it seem odd and different.
With a strong home base in Japan, the MMORPG has made a steep development curve after a terrible launch and has now released two strong expansions.
In this regard, Square Enix does not care much for trends or fashions, but resolutely follows its own path. The team can count on a solid fan base that stands by the Asia look and will either stay with Final Fantasy or return to it repeatedly.
2018 was a quiet year without major surprises for Final Fantasy XIV. The year after an expansion serves to continue telling the story and following the clear patterns of the patches.
In earlier years, Final Fantasy XIV occasionally dared to take a detour by introducing a new class or feature outside the series. However, little of that was seen in 2018: The island Eureka was perhaps the highlight with new content but remains controversial. Eureka did not go over well with many.
Instead of new classes or the mini-game island Golden Saucer as before, there were improvements to servers, the housing system, or comfort.
This is where Final Fantasy XIV stands at the end of 2018: Everything is great in itself, and the new expansion with many features has already been announced. The field is ready.
However, Final Fantasy XIV has an even greater problem than Guild Wars 2 in winning new players. In order to get into FF14 and really participate, one has to go through an incredible amount of old content first. Convincing a friend of Final Fantasy XIV has a heavy task ahead of them to get them “up to date”.
Square Enix is increasingly gnawing at this problem and has tried to work with “Jump” potions. But ultimately, it is about the MMORPG keeping its existing fans and providing them with new content.
Final Fantasy XIV hardly has a real option to attract new players. Perhaps if it finally comes to Xbox One – or it might have to part ways with some of its sacred principles, but that seems hardly feasible.
Square Enix thus faces the decision of either continuing as before or trying to open itself up to new players and warmly welcome them.
This will be important for Final Fantasy XIV in 2019: Longtime players expect more of the same at a high quality, but at the same time also want something new to get out of the rut.
They have come up with some interesting ideas for NPCs as party members and new classes.
It would be important for Final Fantasy XIV to inspire the old players and somehow appear so fresh and young that they can attract new MMORPG players from the “Fortnite” generation. However, how that is supposed to happen is probably unclear even to the wise Naoki Yoshida.
The most read news of 2018 about Final Fantasy XIV: AddOn Shadowbringers fulfills fans’ wishes
