With Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, two new classes for the MMORPG were introduced at the beginning of July. However, one of them was significantly nerfed just a month later. The head of the game now speaks about the controversial changes to the Viper.
How was the Viper changed? Upon the release of Dawntrail, the Viper job was a fast DPS with a complex command rotation. MyMMO editor Sophia Weiß even compared the complexity of the rotation to the Tokyo subway system. You can read her preview report here.
With the release of the Balance Patch 7.05, the Viper was simplified: The combos are now easier, a debuff for opponents was swapped for a buff for the player character, and the complex positioning requirements were eased.
In the video, we introduce you to the Viper and the second new class, the Pictomancer:
Players liked it – But the devs still adjusted it
Why was the Viper adjusted? Originally, many more adjustments to the Viper were planned. What eventually made it into the game, according to Naoki Yoshida, is based on player feedback. The basic idea was to make the Viper more accessible to more players.
In the future, the team also wants to continue to pay attention to player feedback when it comes to adjusting and designing the Viper.
In an interview with the colleagues at Eurogamer, the director and producer of the game elaborated on the changes and the feedback.
What does Naoki Yoshida say about it? In an interview during gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Naoki Yoshida said that the developers had intensely debated the changes internally – up until the last minute
. Even the Battle Director of the MMORPG was internally torn at the launch of Dawntrail.
We made adjustments right up until the last minute [before the release of the expansion] and considered the possibility that some players might give feedback that it was too hectic to play. We then released the job as is, and found that many players said it was so hectic that they couldn’t see the mechanics.
[…]
We had already identified some actions beforehand that would inevitably mean stress for the players. Ultimately, we [with 7.05] simply changed what we had originally planned, and that had nothing to do with community feedback.
Naoki Yoshida in an interview with Eurogamer, 28.08.2024
When the changes were announced, the development team received a lot of feedback from players who were already playing the job at max level. They were already used to the job and the hectic pace: They were happy with how it played.
Especially in North America and Europe, Yoshi-P recalls many people who accused him on social media of listening too much to the community. Yoshida emphasizes that player feedback actually had very little influence on the decision. There is no need to worry here.
Dawntrail and the new content of Final Fantasy XIV have been live for two months now. The new, pro-wrestling-inspired raid has particularly captivated the community. In another gamescom interview, Yoshi-P stated that he does not agree with the players on one thing: The new raid in Final Fantasy XIV excites the players – But the boss finds the best part of it dumb
