Final Fantasy 16 will be the latest mainline entry to Square Enix’s JRPG series and fans are excited about the recent reveal that the team behind Final Fantasy 14 will be involved with the new game. Despite being an MMO, Final Fantasy 14 has become one of the hallmarks of storytelling in the series, and it has transformed from a failed launch to one of the most popular MMOs today.
Fans eagerly anticipating the release of Final Fantasy 16 should look to give Final Fantasy 14 a try. Not only has Final Fantasy 14 become one of the most beloved entries in the series, its director, Naoki Yoshida, will also serve as the producer for Final Fantasy 16. Fans looking to get a better idea of what Yoshida’s team offers should look no further than Final Fantasy 14, one of the best modern entries in the series. Moreover, there’s never been a better time to try Final Fantasy 14 as it recently streamlined its main questline and lifted a number of restrictions on its free trial.
Final Fantasy 14 may be one of the most popular MMOs today but that hasn’t always been the case. Final Fantasy 14 was originally launched in 2010 to an overwhelmingly negative response. The game felt unfinished, had constant interface and performance issues, and had poor pacing within its plot. The backlash forced Square Enix to suspend subscriptions and replace the development team leader with Naoki Yoshida as the new producer and director. Yoshida’s team would go on to rebuild the entire game from scratch and Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn was released worldwide in 2013 to critical and commercial success.
Over the past few years, the mainline Final Fantasy games like Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy 15 have received some criticism from fans that their settings were too grounded in science-fiction rather than fantasy. Moreover, Final Fantasy 15 had a number of strange choices in delivering its narrative with DLC being required to complete certain character arcs. As a result, it seems Square Enix wants Final Fantasy 16 to return to its roots as it goes back to the original high-fantasy setting of monsters and magic. Square Enix also appointed Yoshida as producer for Final Fantasy 16, while his fellow team member Hiroshi Takai was recently revealed to be the director for FF16. This should be exciting news for fans as their experience in creating Final Fantasy 14 will prove invaluable in the development of Final Fantasy 16.
One of the biggest surprises for newcomers to Final Fantasy 14 is how well-written the story is. Featuring references and callbacks to previous Final Fantasy games and lore, it’s clear that Final Fantasy 14 is a love letter to the classics of the series. In contrast to other MMOs where the focus is often shifted away from the main story, Final Fantasy 14 focuses heavily on the overarching narrative that each expansion brings. With an incredible amount of voiced cutscenes and extremely detailed worldbuilding, Final Fantasy 14 rarely feels like the powerlevel grind of most MMOs. In true Final Fantasy fashion, the story of Final Fantasy 14 has important consequences, and each plot thread only comes full circle after an elaborate setup.
The fantastic story is often cited as the biggest reason for Final Fantasy 14’s success. Final Fantasy 14 retained all of the old-school Final Fantasy charm while incorporating it into an MMO. The most recent expansion, Shadowbringers, is often cited as a hallmark of storytelling in the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Using the setups from previous expansions, Shadowbringers is an emotional journey against one of the best villains the franchise has ever seen. Final Fantasy 14 has some of the best thematic writing in the entire franchise and fans should play through the main story quests if they are curious about what Yoshida and Takai will bring to Final Fantasy 16.
For most Final Fantasy fans, the notion of playing through hundreds of hours of content and paying a monthly subscription doesn’t necessarily seem appealing. Unlike a regular RPG that’s 50 or 60 hours long, Final Fantasy 14 requires a large investment before getting to the best parts of the story. While Final Fantasy 14’s main story quests are the biggest draw of the game, they were also notorious for having an extremely slow start with an abundance of fetch quests and slow worldbuilding. However, Final Fantasy 14 has revamped the newcomer experience drastically, and there has never been a better time for Final Fantasy fans to jump in.
The base storyline, known as A Realm Reborn, was often cited as one of the biggest reasons that newcomers to Final Fantasy 14 quit the game. It featured an extremely tedious questline with hundreds of filler fetch quests and fluff content. Moreover, Final Fantasy 14 revolves around its story so much of the content is locked behind the completion of the main story quests. For a long time, this was the biggest barrier of entry for Final Fantasy 14.
Recently however, Square Enix acknowledged the time-consuming questline for A Realm Reborn, and decided to revamp it completely. As of patch 5.3, not only did Yoshida’s team remove a significant portion of the fluff quests, they also shortened the length of the quests that remained. In total, Yoshida’s team removed around 20% of the base storyline which means the game is now much more approachable for newcomers. Moreover, players who are fans of the worldbuilding and character interactions in these quests are still able to experience the removed quests in the form of side-quests. As a result, newcomers won’t have content locked behind these quests while still having the option to complete them if they wish.
Even with these changes, newcomers may have trouble gauging if they will enjoy the game enough to pay a monthly sub. Thankfully, Square Enix also decided to revamp the free trial system as well. Before patch 5.3, the free trial was capped at level 35 across all jobs and had a number of restrictions. With the new patch however, the free trial has been expanded all the way to the Heavensward expansion, meaning newcomers will be able to level all jobs to 60 and experience the first four years of content for free.
The announcement of Yoshida and Takai’s involvement was exciting news for any Final Fantasy 14 player as they already know the potential of any game with those two at the helm. For other fans of Final Fantasy who have never given Final Fantasy 14 a chance because it was an MMO or required too much time investment, they’ll find that it’s surprisingly easy to jump into nowadays.
As more information comes to light about Final Fantasy 16, it becomes clear that Yoshida and Takai’s experience with turning Final Fantasy 14 around will play a role in the development of Final Fantasy 16. While the chances of connections between the two games remain slim, it’s a great idea for players excited about Final Fantasy 16 to see the writing and storyline development for Final Fantasy 14 in action. It’ll also give players a good idea of the direction that Yoshida and Takai will take the Final Fantasy series. With the recent changes to Final Fantasy 14’s new player experience, there has never been a better time for Final Fantasy fans to see what all the hype is about.
Final Fantasy 16 is currently in development for the PS5.
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