The balance between accessibility and challenge is sometimes difficult to strike, and MMORPGs are no exception to this dilemma. Among the most acclaimed titles in the genre, Final Fantasy XIV illustrates this calibration through the evolution of its battle design. On this point, the latest expansion, Dawntrail, marked a clear contrast with its predecessor, Endwalker. Thanks to the reintegration of more strategic mechanics, Dawntrail has been able to bring a more nuanced approach to the complexity of confrontations, which was much welcomed by players. This battle design transition, from Endwalker to Dawntrail, highlights a wider-scope issue in the genre: the gap that can sometimes exist between player stated feedback and their genuine expectations.
The Endwalker situation
As Endwalker launched, its battle design was quite tuned toward accessibility, especially for melee jobs. The choices of larger hitboxes, fewer positional restrictions, and uninterrupted attack windows aimed to take away melee players’ frustrations. Yet, these changes paradoxically led to the dismantling of some engaging aspects of melee roles. Through the words of Masaki Nakagawa, the lead battle designer of FFXIV, “In some cases, even the hurdles and frustrations that existed to make the gameplay more engaging were eliminated, which made them less fun.”
Nakagawa's thoughts emphasized the mistake they made. He admitted, “Our policy of reducing gameplay-related frustrations was sometimes taken too far”. By removing mechanics which may briefly have inconvenienced players, the team ended up removing challenges at all. The change was particularly clear in raid encounters, where mechanics were scrapped to keep melee players on constant action.
Players’ feedback
By returning to a more strategic battle design, Dawntrail sheds light on the disparity between the frustrations expressed by players and their underlying desires - which is a problem that extends far beyond the boundaries of FFXIV. In fact, feedback often expresses what players don't like or don't want to see, rather than what they truly value. Sometimes, this kind of situation can lead developers to eliminate the outlined frustrations (as Square Enix did with Endwalker), without fully anticipating the consequences.
This detachment between reported feedback and observed expectations is obviously not unique to FFXIV. In the MMORPG genre, players typically complain about features they believe are too limiting or feel unnecessary. Unfortunately, as shown by Endwalker, convenience does not always equal satisfaction.
A ‘bold’ correction
Square Enix recognizes the drawbacks of their past approach, and with Dawntrail they made the “bold decision” to focus on the enjoyable parts of combat, even at the risk of inducing frustration again. The expansion moved away from over-simplified fights and saw a return to encounters with more unpredictability. For instance, the early raids in Dawntrail have mechanics that disrupt your standard rotation, such as AoE–forcing you to reposition–and knockbacks that cause downtime. Although they created difficulty, these facets revitalized the sense of achievement.
Nakagawa's team drew ideas from past expansions, like Heavensward, specifically its Alexander raids, which incorporated unique mechanics. When asked, Nakagawa said, “If we continue to veto ideas like those out of concern for frustrations, like losing DPS when turning into a gorilla, our content would lose its diversity and all bosses would end up following the same patterns.”
How to handle feedback?
Although feedback is an extremely important part of ongoing development for any MMORPG, we can see that its relevance is highly dependent on how it is conveyed. In fact, our natural tendency, as players, to point out what we deem to be negative, without suggesting alternatives or sometimes even without any explanations, is a hindrance to dialogue and constructive criticism. This is a serious issue for developers, who might struggle to identify actionable insights among purely negative comments. The matter is exacerbated by the fact that, of course, players have diverse - and by definition, subjective - preferences.
As you can see, the evolution of FFXIV's battle design reflects a recurring challenge for MMORPG developers: how to properly ask for and process feedback? Square Enix's experience underlines the importance of context-rich feedback, where players express not only what they dislike, but also why, and what solutions they think would be more suitable. Furthermore, as Nakagawa reports, focusing solely on minimizing frustrations could lead to unexpected consequences.
By returning to a battle design true to FFXIV’s creative vision, Dawntrail resonated with the MMORPG's audience (though there was other feedback). It's an approach that should serve as a lesson to the industry as a whole, as it involves taking feedback in a thoughtful way, asserting the IP's identity and studio’s willingness to take risks.
