If you noticed that there’s been a dearth of fresh multiplayer content in Final Fantasy 14, you’re not the only one—and the desire for multiplayer content has made it all the way to the top of the development team.
At the American Dawntrail Media Tour event last month in LA, Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida declared that the FFXIV team is ready to pivot back to multiplayer content with Dawntrail, even acknowledging the criticisms about an overload of solo content. While he's stated before he wants to bring "challenging" content back to the game, in this case, he seemed more set on the multiplayer aspect.
In a kickoff speech, graciously translated by Aimi Tokutake, Yoshida claimed that “we also are aiming to make Dawntrail the start of a new form of evolution as an MMORPG.” A slew of new multiplayer content has already been announced, ranging from casual planet-hopping content to a promise of more Deep Dungeons and Variant/Criterion Dungeons. However, at the Media Tour, Yoshida seemed especially intent on pointing out that future developments will “go back to our roots” as an MMORPG.
Asked later to expand on this promise in a press Q&A, he essentially said that the team accomplished its mission of making approachable solo content for FFXIV to break the ice for non-MMORPG players. He asked the media and creators present if they knew why people don’t want to play ah MMORPG, and quickly got what he deemed to be the correct response: people just don’t want to play with other people, for any myriad of reasons.
“With the story being so good, we can get people into my FFXIV—just as long as they're able to experience the story without worrying about the pressure of working with other players,” he explained. “So we wanted to create a foundation that will allow for players to jump into FFXIV. And if we got people who are hesitant to play an MMORPG into FFXIV, that would increase the number of players available for us to play altogether.”
“[...] So it may have felt like you had to wait as we focused more on that solo gameplay aspect, but it was preparation to get the system in place for players to feel comfortable and learn more about the story in FFXIV and enjoy some of the content. So, now that we have new players coming in, and us building that player base, now we're ready with Dawntrail to sort of go back into focusing on the multiplayer element so that people can play together and enjoy that sort of group content.”
Yoshida also directly addressed the wider criticism that Shadowbringers and Endwalker expansions perhaps focused a bit tightly on building out solo features.
“I think [the criticism is] a good indication, and it feels like it confirms that, now, that we've finished our preparation, and we can now shift over to that multiplayer aspect,” he said.
For those wondering if Dawntrail was going to bring content more aligned to its MMORPG origins, there we go. As much as FFXIV is already a “theme park” of content, from high-end raiding to in-depth fishing, we know many players are anticipating more multiplayer content to do with their friends—especially in the endgame—so we can only wait for Dawntrail and beyond to see if they fulfill their promises.
Full Disclosure: Travel and accommodation to this preview event were provided by Square Enix.This article is based on gameplay of an in-development build of FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail, and content in the final version is subject to change.
