Final Fantasy XIV, like the massive multiplayer online genre as a whole, is in a bit of a crisis. Square Enix’s latest financial results paint a pretty grim picture, with a big decline in revenue from the MMO division, largely led by FFXIV. It’s easy to look at the mixed reception of Dawntrail and pin the blame on the latest expansion, but the path to now has been a lot more complicated than that. And by the same turn, FFXIV’s future is going to be much more complex than simply “fixing” Dawntrail’s mistakes. But it certainly feels like there’s a viable future for the MMO.
Square Enix’s sales decreased by 23 percent, or ¥2.9 billion yen ($19.6 million at the time of writing), and overall operational profits down by 45 percent, or ¥3 billion ($20.3 million), according to its August earnings report. This has led to legions of discourse online among fans, about what FFXIV’s “problem” is. But the real answer is that there isn’t one clean-cut problem or solution, no matter how you read the mixed reviews of Dawntrail on Steam.
The most obvious thing to point out is that FFXIV was going to have a decline eventually. It was inevitable simply because of the major boost the game saw earlier this decade. Shadowbringers was released in July 2019, a little less than a year before the pandemic hit its stride. In terms of patch schedules, FFXIV was in the midst of one of its strongest stories when people had to start staying home — and the game saw a massive influx of new players. These players then clearly stuck around for Endwalker, in large part due to the hype that was built by Shadowbringers, and the “conclusion” of the story that was promised.
Part of what’s difficult about FFXIV is that it’s done something that no other MMO ever has — made its narrative a genuine part of the game’s main appeal. Now I don’t mean there haven’t ever been other MMOs with a good story, but a big part of XIV’s appeal since A Realm Reborn has been its core cast of characters, heavily thematic story, and the way it weaves the player themselves into all of that.
For all intents and purposes, FFXIV makes you the player feel like a vital part of its world, and living that story, building those relationships, has been a massive draw. There are, of course, people who play XIV for battle content, social reasons, etc — but this is an MMO that, for years, has billed itself as the narrative-based one, and for good reason. Both Shadowbringers and Endwalker have been lauded as some of the best Final Fantasy stories we’ve ever seen, but the buildup to those expansions took years, a decade in Endwalker’s case.
The truth is that Endwalker was something we’ve never seen in video games before — a literal ten-year story coming together in a beautiful, messy, and utterly memorable way. It wasn’t a perfect expansion, but it delivered on so many fronts that people wanted, giving closure to so many plotlines.
The problem, then, becomes: how do you keep a massively multiplayer game going after a finale like that? I genuinely don’t think there’s a good answer to that question, but if you comb through user reviews, the most common complaint you see is a dull Main Scenario and bad new characters.
It needs to be said that a portion of the backlash was entirely undeserved, focused on transphobic attacks against the voice actor of Wuk Lamat, the major new character of this expansion, and an addition to the main cast. Those toxic attacks helped set a tone that was sadly easy to build on.
And Dawntrail does have issues; it’s intentionally slowly paced and spends a lot of time meandering through the cultural history of a new part of the world. I personally enjoy a lot of the meticulous world-building the expansion does, but I think a core misunderstanding of the story is the role The Warrior of Light plays. Wuk Lamat is the hero of this story, while the player character is essentially a party member. It’s a fascinating choice on how to introduce a new ten-year storyline, but after being the legendary hero for so long, I can see how it might be difficult to digest for some.
But it also brings up another core issue I think FFXIV faces, the main party of The Scions are tired characters. Endwalker, for all intents, served as a finale that brought almost all of these characters’ stories full circle, and it’s heavily apparent that multiple characters in Dawntrail have almost nothing to do. Why are G’raha Tia and Y’shtola even there? Because people like them, that’s why.
Post Dawntrail patches have made some significant narrative improvements, especially in terms of giving characters more to do. But in terms of overall narrative, I genuinely think it’s time we move past legacy characters in FFXIV and focus on new ones. Wuk Lamat is part of that, but a new ensemble of characters feels more viable than just a single new one. That gives players time and room to find who they like best.
And what’s interesting is that it feels like story and narrative are really what FFXIV needs to improve on the most to bring players back. In my review of the game, I noted that Dawntrail has some of the best battle content the game has seen in years, and even a year later, it seems like that sentiment is still shared. Official forums and Reddit are filled with people talking about how much they love group content, battle content, and more. And that enthusiasm has largely stuck around in the 7.0 patches, which have done some really fun things with the Arcadion raids, Final Fantasy XI Alliance Raids, and more.
The FFXIV team has really listened to fan feedback and integrated that into content with Dawntrail. There are still worries you can raise about the game’s jobs becoming too similar and homogenized, but Dawntrail feels like it’s made legitimate strides forward in terms of gameplay.
And that brings the game to an interesting junction, with questions about what players want from the game. It’s become abundantly clear that story is a major part of the equation, and while things like voice acting and presentation could be improved, the core writing is always going to be important. For my money, I don’t think the game can meaningfully move into a new era with these old characters. In order for new themes and stories to flourish, there needs to be new characters that have more room to grow. This doesn’t mean the Scions need to go away entirely, there’s room for them to make appearances or star in stories, especially in side content — but much like The Phantom Thieves in Persona, it’s hard to see how their “development” can go any further.
But I think there’s a major question about whether FFXIV, and its development team, have the resources or room to satisfy everyone. Creating more compelling battle content has been a major undertaking, and are there resources to fully innovate on story, writing, and presentation alongside that? That’s a question that no one has an answer to right now, but something both the developers and players need to think about moving forward.
There’ll never be a way to please everyone, but there are adjustments that can be made. More than anything, I hope FFXIV’s development team stays as transparent as they have been. And amidst all this, there are larger questions to answer about the popularity of MMOs, how they deal with the rise of live service games, and more.
It’s a long road ahead for the game, but with some smart tweaks, FFXIV could still have a bright future. After all, there’s a reason so many people love this game so dearly.
