In August 2013, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was released for PC and console. The game would go on to have major success. Incredibly well received by fans and critics alike, Realm was praised for its writing and mechanics. It would soon grow to be one of the biggest MMOs on the market.
However, this was not always the case – FFXIV was not always as beloved as it is now. With the recent release of 5.4, XIV’s latest patch that begins to set the stage for the next expansion, we’ve decided to look back on the game’s history and how it went from almost destroying Square Enix to being its saviour.
The World of 1.0
If you’ve been in the XIV community long enough, you’ll have come across the term “1.0”. Those familiar with anything related to game patches will know what this means but will likely not know its significance. Three years prior to the release of A Realm Reborn, the original Final Fantasy XIV was released to the public and while A Realm Reborn was received with near unanimous praise, the original found anything but in its release.
The game debuted #2 in the PC game charts in Japan and had sold 603,000 copies worldwide. However, these numbers quickly came to attributed to hype as opposed to game quality, as the reviews began to roll in and painted a much different picture.
Reviewers were less than pleased with the product, with publishers giving it scores that hardly crept over 5/10. For years, Square Enix had often been known for producing games with compelling story, intriguing mechanics and impressive graphics. Many agree did agree that the graphics were of such quality, in thanks to the Crystal Tools engine that had spawned Final Fantasy XIII, but the rest was lacking.
So, what happened along the way?
Starting out under the codename “Rapture”, XIV had been in development for five years prior to release. Over the course of development, the team took great pains to make sure that the game was its own entity and not a follow-up to Final Fantasy XI, Square’s first MMO on PlayStation 2. This effort, however, did not stop them from using what they could from XI to help with the game’s development.
Human Resources
One such resource they thought to use was the team responsible. Hiromichi Tanaka, Nobuaki Komoto and Yaeko Sato were all brought on from the XI team to help bring XIV to life, with Square hoping their success in the past would ensure success for this title. However, problems soon began to arise. For starters, XIV’s world of Eorzea had been created before Sato was brought on to be the game’s main scenario writer. This naturally brought with it a level of creative restriction.
Before writing anything for the game, Sato would have to seek permission from Square and present her ideas for approval, stifling the creative process immensely. Furthermore, Tanaka, who had been brought in as XIV’s producer, had some unpleasant ideas for the game.
In an interview at E3 2010, prior to the open beta, he was asked about features present in the game. He revealed that jumping wasn’t one of them, as they claimed there would “be no use” for it.
Furthermore, Tanaka revealed that he originally didn’t want a mini map either. These issues, joined together with a plethora of others, all began to spell the downfall of not just Final Fantasy XIV, but of Square Enix also. To that end, the majority of the original XIV team was replaced, with Tanaka and Komoto being replaced in their roles of director and producer by Naoki Yoshida, who would soon come to be lovingly known in the community as Yoshi-P.
Enter Yoshi-P
With the restructuring of the team, Naoki Yoshida became both producer and director of XIV, helming the sinking ship and doing all he could to keep it afloat. Patches were released to help fix the various issues of the game in an attempt to make more playable, but with these patches it became far more apparent that the issues of the game were much more ingrained in the core of XIV itself.
To that end, Yoshi-P and the team came to a decision. They decided the game, as it was, was a failure and needed to go. However, they weren’t going to give up on XIV as a whole.
So, after fighting for Square’s permission, the team decided that they would continue patching 1.0 until its end, but whilst doing so they would be rebuilding the game from the ground up to take the place of the original. To kickstart this plan, however, Yoshida wanted to, essentially, bring about the end of the world.
After meeting with the scenario team, he got the greenlight to use one of the planet’s moons, Dalamud, as the centrepiece for this event and with the release of patch 1.19 on the game’s anniversary, the once white speck in the sky suddenly turned red, heralding the oncoming calamity.
End of Days
September 12th 2012 brought the final patch to Final Fantasy XIV, preparing the world for its end. Dalamud was ready to crash into Eorzea. While the Garlean Empire, the primary antagonists of the game thus far, were invading. The final battles would take place on the Cartenau Flats. On top of that, the cities had started to become overrun by monsters. The game was very clearly preparing for its shutdown.
Yoshida and his team had been working tirelessly behind the scenes on 2.0, what would come to be known as A Realm Reborn and Square had put all their apples in the basket of this reboot because if it failed, then the financial hit would likely send Square plummeting down to a point of no return. So, on November 11th, 2012, Dalamud fell and brought an end to 1.0 and for the next nine months, Yoshi-P and team worked tirelessly to prepare 2.0 for it’s launch.
The Rebirth of the Realm
Nine months. Nine months of long and arduous work brought Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to the public. With a reception that thankfully surpassed that of the original, 2.0 was praised by fans and press alike for its quality and polish.
While the original game received low-to-average scores from reviewers, A Realm Reborn received high marks all around, with the likes of Famitsu giving it a 39/40, Forbes giving it a 9.5/10 and Metacritic scores all between 75-100 based on the available platforms, being praised for listening to its community and fixing all the issues that had been reported. This level of communication with the community is something XIV has come to pride itself on.
An example of this is Yoshi-P’s approach to MMO production. In an interview with NoClip, Yoshi-P talks about how he envisions XIV and its content. He said he wants people to enjoy their lives and “never make it so that you have to play XIV continuously and have to log in every day”.
Proof
This player-focused mindset has won the respect and admiration of the XIV community. The game’s success served as proof that an MMO that focuses more on players than profit can be viable.
With the original, Square Enix had lost over $100 million and could not survive another unprofitable release. Thankfully, Yoshi-P and his team managed to not only save the XIV entry but Square as a whole. And with subscriber numbers growing and the next expansion on the horizon, Final Fantasy XIV shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Thanks for reading. We could talk all day about the story and lore but we hope you enjoyed this look into the history of Final Fantasy XIV. Do you play? If so, what do you think of the game? Share your thoughts below and let’s get talking.