The story of Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail wraps up with the trial added in Patch 7.3 and the quests that lead up to it then tie up the remaining loose ends. Now, the next big patches will continue with that final part of the 7.3 main quests that are too spoiler-filled to mention in detail here. Compared to the 7.0 and 7.1 patches, reception for 7.3 has been generally better, as it’s clear that the developers have been listening to player feedback and adjusting the content where they could. However, there’s still quite a bit of predictability in how FF XIV’s stories play out.
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While the title and details of the next expansion for Final Fantasy 14 have yet to be revealed beyond the few hints you have at the end of Patch 7.3, moving forward, it would be a huge improvement for the developers to break the patterns that they’ve grown used to implementing with both the patch cycles and the design of the expansions. Patch 7.3 did bring some new elements to the MSQ content that you don’t normally see, such as including puzzles for you to solve in order to progress, but there’s more work to be done in the future.
Final Fantasy 14 Sticks to Old Patterns
There are a few patterns that could benefit from being shaken up in FF XIV. The first one is the structure of the expansions. Right now, you have this rather set design of which levels have a dungeon and which ones have trials, and Dawntrail, in particular, showed how sticking to this pattern can make the narrative feel rather disjointed. This is because you have the story bend around the need to put dungeons and trials at certain points. Instead, it makes more sense to arrange them in a different way so it doesn’t feel so forced or random when it comes to storytelling.
As far as patches go, the pattern tends to work better simply because you have one dungeon and a trial that follows it up, so each section of the patch MSQ is building up to that one encounter. This has to be easier to work with compared to working with the intervals at which the dungeons and trials are spread out in the base expansions. However, there’s still the problem of rulers for each area you help as the Warrior of Light being removed from relevance as soon as you’re done with that area in the MSQ, alongside the close allies of that leader. Sure, you might return and work with them again, like you did in Endwalker with a lot of political leaders, but they essentially stop existing for the most part.
Depending on the leader and their allies, having them step to the side at the end of their section so you can move onto the next set of characters you’ll be helping can be a welcome relief. However, there are other leaders and characters who have been left behind in their respective nations that would be great to see and work with again. It’s pretty sad when you get attached to characters from an expansion with the knowledge that they’ll end up as the leader of an area, and you will basically not see them again. As a result, it’d be great to see this dynamic changed, or for the leaders of nations to make an appearance now and again instead of being forgotten.
8.0 Will Need to Mix Things Up
Square Enix should be revealing details about Final Fantasy XIV version 8.0 relatively soon, especially now that Dawntrail has wrapped up and the next patches have you preparing for whatever big threat will appear for 8.0. There are generally a number of complaints in the community when a new expansion is released because of the strict way that dungeons and trials are set. With the developers finally trying some new features in recent updates, such as the puzzle section of 7.3, 8.0 would be the perfect expansion to make those bigger changes to the MSQ’s structure.
On top of tackling an ongoing issue, these changes would give the current head writers the chance to prove what they’re capable of creating when they aren’t forced to work with such a definite structure. Looser guidelines on where dungeons and trials fall would let them properly build up to each of these events in a way that fits naturally with the narrative. While it could be seen as risky to make changes like that, Final Fantasy used to be a franchise that wasn’t afraid to take risks and redefine what a video game could be like. It’s time to go back to that attitude, and Final Fantasy 14 is a great place to start.
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