Text/Wang Dan

If a game reaches the top, will it be left with a downhill and downhill script?

After playing version 6.0 of Final Fantasy 14 (FF14) released at the end of 2021, this question has been bothering me for a long time.

After all, this game has been holding a cool script before: it was not favored in the 1.0 period, and after Naoki Yoshida (hereinafter referred to as Yoshida) took over as the producer, he destroyed the whole world with the bright red Wei Yue, and put the game to life in 2.0;

Since then, the number of gamers has soared, and its cumulative number of players has exceeded 30 million at the beginning of this year; The game's rating on Metacritic has also improved, from 49 at the time of its initial launch to a high score of 92 in version 6.0.

The left is the initial online rating of FF14, and the right is the rating of version 6.0

But the problem is that by 6.0, almost all of the foreshadowing that FF14 had previously planted has been recovered. The long-standing feud between the Warrior of Light (the player) and the Shadowless (a force in the game) comes to an end at the climax of the story. Now that the player's journey to save the world is over, what else should everyone expect after that?

The pressure came to 7.0, but surprisingly, 7.0 seemed to be holding on. In June of this year, after the major version of the FF14 international server was updated, the number of simultaneous online users of the game hit a new high since 2013 (version 2.0 was launched).

Yoshida posted that the number of people online at the same time reached a record high

The number of concurrent users on Steam FF14 has rebounded to 90,000+

And offline, this kind of attention and stickiness is more intuitive - in early August, FF14 held a fan festival in Guangzhou. It took me 45 minutes just to get in line on the first morning......

Seeing such a scene, I feel that the question that bothered me before seems to have an answer: the story of the first chapter of FF14 is indeed over, but the journey of the Warrior of Light in Aiozea (the name of the in-game continent) continues.

01

A GaaS game that dares to end the story

From the perspective of long-term operation, FF14's move to close the first part of the story in 6.0 is actually quite risky. After all, many GaaS games will give players a crisis to be solved, and then this crisis will never be solved, so that users can always play with a sense of purpose.

In a group interview with the media before the fan festival, Yoshida also said that the team was indeed under pressure and worried about making such a decision.

On the left is Li Fengxin, Head of Chinese Localization at FF14, and on the right is Naoki Yoshida

He explained that from 2.0 to 6.0, FF14's story progresses step by step, and the process is a bit like building blocks. And when the building blocks reached the highest point, he and his team did a bold but had to do something: tear down the building blocks they had spent more than ten years and painstakingly built, so that the story could reach its final climax and end.

They also considered a more commercially appropriate delaying tactic - splitting 5.0 and 6.0 into 2-3 major versions each, so that they could not be finished so quickly and delayed for a few more years. But in the end, the team decided to put it all to an end in 6.0. Because the pace is too slow, they are worried that the player experience will deteriorate, which is not good for FF14.

Moreover, Yoshida himself is a fan of Dragon Ball, and he was deeply impressed by the ultimate battle between Son Goku and Frieza. So he doesn't want to drag the player all the time, but hopes that at the climax of the story, the player can experience the cool feeling of defeating the final boss and ending everything.

Image source network

But the price is that FF14 with 7.0 has to start building blocks again. Yoshida doesn't think that's a bad thing, because while 6.0 does reach the climax of the story, it doesn't mean that 7.0 is going to be dull - the team is no longer bound by the previous content, they are now free, and all kinds of free, novel ideas will make the game interesting. The whole team is currently very motivated and interested in 7.0 and subsequent updates.

Therefore, compared to the previous one, 7.0 will seem a bit bold.

First of all, its tonality is quite peculiar. The 7.0 expansion CG alone gives people a light-hearted, fun-hearted, vacation-friendly feel, which is completely different from the serious and tense themes of the apocalypse and deliverance before FF14. Yoshida mentioned that before the new version was announced at the North American Fan Festival, he felt nervous backstage and even trembled with his arms around his hands, because he couldn't tell if players would be able to accept this tone.

7.0 Expansion Footage

Secondly, according to Yoshida, the 7.0 copy is also more challenging than ever. He mentioned in a previous interview with Japanese media Famitsu that the team has been lowering the threshold of FF14 in the past, so that players can play without pressure, but looking back on the past ten years, Yoshida feels that it has been a bit too much - the game is stress-free, and it is boring to play.

Image source B station. A clip of a new dungeon (1) recorded by an international player

Effect of the dungeon (1)

Finally, Yoshida revealed that they are still working on some new ways to play. For example, he and Zu Jian Zhengqing (FF14 music producer, hereinafter referred to as Zu Jian) discussed whether they could create a music-related mechanism. It's just that if you want to make this gameplay at the moment, the team still needs to develop and test a new system, and it won't be able to come up for a while...... In short, the brain hole is opened.

Of course, aside from the challenge of rebuilding the building blocks myself, there may be friends who, like me, are curious about the competitive pressure of FF14 in the global MMO category. On this point, Yoshida also talked about what he sees as the evolution of the global MMO category over the past decade.

In his opinion, the definition of the word MMO seems to be becoming more and more unclear: in the past, MMO basically referred to very large-scale multiplayer online games, such as "World of Warcraft"; But now, even lightweight, mobile-played games can be classified as MMOs, and scale no longer seems to be a hard condition.

However, Yoshida said that this category evolution has a relatively small impact on FF14 - FF14 has been in operation for more than 11 years since 2.0, and the national server has been operating for more than 10 years. Therefore, there is no need for them to force themselves to take the lightweight route because of the trend of category evolution, which will deviate from the FF14 in the hearts of players.

02

What's so fun about this game?

There may be no standard answer

So, what does FF14 look like that players are familiar with?

I used to think about how to explain to my friends "what is the fun of FF14", but this question is not easy to answer. Maybe it's because this game is crammed with different types of players:

In order to get the strongest equipment, some people will form a fixed team with close friends to study the dungeon with extremely difficult challenges; Some people don't like to socialize, so they play MMOs as stand-alone, running missions all day long, or playing dungeons with NPCs; Some people only fish and mine; Some people are not interested in the above content, and soak in the Kingdee playground to play cards; Someone entertains other players in the RP (RolePlay) shop and lives out Second Life......

The supreme title of FF14 Angler

What's more, they didn't do anything, and hung up in Haidu (one of the main cities). The question is that the scenery is good, the square is big, and there are many performances (players).

Haidu Square at the scene of the fan festival is also surrounded by people

Image source B station

In the game, Haidu Square will always stage some strange work

Yoshida also said in a group interview that when they designed non-combat gameplay like fishing, the starting point was that players could do nothing else in FF14, and they could not do anything else, and only be interested in one of the gameplay methods, but also have a sufficient and interesting content experience.

Fishing, for example, has its own career plot; Corresponding to different fishing grounds such as freshwater, sea water, sea of clouds, lava, etc., there are different baits for players to use; At a certain time period and under certain weather conditions, players have a chance to catch ultra-rare fish; 6.0 also updated the fishing gameplay, which is like a large dungeon, but the ultimate goal of the angler is not to fight the boss, but to catch big fish.

Photo source: Water friends. The starting point for sea fishing

So what's so fun about this game? Ask different players, and the answer will probably be different.

However, when I saw different types of players gathered in the same venue at the fan festival, I suddenly felt that behind the different game goals, the reasons why players actually like FF14 may be roughly divided into two directions.

One is that I like the world of FF14. Because the characters in this world, and their stories, are alive.

The bunny people who DJ and jump on the fan festival

The tribe's premise in the game is that they are very fond of humans

The vividness here does not refer to something as simple as "having a setting and a plot". Rather, FF14 emphasizes the personality of these characters in many details, and at the same time reinforces the presence of these characters. This weakens their identity as game NPCs and instead makes them look like people living in this world.

For example, different characters in FF14 will have different habits when eating. Among them, Ukramat is a princess, but she eats with both hands and gnaws directly on the meat, implying that she has no shelf and a big personality; And when others have clearly warned that a certain dish is very spicy, she still has to eat it hard, and she pretends not to be spicy after eating, highlighting her hard mouth.

Ukramat

For example, when playing a dungeon with a player, these NPCs will also have their own combat preferences: Alise (one of the members of the protagonist group), who likes to show off her combat effectiveness and be competitive, always grabs LB (Limit Break, a ultimate energy bar shared by the whole team); Although Alfino always quarrels with his sister (Alise), he is honest and always gives priority to his sister, and some players even die violently because of this......

Image source network

Image source B station

The player cos-brother and sister quarrel at the fan festival and quarrel all over Iozea

Other NPCs that are not the protagonists, although they will not play with the player, also have a strong presence in the game. For example, at the end of the Omega side quest, Alpha (Yellow Bird in the picture below) and Omega (the black model in the picture below) who are unfamiliar with Aozea decide to travel together. FF14 didn't just make a CG and finish it, but really let them run around in the game.

CG clips

Image source B station. Players count where and when they encounter alpha. Sometimes they are talking to other NPCs, sometimes chasing animals, sometimes being chased by animals, and occasionally bathing in hot springs...... Traces are found throughout Iozea.

For players, these characters may not just be NPCs used to take on quests and earn rewards. They have their own personalities and stories, as well as their own lives.

Swipe left and right to view, in order of the catfish essence that is very cute in the game; Dwarves who like to "cheer and greet" with players; Gaius, who talked a lot and was very murderous; Bunnies who like humans.

Click on the image to enlarge it. In the game, he walks slowly with a lamp, but the damage is extremely high.

And what carries these characters and stories, and leaves memory anchors in the player's brain, is not only the plot, but also the music. Grape Jun previously talked about the music of FF14, and the genre of this game has also changed over the past 10 years of version evolution.

Yoshida said in the group interview that the indicators they consider the music are: where should this song be used in the game in order to maximize its effect? In other words, FF14's music is always deeply bound to scenes, plots, and events. This explains why, over the past 10 years, the melodies and styles of FF14's music have been constantly changing, sometimes lyrical, sometimes dreamy, sometimes rock.

Rock concert at the Fan Festival

Yoshida recalls that when he was developing version 5.0, he and Zu Jian discussed how to make the theme song. Zu Jian's idea is that it must be very suitable to be made into a rock style, but at the same time, he is a little worried, because under the IP of Final Fantasy, there has basically been no rock music before. Yoshida, on the other hand, said that since rock 'n' roll is more suitable, he should do it boldly. The result is the rebellious song "Shadowbringers" - once a warrior of light, now using the power of darkness to kill the angel that symbolizes light.

7.0 In the same way, knowing that the tonality is very different from the past, Yoshida still mentioned the keyword "summer vacation" to Zu Jian when he asked for the theme song. For this reason, Zu Jian and Natsuko Ishikawa, who was in charge of the plot, discussed for a long time: What should the feeling of summer vacation be? In the end, there was a 7.0 PV - at the beginning, Alfino said "blue sky, vast sea ......" which is completely in line with the impression of going to the beach to play during the summer vacation; The cheerful melody and rhythm of the theme song also highlight the passion of going out to play. So Yoshida was very satisfied when he accepted it: it tasted right.

And these different styles of music have also become the anchor of players' memories during the journey of FF14. After the Fan Festival, FF14 held their first symphony concert in China in Guangzhou. From 2.0 to 6.0, one version of the classic track after another has been performed, which reminds many viewers of the scenes and battles they have walked through in the game, and also recalls those characters who have sacrificed......

Second, what retains them may also be the player atmosphere of FF14.

Sometimes I think FF14 players are quite abstract. Not only did they work online, but they also showed a strong ability to be social terrorists (social terrorists) during the offline fan festival.

Image source B station. A player takes the stage to demonstrate the Blue Devil (class) single-brush Metion (one of the 6.0 bosses)

More often than not, though, I feel that FF14 players value camaraderie. For example, in this offline event, there are many fixed team players with 8 people traveling together;

The 8-man fixed team challenges Metion

Someone else made a special propaganda board to let everyone know how awesome their relatives and friends are.

Yoshida, who has been playing FF14 incognito all year round, also values this kind of player atmosphere of mutual tolerance and understanding.

He said in the group interview that over the past ten years, the player base of FF14 must have changed somewhat. Especially in the 5.0-6.0 period, after the game became popular, many newcomers poured into FF14. Some of them can't quickly adapt to the gameplay and rhythm of FF14, and some of them haven't even touched MMOs......

Even so, he observes that many veteran players will still be very patient to integrate them into FF14; He is also quite active in helping to type books and find materials.

Yoshida said that as developers, the main thing he and his team can do is develop the game itself. And this harmonious and friendly community atmosphere is mainly maintained by players. So, as a developer, he's very grateful to the players in the game right now for being able to pass on this vibe.

03

"Unless the doctor doesn't let me, or I'm gone,

Otherwise I would have been doing FF14"

Seeing this, some people may want to ask, how long can FF14 like this continue to be done?

I think Yoshida's words in the group interview may be the answer.

On the one hand, from Yoshida's vision, FF14's characteristics of "players love to play, tolerate and understand each other" may not change.

He mentioned in a group interview that in recent years, the international situation has not been very stable, and the anger on the Internet has become heavier - in the past, if netizens had different interests and hobbies, at most they would not interfere with each other and take a detour; But now, there will always be one side of the party who will stand up and stir up trouble: "Why do you like this?" ”

The culture of mutual negation creates a sense of division on the Internet. Yoshida wants to maintain the opposite experience in FF14: "You like this thing, it's okay. If you don't like it, it's okay. Everyone has something to like, and that's enough. ”

On the other hand, although Yoshida is not young, he has no plans to leave Iozea.

At the end of the group interview, he said that he was 37 years old when he first took over FF14, and now he is 51 years old: "Unless the doctor says I can't do it anymore, or I don't have anyone, I will continue to do FF14." So please take care of it in the future. ”

Yoshida celebrates the 10th anniversary of FF14 with the national service team. From left to right: Loofah Kafka (FF14 national costume producer), Shen Jie (general manager of Dawn Studio), Yoshida, Li Fengxin.

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