Everything Ends
Final Fantasy XIV isn’t like a lot of other MMO’s, and a big part of that is the story. With everything you love about Final Fantasy plots spread over hundreds of hours of gameplay across multiple arcs, and it’s this strong emphasis on story that means it needs a satisfying ending – at least, that’s what director Naoki Yoshida says, as the upcoming expansion Endwalker will serve to finish the story thus far.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Yoshida said: “Final Fantasy 14 is very unique for an MMO in that it is heavily story driven. It’s true we can continue to stretch out the story, but by delivering the climax for this current story arc, we create a new experience which players may not get from other MMOs.”
“I’ve made it clear that we will continue creating new content, but specifically for Endwalker, it was exciting for me and my team to think about what kind of ending we would depict through the story with this kind of game.”
It’s worth noting that Final Fantasy XIV as we know it is in fact a reboot of the defunct original version (Hence the subtitle A Realm Reborn used for the initial release), which ended with the warriors of light fighting one final battle and – at least in the story of the reboot – having their identities forgotten by those that knew them. Could we be seeing another soft reboot in the same vein, keeping things fresh while ending the current storyline?
Adding to the finality, Yoshida confirmed that unlike previous expansions, which came with a slew of new challenges and storylines in following DLC, Endwalker will tie up all the loose ends in the base game.
“This is not simply the finale of a single expansion pack, but the end of a long-running saga, so I wanted to make it as grandiose as we could. Since we allocate the most development resources into creating the expansion pack itself, doing this as part of Endwalker could achieve that wish.”
Where will Final Fantasy XIV go from here? Well, that remains to be seen, but the story as we know it is ending, as all good stories do.
What’s your main class in Final Fantasy XIV? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
