Ugh. Do I have to? Yes, apparently I have to. Let’s talk about Final Fantasy XIV Mobile as a new thing related to Final Fantasy XIV, which is something I already don’t want to do – but not because I hate this thing existing. I’ve already gotten a couple dozen people asking me what I think about this because, well, of course I do because I’m the FFXIV guy, so surely I have some thoughts about this, right?
And the answer is no. I don’t. I don’t care.
That’s perhaps just a little bit glib, but it’s broadly true. I don’t really care all that much about the mobile version of the game being in development beyond a few things that are worth noting for the larger overall implications because why would I? This is a thing that is not for me. Not everything needs to be for me. It is for a market I am not a part of, and while there are some business implications that are good about it, that’s about as far as it goes for me. Unfortunately, a lot of people are taking entirely the wrong lesson from this, and that’s the part when I already don’t want to talk about it.
Let’s start by making something very clear. The overall impact this has on FFXIV as a game is just in proving something that we already know to be true: This game is worth marketing and makes money. That’s it. Full stop. Not only does Square-Enix think it is worth the money made in licensing fees from Tencent to make a mobile spinoff game for the title, Tencent thinks it’s worth the money and effort to develop the game. That’s… kind of as far as it goes.
The game is aimed at a market that is much more into mobile games than I am, which is fine. I already have a perfectly good version of the game on my preferred platform, and I am not going to start also playing it on my phone during the train rides I don’t take or the bus rides that don’t exist. It is good for them that it exists, but that is not me, so I can let it be as far as that goes.
Alas, fandom is what it is, and this has set off more of the complaints of people who do not know how game development or budgets or really much of anything works.
Let’s be clear about something. This mobile game is not being developed by the people who are developing the main game. There are subtle hints about this, starting with the fact that the reveal trailer features Yoshida saying that directly. And… that’s kind of enough! You do not need more information. This effort is taking no resources away from the core MMORPG, just as all of the other bugbears of fandom opprobrium are not actually relevant targets.
Basically every time players are unhappy with a part of the game, they find something to point to external to FFXIV. It’s the fault of Final Fantasy XVI or some other game you don’t want to play taking resources from the game, for example. And that’s kinda weird, isn’t it? It’s really weird to think that developer priorities not being what you want them to must have some sinister conspiracy to them, even if actual history shows that this is completely normal for a given patch cycle. Something is sus there, and it ain’t the dev team.
Another fun one is “oh, the developers are clearly designing around a mobile game now, that’s why” and then insert a class design element that the poster is unhappy about. Because clearly “having buffs and debuffs line up on a two-minute cooldown cycle” could only be about designing for mobile and not about letting players synchronize their cooldowns more effectively.
Yes, I’m ranting a little bit here.
The idea of an FFXIV version on mobile is not a thing that I feel any particular interest in playing, but as I mentioned before, I am also not the primary market. I am not the primary market for a lot of things. But there is a market for these things, and it’s especially clear in the fact that by all indications FFXIV in its current form is doing fine for itself in China. The mobile version going back to ARR and clearly planning content on a delayed release is indication enough of that.
Of course, at this point it’s hard to tell much about what the game’s mechanics will look like. All that the trailer shows off are characters doing stuff and a fight against Titan, and what little we see of that fight seems to indicate that either positioning is not going to be a big deal in the game or that some creative liberties are being taken.
I suspect the former is more likely; it’s hard to get really precise movement on a mobile interface, which means that a lot of FFXIV’s very precise placement won’t work nearly as well. But I also wonder how much of the game will even translate to the mobile format to begin with.
The job lineup seems identical to the launch of ARR, right down to no sign of Ninja at this point (and we all remember Ninja was a late addition), but it looks as if more attention is being paid to content like the Gold Saucer than to crafting or gathering. I fully expect that the game will not have the complexities of those systems on mobile; indeed, I expect that a lot of the options will be pretty notably simplified, right down to having less complicated gearing/glamour and a greater focus on just going through the main scenario as a job from the start.
It also makes sense as a companion to the game doing fine in China anyway. “Hey, if you’re having fun on the mobile version, there’s a full version that has way more story and jobs and such, plus all these other features.” I don’t think there will be a way to transfer back and forth or have shared progression benefits, but it might be nice if the mobile version did let you get a head start on the full version of the game.
Ultimately, I think the far bigger impact is just that it shows how huge this particular brand is for the studio at this point. Over the years Square-Enix has consistently tried to make individual games in the franchise more of a brand unto themselves; Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV were both pushed hard in that direction to mixed success, for example. But it’s clear at this point that FFXIV has reached that status organically. This is a worthwhile, evergreen part of the overall Final Fantasy franchise without needing to rely on other bits and pieces here and there.
And yes, I am a little sad that this is happening when we didn’t actually get that mobile version of Final Fantasy XI that was under development, but not everything works out just the way you want.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
