Is it safe to say that the next FF MMO will be an action game?

[Vandso]

Pretty much every FF release since XIV was an action game. We had FFXV, FF7R, Stranger of Paradise and FFXVI (I guess the only exception is FF7 Ever Crisis, the mobile game). It's clear that they want to keep pushing the genre as it has been very successfull, and also knowing that FFXIV is doing pretty well on his own, I don't think they wanna get rid of it so soon nor release an MMO too similar to it. Which is why I think their next MMO will be an action game instead of a tab-target one. Now, knowing how much they evolved in their action games I'm not too concerned about it, but what to change and what to keep from FFXIV? Here's my own perspective on this:

What to keep

- All jobs in one character
This is the best thing about FFXIV and one of the main reasons why I don't play other MMOs. It makes the game a little alt-unfriendly sure, but who cares? Having all jobs in one character is awesome.

- Focus on the social aspect
That's another think about the game that makes me hard to leave. It's what makes FFXIV feel so alive. We have crowded cities, bards, venues, glamours, fashion accessories, adventurer plates. I just wish we have more accessbility options. We wouldn't be able to do what we do with bards/venues without third party tools.

- Level-based skills
Maybe skill trees are alright as long as your "skill currency" is gained by level and you have them all at max level. I just dislike the idea of unlocking skills via quests or shop. Imo the worst part of FFXIV's leveing experience is when I have to quit a dungeon queue and disband a party to enter a solo instance.

- Fast Travel
That's obligatory in every MMO. If you don't think so go play New World.

What to change

- MSQ is optional, content is unlocked through leveling
We all love the MSQ, but why does every single thing in the game need to be attached to the story? Why can't I do Island Sanctuary and Criterion Dungeons before Endwalker? What about raids, exploratory zones, flight, mounts? That's what makes the game so alt-unfriendly.

- Holy Trinity
I don't think Holy Trinity works really well with action games. Since most of the mechanics will be around dodging, timing and positioning, we won't need a tank and a healer every single game. It also makes queues really long.

- No Beginner/Secondary Classes
Yeah I want to play Black Mage right away, I don't want to level a Thaumaturge first. Why the hell is called Thaumaturge anyway? Thaumaturge means saint.

- Auto-loot
You know what auto-loot does? Fills your inventory with crap. You should be able to pick whatever you want from the enemy drops.

- Loading Screens
Yeah that's not going away. Every FF has a shitton of loading screen, except for maybe FFXV.

Well, that's all just basic stuff. I probably forgot many things. What about you? If square released a new MMO, what would you like it to have?

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Is it safe to say that the next FF MMO will be an action game?

No.
But Ill be honest, Im just saying that because I dont like Making Bold Assumptions and Predictions. Even with other instances and evidence, because you can still be wrong....just like how everyone thought Forspoken was gonna be the next expansion, and just because YoshiP has lied before, it means he's lying now....and behold he wasn't lying and Forspoken was a Whole Different Game.
And....hmm guess I cant give a real Educated opinion here, because the only examples I can draw from are ESO, and BDO. But I just hate how ESO works and I didnt have a good experience with BDO on console (Peasant I know) But they are both Successful enough, I just dont know if it would work for a FF-MMO.

What to change
- Loading Screens

Is there a Current MMO-Type Game with no Loading Screens?
Everything would have to be Preloaded and there would be no Instanced Content. Everything would just be live.
I know Runescape did it this way...but of course that was a simpler time when it was a browser game.
IDK, I just dont see this working in a Space will hundreds, to Thousands, or Millions of Players and Assets moving around, that they would be able to eliminate Loading Screens.

[Shinkuno]

Is there a Current MMO-Type Game with no Loading Screens?
.

You can travel across each contintent in WoW with no loading screen. Only changing to another continent or zoning into a instanced area has a loading screen.



I dont agree with your fast travel point. FF14 went too far. Thats why the open world is completly dead. Rather have it like WoW where there is fast travel to specific points, you can unlock some more niche location teleports via toys and items but for the rest you gotta move yourself.

[Atelier-Bagur]

You can travel across each contintent in WoW with no loading screen. Only changing to another continent or zoning into a instanced area has a loading screen.



I dont agree with your fast travel point. FF14 went too far. Thats why the open world is completly dead. Rather have it like WoW where there is fast travel to specific points, you can unlock some more niche location teleports via toys and items but for the rest you gotta move yourself.

They already sort of tried that in Heavensward with how they made the aetheryte locations spread out and inconvenient. With Dravania Hinterlands not even having one and you have to warp to Idyllshire to get to it. And guess what, people hated it.

[Jeeqbit]

I dont agree with your fast travel point. FF14 went too far. Thats why the open world is completly dead. Rather have it like WoW where there is fast travel to specific points, you can unlock some more niche location teleports via toys and items but for the rest you gotta move yourself.

RP travel is fun, when you actually want to do it.

Not so much when you don't want to do it (ie. a raid group waiting for you).

Games just need to get the circumstances that require RP travel right.

[Akonyl]

I doubt it. Making a single-player action game and an MMO action game are entirely different beasts in regards to development issues/experience necessary, because making something online introduces a hoard of problems, which is why tab-target is so popular for MMOs. When even some fighting game developers don't implement rollback netcode, in a genre that's highly dependent on the online aspect, and in a genre that's just one-on-one combat, I can't really imagine SE going forward and trying to make an action-style MMO with a bunch of players fighting something simultaneously in a way that the action is actually meaningful.

I dont agree with your fast travel point. FF14 went too far. Thats why the open world is completly dead. Rather have it like WoW where there is fast travel to specific points, you can unlock some more niche location teleports via toys and items but for the rest you gotta move yourself.

Fast travel isn't the issue with FF14's open world, imo. WoW pretty much has the equivalent, it's just flight paths (or aiming your mount a direction and auto-flying), and while those aren't instant, who doesn't just alt-tab while they're waiting to arrive? You're not actually experiencing the world, it just takes more time.

The difference is that in WoW there's actually a point to doing stuff in the open world. XIV has FATEs, sure, but those are almost primarily for leveling, and there's many other/better ways to do that. When was the last time you actually had to farm a drop from an overworld enemy in XIV? That's what makes the overworld stay alive in WoW imo, it's the fact that there's drops you need from specific enemies/enemy types/areas/etc that gives people a reason, even at max level, to be killing dudes in whatever zone. The only relevant enemy drop I can think of in XIV is leather, but that comes from ventures too, everything else is just gathering jobs or things you buy with tomes, or whatever. It's just too easy for a max level character in XIV to hole up in main cities forever except for when a new MSQ patch drops, and still maintain the best gear in the game, so they don't have a reason to leave.

[Jeeqbit]

When was the last time you actually had to farm a drop from an overworld enemy in XIV?

I fight hunts regularly, I do treasure maps, sometimes I do beast tribe quests or gather on my gatherers.

It's not fair to say that nothing exists to take you into the world, but it is fair to say that there could be more or that it could be more in-depth.

[Lauront]

I don't care to speculate too deeply on what their next MMO will be, if there is one, but at least based on Yoshi's own words we can glean what their thinking on it is and that does point to an action one:

Games like Fortnite and Overwatch are vying for dedicated, online audiences like MMOs do - as a traditional MMO creator how does that make you feel?

Naoki Yoshida: This is happening because the video game industry continuously evolves. Just taking this example, traditional JRPGs are based on turn-based games. and especially for the youth, they feel that it's quite outdated, they don't really understand.. Talking about the younger generation, someone up to the age of 25, because prior to the time they were born, there was relatively high-spec hardware for their gaming experiences - their character is rendered very realistically and they can actually control the characters directly - by pressing one button, the character will punch the enemies or fire the gun...

That's why we don't feel those types of games are a threat because the basic game is designed completely differently. Because the audience that's playing Overwatch and Fortnite are probably in their 20s, they're a younger audience. If that younger audience becomes our main audience for FF14 or our current MMORPG, then we may need to cater to that new audience and create the excitement that they want from a game. We feel that FF14 doesn't really need to play that role. It should be the next generation of MMOs. But if we want to make an MMO which doesn't require targeting, that would be really difficult. We'd probably need to make some drastic changes to the game where there are text chats, but people are using voice chat and you can choose your play style, you can quit anything, you can come back any time... That kind of generation and time will definitely come, but personally speaking it looks very difficult so I don't want to do it!

https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fant...-proofing-mmos

Jeux Online: What do you think about the future of the MMORPG genre as whole? The 1st gen and 2nd gen MMORPG audiences have gotten older and the newer generation doesn’t seem that interested in MMOs. So, where do you think the future of MMO lies?

Naoki Yoshida: First and foremost, with Final Fantasy XIV, we do believe that this game is at the maybe tail-end of the 2nd generation of MMORPGs. I believe that World of Warcraft was sort of the start of that 2nd generation. Having that kind of strong content-driven MMOs defined the MMORPGs of that generation. With Final Fantasy XIV, I believe this is the newest game within that generation of MMORPGs, but I also feel that we are coming to the very late part of that 2nd generation. So, I feel that there probably won’t be another MMO that is similar to what has already come out.

Even if Final Fantasy XIV were to release further expansions, maybe 3 or 4 more expansions, we don’t believe that FFXIV would evolve into the 3rd generation of MMORPGs.

We would just continue to pursue and perfect what we have so that we aim to become the ultimate MMORPG within our current generation.

In terms of the 3rd generation of MMORPGs, I believe that we would need to have something design that is fundamentally different.

I think there is a very important element, a keyword almost. The younger generation is one thing, but even with those existing gamers that have become older, there is really not a difference between those two parties. Both types of people have become very busy and there are so many different forms of entertainment, a lot of smart devices being out and available and it is more difficult to carve the time to sit down and do content. Previously, we wouldn’t have to worry about it because there weren’t so much distractions that would take us away, we had the time to sit down and do this sort of time-consuming content. But nowadays, when you start playing a game, you might get an email, you might get a text message, friends might want you to go see the latest movie or go out for a drink ; there are so many different things and so much materialistic objects that can distract you.There are all vying for your time.

You may be aware that worldwide we’ve seen games of the MOBA genre or Battle Royale games becoming very popular, games that people can jump in whenever they want, have that sort of instant gratification, and then quit whenever they want. I think that’s a very attractive set-up for the modern gamer or any gamer in this current time basically. And we feel that for MMOs of the next generation, it is important that we capitalize on that. It is something that’s a key element.

We feel that those are very important elements to incorporate if we were to bring a game that moves us into the next generation of the genre. But if we were to divulge more details, I think we would be giving hints to our competitors on our company’s ideas so I think I’m gonna stop right there.

https://ffxiv.jeuxonline.info/actual...ion-avenir-mmo

There was also this but it's less relevant to their own ambitions and more Yoshi's: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fi.../1100-6506550/

Have to say, I find some of his comments, e.g. on JRPGs, a bit odd, and having played both XIV and XVI (much as I enjoyed it), at this point I'm not sure I really want to play another game where he has heavy involvement. My hope would be they put it in someone else's hands.

[Akibaws]

I don't see Squenix making another MMO unless Blizzard do first and pave the way.

[MsMisato]

Is there a Current MMO-Type Game with no Loading Screens?
Everything would have to be Preloaded and there would be no Instanced Content. Everything would just be live.
I know Runescape did it this way...but of course that was a simpler time when it was a browser game.
IDK, I just dont see this working in a Space will hundreds, to Thousands, or Millions of Players and Assets moving around, that they would be able to eliminate Loading Screens.

BDO is pre much open world with no loading screens. the only screens i recall are going to housing in whatever city,village, town, or capital you went into a home at.