How much is the game held back by technical constraints?

[DPZ2]

I was under the impression that SE used an extremely modified (to the point where it is no longer Crystal Tools) version as the basis for the ARR engine.

The Luminous Engine, as far as I can tell, was used for Final Fantasy XV and ... Forspoken?

No confirmations about Final Fantasy XVI's engine, but it is definitely not the FFXIV engine, nor Luminous. According to the title of an article on cgworld.jp in 2023, 独自エンジンによる、アートとリアルの中間をねらった画づくり〜『FINAL FANTASY XVI』（1） 開発環境・画づくり篇 ... (key words being "proprietary engine" and "development environment).

Autotranslate in Edge provides: In addition, this game is developed with a newly designed in-house engine. Mr. Honda explains, "Considering the man-hours required for support when using a general-purpose game engine or an in-house engine, it was more suitable to develop and manage it ourselves from scratch."

[Source: https://cgworld.jp/article/202309-cgw301-ff16-01.html ]

[Catwho]

Cosmetics are one thing, but sooner or later, with a mobile game, and if it does pick up, you'll start to see the more sinister parts of F2P games show up. Roadblocks added to your progression to make you pay for some currency or some item that relieves it.

On a traditional MMO they can't do that because the playerbase wouldn't accept it, but on a mobile game it would be completely normal. Pay to uncap your tomestones, pay for the daily roulette battle pass... Who knows, they could even invent a new feature just to add gacha mechanics to the game

We already saw it - completing some shiny weapon in the mobile version costs around $250 if you want to pay for all the currency instead of earning it.

[Jeeqbit]

I was under the impression that SE used an extremely modified (to the point where it is no longer Crystal Tools) version as the basis for the ARR engine.

The Luminous Engine, as far as I can tell, was used for Final Fantasy XV and ... Forspoken?

The entire point of getting rid of 1.0 and remaking the game was to not use Crystal Tools. It uses a different engine than Luminous, but it's similar in structure. Some of the people working on FFXIV at the time had worked on Luminous.

[MayuAmakura]

It's not just technical limitation but also the way code was implemented into the game. Bad implementation, bad storage management and runtime all caused issues that we see today. Either devs just didn't think about it at that moment and wanted to deliver product as best as they can "brute force" or just didn't care. Now we see these consequences when they cannot save simple info on their servers so you can access them from anywhere. Wow did this way before in 2004. Now even for simple housing changes, they say "servers would crash".

[Kelg]

The game is not held back much at all from a technical standpoint(as in it actually can't be done). It's more of a manpower, budget and tech debt(aka spaghetti code) standpoint.

[Jeeqbit]

manpower, budget and tech debt(aka spaghetti code) standpoint.

Manpower yes, because they refuse to assign more developers. Budget, I don't think is the issue, but rather the actual assignment of manpower, because you can see how certain teams never grow in the credits.

Tech debt I don't think is particularly the issue either, because that can be fixed, there is just a lack of ability or a lack of task assignment to actually improve it. They've had 12 years to fix various "tech debt" after all.

[Kelg]

Manpower yes, because they refuse to assign more developers. Budget, I don't think is the issue, but rather the actual assignment of manpower, because you can see how certain teams never grow in the credits.

Tech debt I don't think is particularly the issue either, because that can be fixed, there is just a lack of ability or a lack of task assignment to actually improve it. They've had 12 years to fix various "tech debt" after all.

The manpower is an issue because they refuse to hire anyone outside of Japan and potential employees are short because of this. The budget is an issue because square takes the game's profits and doesn't put it back into the game, not because the game doesn't make money (it does). The deadlines they have to meet are super strict, they have to put out x amount of content so they can't just divert their coders to dig through old systems and remake them, that's why you keep seeing them make questionable decisions when it comes to glamour and other things that seem like a bandaid solutions that are just slapped ontop of current systems (the outfit system in the glam chest for example) instead of just remaking the systems in a smarter way.

[Kaurhz]

Probably quite a bit.

But they could resolve a lot of the noticeable 'technical constraint' if they wanted to.

As for the why they don't, I think it's a combination of resourcing, and 'sweeping things under the rug' salad dressed as 'technical constraint'.

When technical constraint is an issue, they've often times tried to address it using untenable methods that just results in a ridiculous amount of work going forward.

[DPZ2]

The manpower is an issue because they refuse to hire anyone outside of Japan and potential employees are short because of this.

It's a practical limitation, not a refusal. Even Blizzard Entertainment requires English proficiency for core development roles. Or are you suggesting that a developer who can neither read nor speak English proficiently would be totally welcome as a core developer?

It certainly limits the pool of developers, but it is a requirement because the company is Japanese. Square Enix still hires non-developers extensively in other countries without that requirement (and has hired developers through support of other game studios as necessary)

The budget is an issue because square takes the game's profits and doesn't put it back into the game, not because the game doesn't make money (it does).

This is applicable to most every MMORPG run by a company with multiple areas of corporate investment. WoW revenues, as an example, supported other Blizzard titles over the years.

The deadlines they have to meet are super strict, they have to put out x amount of content so they can't just divert their coders to dig through old systems and remake them.

"Remaking systems in a smarter way" may seem appealing but the time and cost for recreating the current game using what would essentially be a new game engine are impractical at best. Incremental changes, such as the current graphic changes to the game, alongside regularly scheduled patch cycles, are simpler than creating what would essentially be another game entirely.

[Kelg]

It's a practical limitation, not a refusal. Even Blizzard Entertainment requires English proficiency for core development roles. Or are you suggesting that a developer who can neither read nor speak English proficiently would be totally welcome as a core developer?

It certainly limits the pool of developers, but it is a requirement because the company is Japanese. Square Enix still hires non-developers extensively in other countries without that requirement (and has hired developers through support of other game studios as necessary)



This is applicable to most every MMORPG run by a company with multiple areas of corporate investment. WoW revenues, as an example, supported other Blizzard titles over the years.



"Remaking systems in a smarter way" may seem appealing but the time and cost for recreating the current game using what would essentially be a new game engine are impractical at best. Incremental changes, such as the current graphic changes to the game, alongside regularly scheduled patch cycles, are simpler than creating what would essentially be another game entirely.

No, it's reasonable to expect someone to speak Japanese to be hired by onto their team, but they do not hire people who can speak Japanese as a secondary language from other countries. They literally only hire Japanese employees, and would not hire bilingual NA developers and artists who can also speak Japanese. There is a massive difference there. You can see this because on they constantly put out hiring x and y over in Japan, but never put it here. The only people over here they hire are localizers and support staff, and there are plenty of programmers and artists who love video games, and Japanese rpgs who have learned Japanese and would love to work for square.