To say that Square Enix's second foray into the MMORPG realm with Final Fantasy XIV was a catastrophe might be an understatement. From the get-go, the game was paralyzed by an uninuitive User Interface (UI), bugs and an uninspired and shoddy combat mechanic.
This fact was not lost on some of Square Enix's staff as well. Naoki Yoshida, the new game director for Final Fantasy XIV, which is getting a reboot called Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, knows that the game shouldn't have gone on sale due to the bad reaction from their beta test for starters,
In an interview with Kotaku, Yoshida comments that the original team should have learned from fundamental errors from other MMOs and shouldn't have just set out to create an MMO that felt different from Final Fantasy XI.
I think it would've been good if they tried seeing what happened if they turned World of Warcraft into Final Fantasy. So, because they tried only to make something that was 'different from FFXI,' they ended up with not much of anything.
Yoshida turned to the genre leader once more and thinks that the team should have played World of Warcraft for a year for inspiration, and added that, "unless you are a genius, you cannot make something completely from nothing."
The game director even goes as far as saying that another debacle like Final Fantasy XIV would be like "destroying" the company itself.
We won't make a mistake like FFXIV again…If we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company.
I think MMORPG gamers who had to endure Final Fantasy XIV are nodding along feverishly with Yoshida's statements right about now, no?
In saying all that, don't expect Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to be out until it's ready; and honestly, after what happened to the original FFXIV? I'd tell them to take their time.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is scheduled to ship sometime in 2013, with the PS3 version to release within the same timespan as the PC version.
Anyone here who played Final Fantasy XIV think A Realm Reborn can actually salvage the title? More importantly, are you willing to give it another go when it relaunches?
