FFXIV has been enjoyed by audiences around the globe as an MMORPG. With that said, we periodically conduct market research around expansion releases and other timings, and the results indicated two areas where we’ve yet to make a breakthrough.
The first area is the large number of responses that state, “I’m a FINAL FANTASY fan and have played every game in the series, except FFXI and FFXIV,” which we are sad to hear. While FFXI has been updated to become far more solo-friendly than before, we would like to aim above and beyond with FFXIV.
The second area is the group that answers, “I’m hesitant to play online games like FFXIV because they require interacting with other players…” This has been the most prominent reason among those who don’t want to try FFXIV. As such, our goal over the next 10 years is to evolve FFXIV from an MMORPG to a new genre, “an RPG that’s fun alone or with friends.”
To this end, large-scale updates to the Trust system will be made during the Patch 6.x series. Of course, you can still use matchmaking to participate in duties; these updates are geared towards those who want to play through the main scenario by themselves.
As a note, 8-player trials that appear post-Heavensward will be addressed in Patch 7.0 or later. In Endwalker, we were able to determine that Trusts can be used for 8-player trials; however, since the process of adjusting the mechanics accordingly requires a lot of development cost, we would first like to address dungeons, as there are many of those.
Some of you may be under the impression that the Trust system is meant for forming parties with the Scions and other prominent characters. However, depending on the course of the story, you may not have always had such characters by your side. As such, there will be quite a few cases where you’ll be accompanied by NPCs from the Adventurers’ Guild, especially towards the early parts of the story.
With that said, we are hoping to adjust as much as we can for duties taking place during crucial moments in the story, even going as far as to adjust parts of the main scenario, so that you can participate in them alongside prominent characters.
On a related note, dungeons in A Realm Reborn were designed very differently from our current specifications, and such aspects will also be adjusted, a topic we’ll be elaborating on in future Letter LIVE broadcasts. For example, the floors that apply Heavy status in the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak will be removed.
We also have plans for Cape Westwind, which will be converted into a solo instanced battle, as well as Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium, which we plan to convert into 4-player dungeons. The encounters against Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea-possessed Thancred will be extracted and remade into their own separate content and will no longer be one-sided thrashings by eight Warriors of Light.