What MMO developers can learn from Final Fantasy XIII-XIV

Square Enix have had it rather badly over the last couple of years. I’d argue that they’ve not exactly made terrible games or even that they’ve made games far below what they used to, but that they’ve had to compete both with a massive shift in the industry, from which Japanese developers are no longer practically infallible, and with a wave of nostalgia that coats all their earlier work. Despite almost universally perfect reviews for XIII and a promising future for XIV, it seems that the fans of their work are unlikely to let them forget their transgressions any time soon. This week, after playing a hell of a lot of Final Fantasy XIII over the last month or so, I thought we could take a look what Square Enix and MMO developers everywhere could learn from Final Fantasy’s past mistakes.

Being pretty isn’t enough

MMOs aren’t a genre known for being especially pretty. The developers need to have as huge a userbase as possible and so make their game to be as universally workable as possible. Games tend to come out with average graphics for the time and then are updated over time. MMO development costs play a big role here. Take a look at how World of Warcraft looks now (arguably not fantastic for much of the time) and how it looked when it launched and you may well be surprised. Occasionally an MMO comes along that tries to break free from this stereotype and sometimes it’s even fun to play.

A lot of MMO developers this generation are learning that fantastic graphics are enough to get people’s attention, but rarely are they enough to make you keep subscribing, force you to partake in micro-transactions or purchase expansion packs. That’s not to say that good graphics isn’t a must, as the genre continues to grow there needs to be something that makes your game stick out from the pack, but there needs to be a game underneath that works and works in an entertaining way.

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII seemed shallow but was actually quite deep; having to put the effort into getting to the heart of the game put a lot of people off and led to all those accusations of “twenty hour tutorials.” Final Fantasy XIV tried to be to deep, offering too many menus and not enough to actually do. Getting a nice balance between the two – a lot of options, a lot of depth, but playable by people who didn’t want to get bogged down in the details – is the key, the pretty stuff can come later.

The industry has evolved

Final Fantasy XI was a hugely successful game and I wish I could have played it. Subscription fees and no single player put me off at the time, and it was the first in the series since I was 7 that I never played until I knew every corner of the world by heart. Final Fantasy XIV was a complete failure, although, from what I’ve been told, the two games weren’t massively dissimilar from one another. How did one do so well and the other do so badly? The truth is, gaming has changed. More importantly, gamers have changed, and they don’t want to spend their hard-earned pennies on something that isn’t exactly what they want.

The industry is at a point where the next big MMO, the WoW-crusher that everybody wants, is going to need to be something completely different. With rumours of a Fable MMO in the works, along with Mass Effect and something new from Blizzard, there are probably quite a few “unusual” things coming soon and each could be something that evolves the way we look at massively multiplayer gaming. Doing a game that not only doesn’t build much upon over-used formula but also reduces the action involved was a huge mistake on Square’s part and something that I don’t think they’ll make the mistake of doing again.

The industry is evolving, but the people who were playing games 10-15 years ago are no longer children and have jobs and kids of their own. Now they want faster-paced games in smaller portions and it’s something that MMO developers need to consider as well. The people who play for forty hours a week are in the absolute minority and there needs to be a mid-ground found if MMOs are to remain profitable.

You can always fix what’s broken

I hate to sound so negative, I never played XIV but I know that Final Fantasy XIII is actually a pretty good game. You wouldn’t believe it to hear all the talk on forums, but it really was. So let’s finish this article on something a little more optimistic. I think that Square have proven this generation, perhaps more than any other developer, that you can always fix what is broken. Despite poor sales and moments where they must have been bleeding money, they’ve continued to have confidence in their titles even when nobody else seemed to be able to find anything good to say.

In XIII they created a game that people had mixed feelings about. Some hated it, some loved it, but it’s gone down in recent history as a complete and utter failure. It sold very well and got great reception from the press at the time, but has since been seen as part of Square’s slippy slide into being terrible. It’s an opinion, not one I agree with, but it’s an oft-repeated idea. How did Square respond to such a popular rumour? They released a sequel, which improved on much of what people disliked about XIII. They might not bring back people completely turned off by XIII, but they’ll sure as hell prove that they’re listening to what people say.

What MMO developers should remember

More impressive, FF XIV was so dreadful at launch that they made the game free-to-play until a time when it was worth paying a subscription for. That time is coming soon and they’ve completely changed everything, to the point where it’s as good as a new game. Hopefully the PS3 version is still on its way as well, and Square will redeem themselves in the eyes of the MMO-buying public. They looked at a mistake, they apologised for that mistake and now they’ve tried to make it better. If that’s not something new MMO developers should remember, I don’t know what is. A gamer’s attention is fickle, but making good will impress.