Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's difficulty initially raised some concerns, but it was ultimately such a hit that Yoshi-P wants to continue moving in that direction

It sounds like Final Fantasy 14's harder dungeon and raid content is here to stay, as director and producer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida says the reaction to the Dawntrail expansion's difficulty was overall very positive - eventually.

In a new interview with Famitsu (translated via Google and DeepL, but also summarised online), Yoshida acknowledges the difficulty of Dawntrail's content, noting that some people had questioned whether it may have been a bit too hard for casual players. This was certainly a hot topic online in the weeks following the expansion's launch, likely as everyone was getting used to what was on offer. 

However, Yoshida notes that these opinions have since calmed down and that the team has received plenty of feedback saying that Dawntrail's level of difficulty was enjoyable. With that in mind, the director says that the dev team wants to continue moving forward in the same direction, at least for now.

This isn't the first time that Yoshida has acknowledged certain criticisms of Dawntrail, as in a separate interview with Eurogamer, he previously spoke about the backlash surrounding the changes to the new melee DPS job, Viper. Alterations were rolled out for the job shortly after the expansion's launch in an effort to make it more simplistic, and Yoshida revealed that "we had adjusted right until the last minute and we did have in mind the possibility that some players might provide feedback that it was too busy to play." 

He added that when it was first announced that the team was considering making changes to the job, players who'd already hit the level cap expressed that they liked it as it was, but "we had already identified some actions which would inevitably be a cause of stress for players."

Anyway, Yoshida's hint that we can expect further challenging content to come in the hit MMORPG is sure to be particularly exciting for the thrill-seekers out there – we'll just have to wait and see what Square Enix has in store for us. 

2 years and 800 hours later, solo Final Fantasy 14 grinder finally completes one of the MMO's most punishing challenges, immediately starts another run that's just as bad.