Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida previously said that the 8.0 update – which has now been revealed as Evercold – won't be a full "rebirth" for the venerable MMO, but judging by by the details revealed at today's Fan Festival keynote, it's not far off. Endgame progression is getting a massive overhaul, partly to respect your time, and partly because Yoshi-P knows you've gotten sick of collecting tomestones after all these years.
"While there is certainly something comforting about a product that remains unchanging with time," Yoshida says via translator in the keynote, "on the other hand, with the lack of change can come something else." With that comes an image of the item Final Fantasy 14 players have been collecting over and over and over again: "Tomestones. So many. So many." With these words, a flood of Allagan tomestones appears on the screen. "Keep going. More. More tomestones."
Yoshi-P acknowledges that "this is not something that you'd expect me, the director, saying, but I get it. It's been 13 years. That's a lot of Allagan tomestones." And yes, anybody who's spent any time playing FF14 can attest to the fact that much of the experience is doing a series of daily roulettes to collect tomestones that can then be exchanged for incrementally better pieces of gear.
Now, FF14 is moving from daily roulettes to a weekly list of activities. "With Evercold, we are looking to change this from a daily to a weekly system to better fit the many different playstyles and lifestyles of our users. To help you better allocate your limited free time."
You'll progress your character not through roulettes, but through a series of missions that rotate weekly. Completing those missions, which include things like beating story quests, gathering collectables, or finishing instanced dungeons, will award you weekly activity points. A new "adventurer activity" screen, which looks a little like a battle pass, will show how those points stack, unlocking new gear as you level up.
"By evolving from a daily to a weekly cycle, it will allow you as players more options to choose how you want to play," Yoshida says. "Do you want to log in a little bit each day? That's fine. Do you want to take off the weekdays and maybe come in and focus a week's worth of play on Saturday and Sunday? That's okay too. You decide your in-game schedule based on your own real-world schedule without any penalties."
MMOs are notorious time sinks, but Final Fantasy 14 has historically been friendlier in that regard than most others in the genre – which is part of why it's the only MMO I've ever put any real hours into. Yoshida has long encouraged players to take breaks when they're burnt out on the MMO, and even go play other games from time to time. While other online titles are taking every step they can to squeeze not just every penny they can out of you, but also every moment of your attention, it's still refreshing to know that FF14 is taking the opposite approach.
Perhaps the most obvious nod to respect for free time is this: your highest item level will now be shared across every job you play. So you no longer have to repeatedly go through the endgame grind if you want to keep, say, your White Mage raid-ready when you primarily play Dragoon. As long as you're on top of your job level, item level is no longer a concern for your secondary classes.
"In 8.0, jobs will still exist, and you'll still have to level them separately, but now players will be able to reflect their highest item level to other jobs. Again, this won't include, like, stat boosts awarded by materia. We still want players that really want to maximize things to have something that gives them motivation for that. But for the majority of players, this new feature means that you now have more freedom to choose how and what you want to play."
That's just the tip of the iceberg of what was announced at the Fan Festival keynote, which also revealed an Evangelion-themed alliance raid series and an upcoming port to Switch 2. While FF14 has certainly been in a down period since Dawntrail, it's clear that Square Enix is swinging for the fences as it attempts to get things back on track.
Final Fantasy 14 is still the best MMO you can play today.
