History AuthorsSavingThrow / FinalFantasyXIV

-->'''Yoshida''': ''(translated from Japanese)'' We figured everybody would be interested in playing the ''Elden Ring'' DLC. I'll give you one week! [...] Just want to make it clear, it's not because I wanted to play ''Elden Ring'' DLC and then play ''Dawntrail''...

** If you're a fan of ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', the release date of ''Dawntrail'' might be a saving throw to you as well, in a meta sense. Yoshida mentioned himself that ''Dawntrail'' was originally going to release a week earlier than announced... which would put early access on the exact same date as Elden Ring's "Shadow of the Erdtree" DLC. In the release date announcement, Yoshida referenced this directly as not wanting to compete with that game and/or divide players' attentions. Yoshida also insisted that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenail it had nothing to do with the fact that he himself was looking forward to the DLC]].
-->'''Naoki Yoshida''': ''(translated from Japanese)'' We figured everybody would be interested in playing the ''Elden Ring'' DLC. I'll give you one week! [...] Just want to make it clear, it's not because ''I'' wanted to play ''Elden Ring'' DLC and then play ''Dawntrail''.

* A point of contention was the absolutely trivialized Blacklist system that hardly protects players from bad actors and continuous harassment. ''Dawntrail'' would give a much-welcome upgrade to it, ranging from making blacklisted players completely invisible to you (except for instances for gameplay reasons, but it would redact their name), to kicking nuisance players out of your home, which helps players hosting events keep things tidy for everyone. Blacklisting players will also block the player's entire account, so they can't be sneaky and continue harassing the player as another character.

* The XBOXSeriesXS release of the game was a crowning achievement, releasing initially as an Open Beta Free Trial for new XBOX players to get interested, before offering, to all players with Game Pass Ultimate, the ''required'' Starter Edition for the first month after launch, allowing former subscribers and new players to get into the full game '''''for free'''''.

** If you're a fan of ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', the release date of Dawntrail might be a saving throw to you as well, at least in a meta sense. Yoshida mentioned himself that the game was originally going to release a week earlier than announced... which would put early access on the ''exact'' same date as Elden Ring's "Shadow of the Erdtree" DLC. In the release date announcement, he references this directly. He's not really convincing anyone when he dismisses a ''certain'' reason as of why he delayed it, though...
--> '''Naoki Yoshida (Translated)''': "We figured everybody would be interested in playing the Elden Ring DLC. I'll give you ONE week! [...] Just want to make it clear, it's not because ''I'' wanted to play Elden Ring DLC and then play Dawntrail..."

* A point of contention was the absolutely trivialized Blacklist system that hardly protects players from bad actors and continuous harassment. ''Dawntrail'' would give a much-welcome upgrade to it, ranging from making blacklisted players completely invisible to you (except for instances for gameplay reasons, but it would redact their name), to kicking nuisance players out of your home, which helps players hosting events keep things tidy for everyone.

** If you're a fan of VideoGame/EldenRing, the release date of Dawntrail might be a saving throw to you as well, at least in a meta sense. Yoshida mentioned himself that the game was originally going to release a week earlier than announced... which would put early access on the ''exact'' same date as Elden Ring's "Shadow of the Erdtree" DLC. In the release date announcement, he references this directly. He's not really convincing anyone when he dismisses a ''certain'' reason as of why he delayed it, though...

* The release date of ''Endwalker'' [[ReleaseDateChange had to be pushed back two weeks]] to deal with glaring technical issues and to ensure that everything would run smoothly upon launch. During the announcement, Yoshida was very visibly upset, promising to give everyone free game time as a result, adding that he hated having to do it because he knew that people had already taken time off on the original release date, and that it was the first time in his career that he ever had to push a release date back. Come the Tokyo [=FanFest=] in January 2024, and Yoshida didn't announce the release date for the then-upcoming ''Dawntrail'' expansion, unlike every other [=FanFest=] that occurs with the full trailer of an expansion. Yoshida explained this as not wanting to jump the gun and have to delay another expansion should something come up. He only publicly announced the release date of ''Dawntrail'' as July 2, 2024 at PAX East in late March of that year, once he was absolutely sure that the team could release ''Dawntrail'' with no delay.[[invoked]]

* The release date of ''Endwalker'' [[ReleaseDateChange had to be pushed back two weeks]] to deal with glaring technical issues and to ensure that everything would run smoothly upon launch. During the announcement, Yoshida was very visibly upset, promising to give everyone free game time as a result, adding that he hated having to do it because he knew that people had already taken time off on the original release date, and that it was the first time in his career that he ever had to push a release date back. Come Fanfest 2024 in Tokyo, Yoshida didn't announce the release date for the then-upcoming ''Dawntrail'', unlike every other Fanfest that occurs with the full trailer of an expansion. He explained this as not wanting to announce another delay should it come up, and that he would only publically announce the release date once he was absolutely sure that the team could release ''Dawntrail'' on-schedule.[[invoked]]

* For all of the times that Minfilia says "Pray return to the Waking Sands", one would think that there would be a way to access the Waking Sands quickly. But for the longest time, there wasn't one. The nearest aetheryte shard is quite a trek away from the Waking Sands, necessitating a long walk to get there. You're going to have to do this multiple times throughout the game, since the Waking Sands serves as the HomeBase for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and [[PlayerCharacter the Warrior of Light]]. Even after the Scions leave for a bigger base, the Waking Sands is still narratively important enough to require a few more trips before you can truly leave it behind. The characters even do some LampshadeHanging in-universe about how much of a pain it is to get to the Waking Sands, which just feels like a gut punch when you've gone back and forth so many times. Future expansions would take note of this, making the home base of each expansion much closer to aetheryte towers or shards for easier access. Also, aetheryte tickets which teleport you directly to the Waking Sands for free were eventually added as main quest rewards to make it a little easier on you, including the quest that tells you where the Waking Sands is. These quests also drop far more tickets than necessary to complete the MSQ of ''A Realm Reborn'', by which time you'll unlock flying mounts to get there even faster if you want to go back to do optional content.

* During the 2024 Tokyo [=FanFest=] event, Yoshi-P said the reason that Krile was chosen as the champion of the then-new [[ArtAttacker Pictomancer DPS class]] for ''Dawntrail'' is because players felt that Krile had gotten unfairly looked over, a complaint that Yoshi-P agreed with. While many of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn [[DiscardAndDraw changed classes or were modified to be more useful as combat characters with the Trust system]], Krile was subsequently left in the dust as a Conjurer. Starting with ''Dawntrail'', she was added as the Pictomancer class and confirmed to be a Trust character starting with 7.0, both to give her more story presence and utility in gameplay.

* The accuracy stat was removed in patch 4.0, as players derided it as a ScrappyMechanic. To make up for it, and so as to not make the accuracy-boosting Heaven's Eye materia useless, a new kind of attack modifier called a Direct Hit was added in the same patch. Direct Hits are based on accuracy, hurt more than a normal attack, and appear more often than Critical Hits, but don't deal quite as much extra damage as Critical Hits. However, both can stack to form a Direct Critical Hit, indicated by damage text with two exclamation points where both a Direct Hit and a Critical Hit occur at the same time. So not only did the developers get rid of a much-maligned mechanic, but anyone who loaded their equipment with Heaven's Eye got a free upgrade that boosted their Direct Hit rate.

* The Bozjan Southern Front functions like Eureka, being an instanced open area, but improves on the faults of the latter.
** The area is synced to level 80, at i430 minimum, but also has the unique feature of syncing ''up'' classes, allowing players to level up classes 71 and up (and make up for the lack of a new Deep Dungeon in Shadowbringers).

** Instead of an Elemental Level and Elemental EXP, you have Resistance Rank and Mettle, which has no heavy bearing on your strength in the instance and requires much less grind to raise. Players under Rank 5 are also able to respawn without penalty, easing up the early-game punishments. Even with the existence of a death penalty, it amounts to a minor slap on the wrist, and can be easily made up so long as you don't respawn back to base and take the even bigger hit to mettle.

** After the awfully executed stat customization on Eureka Weapons, the Augmented Law's Order weapons goes back to giving the player choice on what stats they want, down to the exact point per stat. There's still a hard limit on how many points can be allocated, but players are otherwise given absolute freedom and flexibility for even the most hardcore number crunchers.

* Healers have ''starved'' for a new job, only having the one healer addition in Heavensward, while tanks and DPS have been obtaining new jobs for their roles in Stormblood and Shadowbringers. Healers had only three to work with, and it stood that way for a full six years until Endwalker gave much-needed love for the role in the form of Sage. It was also telling they were aware of the drought by making it the first job reveal in the February 2021 Announcement Showcase.

* After the [[BrokenBase rather polarizing decision]] to gender-lock Viera and Hrothgar to female and male respectively, there was considerable rejoicing among the fanbase when it was announced during Fanfest 2021 that Viera would be getting male counterparts with the launch of ''Endwalker'', whilst female Hrothgar were noted to be planned for an as-yet undetermined point in the future.

* During the 2024 Tokto [=FanFest=] event, Yoshi-P said the reason that Krile was chosen as the champion of the then-new [[ArtAttacker Pictomancer DPS class]] for ''Dawntrail'' is because he felt that Krile had gotten unfairly looked over. While many of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn [[DiscardAndDraw changed classes or were modified to be more useful in combat and as Trusts]], Krile was subsequently left in the dust as a Conjurer. Starting with ''Dawntrail'', she was added as the Pictomancer class and confirmed to be a Trust character starting with 7.0 to give her more story presence and utility.

* The Duty Finder: Alliance Raids roulette was notorious for giving the first three raids -- The Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, and The World of Darkness, AKA the Crystal Tower series from ''A Realm Reborn'' -- and pretty much nothing else, due to LoopholeAbuse in how the duty-finding mechanics in that roulette worked. Players looking to get their daily roulette bonuses as quickly as possible cheated the system by removing gear until they were below the item level for everything except the Crystal Tower series, since they take the least amount of time. This meant that players who didn't do this would often find themselves stuck in the earliest raids, with little option but to grin and bear it. As a result, the ComplacentGamingSyndrome around this Duty Finder meant that players rarely queued in for it due to not wanting to play the same three raids over and over. This also left players who were trying to complete the Crystal Tower series to advance the MSQ (after it was made MSQ-mandatory) with longer queue times due to few players coming in to fill the necessary spots. Patch 6.5 changed this so that if a player doesn't meet an item level requirement for their job level, they can't queue in for the Alliance Raid roulette at all. This was done both as a way to increase the duties that high-level players would see and to bring a decisive end to players who were trying to game the system at the expense of everyone else. In addition, new rewards were added to the roulette in the same patch to make it more appealing to people who had done them before with harder raids offering greater rewards, also as a way to incentivise people to do the later raids.
* The FinalBoss of ''Endwalker'' is faced in the trial known as "The Final Day", and it's meant to be the culmination of the entire storyline that started in ''A Realm Reborn''. However, due to ever-increasing item levels as new gear was introduced, players were skipping parts of the fight. The trial features what are essentially mid-fight cutscenes, and players rapidly gaining strength meant that the boss started skipping attacks and phases to try and keep up with how much damage the players were doing. This inadvertenly ended up robbing new players of an emotional payoff through no fault of their own. It was possible to go into this trial with Minimum Item Level through the Party Finder, but the average player experiencing this trial for the first time naturally wouldn't know they had to do that to see everything. Patch 6.5 added an item-level sync to the Final Day in order to cap the party's power at around what would have been expected at the end of 6.0, so that new players wouldn't miss anything during the climax.

* The FinalBoss of ''Endwalker'', in the trial known as "The Final Day", is meant to be the culmination of the entire storyline up to that point. However, due to ever-increasing item levels and the lack of an item-level cap on this duty, players were completing the trial far too quickly. The trial features what are essentially mid-fight cutscenes, and players rapidly gaining strength meant it was possible to skip parts of the fight, robbing new players of an emotional payoff through no fault of their own. It was possible to go into this trial with Minimum Item Level through the Party Finder, but the average player experiencing this trial for the first time wouldn't know they had to do that to see everything. Patch 6.5 changed this so that the trial had an item-level sync to cap the party's power so that new players wouldn't miss anything.

* The Duty Finder: Alliance Raids roulette was notorious for giving the first three raids -- The Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, and The World of Darkness, AKA the Crystal Tower series from ''A Realm Reborn'' -- and pretty much nothing else, due to LoopholeAbuse in how the duty-finding mechanics in that roulette worked. Players looking to get their daily roulette bonuses as quickly as possible cheated the system by removing gear until they were below the item level for everything except the Crystal Tower series, since they take the least amount of time. This meant that players who didn't do this would often find themselves stuck in the earliest raids, with little option but to grin and bear it. As a result, the ComplacentGamingSyndrome around this Duty Finder meant that players rarely queued in for it due to not wanting to play the same three raids over and over. This also left players who were trying to complete the Crystal Tower series to advance the MSQ (after it was made MSQ-mandatory) with longer queue times due to few players coming in to fill the necessary spots. Patch 6.5 changed this so that if a player doesn't meet the item level requirement for the highest-level Alliance Raid they've unlocked, they can't queue in for the Alliance Raid roulette at all. This was done both as a way to increase the duties that high-level players would see and to bring a decisive end to players who were trying to game the system at the expense of everyone else.
* The FinalBoss of ''Endwalker'', in the trial known as "The Final Day", is meant to be the culmination of the entire storyline up to that point. However, due to ever-increasing item levels and the lack of an item-level cap on this duty, players were completing the trial far too quickly. The trial features what are essentially mid-fight cutscenes, and players rapidly gaining strength meant it was possible to skip parts of the fight, robbing new players of an emotional payoff through no fault of their own. Patch 6.5 changed this so that the trial had an item-level sync to cap the party's power so that new players wouldn't miss anything.

* The entire game's development story is a tale of a massive saving throw. The original game (referred to these days as "version 1.0") had a dismal reception among both fans and critics, to the point that the original game's release [[Horrible/VideoGameGenerationsSeventhOnwards is considered one of the worst MMO games of all time]]. [[https://twitter.com/gamedevdotcom/status/446418234632192000 As pointed out in a 2014 GDC panel by producer Naoki Yoshida]], the game had an unhealthy obsession with graphic quality over gameplay, a surprising lack of MMORPG knowledge amongst development team members, and the mindset that every problem could be fixed later as long as it got out the door on time. Since ''A Realm Reborn'' hit, the game has been getting glowing praise, [[http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/05/final-fantasy-xivs-exceeds-square-enixs-expectations-prompts-earnings-forecast-increase/ singlehandedly took Square Enix from losing money to being profitable]], and surpassed ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'''s subscriber figure almost immediately. Additionally, nobody and nothing from the game made it into either ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia Duodecim]]'' or the first ''[[VideoGame/TheatrhythmFinalFantasy Theatrhythm]]'' because Square barely wanted to acknowledge the game even existed. Come ''Theatrhythm Curtain Call''? Y'shtola's on the cover, songs are in, and according to Square reps at Tokyo Game Show, this is as a matter of course. And ''VideoGame/{{Lightning Returns|FinalFantasyXIII}}'' had its crossover costume with ''XIV'' promoted very heavily. The game's continued growth and expansions have increased popularity and playerbase to the point where the game is going toe-to-toe with the only other lasting juggernaut of the MMO genre - ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' - a major showing of how the game went from a failure to a success over the years since its relaunch. A feature-length documentary by Noclip recorded much about the game's history in extensive detail can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-THgg8QnvU4EnxPlYmHiYqWoTsHQAYcw here]], if one wanted to get an in-depth look at what went wrong.

* The Duty Finder: Alliance Raids roulette was notorious for giving the first three raids -- The Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, and The World of Darkness, AKA the Crystal Tower series from ''A Realm Reborn'', and the only MSQ-mandatory Alliance Raids -- and pretty much nothing else. The reason for this was some LoopholeAbuse in how the mechanics for finding a duty in that roulette worked. High-level players looking to get their daily roulette bonuses as fast as possible would cheat the system by removing most of their gear before queuing into the Alliance Raid roulette, since the early Alliance Raids could be done much quicker than the others. This put these players below the minimum item level for all but the earliest raids, which meant that players who didn't do this would often find themselves stuck in the earliest raids, with little option but to grin and bear it. As a result, the ComplacentGamingSyndrome around this Duty Finder meant that players rarely queued in for it due to not wanting to play the same raids over and over. Players who wanted to play later raids were left holding the bag, while also leaving players who were trying to complete the Crystal Tower series to advance the MSQ with longer queue times due to few players coming in to fill the necessary spots. Patch 6.5 changed this so that there were item level restrictions for the Alliance Raids based on character level. In other words, if you don't meet the item level requirement for the highest-level Alliance Raid you've unlocked, you can't queue in for the Alliance Raid roulette at all. This was done both as a way to increase the duties that high-level players would see and to bring a decisive end to players who were trying to game the system at the expense of everyone else.