One of the hardest challenges in game development starts when someone in a boardroom has an idea. "Is our game too complicated? What if we simplify things a bit? Made the gameplay more accessible?"
Odds are, you can think of more than a few games that faced this challenge before. And in defense of the questions, they do sometimes make the game better for everyone. But if the incoming changes are not handled with care, it can make a lot of players feel alienated.
According to Masaki Nakagawa, the lead battle designer for Final Fantasy 14, their MMO fell into the latter category.
This information comes to us through a PC Gamer interview, where the design lead spoke about changes to Final Fantasy 14's combat system.
According to Nakagawa, internal discussions focused so much on avoiding frustration, that they'd created an environment where otherwise-interesting ideas for combat were scrapped with ease.
That environment, that mindset, was felt immediately by the players. Combat became simpler, but it also became a slog. Minimal downtime, no positionals, just damage and damage-sponges.
Recognizing the mistake, Nakagawa assures players that the development team has taken on a new approach to combat design....
