Square Enix is considering ways to shorten the path new players take through Final Fantasy XIV's story, producer Naoki Yoshida said during a media Q&A at Final Fantasy Fan Fest in Berlin. Polygon reported the remarks, which were originally covered by PC Gamer.
The MMO is in its 13th year, and its sixth expansion, Evercold, is due in January. Reaching current content means working through a main scenario that runs to hundreds of hours, and Square Enix has so far insisted that players do exactly that rather than jump ahead.
I had previously said that I want players to enjoy the story, so I would like them to have a fresh experience right from A Realm Reborn. But now we are at this point, we've begun thinking about accommodating these kinds of requests.
Yoshida described two possible solutions without detailing either. The first, he said, will be implemented before or at Evercold's release. The second depends on a system the development team is still reviewing for feasibility; he put the chance of it arriving in patch 8.0 at "non-zero".
Paid story skips already exist for individual expansions. What Yoshida described would be a free equivalent, and it lands squarely on a long-running argument in the game's community about whether the story is the point of Final Fantasy XIV or the obstacle in front of it.
Square Enix has trimmed the main scenario quest list several times over the years, but each expansion has added more story than the cuts have removed. Evercold begins the Godless Realms Saga, a new arc that follows the conclusion of the original storyline in 2021's Endwalker — a structural break Polygon suggests could work as an entry point for newcomers.
Neither option has a confirmed shape or date beyond the framing Yoshida gave: one before or at Evercold, the other possibly at patch 8.0.
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