It’s been less than five months since the launch of the Dawntrail expansion, and Final Fantasy XIV is already preparing for a new chapter. Developer Square Enix has announced that a mobile version of its popular massively multiplayer RPG is in development for iOS and Android. A pared-down version of the PC and console version of Final Fantasy XIV, the mobile edition nonetheless sounds ambitious, even if its announcement provides more questions than answers.
Rather than oversee development itself, Square Enix is handing the port off to Tencent subsidary Lightspeed Studios, which also developed PUBG Mobile and recently tapped Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno to lead it. There’s no timeline yet for the game’s release, but Square Enix says it will begin playtests in China soon, then launch the full game there before releasing it to the rest of the world. Square Enix did not immediately respond to Inverse’s request for comment.
“Lightspeed Studios is working with tremendous enthusiasm and dedication to faithfully recreate the story, duties, battle content, and other aspects of the original game,” producer and director Naoki Yoshida said in the announcement video.
Square Enix says the game will launch with nine jobs (the FFXIV equivalent of advanced character classes), which is somewhat short of the 22 jobs in the current game. That likely means that players will only have access to the nine jobs that were present in the first version of A Realm Reborn, where the current iteration of FFXIV began in 2013. All 11 crafting and gathering classes present in the full game will also be available on mobile.
That makes FFXIV Mobile sound like a relatively complete port, but the announcement still raises a lot of questions about how this new version will differ from the existing game. Given that it launches with the same number of jobs as A Realm Reborn and the trailer only showed content from that version of the game, it’s highly likely that the mobile release won’t include any of FFXIV’s expansions, at least to start.
Perhaps the bigger question is how the story will relate back to the version of FFXIV that’s already out. If it does in fact only include content from A Realm Reborn, that could mean there’s little to no crossover, since most players are already well past that part of the game, not to mention the difficulties of getting mobile and PC players working on the same server with some degree of feature parity. It’s also not clear how FFXIV Mobile will be monetized. The full version requires a subscription to play, which could be a tough sell for a stripped-down mobile port.
A smaller but no less interesting question is how it will handle player housing. In the main game, housing space is limited and competition for empty plots can be fierce. If FFXIV Mobile removes that restriction, it could be a huge boon for players who just want to turn FFXIV into The Sims.
What’s more interesting is how FFXIV Mobile could potentially influence its base game. FFXIV already has a mobile companion app, but it’s limited to basic features like buying and selling on the market board, chatting with friends, and fiddling with your inventory. Many players (myself included) have longed for a more fully featured mobile app that could give access to activities like crafting and gathering or customizing your in-game house.
FFXIV Mobile is a good deal more ambitious than that, and since it’s being developed separately from the main game, there’s little chance it will directly let you affect anything there. But housing customization, socializing with in-game friends, and crafting items seem like a perfect fit for a mobile game. If the port takes off, it could provide incentive for Square Enix to get similar features working on the main version.
For now, we’re waiting on answers to those questions and more from Square Enix. However it shakes out, FFXIV Mobile is an interesting solution to a problem that Blizzard Entertainment solved with World of Warcraft Classic. Over time, MMOs necessarily become more complex, making it harder to onboard new players, and leaving some long-time fans nostalgic for the simpler days. Yoshida famously called the idea of FFXIV Classic a “nightmare,” but this mobile port seems to at least replicate that idea in spirit. If FFXIV Mobile really hooks players, they could be tempted to move over to the full version, and current players looking for a simpler experience could likewise be swayed to the mobile port. Whatever shape FFXIV Mobile takes, it’s hard to deny the appeal of a version of Eorzea you can carry in your pocket.
