Final Fantasy 14 is the first MMO I've ever played. After teetering on the edge of Eorzea for years, I finally took the plunge and lost hundreds of hours to just the main story alone. It's truly one of the best games I've ever played, and Dawntrail is by far my favorite expansion of the bunch. Between FF14's new patches, though, you might (like me) have a hankering for another MMO to keep you busy. 23 years after it first launched, Final Fantasy 11 is looking like that game. Square Enix has a huge 2025 planned, with improved solo play at the top of the list.
Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail Alliance Raids are all about FF11, so you're likely already somewhat familiar with the land of Vana'diel even if you haven't played the Final Fantasy 11 new player experience through 2025 and beyond.
A new open letter from FF11 producer and director Yoji Fujito celebrates how far the game has come in the last two decades, but also looks to the future. Fujito says last year's player survey has helped Square Enix decide where the game is going next, with two major development points.
"Many players tend to play solo or with a fixed group," Fujito writes, adding that "While FF11 offers a diverse variety of content, they have mostly fulfilled their character progression purposes for our current players; thus, there is a need for 'new adventures.'
"These two points will be our main focus as we proceed with revising the game's character progression, which will primarily entail renewing, refining, and making quality-of-life changes to existing content.
"Examples of these revisions include the Limbus revamp and item-level for Besieged, which were detailed in the video. As these sorts of changes are implemented, we will continue monitoring to make further adjustments with the goal of providing an enjoyable experience for our adventurers."
That's not all, however, as Square Enix is also going to revamp FF11's alter ego system as well. If you're unfamiliar, alter egos are NPCs you can recruit and level up to help with battle content, which in turn makes it easier to play Final Fantasy 11 solo. If you've played FF14, that has its own, somewhat similar Trust system.
Square Enix is going to enhance alter egos in a few ways. For starters, the team will inform new and returning players of the mechanic, and add even more opportunities into the MMO for you to obtain them.
Fujito also says "Upgrading alter egos is just one of the updates we have in mind. We will be carefully planning and implementing each feature at a time, and we'll be informing you of our progress through our version update news and other channels, so I hope you'll look forward to hearing more!"
So if you've been considering diving back into Final Fantasy 11 or trying it for the first time, I'd keep an eye out for all of the changes Square Enix has planned. Solo play is about to get some massive overhauls with the alter ego system, and general progression will be improved to make the experience of playing FF11 even smoother.
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