If you were a little disappointed by the Endwalker bosses in Final Fantasy 14, the game's battle designer admitted that the team's determination to eliminate any downtime was what led to the expansion's not-so-fun boss fights.
In an interview with PC Gamer, Final Fantasy 14 lead battle designer Masaki Nakagawa discussed the approach to boss design in 2021's Endwalker expansion, explaining that at the time, the team's “policy of reducing frustrations related to the game were sometimes taken too far. He added that “in some cases, even existing obstacles and frustrations were removed to make the game more engaging, making them less fun.”
Nakagawa notes that this had a particular impact on Endwalker specifically, noting that the team “vetoed some interesting ideas for mechanics so that melee players wouldn't be frustrated by periods of downtime where they can't attack the boss; we removed them without no matter how interesting the mechanic might be.”
In the end, while they achieved their goal of reducing downtime, the downside was that the fights were largely too easy, if not downright boring. “In retrospect, we should have weighed the interesting nature of an idea against the frustration of not being able to attack, but our policies had created an environment where those ideas were easily eliminated,” Nakagawa explains.
As an example, he mentions Heavensward's Alexander Raids, which feature a variety of unique mechanics, including but not limited to turning into a gorilla. “If we continue to ban ideas like that out of concern for frustrations like losing DPS by becoming a gorilla, our content would lose its diversity and all bosses would end up following the same patterns.”
However, Nakagawa understands that balance is key and emphasizes that the team will not overdo it in an attempt to force variety. “We also don't believe that everything has to be one-size-fits-all; after all, some battles must remain orthodox while others can be wildly innovative, and it was this ideology that led to the review of our content design policies.”
Fortunately, the lessons learned from Endwalker are already having an impact in FF14, with the team shifting their focus to “put a big emphasis on fun,” something Nakagawa has described as “a bold decision for us with many unknown factors.” ” – something that has already paid off with the battle design of the game's latest Dawntrail expansion, which has proven very popular with players.
See where FF14 appears on our list of best final fantasy games of all time.