Final Fantasy 14 is one of the biggest MMOs in the games industry at the moment and has enjoyed one of the biggest redemption stories in the industry since its launch in 2010. Since its release, Final Fantasy 14 has received a number of expansions that have added new stories, areas, activities, and jobs for players to master, with another expansion just over the horizon. Amongst the game's community, the expansions have been very well received with many players having extra praise for the most recent expansion, Shadowbringers.
However, another very popular MMO is The Elder Scrolls Online. Elder Scrolls Online has taken a slightly different approach to the genre and its expansions, but it has grown a dedicated community of players all its own. While both MMOs take their own approach to the genre itself, they also take unique approaches to other games in their series. While Final Fantasy 14's approach has been very successful, the game's future expansions could go in a direction similar to Elder Scrolls Online, which could be a real treat for fans of the Final Fantasy series.
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How Elder Scrolls Online Approaches Expansions
Elder Scrolls Online's Expansions have focused on expanding the continent of Tamriel. Each expansion allows players to explore new regions like Skyrim or Elsweyr. Not only does each expansion bring beautiful new locations to Elder Scrolls Online, but they also connect the MMO back to the main series of RPGs, which can be a great treat for fans who have stayed with The Elder Scrolls over the years. Being able to make a character in the game and visit areas like Morrowind in a different time period is very interesting, and also helps flesh out the game's world more than the regular RPGs in the series can.
Elder Scrolls Online is also able to flesh the world out more because it is set in the same universe and timeline that every other game in the series is. Not only does this give the game a lot of familiar lore and enemies to draw from, but it also helps the MMO add more detail and take players to time periods and places that they always wanted to visit. Doing this allows the game to get players excited to face bigger enemies like Mehrunes Dagon in Elder Scrolls Online's newest expansion.
How Final Fantasy 14 Has Approached Expansions
Final Fantasy 14's expansions have also expanded the MMO's world by introducing new regions for players to explore. However, games within the Final Fantasy series are much more segregated from one another than games in the Elder Scrolls series. There are similar lands in the MMO from other Final Fantasy games, but they are largely considered to be completely separate instances of those worlds rather than the same world in a different timeline or universe. This means that the stories of Final Fantasy 14 don't connect to other games in the series in any meaningful way, so the game has its own universe it fleshes out rather than one present throughout the series.
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This includes Shadowbringers taking the player to an alternate dimension. The new dimension's history was connected to the dimension of the base game, but gave the player an entirely new region to explore that is filled with a broad new cast of characters. The expansions largely served as a culmination of all of the game's content that came before and was very well received by the player base. However, the expansion also opened the possibilities for future expansions to take players to even crazier and more diverse locations, which could be extremely exciting for longtime fans of Final Fantasy. This is especially true thanks to Final Fantasy 14's impressive spike in popularity in recent months.
What Final Fantasy 14 Could Take From Elder Scrolls Online's Expansions
Final Fantasy 14's recent expansion embracing alternate dimensions means that newer expansions could take a page out of Elder Scrolls Online's book by taking players to familiar locations in the universes of other Final Fantasy titles. This would be a real treat for fans of the series while also giving the developers the possibility of connecting the MMO's storyline with that of other games. Being able to visit Final Fantasy 7's Midgard before the events of the original game would be fascinating, especially if players got to impact that game's story and the world in interesting ways. Of course, expansions also grow Final Fantasy 14's already sizable list of player jobs, and tying the game to other games in the series would also allow those expansions to incorporate jobs and characters from said games.
Revisiting the worlds of other Final Fantasy games would allow Final Fantasy 14 to further expand on those areas and flesh out the histories and cultures within them that fans already know and love. This could not only help add to the stories of other Final Fantasy games, but could also allow Final Fantasy 14 to attract more fans of the series who may not have been interested in playing an MMO but want to learn more about the worlds that they already know. Final Fantasy 14 has done ambitious crossovers before, and could potentially even bring back some of the earlier game's creatives to help bring new content to the MMO.
Of course, there is no way to know just what shape future Final Fantasy 14 content will take until it is officially announced. However, following the MMO's upcoming expansion Endwalker will likely not be easy. Final Fantasy 14 has changed a lot since its release, as it has continued to grow and evolve to satisfy its dedicated players. It seems that the game could go in any direction in the future, and it will be great to see where it all takes players next. Future expansions will undoubtedly bring more beautiful locales to Final Fantasy 14, but it definitely couldn't hurt if some were ones that fans had already seen before in other games throughout the iconic series.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
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