Will Square Enix Ever Make Final Fantasy 14 Classic?
Originally released in 2013, "Final Fantasy 14," the second MMO in the series, has come a long way since its initial debut. There has been a massive overhaul of the game, in addition to four massive expansions that have been released since its launch. As the massive MMO continues to expand in size and add even more for players to enjoy, some newcomers feel like they might have missed out on the content in older versions of the game.
Blizzard launched "World of Warcraft Classic" in August of 2019, letting new players and nostalgic veterans return to the original version of "World of Warcraft." This allowed players experience earlier content that was no longer accessible in modern versions of the game. With Blizzard proving there's at least some interest in older versions of MMOs via "World of Warcraft Classic," it's only natural for players to wonder if Square Enix will ever follow suit with "Final Fantasy 14." Here's what Square Enix had to say about whether there would ever be a classic version of "Final Fantasy 14."
Naoki Yoshida called the idea of classic servers a 'nightmare'
At E3 2019, during an interview with Easy Allies, Producer and Director of "Final Fantasy 14" Naoki Yoshida was asked if they would ever consider running classic game servers a la "World of Warcraft Classic." Yoshida responded by first uttering "nightmare" before giving his full answer. "We acknowledge that that request is there, but those are the people that do not know just how scary 1.0, the original "Final Fantasy 14," is," Yoshida said via a translator.
Yoshida then made it clear that there were no plans to run classic servers at that time. Yoshida even believed that, if "Final Fantasy 14" classic servers were to ever actually be made available, players might decide to stop playing the game after seeing the sorry original state of the title. Despite its popularity now, "Final Fantasy 14" started out absolutely terrible, resulting in a complete reboot of the game with "Realm Reborn." As Yoshida inferred, it's unlikely that Square Enix will ever relaunch such a disastrous version of the game.