Teach an elf to fish: Why Final Fantasy XIV’s Ocean Fishing is smart game design
It’s almost been a year since my wife and I returned to Final Fantasy XIV and began to drastically change the way we played the game. As we get closer and closer to our goal of getting every Disciple of War and Magic Job to level 80, we’ve already actually finished the Disciple’s of the Hand, and of The Land.
We accomplished this mainly through daily turn-ins for the Grand Companies. A very expensive venture that I’m not sure I’d entirely recommend, but it worked out alright for us in the end. Due to the nature of this method, we leveled a majority of our crafting, and gathering jobs without even doing anything on those jobs.
One such job was Fisher. While the other two Disciple of the Land Jobs, Miner and Botanist share a lot in common, the Fisher has its own unique mini-game associated with it.
Fishing is of course a staple of Japanese role playing games. So much so that NieR’s game director Yoko Taro once joked that a JRPG isn’t a JRPG unless you can fish in it.
I’ll be honest, there’s kind of a running joke with my friend and I that I absolutely hate fishing in these games. And he’s not far off from the truth. And this wasn’t any different in Final Fantasy XIV.
Recently though, with the launch of Patch 5.2: Echoes of a Fallen Star. The FFXIV team introduced a brand new way to fish: Ocean Fishing.
Now, setting aside the fact that the obvious concept of fishing in the ocean somehow came after the player gained the ability to fish in the sand, in the clouds, in lava, and underwater with a spear, I’m here to tell you that Ocean Fishing is perhaps the “surprise best” feature of the patch.
In essence, Ocean Fishing as it appears in FFXIV is a literal fishing raid where a team of 24 players can queue up to go on a cruise where everyone is expected to fish with the sole purpose of getting a big score at the end for the amount, as well as the type of fish you catch during the voyage.
The best thing about Ocean Fishing is that there’s a very low barrier to entry. Indeed, once the player has unlocked the Fisher job, they can unlock and queue up for Ocean Fishing right away.
The decision to make this side activity all inclusive is its biggest strength. Because not only is it so accessible, but new Fishers are rewarded with literal boat loads of easy experience to help an aspiring Fisher become a master baiter.
Of course, the additional incentives come in the forms of a minion, a mount, and a title for players looking to challenge the gods of RNG. Yes, Ocean Fishing, as well as fishing in general in this game is kind of like playing a slot machine. There’s only a small amount of actual “skill” involved, but a whole lotta luck is required.
The response I’ve seen to this new activity suggests that I’m not the only one who suddenly developed a sudden interest in learning how to fish. Even though I had already leveled my Fisher to 80, I was now incentivized to actually learn how to fish. As well as go around and complete the dozens of Job quests that would ultimately end up unlocking a bunch of essential skills for the job.
To me, this is one of the best ways the dev team has come up with to not only introduce a fun new side activity, but also a revolutionary way to interest players with a part of the game they may have never given a second thought to before.
The FFXIV team has never shied away from trying out new things as they attempt to bridge the gap between expansion releases with fun, fulfilling content. It’s not uncommon for them to miss though, and a lot of the more unconventional ideas haven’t left the playerbase with a lasting impression.
However I think this is truly one of the better ones. And it helps to support my theory that Final Fantasy XIV is a game that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of players for sometimes entirely different reasons. And I think that’s one of the things that helps set FFXIV apart from most of the MMOs out there on the market.
My wife and I still haven’t been fortunate enough to get any of the rewards from Ocean Fishing as of yet, but it’s certainly been an enjoyable time making a go at it. I hate to say it, but I might actually really like fishing?
