Final Fantasy 14 Mobileis, as its name suggests, a mobile game adaptation of the hit MMOFinal Fantasy 14Online. It’s a bit of an anomaly in Square Enix’s portfolio, considering the publisher generally doesn’t release iOS/Android versions of its modern AAA console games. There have been mainlineFinal Fantasygames on mobile phones before, of course, but the majority of them are ports of older entries, like theFF Pixel Remasters.Final Fantasy 14 Mobile, on the other hand, is less like thePixel Remastersand more likeFinal Fantasy 15: Pocket Edition. In other words, it’s more of a new, standalone game inspired by the console title of the same name, rather than a one-to-one port.
WhenFinal Fantasy 14 Mobilewas officially announced by Square Enixand developer LightSpeed Studios in November 2024, no gameplay footage was released. The only thing that was shared was a four-minute teaser trailer that mostly showed in-game cinematics and developer commentaries. However, earlier this month, some screenshots fromFinal Fantasy 14 Mobile’s closed beta tests were leaked online, giving players their first, unofficial look at the game in action. Unsurprisingly,FF14 Mobile’s gameplay looks very similar to that ofFF14Online, but it seems to feature some new UI elements that make it stand out.
Square Enix dropped an official gameplay reveal trailer forFinal Fantasy 14 Mobileon December 9, thus confirming the legitimacy of the leaks.
Final Fantasy 14 Online Should Take a UI Element from Final Fantasy 14 Mobile
Final Fantasy 14 Mobile’s leaked screenshotsdon’t really show off any combat or NPC interactions, but they do provide an in-depth look at the game’s menus. The UI clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the originalFF14; not only does it have a minimap in the upper right corner of the screen, it also has HP and MP bars right at the very bottom. The one aspect ofFF14 Mobile’s UI that differs, however, is its hotbar layout. In the bottom right corner of the screen, there appears to be an ability wheel that players can use to access skills and perform attacks. This UI element seems to be a replacement for the cross hotbars inFF14 Online.
Cross hotbars, for those who are unaware, are UI elements unique toFinal Fantasy 14 Onlinethat are meant to make playing with a controller easier, especially on consoles. Players can utilize the cross hotbars to access the skills they want to use during combat (and other situations), without having to sift through tons of menus. To put it bluntly, they’re basically just advanced versions of shortcut keys, much like the ability wheels fromFF14 Mobile. Each cross hotbar has 16 individual skill slots, and there are a total of 8 crosshotbars inFF14 Online. As such, players can technically use up to 128 slots at any given time.
Ability Wheels Would Be Easier to Use on a Controller Compared to Cross Hotbars
Although cross hotbars do convertthe MMO keyboard-and-mouse experienceto controllers quite well, they’re still a bit finicky to use. to select one of the skills in these hotbars, players need to hold one of the LT or RT buttons (L1 or R1 on PlayStation) on their controllers and press either a face or D-pad button. The use of button combinations does allow for more intricate control schemes, but it makes theFF14 Onlinegameplay experience less user-friendly on consoles.
Final Fantasy 14 Mobile’s ability wheels seem like they would work far better on consoles than the cross hotbars. If players could select a skill by holding down a button and moving a thumbstick around in a certain direction, playingFF14 Onlineon a controller would probably become a lot easier.Therefore, Square Enix should consider addingFinal Fantasy 14 Mobile’s new control layout tothe originalFF14sometime in the near future, at least on current-gen consoles.
Final Fantasy 14 Mobile
WHERE TO PLAY
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