Final Fantasy 14’s upcoming Monster Hunter collaboration will ‘feel more like 14’ compared to its more unorthodox Rathalos encounter

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Final Fantasy 14’s director and producer, Naoki Yoshida, explains that the upcoming collaboration with Monster Hunter Wilds will be handled differently than the previous one with Monster Hunter: World. This time, the focus will be more on integrating the collaboration with Final Fantasy 14’s own gameplay systems, rather than forcing the mechanics of an action RPG into an MMO environment. He wants to avoid the issues of trying to make things fit when they weren’t originally designed to.

During Tokyo Game Show this weekend, Capcom and Square Enix gave fans a closer look at their exciting collaboration. Monster Hunter: Wild’s portion of the crossover is available now, allowing hunters to battle Omega Planetes. Final Fantasy 14 will be joining in on October 7th with The Windward Wilds trial, where Warriors of Light can challenge Arkveld.

Even just quickly watching the Final Fantasy 14 part of the showcase this weekend, the battle with Arkveld seemed much more like a typical MMO experience compared to Monster Hunter. That might sound strange, but it makes sense when you remember the previous collaboration with World, which featured a fight against Rathalos.

Even though it still resembled a typical MMO-it *was* within Final Fantasy 14, after all-there was a clear and deliberate attempt to incorporate the exciting chaos of Monster Hunter. This resulted in attacks that were hard to predict, powerful knockbacks, and the option to bring a monster down and sever its tail.

Based on what I’ve seen, Arkveld seems much more similar to a boss battle in Final Fantasy 14: it features powerful attacks like exaflares, attacks that are clearly signaled beforehand, and a pattern that feels like a typical fight within the MMO.

So, I was reading an interview with Yoshida over at GamerBraves, and it sounds like this new collaboration with Wilds is going to be *really* different – in a good way! He explained that they’re intentionally making it feel more like Final Fantasy XIV. He said while the battles will still be pretty wild, the overall gameplay will definitely have that familiar FFXIV feel. Basically, we shouldn’t expect something totally different – it’s going to stay true to the style we all love!

As a gamer, I’m really excited about what they’re building here. They want to bring the awesome world and story of Monster Hunter to players as young as 14, but make it feel like a seamless fit within Final Fantasy 14. Think about it – cool housing items, gear you can actually equip on your character, and battles that feel both familiar and fresh. They’re really aiming for a natural integration, and that’s what I’m most hyped about.

While I personally enjoy the Rathalos battle, I see why things have changed. The collaboration with World was quite unusual, and it could be really frustrating to grind through if you weren’t maximizing level sync and quickly defeating the monster with max-level characters. It could take a long time if you didn’t do that. It was a major pain in the ass if you weren’t optimizing your playthrough.

Fortunately, one element from Rathalos remains: restoring health with potions instead of relying on a dedicated healer. This is a good middle ground between the two games, changing things just enough without being disruptive. I anticipate I’ll still instinctively use a healing potion now and then when I see health getting low, though.

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2025-09-29 16:48