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Final Fantasy 14's initial launch was something of a disaster for Square Enix, temporarily tarnishing both a much-loved brand and the reputation of its developers with a product that felt unfocused and incomplete. Rushed out after an unusually short beta period where only a tiny part of the game was available for players to test (the promised PlayStation 3 beta test never materialised at all), the final release was plagued by game-breaking bugs, a convoluted menu system unsuited to modern MMORPGs, questionable design choices that made the experience frustrating to play, and an unoptimised graphics engine that led to poor performance on a wide range of PCs.
But despite these glaring criticisms Square Enix still hoped that the game would be successful based on the Final Fantasy name, and that fans would accept some of these issues while patches were developed to address them. But this wasn't the case, with a ferocious backlash against the game that saw players deserting it in their droves. This saw the eventual decision to discontinue the title and rework it into a brand new game, acting as a reboot and sequel to the events of Final Fantasy 14.
Known internally as Final Fantasy 14 Version 2.0, this mammoth undertaking saw a new game engine developed for the title, with reworked graphical sub-systems, more traditional MMO gameplay mechanics, an improved user interface, and better thought-out quests making up the bulk of the changes. The end result of this extensive redesign is an experience that is far more polished and enjoyable to play than the original release, with none of the glaring issues which plagued the previous game.
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