Why was Kaiten removed in Final Fantasy XIV? Answered

Final Fantasy XIV has made some controversial decisions over the years with the best of intentions at heart, but they haven’t always worked out as planned in the long run. One of the most impactful changes in Patch 6.1 is the removal of the Samurai job’s Hissatsu: Kaiten ability. In a recent livestream, game director Naoki Yoshida explained that the ability was taken out of the game to address button bloat and make the job more accessible. These are both important points, but some players have argued that the change comes at the expense of job fantasy and satisfaction.

The basic flow of the Samurai job is to utilize three different sets of weaponskill combos to generate unique Sen that can be used to execute a specific weaponskill based on which Sen are generated. Certain actions will also increase a separate Kenki Gauge that can be spent to perform different abilities. Hissatsu: Kaiten was the most impactful use of the Kenki Gauge as it increased the potency of the next weaponskill by 50%. This led to the main flow of the Samurai being to execute Kaiten right before their big hitting attacks.

Kaiten was flashy and thematic, but it arguably was just an extra button to press before using a Sen-spending weaponskill. The removal was justified by this reason, and prominent Samurai abilities had their potency increased and given guaranteed critical hits to compensate for the change. The job does not play much differently without Kaiten, but some Samurai fans have found themselves less satisfied by the lack of its thematic animation and flow to the rotation.