For once, the best thing to do when you see a monster in Final Fantasy 14 is not kill it. Patch 7.56 introduces Beastmaster, a job that lets players weaken creatures, capture them, add successful catches to a bestiary, and eventually use them in battle. Suddenly, that random creature wandering around Eorzea might not just be another enemy. It could be the next addition to your collection.
That idea should obviously feel very familiar to Pokemon fans. The series’ staple idea, and what has caused it to become the global phenomenon that it is, is the idea of making the creatures players encounter more than obstacles on the way to the next town. Any wild Pokemon could become the next addition to a team, giving exploration and random encounters a personal sense of discovery. Final Fantasy 14‘s Beastmaster shows just how well that idea can work in a completely different kind of RPG.
Final Fantasy 14’s Beastmaster Makes Every Creature Encounter More Interesting
Before Beastmaster, most creatures in Final Fantasy 14 had a pretty simple role: they were something standing between the player and wherever they wanted to go. But Beastmaster changes that relationship by giving players a reason to pay attention to what is actually roaming around Eorzea. A creature isn’t just an enemy anymore. It could be something worth weakening, capturing, and adding to a growing collection.
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That small change can make the world feel surprisingly different. Pokemon understood this years ago by making wild encounters feel like opportunities rather than interruptions. Final Fantasy 14 doesn’t need to turn every monster into a collectible to benefit from the same idea. Simply knowing that some of the creatures’ players encounter could eventually become part of their team gives exploration another layer of excitement.
How Final Fantasy 14’s Beastmaster Actually Works
Beastmaster’s job revolves around hunting down creatures, weakening them and using “Capture” to add successful catches to a personal bestiary. Those creatures can then be summoned in battle, giving players a reason to seek out specific monsters rather than simply defeating whatever happens to be in front of them.
The best part is how those captures become part of the job’s wider gameplay loop. Players can build teams around the abilities of the creatures they’ve collected, meaning the hunt isn’t just about filling out a list. It is about finding creatures that fit the way they want to play, and that combination of exploration, collecting, and team building is exactly where Beastmaster starts to feel very Pokemon-like.
Pokemon Proved Collecting Can Make Exploration Feel Personal
Pokemon has always understood that catching a creature is more exciting when it feels like your creature. Finding a rare Pokemon in the wild, weakening it, and finally watching the capture succeed turns an ordinary encounter into a short story. Even if two players end up with the same Pokemon, they may have completely different memories of how they found it and how it became part of their team. And with Pokemon’s brand-new 30th anniversary release finally announced, Final Fantasy 14‘s adoption of creature collection feels more than fitting for the upcoming season.
That is an idea that more RPGs could borrow. When creatures can become potential companions instead of disposable enemies, exploring a familiar area can suddenly feel different. Final Fantasy 14‘s Beastmaster taps into that same feeling by giving players a reason to look at the creatures around them and wonder which ones might be worth capturing. It makes the world feel a little less like a collection of enemies and a little more like a place full of possibilities.
More RPGs Should Let Players Turn Enemies Into Allies
The appeal of Beastmaster goes beyond Pokemon because the basic idea fits naturally into RPGs. Games like Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest 5 have already shown how interesting it can be when an enemy isn’t necessarily the end of an encounter. A creature can instead become a potential member of the party, giving players another reason to experiment with the monsters they encounter.
Final Fantasy 14‘s Beastmaster taps into that same feeling by giving players a reason to look at the creatures around them and wonder which ones might be worth capturing.
That could work especially well in RPGs with large worlds and lots of different enemies. Instead of simply gaining experience or loot from every battle, players could have the occasional surprise of discovering a creature worth keeping. It would also give developers another way to make enemy variety matter, since different creatures could offer abilities that change how players approach combat.
More Studios Could Put Their Own Spin on Pokemon’s Best Idea
Beastmaster shows that creature collection doesn’t have to mean making a direct Pokemon-style RPG. Studios could take the same basic concept and build it around the identity of their own games, whether that means recruiting monsters in a traditional fantasy RPG, bonding with creatures in an open-world adventure, or using them to complement an existing party system.
That could make creature collection feel less like a genre of its own and more like another tool for RPG developers. Final Fantasy 14 is using it to add another layer to its MMO systems, while other studios could use the idea to make exploration, combat, or character progression more personal. The important part is giving players that simple but powerful feeling that the monster they just encountered could become theirs.
The Best Part of Pokemon Is Making a Team Your Own
The magic of Pokemon isn’t just catching creatures. It’s deciding which ones deserve a place on your team. A powerful monster might be useful, but what about the one players stumbled across hours earlier and simply grew attached to? What makes one creature worth keeping over another? That personal connection is what makes collecting feel like more than another progression system. It turns a random encounter into something players can actually remember, and makes the new creature a potential new favorite.
Final Fantasy 14 could tap into that same feeling with Beastmaster. If players start hunting for specific creatures because they like their abilities, appearance, or the way they fit into a team, those monsters suddenly have more meaning. It gives players another reason to explore Eorzea—and another excuse to stop and think, “Wait, can I capture that?” That little moment of curiosity is exactly what makes creature collection so addictive.
- Released
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August 27, 2013
- ESRB
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Teen / Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Engine
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Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently it’s a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine.
