Final Fantasy XIV may be almost ten years old, but it’s still going strong. At the US FFXIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, the first in-person iteration of the event in five years, producer-director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida received a hero’s welcome, taking the stage to booming music and thundering applause. It’s a well deserved victory tour for Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III, which is fresh off the acclaimed FFXIV expansion Endwalker, the groundbreaking single-player RPG Final Fantasy 16, and the announcement of FFXIV‘s next frontier: Dawntrail.
As far as the MMO has come in the past ten years, it seems to have plenty of avenues left to explore. Screen Rant attended an interview with Naoki Yoshida on the past, present, and future of FFXIV.
Yoshida Doesn’t Want To Be A Rock Star – Just A Developer
The way that Fan Fest rolls out development staff like rockstars is pretty unique, what do you and the development team feel like at events like Fan Fest, where you will so often be stopped and asked for photos, et cetera. – Sayem Ahmed, GLHF
Our intention is not to flaunt around like rock stars. Our job is to make games, and typically speaking, I don’t think developers are meant to be out in the forefront like that. But with this being an MMORPG, I think it’s important that we have a mutual understanding between the players and the members of the media, as well as the developers. With a game that accumulates a whole lot of content, a whole lot of systems and things like that, it’s important to get an understanding of what the players want, what the developers need to do in the game, what the media is paying attention to. I think having that sort of mutual understanding allows an MMO to stay interesting.
Fan Fest Experiences Aren’t Just For FFXIV Fans
Can you tell us about some of the greatest moments you have experienced with FFXIV? The milestones you have reached as its Producer and Director or some of the experiences you have made as a player and a part of the community? – Eric Mittman, TAG24
When everybody was checking in for registration, unfortunately there was a machine malfunction and the lines started to build. The PR director at that time noticed the crowd becoming more frustrated, so he approached me and asked, “Yoshi-P, would you mind coming out to the registration lines and showing our regrets?” So with that context, I go out expecting to apologize and feel really bad out there.
But once I started to say I’m sorry, the fans took notice. They recognized me, and they started clapping and cheering. They were very grateful that Final Fantasy XIV had relaunched, and we rebuilt it. There was one young man, I think he was in his teens, who approached me and said, “You are my hero.” I’m just a person who makes video games, and I could not imagine somebody saying something so powerful to me. I felt very humbled, and I knew what we were working hard on had really paid off.
Throughout the first day of the FFXIV festival, the team readily and repeatedly offered gratitude to the fans who have enthusiastically embarked on such a long journey with them. With fan art on display, developers walking the floor, and events celebrating community in-jokes and memes, it was abundantly clear just how much the players bring to the FFXIV experience.
How Yoshi-P Incorporates FFXIV Player Feedback
Ten years on, what sort of balance do you consider when looking at fan feedback and requests versus your own philosophies for what Final Fantasy XIV should be? – Erren Van Duine, Nova Crystallis
Being a gamer myself, and also a Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy XIV, there are many points of feedback that I can totally understand. But looking at it from a developer’s perspective, if we make everything easy and decrease the challenge, it might be fine right now, but from a more long-term perspective, will it actually be good?
We also need to consider that there are people who want to play on a more casual level, versus those who are more hardcore players. If we listen to all the feedback and accept it, it would potentially break the game. There are instances where we notice, say, something on the user interface must be fixed, and so it’s worth spending two patches to correct that. Or sometimes, it’s something that we cannot address at the time. That’s the job I have as the director of this game: to see what type of situation we’re facing. There isn’t really a method, so to speak; it’s very intuitive.
While there’s no defining philosophy to the way FFXIV takes player feedback into account, it’s clear that Yoshi-P is in touch with what the fan base thinks. This considered approach is what’s kept the game balanced and interesting for the past ten years.
How Many More Expansions Are Planned For FFXIV
Endwalker brought an end to the story we’ve been following since the beginning of FFXIV.Dawntrail starts a whole new story.Do you already have an idea of how vast this story will be and how many more expansions will develop it? – Matúš Štrba, Sektor.sk
That depends on our players, whether or not everybody likes the story and wants it to be continued. Of course, we have so many ideas. I think we have enough ideas to fill two full expansion packs. Right now I’m 50 years old, and by the time Dawntrail releases, I’ll probably be 51. And if we look at two expansion packs, I’d be about 57, 58 years old. Hey, I might be able to squeeze in three expansion packs by the time I’m 60 years old!
While there’s potential for many more chapters in the arc that Dawntrail will start, it all comes down to player response and feedback. While there’s no way to confirm its exact length just as yet, things may become clearer after its summer 2024 release.
How FFXIV Stays Accessible For New Players
What will be the features in Dawntrail that will help old players to get back to the game or even bring new players to the adventures in this new area? How can they avoid getting lost in the current lore and get up-to-date to play Dawntrail? – Jeancarlos Mota, IGN Brasil
We are trying to consider methods for adventurers to skip forward to the latest content. Even if we release an expansion pack, our previous content is not old, so to speak. We continue to update it, we continue to add new content that expands it. Plus, it’s very story driven. So, if we have a new expansion pack, would people be eager to just jump into it?
With the Duty Support system, we have NPCs that would come along with you on the main scenario quests. You don’t necessarily have to play with other players; you can go solo and power through the story content. I understand the analogy of a TV series: this is like season six that we’re just now releasing. And people might be tempted to say, “Just start from season six.” I’d just like to say, we’ve made it so that season one is very easy to binge. So I think it’d be easier to recommend that they just start from the beginning and take it from there.
The nature of FFXIV is such that it’s difficult to start from the middle. Its characters and story are set up from the very beginning, so jumping around is inadvisable.
Will FFXIV Get A FF16 Collab?
Are any crossovers between FFXIV and FFXVI planned? – Anastasia Kudinov, Eurogamer Germany
The producer of Final Fantasy 16 happens to have the same name as I do – he’s named Yoshida. I actually did have a chance to discuss with Yoshida. I think we are nearing the conclusion of our discussions, but we are unable to divulge on it right now. I’m hoping that we can reveal some kind of information within this calendar year.
Between the system-wide upgrades, regular upgrades, and abundance of love for the game, it’s hard to tell FFXIV is pushing a decade old just by looking at it. It’s clear that there are still many places for Warriors of Light to go – Yoshi-P joked during his keynote address that he intends to continue working on FFXIV until he dies, and maybe even more after that. Final Fantasy XIV already has a long history, and it looks like it’ll only get longer in the years to come.
The critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5, with an Xbox Series/X version coming in spring 2024 and the Dawntrail expansion out in summer 2024.
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