The head of Final Fantasy 14 has spoken about the game’s balancing and missteps. And what insights can be drawn from the past.
Who is the developer? Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi-P, is one of the key developers at Square Enix for Final Fantasy 14. He is sometimes referred to as the most important man of Final Fantasy 14.
After an explicit invitation from the organizers, he was at this year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Here, he took the time to speak in an interview about Final Fantasy 14 and to address the game’s balancing.
Dungeons for Everyone, Adjustments to Raid
Who conducted the interview? The interview took place between Yoshida and the website rpgsite.net, who were also present at the Anime Expo.
How did Yoshida express himself? Yoshida stated that they are trying to find a good balance of content for casuals and hardcore players and bring it into the game. However, he believes this is not so easy. He expresses himself as follows:
“We are trying to work within a certain timeframe and satisfy both types of players. But even if we were to double the number of our developers, I don’t think we would be able to double our output while maintaining the same level of quality.”
As an example of how the team of Final Fantasy 14 is trying to achieve this balance, he cites the Deep Dungeon, which will be implemented with version 7.3 into the game. It is a dungeon, that aims to appeal to both types of players.
Yoshida also comments on the field operation “Forked Tower: Blood”, which came into the game with Patch 7.25 and is seen by him as rather negative in this form. He says:
“I think that Forked Tower: Blood was a misstep in development. It was not intended as hardcore content, so to speak. The intention was that it might be more difficult at first, but over time more players would be willing to take on the challenge; but in the end, we made it too hard for players to even enter the raid.”
This, according to Yoshi-P, will lead to changes in the raid. Both in Patch 7.3 and already before. Additionally, the feedback from this raid will be included in the roadmap for version 7.5 of the game.
If you are also exploring the world of Final Fantasy 14, you can now do so on mobile devices since June. While the app is basically free, there is a feature that now costs money. The reason for this is not the players themselves: The new version of Final Fantasy 14 is free, but now charges for a feature that every MMORPG has.
