Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of Final Fantasy XIV, is not only a developer but also a passionate video game enthusiast. During the European Fan Festival in London, he spoke about his plans for the MMORPG.
What happened? On the weekend of October 21 and 22, 2023, Square Enix hosted the “Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival” in London. There, Naoki Yoshida, the Director and Producer of the game, shared new information about the upcoming expansion Dawntrail.
In addition, the lead developer participated in various panels about the game and actively interacted with players on-site. However, a particular highlight was the interviews and gaming sessions with the Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.
By the way, we were there for you and brought back some impressions:
“This would destroy the community” – Naoki Yoshida in an interview
On the Saturday evening of the Fan Festival, Naoki Yoshida specifically answered questions from the press representatives on-site. He spoke about Dawntrail, as well as additional plans for the future development of Final Fantasy XIV.
“What is a feature or mechanic that you would like to adapt for Final Fantasy XIV?”
Naoki Yoshida celebrated his 50th birthday this year and is known to be an avid gamer for many years. For example, he appeared in a livestream for Final Fantasy XIV a few months ago with his Nintendo Switch, on which he played The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Additionally, he is a big Activision Blizzard fan and has already visited the developers in Anaheim, California.
In 2019, Blizzard even made a gift to the Final Fantasy XIV team:
His experience with other video games also strongly influences his work on the MMORPG. He and his team drew inspiration for the successful MMORPG World of Warcraft for the relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV with A Realm Reborn.
When asked what MMORPG content he finds exciting but would never implement in Final Fantasy XIV, he spoke about Ultima Online. At the launch of the game in 1997, he found everything very chaotic. However, he also found a lot of freedom in that chaos. A mixture that is exciting for Yoshida.
However, he has strong concerns:
I think that if I created something that approached that feeling and implemented it in Final Fantasy XIV, it would probably destroy the community. If we were to develop this type of MMO now, it probably wouldn’t sell either.
Naoki Yoshida, London, October 21, 2023
How did the launch of Ultima Online go? Ultima Online was released in September 1997. It was the first game to call itself a “Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game.” You can still play it in 2023, and now even for free.
One of the reasons it was considered chaotic is that the game continued to run. So during your offline time, you could actually miss content. Due to the limiting pixel graphics and the story told purely through text, players also had a lot of room for interpretation.
On top of that came the many combinations of armor, weapons, and skills: battle mages in full plate armor with swords were not uncommon. At the same time, it was possible to specialize in crafting and not fighting.
The same freedom was also reflected in interactions and role-playing opportunities.
In brief: In Ultima Online, players were very free in their gameplay, which caused the chaos mentioned by Yoshida.
Would content like in Ultima Online work in Final Fantasy XIV? Naoki Yoshida himself has a very clear opinion on this – No. Even if he personally would have a lot of fun with it.
The basic structure of Final Fantasy XIV is fundamentally incompatible with the many freedoms in Ultima Online: Yoshida’s game has a very rigid class distribution that cannot be broken – this applies to both skills and armor and weapon choices.
The main story quest in Final Fantasy XIV also strongly dictates when you are presented with which content. Additionally, you play them, except for combat content, alone or in parallel with your fellow players. Open-world PvP is also not supported as in World of Warcraft.
During the Fan Festival, the first new job for the expansion Dawntrail was announced:
In addition, almost all content from Final Fantasy XIV is permanently playable. Exceptions include seasonal events and content collaborations like with Final Fantasy XV or Monster Hunter. However, Yoshi-P announced that they could be repeated upon request.
What do you think about it? Would you also like to see an old-school MMORPG in the style of Ultima Online again? Or are you actually quite happy with how games work today? Please share your opinion in the comments.
In the same interview, Naoki Yoshida also spoke about achievements and their difficulty:
Player completes Final Fantasy 14 – Now allowed to determine if it gets any harder: “It depends on this player”
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