From new-found adventures to long-awaited lore explorations, the first content patch since Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion marks the beginning of a new era for Warriors of Light is everywhere. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida answered some of our burning questions about what’s to come for the critically-acclaimed MMO. (Have you heard about it?) free trial?)
PlayStation. What do you see in the future of Warrior of Light? Doesn’t he deserve a little rest? How do you follow a great adventure with so much danger at stake?
Naoki Yoshida: I think our Warriors of Light got a bit of a break, but um, there’s not a lot of respite for us on the dev team (bitter laugh). Look forward to the story that will begin from our new adventure, with mysteries and goals to be revealed! I cannot say further. First, let’s make sure how things start in the story of Patch 6.1. I believe the key to continuing these stories is whether they excite us as developers. If our motivation is lost, there is no doubt that it will extend to our players. To prevent this from happening, it’s always important to make sure it’s engaging and interesting for us to create (new stories and content) from our perspective as developers.
You’ve expressed a desire to make XIV more accessible for solo play. How do you marry the idea of an MMO, by designing multiplayer and solo experiences? What is your design philosophy there and how do you approach these changes while staying true to the MMO aspects?
Simple answer; my concept was to take full advantage of FFXIV’s features as a story MMORPG and make it so that it’s only story playable. So “getting married” is not the right wording and what I want to do is lower the barrier to entry for people who feel threatened by MMORPGs or who are not very good at multiplayer games. Of course, I would be happy if players were satisfied after completing the story or if during their journey they discovered the fun of multiplayer and MMORPGs, leading them to try different types of content. together.
The upcoming alliance raid, Myths of the Realm, will heavily focus on some of the age-old lore of Eorzea. What do you think of some of the theories players have about the gods and patrons of Eorzea? Will our chosen god in creating the final character have any impact beyond flavor lore?
Of course, I look at the theories that players put forward, and it seems that some of them may not be far from successful. (laughs) In this alliance raid, the story will be about the existence of the Twelve and their true nature. However, gods chosen during character creation… will not affect your status (during battle). Our players need not worry.
Of some of the changes you announced in your 10-year plan for the game, the graphics update got a lot of people excited! How do you approach a project of this size and what are your main areas of focus?
My main focus is on players who have spent a long time playing FFXIV and develop a strong attachment to their avatar. I don’t want them to think “My character looks better than before!” or “This doesn’t look right!” with this update. The beauty of graphics depends not only on the method used, but also on the sensibilities of the individual, so I just aim at “evolution of graphics from the perspective of FFXIV”. To this end, we generated multiple batches of test data, while the artists, engineers, and I discussed and decided on an approach to updating shaders, lighting, and textures. that we will use. Ultimately, it’s a matter of direction (the game’s creation), so it also largely depends on my perception of “yes, this works!”
Many players are extremely excited about the upcoming Reprise Ultimate version of Dragonsong. These are very long and difficult fights that are indicative of a particular story in season XIV. What is your design philosophy for the Dragonsong arc? How do you balance difficulty to make sure the content is as difficult as possible but still accessible?
This time, the idea was to transform the Dragon Wars story from the Patch 3.x series itself into an Ultimate raid. Completing an Ultimate series raid does not necessarily reward the player with powerful weapons or other such items. What players will get is a shiny weapon and a trophy, in other words, a challenge to themselves along with a sense of accomplishment and pride for fighting to win. With the exception of the World’s First Race, which is exactly why I believe the mission stands on its own for a sense of challenge, rather than focusing on the speed with which the team completes. As for the difficulty… we’re not entirely thinking about accessibility. (laugh)
Thanks for reading, Warriors of Light. To learn more about Final Fantasy XIV, including its latest Endwalker expansion, check out playstation.com.
