During a recent conference call, MMORPG.com Associate Editor Suzie Ford had the opportunity to speak with members of the Final Fantasy XIV team including Naoki Yoshida, Director & Producer, Sage Sundi, Global Online Producer and Michael Christopher Koji Fox, Title Translator. The discussion centered around the just-revealed 'road map' for development leading up to FFXIV v2.0 in late 2012. Check out the interview and then let us know what you think in the comments!

I had the privilege of participating in an interview with Naoki Yoshida, the producer and director for Final Fantasy XIV. We spent a bit under an hour discussing all things FFXIV including topics from the past year and topics looking forward into 2012’s implementation of v2.0. The discussion was frank and honest about past mistakes and, at the same time, excited about the game’s future.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Final Fantasy XIV: Game Overhaul Interview.

Good read! I didn't know the Umbral Era would be a one time, year-long story arc, that's really interesting =)

It's always good when games fix their problems. Yoshida actually listens and communicates though, which is nice for once.

i really hope this game succeeds. at the least i hope its something ffxi fanbase accepts as a successor. they went from hype to a huge letdown and had to swallow some good old humble pie. its my underdog mmo. that last pic looks pretty sick too. nice lighting. i want to see that come to fruition we good action and pacing.

ya kudos to them for taking this approach.  Hope it works out in the end.  Might actually pop in and look around before sub kicks in and see how things are.

Thank you for this interview. It was a nice read.

I'm seriously considering picking it up while there still isnt' a subscription fee and seeing how it's changed from the beta last year. The beta left a horrible taste in my mouth but I've been a big fan of the communication between the dev's and the playerbase, and like the direction of the changes they've made, and their roadmap towards 2.0

But a new engine...I thought they were going to use the one that Squeenix just released some screenshots for. I guess the old one is just that hard to work with, another poor decision made pre-release that's biting them in the ass. Let's hope they've learned what they need to.

Originally posted by mnemic666

I'm seriously considering picking it up while there still isnt' a subscription fee and seeing how it's changed from the beta last year. 

 

Yeah... I did. I mean 30 bucks... If it lasts me longer than 10 hours of gameplay it's already worth more than some of these 60 buck crappy console games.  :).

But I've never tried it, so it may be a little different for me... however I'm also an "old school" mmo player (I'm less than 25yo, though), so I have a lot of patience.

Anyway... if it's different than the normal unoriginallity, nowadays, I'll probably enjoy it. haha

Great interview!

Yoshi is really doing wonders for SE, not only in terms of his leadership of FFXIV's rebuilding and revamping, but in terms of his being so "present" with the community. Anyone who's followed FFXI knows that engaging their community directly isn't something SE is known for.

All of this coverage is coming, of course, on the heels of the release of the 2.0 roadmap and all that entails (a lot to take in, to be sure; they released a lot of info). However, Yoshi also releases a monthly "Letter From The Producer" wherein he discusses current goings-on, addresses some concerns that are more current within the game's community and also discusses things coming down the line. Through it all, he's very personable and very much "like he's having a conversation".. not merely speaking "at" everyone.

Aside from even that, topics that come up in the forums that garner enough attention (and aren't redundant discussions) will be "crowned", which means it's getting dev attention. This usually results in the topic being brought to Yoshi's attention (or others), and a response is typically provided, via Bayohne, their community rep.

So in terms of the transparency he's discussing, the open-ness of information and the very hands-on and personable approach being taken... Yoshi is really emerging as one helluva blessing for SE to have on their side.

Yes, there are the negative-nancies who are going to bash and flame anything SE says or does... and of course, they're always going to be the loudest. By and large, though, those sticking around in-game, on the forums and such are starting to see an overall change taking place among players... a much more positive one.

I for one am excited to see what the future brings for FFXIV. I love the fact that we're experiencing this sort  of "build up" to what 2.0 will be... Good times ahead for sure.

WSIMike: You get a +10 from me for using "negative nancies" in a sentence in a manly way. Kudos! :)

Originally posted by SBFord

WSIMike: You get a +10 from me for using "negative nancies" in a sentence in a manly way. Kudos! :)

 

lol thanks!

I'm not sure what a womanly way of using that would be, but hey, I'll take it!

I went from "it's dead" to "I can't wait for this update!" within a few moments after reading the provided pdfs.  Yoshi seems to really know his stuff and I'm cautiously optimistic here.  After all I think many of us remember the magic of ffxi when it first came out.. a newer version of it would be most welcome.  The FFXIV of today doesn't even come close.. but tomarrow? Perhaps.  If things go as planned.. I don't doubt I'll be subbing post 2.0  perhaps a bit sooner.

@Hyanmen, yeah...  I have a feeling that there's a good number of people who will be sticking around for the next months leading up to 2.0.

If you notice on different forums, especially the official ones, there really aren't many people complaining about it overall. Most of the complaints I see are coming from the same handful of people over there. Seems to me their main beef is "we want to keep playing, but we don't want to pay for it"... and that's it. Whether or not "it's worth paying for" seems to be a hollow argument from many of them.

Now, I know people will say "well most of the people on the official forums are fans, so it's going to be more positive." I would agree, if not for one thing: every single person posting there has to have an account and at least one character in-game to do so. Every single person there verifiably has something to gain or lose by subs being reinstated. So, I tend to take their opinions over that of people on a public forum, such as here or ZAM or elsewhere who can post on the topic and not even have an account to begin with.

A lot of forum-goers, after all, do love to spread negativity to games they don't like, no reason to believe it would be any different in this case.

When someone's played almost non-stop since Sept 21, 2010, has several 50s, other classes over 40 and a smattering of 20+'s, plus pages of achievements listed on the lodestone site, it rings a bit hollow (to me anyway) for one to say "the game isn't enjoyable enough to pay for". Who plays something they don't find "that enjoyable" to that extent, for upwards of 13 months, even if it's free....?

I suppose it's possible for someone to find the game enjoyable enough to play, but not to pay for... but I can't help but think that it mostly has to do with people just being cheap and wanting something for nothing, to be honest.

At the very least, they've more than gotten their money's worth, even if they bought the collector's edition.

I wish them the best of luck and will definitely check out FFXIV come 2.0. Perhaps even PS3 version, as I've always wanted a good console MMORPG for some reason.

I just couldn't get into FFXI and took a "wait and see" approach with FFXIV.

Plenty of gaming to do between now and late 2012/early 2013, but FFXIV will definitely be on my radar.

Looked at all the pdf's from the 2.0 roadmap, impressive stuff.

SE will never let Tanaka near another MMO as long as they have Yoshi. I don't blame them.

From reading some of the comments on the official forums regarding the male Miqo'te I can only hope that Square Enix does not give into those who say they want the males to look like a body builder in a cat suit (i.e. Thundercats). I like the concept art for the male Miqo'te and to me it fits the race perfectly, not to mention it follows what we saw with the male Mithra Lehko Habhoka. The Mithra and Miqo'te are inspired by cats like the Lynx and Serval not lions, the males don't need to look like they are hitting the gym everyday nor do they need to sport huge manes. ;)

I know it's a bit off topic but as someone who has been waiting for the male Miqo'te since it was announced before release that that model existed in game. This is the one thing that kept me from playing FFXIV with any dedication, simply because I knew when they arrived I would be deleting my character (I refuse to pay extra every month for the privilege of having  a second character.)

Overall though I am happy with the progress the team is making and while I will not be subscribing, I will return when the game adds the missing sexes.

I was so disappointed when I popped my CE disk in at launch, it just wasnt the game I expected like many others. I can see me trying it out again once the new engine is done and the game has a better interface for kb/mouse. 

Respect to SE for going this route though.

Originally posted by WSIMike

Yes, there are the negative-nancies who are going to bash and flame anything SE says or does... and of course, they're always going to be the loudest. By and large, though, those sticking around in-game, on the forums and such are starting to see an overall change taking place among players... a much more positive one.

Don't pay attention to these guys.  I think the majority of (mature) players are actually excited about the direction the devs are taking and the changes FFXIV is going through. Most of us are anxiously looking forward to playing 2.0. The release was just a mess and there's really nothing we can do about it now, but obviously SE is trying to make it better and succeeding in that. 

Finally something positive. I think it was a great article and really tells what I'm seeing as being the truth from Yoshi. This guy is awesome, he seems to really care about the game he's managing and I think that a year from now we're going to see an amazing game unfold.

FFXIV, the Phoenix reborn.

A lot of people are upset about the fact that they're going to start charging again, but I think right now is actually a perfect point in which to begin. Us, as current players, get to witness and experience a game that no one post 2.0 will ever get to and I think that alone is worth paying for. Yoshi has fixed a ton of the problems and is continuing to do so in a pretty timely manner, all things considered.

I guess we'll see in time how things pan out, but so far I have faith in this guy in turning around what was a terrible game at launch. I've actually been enjoying it and that is really surprising if you know me well enough to know my gaming habits.

Hats off to Yoshi & the FFXIV Dev. Team. Good luck on the year coming.