In a new interview, Naoki Yoshida talks about Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion, including criticism received, and the debut of the MMORPG on Xbox to “a really strong response” and a future with Xbox.
At Gamescom, Yoshida talked to Eurogamer and and acknowledged the feedback regarding Dawntrail, including that it was too slowly paced, and decisions about the main scenario that led to not enough attention on some of the Scions. Yoshida’s response focuses on the player experience and the need to listen, but also how this goes two ways.
On the pacing, he says, “Considering this was a new adventure that we were going on, we were journeying into a new land, we were meeting new people, and we were coming into contact with new cultures, we went through a process of making sure to create and showcase these aspects in a very attentive way.” Making sure to be thorough about the introduction to all of the new places and new cultures were important to later story developments.
Still, he does say that some of the things included in the MSQ could have potentially been made into side quests, letting players who really wanted that in-depth experience have it and others left with more essential but not necessarily supplemental details.
As for the Scions, this was an experiment of sorts. “I do understand there are people who always want the Scions to be at the centre of the story, but at the same time there are people who are also requesting something new instead,” he said. Keeping all of this in mind, he acknowledges that sometimes there will be complaints regardless, so they made decisions to craft the story they were trying to tell.
Square Enix, after a big dip in profits, recently announced that they would be aggressively pursuing multiplatform releases going forward. The Xbox debut of Final Fantasy XIV was a success and opened up something new, after the work to make it happen.
“So we would like to make the best of that and further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers moving forward.” Square Enix is now looking to release their games to as many players as possible.
