With Final Fantasy XIV’s Newfound Adventure era well underway, the PlayStation Blog has a new interview with Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida on the long roadmap of plans the team has for the game, and more of what’s coming in the near future.
Any FFXIV fan is going to be familiar with the secrecy around specifics, but the interview does get into an overview of what has recently been added, including making the game more playable for soloers, new quests, challenges, and other stuff in the works.
The Myths of the Realm alliance raid takes inspiration from the lore of Eorzea. While he does look through player theories, and “some of them may not be far from hitting the mark”, Yoshida did give the tidbit that deities chosen during character selection won’t impact your status there.
The interview also covers the announced graphical update that will happen over time. While a graphical update could take many forms, once again the community’s interest is firmly in mind. When you have loyal players that have been with you for a decade, going slowly with such a big update and getting the right feedback is the way. “The beauty of graphics depends not only on the method used, but also on the sensibilities of the individual, so I’m merely aiming for “the evolution of graphics from the perspective of FFXIV,” he says regarding the upgrade planning.
When it comes to MMORPGs adding more solo play options aside from story, it might seem like a contradiction, but his design philosophy emphasizes player pace and discovery.
“What I want to do is lower the barrier for entry among those who feel intimidated by MMORPGs or who are not good at multiplayer games. Of course, I’ll be happy if players are satisfied after completing just the story, or if throughout their journeys they discover the fun of multiplayer and MMORPGs, leading them to try out various types of content.”
Finally, when asked about the design behind the new Dragonsong’s Reprise Ultimate, lowering the barriers wasn’t a factor here. “As for the difficulty…we don’t quite have approachability in mind.”
Read the full interview with Final Fantasy XIV’s Naoki Yoshida over at the PlayStation Blog.
