So since 2013 Final Fantasy XIV rethought himself The kingdom is reborn thanks to magic hands Naoki Yoshidaalso known as Yoshi-P. The leader of Creative studio 3 Art Square Enixhis team spent 11 years developing one of the most important MMOs of recent years.
Con Downrail just around the corner, a new chapter in history Final Fantasy XIV After finishing a 10-year story arc, we sat down to talk and reflect Yoshida-san what this new expansion means, its development processes, and how much it has learned over the years.
Of course, the leading most profitable product in Square Enix This is no easy task, especially when there are 1 million active players and almost 56 million registered accounts.
Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail It arrives on June 28th with Early Access and July 2nd for all players. The title comes with a graphical update, the first in its 11-year history, and a new world to discover. If you want to know more about FFXIV Online: Dawntrailyou can read our first impressions.
– Yoshida-san, nice to be here and nice to meet you.
Naoki Yoshida: – Nice to meet you.
—Now that I’ve had a chance to try out Dawntrail and have the chance to play the new Pictomancer and Viper classes, I’m very interested to know what the new job design process is like, given that they’re two DPS classes and that this role is the one with more for all jobs?
Naoki Yoshida: —When we’re discussing work design with a team or when we’re working on combat design, our methodology includes being able to raise your hand and say “I want to design this work.” Sometimes also, to organize ourselves, we take turns, so that everyone has the opportunity to work on a specific job that they like. Of course, I have a rule for the team: every time we develop a new work, we must keep in mind that we must find a unique element that distinguishes this class from the rest.
For example, the Reaper we released in Endwalker, our previous expansion, has its own unique element: it summons a familiar from the Void to fight alongside this specter. Also, when you’re working on changing skills, there’s a time when players can team up with familiars to get a new set of combo attack skills. And there’s this unique element that I’m asking for.
Now, with Viper, we’re introducing that unique element, which is that the deeper you go into the skill set, the more decisions you have to make. Viper has different combo paths and depending on the combat situation you have to choose one or the other. So between the different combos we make decisions as players, either to buff us or debuff the enemy and in turn the Viper starts attacking faster and faster. All this means we can deal more damage, create full immersion in combat and encourage quick decision-making.
So that’s one of the things we pay the most attention to in every new job we develop. We want to design a different experience for each class, so that when you play with a new one, you feel that it is unique and fresh. So to answer your question, we discuss and define the framework of the gameplay in class with the whole team, and then each responsible person in turn can sit down to work on the framework that we have drawn up. This is the person who is going to dig deeper into the design of this concept, this core, who is going to polish it and be very precise in the small decisions.
As you’ll see, our team and company are working hard on how to design these new experiences, so we want to make the effort that this means visible in each new expansion. So with that level of detail and hard work, we’re making it not too simple, too complicated, and not too similar to something that already exists. And aside, when a person on a team is tasked with creating a new job, a lot of research is done by reading manga. It’s for inspiration, either from things you’ve already read or new ones to read: Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter are some of your sources of inspiration. We love to see how unique the characters in these stories are, how incredible ideas are born from these stories.
Anyone who develops a new work always tries to absorb as much content as possible from these manga to get inspiration and come up with their own ideas, such as “What could my class do with all this and how would they do it at their own pace and in the world of FFXIV?”
– Of course, of course, I understand. Basically create your own characters.
Naoki Yoshida: – Exactly, exactly!
—Why did the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV Online learn from the producer of Final Fantasy XVI to develop Dawntrail? Did XVI reveal anything to the team that you didn’t think about XIV before?
Naoki Yoshida: – Oh! That’s a tough question, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it. I’m very close to the producer of Final Fantasy XVI (it’s one person), but I’ve never paid much attention to him.
Hmm, let me think… Given that Final Fantasy 16 is a unique single player, platform exclusive game that doesn’t need constant updates, the way FF16 is made and the way it’s sold (on a marketing level) is very different from FFXIV. Because of this, I honestly believe that as the producer and director of XIV, I have a lot to teach the XVI team.
As the producer and director of FFXIV, I told them, “Please think about the fans, think about being honest and sincere with them.” “Don’t get your hopes up too high,” that sort of thing. I think it was very positive in the decisions that were made to promote this title, especially knowing that there are many people who avoid XIV because it is an MMORPG.
Those who dislike the genre were able to enjoy a more concise experience with FF XVI. For this reason, I think there was an effect and mutual learning between the teams and their producers in terms of how to work with two very different types of games.
— That’s another question to ponder, Yoshida-san: What would Yoshi P from 2024 say, when Dawntrail is very close to launch, Yoshi P 2013 about to launch A Realm Reborn?
Naoki Yoshida: – If you work very, very hard, there will be people who will see and highly appreciate this work. You will see the path that will open before you. I would also like to tell him to make sure that Yoshida in 2024 is still alive and well, so that Yoshida in 2013 can continue to work hard and not worry.
— Thank you very much for your time and your answers, Yoshida-san.
Naoki Yoshida: – Thank you very much for coming.
