[ad_1]
We’re catching up with Yoshida following FF14’s latest expansion reveal.
The story of Final Fantasy 14 has been well told in many places and in multiple formats. This tale of gruesome failure and unlikely and wonderful redemption has granted FF14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida legendary status in the industry. Yoshida is now also a producer of Final Fantasy 16, but he’s still absolutely focused on FF14 and is currently bringing home Endwalker, the fourth full expansion for FF14.
While the world’s most dedicated residents of FF14 were unable to come together in the real world this year, Square Enix was still able to host a digital celebration of the game – and that culminated with the announcement of the new Endwalker expansion, as well as a PlayStation 5 version of the game.
After the announcement, we had a brief opportunity to chat with Yoshida about the expansion. We talk about its lunar setting, its music, the future of some specific content types, and exactly what’s going on with that much-talked-about Xbox port. Here’s our full discussion.
VG247: Over the weekend, a clip of you from Fanfest 2019 went slightly viral. In it, you asked the crowd where the next expansion might take players, someone shouted “moon!”. You laughed and said “Maybe in version 7.0…” So… did you know at the time that you would be going a little earlier? And can you explain a bit about the origins of this place? Was this inspired by FF4 fan service, or is there more to decide to go?
Naoki Yoshida: Regarding the moon theme, I had already decided that this would be a place where players would eventually go to finish the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiarc during the Fan Festival opening speech in 2019. Like the saga that I had envisioned at the time, I thought the conclusion would be in 6.0 or 7.0 and that is why I jokingly responded as I did. [laughs]
Moons serve an important element in FF14. The Dalamud Moon was built by the Old Allagan Empire as a prison to contain Bahamut. There is also a huge hidden secret related to the larger moon itself and we have briefly touched on it in part in FF14’s story so far while cleverly hiding some things from the player. It would be insane if I had to divulge these details, so try to research them yourself.
Of course, when you mention the moon in the FF series, the first title to appear would be FF4. It was because I had anticipated that this moment would come that I had deliberately decided to avoid including strong references to the essence of FF4 in FF14 until now.
VG247: Forgive me for asking this question – because I know you’ve spoken at length about it, even to me. But what’s the deal with the Xbox? In 2019 and 2020, statements from yourself and Phil Spencer seemed to suggest that you were moving closer to a solution to bring FF14 to these platforms. So it was a surprise to see the PS5 announcement without more news on other platforms. Switch has also been mentioned in the past, but the Xbox in particular. Can you give us an update and possibly explain what obstacles remain?
Naoki Yoshida: There is no obstacle to the development of the Xbox version. We were able to undertake the development and provide our service thanks to the immense efforts that Phil invested. For this we are truly grateful!
The only factors are the workload and the order of the steps. Now, as for the Xbox version, unfortunately there is not much I can say at the moment just that we cannot work on all the steps simultaneously and we have to follow the order to do these things. Considering that we are currently involved in the development of Endwalker and are preparing the PS5 version following the service of the title on PS4, it would be appreciated if we could revert to the Xbox version once things are sorted out!
VG247: I just wanted to give you a chance to talk about the music of Endwalker, given that I’ve seen a lot of fans liking the music in the trailer and trying to decipher the lyrics. Is there a particular theme or style that you, Soken and the rest of the team want the music to embody this time around? And will there be a new contribution from Uematsu-san for this expansion, as for others?
Naoki Yoshida: From both me and Soken’s perspective, the music used in the trailer is far from complete. We would really love you to check out the final product in the full trailer. Endwalker marks FF14’s very first “climax” from a story that has spanned over 10 years. I’ve asked Soken to aim for something with a direct impact in terms of music as we approach this dramatic climax. However, we’re only just getting started, so I would say a lot of trial and error will likely continue for me and Soken. [laughs]
As for Mr. Uematsu, we would like him to prioritize his other projects given the fact that he has had a health problem before. Moreover, although Soken composes the majority of the songs of FF14, there are of course others which were provided by other artists. Try to take a look at the soundtracks that we have released so far!
VG247: While Shadowbringers began the concept of role-seeking that is now being developed in Endwalker, players still had access to completely optional level 80 job quests for each respective job. Will we see the level 90 Job Quests in Endwalker, or are Job Quests as we know them dead outside of the newly announced Jobs?
Naoki Yoshida: Of course, we will be implementing job quests for the new jobs. As for the episode quests for each job that we incorporated in version 5.0, we have prepared them as a kind of “ highlight ” of the job quests from previous expansions. The episodes that would take the place of these are not fixed at the moment.
VG247: Heavensward and Stormblood both had deep dungeons, while Shadowbringers lacked their own deep dungeon – instead incorporating the leveling aspect of the concept in Bozjan’s southern front. Is there any chance we will see a return to the Deep Dungeon concept with Endwalker?
Naoki Yoshida: When we announced that we would not be including Deep Dungeon in the 5.X series, we realized that there were more players looking forward to it than expected. We’re already prepping the concept and discussing what to do for our next Deep Dungeon, so we’re going to proceed with development once this plan matches our development milestones.
However, as it relates to a certain point in the Patch 6.X series, please do not take it as guaranteed at this time. After all, we first need to overcome the high hurdle of rounding off Endwalker’s development in an effort to provide the best story for our players. [laughs]