FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida Interview at Square Enix

Can you explain what you’ve been working on since you became Producer 10 months ago? How have things changed?

The biggest thing we are continuously working on is the user interface. As FINAL FANTASY XIV is an MMO, there is no "final goal", but I do feel that the user interface is the biggest thing we need to improve. Whatever game you’re making, even if it’s the most exciting game, if the user interface is not friendly it will not be as enjoyable as it could be. Because the Japanese games industry at the moment is not PC-based, the user interface at the moment is not mouse-and-keyboard friendly. So, that’s something we’re trying to change. With 2.0 we will be making drastic changes to the user interface, but it’s also something we’re trying to make changes to in the current version. 

The second important aspect of the game for us to improve is the battle system. It is a FINAL FANTASY game, so you will be required to get into combat. This means the battle system is very important. I want to make sure that the players can co-operate with each other and each individual player can participate in the battle as their own character. If they do that they will get the biggest reward from the battle system, that’s something that I really want to make sure is implemented. That’s something that we’re still working on. In the 1.19 patch we made a lot of changes to the foundations of the battle system.

Thirdly, the contents of the game. Really, this needs to be added after the battle system is improved, but because this is an MMO people will be playing FINAL FANTASY XIV every day, which means they could get through all of the available content very quickly. We needed to make sure there are lots of things to do in the game. We’ve been working on both the content of the game and the battle system simultaneously, so it has been quite challenging, but our staff did a great job and we’ve managed to add some really interesting new content into the game. I was also keen to make sure the contents of FINAL FANTASY XIV are very FINAL FANTASY-like, so that when people are playing they say to themselves "this feels like FINAL FANTASY". Things like chocobos and Ifrit, etc. I see this as a very important part of the game. 

With patch 1.19 you added materia, chocobos and airship travel. What other FINAL FANTASY icons or tropes are you hoping to add to the game? Could we see cameos from other FINAL FANTASY characters?

When we announced FINAL FANTASY XIV version 2.0, you may have noticed the crystal tower, which some people might recognise from a previous FINAL FANTASY game. I think the FINAL FANTASY franchise has had a very great history. Because FINAL FANTASY XIV is an MMO, it’s a great opportunity for players to feel and experience the FINAL FANTASY universe 365 days a year. I really want to make the most out of the franchise’s history. Not many other games have this incredible history, so I’d like to put as much of that as possible in this game. Not only by using ideas, objects and locations from older FINAL FANTASY games, but also by adding new things to the universe. I have a lot of plans, so please look forward to finding out what I have in mind. 

The concept screenshot (shown above) that was released with the announcement of FINAL FANTASY XIV version 2.0 is absolutely stunning. How confident are you that you can live up to the standard that you’ve now set yourself?

I wouldn’t have released that screenshot if I wasn’t confident I would meet those expectations. I’m trying very hard to try and meet this expectation, so please look forward to it!

FINAL FANTASY XIV Version 2.0 is a very ambitious project. How long have you been developing plans for it and how much time did you devote to the current version of the game before starting on the remake? 

That’s a very difficult question. It’s hard to separate the current version and the 2.0 version, because I really have been putting all of our manpower and effort into FINAL FANTASY XIV. Since I joined 10 months ago we’ve been updating the current version of the game, but a lot of the content we’ve added will also be found in the 2.0 version. So it’s all very interwoven and related to each other. We’ve received a lot of feedback from the players and I’m sure we will be receiving a lot more in the future. I want to make sure all of this feedback is reflected in this new version. 

Hashimoto-san, our CTO, works with some very impressive technology and staff in his team and we are working together to upgrade the graphics engine and server system with just a small team, but really fast and drastically. So now we feel the foundation of the game is ready. We are comfortable that we can carry the data from the current version to the new version and merge it together. That doesn’t mean we have been neglecting the current version, because we have worked hard to improve the current version to make sure we can carry things over to the new version. I have had to reduce my sleeping hours considerably to work on this game!

You’ve released a huge amount of incredible concept art and information about what you intend to do with FINAL FANTASY XIV. Is the plan to keep releasing this sort of information in the run up to Version 2.0?

Before we talk about 2.0, I really want to keep our current players excited. I’ve been sharing a lot of information about what is coming for current players, but there’s still a lot more to show, so this is my first priority through the producer letter and live video producer letters. We’ll have lots more information coming through those channels. Perhaps something related to the exciting Seventh Umbra Era event... From next year onwards I will start to talk more about 2.0 and give more details on that. 

Since taking over as Producer you seem to have built a really good rapport with the FINAL FANTASY XIV community. How important are they to your work, your team and the direction that the game is taking? 

It’s very difficult to give a number or an amount to how important the community is, but of course I consider it very, very important. If I didn’t, you wouldn’t see me posting on the official forums at midnight, for example. Personally I was an MMO player too, so I understand how important it can be for players to want to tell the development team how they feel about the game. Once the game is out and people start to play they actually have more time to go into the details of everything, so it’s very important to listen to what they’re saying. It will make the game better and more comfortable and keep players happy, so it’s vitally important. Of course, the development side of the game is also important. Everything is important! But yes, I consider community very, very important.