Posted by Hergen Thaens on Feb 13, 2016 // Community Project Manager, Square Enix
Things move fast with Final Fantasy XIV, and we’ve already arrived at Patch 3.2, which will be hitting the servers of our critically acclaimed MMO in less than two weeks. More and more content is flowing into the game, but what’s great for our experienced players can be confusing for beginners, who may be daunted by the huge breadth of content they have to scale. To help them brave this challenge, Patch 3.2 will introduce the Mentor system – and we had the exclusive opportunity to ask Naoki Yoshida, the Producer and Director of Final Fantasy XIV, some questions about it.
TheGamer: "At PAX East, we sat down with the team behind Final Fantasy 16's upcoming The Rising Tide to see what's coming next in the DLC and what may be beyond."
Final Fantasy XIV and XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida discusses who could direct Final Fantasy XVII, which advice he'd give them, and what he'd like to do in the future.
During the interview he states that Final Fantasy is a series where each subsequent release is a intended to be be different than the one before it. I think that is an amazing and refreshing approach. The goal for each director is to make something they would enjoy.
As someone who played both Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XVI both games suffered from Yoshi P being siphoned back and forth. Endwalker is the weakest expansion compared to it others (but still grear on its own) and Final Fantasy XVI had WAY too many fetch quests which is lazy design.
On a positive note Final Fantasy XIV's new expansion has everything players wanted to come back and more. I am confident that no one was dissappointed. And the Final Fantasy XVI dlc has a different director giving players what we wanted. More lore on The Fallen and whats the deal woth Leviathan the Lost.
And no one got hurt.
Lost me at "lazy."
Literally, the least appropriate (and most disrespectful) word to apply to game development is "lazy."
Also sorry, but I have to laugh at Endwalker being the "weakest" expansion. Only the whiniest FFXIV "influencers" really think that. And they're dead wrong. 😂
Endwalker, specifically 6.0 at least, was probably the greatest phase for the MSQ over the entire XIV story and was the perfect finale. This is also where Endwalker as a whole suffers for me, I felt the story ended perfect, and I just haven't been able to play beyond 6.1 and beyond due to lack of interest, it just felt like a great ending point to a story we have followed for years now. It was beautiful.
As for the content outside of MSQ, again, nothing new. Some interesting additions, island sanctuary etc and a stronger ultimate expansion than prior... the relic questline has been far too boring and streamlined. ALso, crafting as a whole since the merging of DC's to allow travel between servers has really killed any interest I had in that, purely my opinion of course.
The fact is, the game is starting to show its age, we have done raid mechanics a million times in different fights, they look epic, sure... but we need something fresh now. I do believe 7.x will start to attempt to fix this though. We have become far too greedy in expecting banger after banger per expansion... maybe endwalker as a whole can't stand alongside Heavensward, or Shadowbringers.... but for 6.0 alone, it's still one of the strongest additions to the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole, easily.
edit - I should probably finish endwalker tbf, before truly judging it. A somewhat new beginning will need time to feel more appealing compared to what 1.x - 6.0 felt like.
CONSTANT fetch quests are peak lazy design. Out of all 76 of them only 6 were good and half of those were the "endings" of sidequests related to each other. Some of my favorite ones was getting access to areas only accessable via sidequests which there was a few of or when we got more lore; also few. Im my opinion we should have gotten half but more condesned. I do like the hunts. I took a screenshot after every beaten one.
And when it comes to Endwalker. It is the weakest expac COMPARED TO THE OTHERS IN FFXIV especially post content. Island Sactuary had potential but failed overall admit it. Crtiereon Dungeon should have came A LONG time ago now holding only special interest and the dev team doesnt know how to make it more popular. And as much influncers cen be total shills or haters they are right that the lack of midcore content in Endwalker is very distastful. Dont get me started on relic.
Speaking of lazy design
Give en example pleez if it exists to you.
@Mtgames: Thanks for proving that you have been influenced by FFXIV's "influencers", which are pretty much some of the whiniest and most falsely entitled in the industry.
No, they're not right. They are in fact ludicrously wrong. The only reason that drives them is that they're constantly hungry for stuff to show, but they're completely detached by the needs to actual players, who have *plenty* of content to enjoy
Watchable and enjoyable are very different things. FFXIV influencers don't want enjoyable content. They want watchable content. They don't get enough, so they cry.
Probably it should be someone who likes RPG, who can make the world's biggest RPG series to go back to being a freaking RPG.
And also, Nomura has to stay extremely far away from having any decisions on the plot,
Mentions he doesn't want to pick a fight with the older games. Makes sense cause ff still don't hold up to what it used to. They haven't touched the greatness in new ff games that were there with 6 through 9(add 10 if you must).
Man, I absolutely agree. I do think FF7 Remake has done a good transition from classic to modern.
What pisses me off is I look at games like Lost Odyssey, Persona, and Yakuza and clearly turn-based can still be done in modern times and can be quite successful.
I’d love to just see a classic turn-based FF game pushing visual fidelity and story telling to the limit with current-gen tech.
I hate this whole “we need to appeal to people who don’t like turn-based or Final Fantasy.” You alienate fans and you don’t rake in enough new fans.
Ff7 remake did a pretty good job for sure. I'm with you on that, a real old school ff experience with today's graphics would be so dope. Their ditching some of their audience chasing the young. It's been like that for years. These days I get more excited for squares re releases, remasters, and remakes then I do new stuff. Besides octopath.
Honestly. I haven't bought a FF game since.. idk 10 I think. I really dislike how they got a way from Turn Based battles. I'd much rather they do an alternate game using live action combat. Do something like FF: Tactics but call it FF: Freeform or something.
I enjoyed FF as a turn based game, I don't need the combat system they have in it now. Sigh.
Crazy to me that FFVII Remake has a battle system which feels like a modern approach to Final Fantasy yet they don't want to use something similar for the main title games.
Like you said Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Persona, Like a Dragon can do turn based and they are fantastic games so why can't FF? It will still sell regardless
Do they think people will see turn based combat and go "Ew. Not buying"
It's highly subjective. The last great FF to many was FF XII. I personally hated FF IX even tho I'm an old school fan
I honestly think the FF7 Remake team should do the next FF game. I was not a fan of 16 and hope to god that isn’t going to be the template for 17 to move forward with.
Shuhei Yoshida chats with FINAL FANTASY XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida.
