We catch up with Yoshida after the FF14’s latest expansion.
The story of Final Fantasy 14 has been well told in many places and in various formats. The story of horrific failure and unlikely, amazing redemption has given FF14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida a legendary status in the industry. Yoshida is now also the producer of Final Fantasy 16, but he is still absolutely focused on FF14 and is currently bringing home Endwalker, the fourth full expansion to FF14.
While FF14’s most dedicated residents of the world were unable to gather in the real world this year, Square Enix was still able to hold a digital celebration of the game – and this culminated in 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 talk to Yoshida about the expansion. We look at the lunar setting, music, the future of specific types of content, and what exactly is going on with the much-discussed Xbox port. Here is our full chat.
VG247: Over the weekend, an excerpt from 2019’s fanfest went slightly viral. In it, you asked the crowd where the next expansion could take players, someone shouted ‘the moon’. You laughed and said ‘Maybe in 7.0 …’ So … did you know then that you would actually go there a little earlier? And can you explain a little bit about the origin of the place? Is it inspired by FF4 fanservice, or is there more to the decision to go there?
Naoki Yoshida: Regarding the theme of the moon, I have already decided that it will be a place that players will eventually visit to complete the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiarc during the main speech of the Fan Festival in 2019. As the saga which I intended at the time, I considered the conclusion to be in 6.0 or 7.0, and therefore I jokingly replied as I did. [laughs]
Moons serve as an important element in FF14. The moon Dalamud was built by the ancient Allagan empire as a prison to house Bahamut. There’s also a big secret hidden regarding the larger moon itself, and so far we’ve briefly touched on it in part in the story of FF14, while skillfully hiding certain things from the player. It would be pointless if I disclose the details, and definitely try to figure it out for myself.
Of course if you mention the moon in the FF series, the first title would be FF4. It was because I expected this time to come, that I deliberately decided not to include strong references to the core of FF4 in FF14 so far.
VG247: Forgive me for asking – as I know, you’ve talked about it for a long time, even with me. But what about Xbox? In 2019 and 2020, it appears that you and Phil Spencer through statements suggest that you would move closer to a solution to bring FF14 to those platforms. So it was a surprise to see the PS5 announcement without any further news on other platforms. Switch has also been mentioned in the past, but especially Xbox. Can you give us an update and explain what obstacles are still there?
Naoki Yoshida: There are no obstacles to the development of the Xbox version. We were able to develop and deliver our service thanks to the tremendous efforts Phil has invested. We are truly grateful for that!
The only factors are the workload and the order of steps. As for the Xbox version, I can not say much at the moment, but only that we can not work on all the steps at once and that we have to follow the order to continue with these things. As we are currently developing Endwalker and preparing the PS5 version to continue the title service on PS4, it would be appreciated if we could return to the Xbox version once things are ready!
VG247: I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about the music of Endwalker, as I’ve seen a lot of fans who love the music in the trailer and try to decipher the lyrics. Is there a specific theme or style that you, Soken and the rest of the team intend to embody the music this time around? And will there, as with others, be any new contribution from Uematsu-san to this expansion?
Naoki Yoshida: From my and Soken’s perspective, the music used in the preview is far from complete. We definitely want you to watch the final product in the full trailer. Endwalker is the very first ‘climax’ in FF14 from a story that has lasted for more than ten years. I asked Soken to aim for something with a direct impact on music as we approach this dramatic climax. However, we are only just getting started, so I would say that a fair amount of trial and error for me and Soken is likely to continue. [laughs]
As for Uematsu, we want him to prioritize his other projects as he has had a health problem before. By the way, although Soken composes most of FF14’s tracks, there are of course others provided by other artists. Try looking through the soundtracks we’ve released so far!
VG247: While Shadowbringers launches the Role Quest concept now being expanded into Endwalker, players still have access to completely optional Level 80 task missions for each respective job. Will we see Level 90 job searches in Endwalker, or are the jobs as we know them dead outside the newly announced positions?
Naoki Yoshida: Of course, we will implement job searches for the new jobs. As for the delivery times for each work we included in 5.0, we prepared it as a sort of ‘highlight’ of the assignments from previous extensions. The episodes that would take its place have not been determined at this time.
VG247: Both Heavensward and Stormblood had Deep Dungeons, while Shadowbringers did not have a Deep Dungeon of its own, but rather incorporated the leveling aspect of the concept into the Bozjan Southern Front. Is there a chance we could see a return to the Deep Dungeon concept with Endwalker?
Naoki Yoshida: When we announced that we would not be including a Deep Dungeon in the 5.X Series, we realized that there were more players looking forward to it than we expected. We are already preparing the concept and discussing what we need to do for our next Deep Dungeon so that we will continue the development as soon as this plan fits in with our development milestones.
However, since it is for a certain point in the Patch 6.X series, you should not accept it as a guarantee yet. After all, we must first get past the high obstacle to complete the development on Endwalker with the aim of delivering the best story to our players. [laughs]