We caught up with Yoshida in the wake of the latest reveal of the FF14 expansion.
The story of Final Fantasy 14 has been well told in many places and in various formats. This story of terrible failure and unlikely and wonderful redemption has given FF14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida a legendary status in the industry. Yoshida is now also a producer for Final Fantasy 16, but he is still fully focused on FF14 too, and is currently in the process of bringing home Endwalker, the fourth full expansion to FF14.
Although the most dedicated residents of the FF14 world could not get together in the real world this year, Square Enix was still able to hold a digital celebration of the game – which culminated in the announcement of a new Endwalker expansion, as well as a Version of the game for PlayStation 5.
After the announcement, we had a brief opportunity to speak with Yoshida about the expansion. We touch on your lunar scene, music, the future of some specific types of content, and what exactly is happening with that much-discussed Xbox port. Here is our full chat.
VG247: Over the weekend, a clip of you from the 2019 fanfest went a little viral. In it, you asked the crowd where the next expansion could take players, someone shouted “the moon!” You laughed and said, “Maybe at 7.0 …” So … did you know back then that you were really going to go there a little earlier? And can you explain a little about the origins of this place? Was it inspired by the FF4 fanservice, or is the decision to go there more important?
Naoki Yoshida: Regarding the theme of the moon, I had already decided that it would be a place that players would eventually visit to conclude the story of Hydaelyn and Zodiarc at the time of the Fan Festival’s opening speech in 2019. Like the saga I imagined at that time , I was thinking that the conclusion would be in 6.0 or 7.0 and that’s why I responded jokingly. [laughs]
Moons are an important element in FF14. The Dalamud moon was built by the ancient Allagan Empire as a prison to hold Bahamut. There is also a big secret hidden in relation to the bigger moon itself and we have partially touched on that in the history of FF14 so far, while skillfully hiding some things from the player. It wouldn’t make sense if I disclosed these details, so definitely try to take care of them yourself.
Of course, when you mention the moon in the FF series, the first title to appear would be FF4. It is because I had anticipated that this time would come that I intentionally decided to avoid including strong references to the essence of FF4 in FF14 until now.
VG247: Forgive me for asking this – I know you’ve talked about it at length before, even for me. But what’s the problem with the Xbox? In 2019 and 2020, statements from you and Phil Spencer seemed to suggest that you were approaching a solution to bring FF14 to these platforms. So it was a surprise to see the PS5 announcement without further news on other platforms. The switch was also mentioned in the past, but the Xbox in particular. Can you give us an update and possibly explain what obstacles remain?
Naoki Yoshida: There are no obstacles to developing the Xbox version. We were able to undertake development and provide our service thanks to the immense efforts that Phil invested. For that, we are truly grateful!
The only factors are the workload and the order of the steps. Now, when it comes to the Xbox version, unfortunately there is not much I can say today, but just that we cannot work on all the steps simultaneously and we need to follow the order to proceed with these things. Since we are currently involved in the development of Endwalker and preparing the PS5 version to continue with the title service on PS4, we would appreciate it if we could get back to talking about the Xbox version once things are settled!
VG247: I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about Endwalker music, as I saw a lot of fans loving 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 song to incorporate this time around? And will there be any new contribution from Uematsu-san to this expansion, as with others?
Naoki Yoshida: From both my perspective and Soken’s, the song used in the teaser trailer is far from complete. We would definitely like you to check out the final product in the full trailer. Endwalker marks the first ‘climax’ in FF14 in a story that continues for more than 10 years. I asked Soken to aim for something with a direct impact in terms of music as we approach that dramatic climax. However, we are just getting started, so I would say that a good deal of trial and error will probably continue for me and Soken. [laughs]
As for Mr. Uematsu, we would like him to prioritize his other projects, considering the fact that he has had a health problem before. By the way, although Soken composes most of the tracks on FF14, it is clear that there are others that were provided by other artists. Try taking a look at the soundtracks we’ve released so far!
VG247: While Shadowbringers started the role quest concept that is now being expanded on the Endwalker, players still had access to completely optional Level 80 Job Quests for each respective Job. Will we see Level 90 Job Quests on the Endwalker or will the Job Quests as we know them die out of the newly announced jobs?
Naoki Yoshida: Of course, we will implement job assignments for new jobs. As for the episode missions for each job that we incorporated in 5.0, we prepared them as a kind of ‘highlight’ of the work missions from previous expansions. The episodes that would take the place of those are not fixed at this time.
VG247: Both Heavensward and Stormblood had Deep Dungeons, while Shadowbringers did not have their own Deep Dungeon – instead, it incorporated the concept’s leveling aspect into the Bozjan Southern Front. Is there any chance of seeing a return to the concept of Deep Dungeon with Endwalker?
Naoki Yoshida: When we announced that we would not include a Deep Dungeon in the 5.X series, we realized that there were more players who were looking forward to it than we expected. We are already preparing the concept and discussing what to do in our next Deep Dungeon, so we will continue with development as soon as this plan fits into our development milestones.
However, as this is for some point in the Patch 6.X series, don’t take it for granted yet. After all, we first need to overcome the great obstacle of rounding up development in Endwalker in order to deliver the best story to our players. [laughs]