Final Fantasy XIV’s North American Fan Competition is at present underway in Anaheim, California, and with it has come some large bulletins concerning the MMORPG’s future. In the course of the competition’s two-hour-long opening showcase, recreation director Naoki Yoshida (known as Yoshi-P by the neighborhood) introduced that XIV’s subsequent enlargement, Evercold, is slated to launch in January 2027, and brings with it two new lessons and several other main adjustments. However whereas Yoshida delivered loads of thrilling information on stage, the director had lots to say concerning the recreation off stage, too.
Following the showcase, Yoshida met with members of the press to debate each Evercold (which just about had a really totally different title, by the way in which) and Final Fantasy XIV as an entire. Throughout this session, a reporter requested the director if he had ever thought-about making a single-player Final Fantasy XIV–one extra in keeping with nearly all of the sequence’ numbered titles. With zero hesitation, Yoshida replied, “Sure.”
“There are nonetheless lots of people on the market who take a look at a web-based Final Fantasy and so they say, ‘Properly, a web-based Final Fantasy is not an actual Final Fantasy,” Yoshida defined. He talked about that, regardless of engaged on XIV for effectively over a decade now, even bringing only one extra particular person to the world of Final Fantasy XIV stays an vital mission to him. Naturally, this consists of those that really feel that XIV “is not an actual Final Fantasy,” and would probably bounce in if it was a single-player expertise.
Nonetheless, Yoshida defined there’s one large problem with making a single-player Final Fantasy XIV recreation: the perfect workforce for the job is at present exhausting at work on one other challenge.
“Whereas I do love to think about making a standalone Final Fantasy XIV, sadly the one workforce that might make a standalone Final Fantasy XIV–the greatest standalone Final Fantasy XIV–is the present Final Fantasy XIV workforce. If we ever retire from Final Fantasy XIV On-line, possibly we are able to do it as our work after retirement,” Yoshida stated. “On the flip facet, if there have been people who find themselves fascinated about making a type of standalone Final Fantasy–if you might have associates or if corporations that want to tackle that challenge–we would love to listen to from them. I am half-joking, however half-serious, truly. I imply, if somebody’s passionate sufficient to wish to helm that type of challenge, we’d love to listen to from you.”
You heard it right here first, of us. If you might have a stable pitch (and presumably years {of professional} expertise and the backing of a serious writer), now’s the time to slip into Yoshi-P’s inbox and make our collective dream a actuality. Yoshida added this is able to additionally save him from one other headache, as he is “positive” that Final Fantasy XIV gamers would not be pleased with one other recreation stealing his consideration.
“If [a spin-off] occurred, I am positive XIV gamers would take a look at that challenge and go, ‘Yoshi, as an alternative of specializing in some spin-off challenge, it is best to work on the principle, precise Final Fantasy XIV recreation.'”
Happily for us (and Yoshida, it will appear), the director stays centered on the way forward for Final Fantasy XIV On-line. Over the course of the following yr, Yoshida and the workforce are set to introduce a number of large adjustments to the title. These embrace a brand new battle mode, improved character creation, a UI overhaul, same-region participant matching, and way more. The studio additionally confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV is headed to Swap 2, albeit with a weird caveat.