FFXIV: Dawntrail a ‘starting point for the next 10 years’

It’s a June Friday night time in Tokyo, and Naoki Yoshida has weekend plans.

Fairly customary, you may assume. But Yoshida-san, the director of Final Fantasy 14 (FF14), is aware of that it will in all probability be his final probability to chill out for a whereas.

When he speaks to BBC Newsbeat it is a week till Dawntrail, the newest growth to the massively multiplayer on-line role-playing recreation (MMORPG), is launched.

Following a “disastrous” launch in 2010, FF14 has gone on to change into the most worthwhile title in the franchise’s historical past, in response to writer Square Enix.

The recreation’s turned issues round a lot that servers struggled to maintain up with demand when the earlier growth, Endwalker, launched in December 2021.

It’s not the solely change since FF14 first got here out. The trade, and Japan’s place in it, has additionally shifted over the final decade.

Final Fantasy is a large cultural export for the nation, and Square Enix has mentioned it desires to focus extra on the “global market” and its followers worldwide.

There’s proof of this strategy in Dawntrail, a vital second for Yoshida-san and his workforce, and one he calls “the starting point for the next 10 years of Final Fantasy 14”.

Endwalker introduced a decade-long story arc to a shut and Dawntrail opens a new saga. It additionally provides a graphical overhaul to the recreation, together with new character lessons and different options.

It’s billed as a “summer vacation”, with the motion happening in the sunny, Latin America-inspired Tural area of FF14’s world.

Yoshida-san says Final Fantasy video games have beforehand taken inspiration from Europe and East Asia and his workforce wished to strive one thing completely different.

He says Central and South America present a “huge area” with “a lot of history” to attract from.

Authetic illustration of different cultures is one thing Square Enix has been criticised over in the previous, and its latest video games have made efforts to deal with this.

Yoshida-san says he is at all times regarded FF14 as a “global game”, however agrees that social media’s affect has grown and “it’s become easier for people to gather together and make their voices heard”.

He admits “there are risks involved” in depicting different cultures, however his workforce has made it a point “to learn about the culture, read the texts that are available”.

“The world is diverse,” he says.

“There are individuals who have many alternative units of values, many alternative religions, many alternative senses of relationships.

“And so it is actually necessary, I really feel, that we perceive these factors.”

Final Fantasy video games have at all times blended Japanese sensibilities with Western influences, however some have prompt that the sequence has had an identification disaster just lately.

Yoshida-san tells Newsbeat Square Enix makes “50% to 80%” of its profit from “abroad followers”, who are “actually necessary to consider after we are creating the recreation”.

But he believes there’s a steadiness to be discovered.

“We had been born in Japan, we had been introduced up in Japan. So what we had been introduced up with was elements of Japanese tradition,” he says.

“So if we put an excessive amount of of a focus ourselves on abroad audiences, we do not have that background and that context.

“If we focus so much on the overseas audiences, then whatever we make wouldn’t be successful.”

However, Yoshida-san says the builders cannot dwell in a bubble.

“I think knowing the world is very important for us in our development moving forward,” he says.

There’s just lately been one other vital change for Final Fantasy.

Square Enix produces video games for many platforms however has a historical past of placing up unique offers to ensure some titles solely seem on sure consoles.

Sales of two latest PlayStation 5-only video games, Final Fantasy 16 (FF16) and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, have reportedly dissatisfied in Japan.

Following their launch CEO Takashi Kiryu told investors the firm would “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy” to get its video games on extra machines.

Yoshida-san is acquainted with arguments about exclusivity, having launched the long-awaited Xbox model of FF14 this yr.

It’s a signal of a wider shift in the trade, the place corporations have gotten much less selective about the place their video games seem.

“We want to have players regardless of whichever device they’re playing on,” Yoshida-san says.

“We want them to play our game and all connect and join in and then play together in the same world.”

Yoshida-san says Xbox CEO Phil Spencer “devoted a lot of his time” to getting FF14 on to Xbox.

“Thanks to his hard work, I’m super, super-glad we were able to see it to through to fruition,” he says.

“But of course, there are platforms which remain.”

When he is requested which these could be, Yoshida-san does not hesitate.

“Of course,” he says. “It goes with out saying that might be Nintendo’s platform.

“I’m certain individuals are ready for the reply to that query.”

For now, although, there’s a extra urgent problem on Yoshida-san’s thoughts – giving Dawntrail “the very best launch”.

After his weekend relaxation, he anticipates being busy.

“I’m certain that it is going to be sleepless nights, we will be simply eyes centered on the service standing,” he says.

Endwalker’s tough beginnings can be on participant’s minds, however Yoshida-san says he is not one for dwelling an excessive amount of on the previous.

“It’s what’s already occurred,” he says. “And that is not likely going to take us ahead.

“Looking towards the future is our job.”

Despite this, Yoshida-san says there may be one factor necessary to recollect.

“The gamers who caught with us, [who] put their belief in the Final Fantasy 14 workforce.

“They actually served as a supply of motivation,” he says.

“They actually drove us to get to the place we’re and we’d not be right here with out them.

“So keeping them in mind, we really just want to do our best for the Final Fantasy 14 community.”

Listen to Newsbeat dwell at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or hear again right here.