Ultimate Fantasy 14 Director Naoki Yoshida Says Growing An MMO And FF16 Isn’t As Completely different As You Assume

I not too long ago previewed Ultimate Fantasy XVI, the brand new mainline single-player Ultimate Fantasy recreation coming to PlayStation 5 this summer time. You may learn my full ideas on what I consider the sport after going hands-on with it for about two hours right here. However throughout this preview, I used to be additionally capable of take part in a bunch interview of FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida, the sport’s director Hiroshi Takai, and its fight director Ryota Suzuki. 

One side of FFXVI’s improvement I used to be particularly thinking about is how Artistic Enterprise Unit III, the interior studio behind the upcoming recreation, is ready to stability creating this new title whereas persevering with to develop its extraordinarily profitable MMO, Ultimate Fantasy XIV. Yoshida, who’s FFXIV’s producer and director, says it’s not as totally different as you would possibly suppose. 

“It’s most likely not as totally different as you’d count on creating an ongoing [game like FFXIV] in addition to a standalone recreation as a result of for Ultimate Fantasy XIV, when you have a look at the unique A Realm Reborn and our expansions, they’re all tales which have beginnings, middles, and ends,” Yoshida says by means of a translator. 

He says one factor that’s totally different, although, is that in growing an MMO, it’s a must to create the hook for the following story. 

“You don’t have to try this in Ultimate Fantasy XVI,” Yoshida continues. “If we needed, we might put a hook in there that will get you excited for perhaps future content material or one thing like that. However once more, that wasn’t our purpose with Ultimate Fantasy XVI. We needed to create a narrative that had a starting and that additionally ended and so we did. We needed to concentrate on [protagonist] Clive’s life and so quite than the story being broader, we’re centered on him. That’s to not imply that it’s not as deep as nicely, as a result of we’re so centered that we get a deep look into everything of Clive’s life.” 

On that word, throughout a presentation earlier than I went hands-on with FFXVI, Yoshida defined that the sport will observe Clive in his teenagers, 20s, and even 30s. Clive’s youthful brother, Joshua, is a Dominant, that means he can faucet into the ability of an Eikon, which is what FFXVI calls summons like Ifrit and Garuda. It appears the connection between Clive and Joshua is on the coronary heart of the sport’s story. Yoshida talked about throughout this preview that Clive’s story is centered on revenge and its results on folks. Takai says the sport will finish with a way of closure, too, in contrast to an MMO that should tee up what’s subsequent for the sport. 

I used to be additionally curious how Yoshida feels about Artistic Enterprise Unit III competing in opposition to itself with Ultimate Fantasy XVI, contemplating it’s the identical studio that develops FFXIV, a very beloved MMO. For Yoshida, that stress doesn’t get in the way in which of the dignity the workforce feels to have been requested to develop FFXVI. 

“When the corporate approached us to work on the following numbered Ultimate Fantasy, we took that as an honor,” Yoshida says. “It’s one thing that wouldn’t have occurred if we didn’t have the success of Ultimate Fantasy XIV. It was one thing granted to us as a result of we had that success. 

“And we knew proper off the bat that it was going to be a really troublesome factor. [The opportunity came] at a time limit after we had been engaged on Ultimate Fantasy XIV to develop the sport. And understanding that on the identical time, to additionally create one other recreation, that’s going to be very difficult. What we did was prioritized Ultimate Fantasy XIV and made certain that we might develop it to some extent that we had been glad. And that’s why for thus lengthy, whereas XVI improvement was occurring, it was occurring with a really small workforce as a result of we needed to complete on XIV till we obtained to the purpose we needed to get to.”

With improvement on the sport nearing its finish, Yoshida is happy that persons are capable of preview the title and go hands-on with it. 

“We’ve now hit a degree the place I can truly breathe a sigh of reduction.”