What armor sets are you particularly proud of, and why? As you can tell from my answers, I’m no different from anyone else- just a big fanboy at heart! Otherwise, hmmm… I would also love to do a crossover with A Song of Ice and Fire ( Game of Thrones ), one of my absolute favorite series.
Making something together would be a dream come true. There’s a lot we can learn from the properties they make, and I have, in fact, already learned so much from them.
If I was free to pick any crossover partner I wanted, then my life would be complete if I could work with the people at Blizzard Entertainment (there are a lot of Blizzard fans on the development team, including myself). If you could pick any franchise to cross over with, which would you pick and what monsters from that franchise would you most want to work on? It’s an extremely engaging experience for us on the development side as well, and we are thrilled whenever these opportunities become available. All of our crossover events have been crafted on this premise of respect, allowing us to provide our players with a distinct and highly authentic experience each time. This attitude guides our creation of designs and mechanics, which we then discuss directly and openly with our collaborators. We consider it a challenge as developers first and foremost, rather than as an exercise in PR. When we work on a crossover event, our highest priority is whether or not our designs respect the world, characters, game mechanics etc. It’s very similar to how we approach the legacy characters and monsters from the Final Fantasy series. What is it like to work on different monsters for crossover events? The design was definitely something of a gamble as far as difficulty was concerned. I think we succeeded in creating an enthralling enemy with a unique Final Fantasy XIV feel, while still preserving the qualities that make Omega instantly recognizable. If I had to choose, then I might have to go with our interpretation of Omega- the boss who makes an appearance in the “Interdimensional Rift” raid series. The art style? The battle mechanics? The animation? Each has its own challenges, so it’s difficult to single out the monsters that were the hardest to design.
The most difficult depends on the type of difficulty we’re discussing. Which monsters did you have the most difficulty designing? Rather than feel intimidated, the development team think of these tasks as a rewarding challenge.
It really is a wonderful feeling when our reimagined monsters are met with approval. We’ve grown up alongside the Final Fantasy games, with many of us having played them since childhood.Īs such, when we’re using a famous monster design, we pour our hearts into the recreated version in a way that will preserve our own fond recollections, as well as satisfy the expectations of players who share similar memories. Naoki Yoshida: Every member of the Final Fantasy XIV development team, myself included, has a great deal of respect for the Final Fantasy series. How did you go about creating your own versions of Final Fantasy’s iconic monsters and is it intimidating to work with such beloved designs? ĭirector and Producer Naoki Yoshida, Armor Designer Yusuke Mogi, and Translation Director Koji Fox all took the time to answer some of our burning questions about A Realm Reborn and the endlessly growing world of Eorzea, covering everything from dream crossovers to redesigning iconic Final Fantasy creatures.Ĭactuars, Tonberries, and Behemoths- oh my! MonsterVine recently had the chance to interview three of Square Enix’s most prolific developers about their MMORPG phenomenon, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.