During a June interview with 4gamer, Final Fantasy XIV developers, Naoki Yoshida, Akihiko Matsui and Mitsutoshi Gondai discussed the current state of the mmorpg. The matter of when monthly fees will be implemented to the PC version and the state of the PS3 version of the game were disclosed during the lengthy interview.
Yoshida-san also teased Final Fantasy fans with the possiblity of “well known” characters from the franchise appearing in FFXIV.
4Gamer: Ok. Out of the other things planned for future updates, people also seem to be interested in the Grand Companies. When I read through the special page you set up for them, it really made me feel like the storyline is going to take off from here.
Yoshida: I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that the Grand Companies make the world of FFXIV. How will adventurers be linked to the three city-states of Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, and Ul’dah and how is the Empire going to become mixed into all of that? How does it complement the main storyline? How are the leaders in the different city-states going to become involved?
Also, some characters well known in the Final Fantasy series will also make their appearances so people will want to watch for where they show up and how they get involved. A big storyline will also be included in patch 1.18 so I hope people look forward to that.
4Gamer: Already in patch 1.18? I can think of a lot of FF characters, so I wonder who will show up.
Yoshida: Some that anybody could think of will also be making their appearances soon. There are some important lines that get to the heart of the FFXIV story from them as well. Look forward to it!
Naoki Yoshida on monthly fees and the PS3 version:
Yoshida: From a business point of view, I’d love to be able to start accepting monthly fees. However, if we can’t ask people if they’d play the game without the slightest bit of confidence, we can’t go asking for money either. We’ll make the battle system adjustments, look at the feedback, work on the introductory parts of the game, and make it better for the new players that’ll come in later. I don’t think we can commit to a timeline for starting monthly fees until we’ve done all of that.
4Gamer: So the goal for now is just to make the game better. How are things coming for the PS3 version?
Yoshida: It’s coming along nicely. I can’t make any comments on when it’ll go on sale though.
4Gamer: Makes sense since you have to get the PC version under control first right?
Yoshida: Yeah. I hate uncertainty more than anything, so as we work on rebuilding the PC version of FFXIV, we want to raise the bar on the PS3 version. It’s quite a challenge but since FFXIV started off as a disappointment to a lot of players, we don’t want to make the same mistake twice. The entire team is working together to make this happen so I hope people keep their expectations high and look forward to it.
Final Fantasy XIV has come a long way since it’s highly criticized debut last October but there’s still a lot more work to be done. Read the entire 4gamer interview in Japanese or click here to read the translated version.
