Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P says he’ll keep working on the game ‘for at least a good while’
Naoki Yoshida says there are still a lot of things he wants to add to the 12-year-old MMORPG
Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida says he has no plans to step away from the game any time soon.
In a new interview with Noisy Pixel, Yoshida was asked how he continues to stay motivated working on the now 12-year-old game, and what it is that keeps him in the role of Final Fantasy 14 director after more than a decade.
Yoshida replied that it’s his job to continue working on Final Fantasy 14, and that anyone who gets bored of working on certain games should probably not work for a company with such responsibilities.
“I’m more of a businessman,” Yoshida said (via a translator), “and I make games, and of course people tend to say we’re creators or creative, but I am an employee at Square Enix and I receive money to make games.
“I think my primary purpose is to make games so that we are delivering it to gamers out there, fans, players who want to consume our product. I think that is fundamental, or a minimum requirement that I have because I belong to this company.
“And of course, working in a company and feeling bored with a particular project and starting to claim ‘well, I don’t like this game, I’m bored with this game’, then I think people like that would need to remove themselves from a corporate environment if they want to pursue that style. But I don’t have that strong personal desire to go into my own creative things.”
Despite this, Yoshida says this doesn’t necessarily mean he keeps working on Final Fantasy 14 because he feels he has to, but because he still has plans for the game.
“When asked do I ever get bored with Final Fantasy 14, I don’t think so, because there are a lot of things that I have yet to actualise in 14, things that I want to do, things that I must do, things that require to be taken care of,” he explained. “And so, I think for at least a good while, I should be okay.
“Now, if there’s one thing that I want to do less off, and I might get scolded, but I would rather not do a lot of management or operational things. I already do a lot of game developing and I’ve sacrificed some sleep sometimes, but perhaps if I were to have a choice, I would like to focus in on the game development design.”
Further reading
Earlier this month Yoshida said a “major change” is needed in Final Fantasy 14’s “content hierarchy”, to ensure that players of all experience levels want to fully interact with each new wave of content, instead of just picking and choosing the parts that suit their skill level.
“For the top tier of players, we know that content tailored towards them is needed, and we will continue to produce that content,” he said. “And on the other side of the spectrum, for the really casual players, we also understand that that content is also needed, and we will continue to produce that. So, we will continue to tailor content for both ends of the spectrum.
“What we’re trying to do now is to change the design so that we have content which can be enjoyed by everyone, so from [the hardcore player’s] perspective there would be five types of content, and for [the casual player’s] perspective there’s also five types.”
