Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P says the game needs a ‘major change in content hierarchy’
He says the game’s content has become split into hardcore and casual groups, and he wants to bring it all together
Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida says a “major change” is needed in what he calls the game’s “content hierarchy”.
Speaking to JP Games, Yoshida said that in recent times he’s felt the game needs a notable shakeup in the way new content is presented to the player, because not all players are engaging with each new wave of content.
“I think that there needs to be a restructure about how we approach the content hierarchy in game design, because content hierarchy is a part of the game’s design,” Yoshida said (via translation).
“I started to feel recently particularly that the way that things are structured in Final Fantasy 14 no longer matches the players‘ preferences, and this is something that I started to feel after we entered this year.
“And so I felt that now we are at a time where we need to incorporate a major change in the content hierarchy and also the game’s design, and this is limited not just to expansions, but to the overall development of Final Fantasy 14.”
He added: “When we look at the content hierarchy, we feel that it has worked well as it was up until now. It has been employed right back from the Time of A Realm Reborn until Patch 7.2 and it has always worked well until now.
“But now I feel we need to advance more, change the content hierarchy but also change the design itself within said hierarchy. It has worked well in the past 12 years, but now we feel from our perspective it needs change and we are excited about that change and the prospects of changing it for the future of the game.”
When asked to elaborate on this, Yoshida explained that from the developer’s viewpoint, the game’s content is divided into ‘hardcore’, ‘mid-core’ and ‘casual’ categories, and in the 12 years the game’s been active the team has been aiming new content at these groups of players.
However, he says the problem with this has become that with each new content drop, only certain elements are interesting to each group, whereas in the future the plan is to make sure that all the new content released will be of use to all players regardless of their level of experience with the game.
“If we continued to follow this [existing] policy… from [the casual player’s] perspective, even though [hardcore content] is implemented in the game, it’s almost the same as being non-existent to them. And on the flip side, from a hardcore player’s perspective, [the casual content] is also non-existent.
“But we say to them: ‘Hey, look! Look at how much content you’ve got to play!’ So, this policy we had went well, but I could say that it went too well, because now we’ve created so much new content that the players are telling us: ‘Oh ,well, this content has nothing to do with me. I don’t care.'”
“So, what I want to say is that, of course, for the top tier of players, we know that content tailored towards them is needed, and we will continue to produce that content. 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.”
Yoshida said the step in this new shift in strategy will be seen in patch 7.35, which is yet to have a release date (patch 7.31 was released on Tuesday). “I’d really appreciate it if players could take the opportunity to play that content, and I’d love to hear their feedback,” he said.
“It would be great to hear whether they thought it was fun or not, or whether they have any specific feedback about things they want changed. This new content that will be coming in the patch is called Pilgrim’s Traverse, so I’d really love if players do check it out and let me know their thoughts.”
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