From newfound adventures to long-anticipated lore explorations, the first content patch since Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion marks the beginning of a new era for Warriors of Light everywhere. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida answered a few of our burning questions about what’s to come for the critically-acclaimed MMO. (Have you heard about its free trial?)

PlayStation.Blog: Endwalker has led the Warrior of Light through an incredibly climactic adventure of unprecedented scale, closing a chapter 10 years in the making! What do you see in our Warrior of Light’s future? Doesn’t he deserve a bit of a break? How do you follow up on such a grand adventure with so much at stake?

Naoki Yoshida: I think our Warriors of Light had some rest, but erm, there wasn’t much rest for us in the development team (smiles bitterly). Please look forward to the story that will begin from our newfound adventure, and the mysteries and goals that will be brought up! I can’t say much further. First, do be sure to see how things kick off in Patch 6.1’s story. I believe that the key to continuing these stories is whether or not they’ll excite us as developers. If our motivation erodes away, there’s no doubt that it will extend to our players. To prevent this from happening, we always place paramount importance on ensuring it’s engaging and fun for us to create (new stories and content) from our perspective as developers.

You’ve expressed wanting to make XIV more accessible to solo play. How do you marry the idea of an MMO, by design a multiplayer experience, and solo play? What is your design philosophy there and how do you approach these changes while staying true to the MMO aspects?

The answer is simple; my concept is to make the most of FFXIV’s characteristics as a story-driven MMORPG, and make it so that only the story can be played through on a solo basis. So, “marrying” isn’t the right expression, and what I want to do is lower the barrier for entry among those who feel intimidated by MMORPGs or who are not good at multiplayer games. Of course, I’ll be happy if players are satisfied after completing just the story, or if throughout their journeys they discover the fun of multiplayer and MMORPGs, leading them to try out various types of content.

The upcoming alliance raid, Myths of the Realm, will focus heavily on some long-established lore of Eorzea. What do you think about some of the theories players have come up with about the deities and patrons of Eorzea? Will our chosen deity in character creation finally have an impact beyond flavour lore?

Of course I look through the theories players come up with, and it seems that some of them may not be far from hitting the mark. (laughs) In this alliance raid, the story will be about the very existence of the Twelve and their true nature. However, the deities chosen during character creation… will not affect your status (during the battle). Our players need not worry.

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