Final Fantasy XIV’s Naoki Yoshida Plans To Make Story Content Solo-Friendly

As far as MMORPG’s go, playing completely solo is out of the question. At some point in time you’re going to be required to group up to complete a certain task or maybe even forced to do so to take down a particularly tough mini-boss. Final Fantasy XIV is looking to change that notion as revealed by Executive Producer Naoki Yoshida in a recent Q&A on the PlayStation Blog.

Yoshida said that he hopes to entice new players into the game by giving them the option to complete story quests all by themselves. Of course, this will only work for the quests themselves as running dungeons and raids will obviously require them to team up with other players.

“[…] 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,” said Yoshida. “[…] 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,” he added.

He also talked about future improvements to the game and how it’s important to keep his team of developers motivated so they can continue to roll out new updates and contents. “I believe that the key to continuing these stories is whether or not they’ll excite us as developers,” he said. “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.”

Yoshida also touched on the upcoming Myths of the Realm alliance raid and how it will tie in with the game’s long-established lore, particularly how the deities chosen during character creation will impact the current gameplay mechanics. This has been the subject of speculation for a while now and the short of it is that they won’t.

“I look through the theories players come up with, and it seems that some of them may not be far from hitting the mark,” he teased. “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.”

As for the much-awaited graphics update, the changes might not be as intensive as you probably hoped as Yoshida revealed. He said that the focus is on players who’ve been with the game for a long time and that he doesn’t want to disappoint them by drastically changing how their characters look. That being said, work is already being done to update the game’s textures, lighting, and shaders.

“The beauty of graphics depends not only on the method used, but also on the sensibilities of the individual, so I’m merely aiming for ‘the evolution of graphics from the perspective of FFXIV,’” he revealed. “Lastly it’s a matter of the (game’s creative) direction, so it also largely depends on my sensibility in relation to judging ‘yes, this works!’”

Meanwhile, the housing lottery system is still broken. More on that here.