Ask anyone I know, and they’ll confirm that I am healthily addicted to Final Fantasy 14, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). I first started playing the game amid COVID, as the brain yearned for the dopamine rush only flashy explosions and level-ups could give. Like a greedy fish close to shore, I was quickly hooked and, thanks to circumstances, could do nothing but stay inside and play.
In the game, you create a powerful warrior who explores this enormous fantasy world called Eorzea while taking on god-like deities and solving geopolitical conflicts. Or, if you’d like, you can choose to dress your character up and compete in fashion shows, build a house and decorate it to your heart’s content, or bake cookies, sell them to other players and dominate the game’s economy.
Because Final Fantasy 14 is a multiplayer game, players have endless tools to interact with each other in the game. Some players will form dedicated groups to play through the game’s hardest content. Alternatively, groups will come together to roleplay and live in the world as much as they can. Thanks to the Bard class, you can play actual instruments in the game. I’ve seen entire groups come together to perform concerts in the main cities, performing renditions of popular music from ’80s classics to Billie Eilish.
So, when the opportunity to meet the director, Naoki Yoshida, during Melbourne’s International Games Week popped up, I jumped at the chance like a young schoolboy going on a trip to meet the Prime Minister — three-piece suit on and my suitcase already packed.
You see, Yoshida is something of a hero in the games industry. When Final Fantasy 14 first launched, it was famously panned. Rather than sunsetting the game and closing the studio (like what was done recently with Concord), Yoshida came onto the development team and overhauled the entire game, turning it into the beloved series it is today.
Throughout this process, Yoshida and his team were refreshingly transparent with the community, recognising the game’s shortcomings and taking on player feedback. His “no BS” approach and enthusiasm for the series have helped foster the game’s community and made it one of the most welcoming and enthusiastic online spaces out there (yes, including outside of video games).
14 years later, Final Fantasy 14 has had five expansions and has almost 500,000 active players worldwide. Final Fantasy 14 goes through “patch cycles” released from 1.0 and has worked up to patch 7.1. The game has also overhauled and expanded its free trial to help bring new players in, letting you try out the base game and two entire expansions for free before sinking any money into it.
During my visit, I talked to Naoki Yoshida about his background in game development, how the community has grown throughout the years and why you (yes, you) should give it a chance.
Hi Yoshida, I’d like to know a bit more about your background as a gamer. Could you share a bit of your history there?
I’ve been in contact with video games for a while. I played the original Mario Brothers, [which] made such a big impact, and with no sort of real case to back it up, I felt this urge that I am going to become a game developer.
I first [became interested] in online gaming when Diablo came out. I would play it at work, actually, and pull land cables to set up LAN games [with coworkers] so we could put hundreds of hours into the game. While we were playing, though, I always wondered why. Why are they able to make such a cheat? Why are they so OP? Why are they able to fire fireballs inside the town?
What was the community like before you came on, and how have you seen it grow throughout the years?
I think the core of our “kicking off point” is those who have been with Final Fantasy 14 since the original version. That was before I joined the development team. They were all passionate and had been playing the game from the start.
We were in a very poor condition with the original start of Final Fantasy 14. I was very unfamiliar when I joined in as the new person responsible [to the players]. But, these people took the leap of faith to believe in me that we would continue to update and then revamp.
They tried their best to enjoy whatever updates we made leading up to the relaunch. I’m sure there were external criticisms of those people who stayed with such a poor-condition game. Still, they were very vocal, saying, “Well, no, we were enjoying what we could,” they didn’t mind the criticism from the outside. They had the passion to continue supporting our games.
It’s amazing to see that those people who stayed with us since 1.0 aren’t very arrogant about it. They’re actually very happy, and some of the most excited to see more and more people joining the game. I’m very thankful and grateful for those people, and that also motivates me to make sure that we’re keeping them happy.
Why do you think Final Fantasy 14 has sort of resonated with those players for so long?
During Final Fantasy 14 1.0, I started doing this series called Letter from the Producer LIVE, where I communicate with the players. That was about 13 years ago. Since then, I’ve been telling the community that you are my comrades. We’re working on this together. We’ll be building this game together.
Of course, I haven’t had a chance to interview every single player out there, but I think I can sense that the community feels like [they are] part of building this game. They have a certain ownership to it. I think what sets us apart from other titles, is that we’re able to make that relationship where I would be transparent with the community, and it feels like we’re building this together.
What are some other wholesome ways you’ve seen the community come together that have proven your game’s community is something special?
In terms of examples, apologies, they all relate to people’s deaths. But there were some instances where players got together to hold a vigil for, say, a friend who passed away from COVID. In the summertime, in Japan, we have an oboe festival where we pay respects to our ancestors. Players would gather around in their housing wards to dress up their estates so that it had that sort of festival feeling, and they’d cooperate to have an entire [space] set up for that festival just for people to visit.
While we, the developers, set up the world for our players, I feel that players make it their own, and they have what they create within the world. So it’s not a deliberate, planned thing [we’ve] set up for the players, but they are free to take what’s available and make it their own.
Another example is people putting on theatre productions. One content creator in the UK mentioned watching a theatre performance by a player who took their experience starting Final Fantasy 14 and made a play out of it.
I’m very proud of our community to be able to do that. I’m just amazed by how players can take what they have, [and I have] respect for them, as a gamer myself.
Has there ever been a time when negative feedback caught your team off guard?
First and foremost, negative feedback has been a daily thing [for] over 13 years. It’s always, it’s a constant. And I don’t think it’ll ever go away, unfortunately. With the narrative [of Final Fantasy 14] reaching its climax with Shadowbringers and Endwalker, there have been a lot of reactions, so to speak. In the 13 years I’ve been with the title, I feel like a sandbag.
Of course, my development team and I are, well, human, after all. And so for those criticisms that are not very constructive or logical, if it’s just a sort of bashing — not slander, but negative — of course, we’ll get hurt and [feel] down emotionally.
With the main story of Dawntrail, I actually anticipated some opinions may differ and be rather mixed from the get-go. I think we may have been able to keep the main story a bit more concise and shift some of the more lore-related stories into some of the side quests.
I also want to mention that there seems to be a lot of controversy around a certain [voice actor] who was heavily involved in the game’s localisation. People seem to have been attacking her about their values, and there were some personal attacks. I want to remind people not to do that. It doesn’t create anything. It’s not constructive at all. I also heard some say we should stop being so accommodating to inclusion and diversity. I disagree with that.
With 2.0, I’ve always wanted to ensure we’re inclusive and diverse. With The Ceremony of Eternal Bonding (Final Fantasy 14’s version of marriage), we made sure there is no restriction on what gender your character is or what race your character is. Anyone can sign up for The Eternal Bonding to vow their eternal love for their partner.
It doesn’t create anything [by] attacking the person. If anything, if you want to complain or if you want to raise your voice about your disagreements, raise it to me. I am the person in charge of the game. I will be the one to make the decision. If you randomly attack our development team, they will get hurt, which might affect the quality of our game. We’re happy to receive feedback. But again, I think you should not attack a person individually. If anything, bring your voice to me, to Yoshi-P.
Why should someone play Final Fantasy 14?
Video games are a form of entertainment. I feel that if you have a preference for what kind of games you want to play, that’s perfectly fine.
If you have never experienced that before, I would love for people to go in there and experience being able to play with other people. If you don’t get that experience, I feel like you’re missing out. It feels like another digital world that you’re jumping into. If you’ve never experienced an MMORPG before, we have a free trial. You don’t even have to pay money, just come in and try to take a peek at what the world can offer.
We have a very kind and welcoming community who are very helpful. If you’re new to the game, we indicate new players with a sprout mark, and [our players are] very eager to help you. I think they can offer a very pleasant experience, as opposed to other games. If you do experience something emotional or something that moves you, we would love for you to stay in the game and continue playing on the free trial without time restrictions.
Image credit: Square Enix
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