Final Fantasy XIV struggled in both its overall execution and reception with developer Square’s loyal fanbase, and producer Naoki Yoshida understands that another mistake like that could destroy the company.
Although Yoshida wasn’t on the original team creating the PC version of FFXIV, he told Kotaku that he know things would be rough for the game at launch. It wasn’t just a lack of polish that made Yoshida question the game’s success, but the direction of the entire project.
“I think it would’ve been good if they tried seeing what happened if they turned World of Warcraft into Final Fantasy,” Yoshida said. “So, because they tried only to make something that was ‘different from FFXI,’ they ended up with not much of anything.”
He was right to doubt the MMO. FFXIV released in 2010 to poor reviews and even poorer fan reception, but after more than two additional years of development time, Yoshida believes he and his team have created a much better product in A Realm Reborn. In many ways, this re-release has to be better, or Square may be facing some serious problems.
“We won’t make a mistake like FFXIV again,” he said. “If we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company.”
We’ll have to wait until next year to see if the product is a true success.
Did you ever get a chance to play the original FFXIV? Will you be playing the new version of the game next year? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!