Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida recently spoke to Game Watch about the future of Square Enix’s MMORPG title on what we can expect from Patch 3.4 and on revealing the next expansion.
During the interview, Game Watch pointed out how the story of Dragonsong War has concluded, and asked if that means the story will move on and focus on a different area other than Ishgard for 3.4
According to Yoshi-P, Ishgard is the fourth city-state that recently rejoined the Eorzean Alliance and just because the story of the Dragonsong War has ended, it doesn’t mean that Ishgard won’t be involved in Patch 3.4 and 3.5.
“If anything, I believe they [Ishgard] will be more involved with the Warrior of Light and the Scions, who helped end the war,” said Yoshida.
When asked if that means 3.4 and 3.5’s story will take place in Ishgard, the producer said that it’s a bit of a sensitive topic, but it will be the opening to the next story, and we’ll see some pretty big changes.
“I believe that we’ll see the big changes starting with Patch 3.5,” elaborated Yoshida. “Similar to what we had in Patch 2.5 and 2.55, which I believe was a big pivot.”
Game Watch mentioned that we’ve seen the name “Patch 3.5” on several occasions already, and ask how long do they plan to keep the 3.x series going.
“We’ll definitely have up until Patch 3.5. I can’t say anymore than that,” Yoshida answered with a laugh.
On the subject of getting new content on odd-numbered patches and battle content such as the Alexander raids on the even-numbered patches, Yoshida said that content such as item level upgrades and the timing of high-difficulty raids won’t change its flow, but they will continue adding more content, such as casual content on the even-numbered patches, so there will always be something for everyone.
We’re getting closer to 4.0 and we have Fan Festivals that just got announced. The Heavensward expansion was announced during a Fan Festival in October 2014, so fans have been wondering if we’ll get to see it at this year’s FanFes in October at Las Vegas. Game Watch said that it feels like we’re about to step into 4.x territory but since the 3.x series isn’t over yet, they ask Yoshida to share his input on the 3.x series.
“Since there’d be spoilers, I can’t say anything about the story, but we’ll see more on it during Fan Festival announcements, and in a way through the main story,” responded Yoshida.
He says that from here on, we’ll learn more about Patch 3.4’s story, followed by announcements from the North American Fan Festival, then Tokyo’s, and after that we’ll start seeing rapid developments for Patch 3.5, and finally a last announcement at the European Fan Festival.
Game Watch asked if that means to wait until the October Fan Festival for details on Patch 4.0.
“That’s right. This is a game that is supported by many players, so we’d like to share the biggest news together with the fans at the Fan Festival meetings,” said Yoshida.
Yoshi-P also mentions that they’ll use Tokyo Game Show 2016 as an occasion to talk about Patch 3.4’s content instead.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC.
Published: Jun 24, 2016 05:30 am