Final Fantasy XIV Artists and Designers Talk About Making the New Areas of Shadowbringers

Square Enix released episode two of the behind-the-scenes series, The Creation of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. In the second episode, we hear from artists and designers about making new areas for Final Fantasy XIV‘s Shadowbringers expansion.

The Creation of Final Fantasy: Shadowbringers aims to show a bit of the thought process behind the expansion’s making. The six-episode developer diary series focuses on different elements of the MMORPG. Episode Two: Forging the First focuses on the making of Norvrandt, the main setting of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers.

Episode Two features the following members from the development team:

• Takeo Suzuki (Art Team Lead)
• Masato Shida (Background Artist)
• Arata Takahashi (Lead Level Designer)

It’s always interesting to learn about the real-life inspirations behind settings in video games and we learn a few here about some of the areas in Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. During a business trip to Saudi Arabia, the developers experienced visiting an actual desert. This went into the making of the Ahm Araeng area. The designers drew inspiration from everywhere including different types of textures found on the ground. The Ronkan ruins of the Rak’tika Greatwood were inspired by Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Lastly, Kholusia’s design is based on a real-life coast in the UK called The Seven Sisters.

In case you missed it, the first episode featured producer and director Naoki Yoshida, world lore creator and scenario writer Banri Oda, and main scenario writer Natsuko Ishikawa.

Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for the PlayStation 4 and PC. Check out what’s new in Patch 5.2 with highlights here and here. You can also check out the official website to learn more about the game.