FFXIV: ENDWALKER
The Final Countdown
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker takes players to the moon – and to PS5. We talk with Naoki Yoshida about the future of the console exclusive MMO
You’re a long way from home, but at least there’s air on this moon. Will there be FFIV-style Hummingway moon rabbits?
i FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA AUTUMN / PUB SQUARE ENIX / DEV SQUARE ENIX / PLAYERS 1-24
RememberParis in 2019? Naoki Yoshida walked the stage in front of excited Final Fantasy XIV Online players, dressed in the full garb of a Gunbreaker (a Job class in the game). When he asked the audience where they thought they’d be going next, one fan shouted out “The moon!” Yoshida laughed and grinned. “The moon? Maybe that’s 7.0!”
In a way, the lunar setting of forthcoming expansion Endwalker (due this autumn) is another in a long line of promises Yoshida and his team have made and kept for fans of the Final Fantasy MMO. “I said [that] half-joking,” says Yoshida when we ask him about that moment. “We did actually have that already in mind, back then.” Yoshida’s penchant for running a well-oiled machine is one of the things that enabled the team to bounce back from the original failed PC incarnation of Final Fantasy XIV, rebooting it as the beloved A Realm Reborn in 2013, and his involvement in Final Fantasy XVI is one reason why fans have so much confidence in the project.
SEASON FINALE
Of course, Endwalker is considered Version 6.0. The plan has long been to wrap up the Hydaelyn and Zodiark story arc in either 6.0 or 7.0, and thanks to the positive response to Shadowbringers (which we gave 9/10 in #165), the dev team decided to go for it. “We wanted to keep the momentum going,” explains Yoshida. “There was enough volume to actually incorporate that into [Endwalker].” Plenty will be packed in, with the narrative firmly concluding by the end, leaving updates between this expansion and the next to begin telling a new story.