2014 marks a most important year for Final Fantasy XIV – after all Square Enix has hailed it as “the year of FF14” and of course the PlayStation 4. With the game set to launch on Sony’s latest platform Yoshida and company once again took up the media tour reigns and are currently traveling around the world, seeking questions and showing off the latest version of their popular MMORPG.

Nova Crystallis, along with several other outlets, was invited to this event to glimpse a brief presentation and hands-on time with the PS4 version. While you can have a look at that side of the story here, we were also given a chance to speak to Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida about the game’s success and what the future holds as we enter the sixth month since its relaunch.

Nova Crystallis: How does it feel and what’s the feeling internally about having taken Final Fantasy XIV and turned it around from the really difficult first version? I know a lot of people were skeptical that you’d be able to do it and I think you’ve done an incredible job so I’m just curious how that is affecting your approach going forward.

Naoki Yoshida: First and foremost with the relaunch having an overwhelming amount of people logging into the servers we’re really happy to see that so many people have come to play the game. There’s no point in having a game if no one is interested in coming back to play, so I’m definitely happy to see so many people playing.

That being said, the feeling still hasn’t settled in yet that I’ve actually accomplished something because with large-scale MMOs, people would subscribe in the initial period but after three months people tend to drop out so we have to see how much we’re able to retain during that first period. We’re still constantly developing because we have patch updates that are constantly happening as well – which are very important – so we’re still going at things full-throttle trying to create the next update. I feel that maybe I won’t get that realization that “Wow, this game actually relaunched” until maybe the first expansion.

For example, if this is Rocky and he’s in a fighting match – once you KO the opponent you can cheer but that really isn’t the case with a MMO, you’ve got to keep going. I’m really relieved to see after three months we still have a good number of subscribers playing and still with us, but I feel I can aim for more so I want to continue striving. As mentioned in our presentation we want to be a “challenger” to pursue even greater heights.

Nova Crystallis: Is add-on support is still in the cards and when we might be able to expect it if it is?

Yoshida: In terms of add-on support the design is in progress – we do have programmers assigned to that task with coding just about to begin. When it does finally come to fruition we will be able to provide it along with a manual for it. We do have to be honest – production is a little bit behind only because the development for the PS4 version has been going very smoothly so we’ve been trying to put more effort into that as well as a large milestone we want to hit moving forward is to start service in China so we’d like to make for a successful release in that region as well. We are hoping that the support will be offered maybe after same timing.

We have made a lot of updates to the user interface so looking at it we’re starting to think “Do we really need add-ons?” It’s getting to that level where it’s so much improved. But I’m sure people want to do other things such as changing the skin and things like that.

Nova Crystallis: Will there be item lockouts for Turns 1-5 in the Binding Coil of Bahamut once they enter Duty Finder in 2.2 similar to the loot situation in Crystal Tower? Can you talk about potential Turn 6-9 lockouts?

Yoshida: In terms of the Binding Coil of Bahamut, we plan to remove all restrictions for each Turn including the loot – in the first part of the dungeon, when we release the 2.2 patch and add four more levels. However, in 2.2 those new Turns will have the same specifications as the previous installments – they will still have weekly lockouts. Once that’s in, the previous versions will all be free so – unlike Crystal Tower where you can forgo some of the items until you find the one you specifically need – this will be completely clear to enter and challenge the first five Turns.

In terms of the first five Turns in the Binding Coil of Bahamut, it concludes itself with those first five Turns. With the four that are being added in patch 2.2, you will be entering from a new location so it’s not like you’re re-entering the Binding Coil of Bahamut – you’re going to approach it as a new dungeon and of course you’ll have to defeat Twintania again to enter. You won’t be restricted from the first part of the dungeon if you enter the sixth Turn.

After patch 2.2’s release, with each week if you go into Turns 1-5, the player will have a buff applied to them so it should be a little easier going back into those first levels.

Nova Crystallis: Does that mean the buff increases every week?

Yoshida: Yes.

Nova Crystallis: With Final Fantasy XI Square Enix has released a lot of full expansion packs and smaller add-ons and now with FFXIV you guys are releasing a lot of new content as free updates. How do you decide when you make that split – when do you start charging for content and how much content is going to be in what you charge for versus what will arrive in free updates?

Yoshida: In regards to what defines an expansion – if you can imagine the amount of content and material that was released with the relaunch (2.0) – that would be about the size of what we would consider an expansion. There will be a lot of new dungeons added, a lot of deep story – something that adds value to the game’s own staff roll. There are going to be a lot of new fields that will open up as well as the introduction of new classes and jobs. So you can expect it to be pretty big for it to be considered an expansion.

We’re aiming for it to be when people see the information of the expansion coming, they will see it and say “Oh yeah, this is worth paying for.”

Nova Crystallis: Will the development team raise the item limit for large houses? 200 is too little and there was definitely more than 200 items in the large house displayed in Live Letter IX. Are there any plans to remove that limitation?

Yoshida: I don’t recall specifically mentioning in the Producer Letter that you can place so many items. We want to consider those with a lower end PC so we don’t want to have people place so many items that it would be overwhelming for their computer’s processing power. We have to be very careful and mindful of those players as well so I don’t feel like I’ve placed a limitation on the amount of items for the larger housing.

When we disclose certain numbers on certain specs it’s usually set in stone. If you feel the housing should have more than 200 items you can always provide feedback on the forums.

Nova Crystallis: One of the better parts of Final Fantasy XIV is how nostalgia is used to call back to previous Final Fantasy titles in a very well-rounded way. You had mentioned that part of the plan with updates was to add more FF elements so could you give any hints or specifics about upcoming content plans involving that sort of thing?

Yoshida: In terms of 2.2, we briefly mentioned this in the presentation as well but Gilgamesh from previous Final Fantasys will appear and how he’ll appear and how players will be fighting him is going to be something that is definitely recognizable for fans of the prior installments.

Another major homage to previous Final Fantasy games – and this has been announced before – is the incorporation of the Gold Saucer. Planning has already started and we’re going to put it into the actual production process soon, so we’re hoping that we can update you very soon with more information. Those would be the major big ones that are totally recognizable but in terms of smaller elements like FF Easter Eggs, we incorporate those in each patch actually. We’re planning to introduce a chocobo raising element so we’ll have a lot of different things hidden in there.