Final Fantasy 14’s patch 5.3 added a boatload of content material, together with new story quests to conclude the Shadowbringers story, cosmetics, Nier raid content material, and the power to fly in older zones.

While Shadowbringers targeted on being the Warrior of Darkness in a unique realm, our characters are actually refocusing on the Garlean Empire that’s been threatening peace for some time now. Old foes have discovered new allies and a brand new enlargement will seemingly launch someday subsequent yr, pending any delays.

We talked to the sport’s producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, in regards to the sport’s story, new characters launched, and the livelihood of the dear Qiqirn in an e-mail interview.

The interview, which has been edited for readability, comprises spoilers for patch 5.3’s primary state of affairs quests and the Sorrows of Werlyt quest line.

Polygon: The emotional response to the principle state of affairs quest this time round was fairly brutal. Of course, FF14 followers averted spoiling issues for others, however there have been many situations of followers saying they have been crying for hours after finishing the story. Did you anticipate any such response?

Naoki Yoshida: We actually respect the numerous phrases of reward and the good reception from all of our gamers. The improvement crew has seen lots of the reactions and have been in fact ecstatic about it. In specific, the state of affairs writers have been below an excessive amount of stress, so I’m certain they’re relieved.

I can’t say that I had no worries about how gamers would react to patch 5.3, however I had a certain quantity of confidence. This confidence got here from my very own playthrough of patch 5.3’s primary state of affairs throughout improvement checks—every time I did, there have been tears streaming down my face (laughs).

The new Sorrows of Werlyt quest launched us to a brand new Garlemald officer, who is sort of … completely different from the others we’ve seen. We didn’t see an excessive amount of of him, however he already stands out like a sore thumb compared to the opposite characters on this sport. Why did the crew determine to go in any such character design course?

Unfortunately I can’t go into an excessive amount of element as a result of lots of it pertains to what’s going to occur additional down the road on this story, however what I can say is that his look within the Sorrow of Werlyt story has considerably grounded the truth that he can have a serious impression within the story.

The Garlean Empire is within the midst of battle, very like a civil warfare, resulting from Zenos having killed Varis—this has led to a battle for the seat as his successor. The IVth Legion escaped Dalmasca, however they’ve now arrange camp in Bozja, working to push their very own distinctive agenda. As you possibly can see, the Empire is starting to spiral uncontrolled …

Image: Square Enix

There are tons of moments on this patch that actually flexed the animation capabilities. Alisae’s leap on the finish of the principle state of affairs quest appeared actually nice and it was refreshing. Did one thing change to permit any such animation?

I feel with Shadowbringers reaching its climax and conclusion with patch 5.3, the workers on our cutscene crew have been very excited and wished to push the boundaries. I feel one other issue was very clear and good cinematic course from the state of affairs crew.

In common, the cutscene crew is at all times trying to tackle new challenges and create new cinematic parts in sport, and I feel these scenes are proof of their laborious work coming to fruition. Cutscene animation is constructed from movement seize, however implementing the animation and including cinematics requires meticulous, tedious, and time-consuming changes. The delay in our patch schedule resulting from COVID-19 might have been a blessing in disguise on this specific case, and the cutscene crew labored laborious over the course of two months to succeed in the standard we see within the closing product. I feel it’s protected to say you possibly can anticipate to see additional enhancements in future updates as nicely!

Surely the Qiqirn that run the ferry in Upper La Noscea are going to see an enormous dip in gross sales now which you could fly in A Realm Reborn zones. How will they be making up for the gil loss? (I’m certain the opposite ferry runners within the ARR may even take successful, however I’m largely anxious in regards to the Qiqirn, to be sincere.)

Indeed, it’s true that for the Qiqirn, the ferries are their livelihood. I might hope that the Qiqirin are capable of recoup a number of the loss by gathering ferry charges from all of these rookie Warriors of Light, who’ve but to defeat Ultima Weapon and are unable to fly but … And hey, they could even resort to price gouging. (I’m joking!)

Image: Square Enix through Polygon

When we have been growing A Realm Reborn, I introduced up two options to the crew I used to be pondering to implement: flying mounts and swimming/diving. You might already bear in mind, however the improvement interval for ARR was fairly quick all issues thought-about as we wanted to launch the sport in a really quick time period, so we finally made the choice to implement these further options in a future enlargement. We did obtain this with flying grew to become obtainable in Heavensward, and the addition of swimming and diving with Stormblood.

However, we didn’t embrace ARR areas in these updates on the time, however I had at all times thought it will be nice if we may at the very least enable for flying. Seeing excessive degree gamers take to the skies is sort of thrilling for brand new gamers. I feel it’s essential to present newer gamers that motivation to succeed in that purpose of with the ability to fly. I at all times wished to make {that a} actuality, and with the help of the extent design and background groups, we spent about 9 months of time growing the replace. We did this in tandem with our regular patch improvement, and we primarily discovered the time between our regular work to make this occur.