With the upcoming Dawntrail expansion, Final Fantasy 14 is setting off toward a new era, and that includes the first major graphical overhaul since A Realm Reborn back in 2013. Producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida says there are three reasons for the move, and they're not all about impressing new players.
Yoshida tells Play magazine that the graphics update is, at least in part, a mission statement, promising that the MMO is here to stay. "When players would see the graphics updates, they would realize that Final Fantasy 14 will still push on and it will still continue driving forward to the future and take on new challenges," Yoshida says. "And in that regard, I think it would give players a sense of ease so they would not need to worry about that."
The director does, of course, acknowledge that the graphics update is still aimed partly at enticing newbies, noting that the old visuals might give unfamiliar players "a notion that the quality of the game is low. And they would think of it as an old game." Yoshida says, "the important thing with MMOs is that we need to constantly get new players in, otherwise the overall scale of our game would shrink. I also thought the graphics update is really important to get the younger generation into Final Fantasy 14. So by implementing the graphics updates, we can actually improve the appeal for 14 to those types of players."
But it's the third reason that's maybe the most interesting: this graphics update is going to make things easier on the devs, too. "A Realm Reborn was released back in 2013 and when we look at the graphics pipeline, it's now two generations old. The artists who are working on Final Fantasy 14, I wanted to give them a better environment," Yoshida says.
"By being able to work on more advanced graphics technology, they can advance their career and they can also be able to work with the newer features. So, there’s a benefit for both in the sense that players can benefit from better quality and graphics, but our artists and engineers in the team can benefit by using more advanced technology and can advance their careers. From that side of things as well, there are also efficiencies which we will gain by using better graphical technology."
Last year, Yoshida said that the increased system requirements for FF14 come with an extra benefit: you'll be able to play other games, too.
