Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida knows one of Dawntrail's biggest issues at launch was the story's pacing, so the team is putting in the work to ensure that Evercold doesn't suffer the same fate.
Speaking to the media at Final Fantasy 14's Japanese leg of Fan Fest, Yoshida takes a question about what the team behind the MMO has learned from Dawntrail and how important it has been for Evercold's development.
"This time we are putting in serious consideration on the sense of tempo," Yoshida says, per a mod from the Final Fantasy 14 subreddit who was in attendance. "Back at Dawntrail we were being really careful in depicting new lands, new cultures, new encounters and this greatly slowed down the pacing on story progression. The fact that this did not align with players’ motivation of 'keep moving forward' shows shortcomings on my part as the director."
To remedy the pacing issues for Evercold, Yoshida says the team is moving some of the aforementioned focus to side quests, meaning you can enjoy that kind of thing if and when you want.
"This is actually connected to Final Fantasy 14's overall evolution, so we have to consider how precious players' time they have here," Yoshida adds. "After all, we will face the fact on how it's difficult for this to be relatable to players if the story doesn't progress at a brisk, fast-paced tempo, therefore we are placing a strong emphasis on this aspect this time."
I have been cautiously optimistic about Evercold since it was unveiled early this year, and this is another step in the right direction. While Dawntrail's story does eventually get good – doubly so in the post-expansion patches – it puts you in the position of having to defend it by telling your raid-brained pals to "stick with it, honestly," which is not an amazing place to be in games or other media like TV or film.
Dawntrail had other issues, sure, though Square Enix has shown enough consideration about that elsewhere. Of course, how this all works will remain to be seen. I've played Final Fantasy 14 for a long ol' time, and I've seen expansions launch with pacing issues – looking at you, Stormblood – that were remedied in later expansions. Hopefully Evercold sticks the landing in a way that hangs around for many expansions after.
