Yoko Taro asked Final Fantasy 14 director if he was "out of his mind" when he was asked to collaborate

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The Nier director was certainly confused by the opportunity

Final Fantasy 14
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Nier director Yoko Taro was stunned at the Final Fantasy 14 development team wanting to collaborate.

Well, what he actually said was "are you out of your mind?" according to Naoki Yoshida, game director of Final Fantasy 14. As the new Endwalker expansion is around the corner for the long-running MMO, the PlayStation Blog reunited Yoshida and Taro with producer Yosuke Saito for a recap of the Nier Automata collaboration with Final Fantasy 14.

"When I first received word about potentially working together, I wondered 'Is FFXIV okay…?'" Nier director Taro reflected on being approached about the collaboration. "I wasn’t intimately familiar with FFXIV at the time, so, I was also a bit worried if that team would be okay with mixing in something so foreign into their game world." 

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Despite Taro at first wondering about the sanity of Yoshida, the two developers managed to create something truly special in the Final Fantasy 14 Dark Apocalypse storyline. Unfortunately though, Yoshida confirms elsewhere in the new interview that Endwalker won't feature a collaboration similar to the Nier crossover in Shadowbringers.

This probably isn't a massive surprise, given that we're now less than two months out from Endwalker's release, and we previously hadn't heard any word on a collaboration within the forthcoming expansion. Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker launches on November 23 for PC, PS4, and PS5, and Gamesradar+ will have a preview of the expansion next month on October 13.

Check out our guide to the best MMORPGs if you're wondering which virtual worlds you should delve into next.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.