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(Image credit: Tyler C. / Square Enix)
Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion, Dawntrail, will launch just a week after Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which was a deliberate decision to get out ofFromSoftware’s way, the MMO’s director Naoki Yoshida (also known as Yoshi-P) said atPAX East earlier this year.
While Yoshida insisted at the time it wasn’t because he personally wanted to play Shadow of the Erdtree (and Itotallybelieve him), he told PC Gamer in a recent interview that almost everyone on the team are fans of the game and that we could see some inspiration from it in Dawntrail.
“I think in the development team for Final Fantasy 14, possibly 98% [of them] are playing Elden Ring,” Yoshida said (via a translator).
“When it comes to the people involved in the battle content on our team, they would be playing and they would be saying, ‘Oh yeah, if we could make something this difficult, we should definitely do it,'” he added.
Yoshida said he suspects some members of the team would probably consider a near-impossible encounter “the perfect balance in Final Fantasy 14.” He quickly followed that up with a clarification for any FF14 players afraid of having to fight a boss as brutal as the ones in Elden Ring that they “have nothing to worry about,” however.
FF14’s approach to difficulty actually came up in aFamitsu interviewearlier this year. Yoshida said the MMO might be a little too “comfortable and stress-free for players,” and that the team “may have ‘overdone it’ a little bit” over the last 10 years. The rush you get after a stressful situation–like, say, defeating even a minor boss in Elden Ring—is something he said he wants to put “back into FF14.”
(Image credit: Square Enix)
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That said, I am too much of a casual FF14 player to ever want to fight a boss like Malenia in it, even if I had seven other people with me. It was hard enough getting smacked around in one game, just let me chill in the back as a healer pressing my little buttons without the fear of being impaled and sent back to a checkpoint.
Dawntrail will launch in early access for those who pre-order it on June 28 and will open up for everyone else on July 2.
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The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April
Lords of the Fallen publisher embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’
If you’re trying to convince me your ‘companionship’ robot is ‘lifelike’, maybe don’t rip her face off in the demo video
Square Enix launches new anti-harassment policy to protect its employees and partners from abusive fans
The Sims begins its 25th anniversary celebration next week with a Behind The Sims episode of news and announcements
Path of Exile 2 numberlord spends 16 straight days killing rare monsters to prove that a stat that makes loot better makes better loot
Palestinian developer raises more than $200,000 to make Dreams on a Pillow, a game about the horrors of the 1948 Nakba
Piranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’
Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene
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