Naoki Yoshida wants FFVII atmosphere for FFXIV Online

In a detailed Q&A session with the Japanese site 4gamer.net, newly incumbent Final Fantasy XIV Online director Naoki Yoshida has detailed his approach to rescuing the floundering Square Enix MMORPG, commenting that he wants to bring the impact and atmosphere of global bestseller Final Fantasy VII to Eorzea.

In a summary translation posted on MMORPG.com, Yoshida stated that FFVII is his personal favourite entry in the long running series. The new director wants to bring similarly affecting, memorable content to lend global appeal to FFXIV.

"Even talking with fans from North America and Europe, you hear how it leaves an impact you never forget," he said.

As well as expanding on previously revealed plans to reboot and rebuild the troubled game, Yoshida gave a sketch of his philosophy of design, in which he likened MMORPGs to theme parks. He commented on the need for multiple attractions of enough variance to keep the player involved, but with a strong, shared aesthetic or theme to avoid as feeling of unrelated modules.

Yoshida said the long-delayed PlayStation 3 version was put on the back burner when problems with the PC version "piled up", and a decision was made to focus on one system at a time. While the PS3 port had its own issues, the massive challenge of bringing the PC version up to scratch precluded spreading the team thin.

The director confirmed the PS3 version will release eventually, and even hinted that it would proof an option for those PC gamers whose older rigs struggle to do justice to FFXIV's flashy visuals.

Thanks, The Silent Chief.