#Final fantasy xiv designer series#

He worked on 1.0 as Art Director then became a freelance illustrator for 2.0+ Akihiko Yoshida, artist and character designer.Kazutoyo Maehiro, planner and battle system engineer of FFT, Vagrant Story and FFXII.Hiroshi Minagawa, UI Lead and Art Director of FFT, Vagrant Story and FFXII.Yasumi Matsuno, creator, designer and main writer.The core team that would make Ivalice games was: All highly received games, the last two even receiving 40/40 on Famitsu, at a time where a perfect score was really impressive to people. Yasumi Matsuno worked at Quest and made the hugely influential classic games known as Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, to join Squaresoft with a core team to make Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII. The only big commonality at that point was Akihiko Yoshida, who was the art director of FF14, and turned into the main character designer of ARR.įor those not familiar. The original FF14 hardly applies as its FF11 inspiration was much stronger in gameplay but also in storytelling and world-building. However, all these things applies only starting from the rebuilding of the game called A Realm Reborn (or 2.0/ARR). Not just in the fact that Ivalice itself is a part of the world of Eorzea as of recently, but how it permeates the whole adventure. Basically having his own, mostly separate mythology outside of the Final Fantasy brand itself (Ivalice, Races, Espers, Jobs)Īll of these things has found its way in Final Fantasy XIV 2.0.A politically-minded story, in which different forms of power and social positions are important to the overall storyline.Huge emphasis on lore and world-building, which hardly was the focus of the brand before FFT.But others are more representative of their work in the Final Fantasy brand that was barely attempted in the franchise before and has pushed the limits of what a Final Fantasy could be, such as: Some of the inspiration is obvious, as Matsuno and his team were obvious online MMO fans and they even worked at the forefront of Square’s foray in online games (he had worked on the PlayOnline game service before). It followed in the footsteps of Yasumi Matsuno and his team and the strides they’ve made for the Final Fantasy brand. Not just in the design philosophy, but also in the team that has worked on rebuilding the game.įFXIV, from its rebuilding to its consecration didn’t follow in the footsteps of Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinari Kitase, Hironobu Sakaguchi or Hiromichi Tanaka.

And by that, I mean Final Fantasy XII and Ivalice games in general such as Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. A huge part of FFXIV’s success is that its biggest inspiration from the Final Fantasy franchise are from FF games that are either barely considered like an FF game, or have been said to be the beginning of the end by a vocal part of the fanbase. However, that alone wasn’t enough to make FFXIV such a great MMO, and it had to draw on its own history in order to deliver a great Final Fantasy product, even if they already had a great game.īut Final Fantasy XIV follows a very different trajectory than the “ Golden Age” of Final Fantasy that is considered to be between FF6 and FF10 (included) by many fans. By looking at what the competition has been doing, they have been able to bring the MMO to modern standards and deliver a great product.

#Final fantasy xiv designer series#

Its popularity keeps growing and the signs of excellence that many fans have been awaiting from the series can be found inside this game. Its newest expansion has become the current game of the year in two platforms. Final Fantasy XIV has achieved great success.