Beyond Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker: Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida Q&A

blog.playstation.com:

From newfound adventures to long-anticipated lore explorations, the first content patch since Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion marks the beginning of a new era for Warriors of Light everywhere. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida answered a few of our burning questions about what’s to come for the critically-acclaimed MMO. (Have you heard about its free trial?)

PlayStation.Blog: Endwalker has led the Warrior of Light through an incredibly climactic adventure of unprecedented scale, closing a chapter 10 years in the making! What do you see in our Warrior of Light’s future? Doesn’t he deserve a bit of a break? How do you follow up on such a grand adventure with so much at stake?

Naoki Yoshida:I think our Warriors of Light had some rest, but erm, there wasn’t much rest for us in the development team (smiles bitterly). Please look forward to the story that will begin from our newfound adventure, and the mysteries and goals that will be brought up! I can’t say much further. First, do be sure to see how things kick off in Patch 6.1’s story. I believe that the key to continuing these stories is whether or not they’ll excite us as developers. If our motivation erodes away, there’s no doubt that it will extend to our players. To prevent this from happening, we always place paramount importance on ensuring it’s engaging and fun for us to create (new stories and content) from our perspective as developers.

You’ve expressed wanting to make XIV more accessible to solo play. How do you marry the idea of an MMO, by design a multiplayer experience, and solo play? What is your design philosophy there and how do you approach these changes while staying true to the MMO aspects?

The answer is simple; my concept is to make the most of