FFXIV lead developers reveal secrets of Endwalker’s most iconic quest, explain favorite jobs, and more

Final Fantasy XIV has a huge team behind the scenes that strives to make the popular MMORPG even better with every new update. We spoke to a handful of the game’s key developers at PAX Australia to learn more about their lives and how they all balance the grind.

It’s no secret that FFXIV players absolutely love the game, and the same is said for the developers working on it. Through consistent communication in the form of live letters, fans have become familiar with the faces of the team.

We were lucky enough to speak with the director Naoki Yoshidahead writer Natsuko Ishikawa and quest designer Saki Takayanagi to learn about their work-life balance, what went into the most iconic Endwalker mission, and much more.

Walking through the end

When it came to the game’s story, we had to ask Takayanagi how the team was developing That iconic Endwalker quest, which resonated with so many fans at the end of the MSQ.

To pull off this memorable stunt, the quest implementation scene worked with Ishikawa, who wrote the main screenplay for Endwalker.

“We wanted to include this as a sort of theatrical moment set in the quest, and from an implementation perspective, this was something we hadn’t done before,” Takayangi explains.

“I heard that Ishikawa had several meetings with other people responsible for developing the quest and had a lot of discussions about how to implement it.”

Of course, why did the team implement this? Well, because the title of the expansion was Endwalker, after all.

Despite how effective and moving the Endwalker quest was, Yoshida shared a story about how this unique form of storytelling prompted the developer to extend the release date.

“I was there and saw the deployments on the sidelines, and it was a situation where we didn’t have time. There wasn’t enough time left in the schedule and Ishikawa was really exhausted. She had to go through a process of trying to choose the lines she wanted to include,” Yoshida shared.

“And because of all that in the background, I was thinking, ‘Should we extend the development deadline another two weeks?’ And for that matter, I did my own final walk,” he chuckled.

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines

And of course, the team is no stranger to deadlines, and the enormous overload of work that comes with them is getting closer. So we asked the developers if they had any strategies to overcome the dreaded ‘crunch time’ and keep them going.

In the director’s case, he absolutely loves snowboarding, so anything related to this subject would constantly calm him down. Always with a sweet tooth, Ishikawa shared her joy in sweet snacks, this was especially true during her trip to Melbourne where she found plenty of treats.

Takayanagi’s answer was a bit of a curveball, with the quest designer using the game itself to de-stress during the tough periods.

“In my case, I’m constantly looking at Midlander hashtags because I love Midlanders,” the developer sheepishly admitted.

Yoshida had to mention the office shenanigans that would take place if Takayanagi was caught.

“Every time she gets tired, she tends to bring out the hunks, so to speak. She brings out some really good-looking Midlanders, and they’re all placed in the game. So if Ishikawa notices that, she’ll tell her, “Hey, do your job well!”

Work-life balance? What balance between work and private life?

Moving beyond the topic of crunch time, we talked more about how the developers manage to maintain a decent work-life balance. To which almost all three of them admitted that they didn’t have one.

“So I have no balance between work and private life. When it comes to making games and creating something new, that’s basically my hobby, so it’s completely mixed with the work I do for my career,” Yoshida explains.

“Because there is no clear distinction between my work and my hobby; it’s all mixed up, I don’t really have a concept of work. Playing games is both my job and my hobby.”

However, Yoshida still enjoys snowboarding as a separate hobby, but confessed that even when he is boarding, he will still think about things, meaning there is actually no clear boundary or distinction.

Of course, the director wanted to emphasize that the three of them were not a good representation of the entire team and assured us that not everyone was like them.

“There are people who take the time to enjoy their private lives, but we are not like that. Please don’t think we are all like this. Of course we want to do our best to bring you the best game we can, so for us we take our time, we travel around the world, we see different things, we talk to a lot of different people and we are lucky to be in that position.

“It’s not necessarily that the more time you spend on something the better it will be, but for people like us who want to create something great for our players, there’s a tendency for people to end up like us.”

Jump in Eorzea

Even though the three developers spend most of their time working, that doesn’t mean they haven’t spent time in the game they created. Yoshida in particular is known for his love of Black Mage, so we asked if there were any other jobs that would be of interest to them.

Outside of Black Mage, Yoshida said he also plays other courses, but didn’t want to go into too much detail about his favorites in case the community thinks he gives them more buffs than others.

However, the director mentioned an interesting comment about the battle team, stating that with each expansion they deliberately change jobs, having a discussion among themselves about who plays what.

“So for example, in this expansion, a member of the team could say, ‘I’m going to play Dragoon so everyone else doesn’t play Dragoon,'” Yoshida explained. “The reason behind this is that when it comes to combat content, the developers of the combat content and combat systems want to get a sense of real player feedback from a real perspective.”

Ishikawa explained that they’re jumping on the Bard as the main course, while also messing around with Dark Knight for tanks. However, the story writer wasn’t too keen on healers, which was the opposite of Takayanagi, who played exclusively as a White Mage, saying they “just wanted to help a lot of different players”.

As usual, Yoshida made a funny comment about how he is the exact opposite. He’ll be there like a Black Magician during a raid, constantly going all out, eating AOEs and giving the healers a hard time.

Iconic items

Because FFXIV is an MMORPG, this means that the developers walk among the player base as you play. Of course, they would be overrun if they revealed their true identities, so no one knows exactly what their Warriors of Light look like. And like Yoshida’s iconic Lalafell, we had to ask if they had any iconic gear or accessories that would help them stand out from the crowd.

Like his Lalafell, the director has one key accessory that can reveal his identity to players.

“In my case, I have a permanent minion that I will use, because I have very strong memories of it. Also for my private character where I play Black Mage, I have very specific character settings, and if I delved into it more, players might figure out that’s me.

Ishikawa’s giveaway is that she’s playing a race that isn’t all that common, especially in Japan. According to the author, it is probably the least or second least played race and a combination of their race and gender. Likewise, Ishikawa didn’t want to reveal any more details in case she blew her Warrior of Light’s cover.

Despite Takayanagi’s love for Midlander males, the quest designer is constantly changing breeds, so there was little risk in giving more information about their WoL.

“My most favorite Midlanders I have, I have a nickname I call him by… But right now I’m playing a male Roegadyn. And especially at Island Sanctuary, I can just sit back and watch a male Roegadyn do the farming all day long.”

However, Yoshida wasn’t one to just joke around, claiming that he already knew what kind of outfit Takayanagi had on their Roegadyn, to which Takayanagi cheekily replied, “The rewards for Island Sanctuary are just so amazing.”