Final Fantasy XIV’s Next Chapters: An Exclusive Talk with Yoshi-P

We’ve had the chance to meet Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) twice before—first in the blazing heat of Las Vegas during Fan Fest in summer 2023, and later at Fan Fest in London. This time, however, we got the largest opportunity yet to sit down with him for a proper interview, packed with insights about the future of Final Fantasy XIV. From the challenges of concluding Dawntrail’s story to upcoming expansions, new jobs, and cross-generational gameplay, Yoshi-P shares his thoughts on content design, player feedback, and even FanFest 2026—just around the corner with the anniversary of A Realm Reborn.

How are you satisfied with Dawntrail’s story conclusion in patch 7.3 and reactions of the players?

The story for Dawntrail was really difficult in terms of developing that story, because we were dealing with some quite complicated themes such as what it is to live and what it is to die. But also in the expansion there was an introduction of many new characters, so the hurdle that we had set for ourselves was quite high for us to conclude the story by this timing, and we had to work right until the last minute on making all of those adjustments and fine-tuning to make sure that it was all concluded. But first, from our perspective in the development team, we think we are satisfied with what we did, and also from a schedule perspective, to think that we had made it on time, that was also one area where we felt at ease.

With the ending sequences in patch 7.3 and the cutscenes that we were showcasing, of course we had our players, who are the hero, take one more step in the spotlight. And our players are all playing different jobs, but we wanted to make sure that we could showcase the uniqueness of their jobs in each of the attack scenes, and we put a lot of hard work into the theatrics in order to produce a finale that would be fitting for this story that we wanted to tell. So from that perspective we felt that we had completed what we had set out to do, and that was what we thought in the development team.

And so with regards to player feedback, when I was in Japan before coming over to Germany I checked the player feedback, and I could see that generally there was a good response. And now that I've come to Gamescom, this is the third day that we have been having interviews, and I've had the chance to meet members of the media, and they've been telling me as well about what aspects of the feedback they found from the community, which were received very well. And taking their comments into account as well, I feel that generally we did quite well in the patch.

Can we expect a new character similar to Wuk Lamat to kick off a new story arc in patch 7.4?

No. If I say too much it's going to be a spoiler, so I won't say that much. But in patches 7.4 and 7.5 we are going to be moving towards a new big story arc. And as we are moving to that, because we are starting that movement, we won’t see a new character appear which would be the basis of that story arc. So basically no such character would be making an appearance yet.

But of course we had the final scene at the end of patch 7.3 when the Ascian made an appearance, and also there was reference to Winterers. So from patch 7.4 there will be an introduction of new elements to see just what is the context behind that. It will not be a lot of new things being introduced, but I do hope that players will look forward to it.

I know that you don't want to spoil things, but do you see a potential in including other Tural characters in the next plot development?

Yes, if I answer that it will be a spoiler, but of course what I can say is that the adventure in Tural has now come to an end, and the tension of the story will change drastically.

Being more than a year after Dawntrail launch, would you do some things differently, like distribution of content, dungeons or raids?

Rather than the distribution of content, we are working on creating big changes to the content hierarchy in the game. And starting with patch 7.35 we will be introducing a new deep dungeon which is called the Pilgrim's Traverse. And with this we will be drastically changing the approach to deep dungeons. So this new deep dungeon will be one which both hardcore players and casual players can enjoy, and this represents a change in our approach to content design. So this is something that we will be working more on as we move forward.

And so this is starting with Pilgrim's Traverse in patch 7.35, but from patch 7.4 and the new Variant Dungeon series we are also working on changing the content design so that more and more players will be able to enjoy the content. So in other words, we want all of the players to enjoy the content that we provide, and we will be making various changes to this end moving forward.

You already dropped some hints on this, but could you tell me a bit more about what's coming in Patches 7.4 and 7.5 regarding content, gameplay changes and stuff like that? Story-wise, maybe?

In terms of one of the elements that we have planned for the patch 7.x series that we haven't shared so many details about yet with the players, there is the new limited job which is the Beastmaster. This is quite a big content that we are going to be implementing in the game, and it is both a new job, but we are also producing new content for it and there will be dedicated content for it.

Because of this we are investing a lot of resources and cost into producing this content, and we will just barely make it, but we are expecting to release this in the patch 7.5 series, so I do hope that players will look forward to it.

And in terms of the story for patches 7.4 and 7.5, we had covered a bit of that discussion just now, but we are once again sliding off in order to build up to that next peak. In patch 7.4 the progression of the story will not be so fast, but you will see a faster acceleration in patch 7.5. And for Patch 7.5 the plot has already been finished and we have started the voice recording, the voice acting, and it will be different to Dawntrail. So I do hope that players will look forward to it. Rather than there being a focus on Tural itself, there will be more exploration about the Ninth Reflection. But come to think about it, I've said too much now, so I'll just keep it at that.

How do you see the reaction of the fanbase towards Final Fantasy XI and Vana’diel integration into the current raid series?

Of course Final Fantasy XI is a game with a long history and it is our senpai of sorts, and so it is a more senior game than us with more history. The game is still very steadily continuing its service today, and so it does have a lot of players. A lot of the FF11 players are now playing Final Fantasy XIV, and some of the feedback that we found from them is that they felt really sentimental when they were playing the content, and they also commented on how certain areas were recreated so well. So we have received a very good response from them.

And in terms of those players who are Final Fantasy XIV players but haven’t played Final Fantasy XI before, they are learning various things from Final Fantasy XI players, and that’s also leading to their enjoyment of the content. I think this is one of the great things about having a crossover, and so in this regard we’ve had a really good response.

Some games have recently dropped PS4 support altogether. Can we expect FF14 to still support PS4 for the next expansion, at least 8.0 till the 8.5 series?

My basic stance is that I do want to continue supporting hardware which has grown old. But I do have one concern, and that's regarding the OS of the PlayStation 4, and this is regarding the hardware regulations which were made by Sony. These regulations are related to the limit of the data, and because there's that limit of the data, well, we are continually incorporating updates for Final Fantasy 14 and we are now approaching that limit. And so for this limit that's in place, we have been asking Sony Interactive Entertainment from our side to increase that just for Final Fantasy 14, and they have kindly been doing that so far. But they've told us now that they are also reaching their limits.

So I will repeat myself: I do want to provide support for platforms as long as possible. However, there will eventually come a time when the hardware is at its limits in terms of its technology, and at that point in time we would have to provide an end to the service on that hardware. But I will be sure to provide clear reasoning for that decision when I communicate it to the players.

Maybe another one on the platforms. An Xbox version is still quite recent for the game, so how's the feedback on Xbox? And maybe looking at the data of the players, do you see any changes? Are there any patterns that are probably different, that they are interacting with the game in different ways, playing in different ways and stuff like that?

We have been increasing platforms in the past, and we have been asked this question before about, for example, whether there's any difference between PC players and PS4 players. But I don't think that there's any difference. In terms of the feedback that we received, players generally said things like they want the patch to be released really quickly, or they want a lot of content to play. And so it was very much along the lines of general feedback, and so I think we're now at a point in the community where they don't really think so much about what platform, and we basically have that same general feedback that's gathered.

There are already talks about the next generation of consoles, whether it will be Xbox something or PS6. So do you see Final Fantasy XIV as—it is already a cross-generational game—but going even further into the future for the next generation of consoles?

Of course there is always the possibility of providing our game on those platforms, because my aim is to provide Final Fantasy XIV to as many players as possible. And so if there is an increase in platforms, we would work on providing the game on those platforms. Specifically with regards to the recent platforms, they are quite high spec and so it's easier for us to work with them compared to back in the days. So I don't think any addition of hardware is a negative in that regard.

But when I look at things from a gamer’s perspective, I feel that there's no real need to make new hardware, because I think right now people are happy with the Xbox Series X, the PS5 or the Switch 2. And honestly, from a gamer’s perspective as well, hardware is just expensive to buy.

Can we expect a new Final Fantasy Fan Fest series in 2026? When and where, and am I invited? (laughs)

We are planning Fan Festivals for 2026 and continuing with preparations. And I'll answer your last question now: because we've had such an awesome interview, I'm pretty sure that the team will be asking you to join us for Fan Fest. As for where and when the Fan Fest will be taking place in 2026, it would be great if you could just wait another few days—especially with the anniversary of A Realm Reborn just around the corner. And what I can say at least is that for the Fan Festival in 2026 we will not be doing it in Las Vegas in August (laughs).