Yoshida Naoki (nicknamed Yoshi-P) has explained how Final Fantasy XIV got off to a lousy start.

When we say it, we are not kidding: when the original Final Fantasy XIV launched on PC in September 2010, Square Enix probably didn’t expect a hostile reception. But just how deep are the flaws that forced the Japanese publisher to completely redesign its game (which in turn went on to become a success and is still going strong today)? Yoshida was the director here, so he was partly to blame for the failure, which was unusual in the franchise’s history.

Siliconera has translated a programme where the producer of Final Fantasy XIV appeared. Here, Yoshida shared how the team struggled when the game was released. There were few activities to do at launch, but it could be described as time-consuming, as it took too long to open a door, for example. Yoshida wanted every nook and cranny of the MMORPG to look pretty. That’s why many hardware resources were devoted to rendering flower pots, for example, and a maximum of thirty players were visible in teams at any one time. It wasn’t worth it: the lower and reasonable system requirements were sacrificed on the altar of visuals.

The original release of Final Fantasy XIV failed, and Square Enix made Yoshida the sole director of its reimagined release, subtitled A Realm Reborn, then gave him a single task: to try to restore the reputation of the Japanese publisher. And it was a success, as Final Fantasy’s highest-grossing title (which is an MMORPG, with only Final Fantasy XI was before it in the same genre), so it’s safe to say that Yoshida accomplished what he was asked to do.

However, the new version of Final Fantasy XIV has its problems: in December, the game had to be temporarily suspended due to the influx of new players, and the servers couldn’t cope with the load, so Yoshida had to postpone the Endwalker add-on by two weeks…

Source: PSL