The game’s producer also talked about why it’s out of the question to play through the MMO’s story for free.

PCGamer has a more in-depth interview with Naoki Yoshida aka Yoshi-P about Final Fantasy XIV. Several parts of the game were discussed (Crystal Tower III-inspired raids, FF XIII and XV crossovers…). The upcoming Dawntrail expansion will continue the references (Echoes of Vana’diel, the Alliance raids are a reference to Final Fantasy XI, the previous MMO; and the Pelupelu tribe is from Final Fantasy X). But there is still plenty of potential for more crossover content.

“We have many plans and ideas, and we will continue to incorporate the essence of various titles in the series to serve as a ‘Final Fantasy Series Theme Park’. Simply put, my personal wish is to approach [Final Fantasy 7] seriously, but with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series in development, I don’t want to get in their way. I would be very happy if we could do something together after the remake series is completed, and I would like to ask players to support the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series so that this can happen as soon as possible,” said Yoshi-P, who is waiting for the third part of the remake to be completed (perhaps not split into four parts by Square Enix).

The MMO is already waiting for its fifth add-on, so you could easily spend 300-400 hours on the story alone. You can pay to skip the story, but Dawntrail starts a new story, so it’s fair to ask if there’s another way to skip the story up to the previous expansion, Endwalker. Yoshida also answered this question: “For the story, we are not currently planning any kind of new skip feature. This is something I’m always torn about, and we’ve already implemented a feature that allows players to learn about the story, setting, and characters even if they skip the story. I’m concerned that if the world’s most acclaimed story can be skipped through a feature, the value of Final Fantasy XIV itself will be diminished. So far, FF14 has been able to continue to grow while keeping the story as the main focus. So please let me think about it a bit more. Of course, I understand where you’re coming from [about the increasingly daunting length of the story], so don’t worry about it.”

Hopefully, there will be a solution that works for everyone.

Source: PCGamer,