Naoko Yoshida elaborated at length at plans for Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward, as a new trailer is revealed.
If you think about it, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn was essentially a game built on top of a repaired version of the original Final Fantasy 14. Many fans were skeptical Yoshida’s team could even turn Final Fantasy 14 around, and the fact that they did speaks volumes about Yoshida.
Now, Yoshida wants to recreate that party trick with Heavensward, adding enough new elements to make it a new game. With that in mind, the game will have three new classes; the machinist, astrologian, and dark knight. He also wanted to ensure that there was enough differentiation between classes that even classes who play similar roles feel different. Switching roles will be costly experience wise, but as Yoshida notes, many fans are more than up to the task, and eager.
Square Enix discussed flying before, but Yoshida had interesting things to say about crafting airships. Your free company’s house has to build a workshop, and then build each part individually, starting with the engine. You have teammates gathering materials with you, and then the crafters from within that team form a party. Finally, everyone joins in to build the engine. The final airships will be gigantic, company wide airships.
This system will offer a lot of customization for these large ships, and for these and other updates, Yoshida has large plans for frequent large updates. Yoshida hopes to strike the balance between keeping the balance from hardcore fans and casuals who don’t have the time to play all day everyday.
Watch a trailer giving a tour of the areas in Heavensward above. Final Fantasy 14: Heavenswardis coming June 23 to Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and debuting with Final Fantasy 14 on Mac on the same day.
