Final Fantasy XIVrecently received the massiveShadowbringersexpansion, and at E3 2019 DualShockers had the chance to talk with Director Naoki Yoshida about the past, present, and future of the popular MMO. During that interview, DualShockers asked Yoshi-P if there was a chance thatFinal Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringerscould cross over withFinal Fantasy VII Remakewhen that title releases next March. Surprisingly, the answer was no even though Yoshi-P says that “it would would be amazing to have an opportunity” to do that.
He goes on to explain that while he’s “sure everybody desires this,” Square Enix wants “Final Fantasy VII Remaketo come out as planned on the March 3 at the highest quality possible.” Yoshi-P concludes that “Doing the work on our side is not an issue but we’re worried about burdening and taking away from the time and resources theFinal Fantasy VII Remaketeam has on their work. I think it would be unfair to do so since it’s taking away from their costs and bandwith in providing a very polished game.”
Yoshi-P then went on to discuss the amount of work that goes into a collaboration like this, especially on the side ofFinal Fantasy VII Remake’sdevelopment team. “If we were to approach that team after I make a plan for some sort of collaboration, it would burden them so to speak. The team would need to review the plans and once we decide to move forward, theXIVteam would create, say, a model of Cloud to represent in the game, but we’d have to show it to theRemaketeam for them to review which would take away from their time. If we wrote a story we’d have to draft the text and then translate it. Then it would require them to review it and make sure everything checks out.”
While theFinal Fantasy XIVdevelopment team feels that making “that sort of request is going to take away from what fans are hoping to see,” Yoshi-P did tell DualShockers that “maybe after release we can talk about some kind of collaborative effort.” He compares a potential collaboration to that of whenNoctis ofFinal Fantasy XVwas added to the game. If a crossover betweenFinal Fantasy XIV: ShadowbringersandFinal Fantasy VII Remakedoes ever see the light of day, we will know both development teams have reached a point where a collaboration would not take away from either game.
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringersis currently available on PC and PS4 whileFinal Fantasy VII Remakeis slated for a July 04, 2025 release on PS4.
