Final Fantasy XIV's Fan Festival is in full swing in Las Vegas. While fans eagerly await more information on the Dawntrail expansion, there's plenty more to wonder about. During a press conference, FFXIV director and producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida discussed the possibility of some of the older Final Fantasy games appearing in XIV.
Yoshida said it's an idea that's been considered by the development team for approximately the past year and a half. The recent release of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series brought the first six titles back into the spotlight. Yoshi-P thought it'd be cool to be able to play those first six FF titles in the Gold Saucer, or even in players' estates.
There would be some very real obstacles to realizing this idea, though. The biggest roadblock is it's complicated to figure out for FFXIV's programmers. According to Yoshi-P, the Pixel Remasters already run on middleware... and to put them in XIV, they'd have to build another system that can play it.
"So because it's running on a middleware, if you want to implement that into XIV, you'd have to build another system that can play back the middleware inside the game. So it's like you're building a system of a game to play a system of a game and it's just this weird configuration." Yoshi-P said.
So, not impossible, just exceedingly complicated. Half-jokingly, he said that any "super programmers" should feel free to apply to work at Square Enix Japan if they feel up to the task.
There would also be the issue of pricing. Yoshi-P stated that consideration could be given to making Final Fantasy I through III free to play through FFXIV, but that IV through VI would likely have to be paid for by players, at the very least. After all, giving them all away simply wouldn't be realistic, considering that they are all standalone titles in their own right.
In the end, it's certainly not impossible, but it would be a tall order to fill for the development team. But given more interest from fans and a super programmer or two, who knows what could happen?
