FF14’s Naoki Yoshida teases Evolved Black Mage, Zephyr bird dyes, fishing changes, and the end of Poetics in a new Evercold Q&A
The last big FF14 Evercold showcase has now wrapped up, but there’s still plenty to talk about before we get to the 8.0 expansion’s newly announced February launch date. Game Director Naoki Yoshida took to the stage twice this weekend at Fanfest Tokyo to answer questions directly from the audience. These took place exclusively in Japanese, with ‘Yoshi-P’ joined by Community Producer Toshio Murouchi, but thanks to the hard work of the volunteer translators over at the Final Fantasy 14 Discord, we’ve got some juicy details to dig through regarding the future of the critically acclaimed MMORPG.
The Final Fantasy 14 boss selects questions, all of which were submitted in the wake of yesterday’s Fanfest Tokyo keynote, by pulling various colored balls from a box, representing “normal, extreme, and ultimate” difficulty (much like the dice game in Anaheim). His first draw is naturally the most challenging color possible, but it’s actually an easy answer: can we change the color of our bird companion as a Zephyr, the new ranged physical DPS job? “Dual dye,” Yoshida responds, “When you give dyes to a certain NPC you can dye it.” I can’t wait for the fashion.
He’s prodded to tease some details about Black Mage’s Evolved Mode, and this time actually relents. “I am about to say something shocking… Triplecast is going to disappear. It will become something else, not three insta-casts. And Leylines will also not require you to be on them for 30 seconds, but you can use X abilities on them. So you can place them, cast, move to do a mechanic, come back, and continue.” He pauses. “If I say any more Mr Prime will get mad,” referring to the designer responsible for crafting the new combat system.
A post-Evercold housing update is set to allow us to float items without the need for awkward glitches and workarounds, and Yoshida confirms it should apply to “almost everything,” noting, “If we’re doing this we’re doing everything. Every housing item can be floated; maybe not all lighting, there may be a few exceptions.” He also touches on Island Sanctuary, acknowledging that “We’ve gotten requests globally for updates, and we do want to have some updates in the future after work on 8.0 has calmed down.”
Yoshida says that character customization is still “getting some tweaks,” but reminds us that the Evercold benchmark is scheduled for “early December,” and that he and Murouchi will hold a livestream beforehand to show off all the new features. Another user asks whether there will be options to change your AFK poses when you have your weapon out, such as to use those from other races or genders, and Yoshida confirms, “It is being worked on.”
On savage raiding, he states that the switch to personal loot won’t stop those who have already cleared that week from helping those yet to do so. “People who have not cleared that week yet will get loot.” He asks that players wait for the upcoming live letter focused on itemization and progression for full details. Touching on the recently released Dancing Mad Ultimate, Yoshida also reveals, “We had another phase, but that was too rough and difficult, and too long, so we dropped it.”
One person asks about date events with story NPCs; “I understand,” Yoshida responds, “but what if the scenarios we think of don’t fit your imagination of what a date would look like?” Then, more ominously, he ponders, “And… what if – I am not going to say who and I am not going to say that it will happen – but what if a character leaves us? It would limit our options.”
Yoshida does confirm “there will be a system to get past rewards,” such as from older seasons, but says this is still in the works. Interestingly, after being asked about Allagan Tomestones and responding, “I don’t wanna talk about this,” he does say something rather notable: “Poetics will disappear. Thank you, Poetics.” That’s been a big question with the switch to the new weekly progression system, so I’m glad to have it answered. “There will be something that allows you to trade for gear for alt jobs, or past rewards; you don’t have to worry about it for now. It just won’t be Poetics any more.”
There’s a big win for Fishers, too. Asked whether a special inventory to hold our bait would be possible, Yoshida responds, “No, no plans. No plans ever… And the reason is because there will be changes in 8.0. You don’t need to carry anything any more in 8.0. It will be like a list that you can select the bait from that you unlock when you level, earn quest rewards, or buy it from an NPC once. Bait you’ve obtained once will be added to your list and you can use it as many times as you want.”
Among the smaller topics, Yoshida says exploring PvP maps for practice purposes “would be possible technically,” but notes that it would use up server capacity. He says he’ll discuss it with FF14’s server team. While you’ll be able to catch up on weekly rewards from the week prior, he shuts down the idea of earning next week’s early: “That’s just human psychology. If we allowed that it would become a forced thing again, everyone would feel like they have to prepare for the uncertain.”
Why is our Warrior of Light shown as a Reaper in the Evercold trailer? With the caveat of some recent story spoilers for this paragraph, Yoshida answers: “There are two reasons. There simply aren’t that many jobs any more that fit him [the traditional character model used to represent the WoL in official trailers]. It’s nice when the new jobs fit him, but Pictomancer wouldn’t really fit him, right?” He then hints, “And they got teased a bit by Halmarut,” referring to her comparison of the WoL to Zenos, “but I can’t say more.” Tantalizing indeed.
Of course, Yoshida can’t escape the question of butt sliders even in Japan; clearly people have taken Koji Fox’s words to heart. Asked how progress is going, he responds that the team has “a lot to test and develop” during its work on Evercold. “It’s not that we can’t do it now, but the problem is matching gear,” he points out. “For some gear it’d look okay, for others the butt would either look too sharp or change too drastically when switching glams.” That certainly makes it sound as though he’s resigned to its eventual implementation.
There’s some time for less-serious topics as well. Who would Yoshida bring along from the Scions as his plus-one for a journey? “This is hard. Tataru has the most street smarts and can help look for jobs while adventuring, and save up money, even if she gets into trouble a lot. On the other hand Estinien has zero street smarts and gets conned easily, but he’s strong. Alisaie gets upset easily but has her good points. Alphinaud is good but he’s kind of pampered and can’t even start a fire. Urianger has plenty of experience but looks sus. Probably Thancred.”
He also explains why he’s a Black Mage main. “I like to use magic to burn everything, it’s so cool, and that’s why I picked it up.” He refers back to an old interview where he discussed playing a PvP tank mage in Ultima Online. “I like casters with big DPS that can subdue mobs – and Black Mages were the most iconic Final Fantasy mage job.” But what would his job be were he himself teleported into Eorzea, isekai-style? “I’d die. I’d be on the floor… Maybe not a Warrior of Light, but I’d take over a state and then we’d all unite and fight Garlemald together.”
That’s all the big reveals from the event, although if you’re curious to dig through the full transcript you can do so via the ‘translations and liveletters’ channel in the official FF14 Discord [link opens in a new window]. Thanks once again to the hard work of ‘Jules’ and ‘Miuna’ in conveying Yoshida’s thoughts for the global audience.
Final Fantasy 14 Evercold releases on Friday February 19, 2027 in early access, with the full launch on Tuesday February 23. As mentioned, we can expect several more livestreams before then; by my count we’ve got at least one for character creation, one covering Evolved Mode for all the jobs, and one discussing the new progression systems. The road to Evercold isn’t quite at its end yet.