For Final Fantasy 14 Online players, director and producer Naoki Yoshida likely needs no introduction. His deep love for the Final Fantasy series and often honest demeanor have endeared him in the hearts of fans for more than a decade now.
While the game certainly has had its ups and downs in recent years, including a controversial shuttering of certain mods and an unease at the potential timing of the next major expansion, there is still plenty to look forward to in the current Dawntrail patch cycle.
At Gamescom 2025, I sat down with Yoshida for around 45 minutes. I quizzed him on everything from the highly anticipated Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration and Beastmaster content to his thoughts on Dawntrail’s themes and the kinds of otherworldly collaborations he’d love to add to Final Fantasy 14.
Planetes aligned
My interview came right off the back of the announcement of the return of Monster Hunter to Final Fantasy 14 (and vice versa) at Opening Night Live. Monster Hunter Wilds is set to get the iconic Omega as a new large monster encounter. Meanwhile, Wilds’ flagship monster Arkveld will touch down in the world of Final Fantasy 14.
I was curious as to why Square Enix and Capcom landed on the robotic Omega for Monster Hunter Wilds, when Final Fantasy 14 has no shortage of more fitting creatures, such as dragons Shinryu and Nidhogg.
“We were talking about Monster Hunter Wilds [with the Capcom team], and they told me they wanted to achieve a sort of worldview, behind which lies an unknown civilization,” Yoshida said. “For that reason, they wanted Omega to make an appearance, because it would expand on that worldview which they have in the game.”
He went on to describe the differences between 14’s Omega and the one we’ll encounter in Wilds, with a rather sentimental reasoning.
“When we think about what happened after the battle with Omega [in Final Fantasy 14], we remember that we now have a smaller Omega which actually has a heart. It travels around with Alpha the Chocobo. And so, from a player’s perspective, they might feel bad for attacking the Omega that we now know.
Yoshida kept quiet in terms of story, but said we can expect the adorable Alpha and Omega pair to make an appearance in Wilds alongside our hunters. The Final Fantasy 14 team has also been supervising the story, so we can expect something, hopefully, of similarly high quality.
As for the Final Fantasy 14 side of things, Yoshida didn’t give much away about our encounter with Arkveld. I asked if it would take the form of a Trial (large-scale boss fights in Final Fantasy 14), similar to the inclusion of Rathalos in the Stormblood expansion.
Yoshida said to expect more details at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show in September, and that the content for both titles has been designed “so that both casual and hardcore players can enjoy it.” This does line up with how Trials go traditionally, with both normal and ‘Extreme’ difficulty encounters available, so it sounds likely that this will be the case for Arkveld at the very least. But let’s wait and see.
Top 100
Briefly, I moved the conversation over to what plans might be for Final Fantasy 14’s level cap. Each and every expansion so far has raised the level cap for all jobs (besides ‘Limited’ jobs like Blue Mage and the upcoming Beastmaster) by 10. As of Dawntrail, we’re now at a satisfyingly round 100.
With such a clean number - and with concerns that any further increases could make grinding levels a slog or intimidate new players - I asked Yoshida if there were plans to change things up for 8.0.
“We are doing various discussions in the development team,” Yoshida replied, “and the next direction we’re taking has already been decided. Though for us, the important thing is not the level itself. It’s providing that sensation of steady growth to the player.
“Having said that,” he continued, “level as a concept is something that is common across RPGs in general, so it’s an easy-to-understand concept.”
What Yoshida said next has me inclined to believe that the level cap will indeed increase again, this time to 110 if we’re following traditional patterns. “When it comes to the question about whether this is going to be a permanent policy moving forward, that’s still another thing we would need to discuss down the line.
“At the end of the day, we need to think about how we can deliver that sensation of growth, and there’s no firm answer behind that. So as of right now, we can’t say what scheme there will be in terms of level cap being lifted or any details behind that, but what I can say is that we have decided on the [next] direction.”
Catch these hands
On a similar note, I wanted to ask Yoshida about how the team plans to evolve jobs and the battle system in Final Fantasy 14 moving forward. At Level 100, many jobs - if not most - are beginning to feel like they’ve reached their logical conclusion.
Not only do most jobs have some form of big flashy burst window finisher (think Reaper’s Perfectio or Bard’s Radiant Encore), but Dawntrail started introducing traits that upgraded our role actions (abilities that are shared between all tank, healer, or damage-dealing roles) instead of exclusively job-specific upgrades.
“We do have quite a big plan for jobs moving forward,” said Yoshida, “but it is quite difficult for me to convey the nuances at this time. When it comes to the current content that we have in terms of battles and design, we don’t want to destroy that experience as it is right now.
“So, keeping that in mind, we don’t want to incorporate major changes to that, but what we do want to do is make jobs more interesting for players to use.”
I’m personally expecting reworks for jobs that currently feel a little underwhelming, like Summoner, but I’m curious to learn about any universal changes beyond that. What this 'big plan' entails, be that a shakeup to the universal two-minute burst rotation, or added depth or complexities, remains to be seen.
Unleash the Beastmaster
I then had a chance to speak with Yoshida about one of Dawntrail’s most highly anticipated pieces of content: the new Beastmaster limited job. Much like Blue Mage, Beastmaster will presumably differ from standard Disciples of War and Magic jobs (including Monk, Dark Knight, and Black Mage) in that it will have its own unique progression systems.
Beastmaster was revealed in the run-up to Dawntrail’s release, but we haven’t heard much on it since then. Thankfully, Yoshida was able to shed some light on the limited job for me, including an estimated release window.
“Regarding the release, I’ll be clear,” said Yoshida, “it is scheduled to be released in the patch 7.5 series.” That means we can likely expect to see the content arrive around Spring to Summer of 2026. Quite a while to wait, then.
“In terms of the concept, you ally yourself with monsters, then these monsters grow so that they can join you in dedicated battle content. This is going to be something completely different to anything we’ve done in Final Fantasy 14 before, and it’s exclusive to this limited job. We’ve been investing a lot of resources into developing this content, and the team is super excited about it.”
I asked if the Beastmaster questline would tie into the Shadowbringers expansion’s Save the Queen content. During that, we dealt with an Imperial Beastmaster, Lyon, and got to witness his power and beast taming firsthand as we aimed to help liberate the Bozjan Southern Front from the Garlean Empire’s control. Yoshida’s answer was interesting.
“From a lore perspective, there will be a connection between Save the Queen and Beastmaster. That said, Save the Queen is not part of the main scenario questline. So, of course, some players haven’t experienced it. So with that in mind, there will be a connection, but whether or not characters from Save the Queen make an appearance? I’m keeping that under wraps for now.”
Get ready for the next battle
Final Fantasy 14 Online is no stranger to collaborations with other brands and franchises. The upcoming crossover with Monster Hunter Wilds will mark the second time Square Enix and Capcom have collaborated, but there have been plenty of others throughout the online game’s existence. These include collabs with Dragon Quest, Yo-kai Watch, and Fall Guys.
Just for fun, I quizzed Yoshida on other collaborations he’d love to bring to Final Fantasy 14, no matter how ridiculous or unrealistic. Yoshida has spoken about his love for Diablo and World of Warcraft in the past, which he reiterated here. But there are others he’d like the chance to work with, too.
“I’m a maniac about One Piece,” he said, “and I’m a super fan of Evangelion as well. Oh, and it goes without saying, but Gundam, too!
“But yes, as a fan of Diablo, I’ve spent many thousands of hours playing the game, and I never ever got sick of it. I love Diablo so much that I would want to make a Diablo game myself, and I have huge respect for all the staff working at Blizzard, not only as a gamer, but as a developer. So I really would love to achieve some sort of collaboration with them.”
Surprisingly, Yoshida then turned the question back at me, wondering what collaboration I’d like to see in Final Fantasy 14. Being a huge Tekken fan, I didn’t hesitate to say I’d love to see a crossover with the Bandai Namco fighting game - perhaps as a new Trial against Devil Kazuya.
Yoshida seemed to really like this answer, of course mentioning Final Fantasy 16 protagonist Clive Rosfield’s inclusion as a guest character in Tekken 8. “Oh, that’s interesting!” he remarked. “Of course, for Final Fantasy 16, we did work with the Tekken team, and we do have a close relationship with them, so I will let them know!”
There you go, folks; if we do end up getting a Tekken collaboration in Final Fantasy 14, you know who to thank (joking, obviously).
Bridging the gap
Closing out the interview, I wanted to get Yoshida’s thoughts on the thematic parallels between Endwalker and Dawntrail. If you’re unaware, Endwalker marked the endpoint of (at that time) the near-decade-long ‘Hydaelyn and Zodiark’ story arc. Dawntrail, then, marked a new beginning for Final Fantasy 14 in terms of story, transporting Warriors of Light to the far-flung western continent of Tural.
What begins as a quest for us to help facilitate a rite of succession to the Dawn Throne morphs into an unapologetically sci-fi adventure. But overall, Dawntrail dealt heavily with themes of death, and the world we leave behind for those who come after us. It’s quite the mirror to Endwalker, which encouraged players to find the beauty in the life they have and reject nihilism.
“The thing we wanted to convey in Endwalker was that, even when you reach the end of something, that’s not the end of everything, and players should not give up - there’s still hope, and we wanted to give them the strength and hope to do their best to endeavor for tomorrow,” Yoshida said.
“When it came to Dawntrail, we didn’t want to ask the question of what that tomorrow would be, or the end of the world. Instead, we wanted to convey more about the reason behind what death is, and what is the meaning of the end?
“The reason why we pose these questions is because in our real-life society right now, there’s a continued evolution of the digitization of everything. And with that in the backdrop, we wanted to approach the question of: how will we live tomorrow? And that is the question that we’re posing in the story moving forward.”
As for where the main story could go from here, I also asked Yoshida if he was able to tease any upcoming locations Warriors of Light have heard much about - namely, Meracydia, a huge region of much importance to the story, that we otherwise know little about.
“I can’t provide any specific details,” replied Yoshida, “but I have already decided when Meracydia will make an appearance and how. But what I can say is that it is going to be quite a while away.
“When it comes to that point in the story, we will be facing a lot of mysteries, but it is going to be quite some time ahead. But I do want you to express to your readership [that’s you!] that I am thinking about it very properly and firmly.”
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