Developing content from one of the world’s largest and most popular MMOs is no small feat, as a new interview with Final Fantasy XIV devs has shown.
With so many story arcs, quests and dialogue scenes to write, Square Enix has started giving some strict instructions to their developers in order to keep work going smoothly—even if that isolates them or makes them lonely. And with the upcoming Evercold expansion’s branching narrative requiring thousands of dialogue lines, one staff member in particular is reportedly off-limits in the office due to their workload.
In a new interview with Anitrendz, long-time Square Enix veterans Koji Fox and Toshio Murouchi talked candidly about the pressures of working on such an expansive title like Final Fantasy XIV. They revealed that the scale of the work at hand is so massive that the team has been instructed to leave lead writer Natsuko Ishikawa alone, lest she get too distracted and miss deadlines.
Fox told the outlet about the rules around interacting with Ishikawa. He said: “We’ve been told not to talk to [Natsuko] Ishikawa-san, the leader, because she’s so busy. If we talk to her, then she’s not writing when she needs to be.”
However, communication with the rest of the team is more open, with Fox and the gang utilizing “Slack channels just for the localization and scenario teams” where they can “throw questions" and get answers immediately.
Fox went on to say that he still catches up with Ishikawa at break time, saying: “I talk to her at lunch, though. She’s always so happy! You get this sense that everyone’s so scared to talk to her, but when you do, she’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m so happy!” He thinks she might be lonely, but paradoxically, she wants to talk to everyone because no-one is allowed to talk to her.
Murouchi added that the team hopes to bring Ishikawa along to the next Fan Fest event, the most recent of which just happened in Berlin and featured scores of new reveals for Final Fantasy XIV. Fox said: “I think fans want to talk to Ishikawa-san more, but it’s so hard to pull her away! We need to give her a break and have her come over so she can talk with the fans. Everyone has so many questions, I bet.
The stringent no-contact rules in Square Enix offices show the massive undertaking that is the Evercold expansion, which will be the sixth full expansion for MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. With new quests, branching stories and countless interactions to write and develop, strict deadlines and even crunch time will play a part in the expansion’s development.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.dualshockers.com/ff14-devs-arent-allowed-to-talk-to-lead-writer-natsuko-ishikawa/
