Update: We’ve swapped the video with one that has English subtitles available.
Original story: Today marks the release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It’s been three years since Naoki Yoshida took over the MMO development team to fix what was inarguably the most poorly received Final Fantasy launch in history: Final Fantasy XIV. Now, Yoshi-P and his team now get to see the fruit of their hard labor as the reworked product is officially on store shelves for PC and PS3.
An event was held Tokyo today to celebrate the game’s launch, and Director and Producer Yoshi-P shared a seven-minute speech on-stage where he apologized for the server issues during Early Access and thanked fans for their support over the years. If you haven’t seen his interviews over the course of the game’s development, he’s one of the most passionate MMO producers you’ll ever see. While we have a video of the speech it’s entirely in Japanese. Thankfully, a user by the name of ‘FFXIVtranslatorguy‘ on Reddit offered a translation. You can read the translation below and view the video as well.
I’m tearing up guys.
First of all I want to say that I am sorry for us having to go into maintenance for the NA/EU servers. I want to apologize for taking precious time away from players during early access. From here on out is a long journey. *starts to tear up, crowd gives encouragement*
Its almost been 3 years since I took over development for FFXIV. At the time I hadn’t been involved with the game that much, and I thought that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to remake it. I have always loved Final Fantasy and have always loved MMO’s. *starts to tear up again* At the time, I gathered the team together and told them that we were going to remake the game just two days before we announced it to all of you on December 2nd.
I still remember it now, but at the time, we were in a studio like this one, and Souken (current director of game music) was in the background checking my mic levels. I clearly remember him standing there give me a guts pose (one fist in the air, think Rocky) but at the time I had the same kind of worries as the players; how is this really going to turn out?… Isn’t this going to be impossible…. *pauses*
But one by one I got support from all of you. It was said in the questions earlier, but normally an MMO takes 4-5 years to create and carefully plan. Earlier, Wada said his role is a tank. I had the same idea of being a tank when making this game. Up until now I have gone through each facet of the game (implies that he also bore all of the responsibility).
But I am not saying that it is just me who made FFXIV: ARR. This was all due to the players around the world, the core staff here, and the hundreds of staff not here today. I came here today planning on not crying, but today we have finally taken the first step with FFXIV: ARR. And it is only the first step. Honestly I don’t think we have any time to rest. We are working on patches and expansions.
More than anything I want to thank the players, especially those who started from the original FFXIV, and those that have joined our community. Thank you all for all of your support so far. I only hope that we have released a game that will not bring shame to Square Enix. from here on out there is no finishing an MMORPG. FFXIV:ARR is not a game that we made alone, but a game that we made along with all of you. From here on out we home to keep creating this game from here on out, from this place with you for 5-10 years.
I again want to say thank you for all you have done so far and we hope for your support in the future.
Below is the launch trailer for FFXIV: A Realm Reborn:
