You may have already seen the panel from Tokyo Game Show in which Final Fantasy XIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida, Monster Hunter Wilds producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, and Director Yuya Tokuda introduced the upcoming collaboration content between the two games.
If you have not, you can find the new trailer introducing the FFXIV side of the collaboration below, and the whole panel at the bottom of the post.
Yet, there is more, as Simulation Daily took part in a press conference earlier this week, in which we were able (alongside other gaming media outlets) to quiz Yoshida-san, Tsujimoto-san, and Tokuda-san directly about the collaboration.
Firstly, Yoshida-san talked about the fact that the collaboration is both for casual gamers and hardcore gamers in Final Fantasy XIV.
The event has plenty of rewards that will please all kinds of players, including casual and high-end raiders. There are also different difficulties so that players can pick the one that best fits their needs.
The team decided to make the collaborations with Monster Hunter Wilds different from the one with Monster Hunter World. It’ll feel more FFXIV-like. The battles are still going to be crazy, but they will still play like FFXIV battles would.
Tsujimoto-san mentioned that it was a fun challenge to implement FFXIV content within Monster Hunter Wilds, as there are many Warriors of Light among his team. They had a good time coming up with ideas, and the fact that the two games belong to different genres is actually positive creatively, as it allowed the developers to do things that they wouldn’t usually be able to do.
The idea for the collaboration came up when Yoshida-san and Tsujimoto-san met at Gamescom 2024, but it was then solidified the following month at Tokyo Game Show 2024.
Yet, development did not physically start until after the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, less than a year ago. Yet, there was a lot of work to do from both sides, and the collaboration will include a large volume of content.
Interestingly, Tokuda-san mentioned that the collaboration between FFXIV and Monster Hunter World was the first time a direct enmity mechanic was introduced in a Monster Hunter game. Then, since the players enjoyed it, it was implemented as a general mechanic with other monsters and will also be included in the new collaboration.
Yoshida-san reiterated that the team managed to make the encounter with Arkveld in FFXIV as close to the game’s usual style of battles, besides one relevant element. You’ll need to watch Arkveld instead of his casting bars, like you would do in Monster Hunter.
Incidentally, the FFXIV team asked to use Arkveld and did not expect a positive answer. Yet, the Capcom team was completely used to it.
The team at Capcom selected Ultima to feel different from the massive monsters that will be implemented during content updates in the same period. It had to be smaller and feel fresh and different from the monsters.
Omega is a perfect fit because it focuses on intensive positioning work, having to dodge projectiles. It actually came up from the very beginning, as it was a great fit for the lost civilization storyline. On top of that, Monster Hunter players have so many tools at their disposal nowadays to fight something as complex as Omega that it was also a great fit timing-wise.
Yoshida-san, as a Monsieur Hunter player himself, immediately knew it would have worked out perfectly.
He then also mentioned that both teams have in common the great passion they have for creating games. Both teams also tried to treat the content of the other game they were allowed to use with great respect.
According to Tsujimoto-san, the two teams were able to make the collaboration happen because they’re very compatible. The communication and the approach to the content by the Final Fantasy XIV team, on top of the communication, worked very well.
Basically, they were a perfect fit for each other.
The Monster Hunter Wilds side of the collaboration launches tomorrow, September 29, with Title Update 3. The Final Fantasy XIV side starts a little later, on October 7.
images courtesy by Square Enix