Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker tells a story about the impending end of the world. In an interview, the developers tell how the corona pandemic has changed the story of the addon.
This is what happens in Endwalker: The Endwalker expansion was special for FFXIV on several levels. The addon ended a story arc that the developers started over 10 years ago.
It tells the story of the impending end of the world, in which people are overcome by despair and turn into terrible monsters. Along with his allies and friends, it is up to the players to stop this cataclysm.
At the same time, the development of Endwalker fell in the middle of the corona pandemic and the lockdowns associated with it. In order not to get infected, many developers have had to quickly relocate their work to the home office and Square Enix was no exception.
The experience of the pandemic and the isolation had tempted story writers Natsuko Ishikawa and lore master Banri Oda to adapt Endwalker’s story.
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“It felt too optimistic“
What the developers say: FFXIV director Naoki Yoshida said in an interview with IGN that work on the Endwalker story started in early 2020. In March of that year, the World Health Organization declared the corona outbreak a global pandemic, which led to lockdowns and drastic travel restrictions in many countries around the world.
[…] If you asked me if these things that happened in real life overlap with what happened in the game, I would say yes. This is very true. There are several moments when that happens. […]
Lore Master Banri Oda
When the first waves of Corona arrived and we experienced our first lockdown, the world was confused and also panicked. That’s when I started rolling out the first changes to the full story of Endwalker. When I thought of the original version of the story and imagined it being played by the people who had experienced this global pandemic, it felt overly optimistic. It felt like it didn’t reflect reality.
Scenario Writer Natsuko Ishikawa
Apparently, the original version of Endwalker’s story was a more positive one than the one that was published. The adjustments Ishikawa made in the story were apparently related to the depiction of the end of the world. It closely resembles a virus in Endwalker.
Desperate people turn into monsters. This in turn drives other people around them to despair as well, who then transform as well. It’s like a disease that spreads faster the more people are affected.
It was not my intention to describe and portray the pandemic as it is. I just imagined that the people playing our game would feel the effects of the corona virus. People can understand how fear spreads and understand that these are frightening events. We have that in the depiction of the scenes [in Endwalker] considered.
Scenario Writer Natsuko Ishikawa
Isolation was also a topic that the developers covered in the addon. Composer Masayoshi Soken speaks of a moment at the end of Endwalker when the player character is alone and far away from his friends who have supported him along the way.
This moment was meant to capture the lonely sense of lockdown that many people had felt when they were unable to visit their friends and family, sometimes for many months.
There is a moment in the game when you are physically separated from your allies that you have previously traveled with. But you can still feel them. It should give that feeling that although you can’t see them […], but you can still feel their presence. And you know they’re still watching over you. […]
I think it describes the situation with the pandemic very well. We have this game here, and even though people aren’t physically next to each other and can’t see each other, they’re still connected. You can still share an experience together.
Composer Masayoshi Soken
In the meantime, work on FFXIV has returned to its usual rhythm. The developers release a new content update approximately every 4 months, with the most recent being released on January 10th.
The fan festivals, which only took place online during Corona, are also returning in their physical form. Fans in Europe, the USA and Japan will celebrate their favorite MMORPG on site in 2023/24 and look forward to the announcement of the next addon.
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