Final Fantasy 14's director and producer Naoki Yoshida remains keen to team up with Blizzard for a collaboration, and this time, he's got Diablo 4 in his sights.
As part of Final Fantasy 14's European edition of Fan Fest, Yoshida has taken part in a press conference with various journalists. Tackling a question from Akiba Gamers regarding his dream collaboration, Yoshi-P has eyes for only one developer.
"I'm a huge Blizzard fan," he says. "If we could just make it work, then I would be so happy to see some sort of collaboration with Diablo."
While Yoshi-P's inner fan would love to see the collaboration happen, he admits it would be an absolute nightmare to pull together. Diablo and Final Fantasy 14 hit different aesthetics, so finding a middle ground might even please everyone.
"Diablo has quite like a – I would say hardcore graphics outlook in terms of the world. You see spikes here and there; there are lots of spikey things in that. And in terms of the ratings, it might be a bit difficult. And, of course, on the other hand, we don't really want to disappoint fans of the franchise as well. So yeah, it's a tricky one. If we go for a softer version of Diablo in FF14, maybe that's not what people want as well.
"But, of course, as a gamer and as a fan of games from all over the world, it would be great to achieve these kinds of crossovers with other franchises. And to do it in such a way that fans of both franchises would be happy. I think that if we do achieve that, it would generate more hype and more excitement for the overall industry. So definitely, if we could achieve it, I would be happy."
Final Fantasy 14 is no stranger to collaborations. Closer to Square Enix, we've seen raid team-ups with the creatives behind Nier alongside Final Fantasy 12 and Tactics. We're also getting a crossover questline with Final Fantasy 16 before Dawntrail and an Alliance raid series with Final Fantasy 11 after that.
Further afield, Final Fantasy 14 has also crossed paths with Monster Hunter and is currently putting something together with the Fall Guys team.
In fairness, Diablo isn't a total stranger to teaming up with others, either. Diablo 4 has popped up in World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, though is seldom seen outside of Activision Blizzard. Who knows, now that Microsoft and Xbox are on the scene, we may see that strengthened relationship with Square Enix really put to good use. Yoshida has declared his admiration for Blizzard a few times, even once saying he'd "drop everything" to work on Diablo 4. Maybe now it'll all come together.
Final Fantasy 14 is getting the all-new Viper class in Dawntrail, a "technically demanding" job with plenty of style.
