Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker Focus On The Story Was Astonishingly Inspired By The Pandemic: It’s no secret that game creators across the industry have had a challenging few years. Due to the epidemic, many developers had to switch to work-from-home arrangements, which created a variety of logistical and technical concerns.
It has repeatedly delayed some of the most eagerly anticipated games ever released, but it’s rare to read about the pandemic forcing a developer to change a game’s plot while it’s still in creation.
But according to a new video from IGN, that’s exactly what happened during the creation of Final Fantasy 14’s Endwalker expansion, since the game’s emphasis on The Final Days was motivated by the pandemic. This is according to Natsuko Ishikawa, the senior story designer for the game, who says that the initial coronavirus outbreak and lockdowns occurred just as she was making changes to the general plot of Endwalker.
Ishikawa says, “The world was kind of shocked and in panic when the first waves of the coronavirus hit and we had experienced our first lockdown.” “At that time, I was sort of going in and making changes to the overarching plot of Endwalker.
The original scenario I had in mind at the time looked a little too hopeful or a little fuzzy, and it seemed as though it wasn’t really based on reality. I imagined this story would be read by people who had experienced this global pandemic.”
Fans of Final Fantasy 14 probably won’t need me to explain this, but I’ll do it anyway for anyone who isn’t familiar. In the time of Endwalker, a catastrophe called The Final Days is infecting the continent like a virus and transforming its inhabitants into terrifying monsters.
The catastrophe was first established in the Shadowbringers expansion, but it was greatly expanded upon in Endwalker, probably as a result of Ishikawa’s story changes made as the disease spread over the world.
Although Ishikawa’s remarks about Endwalker being too cheerful for the world at the time hint it may have had a cheerier vibe than what we have now, it is uncertain how the original tale of Endwalker may have developed had the pandemic never occurred.
However, it’s intriguing to see how creators have included such dreadful things as lockdowns and coronavirus in their games, or how many recent events have affected previously published stories.
Hideo Kojima and the newly unveiled Death Stranding 2 are one example of a creator changing a game’s plot due to the epidemic, though for quite different reasons than Ishikawa. Kojima stated that he had to modify Death Stranding 2’s story because he “didn’t want to foretell any more future,” implying that the themes of isolation and desperation from the first game may have been a touch too heavy for the developer to express again in the sequel.
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