While this should be a joyous celebration for the hard-working Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn team, the MMORPG’s relaunch hasn’t been that smooth. North American and European servers have been plagued with issues, so much so that some players didn’t even get a chance to log in once during the head start process. But the thing is, the team working on A Realm Reborn, led by director and producer Naoki Yoshida, has done a fantastic job rebuilding the game from the ground up to what can be considered a great MMORPG, even for seasoned veterans of the genre. For those that have been following the entire process, you’d know that Yoshida has been very passionate about the game and has participated in many of the beta phases himself as well as competing against fans at Gamescom 2013 on the primal Ifrit battle.
Needless to say, the team is just as disappointed at the server issues as the players. After three years of hard work, they simply want players to enjoy the game and the world they’ve created. Instead, they’ve been listening to forum post after forum post of players that aren’t even able to log in. It’s one thing to believe that Square Enix redeveloped Final Fantasy XIV to make a cash grab, but it’s another thing when you see how much dedication has been poured into the project by its team.
During the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn launch event in Tokyo, Yoshida took to the stage to remember the three years of hard work, and issued an emotional apology for all those that were unable to play the game. And for those that still really want to play the game but haven’t been able to, be patient – it will be worth it. We feel that the best has yet to come for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, so long as Yoshida remains as producer. When was the last time the producer of a game formally issued out an emotional apology after a botched launch? Some other producers have taken more… interesting approaches in recent years.
Watch the video below, and you can view a translation here done by Twitter user @Reinheart.
