Final Fantasy 14 is starting off the new year with a peek behind the curtain. Today's Backstage Investigators article interviews lead item designer Yosuke Hayashi to find out how he wound up at Square Enix, what he does as an item designer, and how he goes about creating in-game items.
Hayashi also gave us an update on a pair of requested features players asked for back in October's marathon Q&A session. At the time, fans asked director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida for a customizable Fat Chocobo Head and a full-body costume of the kappa, better known as the Water Imp in the English version of Final Fantasy 14.
"First, regarding the Fat Chocobo Head, we should be able to make it dyeable in the near future," said Hayashi. "As for the kappa costume, our entire team was already chatting about it excitedly on the day after the 14-Hour Broadcast. We can't work on it immediately since there's already other equipment that needs to be developed, but we're very eager about the kappa costume so perhaps it won't be too long before we can showcase it. I'm sure our players have high expectations for it, so we'll be meticulous in making sure it'll turn out great."
The Water Imp would make an absolutely adorable costume and a great compliment to the Chocobo outfit, so I can see why fans would be impatient to get their hands on this upcoming costume. Hayashi didn’t say exactly when we’ll see the Water Imp costume in-game, but he did discuss various coming features in update 6.3, such as the player’s character automatically raising a parasol when it starts raining.
"As previously mentioned in Letter from the Producer broadcasts, Patch 6.3 will add a feature that automatically raises a parasol for your character in rainy weather," Hayashi explained. "We also have a long-term goal to expand upon what you can do while fashion accessories are active. We're currently looking into allowing for a greater degree of freedom with fashion accessories by separating their specifications from mounts as much as possible."
Final Fantasy 14 update 6.3, "Gods Revel, Lands Tremble," arrives January 10.