The next expansion of Final Fantasy 14, Dawntrail, is due to launch just a week after the Shadow of The Erdtree DLC for the Elden Ring, which was a deliberate decision to get out of the way of fromsoftware, MMO director Naoki Yoshida (also known as Yoshi-P) told PAX East earlier this year.

Yoshida claimed at the time that it wasn't because he personally wanted to play Shadow of The Erdtree (I fully believe him), but he told PC Gamer in a recent interview that most people on the team were fans of the game and could see some inspiration from it at Dawntrail. He said that he was able to do so.

"I think in the Final Fantasy 14 development team, probably 98% play Elden Ring," Yoshida said (via translator).

"As for the people involved in our team's combat content, they would have been playing and saying, "Oh, if we could do something this hard, we definitely should do it,"" he added.

Yoshida said he doubted that some members of the team would probably consider the near-impossible encounter "the perfect balance of Final Fantasy 14."He immediately followed it up with clarification for FF14 players who are afraid to have to fight the boss as brutal as the Eldenling boss,

The approach to FF14 difficulty actually appeared earlier this year in an interview with Famitsu. Yoshida said the MMO may be "comfortable and stress-free for players" and that the team may have "gone a little too far" in the past 10 years. The rush you get after a stressful situation – for example, defeating a minor boss in the Elden Ring — is what he said, "I want to put it back in FF14.""

In an interview with PC Gamer, Yoshida said that he would probably see most of the influence of the Elden Ring outside of combat encounters: "But when it comes to being able to convey its meaning without much text to convey those nuances in the game's landscape and atmosphere and story, I think it's a good idea." The Elden Ring is doing it really well. And I think there must be someone in the team who is really inspired by it."

As a regular player on both the Elden Ring and FF14, I'm fascinated by the idea of expansion, which is described as a summer vacation, inspired by fromsoft's beautiful and spooky world. FF14 is always good at incorporating all the little details that make the place feel like its city is filled with npc chats and everyday life. Its raids and dungeons are the same way: if you're not paying close attention, in a way that can be easily missed, often with the theme of the story and pre-all this is the key to bringing the world of the Elden Ring to life, so the 2 games claim to already share a very similar feeling.

That said, I'm a casual FF14 player and I don't want to fight a boss like Malenia, even if I have 7 others. It was hard enough to be beaten in 1 game, let it cool in the back, so that the healer presses my little button, without fear of being stabbed and sent back to the checkpoint.

Dawntrail will launch with early access for those who pre-order on 6/28 and open for all others on 7/2.