Final Fantasy XIV Director Praises PS4’s High Hardware Specs and Memory, Confirms Vita Remote Play and More

Giuseppe Nelva September 6, 2013 10:33 AM EST

This morning Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia released a video interview with Final Fantasy XIV: a Realm Reborn Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida as part as its “Conversations with Creators” series.

In the Interview Yoshida San made a series of interesting points on how the PS4 version of Square Enix’s MMORPG will look and feel when it’ll be released next year. Here’s a summary of his answers:

Since the hardware specs of the PS4 are high and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will use them to their full potential, there will be a large improvement in the number of characters displayed on screen at the same time compared to the PS3 version, and in the quality of each character. The difference in graphical fidelity will be very visible.

Remote Play with the PS Vita will be fully supported. Yoshida-san makes the example of gathering, fishing, crafting or questing solo while relaxing on the couch on the PS Vita, and then, when the time for party play starts, one can switch to the PS4 to enjoy the challenging dungeon content on the big screen.

A companion app for the PS Vita is planned, including a database and the features of the new Lodestone, but Remote Play is the priority.

It will be possible to point and click in the PS4 version using the touch pad of the DualShock 4, improving the user interface further.

It’ll be possible to upload video using the Share button of the PS4 due to licensing agreements done with voice actors (Japanese laws are rather strict on this), also, videos made with the Share button will be useful to learn how to do difficult high level dungeons.

There will be no change in the content of the game moving from the PS3 version to the PS4 version, as the game will be fully cross platform, so you’ll still be able to play with the same friends.

Yoshida-san encourages players to consider switching to the PS4 version from the PS3 version, because the PS4’s hardware allows for an impressive performance, much better graphics and displaying 100 or 200 people at the same time on the screen. The passage will be immediate and seamless because the servers are the same and transferring character data is not necessary.

When asked about his point of view as a creator on what he likes the most of the PS4 Yoshida-san responded that it’s the memory size, because it gives more freedom of expression and design. You can create higher quality characters and levels. He also appreciates the wider choices of play style represented by the share button, Remote Play and companion apps. He feels that the PS4 will test the development team, making things easier and harder at the same time.

In my own interview with Yoshida-san, he explained that we can expect graphics comparable with the PC version from the PS4 version, and that’s no small feat. It’s hard not to be excited by the perspective of what we’re going to see when the game will launch on PS4.

In the meanwhile you can check out the video of Sony’s “Conversations with Creators” interview just below.