Final Fantasy 14 director cites Japanese game show as inspiration for Island Sanctuary

Naoki Yoshida told us all about the inner workings of Final Fantasy 14's new maritime settlement-building mode.

Legendary adventurer, freedom fighter, god-slaying protector of the realm – you can be almost anything in Final Fantasy 14, including a humble gardener.

Last summer, patch 6.2 of Final Fantasy 14 added the Island Sanctuary, a free-roam coastal island paradise rife with sprawling crops and fields that test the harvesting know-how of aspiring green thumbs. Imagine Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, but set entirely within Square Enix’s award-winning MMORPG, and that’s more or less the gist. However, despite the obvious parallels between Island Sanctuary and popular farming sims, Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida told GLHF that inspiration came from another entertainment medium entirely. 

“The initial inspiration for Island Sanctuary was not actually a game, but rather from a segment in a TV show called The! Tetsuwan! DASH!!, which belongs to a genre known as ‘variety shows’ in Japan,” Yoshida said. “Basically, in this segment, the participants are tasked with developing facilities themselves on a deserted island that shows signs of having been inhabited in the past, using scrap wood, timber, and debris washed ashore.”

Yoshida was keen on recreating this maritime settlement-building experience he’d seen on television entirely within the trappings of an MMORPG ⁠— a far cry from the dungeons, raids, and increasingly intricate combat encounters that Final Fantasy 14 players demand with every update. While satiating that ever-growing desire for more grandiose battles is crucial in Final Fantasy 14’s success, Yoshida firmly believes that lax, meditative-like harvesting and gathering activities scratch another, but no less important, itch. 

“Ideally, the more types of content an MMORPG has to offer, the better,” Yoshida explains. “Naturally, the most common requests are those for battle content, but if you were to ask if that alone is ideal for the development of an MMORPG, I think the answer is ‘no’ – “the ideal result would be that both ‘Adventure & Life’ are aligned to the point where players ultimately feel that they are residing and living out their lives in that game’s world.

“If you think of fighting battles as a job, then in the real world, it’s not exactly the case that a person is engaged in battle day in, day out, right,” Yoshida continues. “People will surely want to take a break once in a while and lie around on the beach or relax at home with friends, family, or their partners.”

Several months have gone by since Island Sanctuary’s launch, and the overwhelming consensus from players is that while what’s there is a decent start, it’s too linear and not all that personal. Everyone wants more items to earn, space to lay foundations, and more choices overall – requests that Yoshida and the rest of Final Fantasy 14’s development team knew people would want.

“This is something we had anticipated, but the feedback we have received most often is along the lines of ‘I want to create a more unique island sanctuary that I can call my very own’ – this is quite difficult feedback to address due to [Final Fantasy 14’s] map and server systems,” Yoshida says. “But we are steadily developing ways to allow more freedom in design, such as allowing the free placement of outdoor furnishings from housing.”

Thankfully, and without getting into specifics, Yoshida notes that improvements are coming in Patch 6.3, which launches on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 — including various quality-of-life adjustments to the user interface.

There’s been some online speculation that Island Sanctuary could (or already has) run into in-game storage challenges, resulting in item limitations that Eorzean homeowners know all too well. According to Yoshida, though, server-side data management in Island Sanctuary is entirely different than what the housing systems use.

“The items used in Island Sanctuary are actually ‘intangible’ data, so to speak, that completely exist within the confines of the players’ islands,” Yoshida explains. “It is precisely because the concept is to play the content like a solo game that the data management is carried out differently from tangible items, which can be traded with others. As such, there are fewer item restrictions and storage issues.”

Island Sanctuary could go any number of ways from here. Whether it’s expanding how players can tend and look after their farm or just a smidge more layout customization — there’s loads of untapped potential, and Yoshida already knows what feature he wants to implement eventually.

“The very first thing would be the ability to place outdoor furnishings in the Island Sanctuary,” Yoshida concludes. “After all, if this becomes possible, players will have much more scope to customize the area around their island hideaways to their liking!”

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.