FF14's Yoshi-P reveals why he's finally lifting glamour restrictions—he's got his own preferences, but it's 'no longer the time to force them on players'

Final Fantasy 14's making a huge, revolutionary update this month with the release of patch 7.4—it's removing all glamour restrictions. If that doesn't sound revolutionary to you, you must not understand that the true endgame of every MMO is fashion.

In all seriousness, it's actually a pretty huge move. Previously, FF14's glamour system, which allows you to layer sets of appearances over your current gear, only permitted you to do so with gear that can be equipped by your current job and level. Starting with Patch 7.4, this will no longer be the case, opening up a whole new world of fashion options.

This came as a surprise to players, due to the game director Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P)'s past stance on the issue—even in the face of job-agnostic gear that was increasingly allowing players to throw plate armour onto their White Mages. Talking to Famitsu in an interview, Yoshi-P reveals why (note: these quotes have been machine-translated):

"I felt more strongly than anyone else that we had to cherish the Final Fantasy worldview. I felt that the way Final Fantasy ​​should be is for Dragoons to be able to equip their character in that style, and to be able to hold their spear and strike the 'Kain pose'"—Kain being an iconic Dragoon from Final Fantasy 4—"It's the job's identity, so to speak. The core of that feeling hasn't changed much even now."

However, he also notes that "very few" MMORPGs have "restrictions like FF14 when it comes to enjoying fashion". This isn't necessarily proof that unrestricted fashion is inherently good, and he implies as such, stating that the number of MMOs that are free-to-play with microtransactions has increased, too: "if I were the producer of a free-to-play game and wanted players to buy items, I naturally wouldn't impose restrictions on equipment projections."

Yet in the interest of bringing FF14 into the modern era, Yoshi-P's been playing other games: "I have been playing various other companies' titles and checking their specifications, and I have come to the conclusion that 'It's fine to continue to hold on to my own personal principles as a gamer, but this is no longer the time to force them on players.'"

He uses, for example, his Black Mage character, noting that he wouldn't glamour them into heavy armor. However, "These are my own roleplaying rules, so I have decided them arbitrarily … I reconsidered and decided that it would be pointless to impede the roleplaying of people who say, 'My character is the coolest and cutest in the world. I want to dress up even more,' by [forcing them to follow] my own rules.

"I'm fine with being particular about my own preferences, and I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way, but that doesn't mean that the system should restrict the motivation of people who are particular about dressing up."

Yoshi-P also jokes that "when I mentioned this to the development team, they responded, 'Are you sure?!', which makes me think that the development team also thought that Yoshida's insistence on equipment restrictions was absolute."

Yoshi-P says that the response surrounding Mare Synchronos' shutdown also changed his mind, somewhat: "I issued a statement regarding several tools, but in response, I received feedback such as, 'It was only because of those tools that I was able to enjoy FF14'". For context, the mod in question allowed players (in conjunction with other third-party tools) to basically skirt every single restriction the base game applied to their glams—and then, through the mod, share them with others.

"I felt that 'leaving the playstyle up to players rather than restricting it through the system' would ultimately prevent the proliferation of tools that impede business. This was one of the reasons I decided to make the update so quickly."

In the wake of Yoshi-P's big statements about 8.0 being an overhaul for FF14, it's also interesting that his statements here reflect that, too: "This approach applies not only to the glamour system, but also to all FFXIV systems and content, as we're reexamining the fundamental rules. So, please don't be surprised if anything happens in the future … The glamour changes are just the beginning, and we're currently reexamining everything to improve our service."