Naoki Yoshida, producer and director of Final Fantasy 14, has shared that he is still very keen for a crossover with Blizzard Entertainment‘s Diablo in the online role-playing game.
Yoshida originally expressed his enthusiasm for a collaboration back in 2020, in spite of the obvious thematic and tonal differences between the two.
Again at this year’s Final Fantasy Fan Festival in London, the producer and director explained that the idea hasn’t left his list of potential crossovers for his game.
“I mentioned this in the past, but I’m a huge Blizzard fan,” said Yoshida, adding that Diablo would be the “collaboration of his dreams” (thanks to Rock Paper Shotgun).
“So, I mean, if we could just make it work then I would be so happy to see some sort of collaboration with Diablo.”
How it would work is another question. “Diablo has quite a, I would say, hardcore graphics outlook in terms of the world,” he elaborated.
“So, you know, you see spikes here and there. Lots of spiky things and that. In terms of the ratings, it might be a bit difficult. Of course, on the other hand, we don’t really want to disappoint fans of the franchise as well. So, yeah, it’s a tricky one.”
“If we go for a softer version of Diablo in 14, of course, maybe that’s not what people want, as well,” concluded Yoshida.
Apparently, Blizzard Entertainment is yet to respond to his interest in a crossover, but if it ever were to happen, Final Fantasy 14 would not omit the finer details for fans.
“In those cases, we also make our own proposal and we send that on to the other company,” explained the producer and director of the process of adding another game’s content to the online RPG.
“Generally, they get quite surprised. They’re like, ‘What? You don’t want to do just costumes?’ Whenever we do these collaborations, it’s more like our policy to create it as a crossover. So we’re putting all of our energy and all of our motivation into it.”
In other gaming news, cosmic horror World Of Horror launched last week, boasting a Junji Ito-inspired art style drawn totally in MS Paint.