GamerEscape

Today, in a post on the PlayStation Blog from Square Enix’s Director of Community, Matt Hilton, we got a little more information about what to expect from the upcoming PlayStation 5 beta of Final Fantasy XIV that will begin tomorrow with Patch 5.5 Death Unto Dawn.

In the post, there’s a conversation with FFXIV Lead Project Manager, Shoichi Matsuzawa, talking about the work that went into creating the PS5 version of the game.

While we’ve been hearing about the features for the PlayStation 5 version Final Fantasy XIV for a little while now, Matsuzawa did share some brand new information- and it’s something that any player will be excited about. In addition to the high-resolution UI elements coming with Patch 5.5 (which were upscaled by AI and touched up by hand), the team is also working on even more upgrades.

We are thinking of eventually upgrading in-game textures in phases and are starting initial preparations for that update.

However, we do need to keep in mind that other platforms, including the PlayStation 4 version, are still in service. Since FFXIV is an MMO, we need to place some emphasis on being able to simultaneously render player characters and their equipment, while still ensuring everything works smoothly. We do need to take care when planning major updates like this and start with testing and verifying it all works well.

Plus, assets that we created nearly ten years ago didn’t factor in the possibility of being displayed at the high resolutions available to us today, so we have to think about how to revise quite a massive amount of assets efficiently.

We’ve heard before, back when the game was preparing to launch as A Realm Reborn, that Director/Producer Naoki Yoshida mentioned a desire to keep the graphics up to date with FFXIV. A pack of improved textures would be a very welcome (and sorely needed) addition to help the game continue to look great.

Image courtesy of Square Enix.