The last few times Square Enix has unveiled the name of a new Final Fantasy 14 expansion, I’ve wondered whether the team plans to stick to its love for a good compound word. As it turns out, the answer is “yes” every time: Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker, Dawntrail, and now the upcoming Evercold.
But as it turns out, director and producer Naoki Yoshida has tried to break that pattern a few times. At least, if his list of rejected expansion names is anything to go by. During a Q&A at the North American Fan Festival in April, Yoshida divulged what Evercold and expansions of Final Fantasy 14 past could have actually been named.
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I wonder whether that was studio Rebellion who got in the way of making that name a reality—you could certainly argue that both a videogame developer and a game called Rebellion could cause some confusion. It’s also the name of a game on Steam as well as a short-lived television series, as I’m discovering. Really, it could be anything, but I’m glad Yoshida and the team weren’t able to go through with it as I think Stormblood sounds a lot neater.
But what about other expansions? Well, for Shadowbringers the name Darkbringer was toyed with but ultimately rejected—once again, very pleased about that—while an attempt to break the compound curse was made again during Endwalker when the name World’s End was pitched, “but obviously that was not possible either.” A little clash with Edgar Wright’s movie of the same name, perhaps?
When it comes to binned candidates for Evercold, I actually quite like the title: Absolute Zero. Yoshida said he “really wanted to go” with it, even going so far as to imagine what the expansion’s logo would look like with that name, but it was once again nixed. You can’t escape the compound names, Yoshida.
He goes on to say that he thought a lot about the different meanings of things or people icing over—from the theory that our humble planet was once entirely frozen over, to even the way that a person’s heart can metaphorically freeze over, causing them to grow cold and distant.
“So with this expansion, the Warriors of Light will be encountering many instances where various different ice that they would either melt or even have to destroy to move forward and explore and become that sort of wanderer,” Yoshida said. “And I hope that the players will experience and enjoy that journey.”
As for when the whole idea for Evercold was conjured up, Yoshida said he began to put the wheels in motion approximately two months after Dawntrail released. “But of course, I do have a general idea of what direction I want to take. The overall scenario or saga, and so it’s more like narrowing down, determining, pinpointing what the next theme would be.”
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