Few MMOs have wound up being a success after a rough start, but strong writing and great updates have made Final Fantasy XIV more popular than ever. The game’s latest expansion, Stormblood, released last year, and the game is still going strong in 2018 thanks to recent updates. I got the chance to speak with lead main scenario writer Natsuko Ishikawa and English localization lead John Crow at PAX East 2018.
I asked Ishikawa about her experience writing for MMOs compared to standard role-playing games, and learned about the game’s translation process from Crow.

Tyler Treese: So I guess my first question is more general in nature. Can you talk about the challenges of writing a MMO versus a standard RPG. What changes" Natsuko Ishikawa, Lead Main Scenario Writer: I actually come from a background of writing for standalone RPGs, but I think there’s not really much of a difference between writing for a standalone RPG versus an MMO in that we’re trying to make sure that the story is exciting for the players.
John Crow, English Localization Lead: I think from a localization perspective, it does get a little bit more complicated. When working on a standalone package title, there’s a distinct start and end to it, and you can focus on, you know, developing the story and localizing it to a degree. But then if you have constant updates, you may have different elements that end up getting a more of a focus on something else. So if you put a lot of...