Final Fantasy XIV boss talks how Blue Mage experiment went over and the future of the game

Final Fantasy XIV is in a good place, but just nine years ago, things were looking disastrous. What's known as the vanilla version of XIV rushed onto the scene and basically tanked immediately, leading to a complete reboot that's rarely seen in the industry today.

Much of that effort was led by the incomparable Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida, who worked tirelessly with his team to ensure that the new shell, A Realm Reborn, would give fans what they originally wanted. As someone who's played since that launch it did: and then some.

I got the chance to catch up with Yoshida and talk about the recent addition of Blue Mage (a job that steals magic from monsters), as well as where the game is headed just months away from its Shadowbringers expansion.