Hopping off Final Fantasy XIV’s last showing at Fan Fest 2026 in Berlin, localization director/supervisor Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and community and service division head and global community producer Toshio Murouchi headed to Otakon 2026 in DC to share the latest updates on the game. Anime Trending sat down with Fox and Murouchi to break down the team’s effort of localizing authentic Norse lore, implementing complex narrative choices, and anticipating fan expectations across major upcoming crossovers such as EVANGELION. The duo also reflected on the whirlwind tour, unable to hide their awe at the crowd’s fiery excitement in Berlin after the extended Evercold trailer, and opened up about the immense pressure and passion driving the development team.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Congratulations on the official release of the extended Evercold trailer during Berlin Fan Fest 2026! Fans are very excited that it’s coming out next year. Could you share your reactions and thoughts on what it was like in Berlin? What surprised you?
Koji Fox: This is going to sound weird, but the first time we did Fan Fest back in 2014, we went to America first, then London second, and then Japan third. That was because the first time we did a Fan Fest, it was to get a first gauge of the fans’ reactions. Of course, we went to America, and there was the screaming, the moshing, and the crowd. Then we got to London, and they were [quieter]. They were excited, but they’re like, “I’m going to listen to everything the devs say! Please, tell us all the great things.” So, we had this idea that the European fans were going to be more subdued than the Americans. They’re both very passionate, but the way they show their passion is different.
This time, we had it in Anaheim first. Of course it was [as expected], but for some reason, it felt like there was way more energy in Berlin. I have no idea why this time. People were pumped. Everyone was just coming up to you and hugging you, going, “Yeah, let’s go!” I think there’s this kind of excitement, maybe because with Evercold, we’re bringing a lot of changes to FFXIV.
Naoki Yoshida-san (Yoshi-P) has talked about getting to a comfortable spot. When we released Dawntrail, there were things [we] were doing that were the same as [we’d] always been doing. Players were kind of asking, “But yeah… Maybe it’s time for something new?” and “What’s going to happen with the expansion?” Then, in Anaheim, we showed that first trailer and talked about how we’re going to change and evolve the game. I think that got people really excited because it was what they were expecting, and it’s also what they’d been asking for. You get the sense that the community thinks, “They’re listening to us! They’re going to start doing the things we’ve been asking and waiting for!” Now, there’s this real excitement that you haven’t seen for a long time, and it’s really pumping people up. I think that’s cool.
Toshio Murouchi: Compared to this year, Fan Fest 2014’s timing gap between the US and London Fan Fests was close to each other.
Koji Fox: It was like two weeks! We went directly from one to the other.
Toshio Murouchi: Now, we have about three months between events, so we prepared brand-new news and more information dedicated to the European event. That’s maybe why.
Koji Fox: After going to all the Fan Fests, it felt like the fans were on fire at this year’s European Fan Fest in Berlin, which is really cool. There are a lot of expectations, and I think that puts pressure on us for these next six months to get the game ready and meet those expectations. It’s like, “Okay, we actually have to do this. Let’s go!”
Evercold is very heavily focused on Norse mythology, from the name of the elaborate Realmships like Hringhorni to the everlasting cold era that preceded Norse mythology’s Ragnarok. How did the team work on the localization and research for Evercold? Did you do anything in Europe that might have helped, for example?
Koji Fox: The localization team is not just the English team; it’s the German team and the French team as well. Because we have those resources, they grew up closer in proximity to those areas. We have German translators who have that kind of knowledge, or they know other people with that type of knowledge. One of our translators knows a professor in Iceland who also knows Japanese, so we said, “Oh! We can go to these people to do research.” We did the same thing with Dawntrail. We contacted actual language professionals to get feedback on those types of Central and South American languages to make sure we were incorporating something that felt authentic and real and wasn’t just a parody. We’re doing the same thing with this as well. We’re really going through the paces, doing all of this research to make sure things are authentic.
When it comes to that though, you get really strange spellings, and everybody’s going to say, “I can’t read this.” We already have people saying, “Oh my God, I’m not going to be able to read all of that.” Unlike the Roegadyn language, which I made up based off of something that is mushed together, [the language in Evercold] is very real and difficult and based on Norse mythology. There are so many different renditions and spellings. How are you going to represent the thorn (Þ) letter? Are you going to make it a “d,” or are you going to make it a “th”? But we’re making sure we’re getting pronunciations right, doing the research, and then taking those into voice recording to try to make it as authentic as possible.
Then, the localization team works with the Japanese scenario team and the lore team to make sure that gets across in the katakana, so everything is as close as it can be. They know what they want to do, so there’s a lot of work back there. I imagine the community team is just going to have to deal with “How do you pronounce this?” questions or comments such as, “I think this should be pronounced like this!” or “Can you tell the localization team that?”
Toshio Murouchi: When we introduced the current expansion, Dawntrail, we had problems with new, difficult terminology like the tribal names or location names like Urqopacha. At that time, I felt for the lore team because you have to read it. Now, knowing about Evercold’s new lore, [Dawntrail] feels like nothing. It’s much harder.
Koji Fox: That’s the decision the team made, and they wanted to do this. It was really hard to say Hringhorni on stage without thinking, “There are going to be memes!” It’s authentic, but there are going to be memes!
Since we just came out of Berlin Fan Fest, we saw some updates to the new MSQ mechanism: a different progression where we explore Area A, but you proceed to different routes, eventually connecting and making that unique experience. It’s kind of what you see in an open world, but with Final Fantasy XIV, we still have that main story. With Evercold, you have localization challenges and player experience to balance. Is there anything you’ve worked on in terms of mechanisms that help the player experience since you have to have different ways but still make it cohesive without breaking that immersion?
Koji Fox: The biggest thing that’s going to happen is that you’re going to switch macros in the text that basically look at what parts you’ve already completed, and then character feedback is going to be different based on whether you’ve done Area B, Area C, or Area D.
So, you’ll go to Area B, and a player will be talking to an NPC. Depending on whether you’ve already seen Area C or Area D, or if you’ve seen none of them and Area B is your first one, you’re going to get a different response about something, because your character will know or not know certain information. There’s going to be a lot of those splits, which means that instead of just one script, now you have four. It’s more work, but they’re making sure to do that because that makes it feel real. Because if you just have a split where everything is the same and isolated, then it doesn’t feel like your decision to do Area B first made any difference. People are just going to think, “Oh, it’s just a gimmick.” [The team] has to make it feel like it’s actually something.
I think there are many things the team is doing, and those splits in the dialogue are one of them to give it a more authentic experience. So, when you go to Area B after you’ve already been to Area D, the [NPC] starts talking about things that happened in Area D. Then you think, “Oh my god, this guy actually knows what’s going on here!” and it feels more real.
Since you’re going to have all these different switches and dialogues, have there been any difficulties when localizing this new style of narration across the languages?
Koji Fox: We just started on a lot of the text. Some have come in, but a lot of it came in very recently. A lot of times you run into questions because there are so many splits [in the scripts]. Japanese can be a very vague language; sometimes it heavily takes on context that maybe isn’t there in the text, but is there in intent. It’s about making sure we communicate with the dev team and saying, “Oh, you are talking about this, right?” to make sure we get it right in our localization.
That’s just another layer of communicating and making sure everyone’s on the same page so that we’re not accidentally revealing too much information. There might be a reason the Japanese is keeping something vague here and doesn’t want us to mention it. Or maybe because Japanese grammar doesn’t require it, we need to put it into English. But if we assume incorrectly and add something that’s supposed to be hidden, then that becomes a problem. So it’s this constant back and forth with the development team saying, “Okay, how much information do we really want revealed here? How much should this person know about what happened in Area D and Area B?”
That’s why we have the localization team with the dev team at Square Enix. We have Slack channels just for the localization and scenario teams — we can throw questions up there, and they can answer immediately. We’ve been told not to talk to [Natsuko] Ishikawa-san, the leader, because she’s so busy. If we talk to her, then she’s not writing when she needs to be. But all the other scenario team members are open, so we have that direct communication and dialogue.
I talk to her at lunch, though. She’s always so happy! You get this sense that everyone’s so scared to talk to her, but when you do, she’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m so happy!” Maybe she’s just kind of lonely because everyone’s not allowed to talk to her, but she really wants to talk to everyone? I don’t know!
I hope we can see her at the next Fan Fest!
Koji Fox: I hope so! I think fans want to talk to Ishikawa-san more, but it’s so hard to pull her away! We need to give her a break and have her come over so she can talk with the fans. Everyone has so many questions, I bet.
We saw a lot of new game design changes like “World Raids,” a tier between Normal and Savage, and even the Golden Saucer that’s coming up. What do you think players are most excited for?
Koji Fox: I think players are most excited for butt sliders [laughs]. I don’t know when that’s happening, but over many, many years, it’s always been a definitive no, no, and no! Finally, up on stage, you could see [Yoshi-P] finally break — so now I think it’s not a question of if, but when. Who knows?
Seriously though, I think people are excited about a lot of things. People who are really into battle are really excited about the new modes, especially because with every single expansion you add new actions, you add new stuff, and the controls get very complex. People get used to them, but new players coming in are just so overwhelmed with the three palettes, asking, “Where are my macros? I don’t know where to go.”
This new condensed system, instead of three pages, is going to be in one. Everything’s going to be consolidated and streamlined. Somehow, streamlining it will enhance the feel of it, making a Dragoon feel more like a Dragoon. I mean, you saw the videos when they were up there playing [on stage]. I was just watching them while translating and thinking, “This is so freaking cool! How did they do this? That’s amazing!”
Mr. Prime (FFXIV battle system designer Hikaru Tamaki) has done an excellent job, so people who are really into battle are super excited about that. We only saw three jobs. Now, you have twenty other jobs, and [everyone’s asking,] “What about my job? I want to see my job!” So we’re going to have a PLL (Letter from the Producer) later where we basically go over every single one of the remaining jobs.
Toshio Murouchi: I’m scared how long that will be!
Koji Fox: I’m so scared to interpret too! Oh my God, that’s going to be so long… It’s just going to be nothing but Yoshi-P going off, and he has so much energy. I don’t know how we’re going to do it!
I’ve seen a lot of responses to that. People are just so excited right now because there are still question marks. We’ve told them what it is, we’ve shown them a little bit, but there’s still a lot of “Is my job going to work as well?” because there are just so many adjustments going on. What do you think, Murouchi-san?
Toshio Murouchi: To me, aside from the butt sliders, the wide range of character customization will be a huge thing, because not only can you turn face paint/markings on or off, but you can also customize how you teleport.
Koji Fox: Oh yeah, the action skins!
Toshio Murouchi: Like Koji said, we understand how much you love your characters.
Koji Fox: Every single fan you talk to gives you a sticker of their Warrior of Light. They love their Warrior of Light, and they want to customize it and make it more like themselves. Removing some of the restrictions allows that.
Toshio Murouchi: That’s going to be huge.
In addition to these exciting updates, we also have upcoming collaborations, including Final Fantasy VII as well as all these other activities, including EVANGELION. With that in mind, you have a lot of different communities coming together, both from the Final Fantasy XIV side and from the anime series side. How has that been balancing the localization and the community-run side?
Koji Fox: We haven’t officially started the EVANGELION stuff yet. They’re still in the design phase, and we haven’t received any text yet. I assume it’s going to be a challenge because it’s a crossover between two completely different series in the way that both approach their localization and their communities. You want to have respect for both.
In FFXIV, we do have localization; that’s just kind of how it’s been. If we tried to take EVANGELION text and do that, I think that might alienate some of the hardcore EVANGELION fans. We need to understand that we’re bringing two together and find a happy compromise that keeps everybody happy. For localization, that’s going to be our biggest challenge — not just forcing the FFXIV way onto EVANGELION, but respecting what EVANGELION fans and their community expect. We have to make sure they have a similar experience in FFXIV and that they’re not saying, “Oh, this doesn’t feel like EVANGELION.” That would be the worst thing.
We have all of these guest creators, and [Mahiro] Maeda-san is helping us. We need to preserve that. It’s such a storied franchise. Also, Yoshida-san is such a huge EVANGELION fan, so if we do anything wrong, he’s going to come down on us. I’m so afraid.
Toshio Murouchi: That’s true! He’ll say, “Hey, hey Koji!”
Koji Fox: “Hey, Koji! Why did you do this?”
On the localization team, on all language teams, we already have hardcore EVANGELION fans and [assigned them] to work on this because they already have the love for it. We’re making sure someone who knows the series and cares about it is going to be doing those localizations. So, I’m crossing my fingers. I think it’s going to be awesome. I mean, just the music… [loving sigh].
Toshio Murouchi: Yeah…
There was a tease of the housing system, inspired by other games such as World of Warcraft. Murouchi-san, you did your segment about exploring the different houses and different plots — what do you think communities would be excited for?
Toshio Murouchi: At this point I can’t say other than what’s coming, but it’s a really good thing! The FFXIV housing system is already so nice, and as Yoshida-san mentioned during the press conference in Berlin, the team at Blizzard referred to FFXIV‘s housing. They said they made their housing system better than ours, very luxurious and very nice.
Now, it’s our turn. We’re referencing World of Warcraft‘s housing system, learning from it, and bringing in a lot of elements, or maybe going beyond that.
Koji Fox: We have to do that so that they will go, “Oh, no. No, no, no Square Enix!”
Toshio Murouchi: Let’s see how it goes! But I think people can expect much more than that. From the community standpoint, I feel a lot of pressure, because any single bit people find out, they think, “Oh, WoW can do that? Why can’t we do that?” That’s scary, but I’m really looking forward to it.
FFXIV has grown a lot in the past few years with many new and returning fans. With that, you have different challenges in communicating with the community. Of course, you have a lot of live letters and live streams, but nowadays, X/Twitter is maybe more one region, and you have English communities on Discord and whatnot. What does the Community & Service Divisions team have to do to get that player feedback as well as the community input?
Toshio Murouchi: The good thing about us is we have a dedicated team in each region. We have an office in Los Angeles and one based in London. So not only in Japan, but each region has its own community team checking their own trends in their specific regions. For example, in North America or the Western regions, they’re checking more on Discord or Reddit, which doesn’t really happen in Japan. Japan’s communities are much more X/Twitter-focused. Twitter is still a very strong platform. That has helped us a lot, so we are not focused on a single platform. We are trying to check as many platforms as possible, as far as players are on them.
With the community changing how it’s doing activities, a lot of English fans used to be on X/Twitter, but now they have shifted to different things like Bluesky and so forth. Are there any tools Warriors of Light should be aware of that they can use to give their feedback to the Final Fantasy XIV team?
Toshio Murouchi: Similar to the character customization discussions, we were more [focused on saying], “Be sure to stick to the official forums.” Same for global. We tried to make things equal for global and stick with the forums or X/Twitter, but now we’re changing to accept more options. If players want to use Bluesky instead of X, we’ll try to take opinions or maybe even open official accounts.
Koji Fox: You probably saw the keynote back in Anaheim as well as Berlin, but it’s about giving players more freedom. Up until now, we dictated how you play and where you’d give us feedback. Now the shift, whether it be in-game and out-of-game where these communications exist, is about letting players have the freedom to do what they want. They don’t have to think, “Oh, I’m giving feedback. I want to use X, but I can’t use X. I have to go here, but I don’t have an account, so I have to open an account.” It shouldn’t be like that. It should be, “I put it here, and someone’s going to see that.”
Toshio Murouchi: In the past we said, “Please come here to give us your feedback,” but now we’re going anywhere you are. That’s the major change.
During Fan Fest in Anaheim, that localization panel that you touched on in terms of Sinister as well as Dawntrail, are there any other memorable research you’d like to share that you had a chance to work on?
Koji Fox: Oh my God! Seriously, that was not a lie — I was checking that out at work. I get from Kimura-san that we’re going BDSM, and I went, “Okay, let’s do this!” I went to Wikipedia thinking it was going to be wholesome text, nothing strange. As I’m scrolling, of course, some guy is walking by from the bathroom and goes, “Huh?!” I was like, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”
But no, I love doing research. One of the things they consulted me on for Final Fantasy XVI was that there was an NPC out in a field watering their garden. They asked, “Back in medieval times, what were water jugs like? It can’t be like this. What kind of water jugs did they have?” So I had to go on this trip to find out what medieval water jugs looked like and where the holes were. They’re completely different, and they’re made of clay. I spent half a day on it and went, “Oh yes, I found this!”
Of course, it’s used in the game, but no one ever sees it. But to think I spent half a day on that when I should have been translating other parts of the game! You go down those deep holes, and again, I love attention to detail.
Toshio Murouchi: But I agree with you! It’s the tiny details.
Koji Fox: It’s about making it authentic and making it feel real, but I love going down those rabbit holes. We’ll be talking about the water jugs, and that’ll lead to the type of seeds and the things they grew. You just go down the rabbit hole, and it never ends. Then half a day is gone, and you say, “Oh, I have to work late tonight because I spent half the day researching seeds!”
With all these collaborations so far, anything you’d like to personally see FFXIV collaborate with in the future?
Koji Fox: Wow… Oh, man! There are so many things I would love. We already did the Dr Pepper collab. I’m a super Dr Pepper fan — I still have the cans. I think that’s peak for me, so now that we’ve done that, there’s nothing else that could top the Dr Pepper collab! I wish we’d do it again.
Toshio Murouchi: Recently we had a beer one, but that only happened in Japan.
Koji Fox: We just did a collab with a craft beer place in Japan, and we got to do a tasting.
Toshio Murouchi: Yeah, we actually designed the beer.
Koji Fox: Yes, they asked us about the flavors and collected the colors. Now, you can go to a bar in Akihabara and get these beers. If we could do that in America, with some American breweries and expand it to cider, that would be great!
Toshio Murouchi: That’s the dream.
Koji Fox: And I’d get to test everything. I would personally do quality control for everything!
Special thanks to Square Enix for the interview opportunity. Stay updated on Evercold via the official player site or by following Final Fantasy XIV on Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky, YouTube, and Twitch.
Interview article by Agnes Nguyen and Isabelle Lee. Interview conducted by Kwok Wai-Hanson.
