FF14’s Koji Fox hints at possible future butt sliders

Final Fantasy 14 localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox discussed the possibility of butt sliders at PAX Australia, where he appeared with Global Community Producer Toshio Murouchi and Twitch streamers SarahJane, Pezz and Kwistyy_.

The discussion followed details about expanded character customization planned for version 8.0, the Evercold expansion. Players will receive more color options and greater control over skin, hair and eye colors.

Starting with patch 8.1, players will be able to remove Miqo’te war paint, hide nose shading on Lalafell and Viera characters, and change Au Ra horns independently from their face shape.

When Pezz asked whether Square Enix could add more character sliders, Fox joked about sliders for the “posterior area.” The request has become a recurring topic among players since the North American Fan Festival in Anaheim, although Fox recalled that players had raised it at an earlier Fan Festival.

Fox suggested that Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida’s position may have shifted from whether butt sliders should be added to when they could be introduced. “Keep it up, and we’re going to get butt sliders,” Fox said. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Fox linked the possibility to Yoshida’s comments at Fan Festival Berlin about changing his approach to roleplaying and relaxing some previous limits on character creation. He added that the team plans to keep expanding options for faces, housing, equipment and character animations.

Evercold will introduce Evolved Mode, a redesigned version of every job that will run alongside the current Reborn Mode. Paladin, White Mage, Bard and Dragoon have been shown in Evolved Mode. Square Enix plans to explain the remaining jobs in a dedicated Producer Live Letter before the expansion launches.

Fox described the expected damage difference between Evolved Mode and Reborn Mode as “very negligible,” while noting that he was speaking from the localization team rather than the battle team. He added that the development team should provide more information because earlier explanations were limited and had led to speculation that Evolved Mode might be required for high-end content.

Murouchi also confirmed that cross-region matchmaking is being tested on Japanese servers. If those tests succeed, Square Enix plans to test the system in the United States and Europe before considering connections between regional data centers.