Final Fantasy XIV’s director is dreaming of a Diablo crossover—but there’s one problem

Final Fantasy XIV could have welcomed a Diablo collaboration but for a few compatibility issues, Square Enix game director and producer Naoki Yoshida shared on Oct. 22.

He said he was a fan of the Diablo license and dreamt of a collaboration with the game in a London Fan Festival’s press-conference, as reported by Famitsu.

“Yoshida says he’s a big fan of Blizzard and would love to do a Diablo crossover, but there’s a problem with age ratings and making it feel like a faithful crossover,” a translation by a Reddit user summed up.

In the interview, Yoshida said that the dark world of Diablo couldn’t perfectly fit FFXIV‘s due to the game’s age restriction, which is set at 13. Diablo 4, on the other side, is labelled as Mature, which sets that age restriction at 17.

The developer could have made those changes, but Yoshida said he would be worried players would be “disappointed” and say that it wasn’t Diablo if they didn’t find the true spirit of the game in FFXIV‘s crossover event.

On the other side, Yoshida said that collaborations with other games from all kinds would revitalize the industry and that he was up to try “various challenges” in the future.

FFXIV has already proven it can hold unusual collaboration events, with the upcoming Fall Guys crossover a perfect example.

FFXIV skins have joined the party game, while an exclusive minigame will join the Gold Saucer on Oct. 31 called “The Path Infernal.” Both games feature a completely different universe and gameplay, but they both also have a party spirit that perfectly suit the Gold Saucer, FFXIV‘s equivalent of a casino and arcade area.

In addition, other licenses with higher age ratings than FFXIV have already joined the game before. NieR: Automata, which was featured in Shadowbringers‘ Alliance Raids, has an age rating of 18 in several countries. So maybe all hope of seeing both worlds collide isn’t lost for Diablo and FFXIV fans.

In the rest of the interview, Yoshida shared more insights with the press. He also said that preparations to bring back Yokai-Watch collaboration event were underway. There’s also the chance FFXV might return “if players keep giving feedback,” the user translated.