Naoki Yoshida, AKA Yoshi-P, AKA the long-running director of the massively popular Final Fantasy 14, is a noted Neon Genesis Evangelion diehard. The self-professed "Evangelion otaku" appears to be getting a secretly long-held wish, as an upcoming FF14 raid is none other than an Eva collaboration.
While we've had an Alliance Raid series featuring Nier Automata in the past, this is the first time raids are going hard in a non-SE direction. How big it'll be, how in-depth, remains to be seen, but it's coming in celebration of the timeless classic anime's 30th anniversary. And, as they say...
Get In The Robot, Shinji
What else do we know? Not a lot, unfortunately! But we'll learn more at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival Berlin, no doubt—a refrain that poor Koji Fox had to keep reiterating during today's North American event. Yoshida says he knows "expectations will be through the roof," but he'll do his best to match up to them. Ever the humble guy; I have faith it will be fun.
Studio Khara, the current group behind the Neon Genesis Evangelion IP will fully supervise the raid's creation. That means creator Hideaki Anno is presumably keeping tabs. No pressure at all, Yoshi-P.
More to come on this front, perhaps later today as the Fan Festival carries forward. We'll be closely monitoring, but suffice it to say, the announcement of the next expansion, Evercold, is the biggest news of the day.
Everything Announced At Final Fantasy 14's NA FanFest
FF14's first FanFest has delivered the good on what we can expect from 8.0 and beyond.