2023-07-29 16:00:00
After the first day of “Final Fantasy XIV” Fan Festival 2023 in Las Vegas, producer and director Naoki Yoshida held a conference lens for overseas media regarding the 10th anniversary of “FFXIV”. Mr. Yoshida answers the questions collected in advance, regarding the logo of the “Golden Legacy” that was just announced, regarding the content finder that spans data centers around the world, and the criteria for selecting feedback, etc. I was able to hear information that I don’t often hear.
――The logo theme color of “Golden Legacy” is gold, but what kind of image did you convey to Yoshitaka Amano?
Mr. Yoshida: When I ordered Mr. Amano this time, the theme was straight “adventure.” First of all, I would like to tell you that we will start a new adventure because we have saved the world by going to the end of the universe. After that, the Warriors of Light headed for the continent called the New Continent on the Eorzea side by ship. On board the ship, a land I had never been to really caught my eye. With the royal palace, which is the biggest symbol of the city of Triola, visible from the top, I would like you to create a picture of the excitement and the anticipation of what lies ahead. increase.
Also, regarding the question of how you conveyed the gold theme color, when I asked Mr. Amano for the Final Fantasy logo, he actually wrote it in black and white. The reason for this is that if we ask Amano-sensei to colorize it, it will be difficult to reproduce the colors and match the logo when we import the data. I’m putting it on. Of course, I have written that the image color for this time will be gold.
To tell the truth, this time I made one request to Amano-sensei that even I thought was terrible. Even though the logo is black and white, please draw a rainbow at the end. The way Amano-sensei draws the rainbow was an important inspiration for us, so we took that into consideration, and the team and Amano-sensei had a meeting to complete the logo, and I really like it. . Perhaps when 7.0 is implemented in the game, the warrior of light boarding the ship in the cutscene and the moment he arrives at Toral, I’m sure you’ll feel the crossover with the logo. I don’t think so.
――In “Akatsuki Finale”, the story that was connected from the beginning of “FFXIV” including “Old FFXIV” will be completed, and in “Golden Legacy” a completely new story will begin. Already have an idea of how vast this story might be? And will the story unfold on this stage in subsequent expansion packages?
Mr. Yoshida: It wasn’t that I wanted to connect from the beginning. Of course, the hints have been left out since A Realm Reborn, but as for how to collect them, we decided that we would do it someday, scattered the hints, and then added them little by little with each expansion. I came to I think I’ll probably do the same with the new part starting with “7.0”.
Whether or not it will be as long as the Hydaelyn Zodiark arc depends on whether people like it. I have ideas for two more extension packages. Of course, I can’t talk regarding the contents. I’m 50, so I’ll be 51 next year, and if I expand two more from there, I’ll be 57-58, so maybe I’ll be able to do three films by the time I’m 60 (laughs).
――When creating the regions depicted in Golden Legacy, are there any specific cultures that you used as motifs in the real world?
Mr. Yoshida: Yes. I want everyone to be surprised, so let me just answer today that there is a motif.
――In “Golden Legacy,” do you have any ideas to allow players who have left and returned, or completely new players, to enter new areas? Also, how do you get the knowledge you need for the “Golden Legacy” without being overwhelmed by the lore and world settings so far?
Yoshida: For the time being, starting with patch 6.1, we’re making a system that allows you to read the settings of each character and lore in-game, and we’re ready to skip everything up to 6.0 and start from 6.1. doing.
This question is actually a question that I always get every time I release an expansion package. As you all know, the expansion of “FFXIV” does not make the previous content insanely outdated, it is maintenance and makes it easier to level up. Since it’s a story-driven game, I wonder if everyone will start from there, saying, “You can play from 7.0, so go ahead.”
For example, right now, there are content supporters, and all the dungeons required for the main scenario will be able to be conquered with NPCs in the next patch 6.5, so there will be more solo elements, and honestly, I’m a TV drama. In other words, rather than watching from season 6, watch from season 1. But it’s getting easier and easier to play, so I think it’s more natural to tell them to play because they’ll catch up soon. So, we’re preparing, but I’m still undecided as to whether or not we’ll actually do it in 7.0.
――At the fan festival, the event where the development staff appear like rock stars is very unique. From the perspective of Mr. Yoshida and other development staff, how does it feel to be constantly stopped by fans like this and asked for photos?
Yoshida: We don’t really want to be rock stars, and our job is to make games, so I don’t think it’s really necessary for developers to step forward like this. If normal. Every time I’m on a livestream, I’m told I’m fat, old, and tired. You don’t want the media to say that, do you?
However, I believe that in the MMORPG genre, it is very important how much mutual understanding can be obtained with the players and, of course, with the media. In particular, when the amount of content and system becomes extremely large, I would like to know what the players want, what the development team is trying to do, and what the media are interested in. At least I think that if we can share what we are thinking to some extent, we can make MMORPG as one huge service more interesting and enjoyable, so that’s why I’m doing it. I think that is big.
I would be very grateful if you might tell me how it feels to be asked to take a picture. Only one thing, if I have time, I don’t mind taking pictures with anyone, as long as it’s an old man like me. When I first came to North America, Las Vegas, for the Fan Festival, I was held in the middle of a casino by a princess. In Japan, I was asked to take a picture of the moment I was in the background, and if it was fun, anything would be fine, but I have one request.
I took a picture with regarding 5 people who were members of a free company. It was uploaded to SNS. Only my face is left as it is, and everyone else is hidden behind a heart or something. Is there any point in uploading this? and. I don’t mind at least taking a picture together and uploading it to SNS, so since we took the trouble to take a picture together, I’d like to see everyone showing their faces and having fun. it’s dark.
――While working on FFXIV, what was the most wonderful (and memorable) experience? As a producer/director, as a player, or as a player, or as you interact with the community, tell us regarding any milestones that come to mind.
Yoshida: I’ve answered this several times, but when we first held the Fan Festival in Las Vegas, we all worked together to rebuild the very bad state of the “old FFXIV” with “A Realm Reborn.” It was time to hold a fan festival.
At that time, the machine for pre-registration broke down the day before, and the waiting line was extremely long. The PR director at the time said, “Everyone is angry, so if Yoshi-P comes out and apologizes, I think everyone will tone down a little, so please go outside and apologize.” When I went out to apologize, I was really sorry for everyone, and I received a tremendous cheer, and many people said, “Thank you for rebuilding FFXIV.” Some of them were in their mid-teens and said, “You are my hero.” I never imagined that a Japanese person like me would say such a line. I was able to feel that I was really glad that I did my best, so I think it will be a memory that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
However, there was a global pandemic due to the corona wreck, and I continued to be able to meet everyone in the media only through ZOOM, but the great cheers I received following the trailer for this fan festival today were really the same. It was such an unforgettable day that today was just as great.
――Now that 10 years have passed since FFXIV, how do you manage the balance between the feedback and requests from the fans and what you want FFXIV to be? Huh?
Mr. Yoshida: It’s difficult to explain how it’s balanced. I’m a gamer myself, and I’m one of the FFXIV players, so I’ve actually played the game myself, and there’s a lot of feedback from the players that makes a lot of sense.
However, even within that, from the point of view of the player and the point of view of the gamer, it’s fine now, I want to make this troublesome thing easier now. After all, I tend to look at now. If you just look at the present and make everything easy or reduce the challenges, the balance of the game itself will continue to break down, even though it’s fine now. In order for everyone to play both casually and heavily, listening to all the feedback would break the game, so for example, this part of the user interface should be fixed even if it takes two patches. , It’s not that I can’t listen to this, but it’s my job as a director to decide that it’s not something I should do now, so I can only say it’s a feeling. But with that in mind, I’m assembling it in myself.
――Are you planning a crossover between FF14 and FF16?
Mr. Yoshida: The producer of “FF16” is the same person as me, Mr. Yoshida, and I was finally able to have a meeting with Yoshi-P over there. I’ve mostly got the answer, but I can’t say it here, so I hope to be able to announce something by the end of the year.
――While FFXIV continues to expand, how do you take into account the time it takes to catch up with the story, and how do you make it easier for new players to join?
Mr. Yoshida: We’ve done a lot of fine-tuning with each expansion, such as how item levels work, and gear balance adjustments to capture past content. I think it’s going to be there because I responded to it.
――In patch 5.3, released on August 11, 2020, many of the main scenario quests and content of A Realm Reborn were refurbished. Please tell us a bit regarding the process of working on that content once more as a development task, deciding what content to keep, what content to remove, and what content to fix. Looking back in 2023, is there anything that you wish you had left behind?
Mr. Yoshida: First of all, there is nothing that I wish I had left. Most of the main shortcuts are the work of scraping quests. The first is that there are quests that players tend to leave, so we will follow them in terms of data. Second, when we actually played the game ourselves, we felt that the game experience was overdone or unnecessary.
Another thing I did was to clean up all the NPC data, find out which NPC was talking regarding which lore in which quest, and erase those who said they were okay without him. Did it.this was the hardest
――“Akatsuki no Finale” deals with emotional topics that are very difficult for many writers and players to deal with, such as “the meaning of one’s existence” and “losing (something important to you)”. I was. Where did you get the idea from? And were there any difficulties in incorporating these themes?
Mr. Yoshida: Hmmm (long thought). Actually, I don’t think it’s just “Akatsuki no Finale”, but the “FFXIV” team, including myself, intends to make it. I have drawn various stories in various expansions. In “Ishgard in the Blue Sky”, during the journey of Alfino, Izel, Estinian, and the warrior of light, different theories and assertions collided, and I learned that what I believed was actually a created history. Even if people’s sense of values collapses at times, I’ve been doing things that people with different thoughts and ideals can join hands.
In “Guren no Liberator”, we had a battle to liberate Alamigo, which had been ruled by the Garlemar Empire. I also depicted the conflict between those who lived by obeying those who ruled them and those who did not. In “Jetkoku no Villains”, I’ve portrayed something like a clash between the ancients who want to restore the world to its original state and the stubbornness of us who live in the present, although they may be weaker than the ancients.
“Akatsuki no Finale” will be the story at the end of the first episode. I am thinking. I think it would have been impossible to draw that theme from scratch with just the volume of “Akatsuki”. However, there is no doubt that it is a difficult theme, so I think Natsuko Ishikawa, who was in charge of the main writing, had a hard time. To her credit, I’ll say that she’s had a hell of a time. If you have the chance, please interview her.
――Is it possible to consider implementing a data center travel across regions, or a content finder application system that spans regions?
Yoshida: Actually, there are all regions, for example, North America, Europe, Japan, and Oceania, but the mechanism for data center travel that skips over these regions has already been completed.
However, I think there is still a lack of verification as to whether it is okay to mix the cultures of each region. This means that the community is getting mixed up, so I’m thinking of deciding whether or not to publish it following watching the situation of data center travel a little more and making a slow decision.
We are also considering implementing a matching system that transcends all regions and a content finder registration system. However, the super server engineer of our team and I have been holding meetings many times to see if we can do it this way or if we do that. I’ve been doing it recently too. For now, I’m still going to do the lines that both of them will say at the end of each meeting.
“Uh-huh, let’s talk once more at the next meeting.”
It is very difficult in terms of both technical and infrastructure aspects. However, I think the good thing regarding the “FFXIV” team is that they never give up on challenges, so I’d like to tell you that I’d like to continue thinking regarding how to do something without giving up.
――After Variant Dungeon and Another Dungeon, do you have any plans to develop new 4-player ending content in the future? What kind of feedback have you received so far? Also, is it safe to assume that there won’t be any new content for 72 players in the future, given the implementation of this content?
Yoshida: At the moment, the system for Variant Dungeon and Another Dungeon is operating to a very high degree of completion, so we will start by creating end content for four players with this system. Of course, we’d like to incorporate the feedback we’ve received in order to make the content more casual and exciting. intend to.
However, we are currently in the process of planning completely new battle content that has never existed before. We’re also discussing what to do with the next series, such as “Southern Bozjan Front” and “Forbidden Land Eureka”, which use very large zones. I’m not going to stop, so I’m going to make a new series once more. Please look forward to tomorrow’s PLL for Variant Dungeon!
――In an ideal world, I would like to be able to purchase “FINAL FANTASY I” and place it as a furnishing in an arcade housing. Being able to play the first few Final Fantasy games in FFXIV is great, even if it’s exclusive to the Mogstation. Can we expect such developments?
Mr. Yoshida: This is also a challenge I have been trying for regarding a year and a half. “Final Fantasy Pixel Remastered” (herefollowing referred to as “Pixel Remastered”) was released, so I was testing it because I would be happy if I might play all of them in the Gold Saucer and housing. Are you doing
However, “Pixel Remaster” runs on middleware. If you want to run that middleware in “FFXIV”, you can create a system to run the middleware in “FFXIV”, then run “Pixel Remaster” on top of that. You end up in a situation where you have to move the game.
No matter how crazy the “FFXIV” team is, no matter how crazy they are. I wouldn’t call it a genius. If there are two more super programmers, I think I can see the way. So, if someone reading this article says, “I’m a super programmer, I’ll run Pixel Remaster in FFXIV!”
I’m half joking, half serious, but since I’ve come all the way here as a theme park for the FINAL FANTASY series, I’d like to continue this as a challenge.
I forgot one last thing. The question says, “Even if it’s only for the mog station,” so if you sell it on the mog station, you won’t be told, “You’re a liar, you’ll have to pay!” Please stay! (Laughs) It might be okay to free up to FF1, FF2, and FF3, but FF4, FF5, and FF6 have a lot of volume, so I don’t think regarding business. Because you shouldn’t. But either way, I hope you enjoy it.
――Do you have any plans to expand FFXIV into other media, such as anime or TV series? Do you personally want to achieve this kind of development?
Yoshida: There are times when I would like to do a TV series if I might be the executive producer. However, as I said earlier, I am a producer, director, general manager of the 3rd development department, executive officer and director, so I don’t think I can do it as a TV series producer for the time being. I think it is.
“FFXIV” has been quite a welcome, and I’ve never said “no” when I was told that I really wanted a spin-off, or that I wanted to make the Battle of the Warriors of Light an anime, a movie, or a TV series. is. In fact, we have received many inquiries from various places. However, I think that it was not only our place that the pandemic messed up the schedule and canceled it, so I can honestly say that there is nothing I can talk regarding at the moment.
However, in any case, if the “FFXIV” team decides to do it, I think they will be very particular regarding not destroying the image that the players have, so when the time comes, we will deliver a solid quality product. I think you will. I don’t have any plans yet, but that’s how I feel.
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