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In the large-scale expansion pack "The End of dawn" launched last year, Square Enix's online RPG "Final Fantasy 14", which has lasted for nearly 10 years, has finally come to an end, and the 6.1 version "New Adventure", which will take a new step, is also about to be launched in mid-April.
What kind of adventure will the "Warrior of Light", who has overcome the final crisis, embark on next? This time, we interviewed Mr. Naoki Yoshida, the supervisor and producer of the game, on various elements including the main plot of the 6.1 version.
*Much of what is discussed in this article is based on information revealed in the 69th Final Fantasy XIV producer's letter (the interview was conducted on March 8, 2022).
Naoki Yoshida (hereinafter referred to as Yoshida)
Executive Director and Director of the Third Development Business Unit at Square Enix. He was the game designer and director of the first arcade game series in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road. He became the supervisor and producer of Final Fantasy XIV in December 2010 and currently works as the producer of Final Fantasy XI6.
Hidden behind the meaning of "new adventures"
| Q: Version 6.1 is finally going to tell the story that took place after Heidelin Zodyak. In the recent live broadcast of the producer's letter, the official has released the title and main visual image of the 6.1 version, what is the theme of the 6.1 version?
Yoshida: The 6.0 version of "The End of the Dawn Moon" is not only a separate complete work, but also the final chapter of "Heidelin Zodyak", which I believe everyone should have a strong understanding. At the same time, however, players will most likely have a feeling of "burning out" after completing the level, and may even fall into the "what else can be done after this?" Confusion, such a situation also exists within the development team.
So we had to send a clear message to our players that "there are still many new things waiting for you to challenge", which is why we considered adding easy-to-understand promotional slogans for version 6.1.
Perhaps out of a penchant for Star Wars, I personally appreciate the straightforward naming of the subtitle of the fourth film in the series, "A New Hope." Since version 6.1 will be the beginning of a new story, when I went to discuss with the writers and localization team with this idea, I proposed "this time to make the plot more understandable and highlight the feeling of 'new adventure'". Unexpectedly, they replied directly, "If that's the case, how about using 'New Adventure' as the title?" So I decided to do it (laughs).
A magnificent adventure comes to an end, and naturally a new adventure will follow. The 6.1 release will not only be a "new adventure" for players to set sail again in the world of Final Fantasy 14, but also a "new adventure" for our development and operations teams to move the game to the next stage.
| Q: Will the main story of version 6.1 clarify the ultimate goal of this new adventure?
Yoshida: Although the story of Heidelin Jodiak has come to an end, there are still a lot of unknown areas and mysteries in the world of Final Fantasy XIV. This time, players will no longer be entrusted by others, but will simply start a new adventure based on "finding something new", but the ultimate goal will unexpectedly be given to the player at a very early stage. Is this it?" Tips. Having said that, the process of achieving the ultimate goal will definitely subvert the imagination of the player, please keep the expectations of the majority of players.
| Q: Will the story style change significantly compared to before?
Yoshida: The characters players met in previous Final Fantasy XI4 stories, the relationship of trust they built, and what they entrusted to the players will not disappear, so the plot will definitely continue. The new story will maintain and advance this relationship while presenting a sense of "taking a new step in the whole." Therefore, the story style will not "change significantly from before". Don't worry, we don't want to completely renovate the path you've taken before.
| Q: That means a new adventure will be launched while continuing the previous story.
Yoshida: I believe that everyone already knows the ideas, goals, and dreams of each character, and this time we will write a new adventure based on these contents.
| Q: Regarding the new 4-player quest, the name doesn't seem to be made public because it's related to the main storyline, does that mean that the quest name itself is a spoiler?
Yoshida: I didn't feel any negative feelings when I learned the name, but my first reaction was, "Ah, that's the way it is." But considering that if it is announced at this point in time, it will make players preconceived with various conjectures, and it may not be possible to experience the fun of playing 100% at that time, so it is not public for the time being, which is also a little bit of my personal bad taste (laughs). There's a lot of content in version 6.1 that incorporates this bad taste from the development team, and I'm looking forward to how players react by then.
| Q: By the way, will the rhythm of "one version for one version be launched for one person" still be maintained in the future?
Yoshida: Yeah, that doesn't change.
The haunting resurrection of the "Aozea myth" and the "unnamed investigator"
| Q: Next, I would like to ask about the new chronicle mission "The Myth of Iozea". This part of the content basically did not disclose any information, will the relevant plot be related to the previous story?
Yoshida: The plot of "The Myth of Iozea" can be seen as the epilogue of "Heidelin Zodyak", which will revolve around the existence of the twelve ancient gods of Iozea itself. In "The End of the Dawning Moon", Emetselk once said, "Iozea also hides hidden secrets, such as what are the twelve gods you believe in?" , the task will dig deeper into this part of the content. In fact, the relevant content has left a lot of foreshadowing in the previous plot, so for us developers, it is also worth looking forward to observing how players will connect these elements.
| Q: Since the time of the "Newborn Iozea", we have been able to see the stone tablets of the twelve gods of Iozea all over the world, is there any connection between the two?
Yoshida: Although it is impossible to explain the relationship between the two in detail, "What kind of existence is the twelve gods of Iozea?" "Why are they called the Twelve Gods?" These questions will be answered by then. Even when you step into the relevant team quest, you're likely to exclaim "Is it so direct?!"
| Q: It should be okay to just talk about the overall impression, which past team copy is the closest to the new copy design this time?
Yoshida: Team quests have always been known for their sheer size and refreshing mechanics, and the design of either team quest is full of freshness. If I had to give an example... the "New Iozea" First Team Quest may be closer to the "Return to Ivales" experience in terms of gameplay experience.
In terms of difficulty, since this is a brand new chronicle series, we want players to be able to play more easily while feeling fresh, so it doesn't matter if some mechanics or even the team is completely wiped out. In addition, during the final commissioning process, the development team made several more changes at my suggestion, and it is expected that next week a team of basic members of Hatsumi will be tested. That being said, after a long period of game development, most of the game technology of our development team members has reached the point of pure fire, so it may not have much reference value. If you listen to them, "It's a little too simple, right?" If you increase the difficulty of the quest, it is likely to increase the difficulty of the quest... We must also pay great attention to this.
A little further afield, the balance adjustment of the 4-player copy has been the responsibility of the same team for the past five years. The members of the test squad are a casual player as a tank, I am a DPS, Ms. M in charge of project management is another DPS, and a player who has challenged extremely difficult crusades is a healer, and everyone is now better than before. Recently, the responsibilities of each person in our squad have been changed, and the players who were originally in charge of the treatment have become too powerful, resulting in a change of person to take on this responsibility.
| Q: The impact of a decade of development work is still reflected in these aspects (laughs). By the way, has the minimum outfit that can challenge the team's copy been determined?
Yoshida: Although I can't mention the specific values, it can be said that the requirements for the installation of team copies after the new version update are similar" before.
| Q: The "Non-Famous Investigator" series of missions will be revived in the 6.15 version of the update, please tell us about the experience of the resurrection of this series of missions and future topics.
Yoshida: First of all, allow me to explain why the "Non-Famous Investigator" series of tasks was shelved at that time. In fact, when the investigator series of tasks continues to the "Red Lotus Frenzy", there is already a clear sense of "the overall plot development is gradually fixed". In short, the investigator had the wrong premonition that Nacho Macaraka had messed up something, but the incident itself would become an important clue, although it was running around under the wrong premise, but in the end the whole incident still ushered in a happy ending, probably such a conventional routine. But since it has become a conventional thing, it should be retained, and this investigator task actually follows such a routine, but the development of the previous task makes me feel a little too rigid.
In addition, the production of investigator series tasks will be subject to many constraints. For example, the plot must be humorous enough, it must not take up too many performance resources, it must be very interesting... Under such restrictions, the mentality of the development team gradually changed from "do it because it is interesting" to "it must be done". Similarly, players are starting to feel a little tired as they play with this content.
Coupled with the fact that Final Fantasy XIV was facing the overall problem of climbing cutscene quality and cost, it became more difficult to produce the "Return to Ivalice" and "Unnamed Investigator" series in parallel. For this reason, we thought that even if we reluctantly continued to produce it, we would not be able to produce satisfactory results, so we put it on hold in "Shadow's Reverse Flame".
| Q: That's the way it is.
Yoshida: However, after actually announcing that the Investigator Series will be absent for the entire 5.0 release, we received a number of questions from overseas media and community leaders about "When will the Investigator Series return?" inquiries. It was then that I realized that there were so many players I hadn't expected who loved the Investigator Series so much.
As I mentioned in a producer's letter some time ago, the "Non-Famous Investigator" series of missions is not the kind of pay-driven gameplay content whose main purpose is to get powerful equipment or cool looks. Still, there are a lot of players who are looking forward to the series, which means that the in-game story and characters are still very important. After re-realizing this, the development team was naturally filled with "Then bring the investigator series to life!" The power of the . Since you have obtained such a long charging and trimming time, the next mission must be more earth-shattering.
So we added some hints to the 5.3 version, and the reason why the investigator during the "Red Lotus Frenzy" looked like that was to create his "first world no matter how you rush to the first world!" The feeling...
*Note: Investigators who are sucked into the dimensional gap in "Red Lotus Frenzy" have a very low chance of appearing in the 5.3 version of the 4-person quest "Shadow Showdown Norfrante".
| Q: What kind of style will the story be?
Yoshida: This time, the investigator mission, which will be implemented in version 6.15, will echo the main storyline "New Adventure" and tell the beginning of a new event that happened to the investigator. Incidentally, this time I also asked the production team to "I remember a very classic routine, the beginning of the story must be like this" (laughs).
| Q: It's not so much the culmination of a previous series of missions by "non-famous investigators" as it is more like challenging a whole new event... Probably this feeling.
Yoshida: The "Non-Famous Investigator" series of missions does not plan the story with a long-term perspective like the main plot, but is based on the atmosphere of the current version (laughs), so investigators often encounter investigator-style events and characters. In the plot of the 6.2 version later, it is still indispensable to "Is this so?!" The surprise, I believe will be able to make everyone satisfied. Stay tuned for the investigator mission, which is as lively as ever.
| Q: Another "Tataru's Big Boom Shop", which is as much as the investigator's mission, will also be implemented. The series seems to tell the story of repaying kindness to the characters who come to the aid at the end of the 6.0 story, what exactly is this?
Yoshida: Basically, it's about responding to the characters who helped us in "The End of the Dawn", and the form is basically based on continuous side quests. The scene where the various characters gather in the mission of "Special Alchemy" can be said to make the paths that the hero's warriors of light have traveled before intersect at a point... If you take the "Shadow Flame" as an example, it is like the scene that activates the giant Talos. However, in the main storyline, the players did not have the opportunity to visit and thank the people who came to help us, so we designed a series of side quests to thank the characters.
That being said, it would be strange for a player who has not completed the "Four Sacred Beasts" mission to visit several Sacred Beasts, so the conditions for each mission will be carefully distinguished. So the more players who complete chronicle missions, the more branched story they will be able to experience.
| Q: Since it is a series of missions, does that mean that the series will continue after version 6.2?
Yoshida: Yes. Because version 6.1 is only the first time to be installed, it is designed to allow more players to experience, and then it will gradually change to a form that cannot be accessed without completing specific tasks. The 6.0 version took a hard time to bring the story to an end, so if you still have a chronicle or side quest that you haven't experienced, take advantage of it now.
A career change that has been greatly adjusted in the feel
| Q: In what direction will the class changes in version 6.1 be adjusted? Will there be a profession where the feel of the operation changes greatly?
Yoshida: This career change will be a little bigger than the previous X.1 version. Many players feedback that the output or healing ability of the class will be appropriately enhanced, so most of the changes are mainly enhanced. However, in some extreme cases, skills that are too powerful will also be weakened.
In addition, the operating feel of some occupations may change significantly. After understanding the players' feedback on the various classes and experiencing it for ourselves, we decided to adjust the operating feel of certain classes, even at the risk of confusing the players. For example, several skill skills that are not very convenient to operate with a handle will be replaced to reduce the number of keys required. In addition, we've reduced the hard straight time for Dragoon jumps and adjusted the cast time for multiple classes in 0.X seconds. In the past, the skills of "the action looks handsome but the hardness is too long..." will become more user-friendly.
| Q: Do you really want to complete the class adjustment before the dragon poetry war desperate battle is launched?
Yoshida: No, no, if you want to consider the content of the desperate battle, choosing not to change it is less risky. Although there is a 2-week gap between the 6.1 update and the new Desperate War quest implementation, players who are fully honing their career skills to challenge the content will most likely not be popular with them.
However, thanks to the love of players around the world, Final Fantasy 14 has grown into such a huge game. And most players are still in the process of challenging or preparing to challenge the extremely difficult crusades and zero-form quests. For the sake of these players' experience, we finally decided to create a more convenient and fast environment for each class to operate in version 6.1.
Another important reason for this is that we trust the skills of players who challenge the Desperate Quest quest. Even with the major changes in version 6.1, they should be able to get started quickly within the next 2 weeks.
Please calm down before challenging the "Dragon Poetry War Desperate Battle"
| Q: The new Extremely Difficult Crusade "Final Battle" that will be implemented in version 6.1 is an extremely difficult Crusade designed based on the final boss battle of the main storyline, is there anything worth paying attention to?
Yoshida: In the usual style of Final Fantasy XIV, the plot boss battles tend to have a strong narrative color. Therefore, the "Final Battle" as the final boss battle is a battle that attaches great importance to the effect of the performance, so if you want to make this battle extremely difficult, you need to make various changes.
For example, in the second half of the main story of crusade, players will receive the power of hope from their companions at dawn, thus creating the effect of despair being overwhelmed by hope, while the extremely difficult crusade will transform into "what would it be like if it were real hope vs real despair?" form.
| Q: It's also a kind of if storyline.
Yoshida: It will be a real showdown to confront the "acura that ends" with the grudge of "crushing hope with despair."
| Q: What kind of mechanics will be added to the battle is very exciting.
Yoshida: This battle will have more stages, and the difficulty may be closer to the feeling of the zero-style copy. When we do the final test, we often have the annoyance of "do you want to lower the effect of Debuff again...", "but this is the ultimate boss", "So it is true". Therefore, the overall difficulty will indeed be higher than the general extremely difficult crusade, so I am ready to be spat at by players in the future when "it's too difficult", and move out of "Very sorry!" But this is the ultimate boss!" The reason came to thank the enlightenment of sin. However, given the difficulty of the crusade, players will be able to get two tokens for equipment or mounts for each raider.
| Q: Next, I would like to ask about the "Dragon Poetry War Desperate Battle". When it comes to desperate battles, special paid weapons are often one of the motivations for players to challenge, what kind of weapons have you designed for everyone this time?
Yoshida: Of course it will be a very unique weapon, as usual, with a special light effect, and maybe even more special than the previous weapons... In terms of titles, there are naturally also very eye-catching titles that can prove that players have the last laugh in the fierce battles of the latest Desperate Battle quest. Therefore, players who are confident of receiving these rewards must strive to challenge them with this goal.
However, for those who do not pursue the world's first kill, but have the idea of "wanting to challenge the current version of the Desperate Battle quest for the first time", it is important to be aware that it will take 4 to 5 months to complete the level. Since Desperate Combat is a quest to complete at the highest level of difficulty, there may often be a situation where "even if you have fully understood the mechanics, you can't handle it successfully", and give people a sense of frustration that they are still far from the final level. At this time, the more you want to pass the level as soon as possible, the more painful it will be, so I hope that everyone can calm down and challenge.
| Q: Will the difficulty be closer to "Alexander's Desperate Battle"?
Yoshida: I'm not very worried about players who are ready to challenge the world's first kill, but for players with the mentality of "if you take it slow, you can always pass the level", this "take your time" may be longer than you think. The design of the Ultimate Divine Soldier Desperate Battle and the "Alexander Desperate Battle" is mainly based on puzzle solving as a whole, of which the core mechanism of the battle and the puzzle mechanism account for about half and half. So for players who challenge the world's first kill, these two quests will test your overall understanding and reasoning skills for Final Fantasy XIV, including the plot.
These elements cannot be said to be completely absent in "Dragon Poetry War Desperate Battle", but if you have to compare, the design of this copy is actually closer to the feeling of "Bahamut Desperate War". Battles are rife with scalp-tingling mechanics, so stay tuned (wryly).
| Q: How long is the duration of the battle?
Yoshida: No matter what, the battle will not last more than 20 minutes. While sorry to have left you waiting for a while, we have made meticulous adjustments to the mechanics and performances during this time. Personally, I also made a meticulous examination of the various mechanics and performances throughout the battle, and the biggest impression at that time was "bitter laughter" (laughs).
| Q: However, the last minute of a Desperate Quest quest is often the longest...
Yoshida: Having said that, through our simplification of the difficulty of getting started with each class, in a sense, the environment at that time may be more convenient for players to play to their operational advantages. And because there are more classes to add that can reduce the pressure on the quest, the more help the player can get at the system level than the past Desperate Battle dungeons, which may also be a big help for players who challenge the world's first kill.
| Q: The previous producer's letter to Live has mentioned that the design idea of this time will be different from the past, what is the specific development direction?
Yoshida: If you reveal more content, you may give the player some hints, so you can only talk about so much. One of the charms of the Desperate Battle quest is the process of challenging the world's first player to live while discussing the strategy with other players watching the live broadcast. I personally love this feeling very much and don't want to deprive this part of the fun at all, so that's all I can say about the Desperate Quest quest.
| Q: Got it. So please tell us about the reason for choosing the Ultimate Divine Soldier Sabotage Battle as the reason for this illusory crusade.
Yoshida: Initially, we struggled with whether to make the Three Fighting Gods into a new fantasy crusade. However, considering that the 6.1 version has updated many 4-player copies from the 2.0 period, and the Ultimate Divine Soldier Battle in the main story has also become a 4-player copy, we would like to take advantage of the situation so that players who have not challenged the "Ultimate Divine Soldier Destruction Battle" can also experience it. On the other hand, the transition of the Ultimate Divine Soldier into a Fantasy Crusade is also smoother in the transition of the difficulty curve.
| Q: Next I want to know about the new PvP gameplay. Tell us about the core concept of Crystal Battle and the future direction of PvP content design.
Yoshida: Getting more players to play with PvP is our top priority. By looking at the data on PvP content such as "Battlefront", I feel that there are not a few players who want to experience PvP gameplay. However, in the "Feast of Wolves", a battle gameplay with fewer participants and more emphasis on the survival of players, the healing class is far more important than other classes. In addition, in the process of constantly honing their skills, players will have to experience the pain of being knocked down by the enemy many times. This psychological pressure doesn't match the pace of modern life with a fairly limited amount of time to play each day and Final Fantasy XIV's design philosophy of providing players with plenty of playable content.
In Final Fantasy XIV in particular, players tend to have a lot of things they want to do or can do, and there is very little that is "necessary" to accomplish in some sense, such as collecting poetic canonical stones. On this basis, PvP gameplay is also a content that occupies quite a lot of time, so players who do not play PvP content in the first place are often not very likely to experience this part of the gameplay.
But on the other hand, there are not a few players who play PvP content every day, so there must be something interesting about it. Based on this, we conclude that "didn't the development team do a good enough job of guiding players to PvP gameplay?"
To improve this, the upcoming "Crystal Battle" gameplay in version 6.1 will significantly lower the play threshold and reduce the responsibilities that each individual player in the PvP content needs to assume in the team. Although Crystal Battle is a 5v5 battle versus gameplay, trying to bring down enemy players will no longer be the most basic rule of combat. In addition, in this PvP change, we have added recovery methods for all classes, so that each player can attack and recover independently. Of course, the healing class will still have some exclusive recovery skills, but these skills are more just to reflect the characteristics of the class.
These changes will apply to all PvP content, and in the future we also intend to eliminate the functional restrictions of PvP and further reduce the play threshold. Due to the large number of people involved in the battle, the impact will not be so large, but the "Battle of the Feathers" needs to be adjusted more on this basis. Therefore, the content will be temporarily offline before the 6.2 version update, and it is expected to wait until the 6.2 version adjustment is completed before meeting with you again.
| Q: Does having the means of recovery in all occupations mean that the therapeutic profession itself will no longer be indispensable?
Yoshida: Yes. The main gameplay of "Crystal Battle" is "push the crystal tower in the center of the map to the base camp of the enemy camp to win", so although killing the opponent will greatly affect the efficiency of pushing the crystal tower, it is not directly related to the victory or defeat of the game. The most important thing in the game is how to stop the opponent from pushing the crystal tower, and this game experience will be more similar to the position attack and defense game. Incidentally, the system will provide some shortcuts for disadvantaged camps, and how to use these elements is also very important.
| Q: It's more important to adopt a combat strategy than your class.
Yoshida: Clash of Crystals removes the functional requirements and instead prohibits the use of duplicate classes, making it easier for players to match matches. Although it is PvP content, we hope that players will be able to play easily with the mentality of "participating in the event festival once a week" when developing. To this end, we have also spent a lot of art resources, and specially designed a separate adrenaline stimulation skill (each character's independent extreme skill) for each class. Of course, we've also designed a rank matching system for hardcore PvP players so they can enjoy competing for leaderboards.
| Q: Has the compensation system also been renewed?
Yoshida: The payoff will be divided into two parts: the Crystal Battle Qualifying Season Reward and the overall PvP Season Reward, on the basis of which we have also completely redesigned the weighting of the ranking scores and the system UI. This part is difficult to explain verbally, so I'll cover it in detail in the next producer's letter livestream.
| Q: Finally, please tell us what you want everyone to pay attention to or expect in 6.1 and the subsequent 6.X release.
Yoshida: Although I've said this many times in the past, I've always thought that Final Fantasy 14 was Final Fantasy that players made with us. From "The Reverse Flame of Shadows" to "The End of the Dawn", it is crucial that we have been able to weave such a story for so long.
In addition to the plot itself, it is precisely because players invest their time in the world of Final Fantasy XIV day after day that they can feel such a strong emotional impact. If it were just a single-player RPG game, I don't think it would have had such a big impact. In order to be able to feel this excitement again, I hope that all players will continue to work with us at the end of the "Heidelin Jodiak Chapter" plot.
In my opinion, this 6.1 release is arguably the first step towards a new goal. The story of the 6.5 version will be full of various changes like the original 2.X version, so perhaps the world will usher in some turmoil again. But precisely because of the past experience, this time in order to usher in a grander story, it is all the more necessary to complete the accumulation bit by bit. In order to show my awareness, I will dedicate a live letter from a producer to tell you about the next 10 years of planning.
Therefore, the 6.1~6.5 version is not only a challenging period for setting the stage for the future, but also a manifestation of the development team's attitude of "even if it may take some detours, but also to do what needs to be done now". In my opinion, this is the shortest way for players to end up enjoying several times as much fun as Final Fantasy 14 is today. Hopefully, players will share our expectations for this change and the future of the game, and will continue to walk with us. In the future, please give us more advice!
Compile: Bluestoon