Interview W/ FFXI Producer Matsui And Director Fujito

They haven't even put pen to paper on the empy updates and straight out said the content wont be as big as omen or dynamis D.

Shortly after they talk about how expansions would be unlikely because of the resources required, but Addons like the 3 at the end of the 75era are easy because they don't need new resources; having all the areas already in existence.

What I'm saying is that Empy+2/3 smells like CL 130 VW. (already existing areas, just new NPC and dialogue, no new zones like Omen and Divergence has.)

infinite HP fortification/dummy somewhere for damage testing

Would like to see a Divergence zone for Tavnazia, a CL 130+ einherjar, nyzul isle, limbus

an infinite HP fortification/dummy somewhere for damage testing

A job’s performance doesn’t only come from its DPS.

Fujito: There is a tendency to talk about jobs from the aspect of damage such as “this weapon skill is strong” or “this job can wipe out a room the fastest”. We want to make adjustments so that jobs can complete their roles and if new job abilities or traits get introduced that they blend in with the current use of the jobs well. You can think of the changes in that way.

I had no idea Matsui was also the director of Chrono Trigger until this interview.

They already have it....in a different game.

no torcleaver there tho

SO WE CAN AFK sparks hell ya

Would like to see a Divergence zone for Tavnazia, a CL 130+ einherjar, nyzul isle, limbus and an infinite HP fortification/dummy somewhere for damage testing

Also, in Ambuscade, when you get a certain amount of points, you can say that you’re done with that month, right? We would like to tweak that aspect as well, and have people get more points so that they are finished much faster. However, if we make points to easy to get, people who do Ambuscade as main content might run out of things to do, so we need to polish other content which would come in a set alongside the Ambuscade adjustments.

Famitsu: After you announced that the game will continue at least until the 20th anniversary, some players were relieved that they still have 3 years while some showed worry. When you get near the milestone that is the 20th anniversary, will you be considering new plans for the 21st year and onward depending on the situation?

Matsui: After we announced the final scenario “Rhapsodies ofVana’diel” in 2015 the number of development staff was reduced and we set our goals to “let’s go for one more year”. Alongside that, if we set one more goal of having a 20th anniversary, it connects to the staff’s motivation. We talked about what to do after the 20th anniversary, too, and even though there are aspects we can’t think about until we get there, I think that as long as there are players that continue playing the game, we will be able to continue as a business. There is a necessity to think about the system of developing the game afterwards, but firstly we have to concentrate on getting to the 20th anniversary with the current staff. To tell you the truth, most of the current staff don’t want to be put into different projects, but we have to have a structure where the staff are able to talk to us if they want to change it.

Fujito: Only Matsui and myself are left from the original dev team. The other members all came in part way through and most of them are 10-year veterans. Topics such as “what are we going to do with those people’s careers” or “Are we going to bury our bones along with FFXI?” are sure to arise because all of them have their lives and families. Therefore, we have to show some flexibility, the problem where people start feeling insecure because they have to renew their contracts every year will arise. One of the current goals of the dev team at the moment is to remove that unpredictably.

Famitsu: It is important to take care of the developers’ careers with such a long running title.

Matsui: All of the staff love FFXI and play the game to the fullest, so if we don’t say anything about the topic, I think the situation would become such that they are only sacrificing their own strength to keep the game running. If we want the game to continue running, we have to make preparations so that developers can take over, make a generation exchange, etc. If we continue thinking about the development in one-year intervals, that would be impossible to achieve.

@Buukki I read that as well, but read it completely differently. Its a lot of talk-around but never do they say "now we're on a 3 year plan" or something like that. They may talk about plans going longer than 1 year at a time, but the funding seems to be still set that way. A lot of fancy talk might look good, but without a hard go-ahead from SE giving them the finacnes for a 3,4 or 5 year window to work with that talk doesn't amount to much.

@Buukki I read that as well, but read it completely differently. Its a lot of talk-around but never do they say "now we're on a 3 year plan" or something like that. They may talk about plans going longer than 1 year at a time, but the funding seems to be still set that way. A lot of fancy talk might look good, but without a hard go-ahead from SE giving them the finacnes for a 3,4 or 5 year window to work with that talk doesn't amount to much.