FFXIV at E3 2018: Around the Horn On Current Content
Ed McGlone from Twinfinite: At the beginning of Stormblood, you let everyone know that the number of dungeons added in each patched would be altered. As a player, I have felt quite satisfied with the quality of the dungeons and do not feel expert roulette has been negatively impacted. Can you discuss in some detail how this change has benefited the development team? Are there any specific content additions that would have been delayed, or difficult to add had that change not been made?
Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida: Yeah definitely. With being able to allocate development resources with the shift in our pattern for releasing dungeon content, where we have our even number of patches to have two dungeons, and our odd patches to have just one, we did alleviate [amount of work] by not having to make that extra dungeon.
The Forbidden Land of Eureka content is something that we were able to work on, concentrate, and put in more effort. If we were making two dungeons as we were previously doing, I don’t think we would have been able to achieve such a large scale content. Same goes with the Ultimate battle series as well, or the Heaven on High that’s going to be released very soon as well.
We were able to reallocate those development resources to bring more new gaming experiences, and looking out how many players are actively participating in those activities is definitely a good sign for us that not only was it beneficial for our development team, but it has reflecting really well into the game as well.
Twinfinite: Although I’m not yet ready to take them on, the Ultimate battles have been incredibly well received by the hardcore, raiding community from what I have seen. What can we expect going forward? Should we anticipate a hypothetical 5.0’s Ultimate to come from Heavensward content such as Knights of the Round?
Yoshida: So with the ultimate series, we have not set any limitations or boundaries actually. Just like the players are sort of speculation or imagining what kind of battle content is coming up next, the development team is also thinking about: What kind of monsters could we bring out? How can we express their ultimate strength? How do we pose a great challenge to our players?
So with the existing content that we have gone from Bahamut to Ultima so people might get the impress that we have been drawing from A Realm Reborn, so logically speaking, the next would probably be from Heavensward. But again, we’re not setting any sort of limitation on what sort of content we will bring. It all falls upon the members creating that raid content, and we’re waiting on them to bring us, the idea of what kind of ultimate encounter that we’re going to bring. So we actually don’t have a clear plan on it just yet.
Yoshida does acknowledge though that he has seen the comments and requests about how people would love to see a Knights of the Round Ultimate battle. There are many different knights within the Knights of the Round of course. It would probably make for a really good, interesting battle.
Twinfinite: There were players that were at first upset with how Eureka turned out in terms of the slower pace of play. But one addition that has been well-received has been the challenge logs. Are there plans to add other features from outside eureka such as maps or daily hunts to speed up leveling and also provide more variety?
Yoshida: So what’s interesting with The Forbidden Land of Eureka is that unlike other content in Final Fantasy XIV, this is intentionally made so that you are putting in the time. It’s something that players should be taking their time in, and experiencing the content.
Additionally, it’s not a content that all of the players are going to take on. It’s something that really requires player skill. So if we do incorporate elements that speed up a player’s level, it might kind of defeat the purpose. Those that want to take the time, might feel like things are by too quickly so it’s not as satisfying. But, that being said, of course we are monitoring the situation and will be making certain adjustments when they are needed and as necessary to make sure that causing players a great deal of stress. We don’t want players to get too frustrated.
Twinfinite: Under the Moonlight recently added a number of job adjustments. Following this patch, I’d like to get a sense of what your current feelings are about the state of job balance in the game. Is there anything in particular [jobs] that need more attention right now?
Yoshida: I think we have to understand first and foremost, in an MMORPG, we believe that the job balance with the different jobs in Final Fantasy XIV, the balance will never be fixed or finalized.
And so, with each content that we release through our patches, unfortunately there is some sort of disparity that does show up depending on what job is being utilized. Some may feel that certain jobs are more advantageous over others and vice versa. But, as developers we want to make sure that we’re monitoring the situation and that it doesn’t cause too much stress on the players and make very fine adjustments with each patch. There isn’t a patch where we don’t [at least] make some kind of adjustment to the jobs.
But looking at it from a developer perspective, what we currently have he [Yoshida] does feel that we are at a fairly good state. But, that being said, I’m sure every player wants their particular job to be the best, to be the strongest. So our battle to achieve job balance is going to be an unending battle.
Twinfinite: What is current feeling on the state of crafting and gathering? Are you satisfied with where everything is? Or is there anything dramatic you’d like to see added in the future?
Yoshida: Looking at the system in general for crafting and gathering, he feels there are no big issues, so that’s fine. But, he does notice for brand new players to attempt crafting or gathering, the bar is a little high for them to jump right in, so that is a challenge that the development team wants to overcome and they are making preparations to address that.
So that’s from a system perspective. But on top of that, we also want to consider content that makes it fun to be a disciple of the land or disciple of the hand, for those classes to specifically enjoy in terms of content and we are making plans for that as well. So we will be revealing information once it becomes available. So I think that’s something that fans might want to look forward to as well.
Twinfinite: What are you most looking forward to? What are you working on that you feel comfortable talking about that has you most excited? If you could pick one thing…
Yoshida: Definitely the main story. Because of course we are numbered Final Fantasy title, how our story unravels is a very important element of the game and with our current patch that released, patch 4.3, so many people were surprised by it, they had emotions through the story. So we want to continue that, we want to provide the best scenario possible for our players out there. So that’s definitely something that we’re passionate about and something that we hope the players stay tuned to also.
