Gamer Escape Has More Questions Answered By Naoki Yoshida

20 Dec 2011
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Back in October Gamer Escape had the chance to sit down with Final Fantasy XIV Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida to ask him about the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV 2.0. We only had an hour to get through as many questions as we could and were given a chance to e-mail the rest of them to be answered at a later date.

You know what today is? It’s a later date! Read on for more Q&A goodness.

GamerEscape: Achievements are coming in 1.20. Will these be retroactive? Are these essentially the things that show up in our Lodestone history? Are there any in-game perks for earning achievements? Will achievements for content removed in 2.0 still exist in 2.0?

Yoshida: The system implemented in 1.20 includes achievements based on data tallied before the patch, as well as ones that are completely new. The achievements found on the history section of Lodestone will remain as a record of deeds done before patch 1.20. There are be any achievements that require having played the game prior to patch 1.20. There are, however, achievements that require continued play after patch 1.20, and even some that can only be obtained between 1.20 and 2.0. All achievements will be carried over to 2.0. We’ve also prepared many rewards, items and titles that can only be obtained via achievements.

GamerEscape: Currently there are Garlean forces that appear around Eorzea. Right now they’ve been seen around Camp Glory. However, the timing of these events seems random. I’ve actually spent hours sitting in Ul’dah waiting for the NPC to show up for these! Do you think you could make these events more frequent so that players have a better chance of running into this kind of event?

Yoshida: We are currently planning on increasing the frequency of these events, starting with a new type of live event in patch 1.20. However, it was determined that announcing every live event may lead to congestion and even cause a bit of unwanted confusion, so we’ve decided it to keep their schedule secret. Personally, I believe that happening across one of these unpredictable events makes them all the more exciting!

GamerEscape: Are all of these changes that get made to the world map explained somehow? I mean it looks like there is a tower that just appears out of nowhere in this lake in Northern La Noscea. I want to know how it got there!

Yoshida: Some of these changes will be explained through the events related to the coming Seventh Umbral Era scheduled for the months leading up to the launch of 2.0. Most of the reasons, however, will be revealed by completing quests and instanced raids in 2.0. Players will become aware of the pending disaster in Eorzea through continued play, but detailed stories will take place after 2.0.

GamerEscape: In the live producer letter, you made a mention of “dragon and meta-human races” Could you elaborate a little more on that? Are these playable races?

Yoshida: This is something planned further down the road, but we plan on adding a new type of demi-human player character in a post-2.0 expansion. We are still in the development phase, so I cannot provide you with any concrete details, but we’ll let you know more about this new race as we get closer to
implementation.

GamerEscape: Odin is referred to as an elder primal. Is that any different from say, Ifrit or Garuda?

Yoshida: The title “elder primal,” was meant to signify that Odin is a primal from an earlier era. The primals in FFXIV represent powerful deities worshipped by the beast tribes. These deities can be summoned by the tribes, and appear to be drawn to the intense emotions, such as pain and suffering, of their followers. Odin is classified as a primal, but his background is very different from that of the others. I can say that Odin’s background will be revealed exactly at the release 2.0, but I hope to have information for you all soon.

GamerEscape: With the new servers, it mentions party matching for players from different worlds. Does this mean I can join up with friends on other servers anytime I want? Or will this only be for instances? What can you tell us about World Clustering?

Yoshida: The party matching system for players across different Worlds is, in effect, a “content finder.” This content finder basically selects content for the player to partake in by automatically matching players based on their class, job, level and language. Within this, there will be options to search for content among players from different Worlds and also players within the same World. This feature can be used for any content that requires a party, but it will mostly be used for instanced content. Matching will be performed automatically, so party balance will be scaled to fit the difficulty of the content. Since the difficulty is set for instanced content and it is easy to asset the balance, the content finder feature will be used mostly for instanced content.

GamerEscape: You told Famitsu that you are thinking about making new servers focused on different languages. Are there any plans to designate roleplay servers? I know the players on Besaid would love to be officially recognized as an RP server.

Yoshida: We do recognize a need to set up a designated roleplaying world. We will look into this in a proactive manner!

GamerEscape: The roadmap says that the distribution of the new 2.0 software will start sometime around September and October, however it also says that the client doesn’t go on sale until sometime after January. Does this mean current players will have access to the new client before it goes on sale?

Yoshida: We would like to reward our current players who have continued to enjoy and support FFXIV by prioritizing their access to the new client. Of course, we would like new customers to experience the new client as well, so we will do our best for all players to be able to enjoy FFXIV 2.0 as early as possible.

GamerEscape: There’s a mention of in-game voice in all four languages for after 2.0. What exactly does this mean? Is this an in game voice chat system? Or is this saying that there will be more voiced cut scenes in the game?

Yoshida: The previously mentioned, “in-game voice in all four languages,” does not represent an in game voice chat system, but instead represents our plan to provide voice acting in all four languages for the high-quality cut scenes. Of course, this applies to those scenes that will be added at the time of version 2.0, as well.


And there you have it! We hope you enjoyed the answers we got for our follow up questions!