Another day, another article.  Today’s information is also courtesy of Famitsu.  Along with the developer comments they had for the various classes, they also had a short one page interview with the three developers.  Once again, let’s take a look at what Battle Director Atsushi Okada, Planner Sei Sato, and Planner Kenichi Iwao had to say about their game.

Famitsu: For starters, could you give us a basic idea of how combat works?

Okada: While you can play solo as well, the general idea behind combat in FFXIV is “Many versus Many” where the enemies are also in parties.  We’re also building it under the assumption that people will be moving around while fighting rather than staying at one particular camp and having somebody bring the enemies in.

F: So basically people will move to where the enemies spawn and heal between battles?

Okada: That’s right.  However, one of the things that makes FFXIV special is that, in general, your MP will not recover.  This isn’t to say that there are absolutely no ways to get MP back.  For example, once a player has grown in their class they’ll learn abilities to help them recover MP.  Also, if you stop by an Aetheryte location, you can recover both HP and MP.

Iwao: Classes with MP have to think of MP as something to use carefully and learn how to make it last over a number of battles versus using it all during just one battle.  That’s a part of how FFXIV works.

Sato: When you start on a particular objective, everybody is going to go out to the location together.  At that time, it’ll be important for you to start thinking about how you will manage your MP.  There is even a class built around the idea of managing a party’s MP usage.

(more…)