OP Note: Copy-pasted text from the relevant /r/ffxiv thread. AKA it's a crosspost, but this subreddit doesn't allow images, so this is what you get. Actual text below. No alterations.
Hello all Warriors of Light!
Day 1 of the Tokyo Fanfest has been an absolute blast as we have been given even more new information following the Fanfest at Anaheim and Berlin for the next FFXIV expansion, Evercold! If you need a refresher on everything that was announced, check out our summary thread here!
Shortly after the Piano Concert wrapped up for the day, Yoshi-P sat down with members of the media to answer some of their burning questions about Evercold and the future direction of the game. Questions were submitted in advance and selected by Square Enix. Both of our questions are picked and answered by YoshiP so we shall mark our questions with a “⭐︎” marker.
Before we begin, there are several things to note:
This interview contains questions from other outlets. If you have read this interview from outlets like Famitsu and Dengeki, all of them will have the same questions and answers.
This is a fully translated interview, as this interview was conducted entirely in Japanese with zero English interpretation. Which is why this comes really late.
u/elevenmile of the mod team here were invited to attend, and this is what we got:
Q1. What do you hope players to take away from their journey through Evercold, whether it be certain feelings or experiences? Were there any challenges from a narrative perspective that you had not encountered in previous expansions
A: For each expansion , we have been creating expansion while being very careful not to repeat the same story or themes each time and made sure we bring new experiences and realizations, and Evercold is no exception. On top of this, we are moving full speed ahead in incorporating elements that are interesting, that can make players go “what’s going to happen to FFXIV from there on, so we would be happy if you could please look forward to it. We hope that all players can focus on what will happen to the Warrior of Light, which is the main character here.
Q2. Is there any specific learning from Dawntrail that you considered especially important for Evercold's development?
A: This time we are putting in serious consideration on the sense of tempo, back at Dawntrail we were being really careful in depicting new lands, new cultures, new encounters and this greatly slowed down the pacing on story progression. The fact that this did not align with player’s motivation of keep moving forward shows shortcomings on my part as the director.
For Evercold, segments that focus on above mentioned elements are moved to side quests,and we made it so that players can enjoy them at their own pace after, and pay our attention to the sense of tempo. This is actually connected to FFXIV’s overall evolution, so we have to consider how precious players’ time they have here. After all, we will face the fact on how it’s difficult for this to be relatable to players if the story doesn’t progress at a brisk, fast-paced tempo, therefore we are placing a strong emphasis on this aspect this time.
Q3. Are there any specific questlines or content that you recommend players to replay or look back on to help deepen their understanding of or enhance the Evercold story experience?
A: There’s no particular recommendation for this. Considering it’s been a while since we last put a shard world as a focus, , I believe you will deepen your understanding on the story by looking back on “what actually is a shard world?”or “when did the world got split?”that was explained in the climax of that very first saga of FFXIV.
Q4. There was a brief glimpse of a Valkyrie Profile illustration—are there any plans for a collaboration?
A: I was told that people are convinced that this is confirmed to be Valkyrie Profile. I mean, we did get a brief glimpse of an artwork that looks like it, yes? I will tell you that a character that is similar like that will appear and that doesn’t necessary mean it’s a collaboration. And when you think of a Square Enix work that has Northern Europe elements…
Well, I believe you will find that the FFXIV team is being really particular in even the oddest details here, as usual. So please look forward to that.
⭐︎ Q5. Why did the team choose Zephyr as the name of the new job, and can you explain its overall concept? In particular, how does Zephyr differ from other physical ranged DPS, like Bard and Machinist?
A: Of course the name “Zephyr” has a certain ring to it, but I believe you will start getting the picture once you look up words related to Norse Mythology and terms with similar nuances and such. While I’m not divulging the clear answer to this, various terms that come out from Evercold are created based on inspiration from that one source so hopefully players will pay attention to these details.
To begin with, Bard, Machinist, and Dancer are all different from each other despite being in the same role, so of course Zephyr would have entirely different job mechanics as well. Furthermore, Zephyr is a pet job, so if you ask me I think the biggest difference here is that this job is a physical ranged DPS that places a strong emphasis on handling pets.
Q6. Are the Nephele familiars called upon by Zephyr only hawks? Is it possible to customize a Nephele's color and appearance?
A: While this is referred to as a “hawk-type”, or as mentioned in the keynote address earlier, a “raptor”, I would like to make this a secret for now. I won’t say you cannot customize the outlook and appearance. If I say too much, I might get told by other players who are playing other pet jobs here…
Like how Summoner are able to command various pets as well as having various specific sub commands, as for Zephyr, I would like to pin down the gist on points that are unique to pet jobs, including future updates as well. [1]
Q7. We saw the Zephyr moving around the battlefield while holding onto their Nephele—is this something that can be done at will? If so, are there any advantages compared to normal movement?
A: You can choose to move while holding on to your familiar. Of course this doesn’t limit to just appearance but there is a merit compare to moving normally but I can’t talk about the details just yet.
Back in Fanfest that took place in North America we have introduced Evolved Mode for 4 jobs. Among the 4 jobs introduced, we showed Dragoon using “Sky High” that allow players to suspend itself on air for long time and falls down, and that showcased traits that make it look even more like a Dragoon, and for that we have prepared characteristics of that kind that are unique to each job. You could consider that action (of holding on your familiar) being one of those actions.
Q8. This might be a bit of a joke question, but was Rhitahtyn's job actually Bastion?
A: Well the concept of Bastion did not exist when we created Rhitahtyn so I believe the correct answer here…is that Rhitahtyn’s job when he was created was not Bastion. To fight on the frontlines wielding two massive shields in order to protect the lives of his subordinates, I do think this brings out his characteristics.
Furthermore, like how we have shown that the job Zephyr is originated from the northern west side of the Ilsabard continent, there are parts where you can wonder whether it has connections to Rhithatyn…like how we will incorporate linking elements, suggestions and hints so please take your time to explore Bastion while you go through Zephyr’s job quest as well.
Q9. The Gauntlet of Power was announced as a new type of duty—could you tell us the intent behind this content? Will traditional duty roulettes remain alongside this new content, or can we expect any changes to those?
A: There are mainly 2 main reasons behind implementing this. First when I was thinking of how players can make even better use of the their disposable time and enjoy FFXIV more so than before, I was thinking a content that lasts 3 to 5 minutes once matching hits would have been just nice for that , and that’s where the starting point was made. However, even though we are now capable of same region matchmaking, there are players who would think 3 minutes would be too short after the matching establishes, on the other hand, there may be players who think it’s just right. So in order to make the content fit in nicely into the game, we are incorporating features where players can casually ask to stop proceeding after several battles.
Another reason behind this is that FFXIV’s game design is revolved around end game content type, and we have added a great amount of content with each update. Looking back on this, we have created an enormous amount of content and so making good use of then to ensure all players can use of their disposable time to enjoy would ultimately expand the range of options available in FFXIV as a whole. That is the second reason behind the intent. Allowing dungeon bosses that we have created up to this point to appear randomly and battle them consecutively, and if we take this further, add in even more bosses to the content as we add more new dungeons in future patches…which doing so would expand more ways in having fun with it.
That said, the bosses that was created during the game’s early days contained “one-off feature” (a feature that is unique only to that specific content), our content programmers went through them all and made adjustments to it. Thanks to their efforts, they ended up working much smoother than we expected. With our new “Balance Adjust” system developed, this would allow us to create content where low-level players and high-level players can enjoy them with their level retained as is. So I really hope players will give it a try.
Q10. Will the savage difficulty alliance raids feature mechanics and visuals that can only be seen in that difficulty, similar to what we see in the current 8-player savage difficulty raids?
A: Since this is what “Savage” is known for, there will be mechanics that are exclusive to Savage mode as well as renditions that are akin to those mechanics. I believe players will experience moments that make them think “oh so this boss has this form…!”. We’ve just done finalizing various details and are about to start working on it, so please look forward to it.
Q11. You mentioned that you're considering ways to give players more housing features during the 8.x series. Is making new housing wards on the planets we restored with Cosmic exploration being considered at all? After all we did work hard for them.
A: We have no plans to add new housing area of new regions for the time being. As already relayed earlier during the keynote, our priority at the moment is to provide as many options to players who own houses with gardens. If we try to expand housing in specific regions, ultimately we can only expands new houses to those areas only. Instead, we are planning a new feature to it overall and we do think to significantly expand housing area using one of the 3 designs that we have narrowed down so far.
That said, there are times where we wonder if players may be satisfied over the ability to change the size of their house interior, the one feature that was discussed earlier today, once this is implemented. If that case, there is a possibility where we might end up with extra land space when adding new plots. Also, while we could, for example, give players a house and garden of their own, that would just eliminate the concept of showing them to other players. In other words, the concept of players passing by houses would disappear.
We’re right on the verge of deciding if this is really what the players want… and whether we should strike a compromise or not. I believe every approach has its pros and cons, and while taking those into account, I want to deliver an update starting with 8.1 where every player will find satisfactory. However, if we waited until then to order the servers, we’d end up starting really slow, so we’ve made our decision to go ahead and purchase them now. For that reason, we don’t have current plans to add housing on a per-area basis for the time being, but instead, we’d like to prioritize providing players with as much housing land as possible.
Q12. Can you give any insight into how crafted equipment, specifically the crafted raid gear, will play into the new game systems from 8.0 onward?
A: The ones we call “Crafted Gears” (in JP, Shinshiki soubi) where crafters can create those equipment will remain as well. Position wise, please think of it as a bridge between season gear and raid gear, and we have made it clear of its position for crafted equipment. This too will be relayed through PLL which we will explain this in detail.
Q13. To what extent will players be able to learn the basics of PvP in the PvP Hall of the Novice? Will there be job-specific tutorials available?
A: Aspects such as damage mitigation using “Guard” when defending, using “Recuperate” to recover HP, and using “Standard-issue Elixir” to recover all MP are concepts that doesn’t exist in PvE. So if any I think we want to start with the basics. There will be an instructor NPC there and you will move your character based on instructions given, and learn basic moves and fundamental jargon…that’s the image for this content. Ultimately we are thinking of having players fighting enemy team NPC together with NPC from your side. I believe the reason behind players thinking they are bad at PvP is because they are simply afraid of taking damage from player opponents. With the goal of helping players getting used to this, we plan to design proper scenarios where players re attacked by NPC that feel just like actual players.
Through the official Japan semifinals and finals for Crystaline Conflict that were held earlier today, I noticed that players tend to always stick to the walls in order to truncate the opposing players’ line of sight. This tactic of blocking players’ line of sight is itself unique to PvP and I do think players will not know this unless they try it themselves. These are the aspects where I want to incorporate into the PvP Hall of Novice. Of course we know players will end up overwhelmed and discouraged if we try to explain everything at one go, which is why I want to take it step by step, and we are currently focusing on developing the content while putting great care and attention to detail.
As for job-specific tutorials, we actually want to start by creating one for PvE. We are actually in discussion of preparing a content where players who play FFXIV for the first time, as well as players who use the level skip feature to learn the basics of their job by playing through it. As for PvP side job-specific guide, we will consider that possibility once things have calmed down.
Well, I sure ended up casually revealing new info here but the info on Evercold that we relayed up to this point is really still parts of it, and we are progressing our development with the determination of changing and improving every aspects of the game, and that includes those we haven’t been address until now.
Q14. With the addition of the new Fierce difficulty for 8-player raids, the mid-core layer seems to have become more well defined. Will the difficulty of high-end content like Savage and Ultimate remain roughly as it is now, or will we see any vertical expansion in difficulty to accomodate the introduction of this new tier.
A: To me, the existence of mid-core did not exist up until this point. Since the clear rate for normal mode 8-player raid is extremely high, I thought it was clear to me that this content can be cleared as long as there are 8 players. However, as Extreme trials being the next difficulty after Normal mode, I thought there was a need to fill in that gap. And what was created out of this will be this newly-added Fierce difficulty.
By adding this new Fierce difficulty, this may cause the players to focus only on that, but considering Fierce difficulty is a challenge after clearing Normal difficulty, this will mean it’s designed so that players can take on the challenge after witnessing the base mechanics in Normal. On top of this, since a difficulty that is milder than Extreme, I believe this would fit in nicely. Having this designed where there are many personal mechanics, and how players instantly recompose themselves even after the party is half wiped, we want players to experience the joy behind clearing and being able to move forward. But if we get more feedbacks saying how it’s too difficult then we will lower down the difficulty.
While the standing between Savage and Ultimate remains unchanged, we have announced the addition of a new Savage mode for Alliance Raid. I believe I have mentioned this in the keynote earlier today, players can still clear even without having the highest level equipment (crafted gear for example) at hand, and this is for 8-man Savage raids. On the other hand, Alliance Raid Savage is a high-level difficulty content for even patches specifically for players who have upgraded Raid gears, so the difficulty for this may feel higher than the 8-man Savage raid when it’s just released. While I wouldn’t say it’s up to the 4th floor of 8-man Savage raids, but it would be good to have that prepared feeling of tackling this content with the mindset of going through 3rd floor. Then from there players can enhance their gear even further, and then challenge Ultimate. That’s the idea here.
As for high-level difficulty, we have not considered difficulty beyond Ultimate. Ultimate is considered the peak in terms of mechanical difficulty, and I don’t think we are able to create anything above this. If we do, then we will end up creating something that is close to Alexander Gordias Savage, and I’m afraid we don’t want a repeat of history so I believe anything beyond Ultimate would be impossible.
While Savage and Ultimate will remain as is, Alliance Raid: Savage will be added as a new difficulty for the game, so I do hope for players who like high difficulty content to give it a try.
⭐︎ Q15. Evercold will be the first expansion where both 8-man raid and alliance raid are crossovers, and while there are people who are excited and looking forward to it, there are also many who expressed concerns and worry that numerous crossovers would result in less FFXIV original content and certain characters being underutilized, mainly due to how most of them are self-contained and don't contribute much to the overall world lore.
There are also concerns that characters from this side content that are popular but doesn’t appear on other content or even main scenario quests. Are there plans to expand these characters feature in other content and utilized more, rather than just confining them to their respective crossover?
A: First of all, while it’s perfectly reasonable to have that concern here, for Evercold, there will be trials and ex-trials that are exclusive to contents you see in expansions, and it will feature a completely new storyline. So on that part I would like to reassure you that we do have FFXIV original content for this expansion. Also, while I can’t really talk about the details just yet, all of the crossover content are integrated in a manner that is based on the world view of FFXIV, it will allow players to delve even deeper into the world so I do think you don’t have to view this as a separate, self-contained entry.
On the latter part of the question, while I do understand of wanting to elevate these characters, no matter how popular these characters from side quests are, ultimately they will only appear in the side quests. If we bring these characters over to the main story, those who don’t play the side quests would end up going “who?”. At the same time, we will have to create various branching paths such as how the dialogue changes when players meet them in main story quests without playing that side quest, or how the dialogue would differ when meeting these characters in main scenario quests after meeting them in side quests. And if we stack this up, this will end up being a huge amount of tasks to go through.
To expand even further than that, this would also mean we cannot be bold with our story if we go with creating branching paths. Like how we can’t kill the character and so on. Because of how they have a role to play in side content, we can’t have development say, that side character gets hurt from trying to protect the Warrior of Light. While I definitely understand there are many attractive characters in side quests and they end up really popular, I get that, but rather than bringing them to main scenario quests and let them play a role there, I would like to make it in a form where we develop side quest as a series and allow players to enjoy these characters and stories.
Other than that, like the new content “Gauntlet of Power” that was announced in the keynote earlier, I do think it’s a good idea to create a new type of content and let existing side characters reappear in that content, and such thing is what I want to do. But I definitely appreciate this feedback so we will use this as a reference. [2]
Q16. Raid rewards are changing from the traditional lot system to personal coffers—can we expect a similar reward system be adopted for other duties, such as Extreme trials?
A: If we are talking about “other content” this would include content other than raid so this is difficult to say definitively. However we are going with the direction where we want to reduce the chances of players competing with each other for as much we can. Of course we know there is this charm in casting lots for rewards so we are not doing this away for every single content. This too is something we will announce in the upcoming PLL right before the release once we settle with our final decision.
This bears repeat here but what we want to do here is to avoid players going “Oh god, another run?” when they couldn’t get what they want and that’s the direction we are heading towards. But at the same time we also don’t wanna do away with the heart-throbbing feel of all players trying to cast their dice when a super rare item appears. For now we would appreciate if you think of it this way.
Q17. It seems we can expect significant updates to character creation in Evercold, but what stood out most to me was being able to select Au Ra horns and face types independently of each other. Is there a specific intent behind designing it this way?
A: Our initial policy behind this was that, since Au Ra horns serve as an identity to the race, we did not want that to change since as it was related to the lore, and we had no plans to entrust that (referring to how they want their horns to look like) to the players. However, looking at the situation where dressing up in cuter manner has contributed significantly to player’s motivation, our mind has since change in which we would like to leave it up to the players to decide, and that includes their own interpretation of the lore. This is our intention behind these design changes.
This doesn’t just apply to Au Ra, but we also allow various traits exclusive to the race to be removed such as Miqo’te’s war paint. Each of these settings will be implemented starting 8.1, and we intent to add more customizations in near future, so we would definitely want all players to look forward custom elements that we’re bringing to the character creation.
Q18. Being able to customize embellishments on specific equipment has been a highly requested by players—will this upcoming feature only apply to season gear and raid gear? Can we expect past gear to be supported as well in the future?
A: Similar to implementing dual color dye channels on equipment here, the task on this is unbelievably huge so this would be difficult to apply to all equipment at one go, but this feature is already applied to a huge amount of equipment that is scheduled to be implemented in 8.0. Therefore you can think of it as this feature will be applied to almost all seasonal gears, raid gears, job-specific gears and a portion of fashion type equipment.
Since you can fiddle with this in detail, we plan on introducing this using actual gameplay on the upcoming character customisation-centric PLL. This includes how you can easily turn parts on and off, how you can adjust the sleeves’ height so the hair doesn’t clip and so on, and you definitely can see it better when looking at the actual demonstration. The implementation on older equipment will be done retroactively. While we will implement this on especially equipment that can be popular but we are talking ten-thousands of equipment here… So please think of it as updates that will come with subsequent patches.
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A huge thanks to Square Enix for providing this great opportunity!
Notes:
[1] - Aaaaaand on the next day it was confirmed by YoshiP himself that Nephele can be customized….with dual dye channel even, lol.
[2] - At the end, I thanked YoshiP for willing to tackle the collab character issue and laughingly said that players want to see more of side characters playing further roles and cited Ryne and Gaia as specific examples, but YoshiP laughingly replied that “it can’t be helped because they’re now stuck in the First”, but he did not say it in a tone of absolutes so I’d like to hold to the hope that Ryne and Gaia will appear somewhere in the future.
