Letter from the Producer, XXXI (07/11/2012)

Hello again, all you FFXIVers out there! Yoshi-P here, with my thirty-first Letter from the Producer.

It’s really beginning to feel like the start of summer over here in Japan. We’re seeing some days get up to around 30°C (that’s about 86°F, in case you were wondering). How are all of you holding up? Hm? What about me? Thanks for asking! I’ve been keeping an eye on the FFXIV update, going to a bunch of version 2.0 design meetings, holding a mess of interviews, heading overseas for global PR and more meetings... I gotta be honest, all the different time zones and climates are wreaking havoc on mah circadian rhythms!

I also had the honor of attending Japan Expo 2012 in France the other day. I was a first-timer there, and was absolutely blown away by the level of excitement, just like I’d been told I would be. I have to say thanks to all of the passionate fans for the energy they gave me! :)

I was very, very happy to get to meet over 250 fans at the signing. It meant a lot to have so many of you ask me to sign your Collectors’ Edition journals and game boxes. I even signed the back of a jacket! Sorry for the shaky hands, but I was really nervous! I got to meet the crew of the Crystal Alliance linkshell, some married couples, some engaged couples, some expecting couples... It was one surprise after the other, and I’d like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for making it such an amazing and enjoyable experience.

My set at the expo consisted of a greeting to European fans of the FINAL FANTASY series and all FFXIV players, together with a presentation on FFXIV version 2.0.

My general stage fright is bad enough, but I was so nervous about getting up there and greeting everyone in French that my throat went completely dry. LOL! French is an absolutely beautiful language, but the pronunciation is a bit beyond my linguistic prowess. I’m still worried no one had any idea what I was even saying... How was it?

The presentation lasted for about an hour, including the interpreting. The first half was an intro of the current FFXIV build with some screenshots, and in the second half I talked about version 2.0, showing some stuff that had already been released as well as some all-new stuff.

The all-new stuff was artwork of beginning-level race-specific gear and a couple of real, beautifully modeled costumes based on those designs!

<center><img src="http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/f7/7d/5203_0.jpg"></center>
The sense of uniqueness among the races has been pretty weak in the game up till now, and there hasn’t been much to draw associations with or to symbolize each of them. But I think there has to be some kind of unique identity for each. I mean, these are your avatars. They are <i>you</i> in-game, and that’s saying something. So we’re going to be taking care of that identity issue in version 2.0.

<center><img src="http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/f7/7d/5203_3.JPG"> <img src="http://static.finalfantasyxiv.com/topics/images/f7/7d/5203_4.JPG"></center>
The artwork I showed at the expo was new gear for only the Hyur and Miqo’te, but we’re gonna be giving all the races equal treatment. I’ll be releasing pics of the others in the future, so keep an eye out!


Last but not least, let me say a few words about the schedule for patch 1.23. Things are going smoothly and there’s no delays on the horizon, so it’s looking like we’ll be able to release it around the end of this month. We’re finally getting to the catastrophe that brings about the Seventh Umbral Era and is the catalyst for the slew of changes coming to Eorzea. Look for more patch info (but no spoilers!) in upcoming Topics posts on the Lodestone.

That’s all for now. I’m off to China Joy 2012! I’ll talk to you again in the next producer letter or on the forums.

Zài jiàn! :)