Interview: Face-to-Face with FFXIV's Naoki Yoshida - Article on MMORPG website

I feel like one of the few people that never look at guides for MMOs and just do whatever the fuck I want.

Then pretty much we shouldn't have gear or weapons with stats/materia on them and keep it purely cosmetic and base content around just your character level only this way the devs can create content even easier without those extra stats, this way we can make gear even more boring than it currently is and just look fabulous imo. This is one the reason now I just play story content and forget end game know I can easily put this game down and play something else so Yoshi-p nailed it on that I guess! /Shrugs

That's the way mmos are going. The more gear/customization and the grind behind them the less popular that mmo is (no sure how Wow does things) but yes. I rather my skill determine how content is completed than my gear determining that. Those mmos where the gear determines the most how well you can do content are the bad ones.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ghastly

That's the way mmos are going. The more gear/customization and the grind behind them the less popular that mmo is (no sure how Wow does things) but yes. I rather my skill determine how content is completed than my gear determining that. Those mmos where the gear determines the most how well you can do content are the bad ones.

---

Yeah thankfully I don't consider this a mmo it more a mulitplayer feature to me you que up with people and do instance fights with and get a dlc's with story content to go solo stuff at least I get to play more games on the side and wait a few patches to see were the story goes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ghastly

That's the way mmos are going. The more gear/customization and the grind behind them the less popular that mmo is (no sure how Wow does things) but yes. I rather my skill determine how content is completed than my gear determining that. Those mmos where the gear determines the most how well you can do content are the bad ones.

---

Purely your opinion. And no, that's not how MMO's are "evolving". That's how Yoshida decided for Final Fantasy, and it's the only game I've come across where variety is removed, instead of added. I may have missed other games like that, mind you. I'm not as much of a player as I was in the past. But it have little to do with players and more with budget. It's simply a lot cheaper to make a crippled game than one that offers more than an illusion of choice. And Yoshida admitted to that. It just makes it easier for them to balance stuff.

Quote:

---

Q: What reducing the number of dungeons introduced in odd-numbered patches allowed the team to do?

A: It’s part of a wider redistribution of resources. “We gained breathing space not only from including less dungeons but from abolishing battle-type leves from the game. When it came to these, the text cost was enormous and almost everything was handmade; because we abolished this, the team was able to focus on the main scenario and add special battles and enrich the storyline.”

---

When I read this, I went, "YAAAAASSSSS!!!" I just love the story of FFXIV so I'm happy that they're trying to focus more on Main Scenario.

As for the glamour part, with me being a glamour addict, I'm one excited gal. Looking forward to that Live Letter event :D

Personally, to me the current gear system isn't boring. Quite the opposite, what I can't stand is the kind of system where you can "customize" your stats. I have experienced it in several games before and it never did anything good to me.

Putting aside the fact that it'll likely be more difficult for people to take breaks and come back later on (as Yoshida well said), there's also the problem that the community will expect you to follow the cookie cutter build everyone will have -and to max out your stats on top of that-, or else you'll likely be treated like rubbish. At least such has been my experience in games that used this kind of system.

So, I agree 100% with everything Yoshida says. There are different players with different tastes, and I stayed in FFXIV because it allows me focus more on the fun than on the stats.

I'm pretty much satisfied-and excited- about bearly everything Yoshida said. My major gripe though was his response about tanks being equal.

Yoshi

Yoshi pls

Saying DRK are equal to the other while simultaneously mentioning both of their party-wide mitigation skills doesn't make sense.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thayos

customization has to answer the question, "For what purpose?"

Without additional purposes, why waste time customizing?

---

It's the other way around. There are inherent motivations to make a progression system with choices (it's a pleonasm ; the appellation should be simply "progression system"), and it'd be an interesting talk, but the defendant here is FFXIV : why waste time imitating a progression system? The level, the stats on gears, the gauges to fill, all of these are just appearance. FFXIV has nothing of the benefits of an usual progression system, but it does have some of its potential problems like the grind (which gives an excuse to the devs to sell the jump potion). There are also some other specific little problems, like how we spend most of our time in level synced content without all our abilities.

I don't really hope for the devs to add customisation in FFXIV, because it wouldn't be good, since Yoshida doesn't seem to believe in it. It may be better if they did to the whole game what they've done to PvP : remove level and stats on gear and make a new progression (like, "level up" a class by just doing the donjons in order, or something)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kikix12

Living Dead is absolutely horrid. It is nowhere as good as Hallowed Ground in any normal situation.

---

I was really just taking into consideration the shorter CD so potentially it can be used significantly more than Hallowed. The two situations that I can think of that fulfill this are O4s Delta Attacks(can immune all 3) and perhaps Shinryu(debatable but LD comes up enough for an extra use in final phase, but isn't required)

It's weird that he talks about wanting to create content with longevity in this interview but in the interview with PSU, he says:

Quote:

---

...but when creating content for FINAL FANTASY XIV, we don’t envision anything we make as “content we want people to continue playing for an exceptionally long time.” We have designed the game in a way that entices players to strive for high item level weapons or equipment, or enjoy the aspect of leveling up with our content updates. Since there is a level cap in the game, coupled with the fact that we increase the item level on equipment with our updates, it really is hard to imagine content existing that can played for an extended period of time.

---

Is Eureka going to only last 1-or-2 patches or is it going to be content people do for a long time?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kikix12

How would Benediction make Living Dead even reasonably comparable to Hallowed Ground?! The one and only advantage it have is the cooldown being shorter, but at 5 minutes, it's still far more than necessary to take advantage of it in any fight which you have reasonable chances of winning.

---

With Benediction, Living Dead can create a slightly longer potential period of time in which the healers do not have to worry about the tank. Even if Living Dead isn't activated immediately, there's no need to heal during that time because, at worst case, it will merely turn into Walking Dead. Since Benediction can be within the last second. If Living Dead is cast just at the very brink of (would-be) death, however, then this becomes irrelevant, or (with enough healer or tank latency) even favors Hallowed Ground again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khalithar

This sentence in particular got me thinking about an old quote from Ghostcrawler the old WoW dev, to paraphrase he said something along the lines of "it's amazing what players will go through for even a theoretical 1% dps increase" and it's most definitely a sentiment I agree with.

But when I read about the concept of "builds" I wonder what exactly do they mean in context for this game? I think there needs to be some establishment of what exactly people mean by that before any real meaningful conversation can take place. The only sort of "build" we have right now is "how do you meld your materia?" Do they mean they want secondaries to be more meaningful so that something like direct hit is as good as skill speed for every job? Or do they mean different ways of playing the same job, such as having the option of making a smn that forgoes DoT's entirely in exchange for higher potency ruins and having both be competitive?

Currently, materia and tweaking whatever are your best secondaries with the right gear (augmented allagan vs genji) are the only sort of "build" there is with everyone following the same model to maximize their dps. That brings me along to another question, are people saying they want more options than the "maximize your dps for every role" that is so popular now? Now all of these are subjective of course, but unless we can define what people mean by saying "more customization in builds" I feel that this conversation won't go very far.

---

A very good point, though I'm afraid I can only guess at part of an answer for now, as putting the concept wholly in context would require it to be fully complete.

At present, XIV has the least customization of any game I know. Because of the modular math (essentially CD-stacking) involved in good play, it has slightly more complexity than certain classes (or specs therein) of certain MMORPGs I've played, while less than many others, and I do not think it can support much more enjoyable complexity so long as so many buttons are caught up in bloat (complication for complication's sake, almost, rather than creating new points or paths of decision). As such, it's hard to determine what complexity would be added and what portion of that would make sense to streamline into mutual exclusives via customization (do you want this narrower but therefore much more cohesive toolkit, or this other one).

That said, because we have virtually no customization beyond our Role Skills, of which 90% of all possible decisions are basically predetermined -- the choice of Anticipation vs. Awareness in a physical-based, high-attack-rate boss fight, second protect/esuna or Rescue -- and our gearing (both the base piece and our materia attached thereto), for which our stats either have very little gameplay effect (det/hit and crit outside of Bard/Monk) or suffer from obvious scaling issues (skill speed, and to a lesser extent spell speed), pretty much anything is possible.

If customization were to be a thing in this game, I feel like the first thing to consider is its purpose.

If the RPG aspect of this game is intended only to be nominal -- a way to excuse grinding before the "real" (end) game begins -- then customization is just a way to siphon excess complexity (which, again, we do not have yet) for multiple and more cohesive gameplay products in place of just the one original as to increase the breadth of players to whom that job is attractive or the depth of that attraction (essentially, to improve job gameplay), in so far as those multiple choices are generally and situationally balanced within a margin covering all but the most hardcore players.

If the RPG aspect of this game is intended to be pivotal -- a way to deepen the experience in our immersion therein -- then customization is more of world-building tool, such as by interlinking skillsets insofar as they are interconnected in the lore or underlying mechanics of the game world and encouraging player-experience-specific additions and alterations. Now, that can be a growth system more so that a true customization system, whereby tapering rewards allow further opportunity for your job, so long as the baseline capabilities aren't overly nerfed to compensate for them -- meaning that class progress can continue beyond level cap outside of mere gear, or it can simply increase the spread of situations into which a job is applicable (e.g. selfish DPS Bard, point-support Bard, broad support Bard, just sings stuff Bard). But this, too, requires general and situational balance in order not to feel like an elaborate lie, and the best way to achieve that is usually to create enough content and content-nonspecific difficulty (e.g. tactics that take a long time to get down with a set of friends, but can be reused for many different kinds of fights) that while balance may remain highly situational, there are too many situations, or there is too little foreknowledge of those situations, to make worthwhile account of each individually. Think auto-generative, mechanics-heavy content, for instance: you wouldn't know going in what exactly is going to be finely optimal, so you take a party that you trust to react to the breadth of situations that are expected. You might take a BLM for nuke AoE damage, a mobile ranged to taxi it and to regenerate resource, a Dragoon for point-burst, a Summoner for battlefield manipulation and widespread DoT-and-kite. Inn the face of the unknown, each compositional choice, and customization options therein, actually mean a lot more; inversely, it is very difficult to maintain semblance of general balance, rather than everything being fight specific, if there is relatively little content or if the shape of that content is unaffected by chance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DreamAngel-Ren

As for the glamour part, with me being a glamour addict, I'm one excited gal. Looking forward to that Live Letter event :D

---

I say Yoshi-P should do that particular Live Letter wearing the Amon's set (or at least wearing Amon's Hat).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

With Benediction, Living Dead can create a slightly longer potential period of time in which the healers do not have to worry about the tank. Even if Living Dead isn't activated immediately, there's no need to heal during that time because, at worst case, it will merely turn into Walking Dead. Since Benediction can be within the last second.

---

It's actually irrelevant at all times. You need to use Benediction in order to make that last-moment save (and again, it's a very limited option since PING WILL cause a last-second cast to fail in certain circumstances, which you never know apply to you). It is hardly different than that Benediction being used in place of normal healing when the tank does not use their ultimate. It's a matter of less than a second difference. The same second that you lose out on casting Benediction before the Living Dead runs out so as to actually save the tank. No matter the situations, you will always come out worse with Living Dead than Hallowed Ground. Always. The only positive aspect is Living Dead having a lower cooldown, so in long fights with hard hits that are spread apart a lot, it may be possible to use it more than Hallowed Ground. However, even then, it's not better. It just lets you have an easier time maybe one more time over the course of the fight. A very situational and very limited skill that is strictly worse at every other time.

And you still lose TWO "ultimates" (Living Dead and Benediction) for the same outcome that Hallowed Ground can do on its own.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mimilu

It's weird that he talks about wanting to create content with longevity in this interview but in the interview with PSU, he says:


Is Eureka going to only last 1-or-2 patches or is it going to be content people do for a long time?

---

Look at it this way. Eureka isn't really the content, the Relic gear is. And the relics will likely be designed so that most moderate effort players will be able to progress to the next step each patch. So assuming Eureka is 100% for the relics and the relics are 100% developed inside Eureka, Eureka will be content that lasts the whole expansion but likely won't be something you can throw yourself at hard and get anything significant out of it for the entire patch.
Don't be fooled by the launch patch either as you'll likely be dealing with 4.1 and 4.2's Relic steps combined.