New interview from Famitsu Connect-On Magazine Aug.2011

[JayvirDeforte]

The Dev Team that promised you content in September is gone.

Uhh... What the hell are you talking about? September is the end of summer is it not?... which is the deadline Yoshi-P set not more than a month ago.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Uhh... What the hell are you talking about? September is the end of summer is it not?... which is the deadline Yoshi-P set not more than a month ago.

I misread your post. I thought you meant the content that Tanaka's team promised last September.

[Amsai]

First off, thank you for the translations. I did see a couple of things that cause me some concern.

From now on, the leveling will no longer be the primary contents, so they will not implement exp loss as death penalty, nor make leveling more harder.

I think this could be OK as long as its implemented in a good way. Like very challenging content, and instead of punishing death, rewarding success. I am ultimately a fan of reinforcement, so positive or negative as long as its done right I have no complaints.

"The Materia system will allow you to make the best gear, and for those interested in the best gear; the materia system is balanced in a way where attaching/adding materia to crafted gear will have better results then attaching them to NM dropped gear."

I apologize if my translation is not 100% correct, but it does literally say that Materia enhanced crafted gear will show better results then Materia enhanced NM dropped gear. Kristina also included this information " [materia buffed gear] > [NM dropped gear]" just not a word to word translation. So thank you again Kristina for the translations and the new information.

If this is accurate potrayal of the final plans involving NM and Crafted gear in regards to Materia enhancement, then I have a big problem with it. I suppose it depends on how cut and dry this is. If it is the exception and not the rule, as in super rare for someone to get lucky enough to have a second materia attached to gear, then that would be fine. It would be like people having Ninurta's Sash vs Speed Belt or along those lines.

However, if this is not the case than I have a serious problem with it. In my opinion, it defeats the purpose of NM dropped gear to a certain extent. If I work hard to get a rare drop from a NM, then I enhance it with the best possible materia it makes sense to me that it would be better than a materia enhanced crafted gear. At the very least, it should be equal in terms of what is the best or have trade offs. The only way this would be acceptable to me is if as I said before its either equal with trade offs or if its a very very very rare occurence. Speaking specifically of trade offs: Maybe something like materia enhanced crafted gear makes the best "Class" armor and materia enhanced NM dropped gear makes the best "Job" armor?

[Lerris]

"The Materia system will allow you to make the best gear, and for those interested in the best gear; the materia system is balanced in a way where attaching/adding materia to crafted gear will have better results then attaching them to NM dropped gear."

I apologize if my translation is not 100% correct, but it does literally say that Materia enhanced crafted gear will show better results then Materia enhanced NM dropped gear. Kristina also included this information " [materia buffed gear] > [NM dropped gear]" just not a word to word translation. So thank you again Kristina for the translations and the new information.

If this is accurate potrayal of the final plans involving NM and Crafted gear in regards to Materia enhancement, then I have a big problem with it. I suppose it depends on how cut and dry this is. If it is the exception and not the rule, as in super rare for someone to get lucky enough to have a second materia attached to gear, then that would be fine. It would be like people having Ninurta's Sash vs Speed Belt or along those lines.

However, if this is not the case than I have a serious problem with it. In my opinion, it defeats the purpose of NM dropped gear to a certain extent. If I work hard to get a rare drop from a NM, then I enhance it with the best possible materia it makes sense to me that it would be better than a materia enhanced crafted gear. At the very least, it should be equal in terms of what is the best or have trade offs. The only way this would be acceptable to me is if as I said before its either equal with trade offs or if its a very very very rare occurence. Speaking specifically of trade offs: Maybe something like materia enhanced crafted gear makes the best "Class" armor and materia enhanced NM dropped gear makes the best "Job" armor?

We'll need to see how it plays out.
Simplifying to raw numbers for a working example:

Crafted sword has an attack of 200.
NM drop sword has an attack of 220.

Crafted sword with materia becomes sword with an attack of 230.
NM drop sword with identical materia becomes sword with an attack of 240.

So, it is entirely possible for NM gear that is more powerful than crafted gear to remain more powerful if materia is applied to both. It's also possible that your fears will be accurate.

[Teknoman]

The leveling comment could be a great thing for XIV. A focus on tactics for battles rather than just leveling up to a certain point and brute forcing your way through an area or boss/mission would be great.

[Seikninkuru]

I meant more like "Red Mage will be more of the same crap we had in XI instead of being melee capable and/or a magic fencer". Remember, I hated refresh-botting, I hated being stuck with "support" as my only viable role in a party, I hated not being able to live up to the Red Mage concept in content that mattered, and I hated seeing my rapier collect dust.

Well you're crazy, people want roles. They want you to be their refresh bot, their heal bot, their <whatever> bot.

I, on the other hand, agree with you.

[Biggs]

Some of the things mentioned are good (new tutorials, and the fact they are trying to make the game more universally acceptable).

But the job system just sounds so crap... FFS. Essentially they are ruining the armory system. Just remove the armory system if you're going to ruin it!


Also, a crafter is now a materia-worker? All gear will be dropped from NMs and all crafters will do is upgrade materia slots?

Lame!


Are they trying to ruin the game even more?

Actually it sounds like you will still be able to mix and match skills when you are playing as a class, but when you switch to a specific job mode (like PLD, Bard, ect) you lose some of that ability in favor of gaining more advanced skills. I was bummed about about this news at first too but, when you think about it, it actually makes it so they can add a ton of different jobs and classes to the game. When you think about all the jobs they have ever made in the FF series, you realize this gives them the chance to add a ton of variety. For every class they release later, it essentially adds 2 or more new jobs to the game. If done right, this could be an awsome system.

As to the lame comment about materia, I think its even lamer to let the best gear in the game only go to those that can come up with 32 people that can help them camp the hardest mobs in the game. Because that seemed to work out really well for the little guys in xi.

[Duelle]

Well you're crazy, people want roles. They want you to be their refresh bot, their heal bot, their <whatever> bot.

I, on the other hand, agree with you.

As it's been mentioned that it is just an example (in the other translation thread), I've gone back to "wait and see" mode for the moment.

Either way, why is everyone getting so hyped up about bard? I think bard and I think Leliana from Dragon Age (awesome), that bard character from the Romancing SaGa remake (good one too), and the princess job from FFXI (erm...).

[Griss]

I think the talk surrounding bard is that, well its the odd duck of the list. Every thing else has a pretty logical corresponding host class to mesh with.

I would laugh my rear end off if it was crammed into mrd and buffed the party by singing sea shanty's and playing a squeeze box. Yo ho ho and all that.

[Zanfire]

Actually it sounds like you will still be able to mix and match skills when you are playing as a class, but when you switch to a specific job mode (like PLD, Bard, ect) you lose some of that ability in favor of gaining more advanced skills. I was bummed about about this news at first too but, when you think about it, it actually makes it so they can add a ton of different jobs and classes to the game. When you think about all the jobs they have ever made in the FF series, you realize this gives them the chance to add a ton of variety. For every class they release later, it essentially adds 2 or more new jobs to the game. If done right, this could be an awsome system.

As to the lame comment about materia, I think its even lamer to let the best gear in the game only go to those that can come up with 32 people that can help them camp the hardest mobs in the game. Because that seemed to work out really well for the little guys in xi.

Except this game limits you to 8...so it cant be that bad. I think thats part of the MMO-verse in the first place. You play more, do more events, kill more things with more people, you get the best stuff. id rather they not let some halfwit get the best stuff because he can buy it. Nor do i want them to dumb everything down so "everyone" can get the best stuff, part of MMOs is the "showing off" part is it not?

Its a game, thats how game would always really work, if someone has more time and wants to work harder, thats their business. You can apply that to just about anything in life. Guy #1 might spend more time in a game, but #2 spends more time with family, so in the end, everyone gets and looses something for the time and effort they put into things.