JPGAMES.DE Interview with Yoshida Naoki

[Arland]

We from JPGAMES.DE had the pleasure to meet Yoshida Naoki and Sundi Sage for a interview in the SQUARE ENIX Headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. To make sure the information reaches every FINAL FANTASY XIV fan, we thought it a good idea to post it on the english FINAL FANTASY XIV Lodestone forum as well.

JPGAMES.DE, Michael: Let us introduce ourselves first, we are from JPGames. We originally started as a FINAL FANTASY XII fan page; developed into FINAL FANTASY FUTURE and now we are called JPGAMES.DE, the difference is that we now cover Japanese games for all platforms. I’m moderator for the FINAL FANTASY XIV forums and Frederick is a real hardcore player.
Frederick: Yeah. *laugh*

*everyone laughs*

Yoshida Naoki: First of all, thank you very much for joining us today. As you already know, FINAL FANTASY XIV had a very hard launch since last year’s September and last month has been the one year anniversary. Thanks to all the FINAL FANTASY XIV players and communities that support us with very warm and kind words which really helped the development team, that is why we wanted to make this announcement about FINAL FANTASY XIV 2.0. To show there is going to be more and more exciting experiences awaiting all the players. That is why we would like you to enjoy the game and look forward to the added features as well.


[...]

For the full interview, please visit: JPGAMES.DE. Please enjoy reading!

Judge from JPGAMES.DE

[Fieros]

Thanks for taking the time to post this! ^-^

edit: Great interview, so much to look foward to! That was funny that you went to sieze the laptop, nice.

[Arland]

Thanks for taking the time to post this! ^-^

edit: seems to be a problem with the website, after reading for a few seconds the screen goes white and nothing happens...

Thanks for the comment, I'll look into this. Does this happen for others as well?

[DNO]

Nice thread and interview

[Cichy]

Unlike other MMOs, in which you can only see your own house and each house is based on an instanced system, we want to make sure that other players can actually see your house as well. Around 20 houses can be in one area, you can make houses, not anywhere, but you will be able to decide in which part you want to have your house. You can also design your house itself and have your own garden, maybe you can grow your own Gysahl Greens there or house your own chocobo. You can really customize your own estate.

^they can take my money now, cant f#&&in wait!

[Jennestia]

That issue doesn't happen to me, but one thing to take from it -

He's going the Final Fantasy Tactics route with unlocking Jobs.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

Wait what.. Marauder gonna get nerfed in tanking? xD well they are suppose to be DD's

[Answa]

JPGAMES.DE, Michael: Okay, let’s turn to our last question: We really enjoy your “Letters from the producer”. They are written really friendly and open minded, but this kind of open communication is something we are not used to from SQUARE ENIX. *everyone laughs* So the question is: Are you free to write them how you want them to be or are your PR-people looking over your shoulder? *PR people laugh and point at themselves*

Yoshida Naoki: To answer the question, if I have the right to freely do so, then yes. But of course, to make sure that there are no mistakes, for example Sundi and his community team check them before they are published. But sometimes they ask: “Are you sure that we can mention that at this point of time?” When they ask me that… well, I’m the producer and director and I have the full power to decide what we disclose, but of course we shouldn’t talk too much about the companies’ secrets, so we do double check this. *Sundi laughs*

Sage Sundi: Well, the only problem is that Yoshida is always writing the texts at midnight *everyone laughs really hard* and sneaking out of his office to post it on the forums, so that really is the hardest part. *everyone still laughs*



So that’s the scary part about the community reps’ role, because they wake me up in the morning to tell me: “There is all the information on the forum!”, and I am like: “OH MY GOD!!!” *everyone laughs again*

Yeah… *chuckle*

Yoshida Naoki: Because it’s an MMO, and because I have really been a hardcore MMO player, I honestly think that this open discussion is part of the excitement and we really want to make sure to have this good communication. I’m the director and producer of this project and it is not like I was told to act, it is my own policy. I wanted to do this and I really wanted to do this by myself. That’s why I started it and it makes it more enjoyable for me and, I believe, also for the players. I really want to continue this communication.

This made me burst out laughing. Thanks so much for the interview!

[Reliquia]

Wow this interview uncovered a lot of new info. Especially regarding the free companies and summoning Ifrit and housing. I think it's also starting to look as if every job will have a main and a sub class judging from the Pld statement.

JPGAMES.DE, Michael: Recently you mentioned combined jobs, what can you tell us about it and what jobs could that be?

Yoshida Naoki: The requirement to get these jobs is to do a job quest, but to do a job quest, there is a special requirement too. If you want to become a paladin, you need to have a class level 30 of gladiator and 15 of marauder. Then you can apply to this job quest and then, if you complete it, you can unlock that job, so it is not really like combining classes. It is more like a requirement.

For example, paladin will be a really special job for tanking. To make sure that he gets those abilities, he will need do more different quests to get those abilities. You are going to protect others, but that’s not all. You have the marauder as a background class before you become a paladin. Those kind of class abilities will be connected to the paladin job. Even if you had more classes in the past, these are not related to the paladin and can’t be used.

[Holland]

Really good interview! ^.^

Very good questions!. He did disclose too much info on Primals Summoning! Hah!. And I hope Square-Enix sees the communication Yoshida is having with us is, in-part, what has made us believe in SE again and gladly pay fees for this game, besides the point that the game is really fun now ^^.

Anyway, hope this engine allows Dragoon to have his Jump.