JP interviews [pre-6.5]

[Atelier-Bagur]

why is this a challenge for them? this is a problem they already solved before EW even dropped. tomestone weapons are right there, make them easier to obtain more frequently if you must- but leaving literally nothing for people who liked grinding relics isn't a solution.

Again, its because not many players obtained more than one weapon and I can vouch for that statement because yeah...past relic chains were such a grind that it was a huge chore to do multiple ones, even when you try to do many of them at the same time, its just not appealing to do unless you are just THAT BORED in the game.

Whats frustrating about his statement is that I completely agree with him. I also think its bad that not many people complete multiple relics in previous expansions because yeah the grinds were too stupid with a lot of the steps, but the issue is that he went into the far other extreme were the relic grind is too simple, the exact same and boring. I understand the philosophy behind the tomestone idea because you can theoretically get them via multidud avenues but when all you have to do is your daily duty roulettes to get the 3 same materials at the same price in less than a single day the we have a problem.

I really wish they could go back to form and take a page of some of the less grindy steps from the ARR relic chain where you had to do a unique trial, or had a book that required you to run certain content or go on a treasure hunt, or do Fates where you only needed one item per zone (rather than the bullshit 20 of 3 types of memories like in the Shb relic....) Like literally give us SOMETHING different and a tad long lasting rather than making it too boring and quick to get or making it too boring and grindy to get a single one. There has to be a sweet middle and he's not aiming for that.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

"We already have tomestone weapons"

No, we don't. We have tomestone/raid weapons. Which would be fine, except that the drops from normal raids are limited to once a week. I'd like to get an upgrade to my green gear on all four jobs I play without having to wait a literal half year. So either keep relics as they are or uncap the drops from normal raids.

[Zairava]

"We already have tomestone weapons"

No, we don't. We have tomestone/raid weapons. Which would be fine, except that the drops from normal raids are limited to once a week. I'd like to get an upgrade to my green gear on all four jobs I play without having to wait a literal half year. So either keep relics as they are or uncap the drops from normal raids.

I'd say to just make the weapon obtainable through tomestomes themselves and let the raids have the capped drops as raid gear. If they want to keep that drop from the final fight of a tier a thing then instead of removing it they could allow us to get normal mode weapons with them. Make them equivalent to the tome weapon, or 5 IL higher if they really want to stretch it.

I will say, though. the weekly tome cap should be increased and the raid drops should be uncapped sooner. The odd numbered patches would sound like a decent time.

[Remember_The_Name]

The last Alliance Raid might be stronger than usual this time.

Oh really? Haha, alright, guys, there's a vague hope that at least last Alliance Raid is gonna be the promised "Return to Ivalice" level of difficulty!

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Just kidding. Knowing SE, there probably will be ONE SINGLE specific mechanic on ONE SIGNLE specific boss (I think, the 3rd one) harder than usual and they will call it a day.

Because putting players against any resemblance of a challenge in normal difficulty content is strictly forbidden.

[Zairava]

Oh really? Haha, alright, guys, there's a vague hope that at least last Alliance Raid is gonna be the promised "Return to Ivalice" level of difficulty!

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Just kidding. Knowing SE, there probably will be ONE SINGLE specific mechanic on ONE SIGNLE specific boss (I think, the 3rd one) harder than usual and they will call it a day.

Because putting players against any resemblance of a challenge in normal difficulty content is strictly forbidden.

My expectations aren't high..the bar isn't very high considering Aglaia and Euphrosyne. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised, but do I think it'll be the tier of Ridorana and Orbonne when they were current content? Not a chance. No matter how hard we screech about it.

It's why I'd like to have ex alliance raids to provide them but harder.

[Nestama]

This sounds harsh but I don't think they did a good job. The raids were very, very bland, and Euphrosyne in particular is the most boring alliance raid, possibly even more boring than Syrcus Tower in terms of mechanical complexity and innovation.

Harsh, but fair criticism. When you compare Euphrosyne to other second 24man raids like Wiping City, Pop Quiz Lighthouse and Puppet's Bunker... it's disappointing (much like Syrcus Tower on release).

They had an interesting idea with Althyk and Nymeia having a hard enrage at 7 minutes, but then made that fight extremely "nothing," especially when compared to other duo boss fights like Hansel and Gretel (makes you change target), Omega M/F (gives you a debuff that makes it so you can only damage one or the other), etc.

[Jeeqbit]

There's "more stuff" planned for the gap between 6.55 and 7.0 than they covered at NA Fan Fest.

All the seasonal events and FF15 crossover and so on. Not expecting much, frankly.

development staff did feel bad at times for changing/removing mechanics for Trust support, but felt that it was important both in terms of maintainability and playability in the future as well as giving a better on-boarding process

Proof of what I've been saying then. The mechanics weren't just altered for Duty Support but to provide a better on-boarding experience for new players. I'm glad they at least feel bad about this.

No concrete plans on making old 8-man content doable with Trusts

The lack of an announcement on this at fanfest made this clear to me. It seems we won't get it until 8.0 or later, if at all.

Criterion dungeon will receive an increase in rewards compared to the past two

Alright so they listened.

Relics have the highest completion rate of any relic so far. The more elaborate they make the relic content/grind, the fewer people make one

Well duh, if you make something easy of course everyone will do it. That doesn't mean that everything should be easy.

conflict between people that "enjoy weapon enhancement as content" and people that "want a system that makes it easy to obtain weapons". Satisfying both is very hard.

No it's not. We have crafted weapons for the people who want it to be easy.

Island Sanctuary will get small updates in 7.0, but there are no plans for that to continue through 7.x. They have other lifestyle content in mind instead

They need to make housing available in Island Sanctuary or at least the 7.x lifestyle content. Otherwise it seems like a waste of development time.

[Kaliesto]

I think the relics would have worked better for everyone if each Relic had a story quest behind it with its own boss to defeat.

I don't know how else you can please this relic crowd.

[RitsukoSonoda]

"We already have tomestone weapons"

No, we don't. We have tomestone/raid weapons. Which would be fine, except that the drops from normal raids are limited to once a week. I'd like to get an upgrade to my green gear on all four jobs I play without having to wait a literal half year. So either keep relics as they are or uncap the drops from normal raids.

The solution would have been to just remove the need for the raid token to buy the tomestone weapons and keep the relics as they were, set to their own questline with various different steps and a new exploratory type zone. If the excuse is that it takes too long to get the existing tomestone weapons due to the weekly cap on the top tier tomes then either remove the cap or double it permanently instead of just doing it the last month or so before the new paid expansion launches.

[ASkellington]

I think the relics would have worked better for everyone if each Relic had a story quest behind it with its own boss to defeat.

I don't know how else you can please this relic crowd.

Easy, don't make a relic system that I can complete day one with a backlog of tomestones I already have. That's the whole problem with the relic. Not that we have options to gain X (in this case tomestones) but because of what X is (tomestones) something we get naturally and more importantly something we usually have an abundance of from a previous patch.