Translations (JP to English)

[Meatdawg]

I agree I am also just playing it lol, and the questing would be a pain in arr. although I think the thing that annoys the crap out of me the most in xenoblade is the ridiculous amount of gear, it is an mmo but a single player game, it's strange I think.

I like to keep 1 of each piece of gear and this game makes it pretty hard with the endless amount of options they give you. The crystal system they stole from ffvii materia is pretty nice too. It basically is a single player mmo, but just like ff XII, I am enjoying it.

[Reinheart]

I remember seeing some people on the NA forums asking this one so I'll post this one here. Regarding Legacy status holders wanting to participate in the PS3 version beta test. All other JP rep posts today are repeat from yesterday & one that says e-mail addresses that had numbers in them had some issues but it's fixed now.

こんにちは。
Hello,

他の懸念点にも順次お答えしていきますが、取り急ぎホットなこちらについてお知らせしておきます。
Bassbarさんが纏めてくださったのがほぼ正しいです。
I will answer other questions asked in order but I'll answer this one first this it's hot.
Bassbar's post pretty much is correct.

レガシーの方々は、（という前提で以下ご覧ください）
Below is for Legacy holders.

・Windows版βテストには何もしなくてもβフェーズ1から参加できます。
サービスアカウントやスクエニアカウントを解約しているというような超特殊な状況を除いて、
β申し込みをしようがしまいが、（ある意味強制的に）Windows版のβテスターとしての権利が
付与されます（逃れることはできません！）
You can participate from Beta phase 1 without doing anything for Windows version beta test.
Unless if you did something special such as cancelling the service account or SE account no matter if you send in application for beta or not, you will still receive the rights (in a way forcefully) to become windows version beta tester. (You can't run away from it! )

・PlayStation 3でβテストに参加したい方は申し込んでください。
レガシーの方々であってもPS3版のβテスターには申し込んでください。
このとき、β申し込みサイトでどのような選択をしても、Windows版の選考に影響を与えることは
ありません。具体的には「PlayStation 3」または「どちらも」を選んでください。
（レガシーの皆さんにはこの選択肢の違いに意味はありません）
FFXIII封入のコードを入力すると「優先権」が発生します。コードをお持ちで入力している方は、
コードをお持ちでない方よりも先に選ばれますので、お持ちの方は入力しておくと良いでしょう。
また、PS3版のβテスターに当選することがWindows版のβ権利に影響することもありません。
PS3版に当選してWin版の権利を失うこともなく、両方当選すれば両方のプラットフォームで
同一のIDからβテストに参加することができます。
If you would like to participate in the PlayStation3 beta test, please apply for it.
Even if you are a Legacy status holder please register for the PS3 version beta test.
At this time no matter which option you choose it will not affect the status for the windows version. Basically please choose the 'PlayStation 3' or 'Both' option.
(For Legacy status holders this option has no difference in meaning)
If you enter the beta code from the FFXIII, you will get priority. If you enter the code, you will get selected before those without the code so if you have it, it's good to put that in.
Also if you do get selected for the PS3 version, it will still not affect the windows version beta rights. Therefore if you did get selected for the PS3 version, you won't lose the rights for the windows version and if selected for both, you will be able to participate in the beta test on both platforms with the same ID.

…ということで纏めますと、レガシーな方でPlayStation 3版のβテストにも参加したい方は、
安心していますぐ申し込んでいただいてまったく問題ありません。
...So to sum it up, for Legacy holders wanting to PlayStation 3 version test, don't worry about anything and send in the application now.

** Sorry for derailing the thread by talking about Xenoblade

[Rizon]

Thank you for this update. I started a thread concerning this very matter and got flamed by several people. Nice to know I am not the only one who finds "reading is hard".

On a lighter note I like Foxclon's style. He reminds us Legacy members, half jokingly, with benefits comes responsibilities.

[Babydoll]

Thank you for this update. I started a thread concerning this very matter and got flamed by several people. Nice to know I am not the only one who finds "reading is hard".

On a lighter note I like Foxclon's style. He reminds us Legacy members, half jokingly, with benefits comes responsibilities.

yeah, Foxclon is awesome lol. Thanks Rein for these updates

I wonder why the NA community rep ppl have been so quiet lately o.O It is kinda weird >.<;

[Reinheart]

yeah, Foxclon is awesome lol. Thanks Rein for these updates

I wonder why the NA community rep ppl have been so quiet lately o.O It is kinda weird >.<;

They are planning an attack...

[Req]

Rein does all the translating for them, why would they need to say anything?

[Dannythm]

Rein does all the translating for them, why would they need to say anything?

Because they get paid to?

[Antanias]

Because they get paid to?

And the Subliking himself said that even his translations can be a bit off sometimes.

<--gives Rein a fresh pair of subligar for all his efforts.

[Reinheart]

I know I should but I hate proof reading 13 pages.... got 30min left so let me read the doc while cleaning it up and I'll post the article I translated in here.

[Reinheart]

Sorry this one is super long so I couldn't finish proof reading and fixing up...
There will be parts that may be confusing.

As usual my translations are not 100%, done on my own so please don't take anything seriously. I tried my best I can (without proof reading the whole stuff lol, although I should... /nod)

Just heads up: This one really isn't much about FF14, it's mainly about YoshiP (Yoshida Naoki) our great Producer/Director so if you're not interested in him, this article isn't for you.

-----------------------

Source:
1st half - http://getnews.jp/archives/282086
2nd half - http://getnews.jp/archives/282212


Y - Yoshida
H - Hiroyuki
I - Gadget Tsushin Interviewer
My Comment
----------------------------------

On December 26th, at 9PM, there was a Nico-nama Live broadcast “Final Fantasy XIV: ARR
In this program, FF14 ARR producer/director Naoki Yoshida and Niconico Administrator Hiroyuki has appeared. In the live broadcast program a new trailer was shown, different PC specs were tested, and they fought “Durahan” along with Alpha testers.

It’s alright to look at my work before you decide.

Y: I have been in Square-Enix for 8 years now, but for Final Fantasy series I am an outsider. I have never been involved with Final Fantasy series development. I was listed as the 4th member for Dragon Quest X when it was starting up, so really I was supposed to be working on that. At the same time I was doing game design and director for Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road. Somehow I ended up here when I was working on those.

When I first took over FF14, not many of the staff knew me. I have good relationship with Yoshida Akihiko or Minagawa Hiroshi who worked on Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII. But most of the former Square development staff, they didn’t know me much. Everyone probably thought something like “He’s going to be above us, so he must have …”.

When I first introduced myself to the FF14 staff I started the conversation by telling them “Please look at my work first then decide if you would like to follow me or not”. It is my policy to not lose any knowledge. This is in regards to graphics related or program related. I used to write codes myself so I know how everything works. I believe some force is needed to keep the staff in control, these knowledge helps me exactly with that. Since then I have been the producer and direction at same time.

The faith that “That person will answer everything”.

H: Why did the upper management choose you?

Y: I wonder why. I don’t hide much words so I’m the type of person that would tell Wada (SE CEO) straight out “I don’t think so”. However I have been generating results from Battle Road or DQ10 so could be that... hmm, I wonder. Honestly I became full-time employee just 4-5 years ago.

H: So it’s something like that huh.

Y: I have been refusing to become full-time employee, that way the raises are better (laugh). Good part about being in a contract position is that you get paid as much as the work you put into it. However, I started dealing with company matters and was to a point I couldn’t stay in contract position so the company asked “How much do you want if becoming full-time employee?”

H: You’re talking from a high position.

Y: Well, I don’t base it off on the face value, rather, I think to myself, how much am I worth? It has been this way even before working for SE. There are two things when talking about this. One is how much does the other staff value me? I complete my work fully. I am the type of worker that will work even if I can’t get any sleep. When other development staff looks at me, it depends if those staff will look and say “I would like to work with you again” or not. Then next one is from companies point of view of how much am I worth. In the end it comes down to the money. This doesn’t mean if the money is high or low but I look at what the company offers and I think to myself “What the reason is behind the price they put on me”.

H: When you convert this to hourly basis it’s cheap isn’t it?

Y: Extremely cheap. My working hours are very long (laugh). For example, when doing live broadcast like today. When you receive a question from a customer if you answer “Let me check with the devs on that” they will think “When will we get that response?”. Instead of that I think I can get more trust and have them saying “This guy answers everything”. I believe being able to be told “That person looks from every corner to corner to make decisions” leads to better relations with everyone.

Be able to have those to talk passionately

H: Current game development is turning into large scale development, before we had someone who knew everything but now it’s natural to have those that doesn’t know everything. I think you don’t have to go against that, by doing what you do aren’t you making big sacrifices?

Y: Hmm... but I think it’s better to know it, than not knowing at all. It may be because I don’t like to lose but there was a time where game development was broken up into small sections to a point where there was a time where one specialist worked on one single texture. By doing something like that you’re not going to win over other cultures who covers those up with technology. As an director we need to tell them that “These technology exists”. If you don’t do that the values will never change. Also if the directors knowledge on technology is old and not moving forward you end up talking stuff like “It’s OK just draw the texture”. Stuff like this.

H: When doing that much work, you don’t have time to do other games, find out what the rivals are doing.

Y: I play without sleeping.

H: You’re not a good example (laugh).

Y: For games I have a point, for example, even in my staff we have those particularly good at specific categories. Like someone that loves FPS very much, and plays every FPS possible. Some that loves global standard MMO’s and only play those that are major, but when playing them will play fully. Then I have them talk to me. For those that say they have interest but don’t have the time to cover, I tell them “play like you’re going to die, if you like it you’ll continue playing right?”. Then later I question them what they liked. From there we go back and forth talking about “What if the situation was like this?” or “Isn’t this bad?” By doing that, you feel like you’re playing. Make them your knowledge and use it for next. It’s best for those that love them to talk about it passionately. If there are those I really need to play myself I would but this year there were lots of those since time wise, it is impossible.

H: So you get information from those who play the games fully.

Y: I believe we’re getting less of them in current gaming industry. Maybe it feels that way because the number of people in the industry increased but I do feel like there are less people loving games. Feel like there are less of those that say “I played games without eating three meals a day, and since they only played games they only can find job in gaming company.” However there are some out there still so I try to get together with them.

H: How about social games? In this world there are those that pay a lot for them. Aren’t you going to put in those type of features?

Y: Ah, I’m not good with social. It’s not about liking or not, but I don’t have time to play, so I can’t talk about them. For this one I’m just looking at the business model. For those I studied stuff like there are these type of billing methods and in order for that to work they have these type of systems. There are those within the company that love them.

H: There are those that like it in SE!?

Y: Yes, yes. Sometimes I tell them “How much are you paying! specially in your own companies game!” (laugh). But they explain the reason why they pay. So for example using that information when someone asks me during an interview I can talk just as if I was playing and paying for it (laugh). Of course, if there is a need at time to link something together, we would come up with a plan to do so. From the theories I hear from others, there is at least someone that is paying for it and from there you can see the scope of that game. You can estimate how much one person pays in a month, how many others alike are out there, and figure out what kind of methods to apply to pull in those people in. But when you look from a different standpoint, FF14’s MMORPG genre is small circle compared to all other genres out there. To add in a social game, another small circle genre within that small circle, would be hard. Instead I tell them it would be better to make a bigger outer circle first then connect them. However, when asked “Then what kind of game should we make?” I tell the specialist “that’s for you to come up with”.

H: You have a part where you love games, at the same time you think up of what to do with marketing and the business model. I think it’s pretty rare to have someone who can do both carefully.

Y: Hmm... I don’t make much comparisons so I’m not sure about that one. But, I don’t think I can win against someone who just does social games, at the same time I do want to know the nature of it. So from there I just decide on the plans and then let the professionals do their work to make it happen.

H: So does that mean you know lots of professional people that does this?

Y: Yes, by the time I realize they are friendly to me. In our office we have specialists so we talk about stuff like this. However there are more times when I ask the actual players playing. I tell them there is a game feature or billing matter or trick so go dig it up. I also have previous experiences, before entering the gaming industry I worked for a toy store selling games part-time. So I have some knowledge from high school where I still think of now such as “how will the customer open up their wallets?” or “what kind of people would buy this game?” Although I was part-time I also managed stocking the game softwares.

At one time at the store I ordered 60 Super Famicom “Shin Megamitensei” and only 3 sold. (Note: Back then this game sold a lot).

H: That’s a good game!

Y: Yes, at the previous shop I worked for this game would've definitely been sold out. Right after graduating from high school, when going into the tech school I was introduced to this next store and went. The owner of the new store was same from previous so when I was asked to manage the stocks at the new store I thought 60 of “Shin Megamitensei” would sell but only 3 sold...... So basically I didn’t know depending on the store the type of customers change at that time. Just Just because it was a good game, I thought it would sell this much. But this store was located in the underground shopping center and wasn’t a store where game lovers use to come. It’s the type of store where people look for when all other regular stores are sold out, or those people looking for their kids birthday present just happened to pass by the store and find it. It was that type of store. So I didn’t even think about those. I really feel sorry for the store manager. Out of the 3 sold, I bought 1 (bitter laugh)

H: So just because it’s a good game it doesn’t mean it will sell.
Y: From the first store manager he taught everything from looking at account book. The first shop was a chain shop and out of all the other stores this one was the number 1 shop. Since I was in elementary the manager has been friendly to me and was invited to work part time and I really thank him even now when he talked about “how to read the numbers”. (money)

H: For a gamer there is faith that if a good game is developed it will sell. For a movie no matter how good the movie is they will spend lots of advertisement. From your point of view don’t you feel like saying “if you’re going to spend that much on advertising, it’s better to use it for developing”?

Y: For that I looked at the rankings and when I played I felt “It’s a good game but it didn’t sell”. There were many of these. Then when you analyze you find out that there weren’t many that knew the game was even released, or didn’t have the chance to touch. Right now there are many games released one by one, and now with social games there are too many to try. So in order for the customers to realize the existence you have to put in money, no matter how big the game is. I have had this in mind since 10 years back. Of course “the game itself has to be fun and interesting or it will not win the race” so that’s the major goal.

H: Does SE have that sense? Like this year the “Bravely Default” was a software that came in top 3 and was really well done but there weren’t that many playing it.

Y: For Japanese gaming market, from old times until now the first image is from the wholesale stores. Depends on how many orders were made. Since I worked in a shop near a wholesale distributor I know this but they only stock up on how many the store managers requested. Before there was a time where it was more of a relationship between business and putting in more but now they just order enough to cover their living. Specially for Japanese games are done through the distributors so the stores has high risk. They have to be careful on how much they stock, that is the reality. No matter how much we advertise to the players, the battle for amount sold at time of sale is already decided few month earlier. It’s relation between sell in and sell through.
For example for Bravely Default , we have been receiving offers for production increase and we have been increasing. But even with that the players lose interest over time. So if 3-4 weeks go by new advertisment for next title starts and good titles gets pushed away. Unlike before there is no need to brag about games anymore. It’s really scary part right now, we receiving request for orders but even then it doesn’t mean it will sell. This spiral is pretty big.

H: For online game isn’t it easier since that relationship isn’t there, If the user wants to play they can buy from download right?

Y: Yes, also we can’t ignore the digital distribution. The power of the wholesale distributors were great and supported the gaming industry. However I believe if we ignore the digital distribution we can’t survive. If it’s digital distribution you can download and buy even there isn’t any stock. For example “Tobidase! Doubutsu no Mori” the sale for last week (currently 12/26) was about 1,800,000 but actually the download version isn’t included in this. At stores it was 1,800,000 and with downloads it will be about 1.5 times this number. I think this digital distribution trend will stop. For those who couldn’t buy the package version will buy the download version from convenience stores and the rate is much higher. So for future game distribution we have to include the download version as well. Until now if you didn’t work on the software version the sale wouldn’t grow but now with download sale it still can grow, by gradually comparing I believe it will keep on going. I think it’s good to have reasonable amount released and also prepare the download version so when package version is sold out, the download version goes on high demand.

H: If you can release a title that strong it may change the industries map?

Y: Yes, I hope it does. When looking at last weeks ranking for HD game top 30 there were only 4 titles “Shin HokutoMusou (Fist of the North Star)”, “ Call of Duty: Black Ops 2”, “Ryu ga Gotoku (Yakuza) 5”, “Minna no Golf 6”, rest were all Nintendo 3DS or PSP. Out of those 10 were Nintendo titles. So this year’s Christmas many kids wanted the 3DS the most. You can imagine the kids asking their parents to replace their handheld to 3DS. For Japanese market the HD machines is not doing well this season.

H: When pushing the FF14’s low specs it’s possible to make it for smartphone. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Y: Hmm, for now I want to increase the share. But even in Japan with highly developed communication environment there are places where you can’t use phones in subways. If it’s just solo play (offline play) it wouldn’t be a problem but for an online game there is an issue for connection being lost. When looking just at Japanese mobile shares, we will need to look at it carefully. But also I don’t plan on making the amount of data transmitted to be small enough for mobile environment. For a mobile phone, to put in that much character features from FF14, would be hard to do. So, it’s possible to do something like getting your own character data from the server and for example decorate your character with gears you never got before and say “I want to look like that in future!” Those kind of play is possible, or be able to add a background to make photo cards or something like that is probably possible for ARR Eorzea. For now, the game itself, I think would be OK for the notebook PC. Once the specs catch up, it will probably slide.

If you can’t take in US, it’s not worth it.

H: What’s kind of ratio in sales do you see between Japan and the world?

Y: About half and half. MMORPG genre is originated in the US and most of the players are from US so if we can’t take US, it’s not going to be worth it. For MMORPG to become major in Japan there are few more obstacles. First is the language barrier. Before Dragon Quest 10, the largest MMORPG with the most subscription in Japan was Final Fantasy XI. Before that was Ultima Online. Dragon Quest 10 has reached 400,000 accounts and was officially announce but even this amount of players played FFXIV that is 400,000 players only. Now comparing this to World of Warcraft in entire world they have recorded about 12,000,000 accounts but out of this the Japanese players for WoW is about 18,000 to 25,000 at peak time. Also there is a new MMORPG title called GuildWars2 but this received 2,000,000 sales instantly, and I see it as current challenge as rival. It’s really well made, but even with that for Japanese players it’s only about 1000 players.
The language barriers is that thick.
One other thing is the financial side. Foreign business culture depends on investments. For MMO if you do it wrong it will cost few billion so to develop a game they receive money from the investors then from their develop lots of new MMO projects. By doing this there is a risk of where at the early stages they go through some hard times and can’t continue or give up fast. On the other side Japan creates the game with their own company. To be able to invest a large amount in one this has a high risk and for large scale MMO I think SE is the only one left (in Japan doing it their way). Because of this result it’s harder to compete and it’s hard soak into Japanese gamers. For foreign MMO’s there are lots of interesting ones out there but they are all in English and if they don’t fix those Japanese players not wanting to learn English it will be hard to absorb.

H: Since Japanese players don’t know much about WoW, you could probably copy it and make them go “Wow this is fun”.

Y: I think that’s OK. Since FF11 was a project developed by the staff who got really into “Everquest” and went “Let’s make FF version of this”. On top of that in FF11 they brought in scenario and production so it was highly valued even in overseas. Next the foreign MMORPG’s took that feature that was highly valued and expanded on that. Just like before, it started with “Wizardy” they “Ultima” then “Dragon Quest” then “FF” was born, that cycle still goes on. I think it’s alright to start building from global standard. However it’s really important for it to being FF, it needs Chocobo’s and Moogles and Dragoons, and dramatic scenarios where you meet and say goodbye, have airships, and where everyone can fight primals. I think that’s good, of course it needs more but to start with those.

H: Isn’t FF14 going to take the direction “Diablo” or “WoW” has with small characters all mashing up?

Y: Nope, this game was launched once already, even for ARR it needs to keep some key parts. We chose to fix the same FF14. I was thinking to develop an MMORPG is at average 2 years but it was actually 5 years. When thinking it was done in half the time, starting from zero to bring up to par with other titles we needed to make some selections from the base FF14. When looking over the world market for MMORPG there isn’t any title that has character creation and character graphics such as FF14. With this body proportions and realistic look, the feel of the gear. I think FF14 would be the only one that can keep on going with this quality, I believe this part we can definitely win in, so I think it’s better to push this part out more. As I shown during the live broadcast earlier the LOD (Level Of Details: The rendering method used to control depending on the camera distance.) We worked particularly on the silhouettes so even if you change from High to Low polygon you can hardly tell the difference.

H: So you’re saying other online games can’t deliver the same level of graphics such as FF where they suddenly show a CG movie.

Y: I believe that’s the fate FF carries. This year I was able to talk to many FF fans around the world at events but the impression for FF series is pretty much same. They all say the graphics, story and characters give the most impact. “I want to play Dragoon again!”, “I want to ride Chocobo!”, these type of desires comes out straight. So I’m like just put them all in then.

H: When you go to overseas convention compared to other MMORPG you see a higher rate of people in FF cosplay costumes. I think that means the art in FF is at different level from others.

Y: It seems like that catches their attention. Specially the characters drawn by Nomura Tetsuya. I think even that has some generation gap. For me Final Fantasy VII was astonishing. However since it was that time at that age I received that much impact, if for example for someone like me turning 40 next year and that was released now, I don’t think I would’ve gotten that much impact. Even those gamers from back then are now old and sucked into the waves of modern society. You know there are young adult fiction books right. For us saying we want the same impact from back then when we played FF7, if that same FF7 was released now I believe won’t give high reviews as it did back then. But that also means the customers grew up along with it so we have to give impact to those different generations it’s going to be hard. The feeling you had before you went out in the working environment, where you learned the reality of the world the reality you get from the stories or characters changes. But for FF it has to keep some parts that still holds that feel of young adult fiction books. Like what we are trying to do with the current FF14 is to have a system, or be able to play high fantasy that bring back the feel of Final Fantasy 1 through 5. I think that would be the best for overall balance.

FF needs to keep on moving forward.

H: What is your target age range?

Y: It’s pretty high. For core players thinking mid 20’s to 30’s and college students. Really those players are the ones that play 1-2 hours daily.

H: So for elementary or intermediate students, those kids that may never touched FF. You can’t address those people?

Y: For that we need to make Final Fantasy, something like Dragon Quest Battle Road where it’s made for that generation. By playing that one as first step into other FF series. This is needed but we haven’t gotten into that yet. I believe that is the company's mission to keep the brand. The reason Dragon Quest Battle Road was made was for that exact reason. We were losing to Pokemon and that wasn’t funny. Poken was made for lower and lower generation, and they have TV shows, then came out with products like lunch boxes. Right now kids at age of 3 or 4 they know Pokemon, and they watch the anime. By the time they are in elementary they buy the game and follow that route.

When we took a poll for Dragon Quest the age range is getting higher every time. Also the highest age is increasing but it just slides off afterwards. And we thought this was bad. At that time “Mushi King” was a big hit and everyone from elementary to high school students were able to play easily, Nomura who was the producer at the time said, lets get all those shares. If at that point if they learned about the hero’s and monsters, their dads will definitely talk about it more. The dads will tell their kids “To get the hajya sword (demon slaying sword) you have to...”’ Since now it’s father and son now, lets get those people. Also at that timing we released Dragon Quest 4-6 on the Nintendo DS and have the entire series at the arcades. In the end we took it into Dragon Quest 9 which sold over 4,200,000 copies.

(For early reader had kanji around and was thinking evil blade lol, sorry , this one was the demon slaying one lol)

H: So you guys are thinking about those carefully.

Y: For that part, that was because producer, Ichimura Ryutaro was great. At that time I was doing director and now I’m just copying what he did for Dragon Quest Battle Road or Dragon Quest 9.

H: When looking from outside it just looks like “Mr. Horii is still at it”.

Y: I think for Dragon Quest that is fine, and the scenario and game ideas Mr. Horii writes is still amazing. It’s really amazing so it the players adapt right into it. The remakes on the DS or Battle Road, at that time it really brought down the age range. For that reason to get the elementary school kids into Dragon Quest 10, and those that played the Battle Roads and for the parents to play with their kids without worrying he made kids time. **

(** Kids time - In DQ10 it’s certain hours for kids to play the game for free and enjoy online gaming.)

H: I really think Kids Time was very clever idea. For FF14 you don’t have any plans to address the younger generation?

Y: I touched up on it a bit earlier, we really need to do it but we haven’t gotten around yet. Enix has been a company working around Dragon Quest. To release Dragon Quest, although there are freedom to other titles they try hard to contribute to sales. However for FF the storyline is pretty open. For example before the broadcast you asked “If there isn’t any rules, it’s OK to eat crystals in FF to heal HP?” FF has built a foundation where we can say “Sure” to that question. As being in charge of FF I learned that this time. In other words you can say it means “You can do it anyway you want” so it’s hard control. But on the other hand you can say, this FF was written by this person and is strong. So compared to Dragon Quest we do need to bring up the brand name and there is some delays. I believe that will be our next task.

H: Bravely Default was so fun it came into my Top 3. It had a interesting game system like it did in the old FF 3~5. I believe as a game system it was fun but in previous FF series they always developed a new system but dumped it afterwards. For this times Bravely Default was there some talks like “if the game system is fun, you don’t need to dump it”?

Y: For the true meaning you will probably need to ask Bravely Default’s producer Asano Tomoya but when they made DS’s FF3 remake and the time he made the Warriors of Light, and even this time he must of felt “It’s too good to dump it”. In there they added the world view and Yoshida Akihiko’s art. That one was actually made by outside company but in other words there isn’t anything particular about FF, not much in new FF. “It was that much fun so lets deliver it to this generation” I think that is the motivation. If you look at the sub-title Flying Fairy if you take the F’s only it’s FF and was looks as if done on purpose. For those making FF mainly rather thinking really hard that “FF needs to move on forward”. Right now those parts may be starting to balance out. Like Asano or myself we haven’t been involved with FF development so maybe there wasn’t a thought like “It’s FF so just put in all the good features from it” Now that Square and Enix got together it started getting mixed.

I - What was the impression of both of you meeting for the first time. Mr. Hiroyuki is known for Nico Nico Douga (JP youtube like site) but also known for “2ch’s.......” was there that type of impression?

Y: I haven’t seen 2ch much so I only heard rumors. This time around when I started looking over FF14’s online title I finally started seeing more. When you look at 2ch during game development you get negative (laugh). There are many good comments for sure but human being is weak, for 10 good comments if there is 1 negative comment you tend to get negative. For myself I was the type of person if you’re going to get negative anyways, why even bother looking? but with FF14 it’s the opposite.

Also when you love your work and only concentrate on your work, you don’t have much info on society. I like looking at the news or newspaper, I hardly watch TV. I don’t watch net based news either so I really didn’t know much about Mr. Hiroyuki. Last time when I saw the broadcast on Windows 8 that’s when I thought “Oh, this guy is great”. Today before the brodcast Mr. Hiroyuki said he doesn’t want to do rehearsal, that was what you desired right? Like if you asked already and knew the answer already you end up being like “I know it already so why do it again”.

H: Whaat (sarcasticly)

Y: On the last broadcast when we showed the End of Era trailer without any dialog to read you commented “Normally, you won’t show the bad end’s event”. Not because the broadcast was there but because at real time you can openly talk stuff like that was “Oh wow” moment for me, so I was really looking forward to come here. However the main risk was I didn’t know if the talks were become a positive or negative.

I: After talking in person, did you impression change?

Y: Currently it hasn’t changed a bit. Next time lets talk while drinking (laugh)

H: Gochisousama-desu!(Like, thanks for buying me drink)

Y: Gochisousasete-itadakimasu.(Sure, I will buy you a drink)

H: Thank you!

I: How about from you Mr. Hiroyuki?

H: At first it was through the phone so it was hard to know the person but even during the phone he replied right away so thought he was interesting. And today, no matter what I ask he answers. Even though started out as scenario writer, he talks about programs, server, I was thinking “This guy is awesome” and also, probably his working hours are crazy long....

Y: Yes. Probably in the last 7 years I think I’m No. 1 in the office (laugh). It’s not just because of FF14.

What is it, maybe I want to get admired.

H: Right now, I think you can make something you like so you can stay like this but even if you feel “This isn’t really fun” you still gotta do it right. That’s work. At those times how do you keep up your motivation?

Y: To be honest I there isn’t much feeling like “I really want to make this”. Doing something about the stuff others throw out saying “There is no way to fix it” gives me motivation so I’m not really particular.

This is before I joined Square-Enix but the company I was in at the time started declining in business and was a time where they just released only stuff that sold. We were told the same for projects also”. For example “No matter what, must sell XX thousand copies”, “We are short XX copies so sell it, no matter which title.” We’ll even in that situation there is something fun for work so I don’t really have anything particular.

H: How can you have interest and work like that.

Y: Also, if I thought there was nothing possible to do to fix I will straight out and say “There is nothing you can do so why not just quit?” or “You should just stop this.” I tell that to my boss and if he doesn’t listen, I’ll tell the head chief, if that doesn’t work I’ll take it to the vice president, and if that person is not clear I’ll just take it up to the president, and if the company president didn’t take care of it I would bring it directly to the chairman.... it was when I was younger but thanks to that I was scolded a lot by upper management.

H: You’re really troublesome person.

Y: I actually stopped several projects. I was even called “Project Crusher” (laugh).

H: But there are times it becomes a hit even if you created it not being serious.

Y: No matter how many you ask and them saying the game is boring, will end up just that and won’t sell that much. At one point even the people making it gave up. After gathering all the data and looking, getting all the numbers out it was logically impossible.

H: For that type of situation, who are you working for?

Y: I think it’s bad for the customers if they buy that type of game. If the company was developing a game like this I don’t think it’s good. I admired the company and loved their game... at the interview I was dumb, i told them “I will rebuild it” (laugh).
Since I got in saying that, if there is a possibility I should do it, on the other hand if it’s impossible, if it’s going to get bad I believe it’s better just to stop. If I look back now, I haven’t grown much (sarcastic laugh)
As for FF14, I saw the possibility, and there were so many customers cheering, there is energy there to keep me up and work without sleeping.

H: Normally, you would feel you just need to work your salary worth, or it’s too much trouble if you turn the staff into your enemies. There are many reasons why you don’t need to work so hard. I understand the feeling “I really love this!” so you want to work hard but I don’t understand your motivation for stuff you don’t have much interest in.

Y: I don’t understand it myself. It’s fun because no one else wants to try it... Also I want to get admired maybe. Just a general opinion but because you’re doing something others don’t want to do, you’re getting paid for it. I think work is just that. I’m really bad with accounting, management so I don’t want to do that. I really respect those in management and that’s why I think they get paid what they do.

H: If you crush a project you won’t get admired.

Y: Not really. There was a time with lots of staff thinking “why are we making this” or “we should just stop”. Also to ‘stop’ doesn’t mean it’s ‘bad’, to stop a project will be a loss for sure but it will stop the possibility of further losses. Since it was stopped, you can rotate those staff into new projects, and it’s even possible to aim for a hit. To stop a project, it’s a lot of stress and no one wants to do it, they don’t want to take the blame. So for that reason, there are times I get thanked. Sometimes the opposite. Also there are some at higher management who tell me that’s the good part about me saying “you’re too honest (sarcastic laugh)”. I was fortunate the boss, manager, VP were nice. That hasn’t changed.

Regarding the future.

I: Finally, Mr. Hiroyuki, could you please let us know the FF14’s future you are expecting and how you want Mr. Yoshida to be?

H: Not sure what it is... Mr. Yoshida has the knowledge on when to put in what to make the most profit, comes up with the most profitable algorithm automatically. He understand the most selling point for business model but at same time listens to the users request like “It’s fun to put in Chocobo” or other players demands. He’s doing both. By doing both he put in what the user wanted and what’s needed for business. There isn’t much of his own stuff in there. I’m interested in where this Yoshida System is heading. You can also say that you could probably copy this Yoshida System. We gathered players comments, it’s easy to collect money from. As a gamer and from business model I’m really interested... I will keep watching with great interest.

Y: To combine the two is the key point. We talked earlier during the broadcast about the packet. There is a invisible packet running at the root of FF14 ARR and if that’s taken it’s lack of my ability. As for myself this project is challenging, my hands and feet are tied and with that I have to make decisions to take the best route. Then see how much can be done from there.

Also when working on FF14 the gap between when your expectation was correct or different is huge. There was times where stuff I felt “This isn’t good enough yet” but was actually really good. For example even for one PV we had one this summer called “Limit Break” where it is a system one party uses as a special move. This will be added in beta from phase 3. When we made this trailer, I ordered to make the movie out of ingame materials only. For FF there are lots of PV’s with full on CG. I wanted to make something this time with just in-game materials. However the game was still under development and there were many detailed specifics I wasn’t happy with till the end. Kept on saying “FF needs to be more like this.” I asked a lot with the modifications and I really troubled the staff in charge. But when it was released, the result was really good. I really didn’t know what the best part is, it’s hard to know. I really felt that at that time. Maybe those young adult fantasy inspired FF fans aren’t looking, or as a FF gamer they are just saying it’s good. But if we don’t take in those young adult fantasy inspired fans we can’t continue as a business so it was really puzzling at that moment.

But at the same time, FF is still fun as a game, there are many people looking forward in the world. It was really refreshing. At that moment I knew “Hey, it’s cool just to go straight at it”, “Money will follow later”. For FF there may be an strong image on how much beauty from CG can be put in game but it’s ok to push through with the game system. That’s how I felt.
Also, when we did the “End of Era” trailer, we talked about since it’s going to be in CG, we should do something we can only do in CG, and talked with the visual works team. No matter how advanced the hardwares get it’s still hard to move group of things at once, having a large satellite with Bahamut coming out with that much quality and burning the world. Honestly instead of making it real time it’s much much cheaper to do it through CG.
That’s why no matter where you cut it we wanted to do a CG here so anyone can see and say “I don’t know but this is FF right?” And because it’s CG they can think it’s FF. The visual works team really worked hard on it.
We told them that “We’ll make sure to link it within the game, not only the CG”. There are FF fans out there looking forward to the CG, and there are comments from overseas saying “This is FF movie!” Even with the one that was posted on Nico-video there were comments like “SE is serious” or “This is FF”, I was really happy.
We still can make CG’s FF can only do. And to be able to experience that in-game as well. Like we really can fight that Bahamut right? It’s not just a fake right? If we can deliver that as a content I believe it will not make it a fraud. We are just working into the Bahamut’s dungeon right now (laugh).