Revelations from Gamescom 2019

[Anonymoose]

1. How fun was it to write up characters like Emet-Selch, Vauthry, and the Crystal Exarch?

Oda: I think it's hard to quantify in terms of fun and for these three specific individuals, but whenever we work with characters we try to has as much fun as possible with them.

Yoshi: The unique and exciting part of working with the scenario is that you are in control of the characters' fate.

Oda: These three characters were for the most part crafted by Natsuko Ishikawa and, even though they are in different settings, I make efforts to be faithful to who they were in the settings she created.

2. Did the Crystal Exarch stop physically aging when he merged with the Crystal Tower?

Oda: If you've completed the main scenario of Shadowbringers, you will by now have seen his face without his hood up...

Yoshi: In order to change the fate and save the world, it was required that he extended his lifespan. This is part of why he fused himself with the tower. For the moment, yes, he cannot grow or age, which goes to show the enormity of his decision.

3. Are there any cleverly hidden hints in-game about the identity of our original soul, beyond the Hythlodaeus conversation and the moment Emet-Selch sees us, that players should be on the lookout for? I do love seeing the community investigate the lore together.

Oda: There may be some hints hidden here and there, but as of this moment I don't think I should say anything more.

Yoshi: From the journey beyond the Stormblood scenario line, the hints are here and there, but as for things before that I don't want to take away the fun from everyone so I will let you speculate and find your own answers! But I will tell you one thing: We've seen theories online that the Warrior of Light may be Hythlodaeus himself...I will tell you that this, at least, is not the case.

This may be a low-key way of Yoshida admitting that it was decided recently but he doesn't want to stamp out any fun players might have speculating and making meaning of past lines that may not have been intended to be hints but will be a happy coincidence, like Thordan's "What are you?" scene.

4. Emet-Selch remarks that we are of the Source, "seven times rejoined". Is he talking about our soul, or only the world? If our soul has been rejoined, does that mean everyone on the Source has been rejoined to another soul-fragment each Calamity, or are we (and perhaps other specific characters) special in some way?

Oda: Each time there is a rejoining, any living things have the souls rejoined. This is true for everyone equally. The souls get more dense, and potentially more powerful.

Yoshi: The Rejoining isn't just for the characters, but for the whole world. Of course, this does apply to yourself, as well.

I'm glad they answered this; I was pretty unclear with it and not ready to make the full leap, especially because lines in the past have seemingly contradicted this directly, especially one from Elidibus back in 2.3, I believe it was. Even if it's a NeW ReVeLaTiOn, it's good to have it down on the record.

5. What was the most difficult aspect of adapting both the Viera/Viis and Hrothgar/Ronso into XIV's lore and story?

Oda: As for the Viera, we took as much of their lore as possible directly from FFXII without any changes. Matsuno-san himself was in charge of the Return to Ivalice scenario so we got to work with him and adapt XIV's world to that as we went - so thank you very much to Matsuno-san! With Hrothgar, though, we really wanted to avoid the impression that this race just suddenly appeared in the world. We also tied them into some very old lore regarding Bozja Citadel to make them feel more established, and some background is in the Tales that might help them be better understood by players.

I'll re-read the old ones just in case, but I think he's referring to the ones we haven't seen yet.

6. Ran'jit had vastly more strength than his soldiers as any good general should have, but did Ran'jit get any extra strength from the sin eaters in any way or was it purely his own?

Yoshi: This is another hot topic of discussion in our community.

Oda: He has a unique fighting style and is empowered by his familiar, that serpent-dragon, but he became this powerful on his own through years of training. He's from an area outside of Norvrant that was already destroyed by the Flood of Light. He's descended from a clan which has its own style of martial arts. His roots are there, which is why his name doesn't conform to the other naming conventions seen in the area.

7. Did the Ascians Ancients really look the way that we see them in Emet-Selch's illusion, or is he making them look different for "dramatic effect"?

Oda: Despite the fact that they have kind of a glow to them, like a ghost or phantom, the culture from which the Ascians came did indeed wear robes and masks like that. The Ascians outfits descend from that tradition.

Yoshi: I'd like to highlight a point of confusion in our community: we are not calling all Ancient entities Ascians. The beings you see in Amaurot are not "Ascians" but the illusions of its Ancient citizens. So we can tell you for sure that the Ancient people you see inhabiting Amaurot did indeed wear robes and masks like those. When you look at them, however, you notice that individuals lack any real distinctive features. They are a bit blurry, and look a bit like aliens. This is an inaccurate representation. The actual Ancient people all looked different, but this is not reflected in their representation via the illusion. This is perhaps why some think Hythlodaeus and the apparition Emet-Selch sees when he looks at you might be the same person, but they are both imperfect illusions. Ancient people had faces just as unique as regular people. Hythlodaeus is also wearing a different mask than the apparition...

8. Are all Ascian/Amaurotine names based on Greek mythology?

Oda: First and foremost, you may take away this impression because Hythlodeus sounds like a Greek-based name, but this is not the case. We did intentionally use Greek roots for things in this area, but we can't say they'll be the basis of everything in this vein.

Yoshida: Is there a reason for intentionally working with Greek at the moment?

Oda: ...Yes, but if I talked about it now it would be considered a spoiler.

Put all my chips on Poseidon and Zeus for Lahabrea and Elidibus...
For those of you who recall the first days of FFXIV, Tanaka-san and Iwao-san revealed that Eorzea was itself based on Greece in the lead-up to its invasion by Persia (with the Garleans taking the role of the Persians, however Roman they may be thematically). Traces of Greek influence are peppered throughout Eorzean mythology everywhere, especially in Limsa Lominsa.

9. I have been re-watching cutscenes from A Realm Reborn and think it is very interesting that the Ascians reference the "mournful voice of creation". How long have you had the Ascians' backstory in mind?

Oda: The basic concept of the Ascians' existence was part of the 1.0 world settings. But...a lot of things about the Ascians had not been decided at that time... (Yoshida erupts into laughter) ...so when we knew what let's say that remains a mystery.

Yoshi: If we go back to my old metaphor of FFXIV's relaunch as a television drama series in some ways, because the "first season" (ARR) went well, it was possible for Heavensward to continue the story. At the time, we had some basic details, but didn't elaborate on them very much. After we saw that the game's rhythm was going quite well, we started to give the Ascians a more detailed background. Oda-san and Ishikawa-san, especially Oda-san, will dig into those old documents and try to update them while writing the new scenario and then add more to it. They improvise a lot and are able to make it seem very seamless, but they put an extraordinary amount of effort into it.

Three types of foreshadowing: 1) It was planned all along. 2) It was added without an exit strategy and we worked it out later. 3) It's actually different than what was intended but was made to look foreshadowed with clever writing. Good writers use all of these. Great writers can trick you into confusing them. FFXIV's team deserves a lot of credit for their time and dedication on that front. I'm really curious if Yoshida laughed so hard because the Ascians either didn't actually have much background lore when he showed up in the first place, or because they were going in a different direction and they didn't know what they were doing with them in ARR until fairly recently.

10. Could we please learn the true name of Lahabrea? Finding out Emet-Selch's true name was absolutely awesome and a great reveal, so it'd be fantastic if we could figure out who Lahabrea was.

Yoshida: (Holding his arms up in an X and shaking his head) NEXT!

11. Elidibus once described Lahabrea as "unique" after taking a long pause to choose his words. Did he, like Emet-Selch, have less favorable judgement of their colleague in recent years while being too polite to say so?

Oda: I believe that Elidibus's feelings towards his colleagues and the other Ascians' feelings towards each other will be explored in the story itself. The plot has been submitted to Yoshida and he is revising it. Once it gets the green light, we'll explore it more.

Yoshida: This has close ties with the upcoming story so there's not much we can say today. There was a sort of respect between them, I believe, and if you look at Emet-Selch’s dialogue, he said Lahabrea would wear himself down. Lahabrea was a workaholic, like me. He works a lot and can seem crazy. It has a similar meaning there.

12. Gaius is the first major villain we’ve seen who is now fighting alongside us. Can you tell us about how the decision to bring him back was made?

Oda: This case was similar to Estinien's. He was our opponent in the DRG story arc, but joined our party for the journey to Ishgard because he was a useful our assistant in showing us what Ishgard was. It’s the same for Gaius, but it's time to learn about the Garlean Empire, instead.

Yosida: You may remember the massive explosion at the Praetorium. People speculated whether that actually led to Gaius's death or not. But when the scenario team and I had a discussion about it the conclusion we reached was that...we didn't know! So we had to decide, if he was dead, we'd have to find a way to make sure players understood. But if he wasn't, we wanted to leave it more vague so that we could use him in the future.

Schrödinger's Legatus

13. We've seen a lot of the men of the Garlean imperial family - can you tell us about Solus' or Varis' wives or daughters? Do they keep to the background or are they public figures to the people of Garlemald?

Oda: It’s purely a coincidence that most of the Garleans we've focused on have been male. Of course there are female characters, and it’s not that they are forced to the background. However, the wife of Varis died after she gave birth to Zenos, so it would be difficult to bring her back to the story.

Yosida: The only possibility would be to talk about her during the side stories. Speaking of side stories, the Rising is coming up, so we will release the Tales for Shadowbringers, soon! Please look forward to it next week.

14. It's been observed by players that in the Chrysalis, the meteor phase of the fight has a crystal formation very similar to the Crystal Tower, as well as a figure that looks a lot like Hydaelyn's portrayal in the caves. Could you please elaborate on what the Chrysalis is and why the Ascians chose to portray scenes of both gods?

Oda: The cave painting was not done by Ascians, but by someone who had a memory of the world before the Sundering. Perhaps he saw it in a dream or something, and then made a mural. The reason why there’s a often crystal-shaped motif when it comes to the Ascians is that Zodiark's crystal is sort of the antithesis to the Mothercrystal of Hydaelyn.

This question was probably referencing that when you go through the Aetherial Tear, the underside of the Zodiark crystal looks very similar to the shape of Crystal Tower. That they didn't pick up on this tells me that they might not know, or that it might not be important. A great deal of the Chrysalis is made up of altered copy-pasta. The floor is from Titan, the boundary in the distance from the Burning Heart, and so on. They might have just clipped some Crystal Tower to use as something else.

15. Will we ever learn who or what is Sabik?

Oda: That is... top secret... (Yoshida bursts out laughing) One thing I can tell you the source of its power will be tied with the next storyline. Maybe.

There's an old saying in Sharlayan. We have it in Limsa Lominsa, it's probably in Sharlayan. It goes, "Fool me once, shame on (pauses) shame on you...? Look this isn't the first time we've been told that, ok? (I have a feeling Sabik was a plot-hook without an exit strategy and they're still working on the "right way" to tie off that thread, lol.)

16. Over time, the story and lore behind jobs and classes has been enriched. However, adjustments to jobs and classes over the years means some have drifted away from those stories that may have grabbed peoples' interest originally. How have you handled these challenges? Do you see any chance in the future to better align these two sides (lore/gameplay)?

Yoshi: Yes, you’re right; and we totally understand that this is the case - that this is a challenge. FFXIV has so many elements consider; from the deep storylines to the high number of jobs. People tend to see the jobs on a spectrum from weak to powerful, and it's hard to satisfy everyone equally. In the course of this process, we've seen gaps between the storyline and job balance appear. While we aware of this, it’s also true that we sometimes turn a blind eye to it. Still, we acknowledge the challenge. If we merely adjust the story side of things, and then we need to change the job actions again, this whole cycle will repeat. We don’t have a concrete solution for this yet.

17. None of the new job actions added in Shadowbringers get any real lore explanation or backstory. I would like to know more about these new actions! Could you provide this information to players somehow?

Yoshi: This also ties back to the previous question. We want to do story for the level 80 actions, but changes are still in motion right now, and we want to avoid contradictions where the "facts" don’t match the skill.

18. We have very little information about the Keeper of the Moon or Duskwight clans. Would you consider implementing clan quests similar to beast tribe quests in order to go more in-depth on their background?

Oda: For a while now, the team has had this idea of doing "clan quests" but at this point it's a matter of when we could release it. If we did them one at a time, then people who weren't playing the first race we released would get salty. But if we do them all at once, the cost goes up a lot. And now we have three new races!

19. In the naming conventions of the Keepers of the Moon it is stated that some of the family surnames "have survived since the First Astral Era". Can you tell us more about that? Have some of the surnames been passed down, or are some related to the Ancients from before the Sundering?

Yoshi: People are so good at researching things. These are some pretty sharp observations.

Oda: Recall how some people vaguely remembered things like the battle between Hydaelyn and Zodiark? Those same peoples were among the founders of those clans. The words may not have made clear sense to them anymore, but some words and names were from generation to generation because there was a sense that they were important.

20. In XIV we've seen civilizations influenced by Mayans and Aztecs, by Middle Eastern cultures, by East Asian culture, etc. Are there any real-world influences that we haven't seen implemented yet that you're interested on touching upon in the future?

Oda: That will be the case in the future, I think, because when we create new areas or countries we often use real countries and cultures as references. But what culture we pick next will be a big spoiler, so I can’t talk about that.

Yoshi: For XIV, Oda is a super-fan of world history and religion and culture, so he takes reference from that. If we give any hints now, you people will go and search and figure out the next one, so we have to keep it a secret.

21. As an aspiring fantasy writer myself, what is your writing process like when thinking of main scenario scenes and storylines? How much do you write a day, and how far in advance do you plot your outlines between story updates?

Oda: Please keep in mind that my process won't apply to everyone, but I start off by deciding the core of the story and defining what it's about. I think it’s better if that core is as simple as possible - something you can summarize in one line. For example, Heavensward is a story about "the war between the dragons and humans that lasted for a millennium". Then I ask questions about that. What is this thousand-year war? Why did it have to happen? What are the differences between dragons and humans? So I create answers for those and decide the order to answer the questions in the story. During that process, I figure out roles for each character to play. Take Estinien, for example. He was needed as a means to show what kind of place Ishgard is, and represent their points of view. How much I write depends on how much I can concentrate on writing. I can get more done if I don't have much else on my plate. While working on Heavensward, I was able to concentrate solely on that and did about ten quests a day. As for the main plot, it’s mostly planned beforehand, so Yoshida is the best person to explain that.

Yoshi: For XIV, we plan everything for the next expansion just after the last has been released, so that means we plan out the story out roughly two years. It’s foundational details, though, not everything at once. The main scenario is locked in first to lead to the expansion. So, in Shadowbringers the main theme is "drive away the Light and bring the night sky back to the First". This key message was decided in September 2017 (just before 3.1). While the team is working on the patch, they also try to create lots of ideas for the next expansion. In March 2018, they started moving forward with more details for the long-term plan.

22: Will we see another collaboration between Banri Oda and Natsuko Ishikawa for future MSQ?

Oda: As long as I don’t get fired by Yoshida, of course! I’ll always be here for the main scenario. Speaking of the writers, it’s not just me and Ishikawa. There are lots of people working on it.

Yoshida: The main scenario, of course, a really important part of FFXIV. The writers need a lot of skill to weave the story; moreso than the side quests. However, those two people are gaining a lot of experience over time, and while they’re working on the patch scenarios everyone tries to steal skills from Oda and Ishikawa. They want their jobs! Especially for me, though, the difficult part about cultivating a career in gaming is that - I may be producer and director now - but sometimes I also think about a career path that could lead away from FFXIV.I think it’s good for people to have new challenges that would help them advance, too. If both Oda and Ishikawa want to keep working on FFXIV, it will benefit the team and the players will be happy. I want them to feel motivated. I like to hear that they want to keep working on it. However, if they decide to take a challenge elsewhere, then it’s important for the team to be able to close the gap that would be left in their wake. I don’t want them to feel locked in.

23. Are there any plans for Encyclopaedia Eorzea 3?

Oda: If people want that, then I'll pass it on to the publishing department... Creating the Encyclopaedia is really hard work. We have to put a lot of effort for not much reward, but looking at this industry and other titles, we know it’s a rare opportunity to actually create your own book. And it looks really nice, so it's a great opportunity. Before I joined FFXIV, I worked for a publishing company as a writer, but I never got to release my own hardcover book, so being able to release two volumes of an encyclopedia is really a dream come true.

Yoshida: By committing to that, though, you also have to promise me that it's not going to affect progress on the main scenario!

Oda: ...I'll think about it.