Geomancer

[Airget]

And Tanaka announced he was leaving for health reasons. He look sad during his announcement like he didn't want to be there.

Ya it's weird, hearing that announcement at the end gave me a really heavy feeling. It's hard to describe, this whole festival shows how passionate they are about their fans and their products and while things may not always fall into place they are always willing to take risk to create new and unique gaming experiences. I've said this before but without risk a series like Kingdom hearts would have never EVER EVER existed yet it's those very risk that make SE what it is. Heck without taking that last risk not even FF would have existed, they were a failing company they could/should have just packed their bags but they said no and went to try this one last game that saved them from the ruins of their company.

I do hope everything is ok with Tanaka though that announcement just felt so blindsided, I think with something like this there should be a more formal message over the whole idea since they did go out of their way to bring it up at the end of the festival. Though there prolly won't be something on the XI site til Monday or at least I hope there is some introduction from the new producer for XI as well as a final message from Tanaka since he at least deserves that much. All they did was say he's leaving for health reasons, it would be nice if he could of said more or something. Just feels kinda off.

[Lienn]

And Tanaka announced he was leaving for health reasons. He look sad during his announcement like he didn't want to be there.

I am sad too about this. I was expecting him to leave FFXI after Vanafest, but never due health issues and never actually leaving SE.

Vanafest turned from a hypefest to actually a dark event in the end. At least he will have some rest now since the current playerbase was ruthless and unfair to him the past 2 years, ignoring the fact SE and FF would never get this far w/o him.

EDIT: Akihiko Matsui is heading back to FFXI as the new producer.

[Zumi]

Well at least he is getting to retire and take care of his health issues, hope he gets better.

[Valmonte]

Its to bad XI is designed to be dead for new players, i would never play XI again if i didn't already have 5 75's and a decent LS.

[Duelle]

Well at least he is getting to retire and take care of his health issues, hope he gets better.

Seconded. I would rather remember Tanaka as someone who has his hand in several great games for the NES-SNES-PSX. Allow him to take his place alongside Sakaguchi as one of the greatest contributors to Final Fantasy and let him take his rest.

[neorei]

tanaka is leaving S.E


http://www.finalfantasy.net/xiv/hiro...g-square-enix/

[Duelle]

tanaka is leaving S.E

http://www.finalfantasy.net/xiv/hiro...g-square-enix/

If he ends up in Mistwalker after his recovery, I'm going to smile. The smile will turn into a grin if Sakaguchi and Tanaka join forces for Last Story 2.

[Shadowedge]

Rune Fencer sounds like a WoW Clone Death Knight to me.

Interesting point.

On the same note, WoW's Rogue sounds like an FFXI clone Thief to me, WoW's Warrior sounds like an FFXI clone Warrior to me, WoW's Warlock sounds like an FFXI clone Summoner to me, WoW's Priest sounds like an FFXI clone White Mage to me, WoW's Mage sounds like an FFXI clone Black Mage to me, WoW's Hunter sounds like an FFXI clone Ranger to me, and WoW's Paladin sounds like an FFXI clone PLD/BRD to me.

I guess since they came out first, all others must be a copy, right?

[Rane]

EDIT: Akihiko Matsui is heading back to FFXI as the new producer.

Wow. As an XIV player, I'm sad to hear that. I think Matsui has done an excellent job remaking XIV's battle system. It's so much more fun to play now.

I mean, good for XI players, but I'm going to miss Matsui over here.
Maybe he'll come and visit now and again?

[Duelle]

I know you're trying to shoot down Kuma and all, but the examples are really bad, for lack of better words.

On the same note, WoW's Rogue sounds like an FFXI clone Thief to me

There's no comparison between a guy that deals huge damage with daggers while using poisons and a guy that gets invited because of Treasure Hunter.

WoW's Warlock sounds like an FFXI clone Summoner to me

Can't really compare a guy who was useful and dealt great damage aside from bringing unique debuffs like Curse of the Elements with a guy who was only useful once every two hours and played as /WHM the rest of the time.

WoW's Mage sounds like an FFXI clone Black Mage to me

Mages have a good selection of wards, barriers and secondary spells in their arsenal. Call me when Black Mage gets Super-Ultra Hasteaga that lasts 20 seconds but increases everyone's attack and casting speeds by 400%.

WoW's Paladin sounds like an FFXI clone PLD/BRD to me.

Not really. Paladins didn't have a plethora of useless buffs/threnodies clogging their spellbooks. Pallys can go tank, heals or DPS without inviting insults or ridicule (whereas XI bred the squeaky-voiced "Knight" PLD with a two-handed sword as a way to mock the PLDs that wanted to do something other than tank).

This is all tongue in cheeck, mind you. =P

As far as what this has to do with Kuma's conjecture, I also thought that there would be some sort of rune system for Rune Fencer. I'm thinking it might be something akin to the way Strategems for SCH are gained. Specific actions costing a number of accumulated runes and some MP. Or something along those lines.