Interview - Cost, Hiring, FT, Hardcore and Casual, Ultimate, Cosmic, Future of FFXIV

[Jeeqbit]

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202507/48601

Cost and Hiring

• He knew people wouldn't understand what he meant and that he shouldn't bring up "cost".
• But if he can't do something, he has committed himself to always explaining why. So he explained and well, you know the reaction he got.
• Hiring more people doesn't mean more output. He says leaders (ie. project managers) are important, and good leaders are very hard to come by.
• There are hundreds of developers working on FFXIV.
• They have assigned personnel to FFXIV as a priority.
• They are planning to significantly increase the number of QA teams but again lack of leaders is a concern.
• They have been trying to increase the number of developers over the last 10 years but the absolute number of Japanese developers is insufficient.
• Now, a lot of people who grew up playing FFXIV are applying to the development team, so a lot of developers now grew up playing FFXIV.
• However, few people have experience developing for a large-scale MMORPG, so it's still challenging.
• They are not giving up hiring. But due to the challenges with finding people with the necessary skills and experience, the growth of FFXIV has been competing with the rate at which they can hire people with the right skills and experience.
• He says overseas developers are interested, but it's challenging because they need to be able to speak Japanese, which obviously most of them can't.

Forked Tower

• They intended 24 people to be able to clear it, but certain mechanics have made it harder than intended.
• Changes will be made to it in 7.3 so that the intended amount of people can clear it.
• The next one will be developed better so more people can participate.
• Developers are working on a normal mode for the next one "at any cost".

Addressing the Divide Between Hardcore and Casual

• They previously had tried to handle this by making different content types aimed at different types of players, which made sense.
• However, Yoshi-P has decided it will now be better to try and make all content work for all players where possible.
• Obviously this begins with Pilgrim's Traverse (the deep dungeon) but he intends to expand the concept to other content.
• Depending on the offering given, either the HP or the outgoing damage increases by a factor of 1.15 (so, an extra 15%)

Ultimate

• Still said it will be released during 7.x.

Cosmic Exploration

• In ARR, crafting was designed to be done with macros due to how repetitive it is.
• However, in Cosmic Exploration it gets repetitive. They believe it's too simple and that the thinking has stalled.
• They have 70-80 staff members playing it to figure out if what they are making is enjoyable and making adjustments based on that, including making more unique sound effects and just making the experience actually fun.

Future of FFXIV

• "I don't think that FFXIV is perfect in its current state, and I'm keenly aware that we're facing major challenges precisely because we've built it up over so many years. After receiving a variety of feedback, I've finally been able to put it into words, and patch 7.3 is the time we're beginning to make concrete changes."
• "I believe we can only gain trust and confidence by continuing to build on it one step at a time, so we want to approach this as a new starting point for us as well."
• "Of course, I don't expect all content to suddenly reach the level I've talked about today. But I want to do my best to show you a glimpse of that and my determination"

Variant

• Will be a bit different to previous versions.
• "We've changed the flavor so that it can be enjoyed by a wider range of players, and we've also prepared new mechanisms. In this way, we aim to create each major piece of content so that it can be enjoyed by a wide range of players"

Fanfest

• "It's customary to announce new expansion packs at the Fan Festival. It seems like the date and venue have been finalized, so we're hoping to make the announcement soon."

[Bryson]

He didnt' say it will be released during 7.x

Yoshida: This time, the Pilgrim Traverse secret boss, where you offer 40 offerings, is pretty close to an ultimate, but it still requires four players... Of course, we're planning on implementing one more in the 7.x series, and we're currently in the middle of working on it. As I've said many times before, developing an ultimate is incredibly difficult

Having said that, this is far more reassuring than anything he's said in the past. This is the first time he's ever mentioned 7.x and the 2nd ultimate in the same sentence. The previous live letter he made no mention of 7.x for the 2nd ultimate. Last LL all he said was "make no mistake the next ultimate is in development."

[TaleraRistain]

Leaders doesn't always just mean project managers either. In software it can sometimes be the senior software developers that you have mentoring, training, and providing oversight on the junior software developers.

And I'm glad he addressed the "more people means more production" because that's not just not universally true. More people can lead to less production. You might have to retask senior employees to bring junior employees up to speed, so you lose production until the point they can work independently. Or if you bring in new management, you might create more management levels that can blockade things getting done. My company follows the Lean philosophy and while sometimes new headcount is the answer, sometimes it's also a change in processes. And we try to fully understand what the effect of a new person is going to be on all elements of the process before we arrive at that conclusion.

[Hallarem]

With Yoshi P, I'd say believe in his actions and not his words. That's the nicest way to put it.

[Supersnow845]

Did he say 7.3 WILL fix forked or just a vague “we have plans to maybe do further difficulty fixes”

This post, r/ffxiv and r/ffxivdiscussion all seem to disagree on this point

[Jeeqbit]

Did he say 7.3 WILL fix forked or just a vague “we have plans to maybe do further difficulty fixes”

Google Translation:

Fork Tower was actually created under the assumption that it could be cleared by 24 people if the strategy was established, and that the remaining 24 people could aim to clear it with support. However, there was a gimmick that collective required responsibility, so we felt that we had not made enough adjustments there. Therefore, the goal of 7.3 is to adjust it to the form that we were originally aiming for.

Firefox Translation:

The folk tower was built on the premise that if the capture was established, it could be cleared by twenty-four people, and the remaining twenty-four people were expected to aim for clear even if they followed up. However, there was also a gimmick that became a joint responsibility, so there was a lack of adjustment there. Therefore, it is a policy of 7.3 to adjust it to the shape that was originally intended.

[melbye]

Sounds like Snowballs

[Alice_Rivers]

Did he say 7.3 WILL fix forked or just a vague “we have plans to maybe do further difficulty fixes”

I wouldn't read it as Forked Tower will be fixed, just adjusted in the hopes that 24 members will be able to clear.

As far as "cost" goes, rather than he shouldn't have said it, especially if he knew in advance that it was going to land poorly, he should have been clear about what "cost" specifically. You would think the creative director, producer and apparent lead marketer of an MMO would understand that words matter, perhaps he should also have run it by the translator first to ensure they're on the same page.

[Supersnow845]

That still leaves me confused

It doesn’t sound like “forked normal” of course but forked mechanics are so intertwined with their personal responsibility design that making it “carryable tour duty” like BA would basically involve a ground up rework anyway which apparently they don’t have the time or money for

[caffe_macchiato]

I don't think that FFXIV is perfect in its current state, and I'm keenly aware that we're facing major challenges precisely because we've built it up over so many years. After receiving a variety of feedback, I've finally been able to put it into words, and patch 7.3 is the time we're beginning to make concrete changes.

So when is the NA community canceling Yoshi-P for being anti-FFXIV? He’s a WoW shill, right? He should just unsub and go play other games?