Translation Japanese to English

[Reinheart]

part 2
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Source: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview/20131213_627195.html

GW: Alright, going to start asking questions regarding patch 2.1 A realm awoken. First off you regarding the 12/17 date. I thought it was pretty fast. Since it was delayed I was thinking you were going to push it back till end of the year. So this was a happy miscalculation on my end.


Yoshida: Lots of players also thought it was going to be end of the year, 12/30, or going to be in January. I checked everyones reaction and relieved.


GW: Is this schedule due to everyone working hard? Or was it because it was originally planned for November and it was pushed back for about 20 days?


Yoshida: The correct one is that it got pushed back about 20 days. The dev teams really worked hard so it can be released with 20 days delay, for all the players that is patiently waiting for it and dev team I only can apologize.


GW: At the first half of Producer Letter LIVE you mentioned that the instance battles will feel better from patch 2.1. How will it change? Can you please go into details?


Yoshida: During beta say two players fought each other in Wolves’ Den. Say a Monk was in from of the white mage and it was trying to hit the white mage, if the white mage made a quick turn the packet information isn’t updated so there will be a gap between the data and what’s seen on screen. We made it so the information on this movement is sent instantly so it’s matching closer to what you see on screen. We were able to put this in without putting much stress.


GW: So it doesn’t mean that it will break the regular 0.3 second wall, and send/receive packet information at much faster rate?


Yoshida: The 0.3 second is absolute value that’s in almost every MMORPG, if we change this it will break the server specs, 0.3 seconds is a stable number so that why it’s close to tradition.


GW: You mentioned that the feel is going to be better on certain areas, but which areas in particular are we talking about here?


Yoshida: Hard mode, extreme mode primals, all high level dungeon post Wanderers Palace, Hard Mode Ultima weapon, Crystal Tower. however we may just do this for all dungeons.


GW: I forgot how long ago but when I started playing FFXIV I checked the Ping to Square-Enixs server. (Laugh) reason why was because I had experience of being pushed off the edge with land slide from Titan Hard Mode, I was thinking to myself “I dodged that for sure, why!” and that’s when I checked, at that time I was using the smart phones tethering to play. So when I checked it was slow. Went back home and checked again and the Ping was in the one digit and was easy to dodge. The previous FFXIV’s server lag was really horrible, but for FFXIV ARR for the lags it’s most likely a problem with the local side environment. However, there are many out there that claim it’s the game sides issue and it’s hard.


Yoshida: I can’t talk about that from my end so please do so from GAME Watch’s side (laugh).


GW: It’s really simple matter, if you can just release ping check tool to game server it will resolve this issue.


Yoshida: It’s not so easy to add that officiallly when there are several ISP’s involved.


GW: But, since we all know the IP it’s possible to add it in the benchmark program to show when players check the PC performance so they can understand the issue. I really think the current situation is unfair. People still mentioning it even after FFXIV ARRs launch must mean that there are that much people that is misunderstanding.


*don’t bash the messenger (translator)... I’m just translating what’s on here... I got lag too (I don’t fully agree with above statements, specially it’s different for NA/EU players.)

Yoshida: What I can official say from my end is that if you’re really going to fully go into the contents please have the best environment. But this is really hard, there are those that will say “You are the one creating the Online Game, you prepare that type of environment”, or look over it and make adjustments so you can dodge those.


GW: That’s impossible.


Yoshida: It is, if we do that we can’t make difficult contents.


GW: If you’re able to dodge with 3 digit Ping then it’s not fun as a game


........./tableflip 3 digit ping is regular for me... (calm down)

Yoshida: We would need to extend the time players have to dodge. But doing that will make the content super easy, so it’s impossible.


GW: This one is a complicated issue


Yoshida: Yes, there are many instances where it requires a lot of movement for end tier contents.


GW: But from the players side, they will keep on saying that something is definitely wrong with this game since they are dodging for sure on their screen. I think this isn’t good for both sides.


Yoshida: We have saying on our side too “I dodged it on my screen!” there are people who keep on hitting the trap every time and someone told that person “Stop doing it!” and he said “I dodged it on my screen!” when he said that another person who was calm mentioned “Then reinstall the game, your game is bugged” (laugh).
Putting the joke aside, the measure we put in this time will post the position you stopped so it should reflect the rendered image directly. This one is hard to explain, but I believe it should feel much easier to dodge. Even for extreme mode primal battles difficulty was adjusted thinking of this.


GW: Talking about feeling, from viewpoint of a tank that tanks by the wall, even if we fight with the camera zoomed out all the way, if the camera hits the wall the viewpoint is forced to go inwards and it doesn’t go back and it’s frustrating (laugh).


Yoshida: I’m sorry, from 2.1 it will go back to normal.


GW: But how it gets pushed back in when hitting the wall is still there?


Yoshida: That will still be there. if we remove the “Camera Collision” from objects, where it doesn’t hit anything this won’t happen, however it will create a situation where the camera goes inside walls and pillars. It’s the matter of allowing this or not, I’m actually happy to hear you talk about this one (laugh).


GW: I’m in charge of playing online games and foreign games, so to me I feel like “Why don’t you take this out from the beginning?” It’s more of Square-Enix’s policy, FFXI has this, it’s setup so you’re supposed to play with the default screen.


Yoshida: Yes. Previous FFXIV was built with this in mind. I really wanted to fix this in the previous FFXIV but if we take it out it breaks the rendering so we couldn’t.


GW: I see.


Yoshida: As conclusion, there will be objects that will hit the camera, ut in patch 2.1 there will be more objects that can be passed through. For dungeon camera check, in the end I do it through the workflow, but I’m telling the person in charge we should be able to remove the camera collision for these walls and pillars. I believe this needs to be learned gradually.
There are some customers who think”camera digging inside is a bug!” or “camera going through the pillars is weird looking!” it’s something we can be peculiar with because this is FF series. Especially games from Square-Enix is built beautifully so it’s made so you can view from the best camera position. It’s impossible for us to have it where it digs in or goes through objects, what you’re asking is forget about all that and for camera just let it go through all the objects so it doesn’t interrupt the field of view right?


GW: Yes. Isn’t that how it should be for online games field of view?


Yoshida: It’s depends on the values, since it’s FF series or online game, it get hard


GW: Some are even saying they can’t do it because of personal issues, so it’s not that but it’s more of if the players allows it’s really easy to do?


Yoshida: In the end if we were to allow it, it will involve permissions. Also there is an issue where if we really need to have things that can be done on a single player game on a MMO. If we went by allowing it to pass through objects and take out all the camera collision, it will be possible to get the best field of view and it will allow us to remove stressful process.


GW: So it’s up to if the Square Enix fans will allow that?


Yoshida: That’s why, we are being careful regarding this matter. This time we implemented a feature when the camera auto zooms to go back it’s position. We’re sorry for the wait, other than that we’re removing the camera collisions one by one (laugh).


GW: Next regarding the 3 new dungeons. We have two hard mode dungeons from Haukke and Copper Bell, can you explain why you chose these two?


Yoshida: The dungeon update plan is made up till 3.0, with every patch we have one brand new dungeon, 2 hard mode dungeons with 3 new dungeons, that’s the plan. First for 2.1 we need to choose the dungeon that’s going to be selected. At launch timing there are unexpected risks so we need to choose something that’s easy to do, or later we’re going to have cost issues. At that time, the maps that were made before I came in from previous FFXIV such as Dzemael or Totorak, the gimmicks were decided later but the map design wasn’t normal, to choose that requires a lot of cost isn’t a easy task. So we talked about choosing a dungeon that was made specifically for ARR.


GW: Was it too big?


Yoshida: yes. The previous FFXIV dungeons are long, that’s why it took time to cut them up, also there are measures that are different from previous FFXIV and ARR, also it’s not easy to change the mood.
For that reason, we chose Haukke and Copper Bell. Haukke is a manor, so the passageways are fixed and it’s pretty simple to change the structure, in the original level design there were other routes that were removed. Since it’s two story building it’s pretty easy to change the feel by going through a different route.
When we’re going to release the first hard mode dungeon, this will also give the players a understanding of what we mean by hard mode. For copperbell there were parts that we removed although we wanted to do originally, so there are things the person in charge had planned for gimmicks and other ideas.


GW: Gimmick meaning the one where you get the bomb out to take down the slimes, those kind of stuff?


Yoshida: All the gimmicks for hard mode will be different. It’s not simply where mobs HP is higher or stronger, the entire gimmick will be different.


GW: So we won’t have that bomb one but something different?


Yoshida: Yes, the strategy will be totally different so please look forward to it.


GW: We’re going to get mytho and philo and rare equipment as a reward correct?


Yoshida: Yes. I’m sure people are tired of Wanderers Palace and Amdapore Keep so next main will be these three dungeons. From a new players point of view, they will have selection from 5 dungeons.
The three dungeons that will be introduced this time will be the hardest 4 player dungeon, so if you want to obtain tokens at an optimal pace then you should run through these three dungeons. Under these three will be WP and AK so those will be little bit easier to clear.


GW: It’s a bit odd that WP and AK is going to be under.


Yoshida: For those stuck with job specific gear (AF) I am hoping that they can think this will allow them to finally go though WP and AK.


GW: Currently the game is turning into a game where you just repeat dungeons, but with the new dungeons being introduced will this put an end to it?


Yoshida: By having more contents, it will lead to more gear drops, it will allow more selection to choose from. However for those that are aiming to get the mytho gear they will probably need to repeat the dungeons.
Like what I mentioned in the previous LIVE regarding the content roulette some mentioned that going through low level dungeon and getting 5 mytho points isn’t going to motivate anyone. For those trying to find the best optimal way to obtain tokens, of course they will feel that way, and you won’t be able to obtain much mythos from easy dungeons. It’s not meant for it to be that way, this is for those that want to collect dark light gear for their new class, and when they want Philosophy tomestone they go through low level dungeons. Or those who don’t mind going at a more slower, casual pace. They go through it once a day and they can get 200 philosophy and 5 mythology.
Low level dungeon is easy so by doing this every day I’m sure the player will be come more confident and they will get better, by the time they know it you have 80 mythos from running all the runs for 5 mythos. It will create situation like If you try just a bit more you can get a mytho gear? that will be much easier and give the player more confidence to try WP/AK next, I’m hoping it leads to something like that, that’s why the mytho is set to 5.


GW: I see so that 5 mytho has a deep meaning to it (laugh). For those that really feel that it’s hard shouldn’t pressure themselves to go but best wait till patch 2.1


Yoshida: Yes. Also, in this generation there are so many different types of entertainment available so even if you say that, there will be those that can’t wait for the patch. that’s why just like now, once the patch is released we’ll send an announcement to let them know we got this much new stuff so please check it out. Having players come back after checking everyone else having fun is alright, I’m totally fine with that. As a result of continuing to do that in previous FFXIV, we have three times more customers once subscription started, so by continuing to do it for a long run, and releasing contents which we feel is fun to play with is what I believe is the best the operation for MMORPG can do.


GW: Also during the live you announced 90 day reward, 180 day reward, 270 day reward, how effective are those?


Yoshida: I believe it has a strong effect. It’s something those players who continue to subscribe can get.


GW: So it leads to motivation to continue subscription.


Yoshida: Yes.


GW: Later you will continue to keep on doing 360 days, 450 days but are you going to prepare something every 90 days?


Yoshida: It won’t specifically be 90 days time always, but we are planning to continue doing this.


GW: In general it’s going to be minions and mounts?


Yoshida: For 1 year, 360 day subscription we want to give something better, right now we’re selecting one from the list of candidates.


GW: What kind of things are there?


Yoshida: It’s still a secret (laugh).


GW: This is probably going to be about 2.2 but why was the vanity system pushed back from release? Why did it become 2.2?


Yoshida: It simply didn’t make it on time......


GW: This time through FFXIII collaboration even we were able to collect all the lighting gear. It’s really designed well but it’s level 13 gear so if we fight with that, people are going to be like “huh?” (laugh). If you would’ve released the vanity system at the timing of 2.1 I think it would of been fun to play with lightnings looks.


Yoshida: I fully understand what you’re saying (laugh) I really wanted to put it in. But the debug and check process is really hard.


GW: You have to test out with every gear?


Yoshida: We have to try everything once, it’s simple to just go over the items that are introduced in that patch but we have to do this to every item and that’s the scary part. There are many tasks and debugs to go over, as well as making it well balanced with the dye system, balanced between the item levels, etc., so we’re carefully developing this and will deliver in 2.2.


GW: I have several questions regarding Crystal Tower. First, you mentioned the Forbidden land of Eureka as keyword during LIVE. What kind of things are you planning for that?


Yoshida: If you have played FFIII, I belive you can imagine somewhat how it’s going to be. If you go through the Ancient’s Labyrinth I’m sure people can assume how Eureka is going to be.


GW: I see, so weapons such as legendary weapons, things that FFIII fans can look forward to is in there?


Yoshida: Yes. We’re really being particular for this one, and there is a story setup to the tasks you have to take before entering the Labyrinth, even after entering the Labyrinth I hope players who know will smile.


GW: Regarding that Crystal Tower, this time like Bahamut’s opening we’re just getting the start or are we getting a lot at once?


Yoshida: There will be 4 bosses. If you defeat all 4 bosses, the raid for this time is completed, then have players look forward to the next one in 2.3.


How big of a volume is it to clear?


Yoshida: That’s hard to answer. It’s a play where we ask 24 players to try their best at a doing big jump rope. Sometimes it will be really easy, when it’s tough, it’s going to be really tough.


GW: For example, in Bahamut’s Coil you have 5 levels, how many parts is Crystal Tower split up into?


Yoshida: It’s just 1. So to simply put it’s Crystal Tower stage 1. Crystal tower is about 4 turns put together, but the size of each turn/number of bosses is completely different from Bahamut’s coils 1 turn.


GW: So it’s going to be the longest content which can be challenged with 24 players with 120 minute time limit for FFXIV ARR.


Yoshida: It’s a big dungeon, and you’ll have a lot of players, you’ll need time to plan out a strategy so it’s set a bit longer.


GW: If it goes smoothly it’s about 1 hour? Just think of it like AK’s length?


Yoshida: It’s much longer than AK for sure. The current instance dungeons are setup for 4 players with mid-boss, mid-boss, boss but for Crystal Tower it’s Boss, Boss, Boss, Boss and in between those you got Trap, Trap, Trap, something like that.


GW: That sounds like it's going to be hard, so it’s something you should sit down and play full on during the weekends.


Yoshida: Yes, exactly. I believe players should be able to fully challenge it. I believe even if it’s during the week day and you got a group together around 10pm by the time it’s done it’s about the time for going to sleep. I think it’s about that much.


GW: Recently during the live we keep on hearing different keywords and need to pay attention to them but will Leviathan come out in 2.1?


Yoshida: Leviathan is for 2.2


GW: How will it come out?


Yoshida: Please look forward to the main story.


GW: So it’s going to relate to the main story in 2.2.


Yoshida: Yes, 2.1 has a pretty good amount of volume, in patch 2.1 it will take a big step forward. The patch title A Realm Awoken also is a title for the main story too.


GW: The main story from ended with a deep meaning. There were asciens and name of new person was revealed. So 2.1 will go into continuation of that?


Yoshida: You’ll see Asciens in 2.1, there is also one enemy who showed up in the main story up to level 50 who disappeared, that person will come back as well.


GW: If the main story was about 50 hours, how long is this times story?


Yoshida: For the story? It involves dungeons in between so that’s hard to answer.


GW: So doesn’t that mean Crystal Tower will also be involved?


Yoshida: No, Crystal Tower is a completely independent episode of its own.


GW: So it’s like going to the new dungeons such as Sirus?


Yoshida: It’s Qarn, not the hard one but the normal Sunken temple of Qarn, there is a quest asking you to go there, you’ll be level synced. We lowered the difficulty a bit so I hope people can go there without hating it.


GW: Yes, there isn’t much good memory from Qarn. It’s one of the dungeons I don’t want to go repeatedly (laugh).


Yoshida: When making adjustments to Qarn this time, when we checked the bosses speed of the laser I said “This is faster than Ultima Weapons Lasers.......” Qarn was adjusted after all the contents were made and was the last dungeon to be adjusted so our senses were bit off.


GW: So you want players to try it out since you adjusted the difficulty?


Yoshida: Yes. I believe there are many that haven’t cleared Qarn yet also, so this will be a reason for them to go.


GW: On the other hand you can say this time you have to clear it.


Yoshida: yes, if you want to continue onto the main story you would have to clear it.


GW: How much volume is there this time for the main story?


Yoshida: If just saying the main story, and just simply going after the story in 2.1, it’s bunch of quests so ummm about 10 hours. Of course if you use teleports it will be much shorter, and if you skip through all the dialogues it will be much shorter. Just think of it as 4-5 hours. This is just talking about main scenario.


GW: Other contents will have different types of story set for them as well.


Yoshida: yes. You have the Hildibrand Story, Crystal Tower Story, Extreme mode primal story, beastmen daily quest, I haven’t put these into the main. If you put all of these in I’m sure it will easily go over 30 hours. Also you would need to clear in order for Extreme mode primal battles so if you get stuck on there, I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. So it’s hard to answer this one.


GW: What’s the total volume of patch 2.1?


Yoshida: If you’re going to play through every content I’m sure it can go over 300 hours. If you’re picking few stuff here and there it should still easily go over 80 hours. Just think of it as buying 1 brand new game at the end/beginning of the year. I believe there is enough volume.


GW: At the end of the extreme mode primal battle trailer, Ultima Weapon came out but you were surprised going “What’s this?” Was that some kind of mistake? It didn’t sound as if you’re going off of a script, or was it really something you weren’t expecting?


Yoshida: It was unexpected, it’s the last boss from the main story we’re talking about here.


GW: Really unexpected?


Yoshida: I’ll let you decide on that one (laugh).


GW: So is this Hard mode Ultima Weapon going to be 2.1’s last boss?


Yoshida: No, that’s not it. Ultima Weapon is basically a independent content. It involves the Wandering Minstrel, please look forward to the content.


GW: What’s the requirement for Hard Mode Ultima Weapon? Do we need to have the hard mode primals cleared?


Yoshida: No we didn’t put that kind of restriction. As long as you have cleared the main story you would be able to go.


GW: So the difficulty isn’t that hard?


Yoshida: Hmm I think it’s about hard mode primal battle.


GW: In the trailer we were able to see tons of lasers we couldn’t see in the main story battle.


Yoshida: Yes the attacks are pretty severe. But really the original one was made like that.


GW: Oh, so for the Ultima weapon in the main story you took it out?


Yoshida: It was too hard. It was really fun but too hard. Everyone in the battle team including myself liked it but when we thought over, we said this is too hard to regular 8 players who’s playing through the story. Specially after going through the dungeon for 60 minutes, everyone’s going to lose their hope (laugh) So for the main story we released the one without the gimmicks.


GW: That’s true, it was much easier than what you expect from that name.


Yoshida: If anyone goes through a long dungeon like that and end up fighting something strong than what’s available now, they will lose hope. That’s why this time we added some more to what was available originally.


GW: The reward hasn’t been revealed yet, what can we get?


Yoshida: I’ll keep that a secrete still. There is specific frop for it, I believe it’s going to be fun.


GW: You got this much volume in 2.1 and you’re not going to release a packaged version?


Yoshida: We won’t release it, it’s just a patch.


GW: This going to be same for later?


Yoshida: Yes, we aren’t planning much till 3.0. However for the PS4 versions master, we’re going to add some inside aside from what’s there from beginning. We’re not sure if that’s going to be till 2.1 or 2.2.


GW: What kind of update are you thinking until the 3.0 expansion?


Yoshida: About 2 and half month to 3 month. Right now lots are thinking 2.2 is going to be far later but we’ll deliver it correctly and gain everyone's trust.


GW: So if 2.1 is December, then post 2.2 is going to be March, June, September, December, something like this?


Yoshida: Would like to do it so it goes that way.


GW: You mentioned that you are going to a Letter Live in Osaka after the new years, how will you do this?


Yoshida: I ordered that I wanted to do this even if it was in a public hall. I want to invite at least 200 people over.


GW: Are you going to talk about the PS4 version there?


Yoshida: We’re going to show the PS4 version during the next 11th Letter live, so it’s going to be about 2.2


GW: Oh wow! 2.2 already?


Yoshida: We’re planning to do this in January so I want to start like, hows patch 2.1 doing for everyone, you guys enjoying? Well lets start talking about 2.2 then......


GW: So if you announce the 2.2 in Osaka, Are you planning to talk about 2.3 in Fukuoka or Sendai?


Yoshida: Right now we’re talking about doing one every two month, go to about 5 cities throughout the year. Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, and Fukuoka.


GW: You also mentioned about the world tour, I’m sure this is a happy new for Western players.


Yoshida: Yes, we need to do this one.


GW: Since the development is in Japan, it ends up being closely within Japan.


Yoshida: Yes. And if you do that for foreign players it’s not fun for them. Even for the Legacy players in Japan we were only able to meet them in the main cities so I would like to go around Japan to thank everyone, I have been saying this since previous FFXIV. I don’t mind it being just 200 people but I want to have fun with everyone and have content setup for the event. So do something like the titan battle with everyone and talk with everyone for 4, 5 hours, battle together, then go into the live broadcasts. We’re planning to do Producer Letter Live in that form.


GW: Nice, so not only public open broadcast, but you’re going to have some play area, seems like it’s going to be a long event.


Yoshida: I want it to be that way. From customers view point we’re imaging about half day event.


GW: So you’re going to do this for 3 days straight like in game show?


Yoshida: No no just one day. It’s too much, I’m going to die (laugh). Scale of game show is different so it’s possible but it’s really hard to do.


GW: So how is the world tour going to be?


Yoshida: think of it as FFXI’s Vana Festival, it’s will have few thousand. Do Eorzea Festival in japan then continue doing that in US and end it in Europe. We haven’t decided on the order yet.


GW: For FFXI they had hotel hall room as event with two day event, will it be something like that?


Yoshida: Yes, something like that. I don’t want to open too much time apart so I believe we’ll only do one day each.



GW: In FFXI it was a tradition to announce the expansion pack but what’s the content for world tour?


Yoshida: I think it’ll be something like that. I’ll let you imagine.


GW: So does that mean at later 2014 we’ll have expansion pack release?


Yoshida: We can’t release expansion patch that fast. Doing world tour without anything to talk about will just make people angry so I’m just saying we’ll prepare stuff.


GW: After 2.1 you have PS4, then you have DirectX 11 version but how’s that one going?


Yoshida: Right now we’re fully working into the PS4 version so once that’s settled it’s the next step. First we’ll show the live demo on the 11th Producer Letter Live.


GW: So you’re going to have the PS4 there and demo the PS4 version?


Yoshida: We can’t show the test kit, so it will basically be the screen, however for the remote play portion, I’ll probably show me playing on the PS vita.


GW: We’re going to get to see the PS Vita’s remote play too, that is something to look forward to.


Yoshida: yes, for that reason, so people can tell it’s not fake but really the PS4 version.


GW: From your point of view, how’s the PS4 version turning out?


Yoshida: It’s amazing.


GW: Is the PC’s highest quality setting working fine on it?


Yoshida: It’s really nice to have a lot of memory, really happy about that one.


GW: For those playing on PS3, you want them to switch over to the PS4?


Yoshida: It will be another option for the customers to fit their playstyle. As we already announced we will make it free upgrade working together with SCE so we would like players to look into the available options.


GW: Is the rendering at full HD 60 frame rate?


Yoshida: No, instead of being particular about 60 frame rate on the PS4 we concentrated on character rendering. Since it’s an MMO making it 60 frames won’t have much merit to it.


GW: I see. So it’s held at 30 frames but display more characters simultaneously so it’s easier to play as an MMO?


Yoshida: yes, set to 30 fixed, but instead be more careful on the maximum rendering.


GW: So unlike the PS3 version there won't be a display limitation, basically everything will be displayed?


Yoshida: It will be same as the PC. We’re going to not put a restriction and do everything we can.


GW: So the only limitation for the PS4 versions feature is just the frame rate?


Yoshida: This isn’t really a limitation but at this timing both PC version and the PS version will have a option to adjust the amount to be rendered. For example, there will be a option to adjust how many character to display. This can be set so it just shows the PT member, etc. Something like this.


GW: On the other hand, how’s the PC’s graphic update version the DirectX 11 versions development?


Yoshida: Right now we’re focusing too much on the PS4 so it’s still not clear yet. At current timing we can’t specifically say what’s going to be ready when. But I can tell you that the development is on going and we have already address the 64 bit.


GW: As a new direction for PC games, AMD mentioned of a Mantle API which is on the new generation Radeons, by using Mantle it can work much faster than the DirectX, do you have any plans for Mantle version or optimization towards Radeon?


Yoshida: We won’t have for a while. It’s only been 3 month from launch for us. We have to do everything in order. The upcoming patch 2.1 is a large scale update, from February 22nd we have the PS4 beta throughout the world, and next year we have Chinese version launch, then we also received lots of voice from Taiwan, Korea, Russian and many other regions. We have to work on these a step at a time.


GW: I see. So next year you’re going to start the China and other regions?


Yoshida: If possible, we would like to start by looking into it.


GW: For that will it have it’s own server and separate the server and service?


Yoshida: yes. If we were to make the current service as a global version and there will be regional release versions. We worked really hard on this so we would like for as much players to play it.


GW: The direction of the game is completely different from FFXI


Yoshida: Really?


GW: Yes, in FFXI, you had servers place in Japan, and you operated the service through your own company, that was the absolute policy, and there was no asia release.


Yoshida: I see, but when I took over FFXIV the China release was already decided, and we have continued to work with Shanda Games for the Chinese version.


GW: In future not only the Chinese version released by Shanda, but we might be able to see Korean version or Russian version, many different versions.


Yoshida: China is a must. It’s the largest online game market.


GW: Has the Chinese version beta test start?


Yoshida: No, not yet. We’re working with Shanda to decide on the Beta timing.


GW: So it’s pretty much made?


Yoshida: Basically yes. We have been working on the translation at the same timing as the Japanese so it’s pretty close.


GW: When will the official service start in China?


Yoshida: For now let me just say “sometime next year”.


GW: How about the business model?


Yoshida: We’re still going through the final negotiations, we haven’t decided if it’s going to be F2P. Shanda has been looking into lots of new things as well. Right now Chinese customers are pretty confused with the F2P so we’re talking about changing the direction.


GW: So next year it looks like it’s going to be not only 4 languages, but more like 6 languages.


Yoshida: It’s not that simple. Even WoW launched in China after 5 years operation. It’s that hard to start a operation in a new region. First we need to prioritize the global version, within 3 years span, then decide on how we’re going to expand.


GW: Alright moving into the end but after 2.1 release, what kind of expectation can players have?


Yoshida: Right now the game is narrow, and within that narrow path people are trapped inside and it may feel really tight for the players. If you think of it as a tree, right now we only have a trunk of the tree without any branches, first we’ll have features that will make the tree thicker, those are contents where players can fight each other, or housing system, next you’ll have branches coming off these. You can decide which branch to play on today. I want everyone to please enjoy that first.
As for the daily selection, for better understanding there was one part missing, this time there are a lot of contents which has daily and weekly restrictions. For example for weekly restrictions we have the 300 mytho cap. Bahamut’s Coil clear flag is reset weekly. This time you’ll have Crystal Towers item drop’s NEED policy with weekly restriction. For example you go in and 3 items drop, you choose which item you want to NEED and if you win the loot you can’t NEED again till the specific time it resets. But this is only win a loot. It doesn’t mean you just NEED once and you lose the rights. You can NEED as much until you win the loot. Once it resets you can get again. So at first please NEED only on something you really want. You can go inside the content as much as you want to for example you can go in to help your friends. Say out of the 24, 2 people still need it, when it’s like that it’s possible to help.


GW: You can’t NEED but you can GREED?


Yoshida: No, it will automatically pass. However once it resets you can NEED again so you can do so then.


GW: Ah! So you can basically only get one item per week?


Yoshida: Yes. Also as I mentioned about the Beastmen daily quest, you’ll have different tasks in one day, once you clear 6 that’s it for that day, you can’t do more than that. Next the Extreme Primal Battles, there are 3 of them, if you clear all 3 you have an ending for the Extreme mode, you’ll get a special item drop. If you have 3 of these you can trade it for weapon with item level 90 of your choice. There isn’t any restriction to challenge the EM Primals but you can only get this weapon once a week. So please think of it like “If I do all three of these I can get one weapon this week”.
With these there will be total of 5, if you just look at each one individually it will look like it’s full of restrictions but if you think over your schedule for the week that’s a lot of things to do. First go through the Bahamut’s Coil you’re working on, then collect 450 mythos for that week, then go to Crystal Tower to get the item you want, but it may not drop with just one try...... then you got daily beastmen quest along with 3 EM primals to get ilvl 90 weapon...... There is 8 jobs total so it’ll take 8 weeks at fastest.... if you think that way this isn't really a restriction but we want players to do something over and over till they get tired but try out different things but at same time be able to get items.


GW: Although each one has it’s own restriction if you try to do everything it’ll end up with a lot of things to do.


Yoshida: I’m sure right before the 2.1 release for those that look at the patch notes will say “More restrictions” but once they try it out I’m thinking they will understand why we placed the restrictions.
Also we have Treasure Hunt and Wolves’ Den, housing, and Guild leve, Guildhest, Content Roullet, so I wish they don’t think of the restriction by it self. If you look at the overall image, you’ll have many options to choose from for what to do that week. I want it to be that way.


GW: Is there any restrictions on the 2 major contents of patch 2.1, the Wolves’ Den and Housing?


Yoshida: There isn’t any, you can play as much as you want, if you gain points you can trade for item, even if you lose you’ll get points so please freely try it out.
For housing there is about 300 items being added, so if you’re to complete all the items, it’s going to be really hard. Indoor furnitures, outdoor furnitures, wall, roof, weather vane...... If you ask how long it’s going to take for it, it’s hard to answer.


GW: I’ll just ask this one even thought it might not get answered, is the housing cost still a secret?


Yoshida: It’s not decided yet.


GW: That’s a lie (laugh).


Yoshida: I mean it.


GW: Can you at least let us know how much the price will be lowered every 6 hours?


Yoshida: If I answered that you can calculate it (laugh). There is an already existing example called Dragon Quest X and there is a record on how much it costed at the beginning......
Honestly, it’s not decided yet, on 11/25 the person in charge of Housing came to me and gave me the cost of the housing items, and land and cost of the house. However, I’m more concentrated on the algorithm used to get those cost out. There was two things in there I had to question so that’s being adjusted.


GW: What was the issue? Was it too expensive?


Yoshida: No, it’s the root section, when I asked where did you pull this number from, for what reason? And there was issue with that one, so we’re looking over that. If we don’t do that the price won’t be valid.


GW: I want to know amount of digits, is it 3 digit ten thousand gil possible or requires more?


Yoshida: The building itself won't cost that much but the land is expensive, just like reality. For what’s built on top you can replace and do others so.


GW: Lastly can you please give a comment to all the players?


Yoshida: Sorry for making you wait a long time. As mentioned in the interview if you compare this to an amusement park, we had the main story which is like the main street entrance leading to roller coasters just going straight. From patch 2.1 you’re going to have the coffee cups and Ferris Wheel, there are things that has one day pass, or fast pass, there are lots of features in there. We realy made you wait a long time, but I this should be the grand opening of a amusement park named Eorzea. I hope everyone can enjoy it.


GW: Thank you