Naoki Yoshida (Yoshida) : Thank you very much for coming today again, the Japan Expo is a very busy place but we're glad to see you again.
So rather than me starting, I'm sure you have a lot of questions, I think it's good if you start asking questions, so please, let's start.
Mondes Persistants (MP): Regarding new players, what kind of content will they tackle in order to progress into the game? What about current players who already have all jobs to 50?
Yoshida : Actually the reps are posting about it on the forums, but we are trying to have the best leveling features, and for 2.0 it is going to be quite different from the current leveling system.
When I started working on XIV, I wanted to make the changes straight away but we couldn't because there was a lack of contents, and also the system wasn't ready, but for the 2.0 version I want to make sure once you complete contents, you will get the key to level up your character, so completing content is a key to leveling up in 2.0 version.
Completing the quests, getting rewards, huge experience points, or completing a dungeon and getting experience points, that's going to be the key thing to level up your character, not like at the moment where you have to do monster camping or farming, that's not going to work in 2.0.
For the new players, once you make your character then you start going into the storyline, experiencing the scenario, and completing quests, you will not really progress in the game, you would gain experience points and level up your character first, once you've experienced the storyline, you will realise that your character is leveling up at the same time.
For the level 50 players, of course they can try out the new main scenario of 2.0 and complete the battle against the Garlemald Empire, or try out the new Crystal Tower content; so, you can start trying out the end content if you want to, or, of course, if you can try the new scenario from scratch, there'll be several options given to players.
Also the map is completely different so just by walking around you'll notice a lot of new things, that should be interesting as well.
Finalfantasy14.eu (14EU) : Have you done any tests on the latency for the version 2.0? I suppose that you've noticed that the Garuda Battle has not really been taken on by European players because of latency. French players think that the Ifrit Extreme is impossible to complete due to latency issue, and they are afraid not to be able to do the relic quest before 2.0 hits.
Yoshida : We have completed the tests and research, and we did find out that the whole issue is based on the access route: there's some packet loss, and this is the cause for the lag European players face. We are going to make sure not only French players, but all European players can have a great experience for the 2.0 version so please wait for an announcement we will be making in the future, we can't address it at the moment but we're definitely taking steps to make sure this will be solved, please be reassured.
JeuxOnLine (JOL) : For the 2.0 version, with the arrival of free companies, what will become of the linkshell system?
Yoshida : We'll keep the linkshell, so players will have several linkshell pearls, they can talk to their friends whenever they want to like a chat community system, while the Free Company is more like a guild, you can't be in several guild, you can only select one Free Company. You can have several linkshells, it's more casual so that you can chat with your friends, while the Free Company is more like a strong community, you have to stick to one.
JOL : I would like to ask as well, about the Free Companies, basically, you're saying that it is a guild, the lower level players won't be having a Free Company, will they?
Yoshida : It's not only for the high level players, if the guild already exists, you can recruit level 1 players, and we will also have a Mentor system, higher levels can guide and teach the new players, and if you help the new players, you will get rewards so it will be good for your Free Company as well. We would like to encourage you to help the new players so this is going to be a really good balance, not only for the high level players, but low level players can enjoy and benefit from this system as well.
That being said, even if you're not belonging to any Free Company, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the functionality, for example, [myself] and Sundi have their own Free Company, [we] can still invite someone else as a Guest, and [we] can help him to complete one particular content, so don't worry, even if you don't have a Free Company, you can still enjoy the game.
MP : Today, a lot of MMO are using voice over and cutscenes in their quests, even in small quests, what about Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 ?
Yoshida : For the main quests and the main scenario, we will going to have full voice over, not only in English but in French, German and Japanese as well. However, we have a concept not to voice over the general quests. The reason we decided not to voice the normal quests is because we believe having more quests is the most important thing; if we want to have an update every two months, and let's say, we add 200 quests, and if we want to have voices in four languages over these 200 quests, it's going to take four months to do the voice over. Rather than spending time in voicing these quests, we wanted to keep adding more small quests but we will make sure the main story line will have full voice over.
MP : Can we choose the voice language in the options?
Yoshida : Yes you can.
We had to make a choice, do you prefer having 10 quests with a four-language voice over or 200 quests in each version update? Most likely, you will want the 200 quests.
14EU : Can you tell us more about the PS3 interface? Why are you afraid to show it?
Yoshida : Please wait a little longer, maybe some time at the end of summer, we will be able to show you the PS3 user interface. However, today we have something to show you, we haven't shown the public yet but 2.0 is working on this [Yoshida's] laptop, so you can have a sneak peek today. You will see the PS3 UI is going to be quite different from the PC's. To make sure the gamepad can do the same things even without a mouse, we made sure to do two separate interfaces, the UI you choose will going to be quite different. Mouse and keyboard or gamepad.
JOL : Before releasing primal fights or dungeons, who run the test? I mean, who clear them first? And then, who get the records on the speedruns, for example, there are some dungeons run in less than 25 minutes. Who hold these records? And how about Ifrit Extreme? Who cleared it?
Yoshida : (short laugh) On the same floor with the dev team, there are 10 people dedicated to Battle QA (Quality Assurance) who test the battle system, and they continuously QA it.
Of course, when there's a major update, there will be like 60 people doing QA altogether, but there are 10 dedicated battle QA specialists, they're sitting next to the dev team, and they give feedbacks straight away.
That being said, the number of challenges the QA members are doing is much less than what the players are. That's why I'm always telling the dev team and the battle QA team: "if it's easy for you, it's going to be too easy for the players, they're going to clear it under 30 minutes, you have to make it more difficult". Whenever the battle QA team clears a content, I tell them: "that's not good enough, we have to make it more difficult! and keep it more complicated, more challenging!" That's how we adjust the balancing.
The reason behind that is because we need to respect our great gamers, we know they're really good gamers, that's why we have to make sure the battle system is fun. In terms of strategy and time in order to clear a battle, the players are much better than the QA team.
MP : Regarding the Gameplay, what should expect current players when 2.0 gets released? Are changes planned regarding the battle system or synthesis?
Yoshida : For the battle, it's going to be really faster and speedy, you will be experiencing a completely new game. Combo routes are changing and also, Battle Regimen which we have stopped for the current version, we'll bring that back in the new version. That's going to be really dynamic and completely different. Not only the new combos, but also the current contents like gathering, synthesising, it's going to be completely different, I'm sure you will enjoy the new experience.
14EU : What will happen to the relic quest in 2.0? Will Ifrit Extreme still be a mandatory step?
Yoshida : Yes, the Ifrit battle will be mandatory. But we do understand that there is a lag issue concerning the European players, so we're making sure to take the steps to solve these issues. When 2.0 comes out, you shouldn't be experiencing the lag, please rest assured.
MP : Can we expect more diversity in-game between players such as more mounts, more unique armor sets for jobs, more pets than chocobos?
Yoshida : Absolutely. It's a short answer but it means everything. We will definitely bring you lots of stuff, I'm sure you will be excited.
14EU : In version 2.0, will maps be as huge as in Final Fantasy XI?
Yoshida : It really depends on the case, just because the maps are large doesn't mean the game will be exciting, we have to have contents inside areas. That's our main focus, to make sure there's enough adventure in the area, we're not really focusing on making huge maps, repeating the same sceneries is not interesting, 2km on 2km is something we try to keep in mind, but even the current biggest map is not reaching 2km yet. It's still growing, but it's going to be addressed later.
JOL : About the relic weapons, we didn't hear about them for a while. Let's say, one day, you raise the level cap, and then weapons will become useless. Will they be upgradable?
Yoshida : [himself, in English] Yes. *laughs*
Especially because we ask players to go through such a huge challenge to get the weapons, so we don't want to introduce something new and make your efforts go away. We will definitely have an update, it really is a special item.