Final Fantasy XIV Anaheim Fan Fest Press Conference Provides Further Evercold Insights
Shortly after the Piano Concert at Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Anaheim, producer and director Naoki Yoshida held a press conference regarding the day's earlier announcement of the EverCold expansion. During the press conference, he answered a variety of questions -- translated by Aimi Tokutake -- submitted in advance from the variety of press members in attendance.
When asked if the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy XIV , planned to release in August, will utilize the built-in mouse controls, Yoshida stated that it is possible and that he believes the QA team is testing it. However, he imagines that more serious Savage Raid players would be more likely to hook up their own mouse and keyboard to play it on the TV, while those doing crafting, gathering, or more casual gameplay would enjoy using handheld mode. Yoshida stated that he hopes that players will find the way to play that is best suited for themselves. Speaking towards the Switch 2's specifications and how it compares to other platforms, the team is working hard on the optimization of the platform. With towns and crowded areas there might be a higher ping, but it is still able to reach 30 fps while staying in a stable state. Considering duty content, the performance will be of no concern and there isn't a need to worry in respect to the Switch 2 handling duty content compared to other platforms.
[caption id="attachment_190240" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Naoki Yoshida and Aimi Tokutake[/caption]
With respect to the keynote's references to potential issues with the PlayStation 4 version, Yoshida wanted to clear a few things up. The PlayStation 4 version will still fully support 8.0. However, the game will need to transition from PlayStation 4 in future because of the hardware limitations, particularly its size. Sony has been supporting Square Enix to continue for the PlayStation 4 version, but it is reaching the point where hardware may not be able to handle it in future. He stated that PlayStation 4 players should consider slowly transitioning to the PlayStation 5, but that Square Enix will not be ending support for PlayStation 4 in the immediate future.
The next question addressed the choice of Dancing Mad for the next Ultimate Raid being introduced in the Patch 7.5x update series. Yoshida stated that there are a limited number of developer who work with the Ultimate Raids and that they usually take it in turns in turns of volunteer. The developer who pitched Dancing Mad (Ultimate) is a huge Final Fantasy VI fan and had worked on the Normal and Savage versions, but wanted to make it even better.
The subject switched to the two new (yet to be fully revealed) Jobs and the game's new Evolved Mode, where existing Jobs have a new mode that gives players brand new action rotations. He stated that the selection of the Jobs was irrelevant to the process of evolving the game's battle system. The process notes that DPS is the most popular role, so each expansion includes at least one new DPS job. For the second job the team therefore generally alternates between the two, also rotating the type of DPS added. After the roles have been decided, the team will then pitch ideas for the weapon and general gameplay experience of the Job before deciding on the name based on its mechanics. If this aligns with a previous Final Fantasy Job it will usually receive that name; however, in the case of Evercold' s new Jobs, they are deemed original enough to warrant unique names.
The process of developing the Evolved Mode began around a year and half ago with Yoshida approaching Assistant Director Tsuyoshi Yokozawa and Battle Director Kei Sato with its basic idea. They suggested Hikaru Tamaki (known as "Mr. Prime") as the best person to lead the effort. The biggest challenge for the team was time, with Tamaki designing the individual jobs while checking different encounters for balance and difficulty levels, plus all the gimmicks and mechanics, and its impact on PvP. As of February, all twenty-one current Jobs were available to test, though the team is still making adjustments. Discussing the choice to include both Reborn Mode, which is effectively the current action system, and the new Evolved Mode, Yoshida cited the history of Star Wars Galaxies . He stated that he did not wish to remove a core system that players had become so comfortable with over the thirteen years since the launch of A Realm Reborn . However, he did point to the streamlined nature of the Viper and Pictomancer Jobs introduced in Dawntrail showing them stepping into the philosophy of Evolved Mode.
The next question covered the unified region player matching, with duty matching and the Party Finder now working across each region rather than individual data centers and what made this possible. Yoshida noted the existence of the Party Finder and World Visit system as things that were created and laid the building blocks to enable this change alongside infrastructure improvements that started around two years ago. It is something that he stated he has always wanted to implement, but it only now that the team is confident enough in the server infrastructure to be able to support it.
Turning to the name and theme of the expansion, Yoshida said that his original name for it was "Absolute Zero". He noted that previous expansions were similarly changed from their initial ideas: Stormblood was originally "Rebellion", Shadowbringers was "Darkbringer", and Endwalker was "World's End". While he already had the idea for the overall direction of the saga, thoughts about the theme itself started around two months after the launch of Dawntrail . Part of the inspiration was the scientific evidence of Earth being previously frozen over, but that there are many potential metaphorical meanings for something being frozen or icing over. With the expansion, players will be encountering many difference instances of ice they will need to melt or break through. He also noted that some people were sharp enough to catch potential Norse influences in parts of the teaser trailer.
Finally, in discussing additional Final Fantasy XIV releases and the future of the game, Yoshida stated that he has considered additional titles. However, he considers that the only team who might be able to make something like a standalone single-player Final Fantasy XIV would be the current team and that they are already busy. However, if another team is serious enough on creating a new title or release, the team would be happy to hear their pitch. He also addressed the "ten-year journey" for Final Fantasy XIV , noting that he doesn't consider there being an end-goal for it, that implies an end point that he doesn't see Final Fantasy XIV having and that it will continue on after he has left. His hope is that in ten years, the team is able to deliver another story climax that matches or surpasses that of the previous ten years, and that the team is building towards that with Evercold .
The post Final Fantasy XIV Anaheim Fan Fest Press Conference Provides Further Evercold Insights appeared first on RPGamer .
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