Yoshida on 3.35 and Beyond - Translation of Interview Highlights

[Slycer]

The Famitsu interview was a good summary of info covering patch 3.3 and beyond, but there were some other interviews done with other Japanese media around the same time which covered some of the items from a different perspective or went a bit more in depth.

Given that 3.3 is live, I translated some parts from the Dengeki interview which are more forward-looking than just focusing on 3.3. This primarily covers Palace of the Dead, and touches on other topics like storyline, exploration content, general game direction, and a few other miscellaneous items. In addition to the Dengeki translations, there are some additions from the 4Gamer and Game Watch interviews that provided further insight or clarification, so I inserted them where applicable, and noted that next to the question. I'm actually a lot more excited about Palace of the Dead myself after reading this information, especially for the second phase of it coming in 3.45 or 3.5.

Let me know if anything looks missing or incomplete, or if a translation is confusing for some reason.

Dengeki source: http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/286/1286867/
Game Watch source: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs...w/1002810.html
4Gamer source: http://www.4gamer.net/games/278/G027835/20160601010/


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On the Storyline

In a sense, this patch is the climax of Heavensward. Will there also be some glimpses of the upcoming story for patch 3.4?

Yoshida: Just a little... there will be some foreshadowing, but not much.

Among users, it seems many expect that the story will move in the direction of Ala Mhigo.

Yoshida: Well, Yda and Papalymo have clearly been in contact with the Ala Mhigan Resistance. So it may seem like that (laughs). There will be a variety of plots, so please enjoy them.

I thought you had planned to alternate the Scholasticate and Hildibrand quests, so I was surprised that you're adding Hildibrand two patches in a row.

Yoshida: Actually, we struggled a bit with the Scholasticate quests. A lot of characters appeared at once so we were afraid to rush this and we wanted to make sure it was totally coherent. It would be impossible to do the work to get both Hildibrand and those done at the same time, so we're rethinking the timeline for implementation.

Will you have another beast tribe quest this this time to close out their storylines? Like the extra beast tribe quest from A Realm Reborn once you had all reputations maxed out?

Yoshida: If we do that, it will be in either patch 3.4 or 3.5. It seems like there's a lot of interest, so there will be more fun experiences to come.

By the way, it seems like the goblins are making Idyllshire their base, so will they also have beast tribe quests?

Yoshida: No. The Alexander story itself is kind of like the beast tribe quests for goblins, so we don't have any plans to add any other beast tribe quests for the patch 3.X series. We've already pretty much settled on the content for patches 3.4 and 3.5, and we're in the planning stages for the new beast tribes for 4.0.



Palace of the Dead

It's still a ways off, but I wanted to talk a bit about the implementation plan for Palace of the Dead in patch 3.35. First off, with regards to participation conditions, although there are no role requirements, wouldn't it be a bit tough without any DPS?

Yoshida: Since everyone starts from level 1 the first time they enter the dungeon, there isn't much difference. A white mage using Cleric Stance can be pretty strong right from the start. It's quite easy to level up, so as you level up you'll gain additional actions that you can set like Raise, so it shouldn't be too bad if you keep at it.

Is it the same as when you normal up where the additional actions become available in the order you have them set?

Yoshida: It's the same. For efficiency, it would be better to think of the order you have your additional actions set in advance, but it won't make a huge difference. You should note, though, that your actions will go on recast if you change your additional actions in the dungeon.

Game Watch: Will participation in Palace of the Dead be through Duty Finder?

Yoshida: It will be from a NPC. Unlike Duty Finder content, this has no role requirements, so you can proceed with 4 DPS if you want. Although we already have free roles for things like Frontline in Duty Finder, we wanted to make sure we didn't introduce any bugs. Since Quarrymill is the base of the exploration, you'll enter by speaking to the NPC captain at Quarrymill.

How far will you be able to progress in patch 3.35?

Yoshida: In patch 3.35, floor 50 is the final floor. We're planning on one more update during the patch 3.X series and we're expecting to increase it to floor 200 at that time.

Is there an assumption on leveling to reach floor 50?

Yoshida: It's balanced so you'll have to be around level 60 at floors 40 and above. The last 10 floors are all designed for level 60.

Game Watch: So it will not only be important to upgrade your weapons and armor, but also to level up?

Yoshida: That's right. Your level will go up very fast. Rather than leveling up, it might feel more like an increasing level sync as you gain more and more skills.

4Gamer: Will matchmaking be for people who are near each other in level?

Yoshida: No, the matchmaking criteria is not based on level, it's based on floor progress. Palace of the Dead is broken up into ten floor increments, so if you've beaten the 20th floor, the next time you enter matchmaking you'll be teamed up with others who have also reached the 20th floor.

4Gamer: Can you play from the first floor up through floor 50 in one run?

Yoshida: Yeah. However, I think that would be pretty time-consuming. I think it would take around three hours?

4Gamer: Once you've completed the deepest floor, floor 50, what happens for future play?

Yoshida: The shining weapons that you've seen in the trailers can only be used outside once they reach a certain level. So even after you get to the 50th floor, you'll want to continue to participate in order to train your weapon.

How often is your completion progress recorded?

Yoshida: There is a boss on every tenth floor, and your progress saves after the boss.

So your goals would be to move up each set of ten floors. Are there any limitations on how often you can enter?

Yoshida: There's no limit on how often you can enter, and you can enter immediately once you reach level 17. So please feel free to invite any of your friends to join. It would be nice to see players inviting others through the mentor channel.

How exactly is the completion progress saved?

Yoshida: The dungeon equipment can be enhanced with certain effects specific to the dungeon. The stat advancement on your equipment is saved, and there are two types of floor progress that are saved. One is a personal progress flag that can be used for matchmaking. The other is a progress flag for a fixed party. For the latter, if you save data in a four person party and you want to continue from that point, you'll have to gather the same four people before you continue. So you can do this both ways at the same time, working on your own progress and working on progress with a fixed party.

What happens if people from two different parties team up with separate party data?

Yoshida: Although the progress is separate, the equipment strengthening is the same, so they would start from floor 1 because of the separate progress data, but their equipment will be at whatever state it was previously strengthened to.

If you enter once with four people, and then you go later with three of those same people, will you still need to restart from floor 1?

Yoshida: In that situation, you'd continue from your previous progress. However, because those three people would have entered separately, they would not be able to proceed later on with the one person who was not there. It's a bit hard to explain it all in words, but Deep Dungeon has been designed as a throwback to the old FF style with the interface and save data, so you should be able to figure it out pretty quickly.

If you've already reached, say, the 20th floor, can you still restart from the first floor?

Yoshida: You can do that. But you wouldn't be able to start from the 10th floor, for example.

Game Watch: What happens if a player who was level 10 and a player who was level 60 enter together?

Yoshida: As I mentioned before, save data is fixed to your party, so you will start from Floor 1 / Level 1. In that example, a level 60 and a level 10 friend would both start at level 1 if this is the first time they went together. Then if they got to the 20th floor in that day, the same two people could re-enter the next day and resume from the 20th floor. If you go with a team different from the last you teamed up with, it will warn you that previous data will be erased. The strength of equipment trained in the dungeon will not be lost, but leveling progress will be reset.

Game Watch: Level 60 players will eventually reach level 60 in the content, but what will happen with a player who's only level 10?

Yoshida: They'll reach level 60 in the same way. Within the dungeon alone, you can break past the level that you are outside.

Game Watch: They'd also be able to use level 60 actions in the dungeon?

Yoshida: Yes. Here alone, you can also level up to 60 even if you don't have the expansion pack.

Game Watch: Will the arrangement of monsters be the same every time?

Yoshida: No, it will change every time along with the room layout. From floors 1 through 10 the number of rooms is small. After that, it will increase gradually.

Game Watch: Will there be more traps as well?

Yoshida: That will change rapidly. In the beginning they are just there to annoy you, but in the second half they can cause a big mess [[specific mention of ones that reduce your HP to 10% in one of the interviews, as an example]]. It's intended to be casual without much preparation needed, but you shouldn't just blindly charge through it.

Are there any rewards from this content that will have utility outside?

Yoshida: If you participate enough and train your equipment so that the values reach a certain level, the reward is that you can take that trained equipment outside.

How strong will it be?

Yoshida: The item level will be high enough so that it has practical use around the time of patch 3.35. However, given that you can play it as many times as you want freely, it won't be as strong as the completed anima weapon or augmented lore equipment.

So it might feel like equipment useful for a second job.

Yoshida: Yeah. In addition to that, you'd be able to use it to glamour. However, the type of equipment you obtain is based on the job that you participate with, so please note that.

By the way, will experience you obtain in the dungeon be reflected outside?

Yoshida: For experience you obtain in the dungeon, you'll get some amount reflecting that outside. So you can use this as a resource for experience while you level up. Of course, it won't directly reflect the leveling up that happens in the dungeon.

Well, it's still good that it will have a variety of purposes. By the way, from name of the content with the word "dead" and what you've shown, we're expecting Edda to be involved... can you speak about that?

Yoshida: Well, a certain woman was shown in the trailer, but please wait until the content is implemented. After you complete the Deep Dungeon for this patch, there will be certain side quests that occur, and once you clear a certain quest, a certain character's story will be completed. However, if you want to know all of the truth around that, you'll have to wait until more floors are added. Hopefully players get excited to find out more and challenge the new floors.

I know there are people looking for challenging content to participate in light parties. Is this intended to be difficult four person content as you get towards floor 200?

Yoshida: The story will probably end around floor 100. Then the rest of the floors up to 200 would just be there as a tough challenge. That being said, please realize it's still under development.

4Gamer: Will there be ranking information implemented with patch 3.35?

Yoshida:It will be added when we add additional floors. We plan to add up to floor 200 in patch 3.45 or patch 3.5. At that point, we expect players to try speed runs, but I think the second half will be pretty tough (laughs).

4Gamer: 200 floors... that's pretty deep. It should be something fun to do outside of the raid. Will all of the rankings be in a hierarchy?

Yoshida: No, we plan to have scores for each job.

4Gamer: How exactly will that work with the content?

Yoshida: Maybe you cleared while holding a treasure, or how much you leveled up, or how enhanced your weapon is, or how many monsters you've defeated. It will be a comprehensive point-based ranking, so it won't just be about speed running.

4Gamer: So it will be another element to enjoy aside from just aiming for the deepest floors.

Yoshida: Yeah. You can play deep dungeon solo also. Since scholars and warriors have good solo performance if we had rankings pooled for all jobs, I think the top players would just be warriors and scholars (laughs).


General Game Direction

With the Palace of the Dead deep dungeon, you'll be implementing some new challenging content into Heavensward. Can you tell us about the history and general concepts that led you to decide to implement this?

Yoshida: For enduring MMOs in the current generation of MMORPGs, the main gameplay happens at the level cap. With that, for the most part, everyone is playing at the level cap. However, when some players' real life friends join the game and begin as new players, outside of level synched dungeons, they can’t really play together, which is one of the most important elements. We felt that we needed to address the need to have more ways that players like this can play together.

Additionally, there are players who want to play casually without doing much preparation for content, and still others who have trouble with matchmaking for certain roles. As we continued the patch series towards the expansion, we discussed trying something new to address these three concerns.

The proposed solutions which came up that shared some of these roles were the exploration content, the deep dungeon, and the treasure dungeon that we'll have added in the patch 3.X series.

So in that regard, they are all aligned in a way.

Yoshida: A major part of the Diadem, which was added as the exploration content, was developed to be experimental, to see how players would utilize the system. The system included values of both first-generation and current-generation MMOs, and there was a need to continue to test values for a next-generation MMO. I believe that we need to do experiments like this to extend the life cycle of the game.

When it comes to that, do you plan on adding a new part to the Sea of Clouds exploration during the second half of the patch 3.X series?

Yoshida: Rather than just a new Sea of Clouds exploration, we're also going to be changing up the gameplay based on feedback we received from players around the world. In addition to that, we're also incorporating from ideas of our first- and second-generation staff on the development team. FFXIV is a second-generation kind of MMO, but many of the staff wanted to stick with elements which were closer to first-generation in the Diadem exploration content. From the feedback we've received, it's clear that players are looking for a system and content which leads players on to continue to play it. To make good on this, we're creating content with a mix of first and second generation elements while reflecting on those points.

...

Rather than the extreme degree of freedom, the content will more clearly lead players so that it’s clear how players will be rewarded even with little or no conversation. The earlier thought of endlessly camping monsters simply to farm them didn't really match the generation, so I've talked strongly about the necessity to prepare elements that involve everyone in the area. Based on that, even though it will retain some elements which make it feel like a continuation of the Sea of Clouds search content, the atmosphere will be quite different. I should note that although the "Palace of the Dead" is the deep dungeon for now, we're also looking to continue with deep dungeon as a new content category for the future.

So it will continue in patch 4.0 or beyond?

Yoshida: Yeah. We've already decided on what the next location will be.

With the Hall of the Novice in patch 3.2, recently you've given the impression that you're focused on both challenging elements but also players who are just beginning.

Yoshida: A good portion of the FFXIV development team has rough plans outlined up to two years in advance, and a refined plan set for the next six months. Since we're in a transitional period right now towards the expansion, there's a lot of excitement and likely new players, but we don't want to make the mistake of losing the continuity for existing players who are waiting around for the expansion, so this is intentional.

As we get closer to the expansion, we'll also be ramping up our PR as we get a lot of new and returning players. So in the same way we want to provide content for existing players, we also want to make an effort to have content available for a new generation of players who are still in their free trial, so I feel that we need to focus on both at the same time.

I think the June-July timeframe will be a good time for new players to get started.

Yoshida: Yeah, we're planning a variety of campaigns for the summer.

Perhaps this is a tough question to answer, but the PS4 has been very active this year and given the significant number out there now, what are your thoughts on PS3 compatibility?

Yoshida: As we've stated before, we will continue to support it through the 3.X series. We have not yet decided beyond that.

E3 is coming in June, followed by the third anniversary in August. Can you tell us about your aspirations moving on from patch 3.3?

Yoshida: There aren't many MMORPGs recently that have made it to three years, so we're excited to celebrate three years with all of the players of FFXIV since A Realm Reborn. There will be a lot of excitement in game this summer, and the development and management teams are looking forward to celebrating the third anniversary with everyone. Once we get past August, in October we'll have the Fan Festivals we're we'll be able to more concretely define the future for FFXIV. I look forward to planning that future together with our players, and thank you in advance!



Miscellaneous

4Gamer: [[Regarding Fenrir mount]] I'm still a way off from one million MGP, but there seem to be an increasing number of them around.

Yoshida: Yeah. If you keep at it, you should get it. We've also gotten a lot of feedback from players who already have Fenrir and Adamantoise to add another reward soon that's second only to Fenrir.

4Gamer: Any plans to add rewards? If so, I may be hesitant to exchange for Fenrir.

Yoshida: Not that we'll implement in the 3.X series. Otherwise people who are saving up for the Fenrir minion might be distressed.

4Gamer: When it comes to land, when will you be implementing the system to allow moves?

Yoshida: Because it requires moving enormous amounts of data, we're working on that quite carefully. As we mentioned in the 28th producer letter, it will be at some point after the implementation of apartments in patch 3.4.

[Prothescar]

4Gamer: Can you play from the first floor up through floor 50 in one run?

Yoshida: Yeah. However, I think that would be pretty time-consuming. I think it would take around three hours?

3 hours? . -.

[Taint]

3 hours? . -.

I LOLed


What used to be a single Fafnir window, is now long content!

[Darte]

3 hours? . -.

Back in my day, I would have called that a less than stellar dynamis run.

[Shenrien]

Back in my day, I would have called that a less than stellar dynamis run.

Back in the day hearing anyone drop that name was grounds for logging off.

[Eldelphia]

Interesting stuff, thanks Slycer.

[Lujei]

Too bad about there not being any more Beast Tribe quests.

Also, super excited about the Palace of the Dead, it sounds like Nyzul 3.0.

[Katlan]

3 hours being long content made me lol. That's a raiding night. Not even talking abou XI

[Dotsudoku]

they said it's not intended to be done all at once, so

[Prothescar]

Yeah, Yoshida intends for everyone to only play the game 15-30 mins a day to draw out content :^)

[Spira]

Back in the day hearing anyone drop that name was grounds for logging off.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Omg this brings back memories


...Palace of the dead seems to have some potential. I think it might be a nice alternative means for friends to play together and level. The capped players would obviously be doing it on their main jobs for glamour game lol, and the rest can kinda just tag along..?

Hope there's enough variation to the content tho

[Destinye]

Palace of the dead does seem interesting since it's clearly designed as a sort of ....odd... version of Nyzul+Salvage from XI, without rewards that's actually going to be useful unless the ilvl hops in 3.35 since they said it'll be not as strong as augmented lore, which means if they're talking ilvl it's going to be anywhere between 215-235 which is fine, but by the time 3.35 is out people will be halfway done with weeping city gear for an alt class as they can use the lore and upgrades for their main.) So guessing the rewards being taken outside is more like an after thought overall. If they're talking stats..I really doubt it matters how "strong" it is when they're no doubt slapping parry and skill speed or parry and accuracy on the tank gear anyway.

they said it's not intended to be done all at once, so

Well yeah, but that requires this game to have a sizable relevant content base so people can go "ok, did this for 30 minutes, time to spend the rest of the day doing all of the other content :D" or else he should know damn well most people with a brain and time will go through it in one sitting especially if progress resets because you dared to play with someone other than the same few people that may not always have the ability to play, which I doubt is 3 hours anyway. I mean it would be nice to have a long event you can just sit down and do for a good chunk of time and actually progress but I don't know.

I think that's the one thing I'll never understand about yoshi's thought process. I mean it's not terrible that progress resets, cool, but ...why? Not even in XI did your progress reset unless you went with someone who couldn't choose a higher floor, which even then you were able to choose higher floors and it's just their disks that won't get the recording unless they go from start to finish.

As for the other info, I guess we wait until october to see if they're making 2.0 version swimming (Sand surfing?) or actually evolving the game.

[Kari]

Sounds like you'll do Palace on an alt job for a decent weapon. I just hope it spits out other rewards. Diadem and Aquapolis are both new types of content that give materia and junk, if it was a more accessible Diadem-like exchange it would be fun/rewarding.

[3.141592]

3 hours? . -.

I KNOW RIGHT!?
So ppl are gonna be done with it 1,5h after the patch goes live.

[Almalexia]

When it comes to that, do you plan on adding a new part to the Sea of Clouds exploration during the second half of the patch 3.X series?

Yoshida: Rather than just a new Sea of Clouds exploration, we're also going to be changing up the gameplay based on feedback we received from players around the world.

Still waiting.

[Elcura]

I LOLed


What used to be a single Fafnir window, is now long content!

It'd be better if you had to wait 3 hours to possibly do the content, but I think Aquapolis has enough people angry about rng.

[Fiye]

I think Palace of the Dead will be pretty neat once they add in the extra floors. Especially since 1-40 will be designed with 'playing with your newbie friends' in mind. 40-50 will be the start of the cap (And cheesy as fuck). I'm hoping they pull out some difficult designs in the 100-200 floors considering they're planning on it being a 3.45 or 3.5 addition (AKA The long ass wait after the last raid content for HW and before 4.0)

Not looking forward to the meta bitching again late 4.0X

[Taint]

Why not give Palace of the Dead current ilvl rewards. (i240) It would give it a lot more credibility. Multiple paths to i240 is a good thing. 2.1 did it right.

[octopus]

If it was actually challenging and time consuming, I'd agree.

[Toshi]

Why not give Palace of the Dead current ilvl rewards. (i240) It would give it a lot more credibility. Multiple paths to i240 is a good thing. 2.1 did it right.

Probably not after the shit fest of diadem. "Scrubs" posting their good rng with bis left side pieces pissed off people on forums and Reddit.