Part 2 of the Gamewatch Interview with Yoshida, translated by Slycer of the Bluegartr forums
The Knights of the Round primal battle will be challenging but fun
Next, I'd like to ask about some of the content to be implemented in 3.1. First, there will be the new Void Ark raid content set on a ghost ship with what looks like a lot of sea creature type monsters that we saw in the trailer. What's the basis of the setting for this?
Yoshida: It's basically set in the Sea of Clouds area in the skies of 3.0. So on the exterior of the ship you'll battle enemies that you might see around the Sea of Clouds. Once you land on the deck of the Void Ark, you'll begin to be attacked by monsters which swim in the Sea of Clouds.
For the basis of the scenario, the ship was built during the Fifth Astral Era to protect the people from the Calamity, but there is something wrong with its power. It will start with taking to the skies to claim the treasure from this wandering ship of the Fifth Astral Era, but the story will quickly become more serious.
Will it be three parts once again?
Yoshida: That's the current plan. With Crystal Tower, there was the Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, and World of Darkness as you gradually went to the top. For the so-called Void Ark series, we're just calling it that for now, but we'll be defining a different name fot the series. The exploration of the Void Ark will end, and the next scenario will begin with a new incident that occurs after the Void Ark was cleared and take place in a different region.
Might you be going to the location that you can see floating in the distance in The Churning Mists?
Yoshida: You might guess that (laughs). This time, the mysteries will be in the Void Ark, and the next raid will follow on from that mystery.
Cait Sith appeared in the trailer - what will their role be?
Yoshida: He won't be there from the beginning but you should watch for his appearance. He is the character who knows the real truth behind the Void Ark, so please pay attention to his words and actions.
From watching the trailer, it seemed like there would be a number of new difficult mechanics to deal with, so how difficult will it be?
Yoshida: It won't be much different from the World of Darkness. World of Darkness was a finale, but we also wanted to increase the level of difficulty a bit in response to player feedback that it would be better to have a bit more tension and be afrait of wiping. We think that's just the right level of challenge. You might wipe at first before you know what to do, but it should be relatively easy once you understand the battles. That assumption for the difficulty is the same this this time around.
What item level will be required to enter?
Yoshida: It won't be that high. You'll be fine if you're geared with Law equipment (~IL170).
What item level equipment can you earn there?
Yoshida: Please wait until the patch notes are published to find out. That said, I think they will be very useful items for alternate jobs that are leveled up.
Will you only be able to receive the item to strengthen Esoterics accessories at first?
Yoshida: The accessory and equipment upgrade items can be obtained by exchanging Ancient Coins. Upon clearing Void Ark, you'll obtain Ancient Coins directly, not from the treasure box, and those can then be exchanged for the upgrade materials.
Next, let's talk about exploration in The Diadem. Will there be a different starting point for those who have spent time on airship voyages adn those who have not?
Yoshida: First of all, you can participate in the content either with Free Company airships or those from House Haillenarte in Ishgard, only the available difficulties will be different. You can only choose the "hard" difficulty when you go with a FC. For those who don't belong to a FC but still want to try "hard," you can use Party Finder to look for a group. I think FCs will be using Party Finder to fill in gaps that they are missing when they decide to go, and I'd be happy to see people teaming up to do the content and make new friends along the way, possibly those who want to join the FC.
When you travel to The Diadem from a FC, eight people per ship can travel on up to three ships with 24 people total to explore the same island at the same time. However, on hard difficulty, you cannot set a destination to an island that you haven't previously charted with airship voyages. Even if you only work on raising your airship rank and doing airship voyages after 3.1's release, you should be able to explore islands on hard relatively soon. As you discover more, you'll be able to go to them at any time.
So if you want to do hard with your FC, you'll first need to develop your airship with voyages?
Yoshida: It will be like that. It will be easier to get good treasure boxes on hard. But on the other hand, the enemies will be strong, so if your party is not very strong and takes too much time to kill monsters or wipes along the way, your efficiency will go down. In that case, it would be better to try the normal or easy modes and kill more monsters consecutively, so it will be important to think about that.
Is the huge dinosaur from the trailer one of the hard monsters?
Yoshida: He only appears under certain conditions, so...
It's a rare monster?
Yoshida: The opportunity to fight it won't be all that low, but categorically it would be considered rare. Instead of dropping unique powerful items, it will have a higher than normal probability to drop a good treasure box. This isn't the kind of thing that people will be hunting and waiting for pops.
With the addition of item level 210 equipment here, will the need to really work hard on beating savage Alexander be eliminated?
Yoshida: I think that depends on your perspective. If you're OK with the probability and luck elements involved with lotting and randomness, it might seem very good to you. For those of you who don't have time for that and just want to get the items quickly, maybe savage is more your style.
Will it be hard to get drops?
Yoshida: Whether you get item level 210 gear or not is up to luck. Since it's just probability, you might leave empty handed on your first visit. However, since it will be Greed lotting, you may win things that don't suit your main job. In addition, even if you get item level 210 gear, you may have a poor selection of secondary parameters. You might be a melee DPS that gets stuck with spell speed. However, a minimum performance is guaranteed, for example, for melee DPS, the STR and VIT values are guaranteed. Beyond that, it will be random each time.
So you might feel quite lucky to get something.
Yoshida: Well, no, you'll see items fairly often. Since it would feel pointless if there weren't a good amount of drops, we're working on adjusting that until the last minute.
How is the difficulty of the new instanced dungeons? At the time of the 2.0 series, Pharos Sirius was a big jump in difficulty from the original Wanderer's Palace and Amdapor Keep dungeons.
Yoshida: It won't be like that, but they will be a little more difficult than Fractal Continuum or Neverreap. The assumption is that players have gotten their item levels up, so if your item level is high you'll still be able to get through them quickly. The role for instanced dungeons that we have in mind is that you can reliably get a reward from doing them once a day and then you can do whatever other content you prefer.
Will you be adding experience points to the existing level 50 instanced dungeons?
Yoshida: We will be. We'll also be increasing the experience value of dungeons on the Heavensward side to make leveling up easier. For players with less playtime, I think leveling has become more painful, so we've done some overall adjustments.
How is the difficulty of the extreme Knights of the Round primal battle?
Yoshida: It's quite tough.
What about compared to the hard Ultima Weapon fight?
Yoshida: It's tough to compare, but Knights of the Round is more difficult. At the beginning, we decide to position it somewhere between savage and normal. We didn't want to make it any more difficult than the third area of savage Alexander as we wanted players to stay motived to clear it and that would have been too difficult. There are many players who are fine with the first part of savage right now but find the third area to be too difficult. For these players, you'll get good weapons from extreme Knights of the Round which may help you get through the third and fourth parts of savage Alexander.
So it's tougher than extreme Ravana?
Yoshida: It is. Since there are 10 phases, I think players will need to work on clearing it one phase at a time.
That's likely to get a lot of response.
Yoshida: I think it'll prove to be really entertaining. Like the original Knights of the Round, this is kind of a culmination of all of the mechanics from the 2.0 series raids and extreme primals where players can enjoy learning and dealing with the mechanics in a lower pressure situation with DPS checks that aren't as strict.
The Anima Weapon and Endalim Scholasticate quests will be added in 3.15
You haven't talked much about the new Zodiac weapons so far, is there anything new you can tell us?
Yoshida: They'll be called "Anima Weapons" and the start of them will be in 3.15.
So it'll be the next patch. Will there be an advantage to players who have completed Zeta before?
Yoshida: If you have a Zeta, you can exchange the Zeta to skip the entire first stage. Since the new jobs don't have original Zodiac Weapons and many players switched jobs in 3.0, you'll be able to exchange any Zeta to skip the first stage on your favorite job. And for someone who has seven Zetas, they can skip the first step on their seven favorite jobs (laughs).
Is the first step very ?
Yoshida: It's pretty tough. It will be good to be able to bypass it. That said, even though we'll be making it easier to create a Zodiac Weapon in 3.1, it will still be more work to make a Zodiac Weapon Zeta than to start an Anima Weapon from scratch. However, for those who are already close to completing a Zeta, it will be good to finish it off when 3.1 hits.
Will Gerolt be involved?
Yoshida: Even though he's just a commoner, Gerolt is a master craftsman of arms, and he developed into a good character. He's not involved in cutscenes like Hildibrand, but he's one that people have come to like. We've talked about bringing him forward, so you can look forward to that in the future. Similarly, Rowena will continue to be involved in updates as she exchanges items for tomestones.
Will you have something like atma collection for the Anima weapons?
Yoshida: Hmm, I wonder... We want this to be long-lasting content, but we paid attention to make sure it wouldn't burn people out.
Can you talk about the Endalim Scholasticate quests?
Yoshida: This will be a new series of side quests beginning in 3.15. It's not a Hildibrand series. School stories are involved with a lot of the FF games, so you can expect that kind of drama.
Will the Warriors of Light enroll to become students like in Dragon Quest X?
Yoshida: It won't be like that. The students will play a role in the story.
Will there be a wide variety of school students for humor?
Yoshida: No, it's not intended to be a gag.
It's not a gag?
Yoshida: We have that handled separately (laughs).
Where's that guy in charge of gags now?
Yoshida: Well, he's probably stuck somewhere in a floating island...
So what kind of story will the Endalim Scholasticate be?
Yoshida: It will be more of a growth and maturation story.
Do you expect the story to be refreshing?
Yoshida: Please check it out when you play it.
Will there be any new quests for the Doman Adventurers' Guild?
Yoshida: They're taking some time off.
Will they be back in 3.2?
Yoshida: The person in charge of those quests is actually not on the scenario team. The lead staff for the quest team said they will get working on it as soon as they have time available but thank you for your encouragement (laughs).
Will the Mi'qote children in Idyllshire be involved in anything in the future?
Yoshida: The development team is planning something that they are involved with. The specifications for it were sloppy though, so I was a bit frustrated.
Will it be added later on?
Yoshida: If the specifications look fun... it will be after Idyllshire has evolved.
Will it be changing in 3.1?
Yoshida: It will.
[[There's some more about Playstation VR and whatnot but I don't have time to translate the rest and it doesn't have anything to do with 3.1 or even FFXIV in general as the VR thing was just a demo.]]
The Knights of the Round primal battle will be challenging but fun
Next, I'd like to ask about some of the content to be implemented in 3.1. First, there will be the new Void Ark raid content set on a ghost ship with what looks like a lot of sea creature type monsters that we saw in the trailer. What's the basis of the setting for this?
Yoshida: It's basically set in the Sea of Clouds area in the skies of 3.0. So on the exterior of the ship you'll battle enemies that you might see around the Sea of Clouds. Once you land on the deck of the Void Ark, you'll begin to be attacked by monsters which swim in the Sea of Clouds.
For the basis of the scenario, the ship was built during the Fifth Astral Era to protect the people from the Calamity, but there is something wrong with its power. It will start with taking to the skies to claim the treasure from this wandering ship of the Fifth Astral Era, but the story will quickly become more serious.
Will it be three parts once again?
Yoshida: That's the current plan. With Crystal Tower, there was the Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower, and World of Darkness as you gradually went to the top. For the so-called Void Ark series, we're just calling it that for now, but we'll be defining a different name fot the series. The exploration of the Void Ark will end, and the next scenario will begin with a new incident that occurs after the Void Ark was cleared and take place in a different region.
Might you be going to the location that you can see floating in the distance in The Churning Mists?
Yoshida: You might guess that (laughs). This time, the mysteries will be in the Void Ark, and the next raid will follow on from that mystery.
Cait Sith appeared in the trailer - what will their role be?
Yoshida: He won't be there from the beginning but you should watch for his appearance. He is the character who knows the real truth behind the Void Ark, so please pay attention to his words and actions.
From watching the trailer, it seemed like there would be a number of new difficult mechanics to deal with, so how difficult will it be?
Yoshida: It won't be much different from the World of Darkness. World of Darkness was a finale, but we also wanted to increase the level of difficulty a bit in response to player feedback that it would be better to have a bit more tension and be afrait of wiping. We think that's just the right level of challenge. You might wipe at first before you know what to do, but it should be relatively easy once you understand the battles. That assumption for the difficulty is the same this this time around.
What item level will be required to enter?
Yoshida: It won't be that high. You'll be fine if you're geared with Law equipment (~IL170).
What item level equipment can you earn there?
Yoshida: Please wait until the patch notes are published to find out. That said, I think they will be very useful items for alternate jobs that are leveled up.
Will you only be able to receive the item to strengthen Esoterics accessories at first?
Yoshida: The accessory and equipment upgrade items can be obtained by exchanging Ancient Coins. Upon clearing Void Ark, you'll obtain Ancient Coins directly, not from the treasure box, and those can then be exchanged for the upgrade materials.
Next, let's talk about exploration in The Diadem. Will there be a different starting point for those who have spent time on airship voyages adn those who have not?
Yoshida: First of all, you can participate in the content either with Free Company airships or those from House Haillenarte in Ishgard, only the available difficulties will be different. You can only choose the "hard" difficulty when you go with a FC. For those who don't belong to a FC but still want to try "hard," you can use Party Finder to look for a group. I think FCs will be using Party Finder to fill in gaps that they are missing when they decide to go, and I'd be happy to see people teaming up to do the content and make new friends along the way, possibly those who want to join the FC.
When you travel to The Diadem from a FC, eight people per ship can travel on up to three ships with 24 people total to explore the same island at the same time. However, on hard difficulty, you cannot set a destination to an island that you haven't previously charted with airship voyages. Even if you only work on raising your airship rank and doing airship voyages after 3.1's release, you should be able to explore islands on hard relatively soon. As you discover more, you'll be able to go to them at any time.
So if you want to do hard with your FC, you'll first need to develop your airship with voyages?
Yoshida: It will be like that. It will be easier to get good treasure boxes on hard. But on the other hand, the enemies will be strong, so if your party is not very strong and takes too much time to kill monsters or wipes along the way, your efficiency will go down. In that case, it would be better to try the normal or easy modes and kill more monsters consecutively, so it will be important to think about that.
Is the huge dinosaur from the trailer one of the hard monsters?
Yoshida: He only appears under certain conditions, so...
It's a rare monster?
Yoshida: The opportunity to fight it won't be all that low, but categorically it would be considered rare. Instead of dropping unique powerful items, it will have a higher than normal probability to drop a good treasure box. This isn't the kind of thing that people will be hunting and waiting for pops.
With the addition of item level 210 equipment here, will the need to really work hard on beating savage Alexander be eliminated?
Yoshida: I think that depends on your perspective. If you're OK with the probability and luck elements involved with lotting and randomness, it might seem very good to you. For those of you who don't have time for that and just want to get the items quickly, maybe savage is more your style.
Will it be hard to get drops?
Yoshida: Whether you get item level 210 gear or not is up to luck. Since it's just probability, you might leave empty handed on your first visit. However, since it will be Greed lotting, you may win things that don't suit your main job. In addition, even if you get item level 210 gear, you may have a poor selection of secondary parameters. You might be a melee DPS that gets stuck with spell speed. However, a minimum performance is guaranteed, for example, for melee DPS, the STR and VIT values are guaranteed. Beyond that, it will be random each time.
So you might feel quite lucky to get something.
Yoshida: Well, no, you'll see items fairly often. Since it would feel pointless if there weren't a good amount of drops, we're working on adjusting that until the last minute.
How is the difficulty of the new instanced dungeons? At the time of the 2.0 series, Pharos Sirius was a big jump in difficulty from the original Wanderer's Palace and Amdapor Keep dungeons.
Yoshida: It won't be like that, but they will be a little more difficult than Fractal Continuum or Neverreap. The assumption is that players have gotten their item levels up, so if your item level is high you'll still be able to get through them quickly. The role for instanced dungeons that we have in mind is that you can reliably get a reward from doing them once a day and then you can do whatever other content you prefer.
Will you be adding experience points to the existing level 50 instanced dungeons?
Yoshida: We will be. We'll also be increasing the experience value of dungeons on the Heavensward side to make leveling up easier. For players with less playtime, I think leveling has become more painful, so we've done some overall adjustments.
How is the difficulty of the extreme Knights of the Round primal battle?
Yoshida: It's quite tough.
What about compared to the hard Ultima Weapon fight?
Yoshida: It's tough to compare, but Knights of the Round is more difficult. At the beginning, we decide to position it somewhere between savage and normal. We didn't want to make it any more difficult than the third area of savage Alexander as we wanted players to stay motived to clear it and that would have been too difficult. There are many players who are fine with the first part of savage right now but find the third area to be too difficult. For these players, you'll get good weapons from extreme Knights of the Round which may help you get through the third and fourth parts of savage Alexander.
So it's tougher than extreme Ravana?
Yoshida: It is. Since there are 10 phases, I think players will need to work on clearing it one phase at a time.
That's likely to get a lot of response.
Yoshida: I think it'll prove to be really entertaining. Like the original Knights of the Round, this is kind of a culmination of all of the mechanics from the 2.0 series raids and extreme primals where players can enjoy learning and dealing with the mechanics in a lower pressure situation with DPS checks that aren't as strict.
The Anima Weapon and Endalim Scholasticate quests will be added in 3.15
You haven't talked much about the new Zodiac weapons so far, is there anything new you can tell us?
Yoshida: They'll be called "Anima Weapons" and the start of them will be in 3.15.
So it'll be the next patch. Will there be an advantage to players who have completed Zeta before?
Yoshida: If you have a Zeta, you can exchange the Zeta to skip the entire first stage. Since the new jobs don't have original Zodiac Weapons and many players switched jobs in 3.0, you'll be able to exchange any Zeta to skip the first stage on your favorite job. And for someone who has seven Zetas, they can skip the first step on their seven favorite jobs (laughs).
Is the first step very ?
Yoshida: It's pretty tough. It will be good to be able to bypass it. That said, even though we'll be making it easier to create a Zodiac Weapon in 3.1, it will still be more work to make a Zodiac Weapon Zeta than to start an Anima Weapon from scratch. However, for those who are already close to completing a Zeta, it will be good to finish it off when 3.1 hits.
Will Gerolt be involved?
Yoshida: Even though he's just a commoner, Gerolt is a master craftsman of arms, and he developed into a good character. He's not involved in cutscenes like Hildibrand, but he's one that people have come to like. We've talked about bringing him forward, so you can look forward to that in the future. Similarly, Rowena will continue to be involved in updates as she exchanges items for tomestones.
Will you have something like atma collection for the Anima weapons?
Yoshida: Hmm, I wonder... We want this to be long-lasting content, but we paid attention to make sure it wouldn't burn people out.
Can you talk about the Endalim Scholasticate quests?
Yoshida: This will be a new series of side quests beginning in 3.15. It's not a Hildibrand series. School stories are involved with a lot of the FF games, so you can expect that kind of drama.
Will the Warriors of Light enroll to become students like in Dragon Quest X?
Yoshida: It won't be like that. The students will play a role in the story.
Will there be a wide variety of school students for humor?
Yoshida: No, it's not intended to be a gag.
It's not a gag?
Yoshida: We have that handled separately (laughs).
Where's that guy in charge of gags now?
Yoshida: Well, he's probably stuck somewhere in a floating island...
So what kind of story will the Endalim Scholasticate be?
Yoshida: It will be more of a growth and maturation story.
Do you expect the story to be refreshing?
Yoshida: Please check it out when you play it.
Will there be any new quests for the Doman Adventurers' Guild?
Yoshida: They're taking some time off.
Will they be back in 3.2?
Yoshida: The person in charge of those quests is actually not on the scenario team. The lead staff for the quest team said they will get working on it as soon as they have time available but thank you for your encouragement (laughs).
Will the Mi'qote children in Idyllshire be involved in anything in the future?
Yoshida: The development team is planning something that they are involved with. The specifications for it were sloppy though, so I was a bit frustrated.
Will it be added later on?
Yoshida: If the specifications look fun... it will be after Idyllshire has evolved.
Will it be changing in 3.1?
Yoshida: It will.
[[There's some more about Playstation VR and whatnot but I don't have time to translate the rest and it doesn't have anything to do with 3.1 or even FFXIV in general as the VR thing was just a demo.]]
