The director of Final Fantasy XIV talks about class changes, music and role plays

Final Fantasy XIVLast expansion, Ombre Pain, has brought a complete scenario and tons of job adjustments that have simplified the game.

Last month, we sent questions by e-mail to Final Fantasy XIV Naoki Yoshida (via Square Enix PR) about class adjustments, role play and composition of the game's music.

Heather Alexandra: One of the objectives of the redesign of classes in Shadows mists "Disentangled" the complexity accumulated over the years. Now that Shadowbringers is out, are there any classes in which you think you have been overcorrected? For example, we found that monks were initially less popular until some modifications were made to Greased Lighting and we are now seeing Ninjas struggle to find an identity.

Yoshida: This time, we made sure to reduce the synergy between certain jobs. Because of this focus, I feel that we may have been a bit too extreme in trying to prevent a single element from creating an extreme synergy.

The ninja is a representative example – I do not think the adjustments have been up to reduce the identity of the job, but I think we may have a little bit too much Reduces the overall power of ninja attacks in our attempt to balance Trick's strength. Attack. At the same time, because of the higher-level ninjutsu requiring a combination of two (or more) mudras, often these actions were going into overall recovery time, creating a frustrating player experience. I'm sorry for these problems. We are working on some major adjustments for patch 5.1, which will include modifications to ninja, samurai and summoners.

Of course, we will also refine the other work.

Alexandra: One of the most striking things about Shadows mists was the music. Stormblood had a broad, almost lyrical tone. Shadows mists is much harder I wanted to ask about the process of creation with Masayoshi Soken; how is the team installed? Shadows mists& # 39; Soundscape?

Yoshida: The general theme and the tone of the music of Shadows mists were often verbally transmitted directly from me to Soken (we are both very busy, so we often talk during smoke breaks). We challenged ourselves to try something different – we deliberately started by focusing on a rock tone, which may not be typical Final Fantasy. However, we wanted to bring that Final Fantasy Feel musically as players deepen the story.

On the other hand, the creation requests for each track are requested by the manager of the scenario team. They will describe the area, the type of stamp they are looking for – for example, if the track has a softened look, if it feels decadent, and so on.

What is particularly important for the creation of these tracks is the backbone of the story we tell in each scene. The sound of a ticking clock at Amaurot was proposed by Soken, after being inspired by the tragic reality that the region was recreated by stopping time with the help of creative magics .

This is usually Soken's approach to sound design: understanding the storyline and gaming experience, as described by those who create the other elements, and then creating the pieces.

Alexandra: This is a question from the role play community. Many players, who did not behave like the warrior of light, but pretended to be ordinary adventurers, were excited to create stories on the First, but they realized that the story of the game did not really allow travel. "The people to find themselves there. If players want to claim that their "normal" characters can travel and play on Premier, are you okay? (I promise you this is a question that many of them are eagerly awaiting an answer to.)

Yoshida: Hmm … Personally, I see video games as something that gives you the freedom to play the way you want. So if you, the player, believe you can go to Premier, then so be it, right?

We have not yet revealed everything about who is the warrior of light and he is the only one to be special. In addition, the definition of a "normal individual" also seems a bit vague. I think that the power to believe and the desire to persevere are the most important elements that lead to the progress of an individual. If you believe that you as a character can go to Prime, then would not that be enough? A life dictated by someone else is not fun anyway, is not it?