Since Final Fantasy XIV's breathtaking conclusion, the community has been full of excitement and chatter. A flood of messages from Naoki Yoshida and the community reps have hit the official forums, as well as a blog post from Susan Calloway (the amazing vocal artist behind 'Answers') about the End Of An Era trailer.
Camate relayed this message on the official forums:
Post-Dalamud Messages from Yoshi-P!
Greetings everyone!
Last weekend was jam packed with the final in-game event, a jaw dropping trailer, and the 4th Letter from the Producer Live. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one playing the End of an Era trailer on loop, continuously humming the song, and anxiously awaiting A Realm Reborn!
There are quite a few messages from Yoshi-P, but to start off he wanted to give a gigantic thank you for everyone who has continued to play and support him for these past two years. Without your support we wouldn’t have come as far as we have.
Below are a couple of messages from Yoshi-P himself that I wanted to pass along.
Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida
Producer/Director Yoshida here!
I mentioned this during the Letter from the Producer Live, but I would like to apologize for any inconveniences and problems that occurred during the final battle on 11/11.
The method we chose to release the End of an Era trailer was decided after assessing the risks and technical testing, and we determined that the chosen method was the fairest and enabled the highest number of simultaneous viewing.
For example, we had looked into having it play when the launcher boots up, but even if we were to release the video via the launcher, the result would be the same as if we put a URL. We explored all avenues and this was the result and we appreciate your understanding.
I'd really like to apologize for all the server-related issues these past two years and that we weren’t able to get rid of them even up to the end.
We'll carefully stress test in order to provide stable and efficient servers for everyone to play on for FFXIV: A Realm Reborn.
Again, I apologize for all the disorder during the final event.
Ever since the final save maintenance was performed, the whole team has been totally focused on A Realm Reborn.
I understand that there have been a lot of comments mentioning that it would be fine to keep running the current FFXIV since it's not just a direct transplant to A Realm Reborn.
However, as I've said previously, including the players who have stopping playing, there are over hundreds of thousands of character data to be put into A Realm Reborn. In order to convert this data into FFXIV save data it will take a month even when running the servers 24 hours.
With that said, we had to perform a final save at some point, and we decided to end it on 11/1 since we wanted to give advance notice. It was also it was an important factor for A Realm Reborn scheduling and making it so all staff could focus on it.
Being an MMO gamer myself, I understand extremely well the pain of losing a place that you gathered with friends to share pain and joy for 2 whole years. I'm trying my best to cut the time it will take to return to the world of FFXIV by expanding the number of participants for the Alpha Test and Beta Test this year.
While I can also understand the comments saying that it's fine not to make more updates and they wish we had waited until the last minute to save, as someone who operates MMOs, I felt that continuing to leave a world that is not updated wasn't even an option.
In Version 1.0, we dropped many tidbits of information that hinted at Dalamud's true nature:
- Dalamud was created by the Allagan Empire and cast into the heavens several millennia ago.
- Eorzea is home to many deities. The beast tribes worship the primals, and the five races (Hyur, Elezen, Miqo'te, Lalafell, Roegadyn) revere the Twelve.
- The van Darnus family is of the blood of ancient Allag, and are the keepers of its secrets.
- An Ishgardian theologian who studied the dragons and their gods was kidnapped by the Empire and taken to the Aurum Vale.
- In the battle with Garuda, the primal says: "This is the price of your folly. The price of using the crystals' power─MY POWER!─to waken the other from slumber.
- The power of the crystals was absorbed by Dalamud.
I don't want to spoil the ARR story, but I can say this:
The dragons of Dravania are classified as a beast tribe. Nidhogg is not a primal, but a king among the dragons. Likewise, Midgardsormr--known as the Keeper of the Lake--while not a primal, is a revered existence among dragonkind. Just as men have worshipped kings throughout history, so too have the dragons.In regards to a request about adding an in-game calendar to keep track of raids and other social gatherings:
We wanted to end this 2 year period in a large scale way, and we actually decided to do it with the classic FINAL FANTASY Bahamut back in January 2011.
In regards to worlds re-opening:
We have this planned; however, it doesn’t look like it will make it in time for launch.
Smart phone apps might be addressed before that. We would like to continue to bolster community features.
In regards to having completely different servers for PS3:
At the current moment our plan is to re-open the worlds next week.
We need to restore the state of the game back to before 11/1, so please hang in there just a bit longer. (We are still planning to keep the relics from beds as is.)
This is something that I don’t really understand.
It's true that there really aren't very many MMOs that support consoles, but I really don’t believe that separating the servers are connected at all to making a world-class MMO. The player community is one and the same. Hardware restrictions are different than the servers, and I believe that hardware restrictions are not related to a game being world-class.
Whether it's WoW or GW2, even if a PCs specs are extremely low it will run (GW2 might be a bit rough due to game design) and I don’t think a PS3's capabilities is directly linked to this. The PC game market overseas is extremely strong, so I believe their decision was that there was no need for console support so they wouldn't support it and from a business perspective the necessity of the support costs was not very large.
However, this is the FINAL FANTASY series that has been on consoles for ages and is what everyone grew up on. We would like console gamers who don't even know about MMORPGs to play FFXIV: A Realm Reborn.
So with all that said, please do not worry.
I would like to create a brand-new FINAL FANTASY together with all of you!
Naoki Yoshida made this post himself in the End Of An Era thread on the English forums:
End of an Era Trailer
To our loyal fans,
I wanted to take the time to personally thank all of you once again for your support over the past two years. It has been a long, hard journey, and there is still much more road left to travel, but we could have never made it this far without each and every one of you providing the strength for us to carry on.
Since the release of the End of an Era trailer, we have been flooded with positive feedback from around the world. It was always our goal to create something that would equal the epic cinematics players have come to expect from the FINAL FANTASY series─not just graphically, but in terms of story and emotion, as well─and we are excited to see that so many were moved by the plight of Louisoix and the Eorzean Alliance.
This five-minute tribute to the heroes of Eorzea may mark the end of one era, but at the same time, it represents the dawn of another. To ensure that era is a truly breathtaking experience, we are paying close attention to even the smallest of details. As such, we must ask that you bear with us while we continue the creation process─though I believe most of you will find that it will have definitely been worth the wait.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you again soon.
FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer & Director, Naoki Yoshida
Susan Calloway said this in her blog:
As I watched the new trailer for final fantasy XIV, Like many of you I was amazed at the power of the song ANSWERS in the backdrop of this huge battle scene. What an amazing contrast of beauty and tragedy playing out on the screen.
I have to tell you guys that I was so honored to work on this song with Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu. From the first time I heard the song in my own studio, I knew it had the potential to be an epic song for Final Fantasy. Between Nobuo’s amazing songwriting & Arnie’s careful production, they had created a musical masterpiece. Now my job began. To sing this song with as much passion and intention as the story inspired. That is always my goal when I sing. Forget about all the technical things and just close your eyes ... get lost in the music, sing from the heart. I hope you can hear that when you listen to ANSWERS in Final Fantasy XIV. It was a magical experience to be a part of this recording and to be on the game itself. I was so blessed for the opportunity.
I know how much this music means to all of you who are fans of Final Fantasy. I want you to know what an honor it is for me to deliver these songs to you. Whether at a live show or on a recording, I hope I bring the characters and story of the game to life with my voice. Music is such a powerful form of expression. It can take us on a journey, challenge our ideas, heal our wounds, comfort our souls, inspire us, and light a fire under our dreams. As a recording artist and songwriter in my own right, this is what music is all about for me. I can’t wait for you guys to hear my new CD that is coming out in 2013. I hope I can inspire you all with my Susan music in the same way I have hopefully inspired you with the amazing music of Final Fantasy. Thank you for the privilege of sharing my talent with you. You have all inspired ME beyond words. And just like the trailer reminds us, every end is a chance for a new beginning. No matter what, keep reaching for your dreams. We are all stronger today than we were yesterday .. and we will be even stronger tomorrow.
Much love to you all, xoxo Suz
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