E3 2013 was a hectic convention but I managed to be tenacious enough to get a good majority of fan questions answered! The way the Square Enix booth operates, particularly with Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn is an interesting one. A lot of the people in the "I survived a meteor polo" aren't really developers of the game itself, but were part of teams from other Final Fantasy or SE games. In some ways, SE is like a family, that shows up to support and see a new comer.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a true one-on-on interview with anybody specific, but there were enough brilliant FF minds at the booth, whom include names like Naotoki Yoshida and Toshio Murouchi, to appease my needs for intel. I wish I could personally thank every SE employee who was helpful to the cause, as there were several who were able to answer different question; but alas, I can only thank the company as a whole. Not every question could be answered, or brought to an appropriate person as I had a lot to do, so forgive me if your Q isn't answered here -- really, it came down to who happened to be at Square Enix (FATEs!), how much time I had, and where I needed to be. I hope your questions were answered, good luck!
NOTE: All Q&A that appear in the post were answers that came directly from the E3 2013 show floor. Answers came from people that either work with, directly, or know a great deal about Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn. These questions are NOT in chronological order.
* = personal note
Can I have a picture, please?
-*nods* (:D)
Will japanese versions of the game include english subtitles during cinematics?
- I can't quite say, but i've played a lot of the game on JP side and I believe there were language options similar to the ones seen in other regions.
Can you confirm that NA/EU servers are based in Montreal?
- A great majority of our servers our housed in Japan. If I remember correctly, the Montreal server-housing facility was opened up and is among our largest. I'm sure we're using those servers for the game.
Will there be another healing class besides White Mage. If so, what are the mechanics that make them a viable healer?
- I recommend coming back tomorrow to watch the Live Letter. You might be surprised at what's revealed.
**It was later confirmed that Scholar could be as effective of a healer as WHM, focusing on health regen/heals over time.
What are the differences between Warrior and Paladin tanks
Paladin has tanking mechanics built-in to the class. They have guarding skills and skillsets down the road that ensure you survive at the sacrifice of offense.
Warriors on the other hand, are definitely built to tank -- They can effectively off-tank and not hinder a group's chance of success. Warrior, at the core however, sacrifices the defenses Paladin has, and adds offense. It's a pretty straight-forward mechanic. There's most likely more to it, but i've never actually played Warrior as a tank during harder dungeons, sorry. We do good damage though if that helps you at all.
Any word on a Card game? What about mini games?
I feel the way 14 is designed right now, this is something that can be put into the game later. Though, I didn't see it during my play-tests.
*(this is sort of like "dodging the question")
What are the maximum amount of players that can be put into a Linkshell? How about a Free company?
I believe Linkshells can have 128 players. I don't know about Free companies, sorry.
Plans for Red Mage?
There's always plan for new classes. Yoshida always talks about them during letters, if you recall. But the battle team would would not appreciate leaks that might not happen. You know, obvious stuff like that.
Will the Padjal race ever become available?
This is stuff that we do not know. Though, even if we knew, we probably wouldn't tell you anyways. If you saw the live letters in the past, you might remember someone mentioning one new race per new expansion? I heard it somewhere. Still, our battle team does not like us to mention anything that cannot be confirmed or showcase content that isn't mostly finished.
* This battle team is the love child of Blizzard... I swear.
Will endgame content be available during early access?
I'm sure early access is the full-game but earlier so i'm going to guess "yes?" Don't quote me, I really can't say for sure.
Do you know if Free Companies be able to build airships? Someone on reddit told me this was something you have considered in the past.
I do not think this is happening at launch, sorry.
Odds on a gun-wielding class at launch?
Zero?
*The key here is "at launch," folks. Keeping the dream alive!
Someone asked me about Role-play flagging? Passing that question on to you.
I don't know much about mechanics outside of the Duty Finder. I wish I knew if this existed for you, sorry.
*The way FFXIV seems to be designed, it seems to be easy for Square to make any UI changes later and add aditional features. Perhaps this is not the last time we'll see this question.
How many times can Limit Breaks be used in a fight?
As long as the "limit break guage" fills up you can keep them coming. Perhaps pay attention to the Ifrit battles we have every 30 minutes. Though, I haven't seen a limit break yet.
*I've had two play-throughs with this game as well as spectated a plethora of challenges while on "break." After watching a lv.1 Paladin Limit Break (or tank if you want to be specific), I noticed the guage began to slowly fill-up again. At that point, the fight was over. Realistically, i'm sure most scenarios will only allow one limit break before winning, wiping, or timing out(?).
Hi, so you do marketing for FFXIV? Just wanted to know if it would be possible for third party websites to get FF API and server info to get better updates on stats for groups like free companies?
I'm sure we'll have a really good fan-site toolkit by launch that helps with stuff like that.
Can you give us details on Summoner?
I would advise coming back for the English Live Letter at 2pm. The game's producer will be here to speak about the game.
*Summoners can use avatar abilities it would seem. YoshiP was very specific in saying each summon would be unique i.e. Titan, being as large as he is, would be correlated to tanking while Garuda would be more of a spellcaster. I did not see specifics on how to attain summons/powers.
Can you give us a time frame on new jobs/classes?
No, sorry. That's dependent on the battle team and when they're ready to disclose information.
* YoshiP mentioned that he would like to see new classes/jobs BEFORE the next expansion comes up, which on-average gets announced during a standard MMO cycle.
I'm sorry if I couldn't get your question answered. I only get so much time to do what I need to do. Feel free to ask me things though, as i've been in a lot of conversations with Square Enix people and spent most of my time at their booth while waiting for other tasks.
Great interview, though I think your camera may have been a little drunk when it took that picture...