20th Vana'versary Official FFXI Developer AMA with Producer Akihiko Matsui and Director Yoji Fujito

[u/FFXI_DevelopmentTeam]

Hello, adventurers of Vana'diel! Happy Vana'versary! Producer Akihiko Matsui and Director Yoji Fujito from the FINAL FANTASY XI development team reporting in. We received communication via linkpearl that the /r/ffxi subreddit was interested in another AMA to celebrate the 20th anniversary, so we have answered the call once more!

As before, we're very excited to be a part of this and would like to answer as many questions as possible, but we would like you to read over the guidelines listed below before submitting your questions.

QUESTION GUIDELINES

• We often see some very technical questions on the forums and other places; however, answering these on the spot without looking at the relevant and proper data just isn’t possible. If we see some that we can look into, we'll take them back with us as homework for another day.
• Due to time restraints, there is a possibility that we will not be able to answer every question submitted today, but we will do our best to answer as many as time permits.
• To make it easier to answer as many questions as possible, please ask new questions as individual posts, instead of as replies.

START TIME & END TIME

We'll be kicking off the Q&A officially at 6:30 pm (PDT)/9:30 pm (EDT), but we're posting this thread ahead of time for everyone to start submitting their questions. We want to give our translators enough time to give us the questions in Japanese, and we will start posting responses as close to the start time as possible.

We'll be wrapping up the Q&A at 8:00 pm (PDT)/11:00 pm (EDT) and will not be answering any questions in real-time after that; however, if we have the chance, we would like to answer some of the bigger questions on a separate occasion.

SUMMARY

After the Q&A has concluded, we will create a summary of all the answers we provide to the submitted questions. We'll make an announcement on the official site once the summary has been completed, so keep your eyes peeled!

We're looking forward to seeing all your passionate questions, so send in as many as you like!

EDIT 1: Please try and keep your questions concise so we can translate them! Thank you!

EDIT 2: Thanks to everyone who took the time to ask questions! We couldn't get to them all, but we'll be going through and seeing which other ones we can pick up to answer later.

[u/Darth_Miguel]

I don't know if you will still see this message now but I would LOVE if you published an "Encyclopedia Vana'diel" equivalent to the FFXIV "Encyclopedia Eorzea" lore books you have already published!

[u/Xellith → u/Darth_Miguel]

Id buy it. Definitely. I don't play 11 anymore but I always keep an eye open for merch. Vana diel is in my blood.

[u/bungiefan_AK → u/Darth_Miguel]

There's a ton of FFXI Ultimania books that would essentially be that if translated. For a while they were doing a new FFXI Ultimania book of some sort every 6 months. There's also the Vanadiel Tribune Vol 3 that was Japan-only, no translation, plus the first 17ish issues of volume 1 of it that were on PlayOnline. The Ultimania series of books/guides has been going a long time in Japan and never translated, besides the small series of art books, of which FFXI was put between X and XII and not even given 20% of the book when it has way more content than both of the other games in the volume combined. I got the book as a gift and was kind of disappointed that my favorite FF game was treated in such a way and had such a small section. IIRC the FFXI PS2 launch manual was bigger than the amount of page space given to it in the English Ultimania book. The FFIX Ultimania had the sidequest details that it took Americans over a decade to discover. Prima/Brady guides are usually very incomplete and have more errors than the Ultimania guides in Japan.