I believe this holds true for any story, but there is always the joy and sense of accomplishment upon its completion, which is then juxtaposed with feelings of sadness over the journey finally coming to an end. The journey this time featured three rather boisterous beastmen who were a bit of a handful at times, but eventually became an indispensable part of the story. Plus, with the team’s self-introduction, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought they might combine to form a giant robot or something, right? ...Right?!
There were so many other topics I wanted to introduce to the story, but before I knew it, it was already time to wrap things up!
Over the course of the development period, the team was faced with various restrictions in regards to our workload and the schedule itself, so it was definitely a challenge trying to fit all of the puzzle pieces together in a cohesive manner before release. It was pretty much like we were walking a tightrope the entire time.
I had numerous ideas that just couldn’t make it into the game due to the time constraints. One of them was in regards to a kind of beastman entourage for players. The plan was for you to visit the homes of the beastmen who were participating in the meeting in Movalpolos, where you would then be challenged by a group of particularly ferocious individuals. If they accepted you, they’d become your allies and move in to your Mog House. We even talked excitedly within the team about creating a room for them as well.
I also wanted to create a quest involving Sakura and the Leafkin Queen, as well as a quest that was basically one big rant from Bahamut (regarding color changes).
Now that I’ve shared them with you, I just have to hope that there’s an opportunity to address them in future somehow!
Until next time, apukariccho! (Yaeko Sato, Planner)

The “Treasures of Vana’diel“ exhibition was an event that was proposed during the creation of various FFXI merchandise. When the idea first came up, it was pretty much impossible to hold such an in-person event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the country began to emerge from lockdown and things slowly returned to normal, we decided to move forward with the event due to the passion of its many supporters.
This was the first in-person exhibition that was ever held for FFXI, so I wondered if people would actually be interested in seeing items such as the various development materials that went into the game’s creation over the years. My fears were unfounded, however, as the event turned out to be extremely popular with visitors. In response to the demand, we held an additional exhibition in Osaka, Japan, making the “Treasures of Vana’diel“ exhibition a resounding success. Naturally, none of it would have been possible without the support of our many passionate adventurers. (Yoji Fujito, Producer/Director)

This was content that I proposed to Mr. Fujito out of the blue one day. Basically, I wanted to bring the Flan Princess from FFIV into the world of FFXI. I feel like doing so offered something of a more nostalgic feel compared to many of FFXI’s other battles.
I did make a mistake with the method for obtaining the trigger item for the battle, so I was quite surprised when the players discovered it on the day of its release. To all you adventurers out there, you never cease to amaze me. (Masaru Taniguchi, Planner)

“Vana’Bout“ is an entirely new type of event, envisioned as content designed to bring players from all of FFXI’s Worlds (servers) together and contribute toward a common goal.
It is difficult to add new stories and battle content to the game given the current development situation. Therefore, rather than create something that is designed to be “consumed“ by players, the team decided to give them a kind of festival where they could all come together as part of a “shared“ experience instead. I believe that this feature has the potential to be an extremely exciting addition to the game going forward.
We were still getting a feel of what the content is about with Round 1, which brought a number of issues to our attention, so we are hoping to use these lessons learned for providing an even more exciting and polished experience in subsequent rounds. (Yoji Fujito, Producer/Director)