"WE DISCUSS VANA'DIEL" is a series of conversations between Producer Fujito and special guests who are familiar with FINAL FANTASY XI (FFXI). Here in Season 2, we're featuring conversations between Producer Fujito and the development team in regards to the middle and later stages of FFXI's creation, including the various expansion packs and additional scenarios that have been released over the years.
The topic of this episode focuses on Wings of the Goddess, the game's fourth expansion pack. Continuing on from the Season 2, Episode 2 discussion on Treasures of Aht Urhgan, our guests this time include Koichi Ogawa, who was the director at the time; Mizuki Ito, who oversaw the battle content; and Yosuke Hayashi, who was in charge of creating the game's items and equipment. We'll speak with them about what went on during the course of Wings of the Goddess's development.
Wings of the Goddess was the fourth expansion for FFXI and was released on November 22, 2007. The story takes place in Vana'diel during the time of the Crystal War, nearly 20 years before the game's present day of 884 C.E. The player meets with the enigmatic Cait Sith after being engulfed by a Cavernous Maw, and is tasked with traveling between the past and present in order to secure "a brighter future." Like the player, Lilisette, the story's heroine, also possesses the ability to travel through time, and she stars as Troupe Mayakov's top dancer in the past. In addition, major new NPCs were introduced, including Mayakov, the leader of Troupe Mayakov; Portia, a dancer in the troupe; and Ragelise, the captain of San d'Oria's Knights of the Ironcrest Hawk.
Wings of the Goddess's story not only consists of the usual missions, but also a series of consecutive quests from the three nations that are set in the past. Among them, players encounter various NPCs as part of the story, including Excenmille, Rahal, and Ajido-Marujido when they were children; younger versions of Zeid and Volker; Lehko Habhoka, the only male Mithra in FFXI; and also Robel-Akbel, the Warlock Warlord of Windurst whose face is covered in black bandages.
The areas visited in the past are mostly centered around Southern San d'Oria [S] and Batallia Downs [S], which are set 20 years before the game's current towns and fields. However, Vunkerl Inlet [S], Grauberg [S], and Fort Karugo-Narugo [S] are areas that no longer exist in the present day. (The [S] suffix added to the place names stands for Shadowreign and designates zones from that time period.)
On the gameplay side, the dancer and scholar were added as new job classes. Meanwhile, one of the expansion's core features was the complex battle content known as Campaign, which includes fighting battles that occurred in the past, as well as carrying out operations to support them. The mode includes Campaign Battles, which are large-scale battles fought around the land between the Beastmen and Allied Nations, as well as Campaign Ops, which are smaller scale missions that take place during the Crystal War.
Other content includes the ability to create dungeons with custom objectives and settings in Moblin Maze Monger (MMM), multiple adventurers taking on notorious monsters in Walk of Echoes, and much more. Furthermore, the game also added a level sync feature around this time, allowing you to restrict the level of all party members to that of a single player.
He originally served as a map planner up until Chains of Promathia. He later went on to serve as the third director for FFXI, while overseeing the period from Treasures of Aht Urhgan to Wings of the Goddess. After leaving the FFXI team, he served as chief planner for Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, among other positions.
He worked on Wings of the Goddess as a battle planner, where he was mainly responsible for battle content such as Campaign. In 2010, he took over for Akihiko Matsui and was appointed as the fifth director of FFXI, where he handled director duties up until Rhapsodies of Vana'diel.
He worked on Mr. Ito's team for Wings of the Goddess, where he handled the Campaign Battles' guest system, as well as battle content such as Moblin Maze Monger. Currently, he serves as the lead item designer for FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Campaign came about after much trial and error
In this episode, I'd like to talk about the development of Wings of the Goddess, the game's fourth expansion pack. To get things started, can you tell us what your roles were during its development, including you, Mr. Fujito?
- Fujito
I was assigned to work on the game system side, which I had been doing since I first joined the team. I think I also helped create the system for players to submit their opinions* about the Campaign mode as well. Aside from that, I was in charge of the fishing feature, as usual.
* A system utilized in Campaign; the new content added for Wings of the Goddess. It is much like an online referendum, allowing players to voice their opinions about their nation's policy for the Campaign content. What were your duties at the time as director, Mr. Ogawa?
- Ogawa
Once work on Treasures of Aht Urhgan was complete, I started thinking about what kind of setting the next expansion should feature, including its main theme and its various locations.
Let me guess, you created the maps for Wings of the Goddess in advance too?
- Ogawa
That's the usual development process for most of the expansion packs. We typically start work on the maps first and then move on to the rest.
Mr. Ito, were you already working on content for the expansion?
- Ito
At the time, I was primarily working on the system related elements for Campaign, which served as the main new addition to Wings of the Goddess. Campaign is a rather complicated system that combines various types of content, so I basically worked on everything that was related to it.
I can imagine, as Campaign was one of Wings of the Goddess's most important features.
- Ito
Actually, with the Campaign Battles, they are kind of like an extension of Besieged, in that they exchange data between areas in a similar manner. However, I read a report near the end of the development cycle that stated, "When checking the game on a debug kit, I saw a message that stated, 'No. 24 has joined the battle' in the game." When I saw that, I broke into a cold sweat thinking that I didn't have full control over the system elements. (laughs wryly)
- Hayashi
From what I remember, Campaign was the most difficult feature to debug by far.
- Ito
That's when I really felt the pressure as to whether we would be able to release Wings of the Goddess on schedule. I know that's what I was thinking, so I imagine Mr. Ogawa was probably feeling the same thing. In the end, we managed to meet the release date without any issues, but looking back at it now, I feel like the team did an excellent job within a relatively short period of time.
Mr. Hayashi, what were your responsibilities at the time?
- Hayashi
After the release of Wings of the Goddess, I left the FFXI team around the time of the third version update, so the amount of time I actually spent on it was really quite short. Of the things I worked on, one of them was creating the Campaign guest* system. Basically, the internal game system is set up so that when an instruction arrives, the command is received and the guest is sent to join the battle. However, the system wasn't working as planned, which prevented the selected guest from appearing in the battle. That was pretty stressful for me.
* A system utilized in Campaign; the new content added for Wings of the Goddess. Players can scout designated NPCs who are not assigned to the Allied Nations, thereby enabling those NPCs to fight alongside them in Campaign Battles as a guest.
- Ito
The Campaign system was quite difficult, as it was very complex, meaning things often didn't work properly and we had to troubleshoot the issues through a lot of trial and error.
- Fujito
There is a place within that game system that sends and receives data between the relevant areas, but there was often unexpected lag due to the large amount of information within Campaign that needed to be sent. And Mr. Ito was the person in charge of managing all that data...
Yes, it sounds like it was quite the ordeal.
- Fujito
If you look at the data log, you can see the various instructions being given and which units are moving where, but when the numbers are slightly off, it often led to problems. Therefore, everyone was constantly staring at the log, looking for potential issues. Sometimes, it feels like a miracle that we got it all done in time.
- Ito
Indeed, that was quite the challenge. By the end, I was able to simply look at the log and know exactly what was happening in a battle. (laughs)
- Hayashi
Given the situation, I could never be sure if there was something wrong with a script* I wrote for the guest system, or if it was due to underlying system itself.
* A simplified programming language developed specifically for FFXI. - Ito
Speaking of the guest system, I know Mr. Hayashi had a lot of ideas about who should appear as guests.
- Hayashi
I decided on characters like Maat from twenty years ago, a general who wasn't around twenty years in the past, and also Curilla's father, Rainemard.
- Ito
You also mentioned something about wanting to include the War Warlocks of Windurst*.
* The leaders of twelve magical brigades which serve as the main military force within the Federal Forces of Windurst. Each of the brigades is named after a zodiac sign (or constellation): Ariesan, Taurean, Geminian, Cancerian, Leonian, Virgo, Libran, Scorpion, Sagittarian, Capricornian, Aquarian, and Piscean. - Hayashi
Actually, I wanted to include all of them, but what happened after I left the FFXI team?
- Ito
There are some of them that only appear in quests outside of the Campaign Battles, but we couldn't include all of them, unfortunately.
Depicting the "Age of the Crystal War"
How did you come up with the concept for Wings of the Goddess, which takes place during the age of the Crystal War?
- Ogawa
At the time, the FFXI team mentioned that it would be hard to create all of the new maps needed for the expansion from scratch. So we started coming up with various ideas, and then we thought to ourselves, "What if we set it in the past?" I asked Mr. Iwao* and also the scenario team whether or not the scenario and setting could support such an idea, and they both thought that it should be fine, so I decided to set some of the story in the past. We had already introduced the concept of the Crystal War in previous stories, so I always wanted to see what the era was like and what kind of events took place during that time.
* Kenichi Iwao, a former planner who helped with FFXI's world setting.
Even though Vana'diel is a fictional world, it seems like revisiting its past would be a bit unusual in terms of the game's development, so was it hard coming up with a setting for it?
- Ogawa
Personally, I was pretty optimistic about the whole thing because it takes place in a fantasy setting. (laughs) The thinking was that it looks like you could travel through Atomos's mouth, so why not make it a link to the past? Then it was a matter of augmenting that concept with the story setting. Basically, it all came about due to a desire to "see the past."
We talked about Campaign earlier, but how was the decision made to create such large-scale content that utilized all of the regions? Was it considered to be an extension of the Besieged content from Treasures of Aht Urhgan?
- Ito
I don't think it came about from wanting to expand on what was done with Besieged, given the trouble that content experienced. However, when I heard that the setting for the next expansion would be the Crystal War, I probably ended up saying something like, "If we expand upon what we did with Besieged, it'd be the perfect way to depict the Crystal War." (laughs wryly)
It must have been like taking the battle in Al Zahbi and expanding it to the entire world.
- Ito
Yes, pretty much. So that was the starting point, and then we expanded upon it with things like the battle will be better if we have various generals show up, the enemy side should have its own generals, the Shadow Lord should be extremely powerful during the time period, and there should be dark units serving beneath the Shadow Lord's command. There was also the consideration that since it's set in the past, the player would likely recognize much of the environments, but we felt that we could offer them something original by adding completely new content in each area as well.
Yeah, the battlefield pretty much expanded to every corner of each region.
- Ito
That's when we started working on the Campaign Battles in earnest, but I was the person who created Besieged, and the other people on the team didn't really have the know-how that I possessed in regards to creating content that could send and receive data between areas. That's why I decided to take the lead in developing the feature. I handed off whatever tasks I could to the other planners, and ultimately it was able to come together in the end. I felt bad about being so unreasonable to everyone at times, but it was definitely a good experience overall.
Outside of the Campaign Battles, what was the process behind creating the Campaign Ops?
- Fujito
The Campaign Battles were content where the battles occurred across the world, but it's not like the players were able to play the game around the clock, so there were instances where people who could only log into the game for short periods of time were unable to play them. We wanted to avoid that, so our goal was to create content that could be taken on at any time.
- Ito
The Campaign Ops also served the role of procuring food and supplies for the war effort, and the more Campaign Ops that were performed, the stronger the player's nation became, which gave them an advantage in the Campaign Battles as well. To be more specific, it increased the number of troops that accompanied their generals. However, they consumed the supplies when they set out for battle, so the number of troops would drop again if you didn't keep at it. We created the feature with such a gameplay cycle in mind, so that the players would want to keep playing the Campaign Ops as well.
Did the number of players belonging to each of the three nations affect Campaign's battle situation in the past at all? Specifically, I remember there were many players who belonged to the Knights of the Iron Ram in San d'Oria's past after the "Splitting Heirs [S]" mission was added to the Campaign Ops.
- Ito
If one of the nations is weak, it will be attacked, but ultimately it's a battle between the Beastmen and the Allied Nations, so as long as you can eventually drive the Beastmen back to Xarcabard [S], it doesn't really matter which nation the players belong to. The Northlands area was gradually added later on, but before that, I felt like it was still in the early stages of the war, a kind of situation where both sides were keeping each other in check.
Knowing the past to enjoy the differences from the present
The Wings of the Goddess story was told not only through the main missions, but also the ongoing quests set in the past. How did you decide to link the story between those missions and quests?
- Ogawa
It is my belief that there are numerous players who have a strong sense of attachment to their nation. As such, I felt that if we were going to set the story in the world's past, I wanted players to see how each country had evolved over the years, which meant that we needed to somehow convey each country's history to the players.
When you join one of the three armies in the past, it doesn't matter which country you currently belong to. Was that an effort to let the players choose a country that they were particularly fond of?
- Ogawa
Yes. We wanted them to choose whichever country they liked and not be bound by their previous choice.
How did you go about creating the differences between the three countries in the past and present?
- Ogawa
We focused on ways to portray how the current map would have been affected by the war in the past. Also, like with the previous expansion packs, we were limited in how many new areas we could introduce, so we looked to fill in gaps in the existing map so that the areas would be linked in new ways. That led to us adding places that were inconvenient to access in the present, but not nearly as much so in the past.
Can you tell us about the new job classes? Wings of the Goddess introduced the dancer and scholar, but how were they decided upon?
- Ogawa
I don't remember how many jobs we requested at first, but I don't think we were limited to just two... When we looked back at previous games in the series, such as FFV, we saw that there was a dancer, but they hadn't included a scholar, for example. So there was a lot of source material for finding new jobs. In the end, we settled on adding two jobs due to the work involved and various other factors. I believe Mr. Gondai* took the lead on this.
* Mitsutoshi Gondai, former FFXI battle planner. - Ito
The job titles give the impression that they do not fight on the battle's front lines, so it was rather difficult deciding on the role they would play. In the end, however, we successfully managed to incorporate both of them into the story.
- Ogawa
The scenario lead did an excellent job with that.
- Ito
I was surprised to find out that Lilisette was a dancer when I first saw her, but because she was designed to be a dancer from the beginning, the addition of that job was decided pretty early on in the process.
Wings of the Goddess was like a motherly figure to its developers
Is there any content besides Campaign that stands out for you personally?
- Hayashi
The development of Moblin Maze Monger was divided into different roles, and I worked on it some. I had always handled the items and battles for Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, and Wings of the Goddess, so I wanted to create something other than a system of "attacking enemies in order to reduce their HP." Therefore, I created a set of rules like the game dorokei*, where you search for treasure and get sent to prison if you're caught by the enemy. There are also some more standard tasks such as taking out monsters, but I wanted to include something unique as well.
* Also known as keidoro, a traditional children's game played in Japan between cops (kei) and robbers (doro), it is similar to tag.
- Ito
Mr. Fujito, they asked you for help with MMM too, right?
- Fujito
Yes, I was involved in its planning stages. In the beginning, we came up with the concept of "a dungeon that you can design yourself," but that led to various problems, such as how would you design it, and how would that design be reflected in the game. So in the end, we decided to create multiple "Maze Vouchers" and then let the players customize the details. Everyone helped come up with ideas for the types of Maze Vouchers that were added to the game.
- Hayashi
MMM also introduced the first bit of new UI (user interface) elements in a while.
- Ito
We were told at the time that it would be difficult to expand the UI much more on the PS2 version, but despite that, we were able to create some new UI elements for MMM. Speaking of new UI, it was originally proposed to use dedicated UI for the evolith* feature as well.
* A game system that adds special features and stats to equipment by affixing a mineral known as "evolith" to it. It is similar to the materia system used in FFVII. - Fujito
Like with MMM, there were lots of ideas for giving other areas their own unique UI at the time. The synergy and evolith systems were both a part of that.
Lastly, can you please share with us your overall thoughts on Wings of the Goddess?
- Hayashi
I started in the QA (quality assurance) department before I was assigned to the development team midway through work on Rise of the Zilart, where I stayed until Wings of the Goddess. I am indebted to the many testers who helped me both when I was working in the QA department and then after I became a planner. Thanks to them, I was able to get to where I'm at today. Also, as a former member of the QA department, I'm proud that one of my fellow testers, Iori Watanabe, is currently playing an active role on FFXI's development as a planner.
- Ito
Looking back at it now, I realize that working on Wings of the Goddess was a challenge that helped me to break through my limits at the time. As part of that process, it was also a time when I had to rely on many of my fellow colleagues and probably made their lives a bit difficult, but it allowed me to make a vow that I would always focus on the fun behind a particular project and have it serve as the driving force that propels myself, my colleagues, and the players forward. In that regard, I feel that Wings of the Goddess helped open the eyes of us developers to many things, so in that way, it served as a kind of "goddess" to us as well.
- Ogawa
Wings of the Goddess included content and scenarios that went well beyond what was envisioned in the beginning, such as the players traveling to the past and witnessing the events of the Crystal War, so I felt that we were able to create something different than the traditional outward expansion of the world setting that occurs with most expansion packs. For me personally, I was able to draw up storyboards for the promotion videos and also participate in the editing process, both of which were a welcome change of pace from my usual work. Thinking back on my time with FFXI, I feel that its development style was both refreshing and stimulating, as it allowed us to see the players' passion and then reflect that passion within the game almost in real time. I hope everyone continues to enjoy playing FFXI and all that has gone into it.
