We had the help of very many people in recording the footage used during the broadcast*. We conducted impromptu interviews and talk sessions pretty much right up until the video was released. It was hectic, but I enjoyed getting to see the different workplace cultures at each of the other companies. As for our interview with Mr. Kimura of Cygames, we had a predetermined theme to talk about, but it was essentially an open dialogue otherwise. We also had delightful commentary from our MCs, Mr. Nakamura and Ms. Kato, and I think it turned out to be quite the interesting segment.
The anniversary livestream turned out to be a lengthy 6-hour broadcast. At the end of it, I was so startled by the unexpected surprise from our adventurers that I completely blanked out what I was going to say to wrap up the show. That really blew me away! (Akihiko Matsui, Producer)

* Referring to 20th Anniversary Broadcast - WE ARE VANA’DIEL. (Audio in Japanese.)

The 20th anniversary was certainly a momentous occasion worthy of holding a live event if it weren’t for the pandemic. Even if holding an event was out of the question, we still wanted to do something to celebrate, and that’s how we began planning a special broadcast* with our video production team.

We had a burning desire to create a video like Project X (a Japanese documentary), and so the first half focused on looking back at the early days of FFXI and hearing from staff members who were involved. Our interviewees were all prominent figures like the CEO and other leading members of the company, so we can definitely say we ended up with quite the legendary video! Mr. Hiromichi Tanaka helped us out a lot with supervision as well.

Doing such a lengthy show is rare for us, and it turned out to be quite the enriched and precious experience. (Yoji Fujito, Director)

* Referring to 20th Anniversary Broadcast - WE ARE VANA’DIEL. (Audio in Japanese.)

Trophies in Granblue Fantasy provide crystals and other rewards but are also known for their rather daring titles. Deciding what the titles should be was the hardest part of supervising FINAL FANTASY XI: Mirage Minstrel. The suggestions we had were great and were sure to elicit a chuckle from any FFXI player, so I would’ve been okay with choosing any of them as long as they weren’t too outrageous. But I did mention my hesitation in going too hard with the memes our adventurers have collected over the years, since I felt it’d be rather cheeky of us to use them in an official capacity. However... (Akihiko Matsui, Producer)

Granblue Fantasy had approached us to do a collaboration for some time prior, and it was finally realized as a special collaboration to celebrate FFXI’s 20th anniversary.
Working on the FFXI side of things, the hardest parts were giving a satisfying conclusion to the event scenario without lasting effects on the original stories, and figuring out how to handle the sheer volume of materials that required our supervision. The scenario was discussed and decided with the overall FFXI team, but the supervision had to be done in tandem with working on FFXI’s version update, so I remember just focusing really hard on schedule management. That said, I remember handling check requests until a few days before the event went live. (laughs) (Yasushi Yamazaki, Planner)

Composing the song was my way of commemorating the 20th anniversary through sound-related means. Given that FFXI is only played on PC nowadays, I was able to use a live recording for the music, which wasn’t possible when creating previous title screen music. (Naoshi Mizuta, Composer)

When Producer Matsui announced his intentions for the 20th anniversary, my immediate thought was, “Ah, then we’ll need music to commemorate the occasion!” In my request to Mr. Mizuta, I asked for “a 20th anniversary version of ‘Vana’diel March’” and didn’t mention much else than, “A song that encourages us to keep moving forward!” Since the song would be one of our rare additions to the title screen, I set aside a budget for a live recording to add extra grandeur and had Mr. Mizuta go all out.
When naming the song, the Localization team and I figured it should follow be “Vana’diel March #???” or some one-word English title to fit our usual naming conventions. But our ideas just didn’t feel quite natural, so we put the title on hold and went back to Mr. Mizuta for his input. He replied, “I mean, is there anything other than ‘We Are Vana’diel’?” and that was a huge eye-opener for me. It was a good reminder of how short-sighted we can be when we’re too focused on one idea!
Thank you, Mr. Mizuta! (Yoji Fujito, Producer)

The concept we had for Sortie was “collaboration.” We implemented the content with the hopes that our adventurers would share information among themselves to develop their own strategies. (Masaru Taniguchi, Planner)