WE DISCUSS VANA'DIEL
Season 2, Episode 7
Seekers of Adoulin — Yaeko Sato & Yoshitsugu Saito

Seekers of Adoulin was released in 2013, six years after Wings of the Goddess, which came out in 2007. Since there were additional scenarios and the three Abyssea add-ons released as DLC, was there any discussion about releasing them as an expansion disc, especially as a packaged version for the PlayStation 2?

We had decided from the beginning to release a PS2 version, so there wasn't really any discussions regarding the platform. However, we did consider ways to provide smaller scale expansions in the form of DLC rather than full-fledged expansion discs. Ultimately though, there was some concern about attachment rates if we decided to go down that road. Also, from the beginning of the project, the team was eager to work hard and create another expansion disc.

So you decided to make it an expansion disc after all.

Yes, that's right. However, since the western continent was pretty much an entirely new setting, it was difficult to remain consistent with the terminology and other concepts. We had to constantly ask ourselves "Okay, what should we call this?" for every term we came across, while also wondering what kind of people lived in certain locations, what the towns would look like, and various other factors. Eventually, we realized we didn't have enough manpower, so we turned to Matrix for help creating everything.

How exactly were the maps and associated content created?

We had "pioneer" as a keyword from the very beginning of the project, so we asked them to create images that would invoke that kind of idea and then took a look at them to decide which types of maps we should create. We held a meeting where people came up with ideas for recreating this concept of "pioneering" with the in-game content. Everyone pasted ideas such as "deliver supplies needed for colonization to the frontier bivouacs and frontier stations" and "eliminate obstacles that stand in our way" on a whiteboard, and then we decided how to build out such general topics in a more specific way.

Was the idea of "pioneering" born out of the content itself? Or was it included as part of the story's plot from the beginning?

Hmm, I wonder...

I think it was probably about 50/50, actually. Starting with the reason why the western continent was unexplored, I feel like both the story and the game content progressed from there. It was a sense of, "Well, if it's an unknown land, let's set out to explore it and colonize it."

That reminds me, there was a story that featured a clue regarding the western continent. I think it was the Pyracmon* event around the time of the Harvest Festival.

Yes, that's right. Looking into the question of what is the Sacred City Alliance after hearing the exorcist’s story, it's revealed that it was an alliance of several different countries. From there, we started discussing how many countries (orders) there were, and we decided to come up with a nice, round number of 12. Additionally, we considered the gameplay aspects of "pioneering" and decided on the final number which ending up becoming the Twelve Orders of Adoulin.

Once that was decided, we went to work on creating the actual content. In fact, much of the story's main plot was written by Mr. Ito. At the time, he also came up with the story behind Duskraven* after thinking about possible ways to link the content to other expansion discs. I watched him at work and discovered how separate stories could be connected in such a way.

So Mr. Ito was also quite involved in the story's creation.

The story of Seekers of Adoulin was pretty much created by everyone. Mr. Ito came up with the general themes, and then the scenario team went to work on the details.

I only joined the development team for the latter half of the project, but I think there were many parts of Seekers of Adoulin that were based on requests from Mr. Ito.

Mr. Ito was actively coming up with various ideas and also served to bring everyone else's ideas together into a cohesive whole. That let the individual teams decide on how to best give form to each of those ideas.

Were there any difficulties in developing the game this way compared to what was done on the previous expansions?

Whenever you're creating a new world, you're always taking up ideas left over from your predecessors, but I think it's usually up to a single individual to decide how to continue those ideas and build upon them. So I think the biggest difference with this project is that everyone made those kinds of decisions together. So up until the very end, the Seekers of Adoulin team was constantly worrying about things like whether or not what we released as Vana'diel's official history would be accepted by the players.

The further you get into the story, the more you notice that system of "combining answers." That was the case with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel as well.

I thought that Ms. Sato did an excellent job of bringing Rhapsodies of Vana'diel together.

The Seekers of Adoulin missions end with Chapter 5, but it's been mentioned that there was a mysterious sixth chapter as well.

We had an illustration of the planned location for Chapter 6 that we were working off of, but the map had too many levels, so it ended up being too large to implement within the game given the release schedule. Although we made prototypes for some areas, we couldn't find a way to incorporate them into the game, so it just wasn't possible in the end. In regards to the story for the content, we created a portal following the Battle of Ra'Kaznar Turris that would transport you to another world. It was our plan to reveal the truth of how Hades became what he is, and the story would eventually lead to a final battle against him. Within those connected episodes, we planned to include stories such as the truth behind the Naakual, among others.

Isn't that what Sortie* is about!?

Yes, it's true that Sortie features the Naakual and a color variant of Hades, but the story is completely different. By the way, the location we intended on using before shelving the content was given the tentative name "Demon Prison."

I see... So it was something similar, but different at the same time. Going back a second, Ms. Sato, you mentioned that you rejoined the team during the latter stages of Seekers of Adoulin's development, but what were you working on at the time?

I only joined the team near the end, and I helped out on various cutscenes.

I asked Ms. Sato to write the lyrics for the ending theme song.

That's right! You did! (laughs)

I thought to myself, "Now that she's back, I'm going to drop this massive undertaking on her from the start." (laughs)

You were immediately asked to write the lyrics for the ending song?

I gave her a basic overview of the story when I made the request.

I also asked Mr. Ito what kind of approach he was planning to take for the song. In response, he requested an "honest, easily understood song about Arciela's feelings," so I wrote the lyrics with that in mind.

So that's how the song "Forever Today" came about, but did you finish the lyrics before the song was completed? Or did the song itself come first?

The music came first. Mr. Mizuta* sent me the sheet music and then I created the lyrics from there.

Is there a difference between writing the lyrics based on the music and coming up with the lyrics first?

They're completely different. When the music comes first, I sing the song to myself a number of times before I'm finally finished. The music for the closing song of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel was completed in advance, so I wrote the lyrics while singing them to myself over and over again. Conversely, there are also times when the song is changed somewhat after the lyrics have been added.