WE DISCUSS VANA'DIEL
Season 2, Episode 11
The Voracious Resurgence — Yaeko Sato, Takashi Hisagi & Yasushi Yamazaki

Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, the final chapter in FFXI's story, was released in 2015. Then, a new story named The Voracious Resurgence came out five years later. Can you please talk about the decision to create this new content?

After Rhapsodies of Vana'diel finished, the players were starved for new story content. Mr. Matsui* was drawing up the annual plan for the game and thought it'd be nice to create another entry to the story, so that's how it all got started. However, he thought the episode should focus more on a "slice of everyday life in the world of Vana'diel," and that it be slowly added to over time.

So in the beginning, it wasn't planned as being the long-form story that it ended up becoming.

That's correct. Although, as we started planning the project, we realized that it'd be difficult to tell a cohesive story if we focused on smaller episodes, and that it wouldn't be all that memorable if we just kept adding to it. Basically, the players would just shrug and move on. Therefore, once we decided that we'd be making a full-fledged story, we got Ms. Sato to rejoin the FFXI team after she'd been working on another project.

They came to me and explained why they wanted me back, but I just kept thinking to myself, "Didn't we end FFXI's story with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel?" (laughs)

I guess not! (laughs)

That reminds me, but Mr. Hisagi's work on the quest for obtaining the ability to summon the avatar Siren also helped drive the push for a new story.

Yeah, that's right. I was in charge of the quest "The Silent Forest" that gives you the ability to summon Siren. Originally, the quest was meant to be added during Seekers of Adoulin, allowing players to summon Siren at that point in the game. However, it took time than expected to develop the main story, so we weren't able to implement it as planned. We had the character model, animations, effects, and other elements for Siren ready though, so we were able to introduce the character in Rhapsodies of Vana'diel.

At that time, it was still as an enemy NPC, right?

Yes, that's right. I thought that since we'd worked so hard to prepare everything, it was a waste that you couldn't summon Siren as an avatar. So I wanted to create a quest that would enable you to do so. I pleaded my case and was allowed to create the quest for Siren. Basically, I worked on the quest alongside the rest of my regular duties. Little by little, I tackled areas like the avatar's moves, its backstory, and the associated cutscenes. It took about two years to prepare everything, but we were finally able to implement it into the game.

Aside from the quest's role in implementing a new avatar, its story was also quite impressive.

It was well-received by the players, and when Mr. Matsui and Mr. Fujito saw the response, it became clear how important it was to have a proper setting and scenario in place for the game content.

Before that, we had been adding new content mainly in the form of battle content such as Ambuscade, but there wasn't really much to say about its setting, so we heard from the players that they wanted to experience more story content as well. So given that as a backdrop, the Siren quest was implemented in the game and the players let us know just how much they enjoyed it. That was a big factor in how things progressed from there.

Once work on The Voracious Resurgence began, what was the development team's structure like?

First, we were asked to write the story, with Ms. Sato taking point and Mr. Yamazaki and myself assisting. From there, Ms. Sato created an outline of the overall scenario, as it was the most important aspect. Based on the plot that she came up with, everyone pulled up past resources from the game in order to make sure that there were no conflicts with the world setting or any other elements contradictory to what had come before. We also tried to focus on what kind of things would be fun for the players to experience. So we also came up with new aspects as needed.

So those new elements and plot points were created specifically for this content.

Even in the case of things that might not be part of the story, the story can end up being fairly shallow if you don't develop a solid foundation for it. We then take those elements and come up with plot details and NPC lines for them as needed, but we also need to link them to programming flags within the game. Basically, I was in charge of this process of establishing the conditions such as which NPCs you need to talk to in order to advance the story, where the battles will be fought, and who you need to report to in order to receive your rewards. Aside from that, I worked on creating specification documents for the benefit of the quality assurance department, as well as helping with the cutscenes.

Who was the main person in charge of creating the cutscenes?

The work was primarily split between Ms. Sato and myself.

Mr. Yamazaki, what was your impression when you heard that the team would be working on a new story?

At first, I thought to myself, "Seriously!?" (laughs) There was the question of whether we had enough staff to pull it off. You know the story creation is in good hands when you've got Ms. Sato working on it, but the team was lacking a dedicated designer and programmer, so that meant we couldn't really create any new material. Therefore, we were forced to utilize existing resources from the game and rearrange them to come up with something new.

You must've been thinking, "It's nice that we're making something new, but what are we going to do, exactly?"

Not to mention that in contrast to Mr. Matsui's initial instructions, the content was growing larger by the minute. (laughs) Still, with Ms. Sato writing the scenario, you know it's going to be good, so I basically thought to myself that I've simply got to buckle down and do my best to get it done. On top of that, we were hearing from the players how much they liked being able to experience new story content, so once the bar was set that high, there was no way we could just lower it. So that led to us constantly thinking of ways to raise the bar even further during development.

Mr. Yamazaki, what was your role on The Voracious Resurgence?

I was in charge of creating and managing the in-game resources—basically the data that goes into the game. Aside from that, I handled Elijah's side quest (the "Peculiar Foes" Records of Eminence objectives). I also worked on what we in the development team call "trials," which consist of performing tasks within the game such as "defeat this opponent in such and such area," or "take this item to this location," etc. It was my job to ensure that such tasks meshed with the current sense of game balance. I worked together with Mr. Hisagi, who also originally started as an FFXI player, to come up with the contents, such as "bring me a rare rolanberry" or "bring me some dream flower petals."

These types of errands can sometimes be considered a nuisance by the player, but we wanted to keep them true to the name of "trials," so the two of us came up with various ideas. Similarly, for the costume contest in Bastok, I asked Mr. Yamazaki to come up with a system for what kind of outfit combinations could be made and how they'd be evaluated, and then I wrote a script to actually conduct the evaluations.

The Voracious Resurgence was also based on the concept of including things that made the players feel nostalgic and give them a chance to reflect on the game's past.

That's why in the story, we included locations such as the three nations, Jeuno, and the areas from each of the expansion discs.

So with that as a concept, we discussed the contents of these "trials" and how we could best recreate the atmosphere that was present when the three countries and Jeuno were crowded with players over the years.

I remember during the "Kupipi's Dilemma" quest, I was told to redo the whole process with the rolanberry and white rolanberry over and over again. That was pretty tough! (laughs)

It's not all that strict, but there definitely is some luck involved. We received feedback from players regarding the difficulty level of the initial stages, and I realized that it might've been a bit much, so I did make some adjustments here and there. For example, you can get the doll gizmo* that's needed in San d'Oria every time by defeating a notorious monster.

Those kinds of things are always difficult to find the proper balance.

Yeah, if it's too easy, then it won't be very memorable.

Things are definitely easier to remember if they're difficult to accomplish.

Looking back, events like the time there was a massive line in the Konschtat Highlands when I acquired the samurai job class left a big impression on me. Naturally, I wanted to provide experiences that would resonate with players, not ones that would simply waste their time or be stressful for them.

I would like to ask Ms. Sato about the story's main plot, but before that, FFXI has a long history that has been filled with many powerful enemies. I imagine you must've wondered about which one to choose, but how did you make the decision for The Voracious Resurgence's final boss?

Actually, the final boss was decided before I even started coming up with the plot.

In regards to that, we actually talked about an idea we had for the game but were unable to utilize on an episode of Freshly Picked Vana'diel.

You're talking about how the plan was to resurrect the Maelstrom Mage, Garazu-Horeizu.

Yes, that's the one. That was stuck in my mind for a long time, so I thought we should use that as the end, and that's how it was added to The Voracious Resurgence. From there, we started discussing what exactly Garazu-Horeizu was trying to summon and we decided on the final boss accordingly.

So the questions marks on the slide shown during the episode ended up referring to what became the final boss for the content.

That's correct. Furthermore, FFXI is full of different stories, so we wanted to follow up on those previously unexplained secrets or other things that players had been wondering about. As part of that, we were asked if we could maybe touch upon the secret behind the Galkan system of rebirth.

Yes, that was discussed pretty early on during development.

So we kind of planted that "seed" for Ms. Sato and the team to nurture, and it just kind of sprouted from there.

Although the final boss was decided in advance, the story of Valhalla* and the other elements that are such a big part of The Voracious Resurgence's story were not. So based on the orders we were given to present these unexplained secrets in quest format, I asked the planners what kind of story they wanted to see, and then cobbled everything together from that. That includes things like Curilla's story, for example. I also asked them what kind of things they'd like to see from the Aht Urhgan region.

I thought about what the players would like to see, such as the story of Rishfee*, and then conveyed that to Ms. Sato.

On top of taking all of those ideas, I also thought about how the beastmen hadn't been in the spotlight all that much, so it all ended up serving as the outline for The Voracious Resurgence.

You mentioned the role of Valhalla, but how was it decided to incorporate it into the story?

When Mr. Fujito asked me to include the story of the Galkan system of rebirth, I realized we had to cover the topic of the afterlife and came to the conclusion that it would be best to link it to Valhalla.

Does that mean there weren't any details regarding the Galkan rebirth in the initial stages of FFXI's development?

We established that when they're near death, they go someplace and then are eventually reborn, but we never said where they go or what actually happens during their rebirth. Therefore, we wanted to take the time to expand on that bit of lore now that we had the time and opportunity to do so.

Early on, there was a general idea of where they would go at the end of their journey, but this was the first time that a specific location had been decided.

What was the process behind deciding to reveal the mystery behind the Galka's rebirth in the first place?

It was because out of the five playable races, the Galka were the most mysterious by far. We had already covered how the Mithra came from a country in the south, and that male Mithra also existed. I think the origins of the Hume, Tarutaru, and Elvaan races were also covered at least somewhat in the course of the story over the years. The Galka, however, were truly a mystery, so I thought we should maybe focus on them for a change. So that's why I made such a demanding request, as I figured it was "now or never" if we were going to dig a little deeper into their backstory.

You're right; even though they were a playable race in the game, not much was known about them.

The boss in the early stages of the game, the Shadow Lord, had a strong connection to the Galka. I thought it was a bit strange to have them be so integral to the main story but then not really say all that much about them, so I wanted to seize this opportunity to finally rectify that.

In the end, everything tied perfectly into the existing story. The relationship between the Shadow Lord and Odin was already a part of the plot that Mr. Kato* had already written, so it all just came together quite nicely.

The main illustration for The Voracious Resurgence was drawn by Mr. Akihiro Yamada*, but how did you approach him for the job?

We had a long list of candidates for the role of illustrator, and it was decided that since it was the final scenario, we should go with somebody that Mr. Matsui liked, and that's how we decided on Mr. Yamada.

I was also super excited to have Mr. Yamada drawing the illustration for us.

When you look at his illustration after completing the story, you notice the egg hatching, the various prime weapons, and other core elements that are taken straight from the story. Was the ending already decided when you placed the order for the illustration?

We had decided from the beginning that we'd have prime weapons as a new class of equipment.

On the other hand, we hadn't really finalized the details of the prime weapons at that time though.

We'd just made the graphics for the equipment shortly beforehand.

When the size of the FFXI team was pared down, we prepared what would follow the legendary weapons and when they'd be necessary.

What were your specific requests to Mr. Yamada in regards to the illustration?

We gave him a synopsis of the story and also an illustration of the beastmen, along with some other reference materials. We also told him we wanted to depict the mountain in Valhalla, the Destiny Destroyers, and a group of adventurers standing there with their prime weapons and multiple beastmen behind them. Thinking about it now, I believe I might've gone a bit overboard. (laughs wryly)

Still, he expertly wove all of those elements into the finished illustration.

I heard he had some difficulty fitting it all in. He spent a lot of time thinking about the best way to portray everything we asked for.

I think it's quite impressive how interested people were in the content just by looking at this illustration.

In addition to the main story regarding the World Eater Egg, there are also various subplots, including one about Trion and Curilla, appearances by Kupipi and the Star Onion Brigade, and a reunion with Rishfee, thereby allowing players to see what had happened to some of their favorite characters. When you came up with these story elements, I imagine you had to ensure that they matched up with what had come before, but were there any difficulties in doing so?

I'd say there were nothing but difficulties. (laughs wryly)

Since FFXI has the concept of a "home nation," the scenarios that the players experienced differed accordingly. Therefore, for a scenario like this one, we had to make it so that everyone understood what was going on, no matter what they had done or not done beforehand. When first coming up with ideas for The Voracious Resurgence, we actually thought about requiring players to complete the missions for all three nations as well as all of the expansion discs first. However, Mr. Matsui said that'd be too high of a barrier for the players, so as a compromise, we eventually settled on requiring them to complete Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. In other words, we knew when creating the content that everyone would be coming off of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, but had to assume that their progress before that would be different for everybody.

The missions for the three nations require that players defeat the Shadow Lord, but their progress after that can vary by individual.

So some players might have switched their home nation and played every mission in the game, while others may have simply stuck with their original home nation the entire time.

Therefore, we asked Ms. Sato to come up with lines based on the players' progress, like having these lines play at this particular moment, and then if something else happened instead, have lines for that situation as well. There was one exception, which was the Aht Urhgan episode, where we couldn't mention something unless the player had completed all of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan missions first, so we had to add some extra conditions later on to address that.

The story of the Talekeeper is strongly related to the Bastok missions, so was it difficult to tie them together?

For that, we asked Ms. Sato to write various lines and then we could change the ones that played depending on the mission progress.

It was necessary to have Gumbah at the center of the story, so I had to make it so players could understand what was going on even if they hadn't advanced through the Bastok missions yet. I know it was difficult for Mr. Hisagi to manage all of the in-game programming flags as well.

The game had been in service for a long time by that point, and players had the ability to change their home nation, so I think a lot of players had probably finished the Bastok missions by then. Conversely, there were also people that had just recently started playing the game, or those that were determined to remain loyal to their original nation. Therefore, the team did a good job of preventing any spoilers from getting through to the players.

Speaking of the three nations, I think there were probably quite a few players who were anxious about the fate of Trion and Curilla.

Yeah, there were many people who just wanted them to get together already! (laughs)

(laughs)

If you play the San d'Oria quest "Fit for a Prince"* after completing The Voracious Resurgence, there are some inconsistencies in the content, but I ignored those programming flags and gave priority to writing the story I wanted to tell.

Yeah, we figured we'll just look past that.

Also, in regards to Curilla's story, I felt it was unfortunate we couldn't create a new animation for her. I really wanted them embrace when their story ended...

Actually, I think the way it was—with the camera at a bit of a distance as the two look at each other longingly and force us to imagine what happens next—probably resonated with a lot of players.

I'm so happy to hear that! Thank you.

Ms. Sato not only wrote the lines for the story, but also the stage directions (descriptions of the characters' movements and the surrounding environment), so I was worried about how to portray some of the animations that were described in the various scenes. Ultimately, I ended up looking back at previous quests and missions to see if I could find any similar animations, and then chose the ones that were closest to what I pictured in my mind. Also, there are a lot of beastmen in The Voracious Resurgence, but they actually didn't have very many animations up to that point. The Goblin had a fair amount, but the mandragora and Meebles had next to nothing really. Therefore, I had to take them from other places, like the special attacks they use during battle.

I was in charge of managing the in-game resources, so Ms. Sato often asked me if we could use a certain animation for a particular instance.

I kind of regret making one of the Destiny Destroyers a Meeble. (laughs) At the time, I simply thought it'd be interesting to include one as a character.

Once we started creating the cutscenes, however, we realized that we didn't have any animations for it.

In regards to the various scenarios themselves, we put them together like a jigsaw puzzle, but the animations required a lot of trial and error.

How did you decide on which races to use for the three members of the Destiny Destroyers?

After it was decided that we'd be telling a story about the beastmen, we immediately knew we had to include a Goblin.

We then started talking about what to do for the other two, and looking back on the ones that had stood out over the course of the game, we realized that the Meebles hadn't done all that much. After that, we felt that the mandragora variant, the citrullus, hadn't been featured outside of battle, and since it looks interesting, we thought it'd be fun to have it tag along on the characters' journey.

I enjoyed how they were causing trouble around the land in regards to the egg, and the ways in which their story grows from there.

That was all mostly decided from the beginning. So was the idea that they appear as the villains in the early going, but over time the truth is revealed.

The portrayal of the final battle in The Voracious Resurgence was extremely impressive. What is the story behind actually implementing it in the game?

The story is set in the underworld of Valhalla, so I thought it'd be good to include characters related to it when I proposed the plot. Although, it was difficult to decide which characters to actually use. I really wanted to include King Ranperre*!

In terms of the story's setting, people with a strong and devout soul are recruited by Odin to go to Valhalla, so I thought it was important to choose people who felt like they'd belong there.

There were many more characters at first, probably like three times what it ended up being. There was also the issue of whether they could participate in battles or not, so we eliminated those that would be a problem and then used the story itself to pare down the list even further.

Yes, it would've been interesting to see characters like Ranperre, Rimilala*, and other figures depicted on the Shadowreign era currencies in battle.

Yes, I would've liked to have seen that too.

We also considered the characters' relationship with the player and figured it'd be better to choose someone that they already knew. If you look closely at the battlefield, the background is divided into the real world and Valhalla, but you see that the NPCs actually arrive from the Valhalla side and also return there as well. We wanted to include all of those little details.

It was an important battle for everyone involved, so I'd like to be able to play it again as a high-tier battlefield or in some other capacity.

It might not be a high-tier battlefield, but I'd like to add it in future somehow.

The Voracious Resurgence also features other battles besides the final one that are tied into the story. For example, in the battle where Magh Bihu gives in to despair after learning about his background, he doesn't use any magic.

So that's why he uses that particular move.

Previously, Magh Bihu was a red mage, so we wanted to portray how he'd basically given up and couldn't do anything but simply throw a flurry of punches. Keeping that in mind, I asked Mr. Taniguchi* to come up with something.

I would also like to ask about the music. The Voracious Resurgence features new music, but the song "We Are Vana'diel" that plays on the title screen was especially memorable. Can you talk about how this song came to be and what the intention was behind it?

Based on past examples, the title songs were added when an expansion disc was released. However, even though there was no disc this time, we felt like we wanted to do something special for the upcoming 20th anniversary. Therefore, it seemed like a good opportunity to add a new song and I requested that one be made.

Please tell us how the song's title was decided upon.

I was having trouble with the title right up to the very end. For Chains of Promathia, the song was titled "Unity," so I spoke with the localization team about words that meant "progress," "advancement," or something along those lines, but nothing really stood out. I had trouble coming up with possible titles, so I went to Mr. Mizuta* and he suggested we name it "We Are Vana'diel"? I immediately thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of that!?"

Of the various story threads in The Voracious Resurgence, what was your favorite or the one that left the biggest impression on you?

There are a lot, but I would probably have to say seeing "Mumor's* Pigsty" was my favorite. I didn't think we'd have time for it during development, but I wanted to include Mumor in the story somehow, so I spoke with Mr. Watanabe* and he made her room nice and messy for me. We couldn't have finished that cutscene in time on our own.

It was funny seeing that Mumor wore a mithkabob shirt (a T-shirt with a picture of a meat chiefkabob on it) while relaxing in her room. (laughs)

There were a number of possible candidates, but I just felt like we had to go with the skewers. (laughs) It was fun to make, that's for sure.

How about you, Mr. Hisagi?

Personally, I really wanted to utilize Rishfee once more. If you remember, he was left in a pretty precarious situation at the end of Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Actually, in the early stages of development, Rishfee was meant to be working with Garazu-Horeizu and have his story end with him being a bad guy. However, we didn't feel like that was a good way for him to go out if we were going to be bringing him back, so I asked for some changes and that's how his current story arc came about. I was in charge of the cutscene where he meets Amnaf*, and I remember thinking it was pretty good portrayal of him.

He was originally doomed without any hope of survival, but Mr. Hisagi managed to save him.

How about you, Mr. Yamazaki?

For me, I'd have to say the opening and then also the final battle. I can't pick just one... (laughs) In the beginning, you can see people going about their lives in the three nations, and you feel like Vana'diel is doing just fine and that it's a place where you can live your life in peace. I really liked that sense of atmosphere. With the final battle, you're joined by characters you thought you might not ever see again. I felt like having them come to see you once more was pretty impactful.

I imagine that compared to what came before it, working on The Voracious Resurgence was quite difficult due to the limited number of staff that was assigned to the project. What do you think was the most difficult aspect of it?

I think it was definitely creating a new battlefield for the final battle. It's not ideal to lose staff members of course, but when you have a large-scale game that has been going on for more than 20 years, it's bound to happen over time. The team members develop their area of expertise and then they end up taking those skills with them when they eventually leave the team for whatever reason. So when talk arose about creating a new battlefield, we didn't have anybody left on the team with the requisite know-how and I basically had to start from scratch, researching things as I went and slowly building things up, step by step.

There were a number of areas in FFXI's development that relied on certain people and if they left the team, we wouldn't be able to handle those areas anymore. That was also the reason behind the difficulties we had with the animations.

This was a project where pretty much everything was being done for the first time, so I imagine it was difficult to know as you went what needed to be "preserved" for the sake of the team going forward.

I wouldn't say it's directly because of that, but I am currently creating a lot of instructional resources while working on the game's production.

Lastly, can you share with us your thoughts and feelings on The Voracious Resurgence's development process now that the work on it is finished?

I wondered to myself if it was really the end.

(laughs)

You never know; there could be another "final" episode. (laughs)

If there is, definitely give me a call. I'll continue honing my craft on other projects until then. Although, do we even have an idea for another story? I mean, we covered a lot of topics with this one. We've also brought in various bosses already too. Maybe we could include the Mithra's home country?

I'm curious to know what happened to Uran-Mafran.

Good point! I actually wanted to include that if we had time. Okay, maybe that's something for the 25th anniversary. (laughs)

Looking back, I think this was something that really only could've been done due to the team we had here. Only a month or two after starting work on The Voracious Resurgence, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced everyone to start working from home. Fortunately, since we had all been working together for so long, the abrupt change in working environment didn't really have an adverse effect on us. That was because I knew that if I asked Ms. Sato or Mr. Yamazaki for something, they'd go above and beyond my expectations and really knock it out of the park in terms of quality. That made it much easier for us to see things through to the finish line. Also, getting feedback from the players after releasing what you've been working on is what makes all of this worth doing, so we simply felt that we had to push on despite the unusual circumstances. That was a big motivational factor for all of us.

Looking back at it now, it feels like it all happened in an instant. It's just like Mr. Hisagi said: We were able to get it done because of the team we had in place. We were able to call back to various moments in the game's story and also reward the players for accompanying us on this long journey, so as the person in charge of the in-game resources, I felt like I was able to give that last burst of energy up to the very end.

You all gave everything you had to get it done.

Most definitely. I pulled out all the stops and used everything I had prepared, so I feel like I managed to live up to my responsibilities on the project, which is always fulfilling. Naturally, I want to thank all of the players who stayed with the story until the end. I would like to offer them my heartfelt gratitude for their support all these years. I look forward to seeing them again in some form. After all, The Voracious Resurgence may have come to an end, but Vana'diel lives on.