22nd Vana'versary Special Interview
Publicity Staff Interview
Arata Hanyuda, Rieko Katayama & Ayako Kawamoto — Part 2 of 2

In the second half of this interview, I'd like to focus on your efforts after FFXI's initial release. Of the official marketing efforts, one that stood out in particular for me was Vana'diel Wind*. Can you talk about that for a bit? I feel it was somewhat unusual to have a live camera like that at the time, but how did it originally come about?

Mr. Tanaka had long been asking for a way to let people see what was happening in Vana'diel in real-time.

This project was a direct response to that request, but it was quite difficult with the technology at the time to implement a fixed-point camera in the game and then broadcast what it saw. These kinds of cameras are everywhere now of course, but when the internet was first starting out, most people considered such live cameras to be for more localized uses, such as security cameras. Eventually, as flat-rate billing for internet access took hold, it was much easier to watch live cameras from anywhere, which naturally led to more broadcasts utilizing them.

Yes, this was all before the creation of YouTube.

Speaking from the broadcast side, there really weren't any examples of fixed-rate services that would let you operate 24/7. However, the server systems director at the time, Koichi Ise, was able to work out a relatively cheap and basically flat-rate connection with NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone). That allowed us to create an environment that could run a continuous live-streaming camera. Once FFXI was released, fixed-rate internet service such as ADSL also started to proliferate, so I think any problems with this particular endeavor were mostly limited to the year 2000 to 2001.

On a related note, the roving live camera was based on the specs for the auto-camera that was implemented while creating the benchmark tool and other software. In actuality, there was a female Tarutaru Game Master character that moved around within the game and viewed its surroundings from a first-person perspective, with the live camera showing on-screen what the character "saw" in the game. However, after the maintenance period was over, we forgot to remove the actual Game Master character, so players reported seeing a Tarutaru swiftly floating throughout the stage when they played the game. (laughs wryly)

The ability to see actual players within the world of Vana'diel was an excellent idea. Speaking of which—Ms. Katayama and Ms. Kawamoto, you are both known for controlling the characters of Destiny and Julia, respectively, within Vana'diel Wind and also various other promotional videos, but was there anything about the process that left an impression on you?

In the beginning, we were simply using the characters in order to introduce the game to people, but there was a lot of talk online about how it wasn't really women controlling the characters, because the general thinking was that women didn't play online games. I think people still had that kind of bias at the time. Upon hearing this, Mr. Tanaka suggested to us, "Why don't we actually show your faces and prove that you are the ones controlling these characters?" So as a result, we broadcast footage of our actual selves playing the game, and not just as characters within the in-game footage. I think that also helped give people an idea that there were real people behind these characters they were seeing on-screen.

How did you originally announce it again?

On Vana'diel Wind. We had the characters chatting in-game as usual, and then told the viewers to take a look at an upcoming video, and that's when we played some real-life footage that we had recorded.

The plan was having the two of you take a tour of the development team's offices.

I might've made an appearance in that video too. (laughs) I believe I was desperately checking some printed materials for the game.

Yes, we were there trying to get some footage. (laughs)

That was pretty advanced stuff, putting such footage on something like Vana'diel Wind. This was before the creation of YouTube, so I feel like it was quite revolutionary to take a live look at the people who were behind the game.

As an evolution of that, we also broadcast real-time footage from the floor of the Tokyo Game Show. It was hard enough broadcasting from within the company, but connecting to a network within such a large exhibition hall and then broadcasting video in real-time was quite advanced technology for the time. And it was all thanks to Mr. Ise.

Since you brought up the Tokyo Game Show, I'd like to talk about some of the in-person events you have held for the game. I'm especially interested to hear about the first large-scale, official event, Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival, that was held in Santa Monica, California, back in 2006. Can you please share with us any memories you have about that event?

We worked together with Famitsu Weekly to hold an in-person event here in Japan and received a positive response, but at the time, it was much harder to gauge the interest of players overseas. Therefore, we decided to hold an official event in the US. At the venue, we announced the puppetmaster class that would be appearing in Treasures of Aht Urhgan, as well as the blue mage and corsair. We knew from our experience with Rise of the Zilart that the announcement of new classes would prove popular, but I remember being surprised at just how excited the fans in America were when we revealed the news. I played drums for the Star Onions* at the show, and the crowd was pretty pumped up when we played "The Awakening," which is the song from the battle against the Shadow Lord. We realized just how important it was to have that opportunity where we could connect with our players, so we tried to conduct such events as regularly as possible.

Back in those days, the infrastructure wasn't really in place to easily broadcast video from overseas, so we published the information on the official blog here pretty much in real-time. I guess you could say I asked to tag along to the US for the event under the guise of updating the blog. (laughs) I took photos using a digital camera and had to limit any videos to about a minute in length. I also took whatever was said on stage in English and Japanese and uploaded that as well. Basically, I just tried my best to quickly convey any official information and the general passion of the attendees as well as the overall atmosphere of the event.

There were also a large number of fan festivals within Japan as well.

Each time we held a fan festival, I felt like it gave the development and operations teams a way to connect with our players, and we all grew from it as a result. That's not an experience that you can easily have just any day. We also had somewhat of an homage to a famous comedy show. (laughs) Essentially, we just stuffed these events full of what everybody on the team wanted to do.

Can you tell us anything else you worked on that was memorable for you personally?

FFXI is full of good memories for me, but if I had to pick one, it'd probably be the promotional video for the free trial of the Windows version. We decided to create a video for the announcement at the Tokyo Game Show, so I made a plan to have a voice actor come in and read some original lines set to some of FFXI's most memorable scenes. I thought up all of the lines myself and when I presented them to Mr. Tanaka, he replied, "These sound great. Let's do it!"

You're talking about the video voiced by Norio Wakamoto.

Yes, that's the one. I knew it'd turn out good if we had the one and only Norio Wakamoto voicing it, so I offered him the role and he graciously accepted. However, we didn't have much of a budget, so we were unable to get a dedicated director for the recordings. So that meant I got to sit in the director's chair and say things like, "Okay, Mr. Wakamoto—3, 2, 1, rolling..." or "Could you try it again a little slower, please?"

So you got the experience of serving as a director too.

Only because there was nobody else. (laughs wryly) Although, Mr. Wakamoto really got into the role, so everything finished up in about three takes. I'm still quite fond of that video. I also remember working on FFXI-tv*. Back then, there was no easy way to upload video like with YouTube, but I felt like we definitely needed some video for promotional purposes, so I worked on a project to bring footage to a broadcast TV station. I realize this is me singing my own praises a bit, but I feel like I really demonstrated some foresight in coming up with such a plan.

In terms of other projects you worked on, there was also "A Little Goblin's Adventure".

Yes, that is another promotion that left a definite impression on me. I always thought the goblin character designs were quite cute, and the event scene with Fickblix had me in tears. (laughs) I figured that content featuring goblins would be well-received, and when I told Mr. Tanaka that I wanted to do a kind of written diary by one of them, he replied, "Why not?" And that's how it all started. I just remember thinking, "Mr. Tanaka liked my idea!" I feel that also helped with various other proposals I made later on. Also, I imagine there are quite a few people who already know this, but the English translation was handled by Michael (Michael Christopher Koji Fox, former localization staff member for FFXI), but the contents of the Japanese and English versions were quite different. That fact was taken up by a fan site, so I think it might've led to even more popularity with certain players. I was extremely moved when Fab, the main character of the diary, appeared in a limited-time in-game event.

Mr. Tanaka was always quite receptive regarding my proposals as well.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Mr. Tanaka's accepting nature was quite beneficial to us all.

He would be sure to say no whenever it was warranted, but he always encouraged us to run with our ideas that had actual merit. He never just rejected something outright without giving a proper explanation first.

Also, even if we did end up making a mistake, he was never particularly upset about it, and instead told us to focus on what we learned from the experience.

I think that attitude shown by Mr. Tanaka was yet another important reason behind FFXI's success.

That reminds me; this wasn't a promotional thing, but he also was quite receptive about a suggestion I had for the actual game itself. It was a while after the game was released, but the development team sent out a request for ideas regarding new commands to add to the main menu. I gave the matter some thought, and I asked Mr. Tanaka if it'd be possible to check the contents of your Mog Safe when you weren't in your Mog House, even if we were unable to actually add or remove items. I was super happy when that feature was implemented into the game.

So that essential feature was actually proposed by you. Ms. Kawamoto, is there any particular endeavor that sticks out for you?

I think the very first in-game wedding was especially memorable for me. I received a request from a player that they wanted to hold a wedding ceremony within Vana'diel. Never did I imagine that we could actually experience such an important event in people's lives within a game world. I still remember just how fresh and revolutionary such an idea felt at the time. Also, this wasn't a specific promotion or anything, but for the time surrounding the game's launch, I think we were all able to squeeze a lot of experience and learning as we went into those years. Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishii (Koichi Ishii, FFXI's first director) were especially helpful to me, so I am extremely grateful to them for that.

I remember Mr. Ishii giving me a detailed explanation of the concept behind the expansion disc while he was working on it. Then, Mr. Kato (Masato Kato, responsible for the game's plot up to Rise of the Zilart) quickly wrote down what Mr. Ishii was talking about and showed it to us. I was constantly impressed by how creative the whole process was. Mr. Ishii had a strong influence on my sense of creativity, and even when I'm working with other creators in terms of my current job capacity, I can feel the influence of Mr. Ishii still alive within me.

Ms. Katayama, you have the most experience working on FFXI out of everyone here, but what stands out the most in your memory?

This isn't a specific promotion or anything, but I remember just how difficult, yet fun, the first few years were. Another thing that made an impression on me was just how sad I was when Mr. Tanaka stepped down as producer in 2012 and left the company.

Mr. Tanaka was an excellent producer. I don't know if there will ever be a better combo than Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishii.

On top of that, Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishii gave those of us in the publicity department all kinds of opportunities. We've spoken about Mr. Tanaka's contributions, but Mr. Ishii also commented on how to make screenshots more attractive when reviewing our promotional materials and gave us tips on how to take them for the best possible effect.

The things I learned from Mr. Ishii about how to get the best out of screenshots and their composition were extremely useful in the course of my job, and I actually use them when taking photos outside of work as well.

The promotional videos received a lot of input from Mr. Ishii during their creation as well. It was probably around the time of Rise of the Zilart, but I started getting serious about editing the videos myself, figuring it'd be faster than having the work done outside the division.

So Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishii were a big reason why FFXI's promotional materials and videos were so effective.

I think the illustrations by Mr. Aiba (Ryosuke Aiba, first art director for FFXI) were also quite memorable. There were so many of them, and whenever we made a request, he always provided us with a number of different submissions. The layout was always perfect too, as if he was thinking about not only the development team when he drew them, but our publicity efforts as well. I can't thank him enough for what he did.

We really were blessed with an amazing team. I think the team's composition made my job that much more enjoyable.

I can say the same thing about the video game press. I am grateful for all of the people who have helped support FFXI over the years.

I believe all of our interactions with such people have been something to treasure.

It is because of such encounters and the experiences they gave us that I feel like the days we spent on FFXI have been a large part of our "youth." Not to say that I'm old or anything!

Lastly, do you have any final thoughts regarding FFXI?

I'm honored to have worked on such a historic title. From the time I first joined Square, I never figured I'd get to experience a game that could form connections between real people within it. Furthermore, to think that the game has lasted for twenty years now and has given us the opportunity to have an interview such as this... And not only that, but this interview has also given me the chance to be reunited with these two.

Like Mr. Hanyuda said, I'm honored to have been a part of this game. It's been 22 years now, and I'm looking forward to many more to come.

In addition to the efforts of Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Ishii, FFXI is a game that was created by countless talented individuals, so I think it's definitely a title that will stand the test of time. In addition, it was a title that allowed many of us, including the players of course, to experience numerous "firsts." Therefore, I look forward to continue watching the everlasting force that is FFXI together alongside everyone else and seeing what's yet to come.