FFXI Adventurers Special Interview
Mamoru Nagano — Part 2 of 2

Mr. Nagano, you once commented during a Lightning Brigade event that you had 16 different characters reach an item level of 119. Why did you decide to upgrade so many characters?

When I was playing FFXI, I tended to level up my characters bit by bit, but around the time Seekers of Adoulin was released, I heard how it was easier to run two accounts simultaneously, so I ended up creating a second account on one of my older PCs. Once I actually tried it out, I reached level 99 in like two and a half hours, and it was easy to move items and gil back and forth, so I realized how convenient it was. I don't remember if alter egos were implemented by that time or not, but having that second account really expanded what I could do in the game, so I ended up playing on my own quite a bit. Thanks to that, I was really able to enjoy the Seekers of Adoulin content.

So that's how you ended up with so many different characters?

Yes. I feel most people who play FFXI focus on using a single character for all of the game's content, but I like to have individual characters focusing on specific jobs. For example, I had a character named Marita, who was both a knight and summoner. I tended to play the game that way, so when I thought it'd be nice to play as a thief, or maybe a corsair, my roster of characters just continued to grow. (laughs)

If that's how you play, then I can see how you ended up with so many. (laughs)

I've always enjoyed the process of developing my characters, so that was a big part of it too. Plus, as I played the various content in the game, I often acquired equipment for jobs that I hadn't tried yet, so once I gathered a set of gear for a thief, for example, I decided to create a thief character as well. When you can use multiple characters at item level 119, you're better able to complete different tasks in the game on your own, and it was easy for me to get the items that everyone was after around level 75. I remember being quite happy when I got my hands on a Defending Ring.

And before you knew it, you were up to 16 characters.

Once you've developed that many characters, you naturally want to get equipment for all of them too. I approached it like, "If I go to Reisenjima, that notorious monster will drop this piece of equipment, so if I take this character and that one, and use this particular alter ego..." I also used a trial-and-error approach to find the best ways to defeat certain notorious monsters, so I ended up acquiring a lot of equipment over the course of doing that. It did take a lot of time, and I felt like I really put a lot of effort into it all, but it was a lot of fun too.

When I hear that you ran multiple characters at the same time, I feel like we're kindred spirits in a way. (laughs)

I was surprised to learn that once I got the hang of it, I could perform a skillchain with one character while using magic burst with the other. So I tried out various techniques, and when I landed three straight magic bursts, I remember being amazed at just how powerful the black mage was.

You played various jobs with your different characters, but when we asked about what you considered to be your main job, you said it was the beastmaster.

Yeah, if I had to pick one as my "main job," I'd probably have to say the beastmaster. I played as a Mage in Dragon Quest X Online, and I'm looking forward to the planned inclusion of the beastmaster limited job in FFXIV as well. The beastmaster was actually recommended to me by one of the game creators I mentioned before. When I had trouble joining parties due to my schedules not lining up with other players, my friend said the beastmaster is fun because you can play on your own, and taught me how to level up the character until I was about level 30. I thought it seemed rather difficult when I first started though...

Yes, the fighting style is quite different from the other jobs.

Although, once I started playing, I found the job was a lot of fun. I remember venturing deep into the Gusgen Mines while trying to avoid the flies (dragonflies) and ghosts. I took control of the monsters and used them to trigger the bombs, and then got just close enough to earn the experience points while I watched them explode. The appeal of the beastmaster is avoiding the monsters that get in your way in order to take control of those that can become your minions and then finding the safest ways to use those minions to take out the remaining enemies for you. It almost feels like a different game entirely. So that's basically how I played the beastmaster job back when level 75 was the limit.

I think a large part of the beastmaster's popularity was due to just how different the gameplay felt from other jobs.

Yes, I have to agree. And then when Abyssea came out, the sheep that could be used as a familiar (Nursery Nazuna) became popular, and everyone switched over to becoming "sheepmasters." I was happy that the job was powered up and everyone found out how amazing being a beastmaster was, but at the same time, I was also a bit sad since I had enjoyed playing as one back when everyone said it was too weak.

Yeah, because it's not like you were playing as a beastmaster due to how strong or weak it was as a character.

Later on, during the final level cap quest, the slug familiar drew people's attention, so everyone wanted a beastmaster in their party. Then, when I started Seekers of Adoulin, it was the age of the lizard (Warlike Patrick). There was also an amazing familiar that could perform magic bursts with fireballs from a skillchain, so everyone wanted me to join their party even when I was playing solo. They would tell me, "Please join our party, beastmaster!" At that time, I was playing as a beastmaster on two accounts. It sure was a lot of fun.

You said that you utilized the linkshell feature in Dynamis and when hunting high notorious monsters, but were those also linkshells consisting of overseas players?

No, they were players here in Japan. I met up with a friend that I knew from playing Phantasy Star Online*1 (PSO) who told me, "I'm actually the leader of an HNM linkshell." So I was invited to join the linkshell, but it sounded like a bit of a hassle, so I actually declined the offer at the time. However, I was told that I could simply play at my leisure, so I ended up joining them in the end and also received various equipment that had they found duplicates of. Although, I definitely didn't want any part of Fafnir raids.

How about Dynamis?

Similarly, I knew someone running a Dynamis linkshell who mentioned, "You're a beastmaster, so you probably want some relic armor, right? Why don't you join our linkshell?" So I eagerly replied, "I'll take any relic armor that isn't spoken for!" I ended up getting quite a bit of gear. The people who were leaders of the Dynamis linkshell at the time were really something. They were on top of things such as time management, dealing with any problems that arose, and also forming alliances in order to take on the content.

I feel like many of those people possess the same leadership qualities in their regular lives as well.

As a result, they usually ran a pretty tight ship when it came to recruiting new members. The linkshell I joined even had like a one-month probationary period in order to see whether newcomers could stick to the basics, such as keeping to the schedule or being friendly toward other members. In my case, however, they told me I was okay to become a full-time member right away.

Yes, I suppose they were the one to invite you in the first place.

That was about the time I was making a movie, so in what was somewhat unusual for me, I was getting home at a normal hour and could play from around 10 p.m. Since those were the hours I was keeping, I was able to participate in Dynamis just like everyone else. I received various gear while playing, so I figured that since I'd been given all that stuff, I should probably play those jobs as well.

What other content did you play?

I put a lot of time into Walk of Echoes. One time, I joined a game when I was asked to play as a summoner, but the content was a mixture of both Japanese and English, making for a rather chaotic, but also very interesting experience.

Are there any missions or quests that were particularly memorable for you?

In terms of missions, I really liked Seekers of Adoulin. The characters were great, and the music playing within Adoulin kind of sounded like it was from a western, so that was a lot of fun. In terms of the storyline, I played through all of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. I remember being extremely impressed with the balance of the final battle, and although it was difficult and took me multiple tries, I eventually finished it.

As a designer yourself, were there any environments or outfits in FFXI that you especially enjoyed?

When some fellow players took me to Tu'Lia, I remember being impressed when they told me it was a place that they really wanted me to see. Also, I found Alexander from Treasures of Aht Urhgan to be quite memorable. In terms of outfits, I thought the dancer's artifact armor was rather cute. The reason I created a dancer was because I wanted to wear the artifact armor set.

The artifact armor sets were designed with each job in mind, so I think that motivated people to level up their characters.

Even in Dynamis, I went straight for the dancer's artifact armor set. That was the first time that I understood why people enjoyed showing off their characters' outfits to other players. Whenever I played as my dancer and walked around the auction house in Jeuno while wearing my blue relic armor, I'd have random people come up and use the /tell command to say, "Hey, that's some nice armor," or "Is that relic armor?" Some people even called my character cute, so I realized how fun it could be showing off your character's fashion to others in the game.

Yes, the fashion aspect is definitely a big part of MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games).

Speaking of equipment, I also made a relic weapon while I played Seekers of Adoulin. If you're equipped with something like an Aegis shield, you tend to stick out in a crowd, but nobody really pays any attention if you have a guttler, for example, which is kind of unfortunate. What I really wanted was a Terpsichore mythic weapon for my dancer, but it was extremely difficult to gather the necessary alexandrite, so that didn't work out too well... (laughs wryly)

What is the appeal of FFXI for you personally?

That's a difficult question. First of all, as someone who had just discovered online games when FFXI initially came out, I think I'd probably have to say the ability to chat with other players. My personal experience started with games like Diablo*1, Ultima Online*2, and PSO, so I distinctly remember the impact that games like them and also FFXI had on me. Just the act of forming parties with other players and communicating with them made such games a world apart from those that came before them. I think some people get so involved that it even changes how they live their lives on a fundamental level. (laughs wryly)

Yes, there is that message that is displayed when starting up the game that reminds players to find a proper balance between their game and real lives.

In addition, MMORPGs before FFXI were only playable on personal computers, so I feel like FFXI also had a large impact on people who grew up playing consoles such as the Famicom and PlayStation. I think that FFXI was probably the first online game experience for a lot of those players. I've heard numerous stories about people making real-world connections and friends through MMORPGs and even getting married in real life. I'm sure there are people whose friendships from FFXI continue to thrive, even if they're not currently playing the game. As such, I feel like those kinds of experiences help symbolize the impact that the advent of online games has had on a lot of people.

It was truly a time of passion and discovery, albeit in a different way than today due to its novelty at the time.

Yes, and through such games, you can experience previously unimaginable encounters. For example, I played the game with a lot of people from overseas, but one of them turned out to be an elementary school student. We met in the game when I found him struggling against a monster near Bastok and I cast a Cure spell to heal him and we started playing the game together. We got to talking and I mentioned that I lived in Tokyo and found that he was living in Chicago. After a while, we reached about Level 9 and then he said to me, "Sorry." I asked what was wrong, and he replied, "My mom says I need to go to bed." So as the game came to a close, I realized just how young he was—an elementary school kid living in Chicago.

That's definitely the kind of story you often come across when playing online games.

So around the time I was playing with that kid from Chicago, my wife was at a club and looking after a famous rapper who came to Japan from New York. Although we were both interacting with foreigners in a sense, one was having dinner at a club with a famous person from New York, while the other was hunting crabs near Bastok with a kid from Chicago. (laughs) I still remember that conversation because of the rather unusual nature of the differences yet similarities between our experiences.

As in "club" versus "crab" since they kind of sound alike? (laughs)

So after that happened, I realized that a lot of players overseas might actually be young kids. Also, it wasn't just players from the US that I met, but also places like Fiji, and I feel like the game did a great job of captivating people all over the world. It's as if FFXI holds a special place in the hearts of Final Fantasy fans from around the globe. As such, it has been a wonderful experience for me personally.

Indeed. The game definitely gives you an idea of just how many Final Fantasy fans are out there.

FFXI is an online game, but it was also a game that was released on the PlayStation 2, meaning it is able to take advantage of all the strengths that come with being a console game. So even though FFXI is currently a PC game, I want people to remember that it is also a console game at heart. It features more difficult content for the hardcore players out there, but also content that is easy to pick up and play for light users.

FFXI will be welcoming its 23rd anniversary this May. In closing, do you have any message that you would like to share with everyone?

I feel like there are people out there who still have many fond and maybe even somewhat bitter memories of their time in FFXI, even if they left the game in its earlier days. Despite that, it's easier to play the game solo than ever before, and given all of the content that has been added over the span of more than twenty years, it truly features endless replay value. Therefore, even if people have been away from the game for a while, I hope they will find some time to return to FFXI and see what they've been missing.