　　
Hello everyone! It’s Hama and Miyamiya from the Promotional team!
　　
　　
It’s been two whole years since the Backstage Investigators series began! We’ve been through quite a few interviews, so let’s take a moment to look back at our investigation logs!
　　
　　
You can find our recap on the first five investigations here.
　　
　　
★(No. 6): Community Planner Takeshi Kato
　　
Our interview with Mr. Kato focused on the Digital Fan Festival in 2021. We also asked him about the Community team’s role, as well as how he was involved in the 7th 14-Hour Broadcast.
　　
　　　　
Digital Fan Festival 2021 was FFXIV’s first digital event. We heard about how Mr. Kato and his team struggled to create a new form of event while reflecting on and maintaining what Fan Festivals are about.
　　
　　
Speaking of the 14-hour broadcast, we just announced this year’s 14-hour broadcast for Friday, October 7! I’m looking forward to it!
　　
　　
★(No. 7): Lead Technical Artist Tatsuya Okahisa
　　
Mr. Okahisa shared what his job as a Technical Artist entails, like creating new features to improve and support the production process for artists.
　　
　　
For example, they created a development tool to automatically modify equipment for each playable character race, which they continue to maintain as the game continues to be updated.
　
　
　　
A game like FFXIV is constantly tackling new challenges in a limited timeframe, so it’s great to have someone you can rely on to maintain the development workflow. It was also very intriguing to hear about how the underwater actions were created.
　　
　　
Without the Technical Artists, we wouldn’t have been able to dive underwater to check out the settlement under the sea, gather island coral or fish in island sanctuary!
　　
　　
★(No. 8): VFX Artist Takayasu Ishii
　　
Mr. Ishii talked to us in detail about the visual effects (VFX), especially those related to players, monsters, and battle. I was reminded once again that VFX is one of the essential elements required to deliver a rich gaming experience.
　　
The effects for the numerous battle actions were also well thought out to give each job its own identity!
There are also the visual effects on weapons from trials and Ultimate! The visual effects on the recently added equipment from Pandæmonium: Abyssos and the Fae’s Crown weapons are also very beautiful! There are so many great ones, I can’t decide!
　　
As a crafter myself, I’ve made a fair amount of gil thanks to their attractive designs. (smiles)
　　
　　
(Looking over at her Fae’s Crown Codex) …Oh, hey! This has your signature!
　　
　　
★(No. 9): Localization Team (Part 1 and Part 2)
　　
In our ninth investigation, we spoke with Paul, Pamela, and Odilon, lead Localization members for English, German, and French respectively. We got to hear their fascinating stories about how they came to work on FFXIV!
　　
Besides translating in-game text, they’re also responsible for a wide range of other things, including translating scripts used for cutscene recording, lore books, naming merchandise, and more!
I was also surprised by how they take different approaches to translating based on the purpose.
　　
In the second part, we asked them about their favorite scenes from the FFXIV. Take a trip down memory lane while you read them over.
　　
　　　　
★(No. 10): Character Concept Artist Tetsu Tsukamoto
　　
It was really, really hard for us to decide which of Mr. Tsukamoto’s masterpieces to showcase in our interview! He’s created myriad wonderful designs so far.
* Click on the image to view a larger size.
　　
It was exciting to hear the behind-the-scenes story for the designs we’ve seen in-game, and I picked up some useful tips on coming up with ideas.
　　
　　
We also had the privilege of premiering the concept art of Nald’thal from Aglaia. Be sure to check out the interview if you haven’t seen it yet!
　　
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Looking back, we sure interviewed a lot! I hope our Warriors of Light enjoyed reading the interviews as much as we did reporting them.
　　
　　
We’d love to hear what you thought of our interviews, or who we should interview next from FFXIV’s Development and Operations teams! Till next time!
　　
Hama, Miyamiya
– Promotional team
