Ojjeorago posted:

It took them over a year to put a texture on Cloud's neighbor's door.

quote:

Inverse: What has the player reception been like to Variant and Criterion dungeons? How has that reception shaped your future plans?

Battle Content Designer Masatoshi Ishikawa: [...] Criterion Dungeons were our first high-end content for smaller groups, and we received a lot of positive feedback from players who enjoyed tackling them with a party of friends. That said, the difficulty of Criterion Dungeons is comparable to an eight-player Savage raid, if not harder, so there were also comments that felt the current rewards aren’t motivating enough to attempt the content.

The rewards need to be determined very carefully in relation to rewards for other content, but we will continue deliberating on the idea to satisfy as many players as possible.

quote:

Inverse: With the varying difficulty and the branching paths of these dungeons, how much work does it take to get things “right?” How long are they typically in development?

Ishikawa: [...] We began development somewhere between 1 to 1.5 patches earlier than usual in order to build the new system, its branching paths, and the accompanying NPC’s animations.

Building the new system was a one-off task, but future Variant dungeons still have to be balanced for one to four participants, various different paths, and more, so they’d still require a lot more work than a standard four-player dungeon. The difference is especially apparent with background design, since the additional paths directly translate to more work to be done.

quote:

Inverse: How do you design the bosses for Variant and Criterion dungeons? How is it different from the boss design in standard dungeons?

Ishikawa: Designing bosses for Variant and regular dungeons involves the same overall process: We’re provided with the boss’s lore, which we use to rough out its main concept and then brainstorm its main mechanics. I’d say the main differences with Variant dungeons are planning out the branching paths and their associated mechanics, as well as creating mechanics that can be resolved regardless of party size.

Bosses are usually designed with only their lore in mind, so creating battle mechanics that were indirectly related to the boss, like turning a dial switch located elsewhere in the dungeon, proved to be a challenge for many of our staff.

[...]

It’s somewhat similar to designing eight-player raids in that we’re creating two separate difficulties, but variant dungeons are about as hard as a four-player dungeon whereas criterion dungeons are equivalent to Savage, so the difficulty gap between normal and Savage raids pales in comparison. Creating bosses for criterion dungeons required staff members who not only could retool Variant dungeon mechanics and resources for high-end content, but also keep the necessary development resources under control.

Maxwell Lord posted:

Whenever Square talks about a game not meeting targets you have to remember that their targets make no sense, as far back as the Tomb Raider reboot. For XVI their hopes were something along the lines of a third of the PS5’s entire user base.

goblin week posted:

Did you know? If you tie in Frontline, everyone gets 6 tomes

a cartoon duck posted:

doing the criterion dungeons blind with friends is some of the most fun i had in the game, and im glad they said dawntrail will have more of them

Orcs and Ostriches posted:

Varients are pretty fun blind too. I'm not sure why there's a rush to look up the 15 paths and then speedrun the whole thing.

Mordiceius posted:

My method has been to do each route once or twice and then look up what do to for the rest of them. It works pretty well.

Orcs and Ostriches posted:

Varients are pretty fun blind too. I'm not sure why there's a rush to look up the 15 paths and then speedrun the whole thing.

Countblanc posted:

why exactly can't they make ilvl-appropriate gear a reward for Criterion? they're added months after savage tiers are added so the Devout Ones will have already gotten most of their gear (probably not weapons, but simply don't make weapons rewards) so i don't think that'd really cut into the feeling of accomplishment, especially if the comments in that article are true and they consider it as difficult as savage, if not moreso. even just offering accessories seems like a good repeatable option for people to gear up alt classes.

i mean i'd be happy with other options as well, that's hardly the only one, but if they're really struggling it feels like accessories are an easy way to get people to do repeat runs.

OhFunny posted:

A draw is not a win.

Onean posted:

That said, this isn't an insurmountable issue. In fact, accessories once again pop up, since Alliance Raids don't drop those. They could even have them at the Augmented ilvl, save people having to do that step in exchange for the jump in difficulty.

Rhonne posted:

Hogama posted:

It is the healer's burden to notice that there isn't a Summoner in the party but a Ruin Mage Who Won't Even Summon Carbuncle.

OhFunny posted:

A draw is not a win.

Maxwell Lord posted:

Whenever Square talks about a game not meeting targets you have to remember that their targets make no sense, as far back as the Tomb Raider reboot

Mr. Neutron posted:

But since they require a 75 minute guide they are probably not the midcore content aimed at me that the game is sorely lacking anyway.

Endorph posted:

criterion dungeons do not require a 75 minute guide