xiv battle content credits

contains spoilers through endwalker!

reach out to me @ clownswords (discord/twitter/bsky) if you have anything to add!

few notes to start

  • credits are between the battle content and battle system teams, which nominally handle fights and jobs respectively
  • the battle content team is sometimes referred to as the "monster division" or "monster team" like it was originally called
  • designers used pseudonyms before shb to avoid threats from toxic players
    • ozma and daisuke are like the only guys they'll mention by name as of 2024
      • take a look at comments on 2ch for instance and you'll quickly see why. r/ffxivdiscussion pales in comparison
  • (?) indicates that I'm not sure about the veracity of what I wrote (I started this doc some years ago)
  • didn't cover dungeons here, but you can find credits for many in the sources at the end
graphic displaying the makeup of the DT team
masaki nakagawa (mr ozma/mr c): battle content lead (since 4.1)
  • trials: chimera, hydra, ifrit, garuda, leviathan, shiva, nabriales, ravana, sophia, shinryu
  • raids: a5, a7, a11, o7, e2, e5 (planning), dsr, p10
  • alliance
    • syrcus: scylla, glasya, amon, xande
    • wod: angra, dragon, cerberus, cloud
    • void ark: irminsul, echidna
    • weeping city: ozma (obviously)
    • dun scaith: scathach, diabolos (both forms)
    • chaotic: cloud of darkness
    • mentioned in the latest stroll w yoshi that wod was his first...?
  • other
    • unspecified work throughout eureka
    • unspecified work for the bozjan southern front
    • lots of unspecified arr/hw content
  • joined a static under a pseudonym to clear ucob

"I have my own policy when it comes to dungeons. For example, players who fail mechanics even in dungeons should be defeated and wipe, and that’s something I often tell the members around me."

kenji sudo (mr d): former raid designer aka the WoL killer
  • trials: titan, king mog (hard), ultima weapon, sephirot, thordan
  • raids: second and third coils, a1, a3 (lol), a6, a8, a12, o3, o4, ucob
  • alliance:
    • weeping city: forgall (stroll with yoshi, who I think said "the zombie boss from dun scaith")
  • left after 4.11 for ff16
  • big ff5 fan

"It was Sudo-san who taught me to never give up on coming up with unique mechanics" - daisuke nakagawa

tsuyoshi yokozawa (mr α): assistant director (since ew), former battle system designer (the lead during shb)
  • trials: king mog, ramuh, possibly hydaelyn?
  • raids: uwu; turns 1, 2, 4, and 5
  • other:
    • drafted sil'dihn variant and "another" versions
  • is still sometimes consulted about raid design
  • his current title is "assistant director" but he's namely in charge of battle content according to a famitsu interview (alongside or above ozma?)
    • still involved in planning most battle content
  • absurdly youthful like how old is he

"If you look at turn 5, you notice how the mechanic (neurolink) and its placement in the first phase also affects the final phase. He's "that type" of developer (laughs)" - ozma

daisuke nakagawa: 4th floor and ultimate designer
  • trials: nidhogg, tsukoyomi, diamond weapon, hades (normal)
  • raids: a10, o8, o12, tea, e4, e8 (draft), e12 (helped), top
  • alliance
    • dun scaith: deathgaze, ferdiad
    • rabanastre: hashmal
    • orbonne: tg cid
  • other
    • sil'dihn: zerez gar
    • baldesion arsenal: virtue, ozma
    • bozja: hunt for red choctober
    • dr/drs: queen's units and the queen
  • likes to incorporate narrative elements into mechanics
  • formerly a industrial firmware programmer

The person who made Nidhogg EX is the person mentioned in last year's Kenji Sudo panel in JP Fanfest, He who said to never take Kenji Sudo as an example on how to make a battle content" - yoshi-p on daisuke joking about turn 6

yoshito nabeshima: former event & level planner, mr pantokrator
  • trials: byakko, seiryu
  • raids: o1, o11, e3
  • alliance
    • wod: atomos (from a stroll with yoshi-p)
    • weeping city: arachne eve
    • rabanastre: argath
    • ridorana: famfrit
    • jeuno: divine might (ark angels)
    • likely more bosses as an interview during deltascape noted him as an alliance raid designer

"I like creating mechanics that require all players to move in unison, and act things out in unity."

takashi kawamoto (mr b): raid designer (since shb), battle system dev (since arr)
  • trials: gilgamesh, odin, ultros/typhon, rathalos, hades ex
  • raids: e1, e11
  • alliance
    • unspecified work on lota
  • other
    • bozjan southern front: mark xiii-x magitek laborer
    • unspecified work on deep dungeons
  • big ff8 fan

"Kawamoto usually has the knack of creating combination mechanics that no other members in our battle content team would think of. And he usually gets it done within 2 to 3 days." - ozma

banri takahashi: raid designer (since ~4.4)
  • raids: e5, e10
    • responsible for the "stand firm" duty action, neat
  • alliance
    • copied factory: serial joined command model
    • puppet's bunker: compound 2p
  • other
    • zadnor: magitek machines, sartauvoir (dal), diablo armament (dal)
    • eureka: hydatos nms (stegodon, molech, piasa, frostmane, leuke, ceto)
  • likes designing mechanics around tanks

"I’ve been a fan of FFXIV’s raid battles before I joined the company and I was assigned to work on the monster division of the game after joining."

"He has a great passion and is the type to work his hardest on everything. This is why I pay a lot of attention to him." - ozma

masatoshi ishikawa: raid designer (since stb), lead fate planner (until 2016), battle content (1.0), former ffxi dev
  • trials: susano, innocence
  • raids: o5, o10, e6, p12
  • alliance
    • rabanastre: rofocale
    • ridorana: yiazmat
    • orbonne: ultima
    • puppet's bunker: 813P (planning)
  • other
    • planned sil'dihn variant & "another" versions, made silkie
    • unspecified skirmishes for the bozjan southern front
    • responsible for coincounter, the 1.0 nael encounter

"I emphasise on “the heart of providing hospitality” when I work on content. Since I’m a player myself, I have that feeling of treating other players as my comrades as well. So I’d want other players to feel the same as what I felt exactly, and when the players managed to solve the mechanics, they’d feel accomplished and happy. That’s what I have in mind when creating content."

kazuto yoshihashi: raid designer (since shb)
  • raids: e7..., e12
  • alliance
    • copied factory: hobbes
  • other
    • bozjan southern front: all lyon and dawon encounters
    • zadnor: unspecified work on the dalriada
  • formerly developed raids for a mobile mmo

"I share the same reasons with Ishikawa here, where I hold dear in providing hospitality for players, so that the players can enjoy the content we make."

hikaru tamaki: battle system dev (since arr)
  • raids: o9, e8
  • alliance
    • ridorana: construct 7 (implementation)
  • involved in playtesting and adjusting content since 2.1

"Tamaki has been involved and worked on jobs and PvP systems, as well as many other finer details of the game as a member of the battle system. At the same time, he also helped out the battle content aspects as well." - ozma

"Tamaki has been involved in content adjustments for a long time and while he did not produce that much content, he is a veteran who saw through various particular adjustments for contents." - ozma

seishiro hata: raid designer (since ~4.3)
  • trials: ruby weapon
  • raids: e9
  • alliance
    • copied factory: engels
  • other
    • bozjan southern front: peerifool, spartoi, adrammelech, unicorn flakes
    • zadnor: 4th-make hashmal, menenius, lyon, saunian (dal)
    • baldesion arsenal: art and owain
    • eureka: pyros nms (leucosia, askalaphos, dux), various bunny fates
  • former mobile developer (outside of games)

"Even though he had no prior knowledge and had to deal with various issues, he was able to provide a highly polished and complete work. Because of this, I felt that Hata is a highly skilled game designer." - ozma

former uncredited members
  • keisuki hosoi
  • ryouhei ishizuka
  • takashi izutani
  • daisuke sase (battle content lead from arr to stb, former xi dev)
  • cheng kai chen
  • seiya matsumoto
  • kazuhito fukada
uncredited fights
outline of raid dev
  • starts 6-12 (or ~9) months in advance of a new raid tier
  • yoshi-p, the main scenario writers (banri oda & whoever), yokozawa, and ozma propose ideas for bosses
  • ozma sends these ideas to the art team to create rough designs
  • the same group will use the art to decide on a structure for the fights and send that to the battle content team
  • ozma assigns fights to specific battle content designers who can volunteer for specific ones
    • whether they start with the normal or savage version is their choice (seemingly the normal for most)
    • sounds like fights are assigned a "lead" but they don't necessarily work independently, especially for junior members like you'd expect
      • daisuke, for instance, helped with the latter two fourth floors of eden
  • series of presentations for approval: ozma → writers(?) → battle content & system teams → artists & programmers → yoshi-p
  • reiteration until designs are finalized
    • animation team holds their own meetings after + create rough versions, same with the programmers(?)
    • adjustment phase where members of both battle teams will play through the raid (separate from play-testing?)
      • adjustment and testing both last about 4-8 weeks
      • player feedback is taken into account as the release of a tier overlaps with the next's development
    • unsure how QA post-adjustment is handled, but we know from a TOP leak that it's at least partially outsourced
  • ozma notes that the theme for sigmascape was chosen by the battle content team after the first tier, so this process maybe isn't so rigid
  • ozma also notes that he's written manuals on raid design for the team
  • yoshi-p has spoken more recently about adjustments here, but I can't properly translate it

"For example, in the fourth floor of Alphascape, I had the designers incorporate the elements of 'Omega being a humanoid enemy that can melt into liquid and mold itself to change their gender and form', and have them design the battle gameplay based on the element in mind" - ozma

"When it comes to Yoshida making major changes, the cases of that happening is close to zero. Even if there are, it usually happens during play testing (in other words, the Producer/Director check), where Yoshida would go “since this happened during the scenario, then this should be that”, and that’s the extent of it. This would show how much Yoshida trusts the battle content team." - ozma

"On the aspect of content creation, currently I did not conduct any discussions with the FFXIV development team on the difficulty or its image prior to the development. Or rather, to begin with, I have never issued any instructions on the boss’ image nor the degree of the difficulty at all." - yoshi-p

some notes on design
  • they use the last tier of alexander as a reference for difficulty
    • learned to stop designing gear checks
  • first tiers are intentionally easier for the sake of new players
  • most mechanics are designed with multiple decisions/elements and time to consider vs. comparatively simple execution checks
    • latter are still used moderately but with the balance weighted towards the former
    • solving a puzzle is (essentially) an incremental process that gives players a feeling of progress, vs. a more binary pass/fail with reaction checks
      • majority of players can come to understand a puzzle but not everyone can pass A Test Of Their Reflexes...
  • content is designed around roles and not ever specific jobs, it's left to the battle system team to make sure the jobs are on a level playing field
    • though some battle system members also work on raids, so
  • not every fight can provide new ideas to surprise players given the risk and resources required, they try to balance between "fresh" and "typical"
    • ozma gives anabaseios as an example: floors 9 and 11 are explicitly "typical" fights, whereas 10 and 12 were open to use new ideas
  • they tend to trim fights/difficulty down based on the floor/turn and if any team members consistently fail a mechanic (like shadow servants???)
  • extreme fights are tuned to be like the first or second floor of a savage tier
  • they avoid tying phase changes to HP, find it's hard to balance around
  • they call floor lines that telegraph safe spots "sincerity lines"; movement-focused mechanics that disconnect the boss "sports festivals"; and overwhelming mechanics with multiple attacks, or ones that cause you to circle the boss (like pantokrator), a "pantokrator"
  • sometimes take streaming into account while designing, e.g. fate projection
    • they think about what's exciting for viewers, and that there's room for the community to help figure out mechanics
    • a number of them also enjoy watching streams of u folks figuring out their fights : ) and obv find it stressful hehe
  • they approached DT with the idea of letting new designers experiment more freely
    • their approach generally is expected to change with 7.2, according to yoshi-p's clarification during the liveletter closest to launch
sources
Edit Report
Pub: 18 Dec 2024 00:39 UTC
Edit: 13 Feb 2025 05:15 UTC
Views: 1585