- 4 mesi fa
FINAL FANTASY XVI introduced the world to Valisthea, a wondrous realm of sword and sorcery. Players learned details about its characters and realms through the game, but what of its history, its geography, its people? For those who seek knowledge of the land blessed in the light of the Mothercrystals, look no further than LOGOS: The World of FINAL FANTASY XVI!
Categoria
🎮️
VideogiochiTrascrizione
00:00:00Hello everyone out there in wherever you are land, this is Koji Fox, localization director on Final
00:00:18Fantasy XVI and also the guy that made this thing happen, Logos, the official lore book of Final
00:00:26Fantasy XVI, and I am here in London today with the writers of Logos. Hello guys, we have Ollie
00:00:39Chance from Schlock, we have Stuart Clogg, also known as Dion the Bold, Ben Starr, Clive
00:00:50Rossfield, Chris York as Gav, and this guy over here who needs no introduction, but I'm
00:00:56going to introduce him anyway. Morgan Russian also of Schlock, and yeah, we're here to just
00:01:03basically talk for the next couple hours, it's not going to be a couple hour video, so we're
00:01:07going to talk a couple hours, you're going to get maybe 30 minutes, hopefully. Is that
00:01:12all that's going to be good in two hours? I don't know, unless it's all gold, and then it's
00:01:15going to be two hours long. Can I swear yet? He was told 30 seconds. I was told I was going
00:01:22to say a swear word. Yes, we're going to be swearing, so if you don't like swears, you
00:01:26need to turn it off now. Go! Who? Oh no! I need to just end this. Can we cut that out?
00:01:36Don't forget to like and subscribe. If that was in the 30 minutes of good content, you're
00:01:41doing it for a while, right? That's crazy. That's it, Nick. That makes the cut. You'll
00:01:45know how bad it's been if that makes it in. So before we get into the craziness, I want
00:01:50to talk a little bit about what the book is, Logos. But before I talk about what it is,
00:01:56I'm going to talk about what it isn't. It isn't a guidebook. It isn't something that's
00:02:01going to give you tips or tricks. It's not a walkthrough. There's no data on boss HP.
00:02:07But it's not an Ultimania. It's also not a transcription of the in-game lore that Harpocrates
00:02:14has, the Thousand Tomes. The content in this book, about 95% of it is entirely new content.
00:02:21Only about 5% is stuff from in-game, so this is mostly new content. It also isn't an Encyclopedia
00:02:31of Ballestia. Not a lot of people look at this and think, oh, that's going to be like the
00:02:34Encyclopedia Eorzea from Final Fantasy XIV. It's actually similar to that, but we tried
00:02:39to do something new. We tried to make it more of a voice of Ballestia with actual characters
00:02:46in the game recounting events, talking about their feelings. Ben does recount a lot of his
00:02:52feelings in this book. And so it's not that. So what it is, it's this book that basically
00:03:00gives you a window into the people of Ballestia. It gives you more of a background on all of
00:03:08those characters and all of those locations and all of those histories that you heard
00:03:11about in the game but wanted to know more about. And now you're going to get to know more
00:03:16about them. And I couldn't have done it without the help of these lovely individuals with me.
00:03:23The Logos book is written almost entirely in English. This is not translated from the Japanese.
00:03:30The team came to me and said, Koji, do you want to write a lore book? And I was like, yeah.
00:03:37It is based off of my Hiro-san, the creative director. It's based off of all his notes that
00:03:42he had. A lot of that stuff did not get into the game, but we saw that and we decided it
00:03:47would be great to tell these stories. It's terrible that they're just stuck on a server. So we put
00:03:51them all together. And that's what we have. All right. So I want to talk a little bit about
00:03:58how you guys participated in this and how this got started. Where we are here, this wonderful
00:04:04hub. It was about a year or so ago. We kind of all gathered together and talked about...
00:04:11Literally right here. Literally right at this table and doing it.
00:04:14I think the table was on a slightly different angle. It was the same table.
00:04:18So looking back to that, what did you think at that time? What did you think you were getting
00:04:23yourself into?
00:04:24Can I start with this? Because I think that the... I don't know about you guys. I know
00:04:29that the tumultuous time that was recording FFXVI, right? And the COVID happened during
00:04:36that. Bereavements happened during that. Just big stuff in our lives. I had a second child
00:04:41during that. All of these things happened. And a constant throughout that was that project,
00:04:48these characters who I came to... the characters I came to consider friends or the actors I
00:04:52came to consider friends. Just that we haven't said so. Me and Ollie were two of the performance
00:04:56directors on the project. And we were with Koji on the script as well. I was absolutely
00:05:01going through bereavement. In the sense, when this project finished, that thing was gone.
00:05:06And the idea that like, oh, I'm not going to be in the studio every day with these guys.
00:05:10and I'm not going back to Valestia was just... it was really tough. So like this gave me at least
00:05:17an opportunity to keep them all alive and, you know, just be there for a bit longer and work
00:05:22with you guys a bit more. So that's one of the things it was for me. And I hope that the love
00:05:27of this stuff comes through in the book.
00:05:30Yeah. I remember Koji. I think we had a conversation about it when we were in Seattle.
00:05:34at PAX. Yes. Because I had exactly the same feeling. When the game came out, it was very like...
00:05:39Well, I remember you, Ben, as well, messaging me about two months before the game came out.
00:05:44Yeah. And you were like, Stu, do you know how big this is going to be? And I was like,
00:05:49yeah, you know, it's probably pretty cool. And he was like, no, no, Stu, this will be a big deal, mate.
00:05:56And I was like, okay, cool. Then the game came out and I was like, oh, yeah, it's a big deal.
00:06:00It's a really big deal. And I had that amazing wash of the game coming out.
00:06:05having fan interactions and all that stuff. And it was this incredible period.
00:06:08And that was sort of, for me, capped off at PAX, which was about three months after the game came
00:06:13out, which felt like this crazy cool celebration, got to meet all these fans, had that cool panel.
00:06:19And it did. I had that feeling of like, oh, well, I guess this is kind of goodbye in a way.
00:06:24This is the last big event of my involvement in the project. And then you took me aside on this.
00:06:30We were walking to that comedy show. Yes.
00:06:33So first night, Ben was like, guys, I'll put tickets to a comedy show. We're going.
00:06:37It's happening. You're coming. And we were like, okay, yeah, let's go. Cool, cool.
00:06:42And we were walking to this comedy show. And you took me aside and you were like, right,
00:06:46I think I'm going to do this law book. And I was like, cool, that's cool.
00:06:49Good. Have fun with that. And he was like, no, no, no, I want you to write for it.
00:06:53I want you to write as Dion. And I was like, you want me an actor?
00:07:00A simple actor, man. You've got this. You do nothing in here.
00:07:04I just do words. I speak. They give me words. I say them. You want me to write for this character?
00:07:09And I was so taken aback because I've never had that in my career. Never had that where
00:07:15you are given ownership of a character beyond the performance. Well, I mean, I think that's
00:07:22with Final Fantasy 16 and getting the opportunity to record the English first is that these characters,
00:07:29while we had, you know, character guides that we handed you before your recording,
00:07:33a lot of those characters were created by you in the studio. We had an idea of what we wanted to do,
00:07:39but Dion didn't become Dion. Clive didn't become Clive. Gav didn't become Gav until you got a hold of
00:07:44it and started going in the studio. And then we would take those performances and we'd adjust
00:07:51our writing that came after that. So you were creating these characters. And so when I got this
00:07:55opportunity, you know, to create this lore book, I wanted to have you there because those characters
00:08:01are you and your voice is Dion. And so to put that out there. It was very humbling. And I, you know,
00:08:09I was obviously very excited. And I was like, yes, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, Koji. And then
00:08:14a couple of months went by, and I think we scheduled this, this meeting. And then I got scared.
00:08:21And then I was like, oh, wait, actually, like, this is, this is serious now. This is going to be
00:08:26actual published material that I'm going to write as this character who's very, this character is very
00:08:31dear to a lot of people. And I really want to do that justice. So I came into this meeting here very
00:08:37scared. But that meeting was great. And after that, I felt a lot more reassured. And then I had,
00:08:45I don't know about you, I had the best time doing this. I can tell you did.
00:08:48I have crushing feelings of self-doubt throughout.
00:08:51Oh, yeah, I mean, obviously.
00:08:52Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Terrible.
00:08:54I mean, it was wonderful to have finished it. But like, the things, you know, the, when we had our
00:09:00meeting here, part of it was about like, what do we want to explore? Who do we not want to leave
00:09:03behind? All that stuff. From, from you guys perspective, you, you know, you can, you can come
00:09:09from the position of your character, and like, what experiences were left out, and all those bits,
00:09:13those bits of background, you might know that the public doesn't. In our case, having worked on the
00:09:18whole script, we don't have that voice to start in, so that we have to find that some other hook
00:09:25and I remember having lots of lovely ideas about it and then thinking, could I bring these to the
00:09:28world? And it was, it was, it was tough. It was tough stuff. The idea is very easy to have. The thought,
00:09:35the thought experiment is very easy, but then it's the actualization of those, of that thought,
00:09:39that's very difficult. But I mean, from the point of view of three actors writing on characters that
00:09:46they performed, but didn't necessarily write on, it's, it's, it was a very interesting thought exercise,
00:09:52and a, and a, an attempting thing to do. And actually, what I found when I was writing for
00:09:57Clive, so in it, you will see Clive's diary entries, and we came up with the concept of why
00:10:02would he write these diary entries? And I really wanted to emphasize that the idea of memory loss
00:10:08is the reason why he would start writing. Um, the idea of not being able to understand
00:10:14these thoughts that would fleetingly come to him and then disappear, so that's why he starts a journal,
00:10:19and that's why we have these, these kind of writings of, of Clive's thoughts. And I think it's a really
00:10:24fascinating thing to explore of a, of a character who is so athletically able, who's so fearless,
00:10:34seemingly, but has to write stuff down to remember them. And it was a lot easier than I thought to
00:10:40write because I'd spent four years with Clive. I knew how he sounded. And we even got to a point
00:10:46when we were working together in the booth where I, we knew if a line didn't sound right, we knew if a
00:10:51was alive. And it was like, and we would sit there for, for ages being like, okay, so how do we make
00:10:56this sound like him? So actually it wasn't as difficult as you'd think to make something sound
00:11:00like that character because we were so used to how that character would actually sound. And so writing
00:11:05in his voice was, was, yeah, it was actually a really, um, freeing thing. And I didn't realize how
00:11:11actually once you start on something, it's very easy to, to see something to its conclusion. If I started
00:11:17an entry and I didn't really know where it was going, it actually kind of concluded itself rather
00:11:21easily because the, the, the thoughts were pretty clear in his mind. He had spent so long out,
00:11:27you know, there is so much that's in the game, but there is so much vacant space that isn't explored
00:11:32that we are, we've lived with for so long with these characters, but actually putting those down on
00:11:36paper was a lot easier than I thought that it would be. Yeah. It was, it was easy to write in
00:11:42the character's voice because four years of essentially researching, we did the game just so we could
00:11:48research. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This one.
00:11:53So the prequel, the prequel really. Exactly. And in a way it kind of made life hard because as someone
00:11:58that works as a writer as well as an actor, making the word count became really hard because it's like,
00:12:03well, I've got so much that I feel like I can say as Gav, but yeah, but this entry needs to be 500
00:12:09words. Chris is like, what about a thousand? So it makes life tricky. I think the hard part
00:12:17for writing Gav is a lot of the characters I've written in the past, I've cheat coded them by
00:12:21saying, oh, they're a, they're a big bookworm or they're a literary academic and therefore they can
00:12:27have an articulation or a poetry in their voice. And then you're writing as Gav and you're, you know,
00:12:33you're typing out like, oh, this is good stuff. This sounds so good. Yeah, but Gav wouldn't articulate
00:12:39himself in that kind of a way. And you have to kind of strip back the language. And that was a
00:12:44really interesting kind of process to go, oh, wow. Yeah, actually Gav doesn't have like the privilege
00:12:49of education like Dion and Clive might have far more work in class and monosyllabic. And the challenge
00:12:55becomes, okay, I've got to actively write badly to serve the character. And that was kind of like a real
00:13:02kind of pleasure going, no, it doesn't have to sound beautiful. It's just got to sound like this,
00:13:06this guy from the north. So yeah, it was, it was lovely. But you're also, yeah, you're also a
00:13:11playwright, right? You write scripts and stuff. Yeah. And I think that made life easy and probably
00:13:16made you guys feel like, oh, we can let Chris join in on this party because we know he can do a bit of
00:13:21writing. But I've never written in a space where theatre is so story driven and writing for
00:13:32something like this. It's like, no, this can just be a moment in time. It can just exist. And it is
00:13:36far more in the traditions of Japanese storytelling where no, this, you can just write about a moment
00:13:41in time and it can just tell us something about the character, but it doesn't have to lead to like
00:13:45a big crescendo of a climax. It can just be and sit. And I actually do think in Western storytelling,
00:13:51we miss a little bit of that kind of just being and just kind of like enjoying a moment in time.
00:13:58And I think this book has, and is going to have so many beautiful moments in time that
00:14:03fans of the game can like really luxuriate and luxuriate in and, you know, colour in the rest of
00:14:09their experience of the game. There's a sense of being in Valesthea for longer. That's, that's,
00:14:13and I think these little, as you say, these moments, just this, it's almost like kind of
00:14:19sitting in a square and hearing a conversation over here and a person dressed this way and all that
00:14:23stuff that there's that feeling like you talked about, this is not an encyclopedia from a god
00:14:28eye. This is a set of the idea is that it is an artifact from the world written from the perspective
00:14:33of a bunch of people encapsulating something from that moment, you know, and that's exactly what you
00:14:39just described, I think. Well, I think that speaks to the scale of it as well, because that was another
00:14:44thing that came out of the initial meeting is I thought, oh, yeah, well, it'd be like
00:14:48like three, three letters or something, though. No, not literally.
00:14:53Which one? G-O.
00:14:54C-A-N.
00:14:55And I'm done. There we go.
00:14:57Wowee.
00:14:58D-D-K-L.
00:15:00I mean, well, that's the thing, isn't it? We're all doing different. Mine are set as letters to Terrence.
00:15:06Everyone is a letter to Terrence, sent it, which then Terrence in canon has sort of brought to...
00:15:12Yes, yes. So the, the kind of the story, the concept of the book is that
00:15:18Clive, Dion and Joshua have taken off for Origen in that last little bit where they give the hugs
00:15:25and they go off. And then Hippocrates and the rest of the people in the hideaway are left there and
00:15:31they sit and they wait. And a couple hours or days later, Origen shatters, but the three don't come
00:15:38back. Everyone has their hope. Gav feels it.
00:15:43But everyone hopes that they're going to come back. But Hippocrates is looking at it as, well,
00:15:49if they don't come back, someone needs to tell this story. Hippocrates, as a scholar, has looked at
00:15:54Valisthian history and he sees the fallen. And they had this wonderful civilization, but they know
00:15:59nothing about it because the history is gone. They know little bits and bobs, but they don't know about
00:16:04the people that were the fallen and what they did. And he sees kind of the situation they're in now,
00:16:09that if Clive was successful up there, it means there's going to be no more bears. There's going
00:16:13to be no more magic. There's no more mother crystals. This could end civilization. And then
00:16:18everyone will forget what happened. And only maybe a few people with recollections of maybe one or two
00:16:23things will tell that history. And there's just so much more of that. So Hippocrates looks at this as,
00:16:27says, I need to gather as much information as possible. And not from a scholar's perspective,
00:16:32but just from the people that lived in this world. Every person has a story just like Clive. Clive's
00:16:37story is very important. But what about Tarja? Her story is important. What about Gav? His story is
00:16:43important. Byron's story is important. And he wants to bring that all together and have it be a living
00:16:47recollection of this world. And so again, it's, um, Hippocrates is writing this. Terence hears about this.
00:16:57and Terence's biggest fear is that people are going to remember Dion as the person that destroyed
00:17:03an entire nation. And so he did do that. It's in the book. He did do that. He did it though. He's in a
00:17:20game. It was an event. It happened. Everyone played it. They saw it in the game. But Terence knows that
00:17:25that's not the real Dion. He knew the struggles that Dion had. He knew what happened to drive him
00:17:29to that. And so he wants to clear Dion's name. And so he has these letters that he's kept there to him.
00:17:36He's never shown them to anyone else, but through the, you know, the many, many years of their
00:17:41relationship, he held those, but he's like, okay, I need to give these to Hippocrates so that he can
00:17:46show the world who Dion truly was. And there's a couple that he probably left out because they're a little
00:17:50bit spicy. But most of them, most of them were spicy. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. No, no.
00:17:58There's 10. But Terence, you've got 300 again. Is it worth saying that if you get the deluxe edition,
00:18:05you do get those saucy, you get the saucy ones? Yes. It's on, it's on Stuart.
00:18:10For an extra $10. I'll do some readings. Once again, don't forget to like and subscribe.
00:18:18Patreon, right? Yeah. Dion's Patreon. We're writing as our characters. The three of you are sort of
00:18:24playing Hippocrates. You are putting together this jigsaw puzzle of information. I know Oli,
00:18:29when I would be sending you new drafts of my letters, you're kind of like, cool, more jigsaw pieces for
00:18:36the puzzle. No, I love it. Give me it all. Like, so all the bits I loved was the small in-betweeny
00:18:43bits, right? So it's like, cool, we can tell the grander stories. In fact, this was the immediate
00:18:47lines we and Morgan settled on the opposite side of. Morgan's like, I want to know what happens. Like,
00:18:52at what point did Annabella stop loving Clive? And I was like, I want to do a kind of like small
00:18:57town romance between Bernard the Carpenter and Martha. Just because that makes you seem more soulful.
00:19:02No, no, because I like those bits, those in-between. It's like this whole idea of it,
00:19:06the collection of stuff that maybe fell behind the sofa, like putting together whichever bits.
00:19:11And the other thing that was really good about it is we had such a strong cast. If you start thinking
00:19:16about, say, Quinton, you're immediately like, Angus Wright is in your ear and you're like, okay,
00:19:19this is great. This shit writes itself. Like, they're so nice. And like, revisiting and all of those
00:19:24hours and hours and hours we spent in the booth developing those characters. And these being genuinely
00:19:28you guys' characters. And so it was easy and lovely. And it was just, oh yeah, who do I want to
00:19:33dig into? It was fun. I really, really like, I loved all of that. And so the more you guys chucked,
00:19:38the more fun I had. Exactly. I mean, ultimately, I mean, this book, I think I did a word check before
00:19:44we came. It comes in at about 170,000 words, which puts us right around A Tale of Two Cities,
00:19:51the best of times, the blurst of times. We are the monkeys.
00:19:57But it was originally about 190,000. We ended up having to cut
00:20:01stuff because we just all wrote so much because you just get in it and there's all these stories
00:20:05that we wanted to tell. And it was hard to, you know, say, okay, we can't have this in. I mean,
00:20:09there's a wonderful sea shanty, Otto's favorite sea shanty from the sea shanty.
00:20:15I think I spent some time crafting that, but we are going to record it and maybe we can all do a
00:20:22little bit of singing on it. That would be nice. Not today, not today. Don't worry about it.
00:20:28Me sing? No. Yeah, I'll say. Yeah, I know you're shy about that stuff.
00:20:32Yeah, that's fair. Very hard for me. Only with auto-tune, right?
00:20:35Yeah. But that was the thing. It was, the scale of it was crazy. I remember thinking,
00:20:40going through that. And then I ended up writing about 16 letters. I can't remember. Something
00:20:46like that. Yeah. I think it was about 16. I think it was the same amount for Gal. I think I had,
00:20:51Clive write a few more. Maybe 20, 25. Yeah. But...
00:20:54So it's like, it's a lot. You get a lot of, you know, backstory information, character. It's not,
00:21:01it's not like, oh, here's a smidgen. There's a little taste.
00:21:04Did these make it, I can't remember whether these made it in, but the ones about the different
00:21:09bosses that you fight? Yeah, there were a couple where your thoughts on fighting
00:21:13Morbils, your thoughts on fighting the Fafnir. Which was really, what an interesting thing to
00:21:19explore. I remember you going, what should I talk about? Yeah. Because it's, how do you,
00:21:25how do you phrase that? How do you phrase what is essentially a mechanical thing that a player has
00:21:33experienced? How do you then take that and write it down as if Clive were remembering what the player was
00:21:39doing? Which is quite interesting. So then you start thinking, breaking it down, going, okay,
00:21:43so what are the iconic moments from these fights? And you start taking mechanical moments and turning
00:21:48them into kind of emotional ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like, what is the psychological effect of that
00:21:52physical thing happening to Clive? And so he kind of isn't just the player character. He's,
00:21:57these are the effects that are had on him. And what would be the memories that he's taking from those
00:22:01fights? Which was really cool to do. I mean, we ended up doing loads of them just in case. And
00:22:06I thought that was a really interesting way of exploring something that you have to do as a
00:22:11part of the game, but then put it into this book in an emotional way. It was one of my favorite
00:22:17things to do in the writing process was describing and detailing the monsters. Because to write in a
00:22:21sensory way was really fun. Because it's like, as a gamer, you get to see what the monster looks like
00:22:27and how it, you know, gets cut in half. But to know the stench. Yeah. Of the beast. Do you know what I
00:22:32mean? And to know like the rigors of it. I think there's just something really like lush in that.
00:22:36And until, you know, PlayStation or whoever figures out like Smell-O-Vision to come out
00:22:41of your control. Yeah, it's coming. It'll be there. It's also available on Xbox as well.
00:22:46Now available on all platforms. Please don't forget to download.
00:22:51But the point you made about it being derived from the game experience, I think that this is
00:22:55something we haven't mentioned. That we had access to the Bible of the law of this game. And so much,
00:23:03so much was written, which the public never saw. And that informed like lots of the ideas we had,
00:23:09like knowing, please, please. Yeah, Mahino-san, I mean, had this, all of this. I mean, with a lot
00:23:14of game creation, you'll have those creators, the creative directors will sit and those, that first year
00:23:19of game development is just that person putting together this whole plethora of knowledge about the
00:23:25world. They're creating this world. And again, a lot of times when you're making the game,
00:23:29you want to focus on one thing. So a lot of that stuff never makes it in, but it's there.
00:23:33And to have that, you know, having us having read those and saying, wow, this is a really cool story.
00:23:38It's a shame it never got into the game. And having an opportunity to tell those stories was,
00:23:43again, that was kind of the point of this book. And then, you know, also having the voices of many
00:23:50do this because ultimately Final Fantasy XVI was not something that was just done by one person.
00:23:56I was the localization director on it. I worked on the script, but it wasn't just me. It was myself.
00:24:01It was John Taylor, who also was a part of this. It was the whole cast, Morgan and Ollie from Schlock.
00:24:08We had other members at Square Enix as well, like John Crow helped with some stuff.
00:24:13I even have a writer friend, Alex Phoebe, who helped out with some of the things on this as well.
00:24:17And the more voices that you put into this, the more varied it becomes,
00:24:21because we're trying to make it something that's not written by just one person.
00:24:23It's compiled by one person, but it's supposed to be many voices.
00:24:26And I can try to do a lot of voices and hopefully I can do them well, but there's only so much.
00:24:31Are you about to do The Lovebirds?
00:24:36I can also do Obelus, The Boatman, which I did record, but they decided it wasn't to be used.
00:24:44Oh, there's some, the hard drive, remember Ollie?
00:24:47There were some technical issues, is what they said in the booth. We had technical issues
00:24:51and we're running out of time. The studio is really, just need to.
00:24:56I've heard a lot of your Clive though as well, because you'd obviously laid down some Clive vocals.
00:24:59Oh yeah.
00:25:00Yeah.
00:25:00It was Moss the Chronicler who said.
00:25:04Ben, did you?
00:25:05Ben.
00:25:05Also, also, fuck that line a little.
00:25:07I only brought it up because I know how much pain it is.
00:25:11Again, this might not make an impact, um, fuck that line.
00:25:15Um, we, we, oh my God.
00:25:19How many times would you say we did that?
00:25:21I don't know, too many times.
00:25:23And the joke, the joke was always, we would go back into the studio and then Morgan or
00:25:28Koji would be like, can you start with it was Moss the Chronicler?
00:25:31Because I don't know, because we did this, we did this for so long, so many years and so much,
00:25:36so much about this game shifts and moves depending on, you know, what the circumstances are at the time.
00:25:41And, and so, you know, we had to do that introduction a couple of different ways.
00:25:45And, uh, I think over a period of months, you just kept coming and being like, we have to do it
00:25:49a different way this time because of the texture of the opening change.
00:25:52Yes. And also because Clive had changed.
00:25:54Yeah.
00:25:55That was one of the first things we took and we still didn't know who Clive was at that moment.
00:25:58You had been given the information, you had started it, but over the course of recording
00:26:02everything else, Clive had changed and like, well, you know, he wouldn't do it like that.
00:26:05He would say it like this instead. And so, yeah, it sucked for you, but I think it was fine.
00:26:10Ultimately, it was just, it just kind of became this on running joke that like,
00:26:13over the four years, I'd always have to rerecord that opening line.
00:26:15That was the most expensive opening.
00:26:20Visual work's got nothing on that.
00:26:21Yeah, it's absolutely wild.
00:26:23Is Moss in this? Is that, is that some Moss stuff?
00:26:25Moss, the chronic, yes, we do have a little bit of how
00:26:28Harpocrates first met Moss, the chronicler.
00:26:30There's a little episode in there and how he became, you know, his, his student.
00:26:35And so, yeah, that does, that does get covered.
00:26:37Okay. So I want to talk a little bit about the sections that we have in the book.
00:26:41And then moving on from there, I'd like maybe everybody to give us a little sample
00:26:47of what you wrote.
00:26:48So first let me talk about what's in the book.
00:26:50So we have five chapters.
00:26:52The first talks about the history of Valestia.
00:26:55And we start all the way back from Ultima Civilization history,
00:26:59all the way up to when Clive and crew depart for origin.
00:27:03We go deep into those sections that we don't cover in the game.
00:27:07So early Valestian history, before the fall, after the fall,
00:27:11we actually have stuff in those little gaps that we have in the game.
00:27:15So that 13 year gap, what was Clive doing?
00:27:17What was going on in the rest of the world?
00:27:18That five year gap after the fall of Sambrec and the Mother Crystal there,
00:27:25that, you know, what were Giel doing?
00:27:28How did they rebuild what happened after Cid passed?
00:27:31And we have some really good entries from you talking about passing the torch to Clive there.
00:27:36And so then we move on to the second chapter is about the dominance.
00:27:42And we have detailed sections on all eight of the dominance plus Clive.
00:27:47And we talk about the dominance as well as their icons as well and go deep into that.
00:27:53In the third chapter, we talk about the hideaway and it's Clive's hideaway.
00:27:57In the history section, we touch a little bit upon Cid's hideaway,
00:28:00but we go into detail in the third chapter, which is about Clive's hideaway.
00:28:05And we talk about all of the characters, the people living there, what's going on.
00:28:08There's a great section on the animals of the hideaway.
00:28:11We've got something on Nectar the Bold, and there's parts on Torgil, Ambrosia.
00:28:18All of the good stuff is in there.
00:28:20And then in the fourth chapter, we talk about the Mother Crystals,
00:28:23all of the Mother Crystals, including the ones that are pre-game.
00:28:27So we're talking about Drake's eye and Drake's...
00:28:29...horn.
00:28:31Drake's horn, yes.
00:28:33Drake's knee, the hidden ninth Mother Crystal.
00:28:35Drake's knee, yes.
00:28:37And then we also talk about ether and the crystals and all of that science-y stuff that goes into
00:28:43the world building there.
00:28:44And then the final chapter, which is actually about half of the book,
00:28:47then covers the five nations, it covers the cities, it covers the people that live
00:28:51in them as well as the locations, and also just the minutia.
00:28:55We have anthems for all five of the nations.
00:28:59We have recipe books.
00:29:01We have school books that talk about the education.
00:29:07We have three pages on the Iron Kingdom language and how it is formed.
00:29:11It's just all over the place.
00:29:14We talk about religion.
00:29:15We talk about history.
00:29:15We talk about people.
00:29:17And it's just a plethora of information.
00:29:20And that is the five chapters that we have.
00:29:24And so, without further ado, I would like everyone to maybe read a little bit of what
00:29:31they wrote.
00:29:31Who wants to go first?
00:29:32From memory, were I encouraging you?
00:29:34No, see, see, we have...
00:29:36Okay.
00:29:36You're juggling.
00:29:37Hang on, hang on.
00:29:37We have this here.
00:29:39I'll just do some improv.
00:29:40We brought the recipe.
00:29:41Jill, here are the recipes.
00:29:43To dress a Chocobo's head curiously.
00:29:47Isn't everyone afraid?
00:29:48Do you want me to go first?
00:29:49Yeah.
00:29:50Yeah, you should go.
00:29:51I can go first.
00:29:52Okay.
00:29:52So, I'm going to be reading a little part about Torgel.
00:29:57Torgel was the hardest character to write for because, again, Torgel doesn't have a voice.
00:30:01I mean, there is that thing in the game that they added where you can kind of,
00:30:03you know, get little bubbles about what Torgel's thinking.
00:30:06But I look at that as there's no way anyone could know.
00:30:09They need a reason to know what's in Torgel's head.
00:30:11And so I created this lore type of reason.
00:30:14Basically, on that final day when Jill is watching Metia fade and there's the tears,
00:30:20but the sun comes up.
00:30:22She's been up all night fretting about Clive and his safety.
00:30:27And basically, she's crying, but she gets it all out when the sun comes up to realize,
00:30:32you know, it's a new day.
00:30:33It's time to move on.
00:30:34But she's tired.
00:30:35She hasn't slept.
00:30:36So she goes to bed.
00:30:38She pops down on the bed, pops down on the furs.
00:30:40And Torgel, who is also bent up all night, comes up beside her and they sleep together on the same
00:30:46bed.
00:30:47And we all know from Torgel being the frost wolf that there's this connection between the ether
00:30:54of a dominant and the frost wolf.
00:30:56And so basically, they share a dream.
00:30:59And it's the basically Torgel's dream of that time that he spent before in those 13 years,
00:31:06that gap, what happened to Torgel when he was a puppy in the night of flames
00:31:09and his two masters are now gone.
00:31:11And he's all by himself up to when Sid finds him.
00:31:14And so I wanted to write about that.
00:31:16And so basically, they're dreaming.
00:31:17And Jill wakes up and is like, I need to write this down.
00:31:20And so I have this three part section.
00:31:22I'm going to read one of the parts about basically what happened on the night of flames
00:31:26with Torgel.
00:31:27And so I hope you enjoy it.
00:31:30I'm not going to do a voice, though.
00:31:31I could do my obelisk voice.
00:31:33Ahem.
00:31:33Let me do this.
00:31:34Don't do it in obelisk's voice, please.
00:31:35It's not good.
00:31:36Please.
00:31:37That man.
00:31:38Rides over lamb heads.
00:31:40Don't do it.
00:31:41All right.
00:31:43This is going to kind of be embarrassing.
00:31:44Do you want me to go first?
00:31:46Because I feel like everyone's really nervous.
00:31:47No, no, no.
00:31:47I will go first.
00:31:49Okay.
00:31:50Smoke.
00:31:51Too much smoke.
00:31:52It clogs my lungs, burns my eyes.
00:31:54But far worse, it masks the scents of all that is familiar.
00:31:59My masters, their sire, the round-faced man who gives me nuts.
00:32:03I hear shouting, but do not recognize the voices.
00:32:06I feel heat, but do not see the flame.
00:32:09I do not see anything.
00:32:11In the smoke, the world has become a blur.
00:32:14Where am I?
00:32:15How did I get here?
00:32:16I try to move, but my legs will not listen.
00:32:19I try to call out, but my voice has abandoned me.
00:32:22A deafening crack from above brings me back to my senses.
00:32:26Free from fear's grip, I dash instinctively forward,
00:32:30barely avoiding the stable roof as it comes tumbling to the floor.
00:32:33The stables!
00:32:35My master brought me here when some terrible old man said beasts weren't allowed in the keep's chambers.
00:32:41My bearings regained.
00:32:42I rush out into the night to find chaos all around.
00:32:44Men scamper back and forth across the courtyard, some angry, some frightened, all frantic.
00:32:50They scream, they fight, they fall.
00:32:53I dart through a forest of legs, searching for something, anything I recognize.
00:32:58But even out here in the open, the smells of smoke and blood and feces and fear are far too thick.
00:33:04I find the round-faced man lying in the mud and nudge him.
00:33:08He does not move.
00:33:10Then I see it, a flash of red velvet against the grey of the keep.
00:33:14A shock of gold atop a fragile frame.
00:33:17The younger master has come for me.
00:33:19I cry out, but it is lost in the cacophony that engulfs the keep.
00:33:23I try again, but it soon becomes clear that something is very wrong.
00:33:27Flames leap from the boy's back.
00:33:30No, not flames, wings.
00:33:32He turns, and the figure standing there is not one I recognize.
00:33:36Our eyes lock for but a moment before he turns to the heavens and screams.
00:33:41The world goes bright, then dark, then sun.
00:33:48Love first.
00:33:49Let's dance.
00:33:52Very nice.
00:33:53Sorry.
00:33:53Very nice.
00:33:54Beautiful.
00:33:54Beautiful.
00:33:55Thank you.
00:33:55And that's one of three parts.
00:33:57From there it goes to talk about what happens after that,
00:34:00and then years down the road before he meets Cid.
00:34:02So very kind of, you get to see Torgil's arc.
00:34:05Because that's one thing.
00:34:06Torgil's one of the main characters in the game.
00:34:08And we see everyone else's arc, but we never really know Torgil's arc.
00:34:12We know that he has seen some shit and that it has affected him in some way.
00:34:17We see him chewing at the anklet, but we don't really kind of know why.
00:34:22There's these reasons that are there, but we just kind of take it for granted.
00:34:25And I wanted to give a little bit more backstory to that.
00:34:28And so hopefully this does that.
00:34:29Who wants to go next?
00:34:31Now that the...
00:34:31I'll do it.
00:34:32Yeah, I'm brilliant, man.
00:34:33I'm really nervous.
00:34:34So yeah, Ben, you go.
00:34:35Ben, all right.
00:34:36Let me get Ben's up.
00:34:39This was an interesting piece.
00:34:43I don't know whether this was asked of me or whether...
00:34:45Yeah.
00:34:46Yeah, this is a tough one, really.
00:34:50This is the first time that Clive sees Annabella after he's basically been exiled and forced to
00:34:58fight in the Sandbrek army.
00:35:01And we just thought it would be a really interesting thing to investigate how he'd feel about that,
00:35:06seeing this woman that he used to call his mother, except in a very different position.
00:35:13And it kind of, I mean, it speaks for itself, so I'll just do it now.
00:35:16I saw the Empress Annabella today.
00:35:22It was the first time since.
00:35:26The entire Imperial army was recalled to Oriflam to march in the Grieger's Day Parade.
00:35:32A parade that supposedly celebrates the glories of the Holy Empire.
00:35:36But there is no glory for us.
00:35:39No glory for those who are forced to fight in Grieger's name.
00:35:42In any case, we marched.
00:35:47We had little choice.
00:35:49And then there she was.
00:35:52The woman I once called Mother.
00:35:56Radiant in the glow of the midday sun.
00:35:59Waving from a marble balcony.
00:36:03Admiring her foot soldiers as we trooped past.
00:36:05Some of our blades still stained with the blood of innocence slaughtered in her treacherous name.
00:36:14She hadn't aged a day.
00:36:17I'd heard rumors among the ranks that she still struggles to conceive.
00:36:24That she lost her first before he was born.
00:36:26A tragedy.
00:36:30Some called it.
00:36:33I call it mercy.
00:36:36Whatever becomes of any heir.
00:36:41It will not know love.
00:36:44She is incapable of that.
00:36:48Tomorrow we march eastward.
00:36:52That's good stuff!
00:36:53I'm glad you didn't do that first.
00:36:58We'll just abandon this section.
00:37:01So yeah, I just thought it was really cool to think about how he would feel about that.
00:37:07And we really wanted to pepper in the difficulty.
00:37:12The idea that people knew that she was finding it difficult to conceive.
00:37:16And then how Clive would feel about that.
00:37:18Because his relationship with Annabella is that of a parental relationship that never was.
00:37:25And a parental relationship that was a lie.
00:37:27It was the only mother he ever knew.
00:37:29And then everything about it was like, well, I never wanted you as a son anyway.
00:37:33And him feeling abandoned.
00:37:35Quite literally abandoned.
00:37:36And then seeing this woman in all of her radiant glory.
00:37:39Knowing that everything that represents everything that he lost is really kind of powerful.
00:37:43And I really wanted him to be bitter.
00:37:45He's bitter here.
00:37:46You know, the counterpart to this is that one of my fascinations through the game.
00:37:53Incidentally, Christina Cole played Annabella.
00:37:57Absolutely incredible.
00:37:58Yeah, nailed it.
00:37:59Just super brilliant.
00:38:00And the scene where you meet her in-game for the first time after all the time.
00:38:06People come back to that one and come back to that one.
00:38:08It's pretty incredible.
00:38:09But I was interested to know at what point Annabella fell out of love.
00:38:14Because I think what we learned from the Bible for the game is that she was under huge pressure from her mother.
00:38:23This bloodline, essentially, she had as much right of the throne as the Archduke did.
00:38:29And so she is meant to be the, you know, the producer of the air to the phoenix and all that stuff.
00:38:36And clearly, because of the way Dominant's awake, when she had her son, Clive would have been that, you know, everything that was promised.
00:38:46And he was handsome and he was brilliant at everything and all that stuff.
00:38:50And at what point does his not awakening start to be like, well, maybe he's still well-awakened.
00:38:56We see in the game, Jill awakens when she's in her teens, right?
00:39:00So we can take a certain amount of time.
00:39:02And I'm like, well, she has to have, like, loved this, or at least loved the idea of being the mother to this person.
00:39:09And then he doesn't awake, and he doesn't awake, and he doesn't awake.
00:39:12And then Joshua comes along and he does, you know.
00:39:14And that was, to me, that was just a thing that isn't addressed in the game.
00:39:18And I just thought, what, like, how would the world turn upside down for her at that point?
00:39:22And you happened to write one of those letters from Annabella to her mother before all of this goes down.
00:39:29Shall we do that again?
00:39:30Yeah, let's do that.
00:39:31Let's do that.
00:39:31I won't act it as well.
00:39:32That's a shame.
00:39:34But anyway, let's have a go.
00:39:36Do your best Christina Cole then, yeah?
00:39:38So a little bit of background for this.
00:39:40The idea that the, where did Annabella's kind of notion of her sort of divine right, almost,
00:39:50to be the representative of the Phoenix, the mother of the Phoenix.
00:39:55And I think that what we had settled on and what was in the Bible for the project was that
00:40:00she was bred to believe that that's who she was, right?
00:40:03And what we were also told from the Bible was that when that didn't happen, when the, you know,
00:40:09phoenixes typically apparently are some, one of the, one of the icons that awakens quite early in
00:40:13the dominant and it doesn't happen and it doesn't happen and then whispering start to happen at
00:40:18court basically.
00:40:19And, and again, I thought about what would the company line be?
00:40:22Anyway, the crushing pressure from the mother, uh, is what informed all this and, and the idea that
00:40:28Annabella had a terrible relationship with her mother as well is what's meant to come across here.
00:40:33So let's have a little seat.
00:40:36Dearest mother, never have I wished to gainsay you of all people, but I cannot imagine how you
00:40:41could think that I have forgotten you. I assure you that any delay on my part in replying to the
00:40:46many letters is evidence only of the myriad demands of life at court. Indeed, those same demands may also
00:40:54be blamed for my failure to introduce your grandson to this beloved grandmama's ancestral home.
00:40:59How long has it been since last you saw my darling boy? I fear it is not less than two years. And how
00:41:06he must have changed in that time. He has become the very spitting image of his father and excels in
00:41:13all lordly disciplines. To behold him at the archduke's side is a sight to stir the soul.
00:41:19Verily, when he awakens, as you may be assured that he shall, Rosaria will have a phoenix such as she has
00:41:25never known. And all Valesthea shall envy our noble blood, even unto the highest spire of Oroflam.
00:41:33Yet in writing this, I realize I only increase your yearning to look upon that which I so
00:41:38inadequately describe. As you know, it has been my dearest wish that we should stay a while with you
00:41:44this summer. But I fear I must disappoint you in that regard as well, though it will be for a joyous
00:41:49reason. For you see, I am with child. The physicians say it shall be a boy, but I hope with all my heart
00:41:57for a girl. One to whom I might teach in turn the source of our sovereignty, and of the duty to which
00:42:03we, its vessels, are born. Just as you once did. By the founder's will, may it be so, and may you partake
00:42:11of our joy in person, be it here in Rosalith or else at home, as soon as may be arranged. Until then,
00:42:18I trust you will forgive your daughter's seeming thoughtlessness, your ever devoted Anna.
00:42:23You get such a sense of expectation that is put upon her and then passed down. Yeah. And the evils
00:42:34that then come with that, right? Yeah. It's like reading that going, oh, this poor woman, wait a minute,
00:42:38she's a monster. That's what we want to see, right? How do monsters get made and choose because they've
00:42:44been bred by another monster. Yeah. With generational trauma, right? Yeah. There's quite literally that,
00:42:48there's so much hope there. And it almost makes you sympathetic to her. Almost. Almost.
00:42:55Again, I think we, in this game, we judge people by their actions. And we can only judge
00:43:03Annabella by her actions because we don't know her character. We, you know, we see her do things at
00:43:09certain points that are very hateful towards characters that we empathise with. And I think
00:43:14what a great opportunity for us to try and understand, not excuse behaviour, but understand it,
00:43:22that kind of adds to the richness of this world and makes it her death, you know, the way she treats
00:43:28everyone, like, make that even more tragic. And reading that, that there is a life here that could
00:43:34have been gone so differently. I imagine that it still would have been an abusive relationship because
00:43:39that is what she clearly knows. But how tragic that it went the way that it did. And it's, yeah,
00:43:44it's a great opportunity to do that. Can we do some romance?
00:43:48Some romance? Yeah, I want to hear from Terence. To Terence. To Terence.
00:43:52Yeah. Well, then. Okay. Dion. If I must.
00:43:56Okay. Might I sing it? I said, oh, I've written a musical number.
00:44:04It's a duet code yourself. It's not, sadly. It's like Lovebirds.
00:44:08Yes. So this is the first letter that I wrote. It's the first letter of this collection. And it
00:44:18puts to mind Dion and Terence in their teenage years. This is after their first sort of frisson,
00:44:24their first, not necessarily the first meeting, but the first time they've had a proper interaction.
00:44:31and this is Dion writing post that. And I shall say. Together. They're together at military school.
00:44:38Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:39So they're not in the court, but they've sent away to school. Yes.
00:44:42This is how they've been able to see each other despite the disparity of their ranks.
00:44:46But this is, this is pre, this is pre when they officially started seeing each other.
00:44:51This is when they're friends, but it's the bubbling.
00:44:54Yes. Okay. Okay.
00:44:59My dear Terence, I feel such a fool. Can you ever forgive me?
00:45:07You were anxious to return to your post and with good reason.
00:45:10And yet I insisted that you remain and discuss idle nothings further.
00:45:16I can only hope that you were not as severely punished as I.
00:45:19My movements, I fear, will be severely restricted in the coming weeks.
00:45:25Lady Gwynne has been assigned to watch over me.
00:45:28She remains as curtly uncommunicative as ever.
00:45:31Yet I sense her relish at my plight in every flick of the page of her joyless tone.
00:45:37She is staring her thin-lipped stare at me as I write, Griega Taker.
00:45:42But she does not know that I write not the lesson assigned.
00:45:44But a letter to you, dear friend. Nor does she know how I revel in my disobedience.
00:45:54How do you inspire such anarchy in me, Terence?
00:45:58Why do I think not of the repercussions that might attend my slipping of this missive beneath the door
00:46:03of your barracks, but instead of how the sight of you unfolding it would send my blood coursing
00:46:08through my veins with all the heat and ferocity of the phoenix's wings?
00:46:15How I long to discuss idle nothings with you more.
00:46:19Let us pray that it be soon.
00:46:23Dion.
00:46:26Do you think, right?
00:46:28Because you know you get that thing where it's unclear if there's maybe a little flicker of something
00:46:32between Joshua and Dion at points?
00:46:35All right.
00:46:35Yeah, I mean.
00:46:36Is he almost?
00:46:37Is that phoenix's wings?
00:46:38Listen, don't tell Terence about that, okay?
00:46:41You know, you did meet at the remembrance ceremony.
00:46:45All right, yes.
00:46:46Yeah, listen, listen, listen.
00:46:47He's young, he's young.
00:46:48There's an excitement and a frisson, of course.
00:46:51There's enough Dion to go around.
00:46:55Who's next?
00:46:55Uh, Gav's next.
00:46:56Gav's next.
00:46:57All right, let me get it ready for you.
00:46:59I'll read it for you.
00:47:00I'll read it for you.
00:47:01Go on.
00:47:01So do your gal, boy.
00:47:05Wow.
00:47:06This is very good.
00:47:09I wish I had a turn of phrase.
00:47:10As beautiful as slipping the missive.
00:47:12If it's slipping the missive.
00:47:14I was going to say, when you were saying, oh, I couldn't use flowery language.
00:47:17I was like, oh, don't you want to kiss me?
00:47:20So I was reading that.
00:47:22I was reading that as you're reading it.
00:47:23I went, this sentence is never ending.
00:47:25In fact, it was like the beautiful language was so...
00:47:29Well, that's Harpocrates.
00:47:30That's the Harpocrates teaching Dion.
00:47:31Yes.
00:47:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:47:32Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:47:33I love that scene.
00:47:35There you go.
00:47:35That's good stuff.
00:47:37So I suppose the background to this is,
00:47:39I felt like two big Gav iconography moments are both our,
00:47:45your quest to go find the silver chocobo feather for Gav,
00:47:48so that he could gift it to Edda and her baby,
00:47:51and Gav's Moogle charm.
00:47:54And which is never touched upon in the game,
00:47:57even though he is wearing it the whole time.
00:47:59And quite a few people have made me Moogle charms.
00:48:02I've got a box for Moogle charms,
00:48:04which are gorgeous, gorgeous little relics to have.
00:48:07And so it felt only right that we dug into where that comes from
00:48:11and why it never leaves his, his neck.
00:48:13So yeah, this is, this is Gav.
00:48:18I gave the silver chocobo charm to Edda yesterday.
00:48:22She seemed proper chuffed.
00:48:24Me and Clive had a few drinks to celebrate.
00:48:27Fuck me.
00:48:28I'm hanging out of my arsehole this morning.
00:48:32I must have been pissed because I told him about my family.
00:48:37He's the first person I've talked to about them since,
00:48:41since Sid.
00:48:41I've always thought of myself as a coward.
00:48:47Only good for sniffing out trouble and then legging it.
00:48:50But I think that's what Dad wanted.
00:48:54The day my little sister was born,
00:48:56he hung his Moogle charm around my neck.
00:49:00It was his father's before him, and his father's before that.
00:49:05He said it would help me.
00:49:08That was the day the Imperials came.
00:49:11And when they came, I ran and I hid.
00:49:17Would they have found me if I wasn't wearing it?
00:49:21But I like to think Dad and the Moogles were watching over me.
00:49:32Clive said that when he's gone,
00:49:34it'll be up to me to be the new Sid.
00:49:39I'll never be able to fight like him or lead like him.
00:49:44But I can keep my people safe.
00:49:47and I will.
00:49:50After all, I've got to stay alive long enough to pass that charm on to you.
00:49:56My own son.
00:49:58When the time comes.
00:49:59I can swear on you, fuck me, that was good.
00:50:05I'm like, fuck me, that was good.
00:50:06Yes.
00:50:06Yes.
00:50:08Yeah.
00:50:10Yes.
00:50:11That just encapsulates so much of Gav.
00:50:14Oh, man.
00:50:14The fact that he's, yeah, he's, you know, go lucky.
00:50:17He's light, but deep down, he questions himself.
00:50:21He has, he exudes self-confidence until you actually ask him about it.
00:50:26And like, he has no self-confidence because he's just, he's thinking about everything in the past.
00:50:31And he thinks he's, even though he's the greatest scout, he's got the best nose for stuff.
00:50:35He helps his people.
00:50:37He's the reason, you know, all those survivors from the first, you know, from the Sid's hideaway
00:50:42were able to escape is because Gav was there when Sid wasn't there.
00:50:47Clive wasn't there.
00:50:47No, he was in charge.
00:50:49He was making sure those people survived.
00:50:51And even after all that, he still questions himself.
00:50:54Yeah.
00:50:54He still questions whether he's good.
00:50:55And that just, it's never going to be enough reparations for him for what happened
00:51:00when he was a little boy and not being there, even though he's a little boy.
00:51:03And yeah, what could a 10 year old have done in that situation?
00:51:07Yeah, absolutely.
00:51:08And I think that scene with Clive is so important to Gav's journey post game
00:51:13that we never get to see is because Clive is the one that kind of, I suppose,
00:51:17washes away a lot of that toxic masculinity and gets to go, no, we're brothers.
00:51:21Yeah.
00:51:21And then when he says brother at the end, it's just like,
00:51:25with tears coming down.
00:51:26And then that chink of the tankards, and it's a really important moment, I think,
00:51:31for his journey to also as well let Clive and Dion leave, to hug and be like,
00:51:38yeah, okay, I won't follow you.
00:51:40I will stay here and look after everybody else.
00:51:43It's, um, it's a huge thing.
00:51:45Yeah.
00:51:48Oh, after all of that seriousness, we have a, uh, what is this?
00:51:54It's a nursery rhyme.
00:51:55Yeah.
00:51:56I did write some bits in voices of characters, but nobody is going to want to see me read those.
00:52:03Uh, but in my head, they're good.
00:52:06Uh, but no, like, like I was talking about, I was really into the, like the, the little
00:52:10in-betweeny bits, the bits that join everything together, the background law.
00:52:13I really liked all of the, the histories of the religions and stuff and making up those bits
00:52:18and like joining all the bits.
00:52:19And then, so we were looking at a bunch of different books for inspiration.
00:52:23And there was Mrs. Beaton's, which we got the recipes out of.
00:52:26So writing in that old school style, I wanted to do my cider with Rosie,
00:52:30with Bernard and Martha, but you ruthlessly cut that.
00:52:34Actually, I cut it and replaced it with my own rendition.
00:52:38And then one of the other things, me and Morgan were talking about,
00:52:42do you know, Struelpetter, those German, they were originally German,
00:52:45and then they translated them. And it's like cautionary tales for kids.
00:52:49If you play with scissors, they'll chop your fingers off.
00:52:51A demon will come. And it's got that horrible, shock-headed Peter,
00:52:54I think he's called on the cover. And so then it was like, you've got this
00:52:58society where you've got to indoctrinate kids into bearer,
00:53:02like believing that bearers are subhumans, all of that other stuff.
00:53:05And also into like, um, crystals and the role they play
00:53:09and how you can't go waste in them and stuff.
00:53:11So I did write a couple of these, which were a bit more bearer.
00:53:13Sorry, I just touched my microphone.
00:53:15I did write a couple, which were a bit more about the bearer indoctrination,
00:53:18but they did fit a bit heavy.
00:53:20So this is just one about a small child getting set on fire.
00:53:25Oh yeah, just, you know.
00:53:26Yeah, funny.
00:53:29So Lily Smolder Skirts, it's called,
00:53:31and it's about why you shouldn't play with crystals.
00:53:35Lily's mother always said,
00:53:37never with a crystal play, lest its blessings go to waste and its magics fade away.
00:53:42More than that though, Lily dear, crystals conjure frost and flame.
00:53:45If you burn the house down, darling, who do you think will be to blame?
00:53:49And so saying, off she'd saunter, thinking Lily soundly taught.
00:53:53Till one day she learned the hard way, things were not as she had thought.
00:53:57Little Lily, bored and restless, took a crystal in her mitt,
00:54:00held it high, and foolish child, conjured up a flame with it.
00:54:04Though it didn't burn the house down, lo, it caught upon her skirts.
00:54:08And poor Lily set to crying, help me someone, please, it hurts.
00:54:12None could come in time to save her.
00:54:14Lily Kins was burned to death.
00:54:16Mummy, why did I not listen? whispered she with her last breath.
00:54:23And from that you learn, you know, don't play with the fire.
00:54:25Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:54:27That is good stuff.
00:54:27I remember the vicious nursery rhymes.
00:54:33All right.
00:54:34Well, we're kind of running out of time, so I'd like to wrap it up.
00:54:37But before we end, I want to ask you,
00:54:41what was the biggest challenge that you faced while creating
00:54:46the moments in this for the lore book?
00:54:51For me, the biggest challenge was actually coming back to it.
00:54:55But I think I'd left it alone.
00:55:01I'd done, I'd put a pin in it, you know.
00:55:04And I was so nervous about coming back to it and doing a disservice to the fans.
00:55:10This game is so loved by the people who love it.
00:55:14They have created their own lore.
00:55:16They've created their own worlds.
00:55:17They've created their own fictions in their head.
00:55:19And I think that's a beautiful thing that we, as storytellers,
00:55:23have allowed those people to believe in.
00:55:25And maybe there was a fear of coming back to it,
00:55:27that we were filling in gaps that maybe they didn't,
00:55:31they had already filled in themselves.
00:55:33And that was my biggest fear going into it.
00:55:35And then I realized that we weren't,
00:55:37I don't think we were replacing anything.
00:55:40And you can see from here today, like, it is done with so much love,
00:55:44respect, care, thoughtfulness.
00:55:47It is, we've spent hours, years making this,
00:55:51because it is a gift for the fans who continue to pour their heart and soul
00:55:57into their own personal writings, how this game has inspired them.
00:56:00Yes, do we mention fan fictions?
00:56:02But what a wonderful thing that it inspires so many people to,
00:56:05to add their art to this game and this world.
00:56:08Yeah, absolutely.
00:56:08And we've added ours, you know.
00:56:10That's it.
00:56:11And it's an offering to fans.
00:56:12Yeah.
00:56:13That's what I think.
00:56:13This is an offering to fans who continue to love it.
00:56:16And hopefully this book continues to inspire more.
00:56:19Yeah.
00:56:19That it can plant more seeds for, you know,
00:56:22players out there that love 16 to create even more,
00:56:26to go back and play the game again with a new perspective on Annabella,
00:56:30on a new perspective on Dion and his feelings towards Terrence.
00:56:33Yes, we were involved in the making of this,
00:56:35but we are fans as much as anyone else.
00:56:38This is just our version.
00:56:39And I think that's so lovely to express that.
00:56:42But it's like, it's a tapestry.
00:56:43It's a quilt and we're adding our patch,
00:56:46but it's still, it's one big quilt of stories and art and things
00:56:50that people have contributed a hundred percent.
00:56:51Yeah.
00:56:52The thing that I didn't mention thus far is that my hero,
00:56:55who is the, you know, the lead Japanese writer on this,
00:56:59has been through every line of everything we created and said,
00:57:03no, this bit's not right.
00:57:04This bit is right.
00:57:05You know, it's been through that filter.
00:57:06So.
00:57:06Oh yeah.
00:57:08I was going to say the hardest part for me.
00:57:11I'm writing into my hero's son's world.
00:57:13It's his.
00:57:14Yeah, yeah.
00:57:14Wife is terrible.
00:57:15Like that's the fault, right?
00:57:16That's so much responsibility.
00:57:18I think we, me and I worked together a lot.
00:57:20So there was a lot of back and forth and just thinking like,
00:57:22we are, it's sacred ground, right?
00:57:25Like, there are these people,
00:57:27it's so loved as you say it.
00:57:28So, you know, we're dealing with that,
00:57:30but we're also, this is my hero's baby.
00:57:33Right. And if we go, well, I think this happened and he goes,
00:57:36that's not what I think happened.
00:57:38Then he's right.
00:57:41And so the sense of sort of tentatively pushing these offerings to,
00:57:45I mean, like, is it okay?
00:57:47And I mean, ultimately, I mean, again,
00:57:49that's why it's taken as long as it's taken.
00:57:53We, you know, had the text ready.
00:57:54I think we finished it many, many months ago,
00:57:57but we were waiting for him to do his checks because
00:58:00he was, surprise, he was working on Final Fantasy Tactics.
00:58:04And that's what was, he needed to finish that first.
00:58:06But once that calmed down, then he was able to go through
00:58:09and they did translations from English to Japanese, all the text.
00:58:13My hero-san sat down.
00:58:15He read through everything.
00:58:17He gave feedback, asked questions, requested changes.
00:58:22We went through, we made sure that we got all of his changes in.
00:58:25Then after that, we got one of the main scenario writers,
00:58:30Kazuyo Murakami.
00:58:32And she went in and she checked everything to make sure
00:58:35that there was consistency in voices and across the board.
00:58:39I also had other members of the localization team check it.
00:58:41This has been checked by people who know Final Fantasy XVI
00:58:46and all the way up to Maehino-san has given it the seal of approval.
00:58:51They've approved all of this.
00:58:53And so while it is very interesting and different that it's coming from English,
00:58:58it has been given the blessing by the creator.
00:59:02But again, like Aldi said, up until that moment,
00:59:05you're like, he's going to make me change everything.
00:59:08He's going to hate the Torgo thing.
00:59:10No, Torgo wasn't there, Torgo.
00:59:13But again, because he had left us such detailed information,
00:59:17we were able to take that.
00:59:17And because we had worked on the game for so long,
00:59:20all of that is up here.
00:59:21And we naturally knew what characters were going to say
00:59:24and how they would react because we helped create those characters as well.
00:59:27And so that really helped.
00:59:29But I like to think that this also isn't,
00:59:32this isn't the answer to questions.
00:59:35This is the beginning of more questions.
00:59:36Yeah.
00:59:37I think we, we have, again, you said it so beautifully,
00:59:40like these are kind of almost vignettes and moments in time
00:59:43that hopefully will inspire people to imagine other more,
00:59:47you know, their own personal moments in time,
00:59:48but the lessons to Terence, you know, it's, it's filling stuff in,
00:59:52but it's allowing people to imagine in the space,
00:59:54giving people opportunities to, to explore those.
00:59:57And I really hope that this inspires so many more people to,
00:59:59to kind of take it and go off in their own direction.
01:00:02Definitely.
01:00:02I mean, I think the biggest challenge for me
01:00:05was getting out of my own way, I think,
01:00:07and, and, and getting over the imposter syndrome of feeling like,
01:00:10I don't deserve, I don't deserve to be doing this.
01:00:12This is not my place.
01:00:14but I think it was, it was like you, when you started,
01:00:17it just kind of came out.
01:00:19And I've, I've always loved writing,
01:00:21but I've never said I'm a writer.
01:00:24And actually doing this has just revealed something about myself,
01:00:26revealed something that I love and enjoy,
01:00:28and given me that space to explore that,
01:00:30given me that jumping off point.
01:00:32And as you said, I hope this serves as someone else's jumping off point.
01:00:36And I hope it encourages someone else to get out of their own way,
01:00:39and be the writer that they've always been.
01:00:41They just haven't had the confidence to do that.
01:00:42I, I hope in us doing that,
01:00:45that gives other people that opportunity,
01:00:46because I've cherished it.
01:00:50That's nice, isn't it?
01:00:51That sounds nice.
01:00:52That's a good closer.
01:00:54Go write, everybody write.
01:00:56It's amazing.
01:00:58It's easy and you too can be a publisher.
01:01:03I can safely say this was the easiest thing we've ever done.
01:01:06It was so simple and easy to do.
01:01:10Well, Logos, buy it.
01:01:14I think it is just under $50, but it's got 383 pages.
01:01:20It's a full game's worth of knowledge.
01:01:23I think it is very much worth the price.
01:01:24And it's got a sexy faux leather cover, nice embossing.
01:01:27Oh, that embossing.
01:01:28Smells so good.
01:01:30Smells so good.
01:01:33And it's coming out next March, I believe.
01:01:37All the deets are on the Square Enix store,
01:01:40so you can go there and pre-order whenever you feel like it.
01:01:44All right.
01:01:45Thank you again, everyone, for not only coming here today,
01:01:48but participating in creating this wonderful book.
01:01:52Yeah.
01:01:52Thank you.
01:01:53Thanks, Coach.
01:01:53Thank you.
01:01:54Thank you.
01:01:55Thank you.
01:01:55Thank you, guys.
01:01:57Love you.
01:01:57Bye.
01:02:00Bye.
01:02:01Bye.
01:02:02Bye.
01:02:03Bye.
01:02:04Bye.
Commenti