Hello, everyone!

Zhexos reporting in. Did everyone enjoy the Royal City of Rabanastre alliance raid dungeon introduced in Patch 4.1? As a FINAL FANTASY Tactics and FINAL FANTASY XII fan, I was amazed at everything I saw, and read in the story. The Return to Ivalice series brought in guest creators Yasumi Matsuno, the director and writer of the Ivalice serires to write the scenario, and Keita Amemiya, the creator, character designer, and director of the GARO series for monster designs.

Amemiya designed two of the four bosses that appear in the Royal City of Rabanastre. I'm here today to reintroduce those boss designs to you all.

Let's begin with the third boss you encounter in the dungeon, Rofocale! Don't get trampled!

<Design Illustration>

<Detailed Front/Side View>

You may remember these from a previous Letter from the Producer LIVE. Yoshida really admired the designs featuring very fine details as soon as he saw them.

<Sculpt Model>

3D sculpting is a type of 3D CG modeling method where you actually manipulate a digital object just as you would sculpt an object in real life.

Next up, Argath Thadalfus! The final boss in the 4.1 raid!

Some of you may have been surprised to see Argath as the boss!

<Detailed Front/Back View>

Look at those fine details!

<Sculpt Model>

You can feel the intensity of the monster just by looking at the sculpted model.

When creating monsters in FFXIV, we don't actually use the sculpted models in-game. We create a texture-like object called a normal map based on these sculpted models. Next, we apply this normal map to a different, low-polygon model of the monster. This way we are able to maintain the number of polygons used, while adding more details, such as the textures and bumps to an object.

As we continue into the patches, more mysteries, such as those enemies that appeared in Rabanastre, why they were there, and the relationship between Ramza and Alma will be unraveled, so stay tuned!

For those curious to learn more about the lore, you may be able to get more details on some things right now. If you have completed the Royal City of Rabanastre, board the Prima Vista from the airship landing located in Kugane, and have a talk with some of the NPCs on board the airship.

All the dialogue you'll find in here is done by Matsuno, so be sure to check them out before they're updated in Patch 4.3!

We hope that you'll enjoy the story behind the Return to Ivalice!

- Zhexos

Community Team