Square-Enix makes it all better.

The recent and well-documented fiasco concerning Final Fantasy XI’s Pandemonium Warden has earned an official response. Despite being notoriously difficult to get through to, the Japanese FFXI development team had something to say about it, and their announcement included the following:

“We would like to assure players that the development and management teams place a high value on their feedback, and the issue has since been taken under serious consideration. Together with Absolute Virtue, it has been deemed that the combative techniques for weakening these NMs are too difficult. [...] Included in the version update scheduled for early September will be modifications to the degree of difficulty of Pandemonium Warden (and associated pets), Absolute Virtue (and associated pets), and Jailer of Love. The aim of these changes is to create battles where a decisive outcome may be reached within a shorter period of time.”

Those fights should have been easier when implemented, but at least Square-Enix has indirectly admitted their folly. They enjoyed releasing scant information about new bosses, and were clearly counting on omniscient players to solve the puzzles and enlighten the masses. Since no clues were dropped, and no one was going to risk experimenting on such a cumbersome battle, all anyone figured out was an eighteen hour long recipe for infamy.

This could mean that FFXI’s user base won’t have to deal with borderline useless bits of advice, such as the practically log-free Absolute Virtue video, and that Square-Enix will stay in touch with them. Who knows? Maybe they’ll even start making merchandise that isn’t utterly useless, too.

Well, wishful thinking and all that.