Greetings, everyone!

Camate here after a weekend of (sleepy) Letter from the Producer LIVE goodness. Was everyone awake and watching? The 28th installment was broadcast live from Kobe, Japan this time around, and Yoshida answered a lot of good questions fielded from the community. Naturally, there were also a lot of teases to get everyone excited for upcoming content!

The team over in Japan headed over to Kobe via the notorious bullet train, though slightly slower than aetheric travel, it got them there safely and promptly.

Arriving to the venue, the team started setting up all the activities for the attendees.

There was even an art gallery featuring FFXIV artwork.

Once the doors opened, the attendees came filing in eager to experience the FATE.

The merchandise area was overflowing with cool items. Yoshida and Foxclon were sporting some of the new t-shirts on the stream as well!

Attendees were welcomed into this area of the venue not only by these two Miqo'te, but Yoshida himself was there as well happily greeting everyone. Some were so surprised they froze in their tracks.

With everyone stopping in surprise, he wondered if he was in the way, so he backed off a little bit and just watched over everything with a smile on his face.

The FATE had a couple of different activities for attendees to participate in.

■Gold Saucer mini-games

There was a competition to see who could get the best high score in each of the many mini-games from the Gold Saucer.

■Sephirot battle challenge

Before entering battle, our adventurers were briefed on the mechanics and key points in order to defeat the fiend. Lead UI artist Hiroshi Minagawa joined up with attendees for a go, but let's just say he got separated from the party at a certain point in the fight.

Everyone had roughly five minutes to get their HUD and hotbars setup on the pre-made characters for this event, but there were a hardcore bunch who brought pictures of their usual UI layout. They meant business--Sephirot didn't stand a chance!

■PvP Battle Content: The Feast

Attendees were able to duke it out in the pit in the 4v4 light party mode.

I hear that the excitement levels of the attendees waiting in line were super high, and many formed parties during this time sticking together for the entire event to conquer content. Seems like everyone had a blast!

■Dev. team meet and greet

The development team mingled with the crowd and had an opportunity to speak to lots of attendees and hold passionate discussions on all things FFXIV!

A monster--get him!

Foxclon donned this special hat, once again becoming his morbol avatar. This was truly a high-quality item as it has teeth, makes noise, and even has drool hanging from its mouth! (Please note, this is not for sale!)

■Message board to the development team

As is customary for the FATE events, attendees had a chance to fill up the message board with kind and encouraging comments for the development team.

■Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVIII

During the test stream it was serious business.

When it came time for the show, however... (This was how my eyes looked translating the Q&A in the wee hours of the morning after too much coffee.)

Later in the show, Lead UI artist Hiroshi Minagawa joined as a special guest.

During the first half of the show, Yoshida answered questions from the forums as well as those sent in via Twitter. The latter half featured questions geared towards Minagawa.

Attendees listened intently as Yoshida and Minagawa shared answers and new information.

Here's a commemorative photo of everyone!

Yoshida came to the FATE fully equipped with his stack of papers to tease the audience with new content.

■New Grand Company equipment

■New equipment for Disciples of the Land

■New equipment for Disciples of the Hand

■A new flying mount

The next FATE in Japan will take place in Akita, but there might just be an event coming up soon for our North American players! (*wink*)

-Camate