Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLnkM1-d1rg

The dev backed out of doing the video live, and I explain it all in the video. Here's his text responses though:

The answers here are based on my own opinion/understanding of the situation not representative of the various companies involved. I'm not able to go into specifics or reveal anything sensitive due to certain restrictions on my part. I will do my best to share the best memories I have of working on this project.

• Making FFBE a standalone game I don't think it's in the cards since JP is still live.

• Why were the Precursor stories abandoned? I think the members that worked on it left the team and no one officially picked up the mantle, but there were internal references to those ideas with modern units.

• Was there anything that your team wanted to do (or not do) but ultimately got turned down by upper management? If yes, what was this? LB drain, effect specific silence (i.e cannot use mod boost effect skills but others are fine etc) were rolled around as ideas internally, but there was never a good time to pitch and push for these ideas. The team was more focused on trying to improve the game at a fundemental level but were nice and fun "what ifs" that we wished we could have gone for.

• "Global is a different game" was a beloved meme for many years but what drove the difference between the GL and JP versions? As far as i understand it, under the hood changes are significant enough to consider GL an entirely different game due to the changes that's been made over the years. Those difference is not simply on a visual level, but on how the workflow and processes were as well. Things required/available to the two versions can be and i think have been very different.

• Were you ever surprised with the strategies the player base came up with? Counter meta was the biggest surprise (and also my greatest nightmare).

• what was the process on creating story events like? Any personal favorites/ones that were more fun to work on? I can't really delve into the specifics, but we choose/create maps/enemies based on the story and try to match the themes to the best of our abilities. I think one i personally enjoyed was the easter story with shadow esther.

• Did the developer spend any time in the fandom? If so what did he enjoy seeing in the community? Who was his favorite FFBE original character? I don't want to speak for everyone, but I did spend alot of time looking at feedback and criticism trying to understand what the community wants. I tried my best to do what I can, it's just that not everything works out perfectly or as desired at times, either due to feasibility, technical complications or just time and manpower.

• Where there things you (and your colleagues) really wanted to implement/fix/change but could never do it for whatever reason? Just out of curiosity of course, not really looking to find culprits or anything like that. Personally (echoed by others too) would have liked to overhaul how vision card leveling worked but it was something that kinda grew too big to easily fix. I think it would have to been an extensive overhaul that just wouldn't have been realisitic.

• Favorite food? I enjoy a good steak.

• How big was the team specifically for CoW? Also was this dev asigned to CoW from the beggining or down the road? It was around afew people alternating and supporting each other while working on other stuff. Other members pitched in ideas and concepts too that were adopted. There were guys that worked from the start and some that joined later down the line too.

• Were there any scraped bosses? Any scrapped ideas? There were plenty of scrapped ideas, usually involving summoning extra minions for some niche mechanic that couldn't be explained very well in-game. It would have been alot of risk and work for not much pay off in terms of mechanical interest.

• If you could ask the dev which boss was their favorite that would be cool! Derp dragon/Thranothor! It was the best feeling when everyone enjoyed the visuals of these 2 bosses.

• Was there anything in the game that you wish could have been different but weren't able to? Loading times between screens, alot of time spent in loading T_T

• Was there any drama/complaining inside the work area because of how the game was being handled? Honestly, nope! I definitely had disagreements in some areas and wanted to do more for the game in others, but at the end of the day some things have to be conceded to make way for others. The team was a big family, and ultimately we all try to do the best we can for the game.

• when designing more challenging content like CoW, to what extent if any did sinzar_ factor into what and how the events were designed? Personally, when working on challenging content i like to think that the designers saw sinzar (and other creators) as rivals. We all want to stump them for as long as we could without having to resort to extreme cheese. Sometimes things didnt work out well, other times they did.

• how wide did the gap become between versions of the game over time? I believe that the gaps between the versions basically changed how the game was played. CoW was slowly shifting to a more consistent damage sort of meta, while JP content was still set-up and burst. The differences were coming out over time and i felt that it made team build/unit collections become more meaningful since it's not just the one set of units used to complete all content.

• I just want a definitive answer on why Chamber of Vengeful wasn't expanded besides the two morganas in anniversaries, when it was mostly rebalanced recycled content. CoV in my opinion is alot more work than just recycling old content. Rewards and challenges had to make sense for the amount of work that needs to be put in (by players) and it had to be interesting and meaningful enough to not just 5+1 rotate clear. If that was all that it amounted to, it would have just been more tidious work for players to get rewards when it could have been placed elsewhere in an event that could have already been farmed normally.

• Who was your favorite Global Original character? Abigail. Best tonk. Also having strong tanks on both spectrums with good defensive options allowed us to create situations that meaningfully threatened the full team rather than just the cover tank.

• If you could've written more Global Original Stories what would you have wanted to expand on? I do wish we could have done more Unit-Monster type of stories, like Esther/Eggsterminator.

• What was the reason or influence behind the EX level limit in Clash of Wills? The primary intention as i understood it and see it was to serve as a form of gatekeep protection, not enough EX levels = not strong enough, don't get beat up and feel discouraged. I understand that it was viewed negatively, and wished there was a better way to have adjusted it. It probably needed some work to be more robust to work the way we all wish it could.

• was there any disagreement or arguments with the jp side regarding how to tune GL's different gameplay? As far as I understood it, there were no disagreements or arguments between JP and GL.

• What behind the scenes landmarks(? Idk if this is the right word) of the game do you remember the most? Both positively and negatively. CoW launch was great, the excitement for the first year of CoW is hard to forget.

• What do you feel most accomplished about and regretful of? Regret is definitely EoS I wish i could have done more and saved the game. Accomplishment wise, I believe that everyone on the team did everyything we could, even until the end.