Yesterday we have reported tons of information about Final Fantasy XIV classes and their weapons. Today FFXIVCore.com translated more info from Famitsu's update and gave a batch of new screenshots. This time, the developers talk about battles, you will like it.

MP doesn't recover on its own
Famitsu (F): Give us your general idea of what battle is like.
Okada (O): You can party or solo, but the enemies will also form parties, so the main idea is "party versus party." This time, the idea won't be to pull monsters to your camp, but to fight while moving.
F: So the general idea would be to travel around to where the enemies appear, taking breaks to rest along the way?
O: Yes, but MP will not restore itself through rest. However, there will be some abilities that characters will earn as they level up to restore MP, and HP and MP can be restored at Aetherite.
Iwao (I): The idea is not to focus on one fight at a time, but plan beforehand on how many battles you will probably fight and ration your MP to fit that.
Sato (S): The party will all move together to where they need to go to achieve their goal, but it will be important to watch their MP. There is a class whose concept is "MP cost controller," and that member will often be charged with helping the other party members conserve MP.

The keys to battle are distance, direction, and range
F: According to this picture, each class has a certain distance they are suited for. Is this correct?
S: Yes. In FFXIV, your position in relation to the where the monster is facing and how far you are from the monster have a big effect on the battle, so, by extension, each class will have a position in battle that is best suited for them.
I: Enemies will also have classes, so we are expecting that both sides will have to maneuver to get the best position in the fight, and there may be a lot of moving during battles. We hope this makes the party vs. party battles more exciting. We want people to take enemy position into consideration instead of standing in one place and attacking the enemy.
S: FFXIV isn't an action game, but this is sort of an action game twist.
F: Does that mean melee classes will have an easier time with movement in battle, compared to classes with set ranged skills?
I: Melee classes have to worry more about which direction they attack the enemy from, and ranged classes have to focus on distance.
S: The effects of direct melee attacks also change depending on where they hit the enemy, so both types of classes have their work cut out for them.
I: There's also the factor of "range." It's most obvious for the disciplines of magic, but in fact there are a lot of area-of-effect moves for classes other than mages.
S: Our aim is to get players to view the area they are fighting in is a "share space between party members." To do that, we'd like to focus on fleshing out area-of-effect attacks.
I: There will be attacks with areas focused around oneself or around a selected point, and even more. We think this will add another level of depth to these tactical battles.

Elemental growth

F: The concept of "elemental properties" exists in FFXIV. Can you tell us more about this?
O: In FFXIV, there are six elements: fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, and water. There is a balance-of-power relationship between them, such as water being strong against fire but weak against lightning.
I: Elements affect a lot of things in the game. If balance of the elements tips a certain way, a "star pole" and a "spirit pole" are created, and these work similar to the concept of magnetism on Earth.
F: How will these things affect players in the game?
O: Players can control their elemental properties. For example, a player can decide that they want to be strong to fire.
F: Do they decide that when they make their character?
S: No, this is a stat, like HP, that increases with the growth of the character. It's like becoming a specialist in that element.
O: If you level up your water element, enemies' water attacks won't hurt you as much.
I: Conjurers will have completely different roles for different elemental specialists, like ice and fire users.
F: So each player will have more individuality.
I: If a player raises each of their elemental stats, they will be able to take on a lot of different situations, but they won't be able to specialize in anything.
F: It'd be funny if we saw communities pop up based on the elemental property they choose.
S: Like a Pyro Club (He laughs). Yeah, we may actually see things like that.