The interview is chock-full of intriguing comments and information, of course, I found the following questions and responses (about Bravely Default: For the Sequel, the follow-up of sorts that will be released in Japan at the end of this year and will be the version localized for other regions) to be the most interesting:
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Famitsu: I didn’t think you could set it to zero.
Asano: Of course, if you leave it at zero and progress through the game, you won’t gain any levels, so I recommend fighting when it’s necessary.
Famitsu: It’s something like making it the player’s responsibility or like leaving it up to them to balance as they see fit.
Asano: We were able to make it so “you can match everything and anything to your play style.” Of course we are concerned with balance and the recommendation is to not mess with the encounter rate and not run from battles. The concept is that experienced players can play more effectively by changing around the encounter rate. With the last game it took me over 70 hours to beat it, but in this game we’ve made it so you can beat the game in around 30 hours or so.
Famitsu: What! Only 30 hours without transferring over your levels and starting from the beginning? Cutting the time in about half is amazing.
Asano: True. We want everyone to beat this game.
If you're at all curious about Bravely Default, I highly recommend checking out the entire Q&A at kamedani.tumblr.com.