Endless Journey's FFXIV Blog.

Destroying a Masterpiece.

2010-09-21T03:24:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes, it's finally here, it has finally come. One day away till the long anticipated release of Final Fantasy XIV is finally here. But before we begin our journey in the land of Eorzea, I'd like to take a look back at the land that came before Eorzea, the land I call home, the land of Vana Diel. You'll have to forgive my negativity in this post. I'm sure the fanboys will rage pretty hard at it, but I'm going to give you a unbiased factual run down of what has happened in the 8 years of Final Fantasy XI online and hopefully give you a clue about what to look out for, how your outlook should be playing and what you might can expect in Eorzea and from Square Enix themselves.

I remember thinking nothing of it. I had just built a brand new gaming PC. I had needed a new PC and figured "Why not, I'll go all out and maybe play a few games while I'm at it". I did indeed buy a few games, some FPS games, some odd games in which I don't even remember, but all of them got pretty boring quite quickly. I was never really much of a gamer and the only previous games I really spent a lot of time on were RPG games and the Super Mario/Sonic the hedgehog games years before. But it was all about gaming. There was the PS2, the Gamecube and the Xbox. Everyone was into video games so I gave it a try as well but wasn't very interested.

After the few games I ended up trying and getting bored with I was walking around the electronics store late one night, they were about to close. I was there for something completely unrelated but decided to walk through the video game section for the hell of it, that's when I spotted it. There was several stacks of it and it had just came out a week or two prior. "Final Fantasy XI online". I thought to myself "Maybe I'll give this one last game a shot. It's a RPG after all and I love those! It looks like there's some kind of online multiplayer mode to!". I had no idea what I was in store for.

I remember installing the game, getting all my info set up and setting foot in the land of Vana Diel. I was in this big enormous kingdom and it was quite confusing. I had just exited a great cut scene with some wonderful looking characters who set me off on my journey. At first, it was very difficult to get the hang of things, but something about the game just drew me in. It was such a vivid world, so beautiful and amazing, unlike any other I had seen before in any other video game. I got up to level 10 and decided to do some exploring, I wanted to see all there was to see of Vana Diel. I spent several days carefully traveling to as many corners of Vana Diel as I could find, including the three main nations and the duchy of Jeuno (with a lot of deaths mixed in to).

Once my journey concluded I was having reservations and wondering if it was worth the time I was spending, the learning curve was still a bit steep as well and I was getting frustrated trying to figure things out, so I quit... I quit for about 2 weeks that is, and the entire time I couldn't stop thinking about that amazing world of Vana Diel. The stories there must be to experience, the adventures to be had, the lands for me to discover... I decided to give it another go and my journey began. I spent as much effort as I could researching things. There wasn't any good data base sites up just yet and even Allakazham only had people posting experiences they had, so I did my best to look up any information I could find. I discovered that at level 10 (which is how it was for a long long time, before level sync, job adjustments, and Fields of Valor) that you needed to go to Valkurm dunes to level up past that. I had been through there on my way to bastok and eventually found my way back... That's when things really began to change.

I discovered my very first experience points party. It was 6 of us and we were all equally excited to be in the land of Vana Diel. We partied for what seemed like hours, around many other parties who were all killing the lizards (which were killing us as well from time to time). It was crowded, there were people all around talking, shouting, killing and adventuring. It had such a lively feel to it. There were people from all around the world playing, adventuring together. I remember this went on for days and days and each day we'd see often find the same people we had met back there in the dunes. We chatted it up and had a great time waiting around with so many other people till one by one we would get party invites, some times together.

It was the most incredible thing, fighting these lizards in this desert wasteland with all these people. As time went on we finally had to make the Trek to Qufim Island which was equally as amazing. I remember the first time I arrived there it being so crowded, so packed, so full of life and it was night time, during an Aurora Borealis. I met more new people and we all had such a great time leveling together. None of us really knew what we were in for, we were just moving forward.

Eventually, I got up to level 24 and found out it was time... Time to go to Kazham! This is where you leveled all the way from 24 to 30 and God only knows where I'd go after that, but that was the next step so go there I must. I found a group of people farming the Kazham Keys who asked if I needed them to. They agreed to help me and even invited me to my very first linkshell. It wasn't big, but it had some amazing, quality people in it that I ended up befriending for many many years. I remember we tried all night long to figure out just what dropped the keys and where. It took us till the next day to eventually get them and head to Kazham, after many laughs and after a journey that took us all over Vana Diel once again, this time to even more new areas I had never seen. Through caves, to deserts, to wastelands, to beautiful forests and more, it was so amazing.

Finally, after much adventuring I made it to the Kazham! A Lush tropical paradise with hordes of adventurers standing all around the place looking for experience points parties. Partying in the jungle felt so lively as well, so amazing, so wonderful! It was great, and before I knew it I was level 30! It was finally time to go unlock the job I had set my heart on, Paladin. I wanted to be the knight in shinning armor and all that jazz so it made perfect sense. After several days, many deaths and much deciphering I finally was able to unlock Paladin. I grinded away through the levels once again to level 30 and began my journey to 75...

Much time passed and I discovered many new areas, met many new people and went on many incredible adventures through quests and missions. Everything had so much heart and soul, there were so many people, it was so lively and active and the only boundaries Vana Diel seemed to have was limited only to my own Imagination. I was always so excited to experience new things, meet new people, obtain new goals. Finally after much hard work, I eventually reached level 75 Paladin. I was sporting my full Purple Plate Armor as well, like any pro would do in THAT day and time.

I had so many adventures along the way, conquered the shadow lord himself, found a mysterious floating island in the sky and even began to help a strange and mysterious young girl on her own journey to unlocking the secrets of her past and the land of Tavnazia. It was so incredible, so lively, there was so much to do and so much fun to be had... But all of it began to change... Thanks to two words no one would ever forget...

End Game.

I remember my first invite into a End Game Linkshell. I had no idea what was going on or how it worked. I had to say goodbye to my long time social linkshell to pursue grander horizons. I began camping tough monsters and doing things such as Sky Farming, but within this was introduced something I had not experienced so far in the game, Drama... Yep, Drama. Everyone would argue, about who got what, who went as what, when where and why. People began this pursuit for power and spoils and let greed take over their heart, although it wasn't long before I fell victim to it myself.

By this point we all knew that once we had beat the missions, important quests, and leveled up that we had done all there was to do (or so was at the time) and that it was time to delve into End Game. At that point, I decided I would pry myself from End Game and finish all the missions I possibly could, perhaps I would even level another job to 75? I heard people had started doing this. Two 75 jobs?! That was pretty hardcore at the time. But I did it. I got my second job to 75 and beat all the missions including the newly released Chains of Promathia finale. At this point I knew it was time, time to get involved in end game...

Suddenly, the adventures, the random experience points parties, the amazing quests and missions began thinning out. More were added as time went on, but it was all becoming about end game. However, I decided I would try to do my best, to become the best I could and to have the best attitude I could. I joined a linkshell and began grinding away in End Game. It was incredibly difficult, not many people save for a few were particularly friendly and I was mostly looked down upon since I had spent more time completing all the missions and getting a second job to 75 instead of getting amazing spoils for my job(s) to make me more elite.

It seemed like everything I did was wrong, I constantly got yelled at and even when I made it a point not to start drama and to be as friendly as possible any little thing, any little mistake, any question could spark it like a wildfire. I spent months and months, hours and hours and hours a day saving up my "points" so I could eventually get something good, so I could eventually get passed the three month trial (which I did) and finally have enough points for some good loot for my character. Sadly, the loot distribution in FFXI was left up to the players and the loot itself was extremely rare and hard to come by. In the early days, large "HNM linkshells" or "HNMLS" would form up with a small core who would take advantage of members, put them on trial, and when the trial was over kick them just to get more.

At the time, no one could really see what was happening, including myself, but after many months of hard work I was finally kicked. I was kicked simply because the leader thought I was a "inadequate" member, or so I was told. I felt terrible and couldn't play for weeks. I felt like not only was I complete failure, not only did I lose months and months of work for absolutely nothing, but I failed my team. This happened several times, joining HNM linkshells trying to be good for them, trying to get passed the hurdles but every time failing. Until one day...

Some one approached me, who was much like I was. They kept getting kicked out of groups (like many people were at the time) for no good reason, they kept having to try and rejoin linkshells so they decided that we should team up and make our own. It was a risky maneuver but I figured "What do I have to lose?". I accepted the challenge and we began building up our empire. Finally, I began to get some loot. I put the strategies I had learned to good use and tried to be the best leader I possibly could. We did many different events, from Sky to Sea, from Dynamis to Limbus, and everything inbetween. Everything was beginning to look much better and brighter until one day... Me and my partner who had built up this mighty empire together had a disagreement on a new rule. It was a rule we had agreed on to keep things fair from day one, but they wanted to change it. I simply expressed that I was not for it but before I knew it this partner and several of the other "officers" decided it would be better to simply kick me out and make up a story behind what happened.

Suddenly I was kicked out on the cold street, once again, this time with random rumors being spread about me. Many of my friends defended me and there was much more drama than I had ever wanted to see. All of this, for pixels? All of this, for in game items? But why? I was so confused, I was so devastated and because of it I decided to quit once more for a few months. I eventually came back and things calmed down, although various people who wanted to get in good with this now very powerful shell decided to give me a hard time from time to time. The leader (my ex-partner) would even send people on missions just to make things hard on me. Until one day...

Eventually it became known what had happened and that I wasn't the bad guy the rumors talked about after all. But people were so greedy and filled with envy, desire and dishonesty that they didn't really care. Luckily this person was more or less forced to quit the game because of it though and finally the battle had ended. I found myself leveling up various jobs and enjoying the new expansion which was just released. "Treasures of Aht Urghan".

It was amazing and finally I had new adventures, missions, and quests to experience once again. I remember how there was so many thousands and thousands of people everywhere, crowding the boats to be the first to get to Aht Urghan. People rushing to see who could unlock Puppetmaster, Blue Mage and Corsair. People rushing to see what the new missions and quests held before them. It was so incredible, so exciting. I was in a small social linkshell at the time with some of my old friends once again and we were having such a grand time! There was so many stories, so many adventures, so many amazing things to experience once again.

But soon enough, I found myself in End Game once again... Things began to get slightly better, but there was still so much drama, so much manipulation, so many people who were being put through the same sort of things I had gone through. I continued to work, day and night as many hours as my life would possibly allow to get new gear, new loot, new spoils, earning points fair in square, earning items fair in square, and going through several different HNM linkshells. Some times I was screwed over, as were the masses and some times I would finally get a good piece of loot I earned with my own blood sweat and tears. The sad thing is, not everyone was as diligent as I was.

This lack of in game point systems and the ability for a group of leaders to control and manipulate large communities of people (guilds/HNM linkshells) was a major turn off to many people. People began feeling like they would never accomplish their goals, and most didn't, so it began... The decline of FFXI... It had passed it's prime and was on a slow decline even though no one saw it for quite some time. More and more of my friends would quit every day, every week, every month. Slowly people began to trickle out but I persevered. I wanted to be the best I could be, to have the ultimate gear, to be elite and great.

After many years of hard work I had finally achieved most of my goals, at the sacrifice of much of my real life and after much needless drama. I had done all there was to do, I had defeated some of the toughest foes and reached the pinnacle of who I could become. Things began to slow down even more and I took pleasure in leading some very successful end game groups. But eventually, even though a very small percentage but SOME HNM linkshells out there were able to make their members happy and not completely screw them over, people still quit. It just required too much time, the loot systems were just too random (thanks to Square Enix's design on them) and people would leave, more and more every day, most always on a good note. It broke my heart seeing my members saying things like "I just don't have the time in my life anymore" "I just got married and cannot devote this kind of time anymore" "I'm going to college" "I've got a new job" "It's time to live my real life now" and one by one they began to leave.

I eventually obtained my ultimate goal with some close friends of mine and helped as many of them as I could obtain their goals, before eventually so many people had quit that we could not continue doing events. Events were monopolized by the same 2-5 (or so...) HNM Linkshells on every server, the rest of us simply stuck to random events, some times acting as mercenaries or guests to the big HNM linkshells. We found random things to do, new content to play through, new jobs to level. It had slowed down considerably. The bustling metropolis of Vana Diel had become all but a small town. But those of us who remained loved it so. Sadly, it would seem the developers did not and were only trying to maximize their profits. We would not see this till much later on though.

Years went by and everyone was getting bored. You either did events with the few big HNM Linkshells or you did random little things with yourself and close friends/small social linkshells. Compare it to Midgar, and then the small little towns scattered across the world in Final Fantasy 7. Eventually we got word that a new expansion was on the way. We were extremely excited, finally we could explore new lands once again, experience new missions, quests, adventures and journeys. We didn't know much about it for awhile, other than a small teaser trailer and the name of what it would be... "Wings of the Goddess". We had no idea at the time just what was happening.

Turns out as time went on we found that it was a "time traveling" expansion. You go back in time to relive the "Great War" of Vana Diel which took place in the past, 20 years prior to the day and time you currently play in. A time where the beastmen were on a full out attack with the 4 main nations of Vana Diel, a time where the nation only talked about in lore -Tavnazia- where the most important parts of the war (according to game lore) and where even the opening cut scene for FFXI took place. This might actually be fun, right? Not exactly...

Wings of the Goddess brought us a first, something we'd never seen before... Reskinned zones. For those of you who don't know, in FFXI a reskinned zone (which there are many of now) is where they take a normal zone, let's say Jugner Forest for example and change a few very minor things. They change the brightness of the sky slightly, the contrast of a few things, and add in a few new objects here and there. But essentially the same exact zone, just a technically "different" area. To these areas they added some new quests and missions but they felt quite bland, they didn't have the feel of missions and expansions before. The missions were broken up into four categories, the three nations and the main storyline. It made things overly complicated and the missions themselves were overly complicated. Not to mention, they went no where fast and most importantly? The expansion itself only brought a few of them.

A few would be added, in each update, to take us a little bit further. Finding people in a diminishing population who were on your mission, in your nation, began to become a challenge, more and more as time went on. The cut scenes you would get eventually after completing these various missions were quite good at first although they didn't make a lot of sense and had a feeling of lacklusterness. We all looked forward though, to hopefully at the end being able to go to Tavnazia. Tavnazia was the main stage where the biggest battle of Vana Diels crystal war took place. The battle that changed the entire outcome of the war itself. Maybe we would even get to meet the famous hydra corps who created the great Relic Armor we see in modern day Vana Diel. this expansion might not be so bad after all, right? Sadly...

These things never came. It was just more very shallow, easily thought up cut scenes that lead to a lot of nothing. Square Enix finally came out and told us (the community who they were terrible at communicating with for many years) that these things would not be added. The entire expansion felt like a rip off and even to this day not all of the missions are complete. The expansion did bring one great thing though, Campaign. Something that really allowed people to enjoy the game more on their own time and participate in a large scale event with other players without having to commit to a specific HNM linkshell. It was great fun... "Was" being the keyword. That would eventually change, which I'll explain coming up here in just a bit.

As time went on, people eventually began getting bored of Wings of the Goddess as well. Years had passed and they wanted new expansions, new places to go, things to do, adventures to be had and more. They wanted a TRUE expansion, one like Rise of the Zilart, one like Chains of Promathia, one like Treasures of Aht Urghan, which led us to exciting new areas. We waited patiently and finally we thought the day had come, but they threw us a curve ball.

"Mini Expansions" or "Add on Scenarios". What was this? No one really knew, but eventually we found out. Three "mini" expansions would be released over the course of the next year, although they came with no new areas, and were basically just one long quest. At the end of the quest, was a difficult fight, and for completing it you got a incredible piece of armor. One gave you the head, one gave the legs, one gave the body. They were quite shallow and you could tell not a lot of effort had been put into them, but even so people seemed to enjoy them more than most of Wings of the Goddess content aside from Campaign.

People did them, time went on, people were still bored, more people quite but still from time to time there was new blood joining and many of us remained vigilant. We stayed true to Vana Diel and did all it had to offer, even if they had taken the originality out of some of the greatest zones we had such fond memories in and "reskinned" them.

But as time went on we did continue hoping that one day we would finally feel and experience the adventure once again. That is, until the beginning of the end. This is where the fanboys will rage hard at me. You see, it all came with a announcement... "We are raising the level cap". The level cap had been 75 for seven years... SEVEN YEARS... Square Enix had been asked the question prior and laughed at it more or less. They told us the game had simply been built for a level 75 cap and that adding more levels would throw the entire world out of balance. It just wasn't feasible in Vana Diel. If you mentioned or suggested it on forums you got laughed at, flamed and exiled. But out of no where, this is what they planned to do. The level cap would be raised to level 99 and three more "mini" expansions would be added.

What I and many others didn't know was what was in store for us at this point, so I shall tell you. As soon as the first cap increase hit from level 75>80 many things were added. New weapons were added yet... They were all obtained from the same quest. A moogle who popped out of no where and for no good reason told you he had magic powers to make you a incredible weapon. There was no cut scene or story to go along with it, he just told you to go kill X_amount of X_monster X_many-times. Suddenly weapons we had spent years to obtain, millions upon millions of gil, were now obsolete. This wasn't all though, much of our armor became obsolete as well.

The trophies that so few yet so many of us eventually obtained were suddenly obsolete. Second rate. Gimp. Those expensive weapons were now second rate and almost worthless, as was so much of the armor as well. The things so many of us worked so hard for so many years for had become obsolete. The only way to get new weapons now were these new "moogle weapons" or new notorious monsters within the first add on Scenario.

These three scenarios were called Visions of Abyssea, Scars of Abyssea and Heroes of Abyssea, released in that order. They were, sadly, reskins of even MORE zones. They had no stories whatsoever to them much like the magic moogle weapons and even the new limit break quest was simply a moogle telling you to go fetch some items (no amazing story like the previous maat story and finale before it). In fact, it was almost like a joke. The reskinned zones didn't even have as many alterations as the ones in Wings of the Goddess. They simply had some differently colored monsters, a couple of unique looking monsters and random NPC's that claimed you were in some bizzaro world which was under attack and that you had to help them kill the random weird monsters traveling around it. Ohh yeah, and the sky is red...

Me and many others began to lose our will to play. Suddenly there was so much more yet so LITTLE to actually do. We were no longer on top and the things we had worked years for were obsolete. But it's not just armor and weapons Abyssea killed, nor was it just the victimized reskinned zones with no proper storyline behind them. No, experience points parties themselves were made obsolete. You could get a ton, a TON more experience points off the monsters in Abyssea than you could previously. It took much less skill and teamwork cooperation as well. A lot of people began to get lazy, because instead of cooperating in a 6 person party you now went with a 18 person alliance. There was really no reason to do a experience points party anymore from 75 to 80... Or wait... From 70 to 80... Wait no, even lower? 60 to 80? Sadly you can actually enter at level 30... Although you won't be much use fighting till around 70 but there's a loophole you see...

You can be a "chest" opener. To get increased items, experience points and time limits in Abyssea monsters you are "EXP'ing" off of drop these chests and you have to "unlock them" which consists of taking out some little keys that can be bought or doing a simple guessing game on each one. Basically, all you had to do was stand there and open chests while the rest of the alliance fought away. Normally, it would take people months and months, some times up to a year to get a level 75 job, but now? As fast as experience points came in Abyssea? You could get from 30>80 doing nothing but opening chests, with no armor on, standing there doing a lot of nothing, within about 8 hours.

Finally the next expansion was added, Scars of Abyssea. With this, even more Armor and Weapons from previous days was made obsolete. A new kind of armor dubbed "AF3" or Empyrean Armor was added. This armor made pretty much all the rest obsolete. Not only that, but one piece in particular (the feet) and the seals to upgrade all of them were incredibly frustrating to obtain.

This is the point we are at today. The world of Vana Diel has been reduced to one giant experiment and one terribly lazy effort on Square Enix's part. For years lore was added to Vana Diel, lore behind other lands we were to explore, the far east, the far west, the north, the island of Tshya, and many other areas. There was so much left to do, so many more adventures to be had, Vana Diel was so huge and we had only seen so little of it. But instead, we get our worlds turned upside down, we get our progress we worked hard for made into nothing and more and more people quit by the day. There are forums you can go to that are overflowing with Fanboys. Fanboys are people who will back up Square Enix no matter WHAT they do. Make excuses for them, and deny the reality of the situation and all costs. But reality is what it is and what I've said about what is happened is indeed a fact no matter what outlook you want to take on it.

Some time back Square Enix announced they were developing "Final Fantasy XIV online" and this is when a great many more people quit, to anticipate and wait on the new upcoming title and say goodbye to Vana Diel forever. Most people had already been so frustrated with Vana Diel as it was and as time went on more and more pathetic excuses for content were added by Square Enix.

I miss Vana Diel... I miss it very much. I miss the world I've called home for around seven years now. I miss the adventures, the people and the fun times, and even with all the flaws that could have been corrected I still miss all the great times I had. I hate seeing Square Enix do what they are doing, which is giving up on the world of Vana Diel, adding just enough to attempt to keep the remaining subscribers subscribed. I want so bad to explore more far off lands, I wish so bad that the work I spent years on was for nothing and I wish so bad the amazing, beautiful and complex world of Vana Diel was not going by the way side simply for a new shiny.

People often ask me why I have a negative approach to Square Enix and this is why. After all they put me through, after all I went through to be a loyal subscriber, customer, and adventurer, the world I care so much for is slowly crumbling at my feet and it breaks my heart to see it happen. This is why I have such little faith in them going into FFXIV and why I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

I love Vana Diel. In the past 7 years of my life I've had to travel all over the world and never stay any one place long, but there was one place I always knew I could call home, and that was Vana Diel. A land of great beauty, mystery, adventures and the greatest stories I'll never forget. I know many people will just see this as complaining, I know it may just come off as rambling but I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that I've never experienced anything so amazing, any adventure so wonderful and any story that touched my heart like Final Fantasy XI did. May God have mercy on it's soul.

A Better Beta.

2010-09-05T06:40:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Eorzea everyone! A Few days back marked the start of FFXIV Open Beta. With this game a lot of changes, a lot of good changes, fixes and more. However even at this point there is so much left to be desired. So many things still need fixing, from bugs to completely flawed systems. So many things need attention and need fine tuning and so many things show Square Enix's "laziness" so to speak. However, not all is bad don't get me wrong. Much is good and grand and with the beginning of Open Beta Square Enix did prove they can fix things and make them better. Not only that, but this is still just Beta. As much as we all hate hearing that from time to time it is indeed the truth. Let your voices be heard but don't you dare give up hope until we give this game a proper chance. Beta is HERE for the very purpose of fine tuning the game before official launch, so help Square Enix fine tune we shall.

First I'll start with the ugly and save the good things for last as to end on a lighter note.

Laziness -

So far Square Enix is showing their renowned and notorious laziness in many different aspects. A lot of people will be quick to disagree and make excuses for it but for the average person with a neutral opinion or a skeptical opinion it is no doubt things you will notice, you will even notice them if you are completely in love with the game and excuse them as I do, or you might just be completely in-denial. Either way, let's take a look at some of the things I'm talking about, shall we?

First of all, the reuse of monsters. Now some times it's absolutely alright and should be done. For example, Squirrels, Rabbits, some things of that nature. But others simply don't make since. For example, why are Dodo's out in the middle of the desert...? The look and seem more like a island bird, something that should be native to a area like Limsa Lominsa. This doesn't pop up often and I'm glad for that, well so far anyways. All games will have reused, re-skinned monsters, but some times you notice a little rift in time-space and something just doesn't make sense. Square Enix was bad about doing this after the implementation of "Treasures of Aht Urghan" in FFXI, where each time they added monsters after that there were way too many reused models some of which made no sense at all. But, I want to make it clear, so far the only real thing I have a problem with in FFXIV is the Dodo's...

Revolving Landscapes begin to make you feel like you're going through the same exact place over and over and over again. You know that feeling when you get lost in the wild and spend hours trying to find your way back, only to say "Wait a minute, haven't we been by this part before? And before that? And... Several times now?" well, you probably haven't but I think you know what I'm talking about. It's not going against realism or anything and not all areas are like this, but there seems to be a lack of diversity in many areas of the game. Instead of wondering what's around the next big bend or a ways ahead it's pretty much just the same thing over and over, usually, however this isn't always the case. Again, let's just say there's more of it than needs to be? It's not like you won't see differing areas and unique things depending on where you go, just not enough of it and you'll be feeling deja vu more often than you probably should.

The music. It's absolutely great honestly, I like it and you most likely will to, but some of it seems a little bit rushed. In FFXI you get use to the zone theme's being more of "songs" that are on replay. In FFXI, it feels more like they are just simple little tunes that aren't long enough. I have to say though, this isn't really the case in Limsa Lominsa. The theme there I think is honestly so good it should have been saved for Ishgard or some such and Limsa Lominsa should have been more on par with the other cities, if they were going to use more "loopy" style themes. The music is good, just a bit rushed feeling. Again, this is just me being a critic.

Also the Guildleve System. Square Enix likes to act as though it's some new, amazing revolution in video game design. It's not, in fact, it's a step back from what FFXI had. Instead of going on a quest and getting a reward for it, you go to a counter, get a little card, the card has flavor text on it, tells you to go kill a certain amount of X monster, you finish, click a crystal and get a reward. Honestly, it would be so much fun of these things were actual QUESTS with little story lines tied to them. Think it's impossible? Go play FFXI. You don't get EXP from them there, but you do get rewards and it is more or less the same thing. This is simple laziness on Square Enix's part marketing it off to be some amazing new system. It's not, it really isn't and it feels cheap.

Attitude. Once again, their attitude. You hear things from them like "This is a feature we really want the players to enjoy" after they admit to knowing the enormous amount of upset behind their not being a auction house and why. They say things like "This goes against our vision" or just the good old fashion "We have no plans to change ______ at this time". This is all on top of Tanaka's Tweets, miss information and bad communication. For a company saying they really want to reach out to the community this time around, they sure are doing a lousy job of it so far.

Bad Design -

There are a lot of bad designs in the game and honestly even being in open beta some of these should have been fixed by now. Let's take a look at what those are, shall we?

First of all, no Auction House. People have no idea how bad this is, well actually they do. The small minority (and I do mean quite small) defending Square Enix's decision in this couldn't be more delusional. Square Enix say's there doing it to allow our market to "stabilize" and to reduce inflation. Poppycock I say! Honestly though, it's not going to help. It doesn't matter what means to a end some one has to sell things. When people sell things they sell them and there are prices that become fixated on those things as well. People can undercut and overcut on a auction house just as easily as they can in a bazaar. There are plenty of good counter measures you can put into place to avoid price manipulation on a auction house. The main one is listing how much people have things up for auction for and for how much. If you don't want to do this, list the previous sales history as they did in FFXI. If one person makes too many sales of something then simply let it notify a GM. These are just some simple things I'm thinking up off the top of my head. There's plenty of ways to make a auction house work just fine to avoid scammers, gil sellers, and generally naughty people. People act as though bazaar's are flawless, well think again, let's take a look at their flaws shall we?

Want a piece of armor? A new headband, a new jacket, some new boots? I bet you do, we all do. Guess what? You're going to have to go to a in game flea market, target, go through several (laggy) menu's, look into some one's bazaar, browse their goods and hope you're finding what you're looking for. The best thing is, 99% of the bazaar's are simply crafting materials. Not only this, but there are about 6 of these little flea markets ("market wards") in EACH city. Not only this but there are a LOT of bazaar's in each one. It took me half a hour the other day simply to get through all the bazaar's in ONE market ward in ONE city. You better get good at memorizing them to so you know which ones are still selling junk you don't want, or maybe they aren't...? Maybe you're a crafter and you aren't looking for a piece of armor but rather crafting materials, and crystals. Ohh boy, this is why I'm not leveling crafting classes right now nor will I unless this ever gets fixed.

Not only that, but say goodbye to the days of browsing gear, comparing it, seeing who has what up for sale and just a all around better economic structure.

Finally, the price of additional characters and retainers. Basically, you have to pay a extra dollar/pound/euro/etc each time you want a little extra storage space. This isn't for a character you can actually play, but simply for more storage space. Remember how in FFXI you could get 80 inventory, 80 mog locker, 80 mog safe, 80 this and 80 that? Well in FFXIV each one of those "80's" is going to cost you real life money. If that's not terrible enough, maybe you like playing more than one character? I know I was looking forward to that, especially in a more casual MMORPG. Well that would be lovely, if they didn't cost an extra THREE dollars/pounds/euros... Yep, 3... So you start off with the base fee of 12.99 a month, but decide to add 2 additional characters? Suddenly it's 20 a month. This is quite disappointing. Charging people 3 hard earned currencies just for a extra character to play is complete madness.

But before we conclude let's take a look at some of the fundamental things that absolutely need changing. They will most likely be changed by the end of Beta but if they are not, well... Gods Forfend...

Guildleves. If you disconnect (which happens ALL the damn time so far) you fail it. Remember that part about them being on a 48 hour cooldown and only getting 8 per 48 hours? Remember how they're the main source of leveling? So should you happen to log, or should the servers/your internet/etc decide they hate you for the day well, you pay for it and you're up a creek without a paddle. Supposedly they are going to make this to where you can re-start if this type of thing happens, we'll see. I sure hope so.

Delivery Box System... There's none currently... Surely Square Enix isn't this stupid? Well, actually... Ohh damn! Anyhow, I imagine this will be implemented by retail launch but if it's not, this will be quite crappy indeed.

NPC Dialogue. Misspellings, misspellings everywhere. Not only that, but a lot of things are not even translated and show up as Moon Runes. Not only that, but this is on top of the fact that some of the NPC's are so... So... So... "Down to earth" that it can be hard to understand them at times or you just want to plum' out n' deadgum slap'um upside da' head goshdrnit!

Alright, so enough about the Bad and the Ugly, why WOULD you want to play this game?

It's absolutely beautiful. Anyone who says otherwise has a broken or low end PC. This game is the Crysis of MMORPG's. You've never seen graphics so stunning in your life.

Cut scenes, so far are absolutely amazing. They are better than good. The facial expressions on the NPC's and even your character are so amazing you'll soon feel like you're watching a cross between a Micheal Bay movie and William Shakespeare. Like FFXI, the game is worth it's weight in gold for the story alone and the cut scenes are phenomenal.

The story. It's only open beta, and already the three nation's story lines are amazingly interesting and fun.

Playability. This game is just simply fun to play. It's fun to do things, it's fun to kill things, it's fun to gather and it would be fun to craft if they would just ADD A DAMN AUCTION HOUSE... Ahem, where were we?

The armor. We're still in Beta and we are still only in the newbie levels/areas and what not and already the armor is super diverse and absolutely amazing looking. I think the armor higher up will be so amazing when it finally comes to fruit that it will blow your mind strait out of your head. So far my favorite hobby in game is collecting as many fashionable sets of armor as I can... Weird? Well maybe just a bit...

Amazingly designed cities and areas. While repetitive some times, for the most part the open areas are absolutely stunning. The cities are designed creatively and amazingly. Hopefully they expand on them and add more shops/npc's/variables, there is indeed plenty of room in them for expansion and I can't wait for that.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. The good, the bad and the ugly. Just remember I am a critic and a long time FFXI player. I expect Square Enix to do their best and address things that need addressing, you should to, but by all means do not give up hope till it is far past the proper time which currently, is no where near. I hope to see you all in Eorzea, I'm sure at the very least even through some frustrations at worst case, you'll have a blast here.

Dismay from the Developers.

2010-08-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

It's no news that for many many years Square Enix has been terrible with community relations. If you played FFXI more than a year and don't have the wool pulled over your eyes completely you will know this. It has been accepted among the masses and communities of FFXI for a long time and people simply got use to it, however in recent years Square Enix "did" seem to get better and better about community relations, addressing issues and giving players what they want, however even in these days and times they some times tend to fall short. Even so, they've made a lot of progress and over the years regained a lot of trust from the player base of FFXI and MMORPG's in general. Furthermore, through the development up to BETA for FFXIV they've been quite good with telling people what they want to hear and making promises left and right, but are those promises lies and are their words daft? Has the trust Square Enix has spent the last few years regaining being thrown all away? As of lately you would think so, below I will explain why.

It's no news that Square Enix as of late has been reverting to their old ways. Having bad community relations, receiving bad media, responding poorly to questions, addressing foreign media inadequately and even insulting it as such for their very own mistakes. This is definitely dire mistakes you cannot afford to make as a Game Developer who is already quite controversial and under a lot of critique for your decisions. It's not secret either. Even Thayos and Elmer over at Zam have written up their own articles about these issues, you can find them here, here, and here.

It worries me, because this is originally what held FFXI back from being what World of Warcraft is today. To be quite frank, although I've got nothing against WoW or Blizzard (I actually respect them) the Final Fantasy franchise was older, more well known and had a bigger more hardcore following than Blizzard did at the time of FFXI's release. Not only that but FFXI was released a good 6months~1year before World of Warcraft. It had all the potential. Beautiful Graphics, amazing stories, incredible playability, however there were many systems, many issues, many small things that held the game back. FFXI did have a prime but even in it's prime days it was incredibly flawed in many ways. Once people started learning just how critical these flaws were to their gaming experience they began to quit and FFXI began it's decline, a decline it honestly never deserved.

The things holding it back were key issues, systems in the game that needed changing. Players cried out for them for years to no avail. Square Enix would never even answer why or address these issues. The most we ever got was once a year at a fan festival, a short Question & Answer session that ultimately lead to a lot of very point blank "We have no plans to change this right now" answers without explanation. It's as if Square Enix didn't realize how important this was and how important coming down off your high horse and speaking with the community was. Years later though, they began seeing these issues, apologizing for them, making amends and promising for a better tomorrow, they even began giving us reasons to believe this. But lately, it's as if they're reverting to their old ways, their old mistakes, habits and sins. I do not want to see this happen and I do not want to see a game with such potential, such amazing development from the actual developers (the artists, the writers, the CG designers, the developers of the actual game) go to waste because of a few bad producers and directors.

This all began lately with the interview here that shows Square Enix addressing some of the very highly concerned issues from the player base after not responding to them -in a BETA test no less- for a very long time. They basically tell the players everything they don't want to hear and go on to speak about how it's all part of their "vision". If only they knew what this did to the morality of potential subscribers as well as the generated media around it.

Later came discovery of the fatigue system without any proper explanation from the developers. This came at a time where people were already very dissatisfied with the quality of the beta test, lack of responses from the developers, and their response concerning large issues that the majority of the player base were agreeing on. People began wondering how this fatigue system worked or if it was a glitch, so of course people began speculating. Weeks later after much speculation and many upset people we finally hear a response from Square Enix confirming that it is indeed a fatigue system and how it works. This is something people did not want to hear at all. Their response regarding the reason behind it is a complete falsely to anyone who knows the mechanics of MMORPG's and can understand that they are doing it simply to delay people from reaching the level cap too quickly before proper end game is implemented. Yes, in short, they limit how much Experience Points you can get before you stop getting it. Sadly it's limited to a mere one hour a day at that, something that will drive away even some of the most casual people around.

After this upsetting explanation, which at least calmed people a bit by letting them know what was up and how so, we see a tweet from Hiromichi Tanaka, the head honcho behind FFXIV's development bashing the foreign media and websites for their dismay, speculation and confusion regarding the fatigue system, even when they had nothing to tell them otherwise. This obvious bias is not something I want to see at all and is definitely a critical blow to them when they try to convey the message that their "foreign" customers actually mean as much to them as their local ones.

All in All Square Enix and the development crew behind FFXIV better get their act together and quickly, and learn just how important the community is, both local and over seas.

Meanwhile, in BETA.

2010-08-21T16:25:00.001-07:00

Greetings & Salutations everyone, from FFXIV BETA. This will be my first post since the lift of the non-disclosure-agreement so I plan to fill everyone in on what's going on in ffxiv beta right now and what you should know and might can expect. This is going to be a long drawn out post so I hope you're ready for it.

As you may know, the FFXIV ALPHA tests began many many months ago, I'm not for certain but I believe it was about 6 months ago now. However, about a month and a half back began the actual beta testing. However, it's not been the yellow brick road everyone was expecting so far. It's true that in all beta tests there will be problems, people fully expect them, even though the general consensus right now is that this beta has been the most bugged and flawed beta that pretty much anyone has played. However, this is not the main concern, not by a long shot. The main concern right now? That would be Square Enix's attitude, and most importantly, their "vision".

Square Enix has added a lot of unusual systems, controls and things of much frustration and agony so far. Most people were hopeful that these things would change come official release, that was, until not long ago when some new interviews started surfacing with the FFXIV development team. And let me tell you, they're nothing short of downright frightening. But before we get into that, I would like to go over a little history with you back in the world of Vana Diel, back when it all began over 8 years ago.

About 8 years ago, Square Enix came out with the MMORPG "Final Fantasy XI online". When this game was released there were not many MMORPG's on the market. The only ones out were things like Everquest, Ultima Online and I believe Ragnarok Online. Point being, there weren't many at all and even those were a newer breed of video game that had just surfaced. No one really knew what a MMORPG was, how it was suppose to work or just what it entailed. Developer and Consumer included. When FFXI was built they followed a lot of the same guidelines used in Everquest, which is generally thought of now days as the most "hardcore" and time consuming MMORPG to ever exist.

Because of this, it was no surprise that FFXI was very hardcore itself for many years to come. Back then people did not know what to think, what to expect or fully how to react to situations. They just played. They felt, and they were told if something was wrong that it was their fault for not being a better player. However, years and years of this "hardcore" play style went on before people started quitting in the masses. They were tired of being excluded out of content because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. They were tired of not getting anything accomplished because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. They were tired of being "gimp" because they didn't have 5+ hours a day to devote to a game. And the ones who did have and did devote (myself included) 5+ hours to the game for a very long time began seeing how it was effecting their real lives. They began to wonder why a game should take so much time out of your day just to be able to enjoy the systems within it.

And with this my friends, the "casual" mentality was born. People did not want to devote 5+ hours, 10+ hours a day to a video game anymore. It was no longer "cool" or "hardcore" but instead the masses began making fun of it, frowning upon it, and it became a taboo thing reserved for the mentally deprived. People had asked Square Enix for a good long time by then to change many things within FFXI, to change how these systems worked and to give them a better chance at enjoying the game while still maintaining their real lives. But with each new interview Square Enix simply ignored these pleas, these cry outs, their very consumers, and stated things were worked as intended. The "hardcore" crowd only made fun of them, telling them not to play if they didn't like it. Well, that's exactly what happened eventually, people stopped playing and because of this many MMORPG's (not only FFXI) began to lose many of their subscribers. And what does this mean for the developers? A loss of revenue.

Square Enix addressed this by slowly implementing new systems to allow better play for people who could not or did not want to play a game for 5+, 10+ hours a day. However, with the new systems being added many more, many of the same systems already in existence still remained. I guess you could say it was too little too late. But as time went on, more and more of these "casual friendly" systems were added and helped to retain the remaining subscribers of FFXI, although every now and again Square Enix would add another "Hardcore Friendly" system and simply shoot themselves in the foot. As years went on, people began to regain a small amount of trust in the company who never listened to them, their pleas, or their cry outs. The developers began communicating with the community just a bit more and things started looking a bit brighter. But again, it was simply too little too late. FFXI was passed it's prime and began it's slow and gradual decline.

Meanwhile, games like World of Warcraft were flourishing. They appealed more to the casual community, even though they were often abused by the hardcore. Because of this, it and games like it only grew in popularity while games like FFXI, with it's amazing story, amazing graphics and beautiful world simply fell by the wayside. It was a sad thing to see for me, because I always loved and have loved FFXI so very much, through thick and thin. It really truly is a amazing game with the most captivating story I've ever experienced in my entire life.

Life went on, time went by and the sun continued to rise and set. The remaining FFXI population began to regain more trust and a better outlook in FFXI and to the developers themselves. But then it came, the one day that would change it all. People had known for awhile, well they had "speculated" that Square Enix was developing a new MMORPG, a "next gen" MMORPG. We speculated for a couple of years before it was ever officially announced and took most (but not some of us) by surprise. "Final Fantasy XIV online", it was announced at the E3 convention in 2009. Many of us in the "underground" were already expecting this, it is in fact when I started this very blog.

As time went on new information surfaced here and there and Square Enix began discussing and advertising their new up-and-coming MMORPG within the gaming community. We soon found out that Square Enix was planning on doing everything right from the start. They said their "vision" was to make FFXIV a casual friendly game, one that could be played and enjoyed for just a hour of commitment every day. They spoke of the new "guildleve" system, they spoke of all kinds of different designs to allow people to have fun and enjoyment while still retaining their real lives. They also stated that this time around they really wanted to listen to the community, what the community had to say and really give them what they wanted. But this would all change sadly...

Fast forward back to now. Saturday, August 21st 2010. We are currently in the 3rd phase of beta testing for FFXIV and already things are looking quite bleak. The entire FFXIV beta community is in a uproar and many have already quit in mass exodus, and the game isn't even out yet! But why you ask? Sadly, because Square Enix has reverted back to their old selves in many ways and they have also lied to the community. But how you may ask? Allow me to elaborate.

As I explained and as you more than likely know by now if you've been following the development of FFXIV, Square Enix has sworn time and time again several major points about FFXIV and the testing of such to make it a better game overall:

They would listen to the community and adhere to their desires.

They would communicate with the community.

They would make FFXIV a casual friendly game while still appealing to the more "hardcore" community as well. They said FFXIV would be a game that could be enjoyed thoroughly by anyone, no matter their play time.

They wanted to think of the FFXI community first and foremost and make FFXIV appealing to them before any other demographic.

However, these points became moot and untrue as time went on. The FFXIV forums were always a place where if you said anything bad about FFXIV you got flamed and chased away quickly, one of the most used arguments in doing so was "It's just beta". But things continued to go downhill and slowly the masses began to speak out. The "diehards" and "fanboys" were quickly silenced and drown out by the cries of the masses once again, and this time their cries were louder than ever.

You see, as of now Square Enix is not only going back on their word about many things, they are not staying true to it. Below I will describe the major issues which are plaguing FFXIV right now.

They have spoken with the community very very little thus far and only recently have given a few new interviews. This is one thing everyone hated for the longest time in FFXI that eventually changed down the road, but has changed and reverted back as of late with FFXIV and the development within.

They are not taking suggestions from the community. Now, before you roll your eyes I'm not talking about "PLEASE ADD FLYING CHOCOBOS!" or every little suggestion posted. I'm talking about MAJOR issues that the entire community bands together on and agrees with fully to the point that absolutely no one is against it. And with that, below, I will address some of these issues at hand.

The Guildleve system. It is part of Square Enix's "vision" to have Guildleve on a 48 hour cooldown, and the bad thing is that you can only accept a maximum of 8 guildleves for this 48 hour time period. This is very limiting to the player, however at first it wasn't such a big deal because guildleves were very worthwhile and gave very good experience points and rewards for doing them. However, this was nerfed and now at this point the guildleves give hardly anymore experience points than simple monster grinding. They took out the biggest incentives to participate within them. They then explained this was part of their "vision" and wanted this to encourage players to group up and share their guildleves. The thing is, when you do this you suffer a loss of experience points gained. More or less, it's more efficient to do a solo guildleve and then go about your business or go back to solo grinding than it is to group up with 2 or more players. At this though, the biggest complaint in the community regarding guildleve right now is the 48 hour cooldown. Square Enix simply responded in a interview with "This is our vision on how it will work, and while the community is asking for the cooldown to be lowered we have no plans to do so".

Then there was crafting. A Profession Square Enix swore the players could take up and enjoy within itself without having to depend on a melee/magic/front lines class to enjoy. That if some one simply wanted to craft, then craft they shall. However this was far from the truth. The skill ups even at the low levels were even much slower than that in FFXI and that being at higher levels. The materials needed to make simple crafts to level up your crafting profession were expensive and hard to come by, and lastly there were the crystals. Say goodbye to simply needing one crystal, because now even for the most simply low level synthesis you could need anywhere from 2 of one kind, 3 of another kind and 4 of a final kind to 9 of each kind of crystal, for a single synthesis. One which had about a 20% chance of giving you skill up points, a small amount at that. The crafting "guildleves" gave you free ingredients to craft with but only a few and after about a hour or so you ran out of them and then came to lovely 48 cooldown to obtain more. Things truly were looking bleak for crafters and those wishing to take up the profession.

The next thing the community absolutely hates is the controls. WASD for movement and IJKL for camera control? Square Enix said time and time again they wanted to make the FFXI community feel comfortable playing their game (FFXI primary controls were the num-pad for movement and arrow keys for camera control. It worked surprisingly well). But not only are they failing to do so, they are also alienating the WoW crowd and many other MMORPG players. I will admit using the mouse to control camera can be nice and I don't mind it a bit. Sadly, the mouse control system for FFXIV is done using what's called the "software mouse" system as opposed to the "hardware mouse" system. This means basically that it lags and there will always be a tiny amount of lag in it even if polished which right now, it is far from. The community was quite upset about this and was begging Square Enix to use the "hardware mouse" which is just as easy to be implemented into the system and design as it's inferior software counterpart. But for some reason Square Enix responded with "We currently have no plans to change the software mouse to a hardware mouse, the software mouse will receive some revisions and be kept".

The next big, major issue is the fact that there is no Auction House on FFXIV. There is what's called the "Market Wards". You "hire" a retainer, meaning you get your own NPC to stand in this large market area with a "bazaar" of your goods for sale within them. The bad thing is that there's no way of knowing who has what and there are honestly hundreds if not thousands of these NPC's and this is just in the BETA. This means trying to find some simple ingredients or a piece of armor can honestly take hours of searching. People begged Square Enix in the masses to please introduce a Auction House. If Square Enix was trying to prevent abuse of a Auction House all they had to do is revise the "price history" system there within to show if anyone was trying to abuse it, alter price history or under sale. Simply put, let people see who's selling what for how much and how often. But still, do this within a actual auction house system. This is what the player base has BEGGED for probably more than anything else. It's much more convenient to walk up to a Auction House and spend 5-10 minutes getting the things you need and browsing the wares within than spending upwards of an hour and perhaps not even finding what you were looking for. Square Enix simply responded with "The market wards are a unique and innovative system that we want to keep".

These comments were all found out in a interview that surfaced. One that should have boosted the morale of the current beta player base and given Square Enix better publicity. This interview surfaced in a time where the entire game was filled full of bugs, full of insanely high lag, issues that could be easily addressed that were simply ignored, even for beta. This interview came in a time where people were beginning to get very frustrated and put out with a game so unpolished that most said it was not even worthy of being called a "Alpha Build" due to the immense bug and hugely grotesque lack of content. This made the community begin turning against itself, people quitting left and right, disgruntled players everywhere and the few people defending Square Enix burned at the stakes. This was all within the OFFICIAL BETA FORUMS non the less...

But then came the final nail in the coffin for many. People thought it was some kind of glitch or some kind of odd system they didn't quite understand. After gaining experience points for awhile your rate of experience points began dropping and you began getting "surplus" experience points. Where did these surplus experience points go to and what were they used for? Sadly we found out. Absolutely nothing! That's right, it is a built in "fatigue" system that all classes share, from crafting, to gathering, to melee and magic. The bad thing is, you start experiencing this fatigue after a mere hour or two of leveling up. So Square Enix responded with this... "We do not want those who have more time to gain an advantage of the player base so we have added in this fatigue system. We recommend that if you want to play more past it you should switch classes". Wow, really? Truly? Before people were just upset about being excluded from end game events in FFXI due to the lack of 5+ hours of play time per day. But now, if you want to simply get experience points, on your own, giving you no real advantage other than quick leveling you get punished for it? I'm casual myself now but some times I will have 2-3, 3-4 hours a day to play and I want to enjoy it. Why would I care if some one else levels up slightly quicker than me? And why should they or I have to change classes and not enjoy the one we are trying to focus on if we want to enjoy the game more than a hour a day?

As of now the entire FFXIV beta community is in a uproar. It's like a FF-Apocalypse before the game has even been released. I've never seen a community in my life as disgruntled and surprisingly in complete agreement with each other. the FFXIV official beta forums are pretty much just a Square Enix bashing wonderland at the moment and the feedback forums and filled with nothing but anger and resentment for Square Enix and their attitude. You hear these "upbeat" and lighthearted interviews with the developers when they laugh, giggle, and say things like "We hope you enjoy your experience in Eorzea!" Are they clueless? Are they that fucking stupid? No, no one is nor can be. They are simply going off of their "vision" and what they feel is best, reverting to their old ways and going back on so many promises it's not even funny.

Things are looking bleak at the moment and threads like "I want to believe" "I want to enjoy the game" "Is there any hope" plague the FFXIV general discussion forums with nothing but negativity towards the developers who seem to not realize their player base is more important than their "vision". They don't seem to realize that if they release something that is nothing short of a joke and get a metric ton of bad media all because of a few visions they have and a largely ignored community their game will go absolutely no where very quickly, this includes in Japan to because the Japanese player base is sharing pretty much the exact attitude as the rest of the world towards this at the moment. Some one needs to tell Square Enix that their "vision" isn't going to mean jack if they have no subscribers to partake in it and make the company a profit.

Still I hold out hope, that maybe Square Enix will change their minds, maybe they will see how much of a uproar this is causing and change some things, because if they don't there won't be much hope for such an amazing and beautiful game with so much potential. Let's hope for the best everyone and pray that Square Enix does what's right and not what THEY think is "right" according to their "vision".

Is FFXIV "too original"... Or not original at all?

2010-08-05T05:08:00.001-07:00

We've been hearing Square Enix brag about it left and right, up and down, from all corners of the globe.

"FFXIV is Original"

"FFXIV has new unique system"

"FFXIV never before this"

"FFXIV never before that"

"FFXIV this and that like no one else".

Well, from what we know and are learning so far things might not be as unique as they are cracked up to be. But that might just be what we need. Wait, what? Let me explain...

First of all, Square Enix kept bragging about their "Guild Leve" system. Guild leve this, Guild Leve that. About how innovative it is in the world of MMORPG's. Sadly, that's not the case. Guild Leve is more or less simple questing as most people know it in most MMORPGs. Sure, you can disguise it by letting a "special NPC" hand out the "guild leves" but all they really are is quests, at least so far. But from the way they are looking and the way we can see them progressing it's nothing other MMORPG's have not done before. It's a bit of text and fluff, telling you what to go do, why you're doing it and you receive a reward at the end for your hard work. Some time's it's EXP, some times Armor and Weapons, some times it's strait up currency. But this is nothing new to the spectrum of MMORPGs or even FFXI for that matter.

Now, is that bad? Not necessarily. In fact, if they make it good it might work out quite well. A big gripe in FFXI was that there was not enough of these sort of things. It's a system that works well and for good reason. They come in all shapes, sizes and rewards. My only complaint is that I don't see why they couldn't be added as simple quests with cut scenes (ohh how I love my cut scenes). But maybe I'm just spoiled from FFXI, where every damn thing has a cut scene and a story to it. I don't particularly enjoy simply reading a piece of paper explaining why I'm killing something and for who, I like to go deeper into it to make it more interesting. Could this be Square Enix's laziness once again? There's no doubt you know of their knack at being so if you've played FFXI for any considerable amount of time (the most recent expansions are good examples). However, only time will tell how good or bad this system is and how it works and how the player base likes it.

But that's not all folks!

There's more to discuss that is original indeed! However...

Sadly it's true and with some aspects it seems Square Enix is trying to be a little bit too unique. For example, the Camera and Movement controls. As of right now, no one likes them. WoW players, FFXI players, other MMORPG players, no one, everyone pretty much despises them and for proper reason. The controls not only do not allow you to make good use out of the keyboard, but also the mouse. They pretty much force you into using a game pad and even then it's clunky. Not only that, but the combat and targeting system is just god awful, it really is, and this is coming from a enormous fanboy who really wants this game to turn out great. Some things simply take the playability down and ruin the fun you could be having. Some times, it's best to just stick with some things if they work... Jeez, I wonder if that's why they stuck with the same races..? Or could it be... Anyways... From what we have heard, Square Enix is going to be making some adjustments to this. Let's just hope they are worthwhile and fix the monstrosity which is the control, combat, and camera system.

I have much hope and faith in Square Enix. Nothing is final until the game actually comes out and even then it will take time to work out all the kinks. Let your opinion and voice be heard so Square Enix can give us what we want and how we want it.

To Zone or Not To Zone.

2010-07-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

Often times I find people talking about the "seamless world", one which zoning does not exist. Of course, this became something people often fantasized about over the years of FFXI where zoning was very prevalent. It's also something that other MMORPG players experience, while maybe not quite as often. But it seems people are always wanting a more seamless world with less zoning. Well, I'm going to say something that might sound completely crazy but... Zoning might actually be good! That's right, zoning might actually be a good idea, and here's why.

People have really underestimated the importance of zoning. To Square Enix, it was just a way to build the game easier, to us, it has just been a frustration, but quite honestly it's one of the best game designs I've ever seen. Why is that? Because when you zone you go from one area to another. You "traverse" across the lands. Think of it as a time skip. Imagine if while watching a movie, instead of there being parts of the movie where it skips from one scene in one place to another scene in another place, everything took place in one area and the camera never left one scene. Well, this is a bit extreme and exaggerated on my part, I know I know, but it's the same principle when all is said and done honestly.

Zoning actually helps "immerse" us in our online Journey. There are some MMORPG's of which I've played that didn't have zoning, one notable one being Aion. I'm not here to bash Aion today (as much as I would like to) but one of the biggest flaws is that you could pretty much go from a scorching hot barren desert, to a swampland, to a jungle, to a forest, to a mountain range, all in just jogging for about 20 minutes at a moderate pace. It felt extremely unrealistic and made you feel like you were in some kind of gigantic play box or fake world.

This is not the kind of feeling that gives you that "enormous" feel some where like Vana Diel does. In Vana Diel, when you go from the mountains to the desert, you happen upon what looks to be a mountain pass, you zone into it and the screen goes black, moments later you appear on the other end in the desert. Some times you can see far off details at the other end that look like they are a natural part of the environment. It really gives the game a feeling and a sense of immersion that when you go from one area to another you're actually traversing across a large area to get there and makes the world feel much bigger than it actually is as well. And you know us MMORPG gamers, we can never have a big enough world! (Just not enough transportation and quick enough)

So in closing, I hope while Square Enix keeps talking about a "seamless world" for once, in the millions of times they've inconvenienced players to retain the "feel" of something they do it in the right area (no pun intended) and give us at least some zoning to make the world feel vast, expansive, and realistic so we can truly be immersed in Eorzea!

Transcendence.

2010-07-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well the time has finally come, it's getting quite close to the official release date and I figure now is the perfect time to do what I have been planning to do all along. That's right, I'm going to start my own FFXIV community. One which is much different than the others, or at least the others I've seen trying to recruit thus far. I'm sure I won't be the first nor the last with the ideas and mindset I currently have.

Transcendence is going to be a community of a very different caliber. You see, I'm not making this community to force a bunch of rules onto you, I'm not making it to make you jump through hoops just to join, I'm not making it over complicated, and most importantly I'm not going to try to make it some place where we all try to rush through the game as fast as possible, racing to the end to see who can get what end game armor the quickest and who can defeat which boss first.

I'm making a community for the rest of us. A community where you can have fun and adventure. One where you can build and develop friendships, one where you can find out new information, strategies, tips and so forth to become more proficient at your own pace. Some where that you can get help for the most menial tasks and your level doesn't matter. A place where exploration, adventure and character development will reign supreme.

But most importantly, I want to make a community that will last. It's part of why I'm calling it "Transcendence". I want a community full of mature and like minded individuals. One that escapes needless drama, pointless arguments and immature activity of any sort. I myself have been playing MMORPG's for many many years and I am indeed getting older now. I'm not one who will discriminate some one based on their age, but I really have gotten sick of the "high school drama" feeling that most MMORPG's (especially FFXI) force upon people.

I want a community where we can act like adults, and have fun together as adults. Where we can enjoy a amazing adventure together, grow together, build friendships together and surpass the immaturity, stupidity and drama that a lot of communities face. I read all these different communities trying to recruit early for FFXIV and they make me laugh. All these complicated rule systems when we don't even fully know how the game or it's systems will work, all these long applications, all these confusing websites, it makes me sick.

Then lately I see these new RP guilds popping up. I've never been against RP but in my opinion they just take it too far. They try to become their own little act within the game and they are already creating back stories to stories that have yet to even be released. Not that I'm against them mind you, usually RPers are quite peaceful people who I've never had a problem with.

But isn't there a community for the rest of us? One where we can join and just enjoy ourselves? One that is more than simply a social community however. We will indeed grow, we will learn new things, and we will strive to be as good as we can be, but all at our own pace and on our own time. There is no "requirements" other than your attitude.

I was originally going to create this community simply for FFXI veterans (and if you are one I urge you to apply!) however, I've learned over the years that personalities aren't limited to a single video game, no matter how much bias I may or may not have. I've found great people from every walk of life, and I would not want to deny them the opportunity to be in a good group of folks who think like they do.

So if you want a community of mature, like minded individuals who aren't going to bullshit around about one thing or another, but just grow together and enjoy the adventure, then please consider giving Transcendence a try. It's most definitely not for everyone and if you're just trying to get as much as you can, as far as you can, as quick as you can we aren't for you. But if you want to truly develop in the best way possible with a solid group of people, then give us a check out.

Transcendence FFXIV, A little community with a lot of common sense.

Be sure and read the "Rules and Guidelines" as well as "What is Transcendence".

If you would like to join the community, fill out the really short and super basic application. There's no need to apply to post on the forums which will follow the same mentality as the community. This is also where, from this point forward, I will post all the new media information, articles, and findings regarding FFXIV.

It's time to Transcend.

2010-07-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well as you may have noticed by now, I have not added very much information to my blog lately. However... That doesn't mean I haven't been working hard on FFXIV related projects and information.

Awhile back I began wondering exactly what my blog was for. I've been very in tune to the development of FFXIV since before it was even officially announced. My love of FFXI drove this and my desire and passion for new adventure fueled it. I wanted to make sure I made a difference in the FFXIV community in whichever way I possibly could, so I decided to start my blog.

It was originally going to be articles and information however, I miss calculated just how much information there was out there. It became quite a good site for a compilation of FFXIV information from all around the internet, so people knew they weren't missing one bit from any site. However as the development kept going forward further and further it became harder and harder to add all of this information from every corner of the internet.

But the craziest thing? I still plan to do this. Just in a slightly different way. I want my blog to become what a blog truly is made for, personal opinions and articles by the author. However, I am not going to stop giving people all the latest information... In fact, I'm going to make it even better. How so you ask? With Transcendence.

The Active Time Battle System.

2010-06-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

As of now, we know so much yet so little about the dynamics and gameplay of FFXIV. From the get go the developers have explained that they wanted a more active and user initiated battle system where the players become more involved in each individual action they preform instead of just engaging and auto-attacking. However, not everyone seems to be liking this system and there seems to be a bit of discontent by the alpha testers with it. Square Enix has said in a recent interview that they will be revising and perfecting much of the battle system itself when they transition from Alpha testing to Beta testing. However, one thing is clear, it will be a much more interactive and completely new system than most people are use to with other MMORPG's. Elmer over at Zam wrote up a full article about it so be sure to check it out.

Official FFXIV website updated.

2010-06-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

As of may 19th The official FFXIV website has been updated once more with new information! This time we get an official look at the now well known map of Eorzea. We also get a huge load of information all about Limsa Lominsa and the guilds, landmarks, and details about the city itself and more. Luckily enough, we also finally get a bit of information on the other two cities, Ul'Dah and Gridania. So be sure to head strait over to the official FFXIV website to check out all the new information and pictures!

Alpha Vs. Beta (Screen Shots!)

2010-06-01T22:02:00.000-07:00

Some new screen shots have come forth showing the DRASTIC difference in the Alpha version of the game and the Beta version. As anyone by now should know the Alpha version is a very basic version that is unpolished in every way from the beta version, which is itself a unpolished version from the final product that will be released and sold. From game mechanics, to latency issues, to glitches and bugs, and most importantly the graphics! Below, I will be posting some screen shots that have been released that show the drastic difference between the graphics in Alpha and Beta alone. It's amazing to think this is just the difference between Alpha and Beta and that the final product will be even slightly more tweaked than Beta!

I hope everyone is as excited as I am for this beautiful world we will soon explore!

Alpha

Beta

Alpha

Beta

More Beta Screenshots!

Map of Eorzea and Latest Info from Famitsu.

2010-06-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Famitsu has come out with all new information on FFXIV, including one very exciting map of Eorzea. The developers have spoken in recent times of how the land of Eorzea is simply the first stage we will see in the mighty production of Hydaelyn (Eorzea is simply a region in Hydaelyn, the world which FFXIV takes place in).

In the map we see the city of Limsa Lominsa (Where all the alpha tests have taken place) in the south west corner, it appears to be an island with a waterway disconnecting it from the main continent. In the southern lands in the middle of the map we see Ul'Dah and in the upper right hand corner to the north east, we see Gridania. To the west of Gridania seems to be the city of Ishgard, which is thought to be the "Hub" city (think Jeuno/Whitegate FFXIers) for FFXIV. And if you look to the far north east corner you see the Garlean Empire, quite ominous looking don't you think? I wonder what adventures will await us in that far off land. Also, if you look at the very bottom left corner of the picture you will see the flags for each kingdom. From left to right they are: Ul'Dah, Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, Ishgard.

Read the full article's on Zam and FFXIVcore!

Famitsu Interview with Tanaka & Komoto.

2010-06-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

A new interview has appeared in Famitsu with Hiromichi Tanaka and Nobuaki Komoto discussing the Alpha and Beta stages of FFXIV. A lot of interesting new information regarding their plans as well as what's been going on so far in the tests. Be sure and read the full interview and writeup by Elmer on Zam.

A Closer Look at Limsa Lominsa

2010-06-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Recently Elmer over at Zam did a writeup taking a closer look at Limsa Lominsa. As he explains a lot of Japanese magazines and media sources have been able to sink their teeth deep into some of the great details of the FFXIV Alpha being conducted so far. While so very little is known yet, we are finally able to take some in depth looks and tours around Limsa Lominsa. We get to visit some of the shopping guilds as well where you can see different armor for purchase as well as some novelty gear such as masks, glasses and "Fluff" items. It's nice to see we will be getting some fun aesthetic gear to play around in.

Click here for the full article and more information!

Famitsu talks about "Skillchain" type system.

2010-04-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

A new article from Famitsu has been released, showing more FFXIV screen shots and information, particularly about a new "Skillchain" like system. If you played FFXI back in the old days you know what skillchains are and how fun they could be. It looks like the devs are bringing back a similar system in FFXIV to be used in party and group dynamics. You can read the full article here via google translate. Note the translation isn't perfect but it's the best I can come up with for right now. Also, it appears "Batorurejimen" is the new Japanese word for this type of skillchain system in FFXIV.

Famitsu Beta Schedule Information.

2010-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

I just came across a article on a blog with newly released information from Famitsu, it discusses the "semi-planned" Alpha and Beta schedule for FFXIV from the developers mouths themselves. They talk about what kind of schedule they're shooting for so far for the Alpha and Beta tests, what their current plans on for the phases, as well as information that PS3 owners will be happy to hear. Below I'll post the article itself, but check it out as well as the new screen shots here.

Coinciding with the start of the Final Fantasy XIV alpha test, Famitsu.com was given a chance to quiz the development staff on a variety of game issues. Here's a summary of the Q&A.

The staff first shared a rough schedule for the game's alpha and beta programs.

The alpha test will take place in just one world. The world is named "Shadowlord." They'll be conducting tests three days a week, with each session lasting about four hours. These tests will be conducted in Japan, North America and Europe, each region separate from one-another.

Once they've gotten the basic functionality of the game stable and conducted tests on server load and so-forth, the'll move into phase one of the beta test. Phase 1 of the beta will use the same version of the game as the alpha, but will have multiple worlds running in parallel. There will be some adjustments made in the switch from alpha to phase 1 beta that will require them to do a data wipe.

After they've adjusted the game to fix problems and reflect the opinion of test players, they'll move to beta phase 2. From here, the game will run 24 hours. The content of the game used in this beta will have changed considerably and will be closer to that of the final game. The PS3 version of the beta test will begin here.

Phase 2 will gradually expand with additional worlds as the staff runs load tests on having hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections.

The final service-in for the game will come following a few weeks of open beta testing.

The current alpha test version of the game limits play to just the Limsa Lominsa city-state and its surroundings. This will be the case throughout the alpha and beta tests. You won't be able to access the rest of the world until the final version. Limsa Lominsa and its surroundings account for less than 1/5 of the final version's full world, according to the staff.

Other topics addressed in the Q&A:

Character Names

FFXIV lets you input both first and last names for your character. The reason for this is that each world will allows multiple players to have the same family name or same first name -- although two players can't have the same pairing of first and last names, of course. This will give players a chance to more easily play using the name of their choice. When using chat, there's a system in place that will make it so that you won't have to input the full name.
Different Starting Points

What kind of differences can you expect when starting in a different country?

Each country will have a different story. Additionally, each city will have different facilities and unique atmosphere.

Enemies

There will be combat-loving monsters who attack you. Additionally, there will be powerful enemies unrelated to the scenario for players to go after. None of this is in the alpha.

More Alpha Information from Famitsu.

2010-04-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Famitsu Magazine has released some more information regarding FFXIV and the Alpha test. Currently for this exact information I cannot find a translation so I'll simply link you to the google translation. Keep in mind that "Girudorivu" refers to Guildleve, " β " refers to Beta and " α " refers to Alpha. They more or less go over the different points about how you start your character out in the Alpha test. They explain about the opening movie and how right after it there's a tutorial type of fight to let you get accumulated to the battle system. They also mention that Limsa Lominsa and it's surrounding areas will be the only starting area during the Alpha and possibly Beta tests. They also explain how while you can recover HP for resting or being in passive mode, recovering MP is done a bit differently by clicking on certain crystals. Speculation is that this is Square Enix's way to keep people from "Camping" so much and to actually move around and explore more.

They continue to go on and explain about how there will be a certain type of "Merit" system from the get go, which will allow you to accumulate points to be spent on different attributes and abilities. This is part of how your character will grow and be customizable in FFXIV. They also explain how it might be possible through this system to allow certain abilities and spells from one discipline to be used on others. Personally, I would think these would be only minor spells, traits, and abilities, much like how FFXI's subjob system works.

That's all I can come up with for now in my sleep deprived state. Be sure and click on the google translation to get all the cool new screen shots as well as the official article.

Famitsu Hands On Alpha Test!

2010-04-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

In the latest issue of Famitsu magazine they were lucky enough to actually get to test the newly released Alpha version of FFXIV, and Square Enix was kind enough to let them publish all of their findings! This is the most insight we have gotten to FFXIV so far and we find out a whole bunch of new information and details. There's way too much to list here, so check out the full artical Here On Zam and Here On FFXIVcore to find out all the exciting new screenshots, facts, and details about FFXIV!

FFXIV Devs talk about plans for Alpha & Beta.

2010-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Recently, Dengeki magazine got to sit down with the developers and discuss the Alpha and Beta test phases that FFXIV will be undergoing. They got a good look at what the developers have in mind so far and give some great insight as to what you might can expect. There's also more new information regarding the game dynamics itself and how FFXIV will be evolving through the Alpha and Beta stages. Read the full article Here On Zam.

Active Mode, Passive Mode, and Party Dynamics.

2010-04-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

In a recent article in Famitsu Magazine, Square Enix developers discuss the passive and active battle modes and how they will effect you in FFXIV. By now you most likely already know that in FFXIV there will be a "Active" stance and a "Passive" stance. One with your weapon sheathed and one with it drawn. What you might not know is that it's more than just being engaged or disengaged with a enemy, like how for example you can be in active or passive mode anywhere at any time. Each will have advantages and disadvantages that are quite obvious, but there are more details to this system than you might think.

We also get some more insight as to how the developers are creating the grouping systems in FFXIV and learn they want us to be able to have quite a bit of freedom. Whether you may want to adventure with many or adventure solo, they assure us that no time will be wasted or without reward.

Take a look at the full article Here On Zam to discover more.

Nvsion Magazine! Now with more FFXIV!

2010-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

A new spring issue of the popular gaming magazine released by Nvidia's "Nvision" magazine has just hit the shelves and as you can see by the cover, they're giving FFXIV some much deserved publicity. They have a entire section of the magazine all about up and coming MMORPG's for this year, with the first 6 pages being completely dedicated to FFXIV, not to mention the front cover itself and the very back cover. I just picked up my copy, be sure and pick up yours as well! You can get them just about anywhere.

I'll give you guys a run down of what the magazine itself says in these 6 exciting pages of FFXIV goodness.

Quote, Nvision Magazine:

"And what did you do at work today, honey?"

"Oh, I just created a new world, designed a new planet and some critters to roam the hills and valleys, and outlined the designs for the players that are gonna run around and shoot 'em all."

"That's nice, dear--What are you going to do on the seventh day?"

Building the next generation of massively multiplayer online worlds actually requires years of dedication to concept, design, and execution. Big franchises and bigger teams are crafting the spaces online gamers willl inhabit for the next decade. That requires a talent and commitment level of a flavor that is unique to the games industry, and we're taking you inside the process to reveal what it takes to bring virtual universes to life.
What's clear about the next wave of MMO is that graphics are no longer and afterthought--developers are finally tapping into the full power of the GPU to bring cutting-edge visuals to the genre.

Few gaming franchises combine the longevity, critical approval, and fan adoration that defines the Final Fantasy series. This 14th iteration (not counting all the various off-shoots, side projects, and even animated films) moves the franchise online for the second time (The first time was 2002's Final Fantasy XI). But a brand new world--Hydaelyn--and a new setting on that world called Eorzea require a vast amount of new art concepts, design, and creation--all occurring under the watchful eye of art director Akihiko Yoshido-san. Nvision tapped Yoshida-san for exclusive insights into the process his team goes through to remain within the traditions of the franchise while developing fresh new locations for online gamers to explore.

"The Variety of playing styles available will be considerably greater than that of Final Fantasy XI," Yoshida-san says of the scope of content being created. Hydaelyn blends sci-fi and fantasy elements, as seen in the early images released, leading to a large variety of disparate style needing to be blended into a cohesive world vision. "To deliver the graphics necessary to bring the variety of gameplay to life, we are striving to produce sharp images that are contextually appropriate to the time, place, and situation. An example of this would be the visually stimulating or evocative landscapes," says Yoshida-san, adding, "To help fulfill the expectations that players have cine ti have of afinal fantasy world. One of the first things we take into account is a certain sense of reality. For example, we have paid a great deal of attention to the effects that the passage of time or changes in the weather have on how light is displayed."

Still, veterans of Final Fantasy XI will see some similarities in the character styles and professions, even though the specific races and classes will be new to the series. "The character creation from Final Fantasy XIV will be much more in-depth than that of previous titles of the series," says Yoshida-san, "Players will be able to generate avatars similar to thos in Final Fantasy XI if they choose to do so, but there will also be some new [player character] types." Want more specifics on the new characters? The devs are keeping that information tightly under wraps. though five distinctive races have been revealed so far.

Incredibly, Square-Enix released the single-player Final Fantasy XIII while working on this MMO off-shoot. The games share certain technology details such as the core engine and the tools used to build the worlds, bu the process, challenges, and ultimate requirements are significantly different. More surprising yet is the fact that the world of Hydaelyn revealed in the first release of FFXIV may actually be smaller than the locations crammed on to the Blu-ray disc shipping for FFXIII on PS3. "Since we are still in development a thorough comparison isn't possible, but at releast FFXIB will be about the same scale, if not slightly smaller, than FFXIII," says Yoshida-san.

But that's not to suggest the game world will actually be small. Shortly after its release in Japan, it was revealed that enough content for an entire additional game ended up on the FFXIII cutting-room floor. These game worlds are always massive...and complicated. While Square-Enix is keeping many gameplay details under wraps, five races have been revealed (the Hyur, Lalafell, Miqo'te, Roegadyn, and Elezen) with character classes organized in four discipline types (Disciples of War, Magic, the Land, and the Hand). The races, classes, and disciplines require an intriguing blend of art assets to capture the vast scope of this world. "The world of FFXIV will have certain sci-fi elements such as out-of-place artifacts, perhaps best exemplified by airships," says Yoshida-san. "These elements will play a key role in distinguishing the cultures and civilizations of different nations, regions, and races, but they will not be extremely numerous," adds Yamamoto-san. "We are seeking to create a fantasy world with its core in classic sword-and-sorcery that players will never grow tired of visiting, no matter how much they play."

Veterans of FFXI may, come actual release, recognize certain elements of the class structure, but the developers are happy to point out that lessons learned from the development will be incorporated into a tighter, more focused online Final Fantasy experience. "It would be more accurate to say that we are attempting to achieve a development process that take full advantage of the know-how obtained from Final Gantasy XI while also improving on its shortcomings," says Yoshida-san. "Given the differences in the worlds, there will be no direct transplants from Final Fantasy XIII," he adds, "however, player can expect to see some of the classic monsters from the Final Fantasy series making an appearance, a number of which will be undergoing a makeover from FFXI."

Some of those enhancements will come courtesy of close working relationship between nvidia and the Square-Enix engineers and art department to optimize the vast environments and detailed characters for nvidia GPUs. And you heard it here first: Square Enix is also investigating options to incorporate 3D Vision support.

Like so many in-game details, further specifics on these relationships and what they may deliver to gamers in the year ahead and not being disclosed. Of course, given the evolving development process that MMOs undertake post-launch, many other high-end elements could find their way into the code and your game experience. "We are putting in place a system that will allow us to continually implement fresh, new designs while simultaneously taking precautions to ensure that there is no 'design inflation' early on," says Yoshida-san. "Allowances are also being made for future expansion of the game."

That, for fans of the Final Fantasy universe, is very, very good news. As if the single-player Final Fantasy XIII wasn't enough content, this super-stylized sci-fi epic with swords and sorcery elements will provide even cross-server gaming between locations to keep you entertained for years. And in that time, you'll get to wander some incredible locations, gaze in awe at mind-boggling structures, and craft details on your own character that place it undeniably in the Final Fantasy universe.

Life In Eorzea, Vol. 1

2010-04-02T05:35:00.001-07:00

The first entry in Square Enix's FFXIV youtube channel showing us a close up video of Alpha game play has been released! In this video we get a tour of Limsa Lominsa, we get to see some crafting taking place, various emotes, even a chocobo! It's short but very sweet. Below I will post a translation to the video as well. (I did not do this translation myself and am unsure who to give credit to since I've seen it on various sites and blogs and I've not found a source for it)

Riekom: Hi, I’m Square Enix’s Riekom.
Julia: I’m Julia.
Aratam: I’m Aratam.
Riekom: Final Fantasy XIV’s alpha test is just around the corner!
Aratam: Oh, cool.
Riekom: Today we’re bringing you a quick look at Eorzea’s Limsa Lominsa.
Julia and Aratam are impressed.
Riekom: How about this view, huh?
Julia: It’s amazing. What a radiant sea!
Aratam: It definitely has a great, unique feel to it.
Julia: These must be shops.
Aratam: So many great-looking things are lined up. I’m having fun just window-shopping!
Riekom: I’m sure I’ll be spending a LOT of gil here.
Riekom: There’s even fish, and…

All three: Oh! CHOCOBO!

Riekom: There are many different kinds of people working in the city.

Aratam: Aw, she’s crying. I wonder if her boyfriend dumped her?
Riekom: Are you stupid or something? She’s slicing ONIONS.

Aratam: Such realistic movements!
Julia: We can even see the salt he’s putting in.

Riekom: I love cooking, so I feel right at home here.

All three: Oh! HAMBURGER STEAK!

Riekom: We’re also going to show you some character emotes.
Boys: Lalafell~

Creepy Mystery Voice: CUUUUUUTE…

Aratam: She’s dancing!
Riekom: The person controlling this Lalafell is a 30 year old guy.

Creepy Mystery Voice (Julia?): D’OH!

Riekom: This is just the first video, so we can’t show you very much. Sorry!
Riekom: From here on out, we’ll be showing you a lot of things from Eorzea through video, so look forward to it!

All three: See you next time!

New Alpha Screenshot Released.

2010-04-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

A new close up look at gameplay and user interface (UI) has been released and gives us a even closer look inside the world of FFXIV. This is a official screen shot from Square Enix themselves! Read the full article and speculation here on FFXIVcore.

The Highlander, and a new hope for more Races!

2010-03-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

As I was scrolling through all the new information just added to the official Japanese FFXIV website I came across something quite interesting... Quite interesting indeed. Something that could be easily overlooked with all the excitement of new pictures, information and discussions... Do you see it yet? As of now, we have the five races of Eorzea, three of which have male and female counterparts, two of which are gender specific for each gender, as well as two tribes within each race... But what's this? Something is off balance, something is not right... The Highlander? Why is there only a picture of a Male and why does it say only Male Mercenaries of that tribe are seen around anymore?

What this does, is throw off the balance of a equal amount of playable characters for both Males and Females, essentially giving males one more option than females. Now now ladies, there's no need to panic. I highly doubt in modern society a company like Square Enix would dare to do something so taboo. What does that mean? Well it means more or less we're going to be seeing something to return the balance of playable options for both males and females. Most likely a all female tribe. But where will it fit in...? Perhaps a new race...? And why would they keep this from us at this point if there was only one more tribe of all females to be added...? Why would they risk the bad publicity and panic of their being more options for males...?

Once you ask these questions it seems obvious... Square Enix is teasing us, they have more up their sleeves than meets the eyes, and they did this to make us think... More than likely there will not only be a tribe of all women (like the highlander is to all men) announced before release, but we will most likely see other tribes and perhaps new races announced with it. For those of us still hopeful of Square Enix adding Male Miqo'Te this comes as great news and gives us new hope.

If you think about it logically, if I was Square Enix personally, I wouldn't want to announce something coveted and wished for as Male Miqo'Te till the very end. Why is this you ask? Because, If they announced to early on it would lose it's sense of hype, however if they announce it at a date closer to release where it comes as a BIG SURPRISE and something that a lot of people have wanted for a long time, it will influence a lot more people and make it easier for them to make the purchase of FFXIV. It's all about marketing my friends!

There's also a possibility that Square Enix could add a all-female tribe to the Hyur just as they did with the Highlanders. It would also make sense if you look at the names. We have Highlanders, Midlanders... But what about Lowlanders? Those could very well be the race of all-female-Hyur. Who's to say? There might be more tribes added for ALL races. Square Enix seems to want to give us a lot of options this time around, perhaps they will give the ladies a more bulky/amazonian tribe if they wish to be like that, and give the guys a more feminine tribe (like male miqo'te) if they want that option as well. And there's always the chance that Square Enix just might not have the information ready for us yet (as they've shown with how they add bits and pieces at a time, like the city-states and disciplines). Nothing is set in stone yet, so all we can do is wait.

Till we learn more, keep these thoughts in mind and remain hopeful!

(Screen Shot and Picture in this Article belongs to and all rights reserved to Square Enix Co, LTD.)

Official FFXIV website updated.

2010-03-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

The official FFXIV site has been updated! Although right now it has only been updated in Japanese. In the next day(s) it will be updated on the North American and European sites, until then I'd like to direct your attention to The Official Japanese FFXIV website. Here you will see all new information as well as more pictures on the new races and tribes for FFXIV! Since it is only in Japanese right now I will give you some rough translations and a few of the new pictures. (Credit for Translations goes to Lumokai from FFXIVzam.com)(pictures are owned and all rights reserved by Square Enix Co, LTD.).

HYURAN

Tribe of the Middle Lands
Midlander

Among the populous Hyuran, the majority is comprised of this great clan. They reside in various regions, and are enriched with a diverse livelihood. From a young age, Midlanders become accustomed to books. Because of this, they seem to have a deep, intellectual society.

Tribe of the High Lands
Highlander

The highlanders dominate the remote, northern highlands. They are the strong, muscular, tribe of the Hyuran. After their city-state of Ala Mihgo fell to the Garlean Empire, with the exception of Male Mercenaries, it has become rare to see them in other cities.

LALAFELL

Tribe of the Plains
Plainsfolk

The Plainsfolk gather and built villages from the materials of the plains, and have come to be called "The people of the Plains". Their earthly green, flaxen hair resembles vegetation. With their large ears, they can hear even the faintest footsteps　of a mole.

Tribe of the Desert
Dunesfolk

Large, domesticated livestock are made to carry the homes that the dunesfolk migrate and live in. They live with the movement of the soil, and are called the "People of the Dunes" among the Lalafell.　One of their unique features is that their eyes are enveloped by a protective clear film, which makes their eyes resemble a Crystal Ball. On their forehead, a jewel which represents their star of fate is affixed.

ELEZEN

Woodland Tribe
Forester

For hundreds of years, this Elezen tribe have inhabited the deep green forests. They are proud of their hawk-like eyesight, and excel in archery. Nowadays, those who have adapted to city life or those who live a nomadic life in the plains often return to the woodlands.

Shadow Tribe
Shader

For hundreds of years, the Shaders have inhabited dark caves. Developing bat-like ears, they can sense the enemy's movement by the rustling of clothes. Because of this, many Shaders excel in hand-to-hand combat. Turning to thievery in order to sustain their cave-dwelling life, they are despised by the forester as turncoats.

ROEGADYN

Tribe of the Northern Seas
Seawolf

Known as "Seawolves", this Roegadyn tribe is feared as marauding pirates from the northern seas. Nowadays, the number of Seawolves who fare the high seas are becoming numerous.

Tribe of the Crimson Flame
Lohengarde

Residing in the vicinity of volcanic craters, the Lohengarde are a tribe of Roegadyn who are faithful in the "Gates of Hell". They are called the "Gatekeepers of the Flame" . Not only are their bodies hard and tempered, their "fire-walking" asceticism allows them to nurture the qualities of magickal ingenuity.

MI'QOTE

Tribe of the Sun
Sun Seekers

One tribe of the Mi'qote call themselves "The people of the Sun". The followers of the Sun God Azema are numerous, and they are very active in the daytime. They have cold, piercing,, colorful, cat-like eyes.

Tribe of the Moon
Moon Keepers

The other tribe of the Mi'qote call themselves "The Wards of the Moon". They are the many followers of the Moon God Menefina, and many follow a nocturnal lifestyle. Many of the Moon Keepers apply vivid war paint onto their face.

Official FFXIV website updated.

2010-03-28T18:27:00.001-07:00

As of March 12th 2010 the official FFXIV website has been updated. Mainly, it has been updated with the information we already knew thanks to Famitsu. But be sure to check it out. Go to the "Gameplay" section under "Disciplines" and you will find new detailed information about the disciplines in FFXIV. Still much info is left to be added for the disciplines themselves, and many other aspects of the official website. But for now, be sure to read up on the latest information they added regarding some of the disciplines, how they will work, what weapons they will use and more!

Beta Test Site Now Open.

2010-03-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well it would seem the BETA test site is now open... "Technically", although as of right now the client (BETA version of the game) is not yet up for download. Word on the street is that Square Enix is having some technical difficulties feeding the hamsters that power the servers- Errr, I mean Square Enix is having some technical difficulties with the test servers. No one knows yet when it will be open, hopefully sooner than later so we can get this all underway and get closer to final stage BETA and the final product.

More rumors continue to circulate about Square Enix sending out more BETA test invites, however, these from what I see are nothing more than rumors. Still no word has been received on the winners of the BETA test invites from the premium FFXI websites "BETA test invite drawings" held about a month back.

I guess for now, all we can do is stay tuned and hope for the best. Keep checking those E-Mails/BETA test site/FFXIV official site/Blogs/Forums!

New Information from Famitsu!

2010-03-11T03:06:00.001-08:00

New information has just poured in from Famitsu Magazine. This information is just a little more insight to the jobs of FFXIV and how they will work and be played. Quite the interesting read indeed.

With all that being said, I will link you now to the articles discussing this very matter.

Article on Zam.

Article on Eorzeapedia.

Article on FFXIVcore.

Original Artical on Famitsu (In Japanese).

It's nice seeing how your physical positioning when fighting will play a big role in this game, depending on what your job is. It also seems like always, each job has strengths and weaknesses. The six major elements will also be making an appearance and the developers even talk about how this could come into play with the jobs themselves. Sadly, Light and Dark don't seem to be elements that players will be using and taking advantage of. This could very well change though, it's too early to tell, as the game is still in it's Alpha Stages.

For those of you wondering, the elements are Fire/Earth/Wind/Water/Thunder/Ice. Each element is weak to one and strong to one. It makes a game a bit more interesting and seems to be playing a bigger role than it was in FFXI even.

(credit for the image goes to Eorzeapedia and Square Enix, co. LTD)

Let the BETA begin.

2010-03-10T23:41:00.000-08:00

Vanafest 2010 brought some exciting new information regarding Final Fantasy XIV. Beta information, to be exact. Turns out the official Beta will be up for download on the official FFXIV beta tester website on march 11th. From what I heard, Square Enix sent E-mails out on the first of march informing people who got into the first stage of Beta, which they are calling the "Alpha Test". If you got in, congratulations! If not, don't fret. Square Enix seems to have picked the Beta testers completely randomly, for the Alpha Test at least. Or perhaps they only had so many spots and wanted a bunch of different types of people, machines (PC only at the moment, sorry PS3 owners), and demographics.

One can rest assured though, as these tests go on, quite frequently they will add more and more people, they send this themselves in a interview. The best thing to is... "Check your E-Mail... And Check it often". As time goes on they will add more and more people to the Beta, commencing with the final "Open Beta" which will most likely last several months as it does with most MMORPG's. Open Beta pretty much is the final Beta stage and more or less anyone can get in. So, with all that being said, keep up your hope. If you didn't get a E-Mail from Square Enix yet, just keep checking regularly.

One thing to note though, is that this E-Mail can often come up in Spam Folders, so be sure to check yours. Another thing, is that the E-Mail will come to the E-Mail address you have registered on your Square Enix account. If you don't have a Square Enix account it will come to whichever one you registered with on the Beta Application.

Official FFXIV website updated.

2010-03-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being slow about this, however not too long ago the FFXIV site was updated with new information. As of now, this is the latest information on the FFXIV site. The update consisted of more information being added about the story of Eorzea, new character customization options, as well as new screen shots.

Be sure to check it all out on the official FFXIV website under "World > Races, World > Story" and "Media".

Changes to my Blog...

2010-03-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

For Awhile now I've been keeping this blog as updated as possible, however a lot of the information here is simply me copying information I have found for your viewing pleasure and presenting it to you. Although, more often than not I could have simply linked you to the information itself. However, that being said, Most of the time I have indeed added in my own opinions and views as well as a few of my own translations and interpretations on what things mean.

I've kept this site up because I have been a avid FFXI player since it's very beginning and have much pride in how proficient I was at that game. Because of this I was always at the cutting edge of new things, top notch gear, and the best strategies around. I took a lot of pride in finding out exactly what was the best gear combinations, job combinations and generally how to do things with peak performance in any kind of situation.

FFXI was my bread and butter and major hobby for the longest of times, however when the slightest rumor of a successor to the longstanding MMORPG was rumored to be in development years ago, I started my research. I started looking, lurking, and trying to find as much information as possible, I was even there back when everyone started calling it "Project Rapture". When FFXIV was announced at E3 I knew -many knew- it was going to be announced, so when the announcement of FFXIV did come forth I wanted to be on the forefront of data and up to the minute information on this sort of thing.

However, I have found that there are other sources of information (mainly the Japanese Magazines), and better translators than myself around, sadly... I have (with given credit) used a lot of the information (while adding my own to of course) on this site. But at the end of the day, their big teams and staffs can do a better and quicker job than I can.

So the time has come that I think some changes should be made... The fact is, this information is already available on other parts of the internet for your viewing pleasure, quicker than I can get it up. So I have decided simply to link to that information for you. Don't worry though, this will allow me to add up all the different sources in one place as fast as possible and keep them compiled (something most sites won't do so they keep their exclusiveness). But the main reason for all of this?

I will be able to write more articles simply on my own terms, about what we know. Not so much just information from Square Enix and the Japanese media, but what you can expect from a expert MMORPG gamers point of view, what to look for, etc. Think of it like those idiot's guides to everything (not that I'm implying there's any idiots on the internet...)

So I hope you all continue to enjoy my blog and the coming articles and information!

More Q's & A's with the Dev's!

2010-02-03T03:46:00.000-08:00

Some time ago it seems there was a Question & Answer segment with the developers that slipped by us. It seems FFXIVcore got around to translating it. I'm not sure how old this is, but it has what should be new information to yourselves, so enjoy! (Credit also goes to Dengeki Magazine and Square Enix Co, LTD)

Beta Test

Q: How much percentage you can play in beta test compared to the real product?
A: The alpha test will start before the beta, and will start from about 10 percent of the finished product. We’d like to check the entire system before release, but the majority of in-game content won’t be released until the final product.

Q: Will the servers be named after summons, like in FFXI?
A: It’ll be a bit different from FFXI, but it’ll be something familiar to FF fans. By the way, the FFXI beta server had a different name than the final game servers (BLATANT SPECULATION: I’m thinking they’re trying to hint that they might follow the theme for the FFXI beta server name, does anyone know what it was? Either that or they’re trying to say that the beta server name and regular service servers names will be different)

Q: How many servers will there be in the beta test?
A: We’re going to start the alpha with one server and gradually expand during the beta to an environment that can hold hundreds of thousands of players.

Q: What about world transfer service? Can we continue what we did in Beta version in the official version?
A: I’d like to make it possible that users played together in Beta version can start in the same world, when the official service is started. As for the world transfer service, there is a possibility in the future, and some kind of regulation would be needed.

World

Q: Are the beast tribes the same sort of existence as the beast men in FFXI?
A: “Beast tribe” is a name given to these people from the government. They look different from the people living in the cities and have different philosophies and religions, but they have their own culture and knowledge.

Q: So is there a triangular relationship between the beast tribes, the empire and the adventurers?
A: I don’t know about that. It’s a three-way deadlock with irreconcilable forces right now, but as the saying goes, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” We’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Q: What exactly is this power that adventurer’s have to change the world by reliving the past?
A: As things stand, it is just the ability to live past experiences as they were your own, nothing more.

Q: So is the world split into two worlds, the past and the future?
A: At this point, all we can say is that reliving the past is not the same as travelling into the past.

Q: The fight with the empire really stood out. Is this a “people vs. people” war? (Translator’s note: Human vs. Human. The interviewer means humans as in non-beast-tribesmen. They do not mean PVP: player vs. player –Manly) Does this mean the adventurers will be taking part in this war?
A: At this point, we can’t explain what that battle is, or answer if it’s even real or an illusion. What we can say is that in Hydaelyn, beast tribesmen are people, and the empire are also people. In this way, a war of the peoples will play itself out naturally, and the adventurer may get caught up in it.

Q: The name of the region is Eorzea, but is it also called the Garlean Empire?
A: Strictly speaking, they’re not the same. Eorzea is the name of the region, but Garlean is the name of the political power that controls it. When comparing it to the real world, it’s like Greece, which includes cities like Athens and Sparta in its cultural region, and the Persian empire, which controlled the region.

Q: The confliction between Eorzea and Garlean Empire means war in the Aldenard Continent?
A: The story begins in Eorzea, which include the Aldenard Continent and its surrounding islands. However, the main base of the Garlean Empire seems to be in some bigger Continent.

Q: How the ability to relive the past and crystals are related?
A: This gets into the main setting of the story. Play by yourself and find it out.

Q: Will we see chocobos?
A: For sure! However, we’re trying to come up with different ways to use chocobos than FFXI.

Q: We only know that there are flying boats for military. Are there flying boats like ocean liners?
A: There are some flying boats that adventurers can use as transportation, I think, but I will give you details another time.

Character

Q: What do you want players to enjoy about character making?
A: Rather than being able to create characters at your will, the emphasis is on having more distinctive features for each race according to the worldview. We’re sure the player will be able to create a character according to their tastes. Starting gear will also be different according to the class you choose, so it’s something you can look forward.

Q: Is it possible to change characters age visually?
A: There is no factor like age, but you can make your characters look like more experienced to some extent.

A: So, first Gear would be decided by the class you choose?
Q: Yes, class decides your first gear. However, what you wear later is up to the player.

Magic

Q: How is the system of Magic?

A: Magic in FFXIV has two properties: "directional property" and "school of magic." This means, even HP curative magic spells can be different in the amount, area, time and MP cost for the spell depending on the school it’s from.

Q: How about magic in FF series which are not in FFXI?
A: There are famous spells from the FF series which are not used in FFXI since they were not suitable for MMOs. Those spells are difficult to apply in FFXIV, also, but we won’t yet say that we are not going to use them. Moreover, even if they have same names as FFXI, there are some spells which have been dramatically changed in FFXIV. Please check them out.

Q: Can only disciples of magic use magic? Is there disciple of magic that can use swords?
A: It is more dependent on how adventurers raise their character rather than being hard-defined by classes.

Q: Will magic use TP, too?
A: We are still considering, but it is quite possible.

Dungeon

Q: Is there any situation that we go through dungeons where we’ll need a torch?
A: Some places are quite dark, but at the moment we are not planning to have systems that you need lighting or illumination magic.

Q: Can you go into dungeons seamlessly?
A: Yes. You can go into dim dungeon from the sunny field seamlessly.

Monster

Q: As far as active-passive, perception, and linking behaviors, are monsters the same as in FFXI?
A: Of course monsters are wandering around in fields. There are same factors as FFXI, but they have some original factors which are special to their environments and herds.

Q: Do the beast tribes attack humans on sight?
A: Beast tribes are also human. Some are pacifists and others are betrayers. Maybe some of them would even try to make deals with you.

Q: Do monsters fight each other?
A: Something like a food chain relationship has been planned since the beginning, so there will be something along those line.

Q: What about summons?
A: There are summons. These summons are closer to god-like existences, and in order to gain their help, even higher hurdles must be overcome.

Q: Are there other races for beast tribes? Will they have classes?
A: There will be other beast tribes besides the ones we have released. They’re also human with their own culture and way of living, so they will most likely have classes that they specialize in.

Q: Can we see our favorite monsters like Mandragora?
A: There are a number of monsters which are in FFXI appearing in FFXIV. You can count on that.

New Information & Screnshots from Dengeki!

2010-02-03T03:21:00.000-08:00

Some new information has just come in from Dengeki Magazine! As well as a small writeup between what seems to be two Roleplaying Roegadyn?! As well as a new map of Eorzea! Enjoy the pictures and writeup below!

Page 1

Is this an empire airship?
This sky-filling airship seems to be one of the Garlean Empire’s, used in its invasion 15 years ago. This war probably holds some key to the adventurers’ quests.

Clues in the map
The backwards E in this map could hold clues to how to decipher the rest of the map. Perhaps someone could study this and figure out where everything is?

Page 2

Introducing our two speculators!

Fortune Teller P: In a previous life, he was known as “Speculator Bean” and was a legendary fortune teller that gave many predictions. However, none of them ever came true.

Forecaster O: In a previous life, he was a Roegadyn that predicted the weather in another world. His weather forecasts are spot-on, but that doesn’t mean his game predictions are…

System Speculation 1: World
Fortune Teller P: Well, various fields have been released! What I can tell from these is… Eorzea is huge.
Forecaster O: That’s not really from fortune telling, but I am pretty sure the field is very big. The beginning of adventures should be greatly influenced by which city you choose to start from, like FFXI.
P: Now that you said that, I am interested in the time needed to move around. There may be several ways to move around other than with Aetheryte.
O: Well, but adventurers have to walk in the beginning after all, I guess. Since the scenery is gorgeous, it would be nice to just walk around, taking in the sights. Maybe later, players would be able to move around with airships or chocobos!

A mark behind the crabs

This dungeon looks to be located close to Limsa Lominsa, the water city, and is overrun by crab-like marine beasties. What is this mark behind them? Could it be similar to the beast men flags in FFXI?

Attack of the giant ants!

This area looks like it’s used for mining and was obviously carved by human hands, but the inside is overrun by giant ant monsters. They are act and attack in groups. When they attack, it’s sure to be a rough battle.

System Speculation 2: Monsters
P: The beast tribes are like beast men in FFXI, so they are….. enemies!
O: Hey, that’s not fortunetelling, either. Well, they seem to be main enemies. They say there would be several beast tribes, so maybe different beast tribes live in each state nation. Maybe they are the first strong enemies at each city.
P: That is possible. So, then what are Primals?
O: The gods of the beast tribes, I think. Maybe summons. At the very least, you can’t fight them at an early stage.
P: Sounds like it will be related to the story itself. Maybe they will be the first goal adventurers set out to defeat, like the Shadow Lord in FFXI

Battle with pugilist beast tribesmen
This burly beast tribesman is holding hand-to-hand weaponry. His armor is also finely crafted, suggesting they have advanced crafting skills.

Is this a Primal?
This appears to be a ritual to call forth a Primal. Could this ominous being be the summons for this game?

Take on the dangerous beast tribes
This beast tribesman doesn’t even flinch at the gladiator’s cross-body sword blow!

(Credit for this goes to FFXIVcore more than any other, the translations and images are credit to them, as well as Dengeki Magazine, and Square Enix Co, LTD!)

More Tibits About The Story.

2010-02-03T03:14:00.000-08:00

This just in! A new blurb of information about the storyline in Eorzea! From Who? From Where? This is not certain! So let me just give you what I've got! It seems to be a loose translation as well, so take it for what it is...

Overture

About ten years ago, a “barbarous God” suddenly appeared in Eorzea.

That was the Genius summoned by odd-looking people called “barbarous people.”

The barbarous people were threatening citizens, enjoying their power.

Meanwhile, “Military Garlean Empire” was coming on from the Northeast.

The Empire seemed to be intending to take over the continent of Aldenard with its overwhelming military force, and Ala Mhigo, a state nation, fell to them.

Eorzea is now exposed to two threatening powers, and adventures are getting mysterious power: reliving past events.

And the power is alleged to be able to change the world… who brought this power?

Is it power a good thing? Why was it given to adventurers?

Adventurers have to find the answer…

(I just received this image as well as the translation from an outside source, SO... If this image or translation belongs to you, then well, so does the credit! But it does not belong to me! All rights reserved by their respectful owners, Including but not limited to: Square Enix Co, LTD.)

New Character Creation Details!

2010-02-03T02:59:00.000-08:00

New Details have surfaced about the depths of Character Creation and Customization in the world of Hydaelyn! How much customization will we see? Well, I hope not too much! Woh woh now! Don't get all angry at me... We all know what TOO MUCH freedom can give to the feel of a MMORPG, and when trying to make one with the more "realistic" feel that Square Enix tends to lean towards, we most likely don't need people who are 3 feet tall, with heads the size of a small yacht and pink hearts all over their face...

Do not fret though! Being able to change your skin color, size, body variations (to a realistic degree) is more than welcome from me and I'm sure from all of you as well. So far, it looks so good, so be sure to head on over to the official FFXIV website for more information!

(Image does not belong to me or this website, nor does the information or work within it. All rights reserved by their respectful owners, including but not limited to Dengaki Magazine, Square Enix Co, LTD. and FFXIVcore.com)

Sorry About The Hiatus...

2010-02-03T02:45:00.000-08:00

You must forgive me everyone! I must apologize about the slow updates. I was terribly busy for awhile but things have let up and I should have plenty enough time now for updates. Time to get caught up! From now on I will try to keep everything as up to date and up to the minute information as I possibly can, and any BIG news will always be posted here quite quickly! So keep tuned in, and remember to always check back for all the information you might need on FFXIV!

New FFXIV FAQ.

2010-01-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

Square Enix has just put up a new Frequently Asked Questions section on their official support site. The link can be found here. There's not a lot of information up on it yet, but that is because it was just added and much information is yet to be released. Anything important can be found on the official site though, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Beta Signups Underway!

2009-12-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

That's right folks! It's the moment you've all been waiting for, finally Square Enix has announced on The Official FFXIV site that Beta Applications are now being accepted. You can enter your application on The Official Beta Application site.

One of the things I want everyone to note about the Beta Application is the NDA agreement put in place by Square Enix for beta testers. You can find out all the information on it in the fine print of the disclosure on the beta application. Read it carefully and do not break it! It basically says that you are not to publish or disclose any information on the FFXIV beta period. That means no posting screen shots, no telling people about the game itself, not even giving your opinion! Please keep true and adhere to this disclosure should you enter into FFXIV beta.

The Application itself asks you a number of different questions, starting with the basics (your name and address) and a bit more about your life (when you are free to play beta, how much you could play beta, what kind of work you do) etc. It also asks you other MMORPG related questions, like if you played FFXI and if so what some of your info is, how long you played it, etc. Fear not though! This beta isn't just for previous FFXI players (although I do admit I hope they get priority) anyone can sign up and have a chance to enter in the beta! So what are you waiting for?! Get over there and fill out your application!

"The Campaign Code"

2009-12-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

Recently rumors have spread about a code being issued in copies of the Japanese Final Fantasy XIII game (The new offline installment in the Final Fantasy RPG Universe). For awhile it was speculated upon what this code might be used for or what it might mean. The final conclusion that most had imagined ended up coming true in the end after all. The code will be used for two things, a special in game item for those who purchased the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII and a code to enter for a chance to play in the Playstation 3 Beta Test.

This got me wondering where our beta chances were, and where our special in game items would be. I fear not though, as I have believed for awhile now, if you trasfer over to FFXIV from FFXI, you will most likely be given some kind of in game item to show your diligence to Square Enix MMORPG's. Perhaps even a way to show how long you played FFXI? Because let's be real, I don't want some one who played for 3 months to have the same doo-dad on their character showing that they played FFXI, as my 6 year old character would sport around. This doesn't mean they shouldn't get something to though. My idea was perhaps a cape, one with different colors or perhaps a different emblem showing you played FFXI for 6+ months, 1+ years, 2+ years, 3+ years, etc.

I think this would be something very nice for the people who have shown Square Enix their dedication for many years. It doesn't have to give any big bonuses or what not, just a fluff item to show you've been around and know your stuff. Hell, I think it would even be neat to add one for folks who participate in the Beta. I really do hope these things come to pass, and if I had to bet I'd bet that they will! But what about the folks purchasing the English or other copies of Final Fantasy XIII? Well, only time will tell! I can say one thing though. Playstation 3 beta has been confirmed from Square Enix themselves to be implemented after the PC Beta Test versions. I imagine this code or any other like it will be for some of the final stages of beta, so don't fret my friends! Your chances will soon come.

For more information, check out Elmers article on Zam!

FFXIV Site Updated!

2009-12-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Official FFXIV Site has been updated with all new information about Gladiator and Pugilist as well as some new pictures!!!

Wow! Some exciting new armor, as well as some great new information on some of the weapons that will be used. This is some great new information, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. Be sure to check it all out on the official site!

Follow-Up Answers from the interview with FFXIV Producer Hiromichi Tanaka

2009-12-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

This interview done by FFXIVcore, credit goes to them, and you can check the original source right here. As the title implies, these are some follow up questions & answers done by FFXIVcore e-mailed to Square Enix and E-Mailed back to FFXIVcore. I particularly enjoyed the little bit about the female Roegadyn and Male Miqo'Te.

Q1: Will we be able to fly somehow either by ourselves free roaming or scheduled transport airships like in FFXI?

A: At present, we have no plans for free-form aerial movement for players. We are, however, looking into a number of different types of flying transportation.

Q2: How will player run guild/linkshells work? What features can we expect and what benefits can a guild/linkshell get through progression if any?

A: For the time being, we are still keeping this information secret. But, we are very adamant about creating an entirely novel system.

Q3: Will the races hold the same benefits as they did previously in FFXI, or will the stat bonuses be different and play a larger role? In addition, will faction choice play a bigger role? In FFXI we had separate mission lines and friendly competitions such as ballista. Will we see something similar or something dramatically different than FFXI system for different factions?

A: The bonuses among races will be of a different variety than those seen in FFXI. But players need not be concerned with this when choosing a race based on aesthetics.

There is also an element of freedom in that players will not pledge their allegiance to a single city-state. This means that the guildleves or skills available will differ region to region, which all being accessible. Of course, this applies quests as well.

Q4: Will the artifact story line quests return for each class from FFXI? If not, will similar quest lines carry on a system of â€œright of passageâ€� such as limit break quests?

A: Character development along the lines of the Armoury system and skill levels will incorporate familiar concepts from FFXI as well as entirely new elements.

Q5: What do you expect the cap level to be in FFXIV at the start and/or at the end?

A: This has yet to be decided. We will be setting the level cap after looking at the Beta phase results and other considerations.

Q6: Will there be a cooldown timer or anything that limits how often we can change class?

A: There is no real concept of static "classes" in the traditional sense. Rather, there may be somewhat of a restriction placed on the changing of weapons or tools mid-combat.

Q7: Will there be something like a Mog House? Maybe this time around we will have an actual HOUSE, and not a little tiny room!

A: Nothing is set in stone yet. There are a number of possibilities that we are still looking into.

Q8: Limit Breaks were powerful combat moves featured in several Final Fantasy titles. In FFXI we saw Weapon Skills and Magic Burst. Do you have any plans to include a similar system in FFXIV?

A: This has not been decided at this time. But it's safe to say that players can expect to see a completely new and revolutionary system.

Q9: Are there any plans to add female Roegadyn and male Miqo'te?

A: Well, the character model designs are finished... But further details regarding their implementation have yet to be decided.

Q10: Will this FFXIV be more "new person friendly" than FFXI was? (Once everyone had been playing for years, it was hard for new people who started to be able to play, even with the "level sync" system that was added in later. Not to mention, finding armors/weapons in the Auction House was nearly impossible for new players. Barely anyone used the "mentor" system in FFXI either, or rather, there were barely any hosts.)

A: We are developing in-depth introductory tutorials for new players. We are also designing the game while keeping in mind those users who enjoy playing solo, as well as those who can only log in for short periods of time. There will also be plenty of content for newcomers.

But, on the other hand, there will also be complex battles requiring large numbers of people for players more interested in content of that nature.

Our main goal is really to create a variety of ways in which to enjoy the game.

Q11: Will mobs actually drop armors/weapons like most MMOs or is FFXIV going to be like FFXI where you can only obtain these in Auction House or Crafting, or Raids?

A: The complete details of this are still undecided.

As in FFXI and other MMORPGS, some monsters will drop armor and weapons. However, items that drop in this manner are always a target for RMT exploitation. So to avoid any kind of player exclusion, most instances of these drops will yield items which cannot be passed between players.

To put it broadly, there will be a number of ways available to obtain a number of different items.

Q12: Is crafting still going to be an integral and value added portion of the game and somewhat prohibitive so that a selected dedicated few will feel like they are part of the economy and adventuring aspects? (Crafting and not adventuring usually keeps me hooked)

A: Players who wish to do so will be able to fully enjoy the game using only their crafting skills.

The same can be said not only for those wishing to specialize solely in synthesis of items, but those who prefer combat or the gathering of materials as well. All of these types of players will be important to the game world.

Famitsu - Some Q's & A's.

2009-10-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

New information from Famitsu was just released with information about some of the new updates we just saw to the FFXIV site, and more! Credit for this writeup goes to Elmer from over at Zam.com, and of course original content provided by Famitsu Magazine of Japan.

A new Famitsu came out with a nice spread on Final Fantasy XIV. While working on it, Square Enix posted all the new info on their official FFXIV site. Check it out for new information on some classes and monsters as well as a look into the life of a crafter in Eorzea. What I'm going to do now, is pick out information from some of the Q&A sessions sprinkled throughout the article, which didn't make the cut.

The first Q&A was about the trailer from Tokyo Game Show 2009. As the trailer depicts early on, the story for every adventurer will begin in Eorzea and all players will start wihtin one of the city-states. The bar scenes you see will also have a place in the game. Each city-state will have its own establishments, such as pubs and guilds. These places will serve an important purpose, one being a place to obtain Guildleves. The battle scene on the boat has been a subject of interest, and the developers confirm that battles against multiple enemies will be an aspect of FFXIV that players can look forward too. Another thing players can get excited about is hearing the fast-paced battle music from the trailer in-game as well. The track, as well as several others, are ready to be used as music during fights.

The next mini-interview spoke of weapons. Just as the description of Lancer implies, the reach and attack range for a character will change depending on the weapon they use. Polearms will allow players to attack from "out range," which most likely refers to a distance just outside melee range. Lancers will also have access to throwing Javelins. The developers state that they are considering characters being able to wield two weapons at once. However, in this particular case, the Javelin will most likely take the form of a throwing weapon, as see in FFXI. Each class will be given more variety by virtue of what throwing weapons they have available to them, one example being the claim that Archers have skill at "rock throwing."

The third and final set of questions focused on crafting. As in FFXI, food in Eorzea will have an effect on the stats of adventurers. The plan is to have a wide variety of foods that can benefit individuals in a myriad of ways. In order to craft, a player will first and foremost need the proper tool. Then, depending on the recipe, they need the ingredients and the corresponding crystal. There will also be many instances where certain equipment is required. And finally, requirements such as crafting support in FFXI will also be needed in some cases. Once a crafter produces their goods and is ready to sell, there will be a market, but no details were given at this time.

Another aspect of crafting will be repairing weapons. As a weapon is used, it will deteriorate, and the abilities of that weapon will gradually decrease as well. Certain crafters will be called upon to repair these items. However, crafters themselves must be careful, because even their tools are subject to wear and tear. As a final note, the developers note that there may be tools specific to different races. However, they do not wish to separate the races too much, so any differences will not have a prohibitive affect on game play.

FFXIV Official Website Updated!

2009-10-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ohh joyous times, once again Square Enix has updated the FFXIV official website with a plethora of new information, in fact it's so much new information that sadly I'm not going to be able to copy and paste every last photo and detail, but hopefully I can give you a rundown of what we have just learned. Most importantly I recommend you check out The official FFXIV website for all the photo's and detailed articles on this new information.

With this update we see more details and information as well new never before seen photo's of the classes and official names for them in english! Not only that, but new information on the beasts of Eorzea as well. Not to mention what you might can expect in the daily life of a Eorzean!

The Classes

So far it quite obvious Square Enix isn't completely done adding all the classes to the website and information involved with them. So far however, we know there will be four different kinds of "disciplines", and classes within them. Whether there will be advanced classes to those or not is anyone's guess, as of now at least.

The Disciplines and Classes within them are listed below:

Disciples of War

Archer
Gladiator
Lancer
Marauder
Pugilist

Will we see more? I'm guessing most likely. When we take a look at the Disciples of War and can see the token "Bow user, Great Axe user, Sword and Shield user, Fist Fighter, Polearm user, etc. But what about our Dark Knights? Our Scythe weilders, our what about our duel handers, most importantly being a Theif/Assassin type? What about or Ninja's and Samurai's? As I said earlier, while this remains a bit blurry I would imagine at the very least you will be seeing a dagger and scythe user. So I have to say this section is most likely not done yet, and there will be more added.

Disciples of Magic

Thaumaturge

As you can see this list isn't anywhere near complete. They've only got one class up under this listing so far, and no information on it is up as well. This is far from complete, so look forward to new updates on the FFXIV site soon enough.

That being said, what of the Disciples of Magic? So far all we know about is the Thaumaturge. In FFXI a Thaumaturge actually does make an appearance, although it is in the form of a Dynamis monster. What kind of monster was it you ask? A black mage! And from the looks of this fellows attire I would say it's not going far out on a limb to say that's more or less what he will be. There are arguments stating that Thaumaturge can mean some one who is a summoner, but when you look closely at what a black mage is, they are one who "summons" the spirits of the elements to use for fighting. So again, this is a bit more controversial and up for discussion, however I'd guess from all things said it is a black mage. But will we have summoners?

What about the other magic classes? Most likely yes! Almost every MMORPG follows the trend of adding a summoner type job, and the earlier Final Fantasy games are no exceptions, so I'm sure you can expect to see them around. Not only that but we can all guess that there will of course be your obligatory "White Mage/Cleric/Healing class" as well as your hybrid "Red Mage" class. After that, again, it becomes more blurry and open for discussion.

Disciples of the Hand

Blacksmith
Alchemist
Culinarian
Tanner
Weaver

When we take a look at the disciples of the hand we see Square Enix is going with the same type of crafting professions you might see in FFXI, of course with more emphasis on them as actual jobs and not just side crafts. But it is obvious they are sticking to the core roots. One thing we see missing from the Disciples of the hand though, and quite possibly the only thing we are not seeing having seen from FFXI is of course, the wood-worker, or what you might be calling a Carpenter. So expect to see that added in very soon. Will there be more than just Carpenter added though? At this point it is hard to say. While I can almost completely assure you that you will be seeing the Carpenter, anything beyond that is more "up in the air" and not as certain. All we can do for now is stay tuned and wait for more information.

Disciples of the Land

Botanist

So far this is the only class they've released under the Disciples of the Land section. Of course we know more will be introduced soon though. When we take a look at the Disciples of the Land things become a bit more blurry, although we can still see the general direction they are going. Most likely it will be similar to FFXI as well, having classes like Lumberjack, Harvester, Angler, Miner, etc. However one more thing has been up for discussion lately, and that is what if there is a true master of hunting? Not a Ranger mind you, as we see already they will be had in the form of Archers. But perhaps a class that traps and scavenges for lesser monster/animals? Only time will tell.

So what can we expect to see in future updates regarding the different classes? Well it's pretty easy to see where Square Enix is going with this, and you're in luck because of my many years experience playing FFXI. It's quite obvious while they are using a new "system" to implement things, there will be some classes you can bet your last penny on.

As far as classes and disciplines go, that is what you can most likely expect to see in FFXIV, and in future updates, so let's move on to the new Monsters!

We see some new monsters being added to FFXIV, some familiar, some not so familiar, but the most interesting part is the bit on how monsters will have different sexes (male/female). Which monsters will fall under these categories? Some? Most? All?! And what does it mean? No one knows yet! All we can do is stay tuned. So far the monsters listed on the FFXIV site are:

Ahriman
Antelope
Cactaur
Opo-Opo
Ogre
Mammet
Puk
Raptor
Aldgoat
Morbol

Be sure and check the Bestiary on the official FFXIV website for more information!

After all is said about the new monsters and classes and the information with them, we take a look at the other new update to the official FFXIV website, "Lifestyle". This section is very interesting and talks about the circle of life in Eorzea. From disciples of the land providing the goods, disciples of war hunting them, and disciples of the hand crafting them into what they need, to the joys of versatility and capitalism.

Lot's of great new information on the Official FFXIV website for everyone to read, so be sure to check it out!

Game Watch Interview with Tanaka & Komoto.

2009-10-10T05:35:00.001-07:00

Credit for this article and writeup goes to Eorzeapedia. These pictures are not mine, and belong to Eorzeapedia, Game Watch, and Square Enix, LTD. I am simply posting the information. Enjoy.

A surprise interview! GAME Watch got to spend a little bit of time with both Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Komoto at Tokyo Game Show this past week. The two dropped by Makuhari Messe for the interview, which was conducted in the public lobby area. They talked about the trailer and the upcoming beta as well! Click to read more of this rather extensive interview.

The Trailer
Once again, they say that the setting is not science fiction, but high fantasy. They are making the game with fantasy in mind, but presenting it in a much prettier way than has been done before. The attention to detail is evident with the high quality images you can see in the trailer.

Ship heading for port in the FFXIV TGS 2009 Trailer
Near the beginning of the trailer, there is a scene with adventurers coming into port. This was done to visually show the idea behind how the game will start. Komoto says you can think of it as the prologue for Limsa Lominsa. Being a port town, new players will start their adventure coming into town by sea. Other towns will be different but further information isn’t available because they are still working on the prologue scenes for the other two starting city-states.

People on the forums have been wondering how much of the new trailer is pre-rendered and how much is done in real time. The answer Komoto gives is a little confusing. If you talk about the length, then the stuff done in real time is longer. However, if you talk more about the elements used to make up the trailer, the pre-rendered material wins out by just a smudge. There are scenes that switch between the two in the trailer and they are very proud of how it came out. It’s hard for even them to tell which is which. It’s also best not to pay too much attention to the order of the scenes. Komoto says the ones towards the end with the fight in the sky between Magitek are scenes that aren’t actually related to each other. The interviewer also asked if there would be psychic powers as a skill in the game due to the addition of Magitek. Komoto says even if there was such a skill, it would be called something else and it’s hard to make a distinction between psychic powers and magic.

The music playing in the trailer was made by Nobuo Uematsu. The scenes and the music used in the trailer have nothing to do with each other when it comes to how the tracks will be used in the actual game. The track from the first part of the trailer will be used in cutscenes while the second track is for battles.

The Game
The demo shown off at gamescom represented a game that isn’t even 50% complete yet. They worked on it to the last minute. It wasn’t so much about wanting to show off something at gamescom specifically but that the timing was right for them. As for nothing be available at TGS, the company’s decision was to focus on FFXIII. Rather than being unhappy about this, Tanaka says he was more relieved than anything. They really didn’t know how the gamescom demo would go since they didn’t have experience with showing off a game at this stage in development. They didn’t know how users in Germany would accept it. It sounds like they also had technical problems getting the demo to play on machines there.

Director Komoto says to expect changes between that demo and how things turn out in the end. Even Final Fantasy XI had changes to the final product when compared with its beta. While the user interface doesn’t look much like what people are familiar with in FFXI, it was inspired by the game. For example, the abilities that you set at the bottom were inspired by the macros you would create and set in FFXI. They haven’t decided the maximum number of abilities you can register yet. Tanaka laughs when recalling that some people think that the 200 possible slots in FFXI aren’t enough. Also not included in the demo was the ability to do skillchains, which will also be a part of FFXIV. However, due to a different battle system, the way skillchains are done is also expected to change drastically. There may be a way to do solo skillchains in the future, but for now they are focusing on chains you have to build with other people.

They then get into party dynamics and battle strategies. It will be very important to think about your position and the timing of attacks during battle. The enemies can also be in parties so you have to take that under consideration as well. This was something they wanted to show with the guildleves made available at gamescom. In FFXI, players primarily pulled back enemies one at a time and thought about how to do that without nearby enemies linking. For FFXIV, however, you have to think more about how to deal with an entire party of enemies. If you pull one, then many times the rest of them will come to fight as well. You have to learn how to deal with “many-versus-many” type fights. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in situations where you can just pull one enemy though.

There is still no official decision on the maximum number of players or enemies that can be in one party. However, they don’t want to make set patterns with the number of people in a party like with what happened in FFXI. Rather than saying that a party can have a maximum of six people, they want the system to be flexible enough that if you have two people, that’s ok, and if you have three, that’s ok too. That said, there won’t be any bonuses for having a certain number of players in your party as well. For example, sometimes you could get an exp bonus in FFXI depending on the number of people in your party and other factors. FFXIV is more about the difference in the level between you and what you are fighting rather than the difference in levels amongst players.

The interviewer also brought up the fact that you can brandish your weapon and walk into town during the middle of battle. According to Komoto, there are some people who don’t like the idea. However, there are also some who argue for it. For example, your movement speed changes when you brandish your weapon. They can also make differences in how you recover depending on whether your weapon is out or not. The combination of being able to pull out your weapon anywhere with a largely seamless world also allows them to do other things not possible in FFXI. For example, you could bring your fight into town. It may not happen frequently, but Komoto says it’s a definite possibility.

The Classes
The first thing the interviewer asks about the classes in FFXIV is how they came up with the idea. It was partially inspired by Komoto’s own experience with FFXI wishing he could be an adventurer based just on the crafting and gathering elements. Then they started to divide out the different types of classes based on what you’d want during battle, like a magic user or a swordsman. Breaking them into different groups led to the creation of the Armoury System. You’ll be able to change your class just by changing your weapon. However, if you change to a weapon you aren’t skilled with, you will become weaker than if you had changed to a weapon you are skilled with.

The number of classes we’ll see at the start of service isn’t set yet. However, they do think they will add classes with version updates rather than with major expansions like they did with FFXI.

In prior interviews, they talked about how it will be important to set and decide roles during battle. They hint on that again with more information on how classes work. Some classes will be more suited to certain roles than others. For example, some classes might be better at tanking. However, they don’t want players to pigeon hole certain jobs. The goal is to design classes that are flexible. If a player wants to be an attacker, they can set more abilities suited to that. However, if their party needs a tank, they could set abilities for tanking instead and switch roles without switching classes. Some familiar abilities will also be making a comeback in FFXIV but people will need to be open minded about them. Komoto says Flee will most likely be included but that doesn’t mean the person using it is a Thief.

When it comes to crafting, the sky is basically the limit but they do have to start somewhere. They think armor will come first but they also have to think about other elements as well. For instance, furnishings or even larger items. If they don’t plan for those, there are people who will lose interest since they can’t do what they would like to do. Komoto says they’d like to support people who still want to advance in the game but mainly be crafters. He thinks there will be people in the game who specialize like that as well. There will surely be a need for people to repair items due to FFXIV’s weapon degradation. However, it’s not just weapons. Komoto says that, in a very overarching way, anything can degrade. Weapons, armor, and tools are given as examples. Even rare weapons can degrade over time and it will take somebody with a lot of skill to repair them.

The Specs
Right now, the game is being developed with DirectX 9 in mind. They looked into DirectX 10 and the machines currently available on the market as well. In the end, they decided that DirectX 9 was the best choice. Tanaka says they will also work on how to incorporate new technology in the future. Expect that you will need a computer on the high end of the current market to play FFXIV. They were told the specs for FFXI were too high when that game was released 7 years ago but look at the situation now. They have to design a game that will age gracefully. They also have to guess at what things will be like when the game is released in 2010. People will be switching from Windows Vista to Windows 7. There are people who will go from a 32bit system to a 64bit one. Tanaka also says device drivers can lead to different problems they have to try to foresee as well. They are also planning to support a wide variety of possibilities. For example, this time expect support for 64bit and multicore systems. Information on what that means exactly, for example, how much FFXIV will take advantage of such systems, is not available at this time. However, things will be different from FFXI. FFXI was made for consoles and ported to Windows. For FFXIV, it’s made with Windows in mind and then they’ll make adjustments as needed for any console systems.

Graphics will also be different. They are preparing separate graphics for the PS3 and Windows versions. For example, textures will be different. When the interviewer asked about HDTV video modes, Tanaka says the PS3 version will probably be 720p instead of 1080p. It will vary for Windows users depending on their system.

There is no deep reasoning for Art Director Akihiko Yoshida being on the team. At the time they were putting together the team for FFXIV, Yoshida had just finished working on FFXII so the timing worked out well that way. Tanaka mentions that Yoshida checks all of the PR material they send out for the game as well.

The Beta
Can you believe it? GAME Watch got actual information about beta testing! The first round of beta testing will be done with a relatively small group and be conducted worldwide. It won’t be a continuously running beta test but broken down into small 3 or 4 hour tests held at different times. They plan on doing very detailed testing on FFXIV so users will see how the game develops over time. At the beginning, tests will only be conducted with the Windows version. From the initial 3 or 4 hour tests they will expand to daily or weekly beta tests that run for 24 hours a day. After that comes stress tests which will require a lot of people. Tanaka says it could start with 10 thousand people and go up from there to 20, 40, and 80 thousand people. Finally, there will be a free open beta. Originally he thought it would take half a year to go from a development build to the open beta, but he now thinks it will be shorter than that. The interviewer guesses at a summer release based on that and Tanaka says it all depends on the feedback they get from players during the beta testing. It doesn’t sound like the development build he is referring to is the same demo shown at gamescom. He says whether or not a development build is made by year’s end will depend on the developers.

The interview ends with Tanaka saying things will be different from how FFXI started because they will take action against RMT from the very beginning this time around. People will also be able to use the security tokens and one time passwords. Komoto says visitors to gamescom were able to try out the game first but for people in Japan to please be patient because it will be awhile longer before they will have a chance to play it. Tanaka laughs and says he’ll be lighting a fire under the bums of all the developers.

And there you have it! A surprise Tokyo Game Show interview with quite a lot of new information. Will there be more surprise interviews? We’ll just have to wait and watch the Japanese media closely over the coming days and weeks. If you want to check out the original interview in Japanese and see the pictures of Tanaka and Komoto at TGS, visit GAME Watch’s page here.

New Trailer Released at Tokyo Game Show 2009!

2009-10-10T05:06:00.000-07:00

At the Tokyo Game Show 2009, along with a few new interviews, Square Enix released a all new trailer for FFXIV! Be sure to check our the Official FFXIV website for both trailers under the "Media" section.

Dengeki Interview with Tanaka & Komoto.

2009-10-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

Credit for translations and writeup goes to Elmer from Zam. The article itself is credit of Dengeki Magazine. I do not own any of this nor the pictures used. I am simply relaying information. All rights reserved to their owners, including Zam, Dengaki Magazine, and Square Enix, LTD.
Enjoy.
Final Fantasy XIV Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Komoto sit down for another interview with Dengeki magazine. They reiterate what a busy time Gamescom was, and Tanaka attributes the presence of the well-received alpha demo to the hard work of Komoto and his team.

Now, it is time to go beyond the developer version shown and get some more details about how the game is shaping up. There are some interesting new things to learn in this interview, so let's take a look.

Graphics and Customization
Final Fantasy XIV is all about customization. In fact, the game is centered around the Guildleve and Armoury Systems, which allow players to tailor the game to their play style and available time. Tanaka states that Guildleve is probably the greatest difference between Final Fantasy XI and XIV. With Guildleve, you have a clear goal, you gather friends together and you play on your own terms. The Armoury System further allows the player the freedom to switch jobs anywhere, which is their way of expanding upon the popular Job Change system from FFXI.

The graphics in FFXIV are also set to allow an unprecedented level of customization. Although the races look similar to the ones available in FFXI, which Tanaka says is to aid FFXI users in smoothly transitioning over, they plan to open up a new world of variation for designing avatars. Even graphical features that were not added to characters in FFXI, such as necklaces and belts, are being considered for FFXIV. Tanaka goes as far as to say, "We're even talking about showing the rings on their fingers," as he chuckles.

The power of this generation's technology will allow for seamless areas, although Tanaka makes a correction saying the entire world being seamless was a mistranslation. Seamless travel refers to individual areas being much bigger, with perhaps a single "area" in FFXIV being equivalent to the size of a full region in FFXI. However, players can rest assured that monsters will not chase you endlessly over the vast terrain.

Areas of the game will basically be separated into Fields and Towns. In towns, you will have access to the Aetheryte, and various areas to gather with friends and/or chat. While FFXI did not allow Auto-Attack to function in towns, FFXIV uses a different system, so players will be able to draw their weapons even while inside town.

Weather will also be an element of the game, but the way in which it will be implemented will be different. The interviewer suggests that weather could affect one's performance, but Tanaka feels that while the realism would be neat at first, people would start avoiding certain areas just due to weather. Still, they want to make weather have certain effects, although the idea is not completely fleshed out yet.

Positioning in battle is something else the team is considering to add to the depth of strategy. The interviewer referred to a display on the screen indicating the player attacked from the right. This lead to a question of whether height would play a part in battle as well, for instance, elevated terrain giving an advantage. They are going to see what they can do with tactics involving positioning, but are more reluctant on the subject of elevation. Tanaka feels that position of the player relative to the enemy is an important aspect of battle, and that working in elevated terrain could open the door for abuse.

Some Things Change, Others Stay the Same

In FFXIV, the Crystal as a individual's Home Point is becoming the Crystal as social gathering site. The developers see Aetheryte as the starting point of adventure - literally, the spot where Guildleve begins. In a way, Aetheryte takes the place of the Mog House, the main function of which was to switch jobs and serve as a gathering point. It can also be used to travel between towns, or transport oneself out to battle some monsters. So, if Aetheryte handles so much of the legwork, will Chocobos have a place in FFXIV? While Komoto is still looking into what role Chocobos will play in Eorzea, he realizes they are an icon of the series, and their inclusion must satisfy all the fans waiting to meet the newest incarnation of the beloved birds.

As for more personal changes, we know that FFXIV will facilitate the transfer of one's online avatar from Vana'diel to Eorzea by offering similar races, but how will the characters evolve from that point? Komoto states they are considering some cosmetic differences beyond equipment, such as being able to change one's hairstyle. However, they are not going to let you completely change your appearance, such as choice of face. The interviewer asks, in regards to weapon deterioration, whether characters will also physically age, but Komoto just laughs and says that is not something they are considering.

Another big chance for FFXIV is the addition of voice acting. Previously, it was reported that all cut-scenes would be fully voiced in English. However, Komoto says this is an over-statement of the facts and not every NPC in every cut-scene will be voiced. Important cut-scenes central to the story will have voice acting included. The idea is that if they want the player to be focusing more on the scene before them instead of reading subtitles, you can expect a voice-over track. Unfortunately for some, the voices are still planned to be recorded in English only. The reason is that they want to keep up a regular schedule of version updates, and having to translate and re-record all the scripts in multiple languages would cause too much of a delay.

Wear and Tear and Repair

One of the fundamental things that will connect battle-oriented classes and crafting classes is the addition of weapon deterioration. Characters will need to regularly seek the aid of a crafter, such as a blacksmith, in order to keep their weapons in prime shape. Besides weapons, shields and armor will also have durabilities that deteriorate. The current states of a piece of equipment will also affect its market price. Whether or not these change will be reflected graphically or not is still something that is being considered.

The idea is that there will be some gathering place, similar to Aetheryte for Guildleve, where players can go to meet up with a Blacksmith and get some repair work done. Search Comments, which were a popular way to advertise buying/selling will also be making their way in to FFXIV. Komoto also realizes that their may be times when a Blacksmith is not available, and he is thinking of how to address this. "It's not like you'll have to wander around with a broken weapon forever," Komoto jokes.

However, do not expect a crafter to magically fix your equipment on the first try. A crafter's skill will play into whether they can successfully repair a piece of equipment. Luckily, Tanaka adds that even if a crafter fails at a repair attempt, they will not lose the weapon or armor being worked on.

Crafters will have other unique abilities, such as being able to add their own colors or patterns to the equipment they make. It is also possible that shop signs will be made available to long-time players, although Komoto says they are still considering different options. As for battle, it appears that crafting classes may have some abilities that could be utilized for light battles, but have little strength when compared to a battle-oriented job.

Guildleve

Guildleve is basically the daily life of an adventurer in Eorzea. First, the player goes to an adventurer's guild where they can take on a number of Guildleves. Then they gather at the Aetheryte with other adventurers or go it solo. After completing their required quests (and maybe help their friends with some as well) they can return and repeat the process. The idea is that people will visit a guild, pick up several Guildleves, and they would have something to do for the next few days.

As items, the physical Guildleves are "metal plates," as Tanaka puts it, and allow you to undertake a specific task. Anyone can participate in anyone else's Guildleve, which makes it easy to gather people and do quests together. The system itself will also be exceptionally large, including a wide variety of quests for all different classes. There will be Guildleves that help you skill up, and Guildleves wherein you hunt down Notorious Monsters. There will even be solo Guildleves, which Komoto states should take around 30 minutes to complete. "I thought it would be good if even someone with only an hour to play each day can complete about two of these," Komoto said.

Players should be aware, however, that there is a limit to how many Guildleves a single player can personally initiate within a set period of time. If you hit this limit, you can still help others with their Guildleves.

Misc. Q & A

Although there is no time for one at this stage in the development process, Komoto expresses his interest in having official offline events.

The Square Enix Security Token will be used in conjunction with FFXIV to boost account security, but it is not required to create an account.

Komoto says the control layout for FFXIV will not change much from FFXI. You can also still use a PC game controller if you wish.

In its current state, FFXIV does not allow one to change the window size or enlarge the text, but it is something they do plan to add.

Windowed mode is set to be a basic feature of FFXIV from the start. There are going to be web-based community tools and want to make it so you can have access to these while playing.

Miqo'te will have cat ears on the top of their head, just like Mithra. Komoto begins to wonder how they will be able to wear glasses, and starts laughing, joking with the interviewer to please go to the next question.

Although FFXIV races are similar in appearance to FFXI races, the lack of tails on Roegadyn were one of the changes they decided upon to make Eorzean races unique.

Characters in FFXIV will be much more expressive with a wider range of emotes and motions. Motion capture technology was used to create all of the body movements the avatars can express. Multiple characters being able to emote something together presents a number of obstacles for the developers, but they are considering it along with any ways to facilitate communication.

There is a running joke with the leader of the Lightning Brigade, a TaruTaru, who wants to be able to ride Galka. When asked if this could be made available through an emote, the developers laugh, saying they realize Leader has his hopes up, but it would be a little too difficult to actually implement.

Conversely, the interviewer brings up an interesting point, saying that the removing Auto-Attack and making players select every action could make it much harder to communicate during battle. Tanaka admits it will have an effect perhaps, but he encourages players to think of the new system as like having a lot more weaponskills at your disposal.

The suggestion is made that macros could be set up that simulate Auto-Attack, but they feel this could make battle more complicated if not done properly.

Final Thoughts

Komoto reiterates how they plan to show pieces of FFXIV as the development cycle continues. They have focused extensively on Guildleve and information on the races is plentiful, so next up will be a deeper look into the Armoury System. At the last second, Tanaka interjects, revealing that the graphical side of FFXIV is only 50% complete and players can expect big changes as we get closer to the final version.

A chat with Hiromichi Tanaka & Nobuaki Komoto.

2009-10-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

Credit for this article and translations goes to Elmer from Zam. I believe the Article is from Famitsu as well. I do not own any of this nor the pictures used. I am simply relaying information. Enjoy.

Volume 8 of the ヴァナ・ディール通信 (Vana'diel Tsuushin) came out today, and like most things once dedicated to Final Fantasy XI, it is being slowly assimilated by Square Enix's new MMO. The back of the magazine had a recap of information we have seen revealed over the past months organized into charts and pictures. In addition, a DVD was included with this volume, containing extended versions of A Pleasant Chat with Tanaka and the follow-up session with Komoto.

The original version of the interview with Tanaka, presented in Famitsu Wave, was around 12 minutes. The extended version clocks in at a full 26 minutes and contains some Final Fantasy XI information as well. Let's take a look at what was said.

Tanaka Hiromichi Interview:

There was a lot in the interview that was either for people unfamiliar with MMOs and Final Fantasy, or simply discussion of information we have already heard several times over. Here is what could be considered "new and interesting":

While Vana'diel was an entire world, Eorzea is just a region. Hydaelyn will be the name of the world in Final Fantasy XIV. Tanaka elaborates further on the difference between the worlds of FFXI and FFXIV, saying they are not just different planets, but in different universes altogether. In other words, you will not be digging up relics of Vana'diel on Hydaelyn or vice versa.

The five races are going to have a number of variations when compared with their Vana'diel counterparts. There are some obvious ones, such as tail-less Galka, but there are other more subtle changes as well upon which Tanaka would not elaborate further. The interviewer likens the concept to Osamu Tezuka, a famous manga artist whose distinct style was re-imagined through a wide variety of characters. Tanaka connects that allegory to Cid, who since Final Fantasy III, has appeared in many different forms throughout the series. The interviewer moves to ask if Goblins, Orcs and Yagudo might be re-imagined as well in FFXIV. Tanaka says, "It's possible," to which the excited interviewer happily tries to confirm their appearance. However, Tanaka quickly puts out another subdued "It's possible," as if to pull back the reins on this line of speculation.

Eorzea will be a land of swords and sorcery, but also have a more technological side than FFXI. Tanaka makes a comparison to Final Fantasy VI as a past Final Fantasy title that FFXIV is most similar too. He even hints that something similar to Magitek Armor could be in FFXIV.

In the extended version, Tanaka reviews all of the races. The interviewer expresses his interest in playing a Roegadyn, saying he's made up his mind already to choose them. However, he tries to pry information of any other possible races from Tanaka. Unfortunately, Tanaka simply says, "Hmm, I wonder?" and the interviewer is left snapping his fingers in mock frustration.

As stated before, there is no connection between FFXI and FFXIV, and this goes the same for any character data. Nothing is going to transfer over as far as equipment, stats and the like. However, they are interested in preserving Friend Lists somehow. This may be accomplished through utilizing Square Enix IDs, as they function for both FFXI and FFXIV. The exact methods have not be hashed out yet.

There is more beta talk in the extended version, but not much more information. Tanaka says they have not decided upon a beta schedule for FFXIV. The idea is to start showing the game relatively early in development (i.e. before a full beta is complete) in order to get user feedback. Keep in mind, this interview was conducted before Gamescom, so the alpha they presented there is probably the first stage of the process he is referring to here.

Referencing FFXI's beta period, the interviewer tries to push Tanaka into a admitting a beta schedule or release date with some leading questions. Loosely translated, he says, "Well, if a beta test runs 6 months, and you start in January, you could see a release by next summer, huh." Tanaka simply evades, saying, "Yeah, I don't know about that."

Final Fantasy XI is briefly touched upon in the course of conversation, with Tanaka once again assuring fans that the MMO will continue alongside FFXIV. A Moogle Kupo d'Etat has just been added, and next up is A Shantotto Ascension. They display the box art in the video, but the text beside it shows that the release date and price are still yet to be decided.

The interviewer mentions how Tanaka has been quoted saying a year's worth of Version Updates are planned in advance. Tanaka nods in confirmation, agreeing that FFXI is far from over. In fact, he then reveals that the story for Wings of the Goddess still has around a year to go before it is complete. In addition, there are still a number of ideas and plans the FFXI team has in store.

Will there be Version Updates after the release of A Shantotto Ascension? Tanaka says they intend to keep new updates coming out once every three months or so. As for full add-ons or expansions, he admits they have not planned past A Shantotto Ascension yet, but with that wrapping up, they are at the point where they will start thinking about what to do for the future of Final Fantasy XI.

Nobuaki Komoto Interview:

Again, a lot of review here, so let's sift through for the good stuff.

Komoto talks about how the system in FFXIV tries to take the best parts from the FFXI Job System and build upon them. For example, the ability to freely change one's class and learn a different set of skills based on your weapon were two concepts they wanted in FFXIV.

In FFXIV, the "weapon" is what defines your character's current role. However, they are stretching the definition to cover not just swords and axes, but also magical weapons like the staff, or tools like the hammer. In FFXI, your equipment would change along with your job. FFXIV takes this idea a step further, and instead has the switching of equipment (your weapon) directly change what class you are using.

FFXIV will also evolve the process of party building. In FFXI, people might find themselves without a tank or healer, but there was always the chance a party member could switch to the necessary job. Players are once again afforded this luxury, but FFXIV is much more lenient, letting players change on the fly and not requiring long treks back to town.

While some abilities will be linked to weapons, there is a possibility that certain abilities will be usable across multiple classes. Komoto referenced the way in which FFXI allows players to use sub-jobs to access skills learned from different jobs. This will make its way into FFXIV, but in a different form. A character using an axe may still have access to magic, but it may not be as effective in battle as using the axe. As an example, Komoto says a Marauder may be able to use Steal, an ability not native to the class, but the success rate would be lower than normal.

For skilling up, they want to move away from the endless grinding against enemies, and instead allow a more fluid process of growth through quests. Again, variety will be the key as well as accommodating for those with various play styles and amounts of free time. They want to remove the walls from FFXI that would cause players to get frustrated and feel like they had no choice but to give up and leave the game.

When gathering members for a party in FFXI, players often utilize the /shout function. Komoto is looking to remove the need for this by providing different locations for players with similar goals to gather. Instead of having everyone just randomly sprawled around the city, there will be areas where people can go if they want to meet others and start quests quickly. For example, someone with only 30 minutes to play could login and be surrounded by characters ready to go, instead of waste their playtime seeking party.

In closing, Komoto presents a message to the readers of Vana'diel Tsuushin. He states, as does Tanaka, that FFXI is going to continue and still has many more Version Updates to come. He hopes that FFXIV will not become a "replacement," but rather "a new possibility," and that players will feel comfortable switching back and forth between the two, just as they would with any other games in their collection.

Dengeki Online - Developer Interview.

2009-10-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

Credit for this Interview goes to Dengeki Online, translation and writeup done by Elmer over at Zam. All pictures rightfully reserved to their respected parties, Dengaki Online, Square Enix, LTD. And of course, Elmer from Zam. I do not own these pictures or Articles and am simply reposting them for information's sake.

Enjoy.

Dengeki Online has posted a new interview with Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Global Online Producer Sage Sundi. I imagine these guys must be really tired by now.

Worldwide Release, Multi-lingual Support

From reports all over the web, we have seen that players enjoyed the taste of Final Fantasy XIV they got at Gamescom. However, Sundi reveals that it really came down to the wire when getting a playable demonstration ready. As a whole, the game is about 40-50% complete, but the developers were set on having an alpha build that attendees could get their hands on. The German version was presented at Gamescom, but Tanaka assures us that the final product will see a simultaneous release in all four languages they plan to support. All versions are progressing along at the same time.

To help these different languages coexist, there will be another Auto-Translate Function included in the game. Tanaka says they are thinking of including something that is basically simiiar to what Final Fantasy XI, but improved upon. However, it is uncertain how they will expand upon the concept yet keep it simple at the same time. "If we add too many functions and it becomes complicated," says Tanaka, "then it loses its purpose."

A New Battle System
Again, the greatest difference from Final Fantasy XI is said to be the lack of auto-attack. The player must draw their weapon and then select their actions from the Action Menu at the bottom of the screen. These abilities can also be set to correspond with the number keys on the keyboard. Each weapon will have its own abilities the player can acquire by raising their skill in that weapon. When you switch weapons, the Action Menu also changes to reflect the abilities acquired with your new weapon. Although the alpha build lacked the hot-key functionality, the final game will allow players to bind commands and create full macros as well.

In Final Fantasy XIV, characters will no longer have experience points or levels. Instead, skill level will be used to determine how "strong" someone is in a particular class. For example, the higher you raise sword skill, the stronger your attack power with a sword becomes. Also, as you increase your skill you will acquire new skills and techniques. This was designed to avoid the problems faced by parties with a level gap in Final Fantasy XI. At first, they planned to go along with the usual level system, but decided to find a way around the difficulties it could pose, ending up with a skill-based system of progression.

There will be a cap imposed, but it is still being worked on. They say it is not something you can reach in a few days, but it will not be as brutal as Final Fantasy XI.

Guildleve : Skill-Ups, Treasure and HNMs
At Gamescom, there were three different Guildleve quests available that took around 30 minutes each to complete. However, Tanaka plans to add so many quests to the game that players should never run out of choices. There will be Guildleve quests that reward gil, others that reward items and many class-specific quests as well, such as a Gladiator Guildleve that awards sword skill. Players can either increase their weapon prowess through battle with monsters, or opt to gain some quick skill points through completing a quest.

Crafting classes, such as Weaver and Blacksmith can also benefit greatly from the Guildleve system. By completing quests, players can reach a "high level" within these professions and not have to engage in a single battle. In other words, playing a crafting class full-time is one way to adventure throughout Eorzea. Tanaka states that one of the concepts behind Final Fantasy XIV is that if a player so chooses, they can lead a quiet life as a crafter - players are no longer bound to relentless grinding against enemies.

However, there will be some things a Blacksmith simply cannot do, and if you wish to travel to the deepest, darkest recesses of a dungeon, you may need some front line jobs to back you up. This is where the weapon durability system comes in. While crafters need tough fighting jobs to help them, those same fighters need Blacksmiths to repair their weapons. In this way, the disciplines are interdependent, adding an interesting new layer to the game and perhaps giving new purpose to the weapon durability system. In Final Fantasy XIV, crafting is a job just as much as Warrior or Sorcerer is.

Aehteryte will be used in conjunction with Guildleve to transport players where they need to go. Depending on the land, the Aetheryte and Guildleve start locations may change. Also, there may be times when you cannot take on more quests until you finish ones you already have. In Final Fantasy XI, a lot of time is spent in town, but Final Fantasy XIV will utilize Aetheryte to allow players to travel easier, so it is thought these locations may end up being the central hubs of activity.

Besides Puk Exterminating, at which Tanaka proved to be so adept, there will be free-roaming monsters across the lands of Eorzea. Final Fantasy XIV will pull well-known monsters from throughout the Final Fantasy series. We have already seen pictures of a Cactuar and Ahriman, to name a few. Although not confirmed, Tanaka says there is the distinct possibility Notorious Monsters will make it into the game, bringing with them rare item drops. High Notorious Monsters, however, are planned to be included in the Guildleve system. There will be a number of quests designed to function as large-scale battle content, where players must gather strong parties in order to take down the required foe. The developers provide a very relieved follow up, saying that outside players or other parties cannot attack monsters involved with your current Guildleve quest. This should be great news to any veteran of the HNM scene.

Something Old, Something NewThe trade system will be back in Final Fantasy XIV, but for large-scale commerce, the developers are looking to create something new and different from the Auction House system. Sundi expresses their intent to keep Final Fantasy XIV somewhat familiar to adventurers of Vana'diel, but at the same time really show players how they can enjoy the game in new ways.

Another thing that appears to be similar is they plan to offer a choice of only three starting zones: The Port City Limsa Lominsa, The Desert City Ul'dah and Gridania, the City in the Forest. There will be storylines for each of these city-states that players can follow. In fact, veteran scenario writer 佐藤弥詠子 (Sato Yaeko) will be returning to pen these stories. Sato was the mind behind Windurst's mission line in Final Fanatsy XI.

Voice acting will also be included in Final Fantasy XIV for cut scenes. At this time, they plan to have English voices for all versions of the game, but provide subtitles for different languages. There will be a lot of unique and interesting NPCs for players to enjoy, and Tanaka encourages all players to look forward to all the interesting personalities they will meet throughout the land of Eorzea.

What's my Motivation?The developers restate that the major concept behind the game is "growth" - the freedom to grow your character in any way you choose and the chance to enjoy the process instead of sink into a routine of endless grinding. For players who seek shiny loot, the amount and variety of equipment is set to be increased by leaps and bounds above Final Fantasy XI. There will also be unique pieces of equipment obtainable through participation in special events. Perhaps this is hinting at something akin to holiday events or special BCs?

Since levels are out the window, gear will now be equippable based on skill. When you switch your weapon, your skill in that weapon, as well as your class, will determine what equipment you can wear. For those looking for some light action and plan to change classes a lot, there will also be some generic gear available that is wearable by all classes.
Beta Testing and GMsThe developers (and every fan since E3) want to initiate a beta test soon, but Tanaka admits that things on their end just are not quite ready yet. Before a full-on beta test, they want to create more "developer versions" like they featured at Gamescom in order to let players try out different sections of the game system. As an example, Tanaka says players tried Guildleve this time, but maybe next time would focus on the battle system more heavily. After that, they would consider opening up a beta that included the game as a whole. This is what they meant when they expressed their intention to have a prolonged beta process. They are going to use the time between now and release to really examine and test all aspects of the game.

As for GMs, Sundi says there are no plans to recruit GMs for the closed beta, but once the open beta gets going, they will consider hiring some. It would be tough to throw people with no GM experience into an incomplete game, so in the early stages they will pull from their Final Fanatsy XI GM pool.

In addition, the Special Task Force is going to expand and cover illegal game-play issues in Final Fantasy XIV. Policies regarding third-party tools will be reviewed and changed as needed. They hope to make full use of the Square Enix ID and Security Token system that was established this year.

Final WordsTanaka: "At Gamescom we wanted to focus on Guildleve and finally show the basics of the Amoury System. This is set to become the core of Final Fantasy XIV's game-play, so with Gamescom serving as the starting point, we will be able to receive user feedback and improve upon the game."

Sundi: "The areas I am in charge of are still under development, but we are examining ways to build a strong, new community through active collaboration with fan-sites and overseas Premier Sites. Putting out information from the development team and coordinating with fansites and blogs will be my top priority."

Dengeki Alpha Report.

2009-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

This article comes from Dengeki Magazine of Japan, all translations and writeups done by Elmer over at Zam. All pictures and Articles reserved to their rightful owners, including but not limited to; Dengaki Magazine, Square Enix, LTD. and Elmer from Zam. I do not own any nor take credit for them.

With that being said, there's something I noticed from what is being said as of late, about crafting jobs. From what I can gather (no pun intended!) a Weaver, Blacksmith, or Crafter in General might bring more to the battlefield than you would think. As always, and as Square Enix said, I'm sure all jobs will have some battle capabilities. But it is certain that jobs who are more skilled directly at battle will be more proficient in it than say, a weaver. However, weavers and smiths are needed to repair weapons correct? Some one has to do it! But why would you take them into battle?

Then it hit me... Square Enix said something about "Weapon Durability", well, they have several times now in many different ways. What if while you're out on the battlefield you actually need minor repairs done to your weapons/armor? Sounds like a hassle, I know. But perhaps they have some kind of well thought up system for it? Perhaps a blacksmith could cast a certain magic to restore a sword or some such? I'm not sure, I might just be going off on another wild goose chase of mine, but it is something worth considering.

One way or another, I'm sure Square Enix will make this a well balanced, fun to play game for everyone. So, enjoy the article and information below!

A lot of news came out at Gamescom last week, and several Japanese media sites had everything covered. This week, magazines are playing catch up, so there is not a lot of new information to be had. However, this week's Dengeki had a couple interesting tidbits tucked inside its pages.

Final Fantasy XIV was given a single page in the back of the magazine to review some information presented at Gamescom. Also, one of the editors wrote up a full report of their hands-on experience with the demo that may reveal new clues about the game system.

I expected a lot more from Dengeki this week, considering the magazine focuses on Playstation games. I also think they should be more careful about their typos, considering how excitable Final Fantasy fans can get.

First, let's read how they enjoyed the demo. Osho, from the Dengeki Travel Squad reports.

Characters began at near the Aetheryte where they could select their desired Guildleve. Once Guildleve began, HP and MP were healed to full and a timer counting down from 30 minutes was displayed. Osho decided upon the quest where the player must defeat a certain number of Dodos and Puks. This is the same quest we saw Hiromichi Tanaka demonstrate on video.

During his search, he checked out the map and found it to be much more detailed than Final Fantasy XI, allowing him to clearly see geographical features. From the map, he got the impression that field areas are also much more expansive. As we also know, during Guildleve this map will also display the locations of enemies the player must defeat. However, Tanaka has stated the alpha does not support this yet, so there is no mention in this play report.

One thing that was included in the alpha, though, was the ability to customize your user interface. This feature is a long time coming, and fans should be thrilled to see how flexible the Final Fantasy XIV UI is. Players can drag-and-drop every status bar and window. As Tanaka demostrated, the chat box is also expandable, allowing users to freely select size, shape and amount of lines.

Upon finding their desired prey, Osho was a little confused to find auto-attack was not working as normal. Instead of simply targeting and attacking, the player now has to unsheathe their weapon and chose attack and defense actions from the Action Menu along the bottom of the screen. However, Osho notes that you can also set abilities to different number keys to make the process quicker.

Certain abilities (such as Red Lotus Blade for the sword) use up stored TP, however it does not drop your TP gauge completely to 0. A full Action Gauge is required to activate some abilities, but if you keep a full Action Gauge without using it, the Power Gauage will begin to build. Patient players who store up a full Action Gauge and full Power Gauge will be able to unleash a technique at maximum power.

The new battle system really revitalizes the play-style of front line classes, requiring the player to keep active and constantly consider their options in battle.

格闘士(kaku-tou-shi)：Pugilist , 弓術士(kyuu-jutsu-shi)：Archer , 裁縫師(sai-hou-shi)：Weaver , 斧術士(ono-jutsu-shi)：Marauder

Dengeki magazine also managed to get in some of their own questions. As Tanaka has stated before, Guildleve will be central to the game play of Final Fantasy XIV. They plan to include an immense amount of variety for the quests available to players. Also, rewards will vary greatly, with quests granting the player with gil, items or even skill points.

When asked if crafting-based jobs like Weaver will have Guildleve quests designed for them, Tanaka answers that they will, and in fact, you can increase your skill without entering a single battle. Sundi reinforces this by saying players can easily choose to adventure through Eorzea as a Tailor or Blacksmith and simply focus on raising their crafting skills. One of the concepts behind Final Fantasy XIV, is that players do not have to slaughter monsters to reach a "high level," and can lead a quiet life as a crafter.

However, the developers do admit that sewing feathers into caps will not have you venturing into the deepest, darkest recesses of a dungeon. There are times when you will need strong front line classes to back you up. Still, Tanaka states there will be just as many times when those burly bruisers need to make use of your crafting skills. Final Fantasy XIV will add weapon durability to the battle system - if you use a single weapon too much, it will need to be repaired.

It seems like Final Fantasy XIV is set to make crafting classes actual jobs on par with choosing to be a Warrior or Sorcerer. Both active, battle-ready classes and skilled, crafting classes will find themselves needing each other in order to survive. An interesting concept that could alleviate some of the concerns players have with the often maligned weapon durability system.

More Info from Dengeki.

2009-10-02T03:05:00.000-07:00

Dengeki Magazine of Japan has recently revealed some more information regarding FFXI. With it came some recaps of GamesCom and things we already know, but also came a few new tidbits of information spoken a bit differently. Being as I like to keep this blog up-to-date on all the information possible, I will post the information found for your viewing pleasure. I'm not sure who to give credit to for this writeup (as I've said before, some times you get information from different sources and do not know who originally produced it) but I believe it was FFXIVcore. So if that is the case, credit goes to them for the writeup and translation.

* Unlike in FFXI, the 4 different versions are being developed simulataneously to prep for worldwide launch of the game.

* Auto attack is removed.

* Even if a skill gap is present among party members, kiling a monster will still grant combat skill increase.

* Skill caps are equivalent to level caps.

* Short guild leves are developed for those who do not have much time.

* There are specific combat skill Guild Leves - uses sword as an example.

* Different nations will have different guild leves.

* Aetheryte system developed for convenience and focus on content outside of cities. Reduce travel time for groups meeting up and make the entire system more efficient.

* Aside from just items and money, NM(Notorious monsters) may present rare item drops in Guild leves.

* HNM guild leaves are being developed for large groups and are being considered to be implemented in the game at launch. (HNMs confirmed?!?!)

* There won't be any overlap between players killing monsters for guild leves since they are all instanced for the guild leve recipients.

* There is non fighting content for crafting classes, but for advanced dungeons fighting will be necessary.

* Weapons now have durability, working with a crafter or leveling a crafting job yourself will be crucial to progression.

* Economy will still be trade among players driven with an auction house possibility. Other options are still being considered.

* SE is attemping to create an economy and trading system that people who do not play often can use as well.

* Currently only the 3 starting nations exist.

* Main storylines are going to play a large role once again, this time with voice acting.

* English voice acting thus far, subtitles provided for other regions.

* The main aim or motivation for players in FFXIv will be "growth". You can develop your character and grow how you want to. Something a casual player and a hardcore player can share.

* Variation among armor progress more drastically than FFXI!

* Different armor will have different skill requirements. Each weapon has corresponding gear paths. There is general purpose gear and skill purposed gear, example is fencers for increased speed of sword skill leveling.

* SE would love to start the beta immediately, but more development work needs to be done. Tanaka wants some playable form of the game available to everyone like the 30 minute guild leve example at Gamescom.

* Tanaka wants a very large group of people to be able to test the game and provide feedback as early in the development as possible.

* Sundi wants to expand the GM team from FFXI to help with the beta of FFXIV.

* The Special Tast Force will be back for FFXIV, and use of SE security tokens may become required.

Tanaka and Sundi give their closing message to the Japanese populus waiting to play FFXIV.

Tanaka: It was important to show the guild leve system at Gamescom because it is such an important part of the game, I want to improve upon the system based on feedback from the user.

Sundi: We want to work hard with fansites and the global community, providing official information. Connecting the global community to the development team is what I'm concerned with.

Famitsu - Progression of Guidleve & More!

2009-10-02T02:29:00.000-07:00

Famitsu Magazine of Japan introduced a new article on FFXIV, with exciting new information on Guildleves and just how they work and how one progresses through them. However, keep in mind these guildleves Square Enix has been demonstrating so far are simply in Alpha production. What does this mean? While I'm sure the base system is being explained and understood properly, I would say it's a safe bet that guildleves will end up being more complicated and involved that what we have seen. Don't worry, you're not going to spend you entire game life going around playing "Kill X mobs". These are simply introduction guildleves. More advanced ones, and more complicated ones will be introduced as well, you can count on that. So while reviewing any of the known information on guildleves so far, please keep in mind you are only viewing the tip of the iceberg.

All rights for this article reserved to their respectful parties, such as Elmer from Zam, Famitsu Magazine of Japan, and of course, Square Enix, LTD. I do not own these pictures or articles.

With that being said, please read the article below, translated by Elmer over at Zam and enjoy!

Japan brings us the latest Final Fantasy XIV information this week with another look into the alpha demonstration from Gamescom. Just when you thought it has been examined to death, the crew at Famitsu manage to bring to light a few more things fans may have overlooked.

At Gamescom, Final Fantasy XIV Producer Hiromichi Tanaka gave a tour of Guildleve, wherein he had to defeat a number of Dodos and the Puks that appear afterwards. Guildleve will be a system of quests that make up the bulk of Final Fantasy XIV's game play. Now we get to take a closer look at how the Guildleve system works and how a typical quest progresses.

Move to the AetheryteOnce an adventurer receives their Guildleve from the town guild, they approach the Aetheryte to begin. In this case, Famitsu took on the "Puk Extermination" Guildleve that Tanaka demonstrated. However, there were two other Guildleves available. One required players defeat monsters called "Nut Eaters" and collect 5 Lemming tails. Nut Eaters are particularly agile and would flee from the player, encouraging cooperation with other players in order to trap and kill them. There are many factors that go into each quest that may not be apparent from the stated criteria alone.

Review the Details of Your GuildleveThis window contains the details of your selected Guildleve. You can review the clear conditions, time limit and rewards here. The objective of this particular Guildleve is to defeat Dodos and Puks.

Head Out and Search for Your TargetPlayers can use the field map or compass in the bottom-right corner to locate their targets. As Tanaka stated, the alpha lacked some functionality, but the final game will show the locations of certain enemies on the map during Guildleve. This makes it easy to find your goal and is a welcome change of pace from the endless camping required of Final Fantasy XI.

Dodo Found! Initiate Battle!Here are Dodos, one of the targets required of this Guildleve. Battles do not require a special encounter sequence like many RPGs, but rather take place immediately right on the field.

Dodos Successfully SlainPlayers attack the enemy by selecting commands from the Action Bar located in the bottom-center of the screen. When defeating your enemy, a counter will pop up to show you how many of your targets have been subdued, and how many remain.

Pinpoint the Place Puks PopNow that the required number of Dodos have been defeated, the player must find the Puks that have popped as a result. This is a case where the intended target of the Guildleve will not pop unless certain conditions are met. Once all required monsters are defeated (i.e. Dodos and Puks) the Guildleve will be complete.

Conditions Cleared, Warp Point SpawnedOnce all the conditions of the player's quest have been fulfilled, a Warp Point will spawn right before you. The Warp Point will transport the player back to the Aetheryte where the Guildleve began. Warping back is instantaneous and allows the player to keep on enjoying the game without having the action broken up with excessive travel time. Considering how expansive the field areas appear to be, this is quite the welcome addition.

We have heard a lot about the battle system, and Famitsu reviewed it as well. Above is a picture they provided of the layout with the labels translated. The player selects which action or ability they wish to use and it registers to their right-hand or left-hand gauge, depending on which hand holds the associated equipment. For example, a sword may use the right-hand gauge, but a shield held in the left-hand would use the left-hand gauge.

If the Action Gauge is full, the command will activate. If not, it will activate once the Action Gauge is stored to full. If the player has a full Action Gauge and does not activate an ability, they will begin to store up their Power Gauge. This gauge will increase the strength and accuracy of your techniques. There will also be a TP Gauge that will affect your techniques in unique ways. While the Action and Power gauges increase over time, the TP gauge increases when you land an attack or are struck by the enemy.

To wrap up the article, there were some excerpts from Famitsu's interview and Gamescom. Here are the key points they decided to include:

- The battle system is designed to be more aggressive and keep the player involved in the action. This is why the user must select commands for every action instead of simply having an Auto-Attack function. In addition, the Action Menu is fully customizable and allows the player to easily adapt to all kinds of situations.

- Final Fantasy XIV is about 40-50% complete in its current state. Therefore, the version that was displayed at Gamescom is something that is still quite early in the development process, but the developers feel it is important to get user feedback as early on as possible. There are still many aspects of the game that are unfinished, and they wish to continue featuring parts of the game as they design them. They are hoping to get some form of beta testing running soon.

- The main point of Guildleve is to provide light, enjoyable content. This does not mean all quests will be simple, however. Also, as an entry in the Final Fantasy series, the core of Final Fantasy XIV will be its story.

- While players in Japan may not be getting their hands on the Alpha version shown at Gamescom, the developers wish to make available another "development version" similar to that presentation. However, it will not be at a convention like before, but rather a focus group or something they will recruit users for.

Famitsu - Classes and Monsters.

2009-10-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Translations and Article done by Elmer over at Zam. Actual source of the content is from Famitsu Magazine of Japan. Enjoy the new bits of info, thanks to Famitsu and Elmer!

Japan brings us the latest Final Fantasy XIV information this week with another look into the alpha demonstration from Gamescom. Just when you thought it has been examined to death, the crew at Famitsu manage to bring to light a few more things fans may have overlooked.

At Gamescom, Final Fantasy XIV Producer Hiromichi Tanaka gave a tour of Guildleve, wherein he had to defeat a number of Dodos and the Puks that appear afterwards. Guildleve will be a system of quests that make up the bulk of Final Fantasy XIV's game play. First, we will take a closer look at some of the foes you will face, and the classes available to players who wish to overcome them.

Classes in Final Fantasy XIV will determine what skills the character learns. Depending on the class, there are certain special abilities one can acquire as they improve. As we know, these skills will be featured in your Action Bar along the bottom of the screen, which changes when you change classes. Which abilities and skills can carry over to other classes, if any, is unknown at this time. Recently, these four classes have been featured in the press:

弓術士 - kyuu-jutsu-shi - Archer
Equipment: Short Bow
This is one of the classes associated with the Discipline of War. By equipping a bow, Archers are able to take out enemies from afar.

格闘士 - kaku-tou-shi - Pugilist
Equipment: Baghnakhs
Another class associated with the Discipline of War. They use weapons called Bagnakhs to do battle. In contrast to Archers, these brawlers specialize at defeating their enemies in close quarters.

斧術士 - ono-jutsu-shi - Marauder
Equipment: Bhuj
A class of warriors who fight swinging a large axe. Just by looking, one can see they are a class with massive power behind their strikes. They are associated with the Discipline of War.

裁縫師 - sai-hou-shi - Weaver
Equipment: Needle
Weavers are associated with the Discipline of the Hand. They excel at crafting goods from thread and cloth, but is it possible they can use their tools to fight as well?

It has been stated that Final Fantasy XIV will pull a lot of monsters, new and old, from the Final Fantasy series. In this week's Famitsu, nine different monsters were featured, along with a little blurb for each.

プーク - puu-ku - Puk
These monsters look like lizards with wings. They first appeared in Final Fantasy XI.

アンテロープ - a-n-te-roo-pu - Antelope
It appears as if the real life antelope was a model for this monster. It looks rather docile upon first glance, so I wonder what tricks it has in store for adventurers?

オポオポ - o-po o-po - Opo-opo
A cute little monster that looks like a gibbon, the Opo-opo has a characteristically fat tail and large, wide hands and feet.

サボテンダー - sa-bo-te-n-daa - Cactuar
This silly and rather popular monster is a mainstay of the Final Fantasy series. Many a player has experienced its ruthless "1,000 needles."

アーリマン - aa-ri-ma-n - Ahriman
This monster first appeared in Final Fantasy III and has been in every title since. It always retains that same monstrous form - two wings, four limbs and a tail sprouting from its single eye.

オーガ - oo-ga - Ogre
We aren't used to seeing this fearsome creature so often in Final Fantasy games, but the Orge is a staple monster in the world of fantasy RPGs.

マメット - ma-me-tto - Mammet
A peculiar little doll-type creature. While their names are different, it certainly looks just like an Automaton from Final Fantasy XI.

モルボル - mo-ru-bo-ru - Morbol
Another monster which is seen throughout the Final Fantasy series. How pungent will it's Bad Breath be this time?!

Playstation Blog Interview with Tanaka Hiromichi.

2009-10-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

Credit for this interview goes to Playstation Blog. It seems to be the same interview that they did with Zam, however there seems to be a few more questions missed out, not seen in the Zam interview. It contains a nice bit of info on the upcoming beta, something most of us have already guessed, and vague at that, but hey, information is information. So I'll post the findings.

PSB: You recently talked at E3 about how the game closely relates to Final Fantasy XI. How have the monsters and races changed from FF XI to XIV.

Hiromichi Tanaka: Because we’re using a new graphic engine, the graphics are really different from FFXI and you can see more details on both monsters and races. Regarding the races, to encourage people to shift smoothly from FFXI, you will see very similar types of classes. But if you actually make your own character, you’ll be able to select your own colour of hair, skin, eye color, shape of your face, etc. There will be a wide range of variety to customize.

PSB: After E3, you mentioned there might be a way to transfer your name over from FFXI. Is that still planned – are you still working on that? Is there a plan on how you’re going to do it?

Tanaka: It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but we would like to give incentives to the players. First of all, FFXI has 32 worlds, and they may have the same name across different worlds, as I’m sure you know. Each name in each world has to be a unique; there can’t be conflicts with other players. However, when we have FFXIV, we still don’t know how many worlds there’s going to be yet, but players might have the same name if they all move to the same world, so there may be conflicts. So, to avoid that, what we’re trying to do is add a surname to their name, so players can keep their main name, but they can add something else to their surname – that way players with overlapping names can keep their names from FFXI, but they can add something on to it to make it unique.

PSB: You mentioned that the combat system will have less of a team play aspect. Can you elaborate on that, and how it’s different, and how much progress you’ve made in the past few months since it was announced?

Tanaka: For FFXI, the system was job based, so that’s why they had a party to make the most out of each job. This time it’s not going to be a job based system, it’s going to be an Armoury system, so it depends on which weapon you use and you can switch your class. That allows the player to use a different ability or skills. You can also join a party, that doesn’t mean you have to play solo, but it will allow you to play solo as well, because you can fight against monsters and you can change to a healer to heal yourself. So there will be more variety and it depends on what you plan on doing for that day.

PSB: The leveling system was described as not being experienced based. Can you explain exactly what kind of system you’re working on, and if it’s been completely defined?

Tanaka: This time it really depends on the Armoury system. It’s going to depend on how much you use your own equipment and weapons. The more you use it, the more the skill will go up of your class, so that’s the way you will get to higher levels for the class – the skills. You’ll also get abilities. It’s not going to be like if you fight more monsters, you’ll get more level ups, like similar to the experience system. Of course, if you fight against monsters, you will get some skill points, but it will help more if you attend to Guildleves. So that will be a more efficient way to hone your skills and ‘level up’ your character.

PSB: Are they any games that you have been influenced by that have done the online experience particularly well, even if outside of MMOs?

Tanaka: We don’t have any specific title that we’ve been influence by or have done research on, but if we should say one title it would be Final Fantasy XI as we are trying to achieve something different from FFXI. Even though the game worlds may seem and look similar, the game and how we are going to expand it will provide a totally different game experience.

On the other other hand, we listen to the community, and of course they have much experience in MMOs. In that sense, we receive from and keep up with the MMO-based community.

PSB: Are you still planning a spring 2010 beta?

Tanaka: We can’t really say any certain timing, because the launch is planned to release is 2010. So that means in springtime there will probably be something at that point. We are trying to work as soon as possible, so as soon as preparation is done, there could be something earlier than 2010.

Zam/Plastation Blog Interview with Tanaka Hiromichi

2009-10-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

This interview comes from the guys over at Zam, however parts of the interview are done by plastation blog. So credit goes to their respected parties.

Sadly in this interview, we learn of something that is a nightmare come true for me and many others; No Male Miqo'Te. However I'm going to try not to make a big deal about it, and hope that in the future they change their mind, or perhaps add them in a expansion at some point. As heart breaking as it is, in this interview Square Enix makes a comment that almost confirms they will be releasing at least one new race:

ZAM: Why would you stick so rigidly to the class / race balance in FFXI, and are there more races we haven't seen in XI?

Tanaka: Regarding other races, we can't really make any comments at the moment, so please look forward to future announcements. About the balance of each race - it's different from FFXI. This time it's not going to be so much different from the beginning, as in unique racial skills per race, it really depends on which skills you select by yourself and how you're going to grow your character - then that is really going to affect your lifestyle. The abilities and stuff aren't really going to be affected by the race you select. You can just select by the appearance.

ZAM: Will the genders of the races continue to be limited like with the Galka and Mithra in FFXI?

Tanaka: Yes, at the moment, for Miqo'Te there's only a female version, and Roegadyn only has a male version - that's their current status.

You can see in this comment how they are completely willing to exclaim there will be no Male Miqo'Te, but when asked about new races they say "We cannot comment" and to "Look forward to future announcements". In Square Enix speak that is more or less a 100% dead giveaway, so now we get to wonder what new race(s) we might see.

Anyhow, Without further delay, enjoy the interview below.

By now you've seen dozens of interviews out of GamesCom that ask questions about how Final Fantasy XIV differs from XI. We had our fair share of those questions, but ultimately we wanted to know, "why was the decision made to make FFXIV so similar to FFXI?". During the interview we asked Hiromichi Tanaka that very question and the answer was intriguing. "FFXI has been out for about eight years now; the graphical engine we used is very old. In that sense, we wanted to have something that the FFXI players can smoothly move on to" said Tanaka.

Make sure to check out our round table style interview with Q&As from our friend Chris Morell from the PlayStation Blog.

PlayStation Blog: You guys recently talked at E3 about how the game kind of closely relates to Final Fantasy XI. I was kind of wondering how the monsters and races have changed from XI to XIV.

Tanaka: Because we're using a new graphic engine, the graphics are really different from FFXI and you can see more details on both monsters and races. Regarding the races, to encourage people to shift smoothly from FFXI, you will see very similar types of classes. But if you actually make your own character, you'll be able to select your own colour of hair, skin, eye color, shape of your face, etc. There will be a wide range of variety to customize.

ZAM: Why would you stick so rigidly to the class / race balance in FFXI, and are there more races we haven't seen in XI?

Tanaka: Regarding other races, we can't really make any comments at the moment, so please look forward to future announcements. About the balance of each race - it's different from FFXI. This time it's not going to be so much different from the beginning, as in unique racial skills per race, it really depends on which skills you select by yourself and how you're going to grow your character - then that is really going to affect your lifestyle. The abilities and stuff aren't really going to be affected by the race you select. You can just select by the appearance.

ZAM: Will the genders of the races continue to be limited like with the Galka and Mithra in FFXI?

Tanaka: Yes, at the moment, for Miqo'Te there's only a female version, and Roegadyn only has a male version - that's their current status.

PlayStation Blog: I remember reading around after E3 that you mentioned there might be a way to transfer your name over from FFXI. Is that still planned - are you still working on that? Is there a plan on how you're going to do it?

Tanaka: It hasn't been confirmed yet, but we would like to give incentives to the players. First of all, FFXI has 32 worlds, and they may have the same name across different worlds, as I'm sure you know. Each name in each world has to be a unique; there can't be conflicts with other players. However, when we have FFXIV, we still don't know how many worlds there's going to be yet, but players might have the same name if they all move to the same world, so there may be conflicts. So, to avoid that, what we're trying to do is add a surname to their name, so players can keep their main name, but they can add something else to their surname - that way players with overlapping names can keep their names from FFXI, but they can add something on to it to make it unique.

ZAM: How large will the overall world of FFXIV be in comparison to FFXI at the games launch?

Tanaka: Compared to FFXI's Vana'diel launch point, FFXIV may be slightly smaller. However, because the graphic is more detailed and there is more content, we don't think you will feel that the world is small or anything like that. Also, one thing to mention is that FFXI was zone based, but FFXIV is going to be seamless, so from the city to the battlefield, you won't notice any sort of zone change.

PlayStation Blog: You mentioned that the combat system will have less of a team play aspect. I know it's been a few months since the game was announced - can you elaborate on that, and how it's different, and how much progress you've made in the past few months since it was announced?

Tanaka: For FFXI, the system was job based, so that's why they had a party to make the most out of each job. This time it's not going to be a job based system, it's going to be an Armoury system, so it depends on which weapon you use and you can switch your class. That allows the player to use a different ability or skills. You can also join a party, that doesn't mean you have to play solo, but it will allow you to play solo as well, because you can fight against monsters and you can change to a healer to heal yourself. So there will be more variety and it depends on what you plan on doing for that day.

ZAM: Do you feel confident that FFXIV on the PS3 won't suffer from the same limitations that FFXI eventually experienced on the PS2?

Tanaka: With FFXI, there were many PS2 limitations, but this time, we can work with hi-def and the network for PS3s and PCs are almost the same, so there shouldn't be any problem. The one difference between PCs and PS3s could be around the memory management system, so that's something we're really taking care of. Even when we say PC, there are different specs, so the system itself is going to be scalable. One of the settings we have should be the "best" for PS3, so there shouldn't be as many limits as we experienced with FFXI.

PlayStation Blog: You talked about the levelling system not being experienced based, I was just wondering if you were able to tell us exactly what kind of system you're working on, and has it been completely defined?

Tanaka: This time it really depends on the Armoury system. It's going to depend on how much you use your own equipment and weapons. The more you use it, the more the skill will go up of your class, so that's the way you will get to higher levels for the class - the skills. You'll also get abilities. It's not going to be like if you fight more monsters, you'll get more level ups, like similar to the experience system. Of course, if you fight against monsters, you will get some skill points, but it will help more if you attend to Guildleves. So that will be a more efficient way to hone your skills and 'level up' your character.

ZAM: One of the first things that we noticed about FFXIV was how similar it looked to FFXI in graphics, game play style - really in every sense of the word. Why is that, and is that a concern that you might be dragging over FFXI players by primarily targeting that already established consumer audience?

Tanaka: (Laughs) I think it's simply because the same people are making the game.

ZAM: Well, we can agree companies make games that are different from one another. I was just curious as to why FFXIV is so very, very similar. Most companies, when they make additional MMOs, they try to change their focus so that they don't take their existing consumer base away from a game that's already established. I guess the question is, aside from the obvious "the same talent behind the game," aspect, why was the decision made to make FFXIV so similar to FFXI?

Tanaka: FFXI has been out for about eight years now; the graphical engine we used is very old. In that sense, we wanted to have something that the FFXI players can smoothly move on to. So yes, in that sense, it could be very similar to Final Fantasy XI, so it's easier to switch for them. Also, for the race, that's something that we did on purpose to make it very similar to FFXI so that it's easier for people to go from FFXI to come to FFXIV, so that's why I feel it's very similar. As you mentioned earlier, maybe other companies make totally different MMOs to not get users from their original MMOs, but in this, I think we have a different policy or something in that sense. We are providing FFXIV for the FFXI community - as another game they can enjoy, so that's the primary target. Also, we want Final Fantasy players to enjoy the game who haven't played MMOs before, and we also want MMO players who haven't played the Final Fantasy series. We are trying to reach several different targets, but the first one will be FFXI players.

*The follow-up question and answer wasn't captured correctly due to a voice recorder malfunction. We're attempting to recover the audio for a future amendment.*

ZAM: [...]

Tanaka: [...]

ZAM: What were some of the biggest lessons you learned in FFXI, and how did those lessons help you make decisions when developing FFXIV?

Tanaka: The main thing we learned from FFXI was that once we launched the game, we communicated with our players to receive feedback and improve the game and improve the game experience. So we really believe that communication with our players is the most important thing, and that is something we would like to continue for FFXIV as well. Also, we think FFXI was very different from other online games because we have a cross-platform system and a cross-region system, which is different from other MMOs. This is something we believe is a good decision and we believed it helped us create a successful game. This is something we'd really like to continue for FFXIV as well.

ZAM: The guild linkshell system in FFXIV was very unique, and some players loved it and some players didn't like it - obviously because it was so unfamiliar. What kind of plans do you have for FFXIV in terms of guilds?

Tanaka: We are currently working on it, so we can't really go into details, but what we're trying to do is, while linkshells were more like communication tools, this time we are trying to let the players aim for something by joining these kinds of organizations. In this way, players will have a purpose to achieve by working together in the same organizations, so please look forward to further announcements. Also, we will provide a website and people will be able to communicate with each other via these websites as well. We do have a linkshell community site already, but this new version is going to be totally different, and will have more interesting tools.

ZAM: Will it be more like a traditional Facebook or other social networking applications that have become popular over the years?

Tanaka: Because there's already Facebook in a lot of popular social net services already, what we're trying to provide is more like the actual information that people can use to use those social networks, because we don't want to force players to use our social network. We're sure they have their own favorite. What we're trying to do is give them the information by which they share through their social network services.

ZAM: With the two mini content updates for FFXI already out and the third one set to come out at some point in the future, are there any plans for at least one more large scale expansion for the game before FFXIV comes out?

Tanaka: We're still working on the third of the new scenarios, so we're not sure what we have after that. We might start working on something new for FFXI; we might not, so we can't really comment on that.

Famitsu Interview with Tanaka Hiromichi

2009-09-30T05:09:00.000-07:00

Credit for this Writeup and Translation goes to Elmer over at Zam. Credit for the actual interview goes to Famitsu Magazine of Japan. All rights reserved to their owners and Square Enix, LTD. These are not mine nor are they my property, and I am simply reposting them. However, I already did a personal writeup on these video's myself, which can be found in a recent post I made on this blog, a few posts back.

As Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of Final Fantasy XIV, hacked his way through a demonstration of a "Puk Extermination" Guildleve quest, Famitsu flanked him with some questions about their presentation and what it says about the state of the upcoming MMO.

In the gameplay videos, we saw some people fighting dodos and others fighting puks. It turns out that the full scope of the quest requires one to defeat dodos until puks appear. Tanaka states that this is just one of the many ways they will incorporate puzzle-solving elements into Guildleve quests. Also, while there may be an expansive area to explore, later builds of the game will display your targets on the map, so finding those puks that need exterminating will be much easier. As an alpha version, the demo at Gamescom did not include this feature yet.

When the interviewer remarked on how beautiful the graphics were, Tanaka took the opportunity to give some hints about how powerful they will become. It turns out the background scenery was heavily compressed for the demo, and will be greatly improved to the point where individual trees will be rendered far into the distance.

At this point, Tanaka begins attacking some dodos and moves on to discuss the battle system. In Final Fantasy XI, the player would select the attack command and enter an Auto-Attack mode. To spice up the flow of battle, Final Fantasy XIV will require players to select commands each time they attack, and the combination of commands they choose will determine the technique they use. This will put all new emphasis on strategy and keep players engaged in battle.

Action Commands, as Tanaka calls them, are lined up along the bottom of the screen as icons. Those who are grumbling about a passing resemblance to World of Warcraft will be happy to know the layout is tentative and certainly subject to change. The current setup has players selecting an ability from the from the bottom which then appears as a command in your gauge. There are two gauges - one for the left hand and one for the right hand. For example, the character that Tanaka was controlling had a shield in his left hand, so the left-handed gauge had shield commands registered to it.

To activate an ability, the player needs to store up their "Action Gauge." The strength and accuracy of a technique can be further increased by storing up the "Power Gauge." The "TP Gauge" also makes a return, which when full will alter the effects of your technique in a variety of ways. The TP gauge will increase when the player attacks or is attacked by an enemy. During this explanation, Tanaka unleashes Red Lotus Blade with a grin, much to the delight of the interviewer, who immediately recognizes the sword technique.

Magic will be used the same way - through Action Commands - but will only be available if you are equipped with a weapon that allows their use. Swords give sword-based abilities and staves will give magic-based abilities. Also, there are skills that cannot be used until you have acquired enough skill in a particular weapon. In total, you can line up 10 commands in the bar of icons along the bottom. However, in future versions Tanaka states they intend to include a macro system, so players can customize and combine their favorite abilities to their liking.

Another bit of customization, to which players are responding positively, is the ability to drag-and-drop the various info boxes around the screen. There are default positions for each piece of the UI, such as Action Commands, player status, chat box and party status. These will all be movable, and the chat log will be fully adjustable as well. The camera position will have options as well, although the main position will be an over-the-should third person perspective. Tanaka expects there to be three different camera angle to choose from in the final version.

When asked why they decided to go with this battle system, Tanaka explained that first and foremost they wanted to get players more active in battle, which the auto-attack system discouraged. Final Fantasy XI focused on each job having a clear role, with players designing parties around combining those roles. However, in Final Fantasy XIV, they wanted to develop a system where players could easily enjoy the game alone, with a friend, with three people or more. The system is built around the concept of meeting each player's own playstyle.

Tucked in next to the Action Commands, the interviewer noticed a smiley face, which Tanaka revealed was a set of emoticons. In Final Fantasy XI, players were limited to creating emotes through text, but Final Fantasy XIV will provide a set of graphical smileys for users to express themselves. In addition, there are the motions that we all saw displayed in the video at Gamescom. According to Tanaka, these were created through the use of motion-capture technology. However, capturing facial expressions proved too difficult, so the developers ended up designing those manually. Unfortunately, players cannot use full-body emotes during battle at this stage.

At this point, Tanaka finishes up his quest and warps back to the starting point of the Guildleve and moves towards the Aetheryte. Although prevalent in the demo, transportation via Aetheryte will not be so common in the actual game. The majority of their use will be involved with the Guildleve system, as players need to travel to the site of the quest and back again. However, like the user interface, a lot can change before the final game is complete. Tanaka says the game is likely only 40-50% complete at this stage, and the demo cut out basically any elements that were not essential to displaying the Guildleve system. The main focus of the presentation at Gamescom was to show players how Guildleve worked, and how it delivered quests that were enjoyable and light on time. However, this is not to say things will be all fun and games. While the quests shown to players took only 15 minutes of their time, there will many more quests with varying levels of difficulty and time requirements. In addition, there will be hordes of other monsters roaming the countryside that will be sure to make completing your intended task a little trickier.

Tanaka admits that showing off an incomplete game can draw criticism from disappointed players, but he hopes that others may show praise for how far Final Fantasy XIV has come. Currently, the most advanced portion of the game is the graphics, so there are many areas that many completely change before the release date. The idea is that Square Enix will showcase new portions of the game as they continue development, allowing players to experience individual content before a complete beta is put together. While in Germany this meant a playable demo at Gamescom, there may be a playable version that users sign up to try out in Japan, more like, as Tanaka put it, a giant focus group. Players will be added gradually, and once the game is polished enough, and there is a solid base of users, they will initiate an open beta.

Whatever the shape it will take, Tanaka uses his closing words to assure fans everywhere that everyone will get a chance to play a demo of the game, saying, "The fruits of our labor are finally coming to bear, and the development team is working hard to get the game ready. We're planning to let everyone get a shot at a playable version like we have done here in Germany, so please look forward to it."

4Gamer's Interview with Tanaka & Sundi.

2009-09-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

Credit for this Interview and Writeup & Translation goes to Elmer from Zam, as well as the interview itself from 4Gamer.net. This interview and writeup is not mine as does not belong to me. All rights reserved to their respectful owners and Square Enix, LTD.

As Gamescom comes to a close, 4Gamer was able to secure a block of time with Final Fantasy XIV producers Hiromichi Tanaka and Sage Sundi. Previously, Tanaka took staff from Famitsu through a tour of the demo provided to attendees at the convention. 4Gamer, however, spent their time prying out details regarding the game itself.

Learning from Final Fantasy XI

Surf to any Final Fantasy XI forum, and you will see players making comparisons between XI and XIV. How will Final Fantasy XIV be different? Will Square Enix address common concerns from XI? Have the developers learned from any mistakes they may have made?

Tanaka admits that one thing they learned was how technology advances over the life of an MMO. When they first began development, single-processor CPUs were the norm, but soon after release, multi-core processors grew to become the standard. With Final Fantasy XIV, they are thinking five years ahead and plan to include support for multi-core and mutl-threading technology from the start.

Beyond PC technology however, the most crucial point for the developers is the server. Since they are creating an MMO, the client's machine is irrelevant if the server cannot deliver the information. A station can broadcast to a black and white TV or a color TV, but if the signal does not get out, then everyone loses. This is why Tanaka is adamant about creating a stable game server, which he says is the most difficult part of the process.

Another issue that plagues fan forums is whether Final Fantasy XI is going to continue or die. Even if it continues, will it be actively supported with Tanaka and co. focused elsewhere? As it turns out, there are separate areas within the offices of Square Enix for the respective development teams. The work will not be combined, but rather each will be developed as a separate entity.

Tanaka also gives an amusing look into the part he played creating Final Fantasy XI. "When making FFXI," Tanaka admits, "I felt it was faster to do things myself rather than take the time to explain what I wanted." This led to him designing some of the fonts and user interface himself. In Final Fantasy XIV, however, he will be taking a much more hands-off approach, allowing the team to do the bulk of the work. "Sometimes you have to stand back and let the younger guys take control," Tanaka jokes. "If I don't allow them that much, they can't become the next generation of great developers."

Billing Systems and Item Selling

There was a brief mention of billing practices at E3, and the interviewer tries to press Tanaka for more information. He states they wish to use an "Anniversary Billing" system, which means players will pay a certain amount of money to play for a period of time. In other words, X dollars a month, like in Final Fantasy XI; or X dollars for 30 days, which Tanaka expressed interest in at E3. As always, the developers oppose the use of micro-transactions to make items sellable. They feel by allowing players to purchase everything they want, they would rack up larger bills, but quit the game faster for lack of anything to strive for. The developers would rather players find lasting enjoyment in the game itself, instead of make a mad dash for treasure and quit soon after.

However, Sundi interjects saying not to rule out optional services altogether. For example, they may want to add server transfers or other options for players to purchase. There is no elaboration on what else they have in mind, but they will be considering what to offer.

How Everything Works

Thankfully, the interviewer begins to delve into the details of what Tanaka displayed earlier during his Puk hunting and find out exactly how one manipulates their character. According to Sundi, you perform an action by selecting from the "Action Menu" along the bottom of the screen that appears once you target an enemy. The more you use a weapon, the greater your prowess grows, and thus, the more skills you learn to utilize with that weapon. You then set these abilities in the Action Menu and activate them during battle. Changing your weapon will also change what is displayed in your Action Menu. For example, equipping a staff will present your magic-based Action Menu. Also, multiple abilities you wish to perform in sequence can also be registered as macros.

In order for the character to perform commands specified by the player, one must first store up the Action Gauge. If you select a command before the gauge is ready, it will activate once the gauge fills up. There is also a Power Gauge, which can increase the strength and accuracy of one's techniques. The interviewer notes that even with the absence of Auto-Attack, the player could simply use the most powerful skill over and over again. However, Tanaka reveals that repetitive usage of one skill will cause the monster to start seeing through your actions, and it will become harder to land your attack. In other words, employing a variety of tactics is the best way to defeat a monster.

The main goal behind the battle system was to allow freedom of playstyle. Players can easily go solo, as demonstrated by the demo, or they can join up with a number of friends. In Final Fantasy XI, one had to return to their Mog House in order to switch jobs, but players in Eorzea can do it anywhere they please. However, Tanaka warns that swapping weapons during battle is not allowed, so there are some minor limitations.

Another reason they are focusing on solo play is to encourage players to explore all the variety put into the game. If players were forced into parties all the time, they would most likely stick with one weapon and master that. However, when adventuring solo or with small groups, players need to acquire a number of different skills and abilities to be able to survive. The developers hope this will create a rich variety of players and really make each character unique. However, Tanaka admits that growth can come slowly if one focuses solely on adventuring alone. Grabbing a party and working together will help your character improve faster. So, there are positives and negatives to both, which is exactly how they like it.

Content That Keeps on Giving

Guildleve, which was demonstrated at Gamescom, will become the core activity of Final Fantasy XIV, according to Tanaka. It's greatest merit is that you can enjoy it over and over again. Up until now, players would progress through a series of quests or missions, effectively "consuming" these activities until there was nothing left to do. However, Guildleve will allow players to repeat similar quests to their heart's content.

The developers will also be looking at how players use the system, Tanaka says. In Final Fantasy XI, the users would sometimes inject their playstyle into the game and the system would bend and shape into something new and unexpected. Tanaka hopes to see this kind of ingenuity once again, and says the developers may be able to improve the game based on how the players enjoy it.

As the heart of Final Fantasy XIV, Guildleve will come in many different shapes and forms. The type of Guildleve one can accept will change based on the character. Also, new types of Guildleve will continuously be added through version updates. Tanaka promises that the development team is working hard to create a wealth of content in this area. There will be quests that take less than 30 minutes to complete, all the way up to epic missions that span a couple days. Guildleve is all about customizing the game to one's own style.

When asked for more specific information on the actual quests, Tanaka is unable to divulge too much more. However, he explains more about the system, saying that there is an upper limit to the number of Guildleve one player can acquire at a time. If you want to play beyond that, you may have to help other people with their Guildleves. Sundi explains that players can freely aid each other on quests, even if one player does not possess the particular Guildleve being fulfilled.

Races and Faces

While rumored Gria sightings have been squashed, fans are still wondering if new playable races are going to pop up anytime soon. Unfortunately, Tanaka's response to this is to sidestep and instead boast the merits of the character creation system. Players will be able to craft their avatars in more detail than ever before, with skin, eyes, hair-style and face being adjustable. There will also be factions within each race from which to choose, possibly the ones mentioned in descriptions on the official site. For example, a Miqo'te could belong to the Seekers of the Sun or Keepers of the Moon. While this change does not have an impact on the story, Tanaka indicates they may add more aspects to the game that further differentiate the factions.

When creating a new character, players will be able to freely select their starting location as well. While Final Fantasy XI offered special rings depending on your hometown, Tanaka expresses interest in giving everyone a completely level playing field this time around. The point is to allow everyone to start fresh and not influence their choice of race, hometown, or what path they may wish to take with the growth of their character. To this end, there will also be no significant differences between the races. All races can learn the same skills and abilities, but there may be other slight nuances to make them unique.

Hearing that the developers are striving for equality, the interviewer wonders if this will make PvP a reality in the world of Eorzea. However, Tanaka quickly states that PvE will be the focus of the game. If PvP elements are ever added, they will be in the form of sports and games, like Final Fantasy XI. It was decided very early on that PvP would not be added, and it does not appear the developers are going to waver from this.

Final Thoughts

As 4Gamer starts running out of time, they briefly touch on the camera perspective. Players at Gamescom got to try the demo in the 3rd-person perspective from behind the character, and Tanaka indicates they are looking at having a "third-person shooter" style shoulder camera and a first-person camera. The interviewer appears surprised to see the shoulder-cam make it into an MMO, but Tanaka explains that they have heard complaints about the camera positioned behind the character making it difficult to see what is in front of you.

Finally, Tanaka closes the interview by expressing how pleased he was to be able to meet so many fans and gather so many opinions on their work already and hopes to have more chances to do so in the future.

Famitsu Interview with Sage Sundi.

2009-09-30T04:17:00.000-07:00

At GamesCom 2009 Famitsu got a interview with Sage Sundi. I will post the interview here but I would like everyone to know, the translation and writeup were done by Elmer over at Zam. The official interview was done by Famitsu Magazine of Japan. I am simply reposting it for your viewing pleasure and up to the date information on FFXIV. The original source can be found here.

After chatting with Hiromichi Tanaka over a lively round of puk extermination, Famitsu sat down with Sage Sundi, who returns to Final Fantasy XIV to once again offer global user support.

Sage Sundi begins by explaining that he will be returning to his role as Global Online Producer for Final Fantasy XIV. They are looking at the development team, management team and user base as the three key factions supporting their MMO. Sundi's job will be to build the bridges between these three areas and get them working as one. For example, when there is an interview with the foreign media, Sundi will be there with Hiromichi Tanaka.

When asked how GM policies might change, Sundi doubts there will be any significant changes from Final Fantasy XI. More than establishing "public order," they wish to maintain a peaceful and safe playing environment for their users. Most of the policies from Final Fantasy XI will simply carry over and even the team is an expansion from the previous generation's MMO. However, they are going through the details of the system in order to make improvements to certain areas. One adjustment Sundi wishes to implement is making it easier for players to call upon a GM. Also, beyond simply improving the GM system, there will be active collaboration between the Special Task Force, management team and community team in order to create a better experience for all players.

Speaking of community, there is the issue of how Square Enix will maintain a solid flow of information between all the different regions they support. Although developers have expressed interest in an official forum for some time now, they are reluctant to limit it to one language. "If we make the forum in Japanese," Sundi says, "then it would become the Japanese player forum." Instead, they feel the best way to support all languages is to establish premiere sites and allow them to act as "community managers" for their respective user bases. Square Enix can then pull feedback and questions from these sites, allowing every user to voice their opinion in their own language. Sundi continues to say they wish to utilize the web even more than before and trade information directly with the users, tapping into the ingenuity they show when constructing item databases and wikis.

As for in-game communication, Sundi stated there will, of course, be a chat function included. There will also be something akin to the Final Fantasy XI linkshell, and a "Linkshell Community" of some sort on the official site. Sundi is unable to elaborate on any specific plans, but says they intend to use the site to communicate with players and perhaps work with fansites and blogs.

For the final question, the interviewer hints that a number of players may be looking for language-specific servers and looks for Sundi's reaction to such a request. However, Sundi believes that seeing as Final Fantasy XI made it this far without segregated servers, adding such a feature in Final Fantasy XIV would feel like a step backwards. They would rather work at making mixed servers a success instead of abandoning them altogether.

Sundi then closes with some words for players in Japan. He decides to speak directly to Final Fantasy XI players, and assuage some of the fears they have about moving to Final Fantasy XIV. "Making Final Fantasy XIV enjoyable for all users, including Final Fantasy XI players, is our number one priority," Sundi said, "We cannot build a community without considering that. First we address how to satisfy Final Fantasy fans. From there, we will attract other MMO players and develop a community like never before. I believe Final Fantasy Xi players will find their time in Eorzea to be an enjoyable and fulfilling experience, and I hope you look forward to it."

Two More Gameplay Video's!

2009-09-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

Two more short but sweet gameplay video's of FFXIV Alpha at GamesCom 2009. Enjoy!

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: MP Gameplay Part I (Cam) HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: MP Gameplay Part II (Cam) HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Credit for these two great video's goes to Gametrailers.com

Video Interviews with Tanaka Hiromichi.

2009-09-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

Two great video interviews with Tanaka Hiromichi, developer of FFXI and FFXIV. These interviews include Tanaka himself playing FFXIV alpha and explaining different elements of the game.

Tanaka demonstrates and explains battles, guildleves, and even goes on to note that the amazing graphics are not even complete and are still under development, meaning of course the final product will have even more stunning graphics than it already does.

You can also see in the video that the keyboard control elements are almost exactly like those of FFXI, which is great for us FFXIers making the transition to FFXIV. For those of you not accustomed to it, I can assure you that it is the greatest control system of any MMORPG once you get used to it. Although, for you WoW and other MMO fans, it has been stated they will allow functioning with the mouse as well (if that is your cup of tea).

Once more, something I want viewers to keep in mind while viewing these video's is the game is in ALPHA stage at the time of these videos, and is the version Tanaka is playing. You can notice how the character movements and transitions are not always smooth, like when running and making a turn. This is all going to be corrected (as they have assured us time and again recently) by the time the final product is out. So if something doesn't appear as smooth as it should, keep in mind this is not the final version of the game, and we are seeing it while it is still under heavy development.

Tanaka goes on to explain how you will be able to see monsters and quest objectives on the map when you run a guildleve mission, but that you cannot see them in this video because once again, he is playing the Alpha version of the game.

He also goes on to talk about the "TP gauge" which seems to work just like FFXI, where attacking a mob and being attacked will increase your TP. Although in FFXIV, as all well know by now, you will be preforming more actions instead of the basic auto-attack you get so used to in FFXI. However, in FFXIV it appears gaining TP will allow you to preform more advanced skills and abilities, and execute the normal ones more proficiently.

And now on to video #2!

Tanaka explains how your commands and abilities change depending on what kind of weapon you are currently using and have equipped. For example, equipping a staff gives you magic related abilities, and equipping a sword gives you melee related abilities. It seems a lot more strait forward than the more "hybrid" system in FFXI. However, I'm sure there will be tons of "hybrid commands" in FFXIV. He goes on to explain how learning certain commands and abilities will require you to be using and have the proper weapon equipped, perhaps even magic?

The next tidbit of information he gives is that there is a "Command Bar" much like the ones many MMORPG's use (such as World of Warcraft, and Lineage 2), where you set certain abilities to be used at once. He explains that "currently" (meaning as of this Alpha version) 10 can be set, however, we will most likely get more in the end product, or it may advance will your level in the game. However he explains what many already know, that by limiting ones total usable abilities it allows you to customize how you play, and what you are most proficient in at the time.

Another great thing Tanaka explains is that the User Interface is customizable. Meaning you can move things around such as the party member stats, your own stats, the chat window, etc. to make it aesthetically pleasing to the user based on their own preferences.

He goes on to talk about the Camera Angles as well, which he explains (and we learned more later on) will also work much like FFXI, in that you will have the shoulder view 3rd person cam, and the first person view as well. It was also explained later on that the 3rd person cam view would indeed work like FFXI when the FFXIV final product is released, in that it will follow you.

Tanaka once more goes on to stress that there is hardly anything to see in this Alpha version of FFXIV compared to what the final product will be like, and that they are just trying to show off some of the guildleve systems.

At the end, Sage Sundi chimes in to reassure us this game will not be a clone of any other MMORPG. That their main concern is pleasing the final fantasy fans first and foremost (that's a lot of F words) and from there finding ways to attract other MMORPG players. Sounds like a win win situation to me!

I'm sure FFXIV will be great, and I hope you all enjoyed these two video interviews, taken from GamesCom 2009.

As a disclaimer I would like to note that these video's do not belong to me. These video's belong to their rightful owners, and Square Enix, LTD. As well as FFXIVcore and the staff and associations who produced them. Please keep in mind that I had nothing to do with the making or development of these video's and am simply re-posting them as pure fan related material.

New Updates Coming Soon!

2009-08-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

Now now, don't get too excited. I'm not talking about FFXIV updates (although they will be coming soon as well), I'm talking about my blog! I've been having a lot of PC trouble recently, and my schedule has been really stupid and screwy. I hope to have things on track and do some catching up on a few articles/writeups and missed information. So stay tuned! I'm sorry to all my fans (let me humor myself...) who haven't gotten a update recently. Soon, soon I will add all the missed information, so stay tuned!

GamesCom, Day 2: Rise of the Interviews.

2009-08-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

Day two of GamesCom in Cologne Germany is underway, and with it so far is three new Interviews. Interview one done by FFXIVcore, Interview two done by JeuxOnline and Interview Three done by Dengaki Magazine.

Under each Interview I will right my own comments on what I think so far. As always, the italicized text is not that of my own.

A few things I would like to note that we've gathered so far is:

The FFXIV Demo at GamesCom is a Alpha version, confirmed to be a early Alpha Version at that. It's mainly there just to test some game play elements, to see the nice graphics, and fool around a bit. Square Enix themselves admitted much of what you might pick apart in the Demos are still under development (camera angles, combat speed, GUI, controls, etc).

It has been confirmed, that FFXIV will be "Seemless" meaning no zoning. I still think perhaps you might run into a zone or two going from a large region of zones to another, but they say no. So we'll see.

Currently, there is no plans to be able to let your character Jump, however there are plans to let them Swim, or Climb during certain scenarios and aspects of the game. So perhaps there will be certain scenarios, in like a quest or mission where you can jump too perhaps? Just not free jumping? We'll see.

They say they plan on having no EXP loss if you die, however there's a possibility they might make it where you do lose exp. But if this is the case, you will lose very little.

Anyways, here's the first interview done by FFXIV core. Enjoy.

First, thanks to everyone at Square Enix who met up with us at their business area at Gamescom. They were very nice and I have a great first impression of every single SE employee that I spoke with.

We entered a room with a big table (sort of a meeting room) and behind us there were a big LCD screen with the Final Fantasy XIV alpha on it. In the room there were a total of 5 SE employees. I visited together with the CEO from the Curse Network. Right now I don't have all the names, but they were all really cool to speak with and I have a whole new view of SE (not that it bad previously) after this meeting, they all seem very passionate about their games and FFXIV is a game that a lot of effort, energy and time has been invested into. That's for sure! I feel even more anxious to play the game now. Well for longer than 15 minutes that is.

Below we have the results of player asked questions from FFXIVCore.com that was asked to Hiromichi Tanaka about FFXIV. Grab a cup of coffee or something nice, such as orange juice and please enjoy reading our exclusive interview with the producer of FFXIV himself.

In the alpha I wasn't able to jump, will there be jumping in FFXIV? And swimming? Maybe even climbing?

Its going to be the same as in FFXI. So currently there will be no jumping. If its necessary we might add swimming and climbing in the future.

What measures will be taken to combat RMT and botting?

We're going work hard on it, same as in FFXI with the task force. Also for example, at the moment we're trying to add a filter in FFXI to combat it on the spot, instead of waiting for a patch in order to combat the issues. It will be more flexible.

How will the story be told? Powerful story is an essential part of the FF-series, and as far as the producers have said it will be important in XIV as well.

Yes the story is defiantly very important for FF14. We will have high quality cutscenes with voiceovers and fx, please look forward to it.

There will also be voiceovers on mostly every character/npc in the game.

What will endgame be like? Special areas, NMs, etc.

Maybe not from the beginning, but when it comes to a good time we will be implementing some very challenging encounters, among other things. We will have a level cap at the beginning, when it will be unlocked in due time we will release great raid content. We've learned a lot from FFXI and realized what is too easy and too hard.

Exactly how much more casual will FF XIV be than FF XI? Is FF XIV designed to try to appeal to a new casual crowd and leave the hardcore group players in FF XI? Is FF XIV trying to attract both at the same time and try to become the first historical game that successfully combines hardcore and casual aspects?

The first question about the casual aspect. We will have a casual aspect, but we're not going to only target the casual players. Its really a users choice. We will be able to provide a variety of aspects to the game that casual players will enjoy but the hardcore players will enjoy it as well. And also for FFXI and FFXIV we aim to support both players, although FFXIV is using a new graphics engine, so we're providing current FFXI players with an option if they want to play FFXI of course that is fine, but they're also very welcome to play FFXIV.

Hiromichi Tanaka also says that it would be very nice if the players of other Final Fantasy games who never played FFXI would play FFXIV. So that is one of the goals.

So basically they're aiming at the Final Fantasy fans who haven't played MMO's due to having a casual aspect of FFXIV, but also at the same time giving the hardcore MMO players something to enjoy as well.

What about PVP?

We have the same stance on PVP as we had in FFXI, we're having a focus on PVE, but we may introduce some sort of sports-type that might be tied to PVP in the future. What we're worrying about is that we dont want to have any PK'ing or harassment types of activities in the game. So in order to provide a safe environment to everyone and a game to enjoy. So we're not focusing on PVP.

Pay to play or free to play?

The game will cost to play. There's a fee for 30 days each. Currently there are no other plans to offer other options.

No PlayOnline, can you elaborate on the new account features?

We will be using the SquareEnix ID, and also have a system that will be linked to that system.

Is there going to be instanced content?

Guild leaves itself is like instances. Other people will not be able to interfer with you. There will also be instanced raid content, its a type of guild leaves as well. But we cannot tell you how many players it will be yet however. There's also going to be many different types of guild leaves, if you want to play as a casual player it will be fine for instance.

Can you give more specific details about what things can we customize in character creation? I mean things like body size, how many faces will there be available?

Unfortunately we cannot show you the character creation screen yet, but you will be able to change things such as your ears, eyes, hair color, shape of your face. There will be lots of variety.

I'm curious about how advancing in your jobs works. Like will it be a FF Tactics style? Once you've mastered certain skills in a certain job, you unlock another?

It will be slightly different from Final Fantasy Tactics system. You will be gaining abilities by leveling up your skills, but, its not the same as Final Fantasy Tactics. So if you're having a high skill in something it doesnt mean the other one is going to be lower. if you grow in one skill and it gets high, you can still level up your other skills high.

And how will the 'levels' of the mobs work? Does the game have some kinda system in place to adjust mob difficulty based on character stats and current status of party?

Its not going to be changing depending on the players skills. Its fixed. So you get to chose yourself who or what you want to fight.

Auto-run/Auto-follow and Macros saved A LOT of time in FFXI. Could we expect these things (or improved/altered versions) in FFXIV?

Yes it will be in the game.

In FFXI, if you weren't fighting or crafting, there was definitely a lack of things to do. Could we expect more types of things to do in FFXIV? More mini-games, casino, card games like in FFVIII or FFIX, more in-depth gardening/fishing/etc. ?

Yes, we're planning several things so you can enjoy the game, for example the fishing you mention will be a class. But outside of the class system there will be other things to do. For example during FFXI players figured out a way to invent a new game by using the existing system. So that's going to be interesting, we'd like to do that for FFXIV as well. So we're looking forward to what the players will do with our system there.

There were many Summons in FFXI, but for an online world, I never felt there were enough. What Summons can we expect to see in FFXIV and will there be more variety than in FFXI?

We can't really mention which summons will be in. But what we can say is that some is going to be really important in the storyline. It's not going to be included in the game like FFXI. At the moment we don't really have a class, a pet class / summoner. Not at the moment at least. So it will be implemented in the game in a different way. Please check back with us in the future.

Will there be Samuari's in the game, what about the free roaming? What about the freedom in the world, exploration?

We won't have the samuari as a job, because we don't have a job system. And we don't have a class like the Samuari. But it depends on how you're going to select your skills and developing your character. So when you reach a certain skill and/or gain certain skills, you will have a title for yourself. It may be Samuari or may not be - we cannot tell you that yet. So please look for an announacement in the future.

How large will the in-game world of Eorzea be in comparison to the in-game world of Vana'Diel? As in actual space the characters may move around in.

We can't really compare to the current world of Vana'Diel since it's been expanding a lot. But if we compare to the original Vana'Diel, this time it may be the same or slightly smaller, however as you can see there will be a much more detailed world, in terms of graphics and content. So it's unlikely you will notice that it might be slightly smaller than the original Vana'Diel world.

One thing to note is that FFXI used its own system, this time Final Fantasy XIV is going to be seamless. No zoning! Just like in World of Warcraft.

You'll be able to walk from the city to the battlefield without any zoning.

Is the Economic situation of FFXIV going to be mainly player based with Auction Houses or non-player based with NPC ran stores?

We can't go into details about this just yet. We're very sorry about that. This question is better suited to be asked in a couple of months time. However, it's going to be not the same as with auctionhouses, but something very interesting.

Also, this time the weapons are going to be worn out, a durability system. So you will have to repair them and it will cost money.

When is the beta? Any more info?

We dont have any specific time at the moment. But this current version here at Gamescom is an alpha version. And before we start the beta we're going to have another version, a developer version, this time we're concentrating on guild leaves, next time we're going to be concentrating on something else. When it's ready we'll start the beta version. And of course since we're going to launch the game in 2010 it should before that... so. The beta is not going to be in the far future *laughs* We want to do it as soon as possible.

In World of Warcraft, you can now pay a very small fee of in game currency at a Barber Shop and change the face, hairstyle, facial hair, and hair color. Will we see this in FFXIV?

At the moment we're not thinking about it. If we have a lot of requests from the players it might get added at a later time. Not at the launch time at least. In the future perhaps. Also we don't think changing the skin color or face shape is going to be added at all. But maybe hair color.

Can we expect exp loss?

We're still adjusting and discussing this. It may or may not be an exp-loss when you die in FFXIV. But it will be a lot less than it's in FFXI. However, as said we might not include an exp loss at all in FFXIV. In the alpha version we have exp loss currently, but this is still being adjusted, since it's an alpha version. So it's not decided on.

Is the characters we played in the alpha version yesterday buffed?

[They all start out and laugh then proceeds to say]: yes, they're very buffed.

Will the class/job system go into more depth and branch out into different combinations. Or is a wider variety of jobs not yet released and still currently in development?

It's not a job system anymore. We call it classes now. It depends on what weapon you use. And again, we're calling it a class system in FFXIV this time, so it's not a job system. This new system will allow for a lot flexibility, and also because you can switch weapons between the battles (not during battles) this is giving you much more variety. Although this is not something super new in the history of MMO's, we've seen it before in games like Ultima Online and Meridian 59 (editors note).

[We're now at the end of our 45 minutes time with Hiromichi Tanaka and we get told there's only space to ask one more question, I show them all the questions I have left and we all laugh, because there's lots left to still ask, however we're offered to ask them through email, so expect more information to go up in awhile from now]

Will the Linkshell system still be called "Linkshell"?

We can't go into details on that just yet, but it's not going to be called Linkshell anymore. However, it's going to be something very interesting. You'll be able to join a kind of organization, but we can't say more on that right now, you'll be able to have different aims and focuses. It'll be very interesting.

System Requirements?

We're not done with analyzing this just yet, but it's going to be fairly high since FFXIV is going to be on HD on Playstation 3.

Here is the second interview. Please note it is done in French, by JeuxOnline. The translation was done by Google, so it is not perfect. The original source can be found here.

Today was a busy day for reporters JeuxOnLine to GamesCom Cologne. Having had the opportunity to be among the first to test the alpha version presented at the booth of Square Enix public, they would have the opportunity to attend an interview with some of the operations team of the game .

After a fantastic ride worthy of the fastest local Valkyries that we managed to achieve with the five minutes required to advance the Square Enix booth at the Business Center. White everywhere, the names on each door that are all more than dream about door neighbor: Final Fantasy XIII, Dissidia, My Life as a Darklord, but Final Fantasy XIV, the main object of our curiosity today.

The hosts welcome us with plenty of proposals varied (no, not indecent, perverse band) pretzels and drinks, making us wait until the last interview ends. The rigor of the editor is legendary, it was clearly demonstrated once again on this occasion: one minute after the scheduled time, all the journalists present had bent poles and tripods to clear up at the next session.

Because yes, there were sessions. Only with the team at Square Enix in the lounge where the presentation took place, we fantasies to the idea of having, why not, the opportunity to meet with face to face, but it was not the case, because we were quickly joined by a large handful of journalists from different backgrounds and different media (press, web TV, photography) ...

So in this patchwork team that we have somehow tried to ask some of your questions to Mr. Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of the game, and Mr. Sage Sundi, producer in charge of the division line thanks to the translation provided by Saori Vivien Hill, manager of community.

M. Tanaka et M.Sundi

The image date, but they have not changed ...

Most journalists want to know more about the origins of the project on the relationship between Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV and on the gaming experience that this new film would bring to the player.

Both speakers were keen to stress the need to really consider this new episode as the result of almost eight years of work and experience about Final Fantasy XI, which, if served as a working basis, will ultimately delivered a completely different album in its history as in its Thursday mechanisms proposed by experience Final Fantasy XIV is much more immersive for the player: the main frame of the game is announced as even more epic than its predecessor, with elements such as voice recorded for most of the NPCs in the world Eorza to make more interactive quests and trade. The game has been thought, according to Mr. Tanaka, to cover a much wider audience than Final Fantasy XI, an audience as many neophytes as aficionados of the series.

Some of our present, specializing in console gaming lounge, then wanted to talk about the choice of media announced to date for Final Fantasy XIV.

Over the issues, both recalled that if the game had been announced as exclusive to the Playstation 3 in the living room consoles, negotiations were still ongoing with Microsoft to see the game on XBOX 360 adapted. When asked to justify this choice, we said that the PS3 and PC environments are actually very close and that the Xbox Live console to Microsoft is the element that would be problematic at present. In reflection, we can legitimately ask whether this problem would not be for example related to the fact that the purchases on the Playstation Network to be paid exclusively in the realm expèces and tripping when Microsoft until a few days ago proposed purchases almost exclusively via Microsoft Points purchased primarily on the site of the operator.

Faced with the concerns of players on the console to ease the grip of the game with a pad (the alpha version is playable on PC), the tone is reassuring: this game is obviously provided for console but also for PC and will be especially designed to offer a more intuitive handling of.

Address the choice of partners and platforms has allowed us to initiate the discussion on the choices and the current position of Square Enix in relation to the production of MMORPG and its competition. When you have the opportunity to do interviews in groups as diverse as that in which we were, you have every chance of hitting a person who is not specialized in the MMORPG that will eventually ask a question now traditional and World of Warcraft in? In big smile displayed by both players, it was clear that this was not the first time we asked them and they were prepared to say WoW is certainly the biggest players on MMORPGs PC and is a fierce competitor, but until proven otherwise, Final Fantasy XI is and will remain some time on the main console and MMORPG is the way to a heavyweight.

When we relaunch this hegemony salon, trying to figure out what could explain the lack of success and the rarity of their competitors, we said that development costs are very different and much higher in the context of a game multi-platform and that the studios that can cope with these expenses are not very numerous. The move from PC to console is a highly expensive if the goal is an adaptation as faithful as possible to the minutes of the PC version and the publisher must have good financial resources to cope with managing multiple development teams or fitness for a single Thursday

Both speak to finance, another journalist with reviving an issue that may seem the most unexpected but has been important to consider at length the two interlocutors: Will we one day next online Final Fantasy style games currently available free with an online store for example? The final answer was that it was obviously an option but at present it did not coincide with the goals for the Final Fantasy Online. Indeed, the public current F2P they are too different from the usual public license and may have a negative impact on the game more, the idea to provide a free client on the Internet seemed more daunting otherwise: is it related to the fact that a numerical balance in units sold is more rewarding and a representative number of downloads? We do not know ...

But we could also ask questions about what might interest you most, you, readers of JeuxOnLine. We had asked you what area you puzzled most and you replied majority system evolution.

We landed at one of our tours to speak the question that burns the lips of everyone: how to walk but the Armory System? Unfortunately, as you might expect, as Mr. Tanaka Mr. Sundi have kicked into touch on this question by saying he could not reveal more at the moment: the only thing we agreed to tell us is that we could change jobs at will between the fighting in changing equipment.

But tough, we have not released the song and tried to learn a little more about how the game The game will be based on a main quest very difficult accompanying quests obtained through "Guildleves which enable everyone to find the pleasure that research, whether on a Thursday session of short (less than fifteen minutes) or much longer. We thus confirm that the game will be much more oriented towards the casual players that could not be Final Fantasy XI, being much more flexible. It is no longer questions of power of the character: everything is a matter of competence and an avatar will be together, whether played by an experienced player or a beginner, according to the skills he can bring to his group. Square offers the possibility of abolishing the barrier that separates the largest ships of more casual players.

Traumatized by the echoes that we had some challenges (such as Pandemonium, for example) proposed by Final Fantasy XI, we sought to learn more about balancing monsters for Final Fantasy XIV: there will always be monsters providing intense fighting at all adventurers who face but for all levels of mastery of the characters, from lowest to highest. But again, it will take a little longer to learn more.

Seeing that the content of the game it might not be unveiled, we chose to address another aspect that concerns us directly: that communities and their management. All questions that were asked by our équpe, which has somewhat monopolized the late trade to satisfy your thirst for information.

As noted in the article about the alpha version, it was more surprised by a company such as Square Enix, usually known for its cult of secrecy, to unveil a version of the game too early, especially an event on the importance of GamesCom. We have therefore asked whether this was a new direction of communication from the editor: we were told it was in fact a choice of the team, wanted, unlike the strategy for Final Fantasy XI, receive and react to player feedback from the early stages of final development. A decision that no player will not regret, we can be sure.

Always about identity, then we wanted to know what elements are available for players to enjoy the first M in MMO game that wanted a little more oriented casual games. We announced an overhaul of the system Linkshell, which will be a little further to create groups and the provision of online tools to help players by centralizing information about the social aspect of the life of FF XIV.

One of the important areas of community management by Square Enix and an important element in the section dedicated to JeuxOnLine Final Fantasy XIV is the status of a partner site of Square Enix, the famed Premier Website for Final Fantasy XI. It is with pleasure that we can tell you that this system should be extended for this opus, but in a form different from that you could know until now. Nothing is yet done, they begin to think about the statutes of these sites: the road is still long for our section, but we can assure you that we will do everything to get this status.

Status of one of the first attributes could be to host a calendar of events organized by the operators of community and / or the community itself! Indeed, this has emerged as one of the first real news community Having long tried to put in place for Final Fantasy XI, in vain, it seems to be a real goal for their teams this time. Reste à savoir si ce projet n'en restera pas un cette fois-ci. Remains whether this project will not do this time.

But time passes at a crazy speed, when the exchange is exciting and the half hour we were given to us like a flame of a match: deep, intense, but very fleeting. We went out this interview with a taste of unfinished disappointed not to have got more information, or in any case, more crispy or stunning revelations. But it was already a great mark of recognition of the work done by teams of FF XI and FFXIV so far as to give us this interview, what we intend to continue to satisfy you the best!

I congratulate those who arrived at the end of this street.

And now the third interview. I'm not sure who translated this, but I believe it was done by Maruchiru on Zam. So credit to the deserving, and if I did not give credit where it was do please forgive me. The original source can be found here. I might also put up an exact translation when one becomes available.

・At this moment, 40-50% completion.

・The graphic quality will be tune up even more. You can see each tree very clearly even they are very far away.

・macro feature will be added.

・UI layout can be movable by players themselves.

・The smile Icon is emote function.

・Those icons below the screen are called action command.

・You can set abilities that you had on those action command.

・Once you select the command, it will show on one of the 2 gauge in the middle of your screen. Each gauge represent left and right hand.
For example, your left hand equipped with a shield, so those shield related command will be appeared on the left hand gauge.

・When the action gauge reached, the command that you set, will be cast.

・There will be a power gauge too, the more it gains, the higher your accuracy and skill power will be.

・TP gauge will effect what kind of skill you can cast too. So gaining TP will be also very important during battle.

・TP will be gained by getting hit, or hit the monster.

・The action command will be change depends on your weapon. If you put on rod or staff , it will be magic related action.

・Action command will only have 10 slots. You are able to customize those.

・The bag mark icon is item bag.

・Players are not be allow to use emote during battle.

・3 kind of camera style : 3 person view, should view, and first person view.

・Players are able to pull up their weapon even not in engage mode.

・Quest mob location will be show on your map.

・Those puks wont be appear before you finished the dodo.

・There will be a development version before beta test. The image will be like a focus group thing.

=========================================================

Some speculation, according to the famitsu screenshot, the mob's name is in Japanese, so some people is guessing it will be a language base server.

By the way, the mob's name in Japanese version of FF11 is in English.

There's not much left for me to say that isn't simply raw speculation or that you folks cannot figure out for yourselves. So much information, so many exciting announcements, and so many great new features! And this all still being simply in Alpha! Once again, my only concerns so far is the camera system and the control system. But once again, being in Alpha stage, I expect to see everyone made happy in FFXIV!

Stay tuned for more information!

New Pictures from Dengaki!

2009-08-20T06:17:00.001-07:00

Some new pictures just came in from Dengaki Magazine of Japan. Not a whole lot of information is said, so I will link you directly to the source for these images. Credit goes to Dengaki Magazine. I do not own these pictures, they are property of Dengaki Magazine and Square Enix co, LTD.

With these pictures, we get a whole new look at the world of Eorzea!

GamesCom, Day 1: Videos Galore & More!

2009-08-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

Augest 19th 2009, the opening day of GamesCom video game conference and trade show in Cologne Germany. And with it brought a swell of new information on FFXIV. The most exciting of which, would be something that no one even expected. Playable Demo's! That's right, they had demo's setup for certain privileged to partake in. With this, came several video's showing the game play elements and aspects of FFXIV. Now, keep in mind, Square Enix admitted themselves this is the "Alpha" version of the game, so not everything will be perfect (camera angles, certain animations, GUI, etc).

There were not only videos but pictures as well, released from GamesCom. Below are the videos, and below them will be the pictures with a personal writeup on my thoughts about them.

I take no credit for these videos. These videos have been provided by 1up and GameTrailers. All rights are reserved to them, and of course, all pictures and videos shown here are reserved rights of Square Enix, co, LTD. The pictures have come from varying sources, one of which is FFXIVcore. If there are any parties I am missing, please forgive my lack of credit being given.

Video #1:

Video #2

Video #3: (Character Emote Animations)

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Character Animations (Cam)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Video #4:

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Lalafell Gameplay (Cam)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

There is also a 5th video done by Dengaki Magazine, which can be found here. Unfortunately, there is no option to embed it, so you'll have to go to that address yourself. It is worth it though, as it shows how amazingly realistic the weather effects will be in FFXIV.

So, what do these video's tell us? So much, yet so little. Once again, these are videos of the game in Alpha Production, which isn't even in Beta Production. I've heard rumors that this is even a old Alpha at that and there are many changes that have already been made. So let's go off what we know?

The graphics are simply beautiful and stunning, no one can deny that. The world itself looks very beautiful, and has such a rich sense to it. The character animations seem to look very "Alpha" to me, as you can see missing frames here and there, as well as the actions being very clunky. Things like remaining engaged, and the movements seeming choppy. Even at that, take note of the detail the characters take when they change direction, come to a stop, or start to move. Very realistic indeed!

As far as the background music goes, which you care barely even hear, it's hard to say if it's more "Alpha" or if it's the finished product. If I had to guess, I would say it doesn't really sound like the Music Director, Nobou Uemetsu's work.

The GUI (User Interface) seems pretty nice to me, although Square Enix told everyone to take note, that it was not the final product, and that it would be more streamlined when the game was actually released (or perhaps in Beta).

One of the biggest concerns is about the attack speed. When asked about this, Square Enix commented that the game would revolve more on using many skills, than simply engaging and auto attacking, although it is guessed that the auto attack speed won't be much slower than FFXI, but this is just speculation and going off of what they have said concerning Alpha.

But before we go on further, and I end up jabbering off all day, let's take a look at some exclusive pictures. If I'm not mistaken these were taken by Kyuu of FFXIVcore.

Here we see a few small pictures of the new world of Eorzea. Hard to focus in on, but it's a nice little teaser.

Compass Information: Tip: use the compass during your quest to find the squirrels. The squirrels appear at point A. When there's one squirrel left, it's fleeling to point B, so chase the squirrel to point B!

Gladiator information:

Attached Image

1st: Swordslash: Powerfull Attack
2nd: Swordslash: Precise (meaning of Accuracy) Attack
3rd: Shield Block: damage Minimizing
4th (red one): Ranged Attack: Great Distance

Drawing

5th: Provoking: Distraction
6th (red): roundabout slash: AOE damage
7th (red) Red Lotus: huge damage

So far, the jobs shown, from left to right are confirmed to be:

Master of the Great Axe, Master of the Bow, Master of the Fist, and Tailor.

The exact translations are not completely sure, but from what I've heard and deduced these are the correct names. But don't hold me to it!

It seems the folks at FFXIVcore were able to compile a quick list of things they found out at GamesCom on Day one, here is that list of what we know so far, as well as some elements Kyuu from FFXIVcore was able to deduce from playing a quick trial of the game.

* Currently you can't jump, but a developer told me they are considering to add it
* I wasn't able to find water just yet, so not sure if you can swim
* I will have an interview up tomorrow Thursday
* The combat system is interesting, reminds you of FFXI, you select a target with TAB, then take up your weapon with F and X locks on it. Then use the numbers from your hotbars to use abilities. The first two abilities I had generated combat points to use the AOE attacks etc, I'll get back on what class I played later
* Game is polished, very smooth combat and performance
* It was played on a PC (I think), with mouse and keyboard
* I did a kill mob quest, kill 6 peacock-like creatures, they were very easy to kill
* Square Enix points out several times that the game is in alpha, so keep this in mind. For being in alpha, the game has come very far and I'm quite impressed. Check back for a write up later.
* I tried running off further on the map and met many invisible walls.
* You could move around using WSAD

So, my current thoughts in summary is this:

I'm a bit worried about the control system. I do not like absolutely having to use a keyboard + mouse for control. In FFXI you could do everything in the game perfectly efficient without ever touching the mouse. If the option is there for people, that is good, but I hope we are not forced to constantly use the mouse.

Another thing that concerns me, is the camera angle. In FFXI it follows you in a very natural way. If you are indeed using a keyboard + mouse, having to adjust the camera angle at the same time could get very tiresome.

But, keep in mind, this is just a Alpha version of the game. Square Enix keeps telling people at GamesCom that this is not the complete product, and there will still be changes made. So here's hoping!

Stay tuned for more info everyone!

FFXIV at Gamescom 2009!

2009-08-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

FFXIV and Square Enix will be making their appearances at Gamescom in Cologne Germany. a European gaming expo. There's said to be new information released there, so I'm very excited to hear about what comes out of this. I myself am in the United States so I will not be able to attend, but I hope to get information as quickly as possible as it's released. Here's hoping Square Enix gives out some good tidbits of info for us to speculate on, perhaps even a Beta date? Who knows.

Be sure to keep an eye out August 19-22nd for the new information.

If you are interested in visiting Gamescom, or would like more information, please visit their official website here.