FFXIVstuff, aka monster hunter XIV Options

[Alisha]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/04/final-fa...new-job-system/

The latest edition of Famitsu Wave recently hit newsstands in Japan, bringing with it a DVD which contains an 8-minute exposé on Square Enix's second stab at the MMO genre, Final Fantasy XIV. The whole video is posted after the break. Fret not -- it sports convenient English subtitles.

Here's some of the more titillating excerpts: The game features a reinvented character progression system which does not include experience points or leveling up. The job system from XI will make an appearance, but in a heavily altered form -- an interview with the game's director, Nobuaki Komoto, revealed that the game will place a focus on the weapons players use, explaining that your armaments will determine "the way you play" and "the way you grow." Sounds reminiscent of Final Fantasy IX. (That's a very good thing.)

In addition, FFXIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka explained that the game takes place in a new region with a more "modern" feel to it -- the mysterious Eorzea which was mentioned in the trailer. The new world features familiar races (albeit with new names), and plays host to a "deep story," which is told through cut-scenes and quests. For more FFXIV info than you can possibly handle, check the video after the jump.


sounds similar to monster hunter no?

Race Scans

Someone translated the text on BG Forums regarding the characters:

"When you make your character, aside from choosing the race, you will also be able to customize their appearance. Head, skin color, hair type etc, there will be multiple factors. Just how exact we will be able to customize their appearance is still unknown, but we mean it in a good way when we say that it seems like it will become a worry to many players."

[Crushinator]

The characters look nice, a big improvement over (what I felt was) the creepy appearance of the Taru's and Mithras in FFXI. They had better make it more fair/accessible to get these weapons if thats the only factor for leveling up your dude. Otherwise the level grind will simply be replaced by overcrowded weapon drop camping or some crap.

I like that they are addressing the problems with not being able to do anything outside of a party though.

I will be a Galka on this game

[AC9breaker]

Fuck yeah dood, Galka brotherhood 4 li4e.

You guys find it funny on some of the names seem like broken engrish like Hyuran. Might as well just call them humans. Also is it just me or do Galkas look very asian like? Anyway, I'm excited. I'm wondering how they're gonna handle range weaponry. I've always preferred range weaponry myself and FFXI was quite difficult to focus on that even as ranger what with the cost of materials.


Tr3y 4 Li4e!

[Crushinator]

Direct translations from the Famitsu article courtesy of neoGAF:

Races:
Hyuran: 2 clans - midlanders and highlanders
Elezen: the original race of Eorzea, oppose the Hyurans, developed hearing
Roegadyn: more human looking than Galkans, their base is in the north and there are a lot of fishermen
Lalafell: based in the south, agricultural, high intelligence, not many females
Miqo'te: 2 clans - the Sun Seekers who live regular daytime lives and the Moon Keepers who are nocturnal, not a lot of males, not clear if they will speak like cats
More races to come later

Stages:
Desert City - Uldaha
Forest City - Gridania
Ocean City - Rimsa Rominsa
(the spelling could be way off, just going from the 2ch stuff Munba posted)

Armory System:
- you can change jobs and lifestyles freely
- by changing your weapon, you are essneitally changing jobs, and can do so anywhere
- so if you are invited to a PT and there are a lot of fighters, you can switch to a caster, then when your adventures are over, go fishing or synth some stuff
- weapons and def gear all have their own merit. if you want to hone a particular skill, you can coordinate your equipment in that direction
- rather than character levels and skills, the main thing is the skill of the item you are holding
- you can play on your own and switch between fighter and caster to heal yourself, so soloing is easy
- changing is as simple as changing your weapon, so there's no stress
- typical jobs of the FF series, e.g. warrior and black mage, are being avoided
- you can basically enjoy this world in any way you want.

Guild Leave:
- these are passes of trust you obtain from guilds
- a Leave is not a quest. it's a card.
- you can mix your Leaves with other players' Leaves
- at the Adventurers' Guild, you can get Guild Leaves
- there are Leaves that you can't get when your skill is low
- typically a Leave will take 30 mins to complete, there are some shorter too
- you can set the number of people needed to clear the Leave by yourself (seems to be like a difficulty level)
- if one person is carrying a Leave, other players may join whether they have the same Leave or not
- the contents of the Leave change after a week passes
- you can carry multiple Leaves (they are card form, like invitations)
- Guild Leaves are designed like Tarot cards and are really beautiful

Ethelite (sp?)
- installations that can warp you to your adventuring spot instantly

Interview
- in Eorzea, the cities are not all on one connecting landmass, like they were in FFXI
- the difference between races is not as big as FFXI
- but their is a difference between male and females, which they are keeping secret
- character creation: face, hair colour, eye colour, skin, etc. etc.
- battles are realtime, but not action based
- targeting an enemy and fighting (like FFXI) is not the main system, there will be a lot that you have to think about besides the target itself.
- because of the armory system, they are going to make it possible to carry lots of stuff
- there will also be stuff included that makes it easy to change gear
- they're considering whether to let you master everything or not - there may be a see-saw like approach (like FFXI)
- the base of the character growth is the weapon. use a weapon and raise your skills.
- they are considering the option to let you arrange your windows how you want
- weapons will degrade with use
- Guild Leaves include monster hunting, expulsion, skilling up, etc etc
- when you go on a Leave run, you can use Ethelite to take you where you need to go instantly
- there are pirates in Rimsa
- Miqo'te are more catlike
- some trumpeting about how it's going to be an awesome game
- right from the start, it'll be exciting and you'll be thinking "orly!?"
- weather changes, day/night too
- 1 game day = 1 earth hour
- people who can only play an hour a day will still be able to enjoy the game
- the monetary system is Gil
- the people living in the cities all have their own backstory
- you'll start the game from your home city (I guess it's based on race, but doesn't say implicitly).

[tanshin]

After reading all this new info, I can't help but get worried, honestly. It seems like they are going to make the game too easy, much like world of warcraft. The only reason people still play WoW after the simple task of maxing out their character's level is so they can go on raids to get more stuff to become the best PvP person ever. I'm not particularly fond of either time consuming raids nor a main focus on PvP in an MMO. I notice that square enix also are not fond of PvP, so I'm starting to wonder what the hell we're gonna do if they make leveling (oh, I'm sorry increasing your skill with a weapon or whatever) so easy that you hit the cap a month after playing? I'm glad that they seem to be doing away with the mistakes made in FFXI, but I hope they don't throw away the aspects about it that were good as well.

[Knightsword]

Hopefully they also get rid of that annoying extra fee per extra character. Every other mmo I've played has yet to commit that form of asshatery.

[Alisha]

obviously we need to know more but i don't like the idea of changing jobs midfight to heal yourself. i think the idea is to be solo friendly and for those times when you are making a party and you cant find a healer or tank or refresh whore. but i think there has to be better ways to tackle those problems.

[AC9breaker]

I don't know, it makes the game sound like PSU and I thought you loved PSU? I mean didn't you get like a billion hours offline? I would prefer if they went with a PSO type of thing myself. The game certainly sounds like it's drawing a lot from Monster Hunter what with weapons degrading and such. May not be such a bad thing since that game owns.

[Crushinator]

obviously we need to know more but i don't like the idea of changing jobs midfight to heal yourself. i think the idea is to be solo friendly and for those times when you are making a party and you cant find a healer or tank or refresh whore. but i think there has to be better ways to tackle those problems.

I sincerely doubt that switching your weapon/job to a healer to cure yourself mid battle will be the most efficientj/intended way to play the game. If anything, the ability to change on the fly will keep you from having the problem of finding a healer/tank/whatever-role, because any player can potentially fill the spot. You don't need to say "ok we need a pld and a whm and a brd and then 3 other mooks to hurt things" you can just say "hey lets get 6 friends and have fun."

[HC82]

You don't need to say "ok we need a pld and a whm and a brd and then 3 other mooks to hurt things" you can just say "hey lets get 6 friends and have fun."

That was the biggest turn off for me when it comes to MMOs. I hate forming PTs. I don't like waiting or being unable to do things because someone had to go and now we need a tank etc... The dynamics are obviously that it creates party diversity and can make for more unique encounters, but there needs to be a balance. That's partly why WoW was a success in that way for casual gamers. Although, WoW is really just very user friendly as you level up and becomes strict on the raiding level, which I don't have the time to devout too.

It's important for MMOs to understand the benefits of how they do things, and why it does or doesn't work, but also think outside the box and carve their own path. Too many MMOs follow a strict path or 'mantra' of MMO gaming guidelines. I think they just need to let go at times and focus on "what's fun as all shit and will last a long time with players?"

PSO, being in all honestly a rigid action rpg with only 4 stages had me playing again and again. It didn't have miles of digital landscape, realistic worlds, and all these immersive aspects, yet I'v clocked more into that then most MMOs.

What does that mean exactly? That means that the main focus is "FUN!!!" The MMORPG aspects of immersion of huge worlds can easily dwarf a game like PSO (and it does dwarf it), yet if a small-ass-4-stages-game can have me playing for 400+ hours, than a huge-massive world should have me playing longer (obviously it will), but also having waaaaay more fun.

WoW has some of those elements which make it easier to get into and has you generally exploring each area fully, due to the nature of the quest system. FFXIV understands that these elements are important to a MMOs success, but originality must still prevail.

[Crushinator]

Some in-game screens posted at Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/5332049/final-fantasy-xi...m-here/gallery/

Looks VERY pretty. Also notice all the character images are in-game models, not concept renders. Looking really nice.

Also, the official site http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/ has been updated with a lot of content. Mostly covering the stuff we already found out from Famitsu, but at least its in real english now, not mysterious translations

[Alisha]

I don't know, it makes the game sound like PSU and I thought you loved PSU? I mean didn't you get like a billion hours offline? I would prefer if they went with a PSO type of thing myself. The game certainly sounds like it's drawing a lot from Monster Hunter what with weapons degrading and such. May not be such a bad thing since that game owns.

actually i think psu is crap 4.5/10

as for FFXIV my fear is this:
i only hope that in their attempt to make it more mainstream friendly they dont destroy the things that made ffxi so fun. i saw this happen once before when i used to play asherons call. in AC2 they oversimplified everything and it ended up being crap.

[Crushinator]

i only hope that in their attempt to make it more mainstream friendly they dont destroy the things that made ffxi so fun. i saw this happen once before when i used to play asherons call. in AC2 they oversimplified everything and it ended up being crap.

What was it that made FFXI so fun to you? Legitimately, I want to know.

Even though I played the game a shitload, I pretty much despise every aspect of the game, aside from the intricacy and teamwork required for things like skillchain/magic bursting. And by the end of the game nobody gives a shit about things like that anyways and just spams their best attacks, at most with like a 2 step chain.

Other than that the real fun of the game is purely social, playing with your friends and getting shit done -- which FFXI seems to try and STOP you from doing at every possible juncture, whether it be through arduous travelling, death penalties, level caps (yes i know they addressed that NOW 5 years later), or other bullshit.

[Wiryu]

It's because of monster hunter I feel really good about the new character progression system in FFIVX. There being no levels, I was skeptic with monster hunter, but I see a huge difference in performance against the different levels of monsters with each piece of gear I obtain, and if they can pull it off so great with a small game, I feel really excited about seeing if a successful gaming company can pull off a similar system, with much more content, even moderately well. I've been juggling MH and FFIVX since MHF came out on the PSP, so to feel like I may potentially have both games combined into one, I think that's pretty awesome!

It's speculation to say it'll be anything near what I expect, but the similarities are present enough to get me excited, and I feel confident that the system may just work out nicely. The only thing I have concerns about with the new system is whether or not I'm going to have to tediously change each piece of gear, or if they'll make it easy enough that by changing the weapon for example, all the gear worn previously, and macros used, change with it. (Assuming there are macros)

I'm also interested to see how the branch out system works (which I admit sounds like WoW) but that's for another day.

[Alisha]

gameplay videos

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Character Animations (Cam)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Magic & Melee Gameplay (Cam)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii