Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, FF14 2.0's official release Options

[Crushinator]

check my post again specifically the part about "weapons" i only cared about offline mode in phantasy games back when i only had dial up. i'm told future updates are adding more weapons though. as for beast...i played my human the most in psu and phantasy star portable. and its not like cast has a 400 point lead in atp like they did in pso1.

[Crushinator]

Official PS3 screenshots, this is actually happening:







The screens look a bit blurry compared to the PC ones, apparently the game is running at 1280 x 544 upscaled to 720p. The controller based menu system looks good though, and you can have up to 128 different hotkeys set (8 X 16 slot hotkey pallets).

Some deets from a translated interview:

- They (somewhat) ended up changing the map/layouts of the three cities after all.

- Amon, the re-introduced boss from FFIII, is going to be (one of?) the boss(es?) in Crystal Tower.

- Titan is confirmed to be in ARR from the start.

- Odin will 'appear differently' compared to that of other Primals.

- Depending on how one raises one's chocobo, what they can wear in equipments will also be different. (ex: If you raise it as a mage-type chocobo, then it can wear mage gear; if you raise it as a tank, it can wear tank gear, etc)

- The new dungeon in the concept art will be one of the many leveling dungeons introduced in ARR, this one being one from R40~R45. Compared to the current slew of dungeons where it's mostly 'cave' type dungeons, there will be more 'ruin/tower' type dungeons introduced in ARR.

- Hamlet will undergo a complete revamp. It will no longer be the 'closed' type content it currently is. The reason why it's the way it is the current version is due to 1.0 limitations. In ARR they can finally implement a more open-style content, which is what they originally wanted to do.

- Monster AI will operate under a FFXII-style 'gambit'-type system. Likewise, Chocobo AIs will operate under something similar.

- Depending on what class you start as, your starting city will be locked to where that class' guild is located. (ex: If you start off as a MRD, you start in Limsa)

- Raid bosses will always drop some type of reward - somewhere around 2~3 rare drops per party, random lotted. Even if one didn't get the rare drop, the players will be rewarded with tokens which you can then exchange for rare drops. In exchange, the chances to participate in the random lottery will be limited to 3 times per week. (Stanislaw's notes: The text in the interview here isn't really clear. What I'm assuming this means is that the chance to get that 2~3 rare drops is limited to 3 times per week, but one can still get tokens by trying the content over and over again. On the other hand, this can easily mean the return of horrid re-entry times.)

- All 1.0 players will get a chance to remake their character (appearance) for ARR. However, this can only be done once, and within half a year after launch.

- ARR's PS3 base resolution is 1280 x 544, which is then stretched/adjusted to 1280 x 720. Reason: PS3 memory limitations, etc. It's possible to set it higher as they're trying to fit every model into 10GB (the limit is 20GB), but with future considerations in mind, they want to set the bar relatively low for the sake of smooth performance.

- PS3 UI elements is still somewhat customizable in the sense that it can be moved around. Resizing the UI, however, is still up in the air.

- With the gamepad cross-bar system, one can register up to 128 actions (there are a total of eight 16 slots) on the bar, per class.

[HC82]

This is kind of like being in an abusive relationship. Square-Enix beats you severely (out of your money), yet you keep coming back for more punishment (hoping it will change).

Hmm... where's my wedding ring?

If the game is free to play for the first 30 days I'll give it a shot *put up makeup over black eye*

[AC9breaker]

This is kind of like being in an abusive relationship. Square-Enix beats you severely (out of your money), yet you keep coming back for more punishment (hoping it will change).

Hmm... where's my wedding ring?

If the game is free to play for the first 30 days I'll give it a shot *put up makeup over black eye*

Maaaan. They got me considering the game too. gdi

[Wiryu]

As long as I don't have to buy the damn game again i'll give it a shot.

[Crushinator]

I won't even qualify this, it just looks damn good now. It actually seems like a real modern game. I'm excited for the relaunch and I'll be there day one!

[Scan_Man]

I really hope it redeems itself. It's amazing they pumped this out in 2 years.

[DarkEpyon]

I'd love to see what the other cities look like. I guess it's just like 1.0 pre-release when all they had ready were the areas around Limsa Lominsa. Many people on XI have jokingly said that the changes over the past several months are them trying to drive people to play 14 when it relaunches.

[Crushinator]

Damn, FFXIV Director Yoshida dropping some real talk:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/27/yos...-destroy-square

Naoki Yoshida has revealed that he feels another mistake like Final Fantasy XIV would end up "destroying" Square Enix.

Speaking with Kotaku, the game's producer and director explained that his team is fully aware of the pressure on them to salvage the brand's reputation following the poor reception the MMO received. He asserted that this was why they were determined not to launch the revamped Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn until they feel the game is ready.

"We won't make a mistake like FFXIV again," he said. "If we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company."

Final Fantasy XIV launched back in 2010 to a negative reaction from fans and critics alike, resulting in Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada saying "the Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged."

Just why the game didn't fare particularly well has been the subject of much scrutiny over the last couple of years, but now Yoshida himself has waded in with his thoughts. Filling both the producer and director roles for the game since December 2010, when the previous producer of the game resigned and left the company, he's now revealed he had qualms about the state of the game even before he was involved with it.

"When I heard that it was going to go on sale as planned, I thought, that will probably be a big mistake," he admitted, before saying he believes the fundamental error made was that lessons weren't learned from other MMOs. The original team supposedly were just trying to make an MMO that felt different from Final Fantasy XI, which Yoshida believes was a mistake.

"I think it would've been good if they tried seeing what happened if they turned World of Warcraft into Final Fantasy. So, because they tried only to make something that was 'different from FFXI,' they ended up with not much of anything.

"They should have said, 'Hey you, go play WoW for a year [for inspiration].'

"Unless you are a genius, you cannot make something completely new from nothing."

There's still no set launch date for the revamped Final Fantasy XIV, though it's expected to appear around the middle of 2013. The PlayStation 3 version is also still in development, with more details expected on that soon.

Love how candid he's being about the mistakes in FFXIV's development. It's funny that their whole game plan with FFXIV wasn't "lets make a good game" but rather "lets make a game different from FFXI". It certainly was different, and also a total piece of shit.

Looking to WoW for inspiration as far as game flow and UI can do nothing but good for FFXIV, but I hope they're looking at advancements from other MMOs as well.

[Kazicht]

I would have taken a Final Fantasy version of WoW. Square Enix artwork with the refined gameplay of a Blizzard product would have been amazing really.

Looking forward to RRB though. I'm glad to see how open he is with their fuck up.

[Ether]

I really hope their idea NOW isn't "Hey let's just copy WoW". We've been seeing nearly every MMO try that since WoW came out, and it doesn't work, just look at The Old Republic.

[HC82]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I have a feeling it's going to be a quest based WoWish experience, with FF game-play elements. There really isn't anything wrong with WoW's basic quest system.The problem is when you copy WoW and don't bring anything extra to the table. Otherwise, people will just play WoW if they want a WoW experience.

SWTOR was a fantastic leveling experience, because it took Star Wars KOTOR, and WoW and made a baby. The problem was end-game... being that there wasn't much end-game. A handful of instanced Heroics and a raid or two isn't enough. The dailies were limited and there really wasn't a whole lot going on. Coupled with no LFG finder and the game was just plain ol' frustrating to find groups in. Also, some of the worlds were pretty open and bland at times.

Dailies, Instanced Dungeons, Raiding and PVP is the definition of WoWs end game. Sometimes it just gets old.

More importantly, I will only play this game if Crush pays for my monthly subscriptions.

[Wiryu]

I was under the impression Crush was going to cover everyones monthly subscription?

[Crushinator]

Yeah monthly subs all around! First month is on me. If its terrible then I take full responsibility.

[Retehi]

If its terrible then I take full responsibility.

If it's terrible, then you're banned.