FFXIV: A Realm Reborn and Everything You Need to Know!

[Rips]

Well, if that is true ARR might be worth checking out after all. When exactly are you suppose to be able to download the ARR SE anyway? I imagine at or around launch, which.. is going to be next year sometime?

At launch, "summer 2013." I seriously doubt it will be puhed back so I expect it out in June. Don't forget, you get to try it free since you purchased the game.

 

[Davion]

Just posted on Lodestone:


All FINAL FANTASY XIV Worlds will be taken offline December 31, 2012, at 06:59 a.m. (PST).
Don't miss out on your last chance for adventure before the realm is reborn!

* For more details, refer to the Restoration of Game Servers announcement.

 

[Giaganta]

Just posted on Lodestone:


All FINAL FANTASY XIV Worlds will be taken offline December 31, 2012, at 06:59 a.m. (PST).
Don't miss out on your last chance for adventure before the realm is reborn!

* For more details, refer to the Restoration of Game Servers announcement.

It was fun for about a week but it lost my attention pretty quickly

 

[Strid]

Ecks, I think you need to understand something about buying a CE. To SE, you were already compensated for your added price through the included "extra" merchandise. That's what a CE is all about, the mugs, figures, books, etc., not the content of the actual game, unless of course it's in-game items which you should still have unless you deleted them. In terms of what you get out of the game, you spent the same $60, or whatever the base price, as anyone else to them.

 

[Ecks]

Hey, I'm not complaining anymore. I get to DL the SE of ARR if I want to for free. That's good enough for me. All I wanted was for Drk to be in the game, I can see playing it for a little while and waiting for Drk as long as it will come out. According to Rips, it will. I was under the impression that Marauder was the only big time melee dps (well, with a big weapon) aside from Drg/Lancer and I was not so cool with that. I don't like Axes, never have, as a weapon for my characters. I wasn't really impressed with Marauder when I tried it with v1.0 however it was really the only big powerhouse I saw so that was about the only reason I played it, well that and that you could unlock abilities to use on other classes which was my focus. Had I stuck with v1.0 I probably would have continued what I was doing and try to find some kind of combination of Glad/Marauder/and the two mage classes in order to form some semblance of a Dark Knight and Paladin.

I am actually thinking of giving ARR a go now. Hoping that it will look a whole lot better on my PC than what I have been seeing in the JP beta gameplay videos. Not sure what system they are running, but it wasn't all that visually impressive to me and I want that from a FFXI successor. I like the changes to the quest system, basically making it similar to other mainstream MMOs and a lot easier to know what, who, and where your quests are. Not sure I am all that excited about the reintroductions of zones.

I rather enjoyed being able to run nearly seamlessly from one city to the next through an expansive open map. It definitely gave the feeling that the world was very large, as it should be. Hopefully the new zones will still be very large and at least feel like a wide open world. Maybe I've been spoiled by games like SWTOR and GW2. They both still have zones, but their zones are so massive that each area feels like it's own planet... and in the case of SWTOR that is exactly what we got. Granted, the explorable areas in SWTOR were only parts of the planet.. they still felt very large and open to me (exceptions being Nar Shaddaa and the starting worlds). In GW2 each zone was massive, incredibly massive and glorious, with it's own features that made it distinct from the next area. Man I loved that about GW2, and the views they provided.. it was screen shot heaven for me.

 

[Rips]

I loved GW2, but once you got to 80, that was it. There was nothing to do and the relic equipment in that was next to no different from high end gear. It was just skins.

As for zones in ARR, I'm very happy. I wanted regions and zones just like XI.

Strid, I hope you see this, but I was wondering if you can talk more about the fighting and gameplay than you already have. I'm following ARR alpha on many game sites and apparently people are concerned about the spamming and flashiness of the combat. How do you feel about that? On the official lodestone forums the devs said they're toning down the seizure of mobs who are bombarded with hits because apparently that was an issue.

Ahh. Want. To. Play. Alpha.

 

[Davion]

New Information has been released!
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/teaser/index2.html

Beta Test Roadmap: http://gdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/download/en/FFXIV_2.0_BETA_Roadmap_EN.pdf

Allow me to thank you all for your continued patronage of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn is nearly complete. It is solely thanks to your heartfelt support that we have come this far, and for that we are tremendously grateful.

On November 11, 2012, we all witnessed the end of an era. Yet this momentous event was also a prelude to things to come.

Your passion and encouragement will sustain us as we devote all our energies to the successful launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. We hope we can count on your continued support in the future.

President and CEO, Yoichi Wada


The Beta Test Roadmap and Beyond

On October 14, 2011, we released a new roadmap for the future of FINAL FANTASY XIV. In spite of several delays, we have at last—with your enduring support—met most of our major milestones. The conclusion of the Seventh Umbral Era storyline has set the stage for A Realm Reborn, and now only the beta test and official release remain. While it's extremely unfortunate that we've had to postpone our schedule, please understand that these decisions were made in order to deliver a quality, enjoyable FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn to everyone—to the fans who have supported us through the years, and to those eagerly awaiting the PlayStation 3 version.

Today we are releasing a new roadmap for the upcoming beta test. This beta test will be divided into four phases, and will initially be restricted to the Windows PC version. The PlayStation 3 beta test will begin in a later phase.

However, given the nature of beta testing (during which we work closely with our customers to improve our products), there may be a need to adjust both the commencement date and the duration of the beta test.

(Please refer to the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test Roadmap below for more information.)


Our Commitment to A Realm Reborn

Though the land was plunged into unprecedented chaos with the coming of the Seventh Umbral Era, the day that the heroes of Eorzea—our dear players—will at last set foot in A Realm Reborn draws near. We've received support from players in countless countries across the globe, and we are fast approaching the stage where we can deliver an authentic FINAL FANTASY experience. To us, the worldwide release of the game on Windows PC and PlayStation 3 is a goal and a new beginning both. As we journey onward, we pledge to do everything in our power to make our vision for the game become reality, and to provide our fans with a service worthy of the FINAL FANTASY name.

We thank you all for your continued interest, encouragement, and support.

As always, everything we do will be for our players and customers.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer/Director, Naoki Yoshida

 

[Elemmire]

If it's one thing Square still has in spades, it's making cool cinematics

 

[Ecks]

Yeah i just watched it. Very cool, but.. I just don't understand it completely. So what? Bahamut comes down and reigns destruction upon Eorza so much so that not even the gods have the power to subdue him? And.. whoever that old powerful man is, is beaten in power and uses the last of it to send a handful of survivors to... what? A parallel world? Because as far as I can tell some of the other figures that were in the pre-destruction Eorza are in the same new Eorza. *slightly confused*

 

[Strid]

This should help explain the situation, though it may be too much information in a bad, way, in that this is one person's interpretation: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Seventh_Umbral_Era

On the net there are people who believe, to the core, that to be Bahamut, but a large amount of others who don't think that's Bahamut either. After all, why would Bahamut suddenly start doing the job of Tiamat? That said, speculation leads to that not being Tiamat either. Either way, we'll find out for sure soon enough I'd imagine. For me, I wouldn't place a bet on it being Bahamut, or not, I have no clue or care in the world to find out or read between the lines of a story this jacked up.

 

[Rips]

The astral/umbral crap can be confusing, but very interesting if you take the time to browse through it.


Bahamut basically shit on everything and killed lots of people, destroyed the cities, and caused a cataclysm across the land. However, many people survived and rebuilt the main cities.

What we see in the "New Beginning" cinematic is Eorzea 5 years later. The group of players that got warped by the old power man (forgot his name) were all projected 5 years into the future where the realm is safe again (for now). Many others were warped through time beside that little party.

 

[Lanien]

So how many people are planning on playing ARR? It would be cool to get a group/linkshell going for when the game comes out. Possibly get some race/job plans in order. I've been reading the website, but it doesn't seem to answer some of the questions I have.

I am guessing race affects starting areas? I think I want to be an elf again. And I think I want to be a DRG again, but have been thinking about being a WHM too. Not quite sure yet, trying to find info on them.

Also, is Eosun the name of a server? Is that where Quetz people will be playing?

 

[Strid]

No race is tied to a single starting location, you start in whichever city you want. Eosun is short for Eorzea Sun; Eorzea is the continent of the 3 player-base homelands in FFXIV and the "sun" is in line with sticking with the newspaper naming sense of QCDN.

As for playing or not, I was set on it but eh, PSO2 got lively again and Monster Hunter 3U is out. I'm in no rush to fire back up my account right this moment.

 

[Ecks]

I would like to play ARR, but right now I'm not in a position where I can actually afford to dole out $15 a month on an MMO as an afterthought. Right now I hardly have any extra spending money after paying bills each month. If I can get a better job, then I'll definitely get back into it as the other MMO's I'm looking forward to wont have monthly fees.

But as far as what I'd like to do. Not sure, since Drk won't be in the game for who knows how long. In the meantime I suppose I can either go with leveling Gladiator and/or Marauder and some magic classes to maybe give my Drk, when I finally can play it, a leg up. I certainly hope to be back to making some actual money within the next few months.

 

[Rips]

Lanien, in ff14, you choose your starting class, but not your starting city. The reason being is because each class has a corresponding guild and the progression of your character starts there.

Conjurer ---- gridania
Lancer --- gridania
Archer --- gridania

Gladiator --- ul'dah
Pugilist --- ul'dah

Thaumatrge - Limsa lominsa
Marauder - Limsa lominsa
Arcanist --- Limsa lominsa

I could be wrong about the arcanist. Regardless, you can change your loyalty in a city to any city you want after level 15-20.

 

[Strid]

Where in the world did you come up with that? Any race of any class can start in any city they want to, just as I said above. Choosing your starting city is part of the character creation process.

 

[Rips]

Where in the world did you come up with that? Any race of any class can start in any city they want to, just as I said above. Choosing your starting city is part of the character creation process.

Wait, what? Yoshi p stated in his letters that you don't chose your starting city, you choose your starting class.

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.

And in both alpha and beta we never had the chance to choose our city, so how do you know it's part of the creation process?

 

[Strid]

In ARR Alpha there was only one starting city, period, the other cities did not exist. In ARR beta, as far as I know (which isn't much past the first two weeks or so), there has only been the same one city. In FFXIV 1.0 when I made my character the last option of the character creation process was to pick which city I wanted to be a citizen of. I highly, highly doubt they would change that as it's a really big deal. I started out as a Mithra Conjurer and chose Limsa Lominsa.

 

[Rips]

In ARR Alpha there was only one starting city, period, the other cities did not exist. In ARR beta, as far as I know (which isn't much past the first two weeks or so), there has only been the same one city. In FFXIV 1.0 when I made my character the last option of the character creation process was to pick which city I wanted to be a citizen of. I highly, highly doubt they would change that as it's a really big deal. I started out as a Mithra Conjurer and chose Limsa Lominsa.

Disregard 1.0 and its character creation completely. Since it was trashed I don't think it applied here.

I'm well aware this is no official link, but as I can't find a link to the corresponding letter that Yoshi has stated the info, this will have to do for tonight. I will try and find the letter when I wake up tomorrow.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/678051-final-fantasy-xiv-online-a-realm-reborn/64814532?page=2



EDIT: Turns out its true. It doesn't really bother me all that much though. It's the first line under MISC.

http://www.ffxivcore.com/topic/33768-gamer-interview-1122/

"Starting city is fixed depending on your first job, but once you reach the quest to go to another 2 cities, you can freely chose which city's quests you want to do first."

- Yoshi - P

So I was right. You choose your class and that puts you into your city at the start of the game. But when you reach a point in the main storyline which is apparently level ~15, you travel to the other cities and have a chance to change allegiances.

 

[Strid]

Oh wow, that's really, really stupid and I feel so sorry for you folks who don't have characters already. I see where they're going with this though, but that would put me off hardcore if I wasn't already locked in to a town I chose in 1.0. If I had to guess, they're making the game so quest centric that basically they quest you around to every city before you choose which to side with, so as to give to give everyone a taste of each, instead of making you choose during character creation. Really puts me off even more so than I already have been lately. I don't mind quests, but the Alpha was and the Beta is littered with so much questing that's done entirely the wrong way; the entire problem when a Japanese development crew is trying to be western in execution, it doesn't work (they don't do "retard" well, that's our forte).

Anyway, my apologies. It was just so terrible sounding of an idea that I didn't figure it possible. Regardless, I should have Googled it, but wow... it just sounded so terrible.