New article. Possible info about "summons"?

[Uzor]

I copied this from FFXIVcore:

Happy New Year from Japan! Aya and I have been working on a few things we thought you might find interesting.

Two magazines recently released, Dengeki Playstation and Famitsu's Connect!On, have a few more things to say about the new information. Dengeki has some more to say straight from some of the creators, and Famitsu's Connect!On has once again gathered the opinions of the Japanese gaming community along with expert speculation from their journalists.

We'd like to start things off with the Dengeki translation, and the Connect!On translation will make its way up anytime from later tonight until next year (depending on where you are geographically)! Things may take some time: it is New Year's Day here, and there's a LOT of good television on.




This is from the bottom section about the world.

World; Three State Nations, Bases for Adventurers

The three capital state nations are starting places for adventurers in Eorzea. From those pictures, you can see that they have different features. It seems like they have different settings for races to live for each state nation.

The State of Eorzea and Adventurers’ Starting Point

Eorzea, one of the continents of Hydaelyn, is the stage of FFXIV. 15 years ago, when the Garlean Empire invaded, one of the six capitals of Eorzea fell. Adventurers travel to Eorzea to find word at guilds started by ex-mercenaries that settled in the other five cities.

Limsa Lominsa; Ocean Capital
Limsa Lominsa is a sea state nation floating on the Rhotano Sea, guarded by the Goddess of navigation, Llymlaen. They are famous for shipbuilding, fishery and their strong navy, the Knights of the Barracuda.

Caption: Pirates are said to appear in the Rhotano Sea. Could this picture be…?! There are rumors that there could be some fishy relations between the navy and the pirates…

Ul'dah; Sand Capital
Ul'dah is a gigantic fortess against invaders. The area around Ul'dah
is more like a savanna than a desert.

Gridania: Forest Capital
Gridania is a bit different from other state nations in that they have a lot of wooden buildings. It looks like they are surrounded by dim forests that they might be like natural labyrinth for Adventurers.

Creator's Check

The location of FFXIV is Eorzea, a region comprising of the Aldenard continent and the surrounding islands. The Garlean Empire, which has done a number of invasions, originated not in Eorzea but in a territorial state in an eastern continent. Therefore, that nation has invaded groups of state nations in Eorzean civilization. The battle scene on the official site trailer shows the fights with the Garlean Empire. We cannot tell you what that battle is yet, but it does have something to do with the Adventurers' ability to "change the World." This power is to relive the past events does not mean to come and go the past and the present like in FFXI's Wings of the Goddess. Plus, we cannot tell anything about the origin and nature of this power, for it is deeply connected to the main part of the story. You have to play and figure out the truth by yourself





New Factor: Character

Creator Check

Character customization is much freer than in FFXI, but the creation process is done in such a way to bring out the special characteristics of the different tribes, like they hyur mid-landers and high-landers or the miqo’te Sun Seekers and Moon Keepers. Furthermore, depending on the class you choose there will be a few things you can change about your starting armor.





New Factor: Magic

As this game is one of Final Fantasy series, the system of magic in FFXIV should not be that different from other ones. However, from the new pictures and trailers in the official site, there are some scenes which could be assumed to be using "magic." Though it is hard to say if they are just some special effects in pre-rendered cut scenes or if they have something to do with the game system, they are important for sure.

Creators Check

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. As for new magics, 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.

This time, weapons make adventurers’ classes, but in FFXI, characters with swords, such as paladins and red magicians, could also use magic. In FFXIV, it is not class that will define this, but it is possible to use both swords and magic depending on the character’s growth. There are still a lot of parts being discussed, so please look forward to it.

New Factor: Dungeon

Caption: Ant’s nest!? Here, adventurers are fighting ant-shaped monsters. From the ladders and bridges, we can assume this used to be a mine or something along those lines.

The word “dungeon” can make any adventurer’s heart skip a beat. We’d love to be able to give you a feel of the dark, dank dungeons, but from the few pictures provided we’re presented with some interesting looking fighting scenes, as well. From their equipment we can guess what their classes are.

Creators Check

In FFXIV, each area is very wide. Moving between the sunlit fields and the dim dungeons is seamless with no area change. There are pictures with really dark dungeons that may make you think of exploring dungeons with a torch, but the dungeons are made in such a way that torches will not be needed.

Caption: The dungeons in Limsa Lominsa are crawling with water monsters. There are crabs(?) bigger than roegadyn!

New Factor: Monsters

Caption: Quell the beast tribe uprising! The beast tribesmen in this picture look similar to the trolls of FFXI. They don’t even flinch from the miqo’te lancer’s attack from behind. From the intricate designs carved into their armor, we can tell that this beast tribe has excellent craftsmen.

Creators Check

“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. Eorzea is now a three-way deadlock between the “people” of the empire and the “people” of the beast tribes, and adventurers sometimes get caught in the crossfire. According to the setting, the two are irreconcilable, but they do say the enemy of an enemy is a friend… not to mention, not all beast tribes view humans as enemies, and there may be those that live peacefully, those that betray, and even those that try to make deals with humans.

As for the normal monsters, their behavior in the field has also evolved. In FFXIV, as in FFXI, monsters can be categorized as passive, aggressive, and linked, but in FFXIV there are also monsters that are in packs or monsters that prefer to live alone. There’s also a food-chain sort of relationship planned.

Lastly, the “summons” existent in other games in the FF series also make their appearance in FFXIV. However, unlike FFXI, these summons are closer to god-like existences, and in order to gain their help, even higher hurdles must be overcome.


Stay tuned!

I know they've said earlier summons won't appear in the form of summonable creatures. That's why I find this bit of information interesting;

Lastly, the “summons” existent in other games in the FF series also make their appearance in FFXIV. However, unlike FFXI, these summons are closer to god-like existences, and in order to gain their help, even higher hurdles must be overcome.

If we assume they won't be summonable like they've previously said, perhaps you gain their help in other ways, such as teaching you new abilities?

I doubt you'd have to, say, fight Shiva for her to give you access to ice magic, as that would defeat the purpose of Thaumaturge, but perhaps by defeating her, or doing a quest chain to gain her trust, she gives you an ability, or increases your Ice damage?

Also, Sonomaa a few days ago said "It feels like christmasssss", while the admin at ffxivcore said "I've just learned some great new information I wish I can share with you within the next few days", so perhaps they have a FFXIV beta start date (or even better, a FFXIV release date) to share with us in the coming days.

 

[Begen]

Nice! I doubt though that we will have a more precise release date until the beta testing is near completion.

 

[Tiael]

Probably something akin to how summons were in VI, VII, VIII, anyone could equip an esper/materia/GF and learn abilities from it and sometimes get stat bonuses upon leveling up. You'd have to fight them to earn their powers.
Since it would be hard for a designated Summoner class/job in XIV utilizing the armory system, I can see them doing something like that.

 

[Liefe]

They could go a few directions really. They could make the avatar give you an ability that changes via your archtype. Like, from Ifrit, a fire spell boost for the magic school, added fire en-effect for war, and success/+1 chance up for fire related crafting or something. The information is pretty broad. What interests me most is the replayability of a single toon. I really hope that you can max your character out in every different area without having to make secondary characters. But maybe only allow certain amounts of abilities to be equipped at a time (a la FFT).

 

[Xalioniaf]

The Garlean Empire, which has done a number of invasions, originated not in Eorzea but in a territorial state in an eastern continent.

I can't wait to never visit the continent.

As for new magics, 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.

Off the top of my head, I can think of Flare which was reduced from a non-elemental AoE endgame spell to the fire-based AM it is now. Of course, there are spells unavailable to players like Death and Break, but those aren't usable by players for obviously reasons.

 

[Uzor]

There's Reflect, could be an interesting spell to implement. Also, Berserk.

 

[Hexx]

There's the Ultima spell also, would be sweet to try to implement it, although I highly doubt it LOL

 

[Xalioniaf]

Reflect would be so damn broken I'd be surprised if it made its way into the game in any recognizable form.
The Colibri version's the closest we'll ever get: taking full damage and then volleying the spell back.

 

[Uzor]

It could make for interesting boss fights. Boss casts Reflect on himself twice, resulting in second one hitting your tank, preventing him from getting cured.

 

[Rips]

I can see some of these spells named being implemented in story lines via attacks on our characters in a cut scene.

 

[Xalioniaf]

Mini is never used aside from a throwaway excuse for how Brenner works.

 

[Tristam Green]

I don't want to kill everyone's ultimate high from FFXIV orgasmatronics, but does it really seem like Square Enix is just grabbing Scrabble letters out of the bag, throwing them down, and using the random assortment as place names?

 

[Icewolf]

I don't want to kill everyone's ultimate high from FFXIV orgasmatronics, but does it really seem like Square Enix is just grabbing Scrabble letters out of the bag, throwing them down, and using the random assortment as place names?

I was kinda thinking the same, most the area's in ffxi were easy to pronounce. So everyone would recognize the place you were going if you were on vent. In ffxiv people will be calling places all sorts of strange names. Myself included.

 

[Acutie]

we will just use the first few letters, make a lot of abbreviations n shit

 

[Jeska]

It could make for interesting boss fights. Boss casts Reflect on himself twice, resulting in second one hitting your tank, preventing him from getting cured.

Or you cast Reflect on your tank and blm nukes your tank to reflect an even more powerful spell at boss perhaps keeping the hate squarely on the tank also by doing this action.

Just an idea I was mulling over. At the very least Reflect could earn you style points for being fancy and bouncing spells about lol

 

[chrono fantasy]

I think I'm going to start off in that Forest city since that one seems closest to Windurst from FFXI and I'll start off with whatever the new name of Tarutaru-like race is called in this new game. I'm going to stick with the mage-type jobs in this game as well.

I'm looking forward to this game coming because my gf said she'll start playing the game with me when it comes out, but she doesn't want to get into FFXI since I'm way ahead in that game and she would like to be around the same lvls, stats, etc. of me.

 

[Uzor]

Or you cast Reflect on your tank and blm nukes your tank to reflect an even more powerful spell at boss perhaps keeping the hate squarely on the tank also by doing this action.

Just an idea I was mulling over. At the very least Reflect could earn you style points for being fancy and bouncing spells about lol

That's assuming you can cast offensive magic on your party members :3

 

[Germ]

This has probably been brought up, but the original FF had the black mage - black wizard, and the monk - master, etc. The maat fight was FFXI version of "advancement", but the original game of having your "newly advanced" toon turn into a kick ass version of it's former self, that was pretty cool.

 

[Linhjah]

I was kinda thinking the same, most the area's in ffxi were easy to pronounce. So everyone would recognize the place you were going if you were on vent. In ffxiv people will be calling places all sorts of strange names. Myself included.

Apparently you never listened to Darkfat or Nickavelli or Boondock on vent. Minoot (Minuet), Eggsabard (Xarcabard), Cussies (Cuisses). Fucking hilarious.

When I started playing FFXI, a lot of the names seemed weird to me. I think we're just used to the FFXI names now. I'm sure that the FFXIV names will become normal after awhile, too.

 

[chrono fantasy]

I still remember when people used to always call Windurst - Windhurst. It was friggen annoying that some idiots called it that. Now everyone has easier names for these places from such a long time ago, like Windy, Sandy, etc.