Final Fantasy XIV
 

As revealed at E3 2009, seems they kinda skimmed over 2/3 of the FF13 franchise and decided to grace our presence with this:

FF14 trailer
And a little bit more info..

No doubt over the months we'll get more info on it, I just can't help but think that as an MMO, FF can only be done once though....
(FF11 was enough...)

Well I'll be darned.

As a long-time fan of FFXI (even though my account has been dormant for ages), I'm very intrigued to learn that FFXIV will be another online game. And judging by the images, it looks to be a continuation or upgrade of the existing world of Vana'diel -- arguably the most developed world in the Final Fantasy franchise outside of FF Tactics and FFXII's Ivalice.

And that's very likely an older, rougher version of Aldo featured in the released images. He's one of the main non-player characters featured in FFXI's storyline, looking oh-so-glorious in hi-definition graphics.

Will be keeping an eye on this iteration, that's for sure. :p

What will happen to FFXI?

Everquest 1 didn't close down because Everquest 2 came out. I'd assume FFXI will stick around as long as there is enough customers to maintain servers, etc.

I really hope FFXIV is a lot more accessible than FFXI.

FFXI had good concepts but it was ultimately a very hard game for more casual people like me. I remember leveling down in that game, after being killed my a monster "too weak to be worthwhile". Waiting for a thousand years for a party because I didn't have a "useful" job.

I would prefer if they took a more WoW approach, but with their own spice. Make it a little bit more action oriented. More monster hunter-ish.

:(

You know that won't happen in the first few weeks XIV is launched(or more?), everyone will be running around like idiots not knowing what their doing, some will concentrate on leveling up others just with missions or quest, exploring, collecting random loot for the future that might get you rich, you name it.

I wonder if its in the future from FFXI, and I hope Mithra's died out or male mithra are playable.

The official site opened up yesterday. High quality video with a beautiful background image by Kazuya Takahashi :love: Around the FFXI community there is speculation that the demon kid at the far left is a new playable race. Also notice the male mithra? Manthra's finally. (　ﾟдﾟ) ・・・ Lastly, Nobuo Uematsu! :love: :love:

Activated my old account last night after my nerdgasm died down a bit. :heh: Already bunch of us on Alexander are sticking together when FFXIV is released. Soo~ happy. :D

FFXI has been updated to be a bit more friendlier to "casuals" These are some of the updates.

- Level Sync: High level players can join up with low levels.
- Signets: Has been buffed that you can solo bit more easily.
- Quests: Collect/Kill x amount of.

I'm sure SE learned some of there mistakes on FFXI.

Why did this have to be an online game?

Honestly, every time I see someone say this about FFXI I can only think they are exaggerating... I was by no means a "hardcore" player and I played the game fine for a number of years. Granted, I didn't participate in the cutting edge of end game but you don't need to throw away your life to play (and enjoy) FFXI.

No camera's being allowed in, live blog only.
http://e3.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post...onference.html

That sounds much better then when I first started the game.

Is it possible that it won't have an online subscription since it plans a PS3 release? That TBA next to subscription fees better become NONE.

unlikely as the PS2 version had subscription fees.

From the Press Conference; Q&A session, very long:

- Update on exclusivity confusion.
• FFXIV will be coming to the PS3 & PC. They are currently considering other hardware (including Microsoft hardware!)

- Q: What are the ties to Final Fantasy XI, if any?
• A: While you may have noticed that some of the same type of races appeared in the trailer, the world of FFXIV is different from FFXI. The reason that we made the races similar to the FFXI races is so FFXI players could choose a similar type of race in the new game. For example, in movies, you might have an actor that plays many different roles. Please, think of it that way.

- Q: What happens to Final Fantasy XI now that we're moving to FFXIV? Are you going to phase it out or continue to publish new content for XI? How will the development team be split?
• A: The development for FFXIV started 4 or 5 years ago with primary ideas. Development started a few years ago, while FFXI was still being supported. FFXI will continue to be supported. There is another year of content planned. There are no plans for the near future to stop development on FFXI.
• XIV does not take place in Vana'deil.

- Q: What influence have games like World of WarCraft have on the development of FFXIV?
• A: As with WoW, we want to aim a bit for the casual user. However, we don't want to make a copy of WoW. We believe we will have things that are unique and will stand out from that game.

- Q: Will combat be more action oriented or turn-based?
• A: We cannot talk about the battle system at this time.

- Q: FFXI has evolved a lot over the years, especially in the areas of player accessibility and the ability to solo. Will you carry over features like level sync and other features to FFXIV?
• A: Yes. All of the knowledge and experience we gained from FFXI will be used in the development of FFXIV. At the launch, we intend to have content for solo players as well as large-scale battles. We want a wide-variety from the start.

- Q: Are you planning a simultaneous worldwide release or will it be released in Japan first?
• A: Yes. At the launch, this will be a worldwide simultaneous launch on PS3 and Windows PC. English, Japanese, German, and French versions released at launch.

- Q: Will all servers be worldwide or split by territory?
• A: The current plans are to have worldwide servers that are cross-platform and cross-region. We will do a beta test and look at the balance and player experience. We want to look for a good balance between region and cross-region play.
• Beta! (shweeeeet~!)

- Q: Will you be taking feedback from your FFXI users?
• A: Yes, we still get a lot of feedback from our FFXI players and will continue to take feedback as we move into beta. The game will change as it goes.

- Q: Will you try to move players from XI to XIV or will they be separate communities?
• A: It's up to the community themselves. We envision users that will hopefully play XI one day and XIV another. They will be independent, but users are free to play both.

- Q: Are there plans to localize the game in Spanish?
• A: Currently, there is no Spanish version in development. We'll consider it if enough Spanish-speaking users demand it from us. Getting good translators in Japan is hard, but if there's enough demand we will consider it.

- Q: How can users transmit this demand?
• A: We will conduct marketing research.

- Q: Is there any special element in the MMO genre that you will improve with this game?
• A: Our plan from the beginning was to make the best Final Fantasy game available. That is our vision for XIV. Then we thought, how can we make the best FF game and we came to the conclusion that it would be an MMORPG. It was decided to make the best FF first, then led to the decision to make it an MMORG and use that genre. However, we are trying to implement a lot of new systems that other MMO's haven't used in the past.

- Q: Why did you decide to make a new game rather than continue to evolve FFXI?
• A: It all comes down to, originally, FFXI was designed for the PS2. It then moved to PC and Xbox 360. A lot of people have asked for a port to the PS3. With an MMORPG of this size, you have to develop new content. Porting to a new technology would take a lot of effort. Instead, we decided to use that time to make something new.

- Q: Yesterday's trailer that was shown, was that running of a console or was it pre-rendered?
• A: There were parts that were pre-rendered and parts that were running on the in-game engine.

- Q: Is that the quality you're aiming for? The scene with the Galka fighting, is that what you're aiming for?
• A: Yes, that is the part that was running in-engine.

- Q: In that scene, we saw many parties and many enemies. Is this the new focus: many parties fighting many enemies?
• A: I cannot say too much, but we hope to have battles that are many vs. many and many vs. one.

- Q: What would you like to emphasize with this game? What is different from FFXI?
• A: For FFXIV, the keyword that we've been using is "The Growth and Development of the Character." We will have the same type of storytelling and high-quality graphics. We also want to expand and create new in-game systems. The player can grow & develop in a more natural way without putting too much weight on the player. We will expand the job system to make it fairly different from the one in FFXI. Another very important concept that takes a different direction from FFXI, for FFXIV we want to make it so the player can choose to play solo, in a party, 40 minutes, all-day... there will be content for ALL of those play styles and systems for all of those play styles.

- Q: On the beta process, will current XI players get in?
• A: As with the actual release date of the game, we don't have a concrete beta schedule yet. We will have a beta and look forward to more information about then shortly.

- Q: Will FFXI characters be portable to XIV in any way?
• A: The game is completely different. There will not be any XI character transfers to XIV. However, the character design is familiar and XI players will be able to create a similar character. We will NOT be using PlayOnline, but friend lists will transfer over.

- Q: If I'm new to the MMO genre, why would I choose FFXIV over other games?
• A: We believe that players will fall in love with the world & story that we have created.

- Q: I've been seeing information that the title is free to play, is this true?
• A: No pricing has been decided at this time. It is still TBD.
Source

Q&A session over. Entire press conference was about FF14 ^-^

Well at lest it is now going to cater to the "Casual" players so hopefully the fees would be for "Casual" players as well as in cheap.

If there's ever a spanish version, I hope it will be a Latin America friendly one.

Spanish translations made in Spain can be a bit too different for many of us around here. >_<

Kinda disappointed .. no questions about KH3 or Versus D :

well the press conference became a Q&A about FFXIV so that was disappointing.

Epic freaking win! I don't need to buy a PS3 anymore. :D

More Q&A! :D

- Q: Will current owners of the Square Enix Security Token be able to use the same token they use in FFXI to secure their FFXIV account?

• A: Players who have already obtained a SQUARE ENIX Security Token and have been using an OTP for FINAL FANTASY XI will not need to purchase a new one, and will be able to use their current one for XIV.

- Q: Will Final Fantasy XIV be available on Direct2Drive at launch?

• A: Because of the estimated size of the game, we are aiming for a package release. However, we are also considering distribution via download.

- Q: People were ecstatic to hear about the beta. Can you tell us anything about it? Will it be a closed or open beta?

• A: We are planning both closed and open beta testing periods. The schedule is not yet decided.

- Q: You've confirmed that FFXIV will not be using PlayOnline. Will FFXI continue to be launched through PlayOnline or will it be done away with completely?

• A: As long as FINAL FANTASY XI service continues, PlayOnline will continue. For the rest of the questions we don’t have any comment at this time. Glad to see you guys excited about FINAL FANTASY XIV!

Source

Make sure you register with SE for possible Beta news. Here are some wallpapers; Credits to Evayde

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8017/bg1.th.png http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/4186/bg2q.th.png

I'm seriously considering it, but money and time would probably stop me. Nevertheless, it's going to look gorgeous, an MMO at FF13's level of graphical detail. I'll at least have a lot of fun watching it in development.

Also, freaking flying gun towers. FF's creature-machines never cease to amaze me.

Holy hell I would have never guessed! Thanx for this incredible news!

I agree with this, the difficulty rate of this game was completely different than what a FF fan is used. The level of damage taken by just a regular enemy was way too high, that of course caused the main bosses to be even stronger, so strong that even your most defensively equipped PLD could be killed with two hits. In the end that forced the players to either chose the "kite strategy" or a mandatory ninja subjob. Blood tanking ended up being the last resort for the few cases where you couldn't do otherwise (Faust).

Yes SE gradually made the game more and more casual gamer friendly. The time required to exp from 1 to 75 also decreased drastically. But it should be noted that at the same time SE introduced end game contents that were 5 times harder than the previous. I've tried Salvage with many different LSs and I've never made it to see a chariot die. The only time I've actually see one, it was a complete defeat.
And don't le me start with Einherjar, it's simply out of the league of any group of people that isn't bunch of parser freaks with ultrarare equipments.

I wonder if you ever tried the rank10 assault missions. They can't certainly be described as cutting edge end game content since you can only do them with a party of 6. And yet I have still the nightmares thinking about them. I had to repeat them several times, suffering many deaths. In the end I made it but I couldn't do it for all of my friends, because it looked like a THF or BST just had no way to be useful, and with such difficulty you couldn't afford to have a dead weight with you.
This is a part of this game that I hated. I only wanted to have fun with my friends, but the absurd difficulty rate just enforces people to discriminate certain jobs or players that aren't particularly skilled.

^ Won't say much since id probably come out as an elites jerk, difficulties in FFXI isn't a problem for me. :p I'm used to it. *shrug*

Anyways, new info released from 4gamer. I'm soo used to the whole "gain exp to gain lvls" Having not played Ultima Online (I believe FF2 had such a system? don't remeber :eyespin: ) this "growth" system will be interesting. Rough translation by Maruchiru


From IGN:

- Q: Are Chocobos back?
Yes, they will return. But Square Enix has told IGN that it is looking at using them in a completely different way than they were used in Final Fantasy XI (where they were used as riding steeds).

Chocobo Knights! :D :D

EDIT:
@Jan-Poo: *laughs and nods*

Translation is shitty so im just going to add the other links.

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1224702_1124.html
http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs...05_212492.html

EDIT2: English version of the interview.

Hell no. Chocobo knight is the lamest class they could possibly implement. I won't take that seriously that part under brackets, it's probably just the interviewer own speculation. the "different way" they are talking about has probably more to do with the mechanics. A chocobo that isn't used as mount is ridiculous >_<

Maybe summon as buffers or stuff...anyway, this game will need a hell of a lot more RAM than I got right now... -purposefully delays upgrading RAMs until FFIV is released when they'll be much much cheaper- :D

Hmmm, fight while riding your chocobo? there was something like that back in Ragnarok Online if I remember correctly.

Im Definaly getting this for PS3 :O to maximize graphics and to play on my HDTV.

Having the same GFX as FFXIII its no surprise that the PC requirement (look at the in-game boat fight scene in the trailer, ditto for CG scenes) will be high. I'll be building my new mobo when windows 7 is released.

I can't begin to fathom the amount of lag people would have to suffer, playing this on a mediocre PC :O

Hmm... leveling system that is akin to FFII/SaGa series? Now S-E finally has my attention for their MMORPGs. Heck, I might build an entirely new rig for it, if for some reason I don't want to play on my PS3. XD

IGN E3 video interview. It's pretty much the japanese interview links i gave earlier.

EDIT:

Adding in the latest interview. More questions answered in detail then the video. (Watch the video too!)

anyone wonna join up on the same server?

Frankly I was hoping next SE MMORPG would have a completely different setting. Something like the world of spira or FF7, this new MMORPG seems to have the classic fantasy setting they already used for FFXI.

yea.. i was hoping for a new one too.. not another Mithra filled one -_-

Nope. They've said that there will be more sci-fi elements to this game, and that the setting is actually quite different from XI.

It'll probably be more XII than XI.

And the races will have different names too. So while there will be catgirls, they won't be called Mithra, at least.

Here's a better translated version of the 4gamer interview above: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/200...xiv_interview/

It seems the great Nobuo Uematsu will be composing all the music for this title. This is huge news to me.

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=3122

Hope you see all you guys on the PS3 version.

I have one remark --- if they use the same f'd up user interface keyboards they used in FF11, my interest plummets to zero. There's a fairly accepted keyboard configuration that most players use for most MMOs (wsad and mouse camera) ... use that, dammit. It was a shame, everything else was pretty interesting.

Other than that.... one can hope they push the graphics a wee bit harder. It was massively disappointing to go through character generation only to pop into the world with a polygon count I thought hadn't been used since EQ1.