Square-Enix Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

I see what you mean libregkd. It looks like someone put it in a torture device and lenghtened it for awhile.

 

I'm more disturbed by the Marlboro to be honest, it looks nastier than it has before D: and that is hard to pull off.

That cactuar looks like it is pregnant to be honest, also wow, am I really slow? Cactuars have no mouths? o.o

 

I hate the Cactuar. If any monster design should stay the same it's that one.

Malboro just looks scary as hell.

 

That Malboro is quite sexy. I'd tap that.

Personally, I like the new cactuar design. Looks somewhat more FF-ish. (Despite us getting used to the original one)

But honestly, most of these designs are great. I'm really looking into getting it, depending on the monthly fee.

 

Dude, the Malboro looks freakin awesome. Not so sure about the cactaur, but I guess we'll get used to it eventually.

 

I agree with saying the Malboro looking amazing.

 

1. Not sure what that is but it looks like a gecko turning into a dragon with limb size problems. Looks like the guy who made it was confused.

2. I could of sworn I've seen this guy working at my local Game. Anywho, they've improved it again (obviously) and it looks quite menacing, sort of like how in FFXII when I first encountered them I ran for two reasons, high damage and the fact they looked as creepy as hell.

3. What do you get when you combine a zebra, a raptor and a seahorse?

And what's with the ferret thing? It's like a ferret that stole the ears off that rabbit thing from Tenchi Muyo.

4. Essentially, this is what I believe Hulk Hogan would become if he mutated.

5. GEE, THAT LOOKS FAMILIAR.

6. I think this is that Airiman (sp?) thing, Well they made it look more crazy. It even has Purple eye, the evolved form of pink eye.

7. I swear I've seen this in something else before.

8. I actually think it looks like the traditional cactuar but more like an actual cactus. I think it looks pretty decent.

9. Anorexic gazelle with a whip for a tail? O...kay.

 

These are pretty cool I especially think the Cactuar is cool. Wierd thing is that I love it for the same reason everyone else thinks it's creepy.

 

How dare they change the Cactuar! It's my favorite Final Fantasy staple. The Malboro looks freaking awesome, though. I'm conflicted...

 

This is bassically the basic info we know so far. This is the only site I know of that this would be found relevant anyway.

Backstory
Wandering tribes found their way to Eorzea and settled it. The 12 deities, impressed with the settlers' strength, helped them prosper into several city-states. Fifteen years later, the Garlean Empire invades with advanced technology - from flame-spewing cannons to airship fleets.
The Empire began conquering city-states with it's superior might, and eventually only few remained independent. The survivors put their differences aside and banded together to fight the thread of the Empire. Yet, for some reason, the Empire up and vanished from Eorzea as quickly as they had come.
After the Empire's departure, the city-states learned from their mistakes. They created standing armies to defend against future attacks. However, this left many of the swords for hire out of work. In order to prevent acts of villainy to come from these men and women, a network of guilds was created, and 'adventuring' became a new profession.

Powerful creatures known as 'primals' began to appear in the land, summoned by the bestial tribes. The beast tribes continue to wreak havoc over the free people using the power obtained from the primals.
When the Garlean Empire invaded, another mysterious power arose, know as the Echo. "It is said to cause the souls of those touched by it to resonate with other. And of this is born the ability to relive their past experiences - to see and feeel them as they were one's own."
The origin, and potential power and usage, of the Echo are unknown. It's up to you to find the answers.



World:
Final Fantasy XIV takes place in the world of Hydaelyn, on the continent of Aldenard, in a region knows as Eorzea. Eorzea is home to many inhabinants from large city-states to small villages and towns. Though Eorzea is a fierce and unhospitable land, it still draws people in because of one thing: crystals.
To the far east of Eorzea lies another land, home to the Garlean Empire. Since their invasion, the Garlean Empire has forces still holding most of the northern region of Eorzea.



City-States:
Adventurers are free to choose their starting city from any of the first three listed below, regardless of race or class. The six largest and most powerful city-states are:
Limsa Lominsa - A town built on naval trade, fishing, pirates, and other sea-faring expeditions. The Limsa Lominsa Navy, the Knights of the Barracuda, protect the borders and populous.
Ul'dah - A desert city rich in mineral wealth. They Hellsguard Roegadyn make their home here, and have become masters of magic.
Gridania - Nested deep within an ageless wood
Ala Mhigo - This was the largest of all city-states, but fell to the Garlean Empire during their invasion.
Gravania - ?
Ishgard - A bastion atop the mountains



Races:
There are 5 announced races in FFXIV so far, and each bears a strong resemblance to the races from FFXI. It is said race will have little to no effect on stats, and gender will have no effect.
Elezen (Elvaan) - Nomadic people. Tall and slim, they are quite attuned to the environment. There is a lot of tension between them and the Hyur, though currently they seem to be cooperating.
Hyur (Hume) - The largest number of any one race, they are pioneers of invention and innovation. They have a strong belief in invidual freedom.
Lalafell (Tarutaru) - Agriculturalists and farmers. Very short and stout, but agile. They are regarded as being quite intelligent. Very family-oriented, but not adverse to outsiders.
Roegadyn (Galka) - Sailors. Very large builds, and quite muscular. They often exhibit tremondous feats of courage. Male-only as of now.
Miqo'te (Mithra) - Hunters. Cat-like. Few in numbers compared to the larger races such as Hyur. They often live isolated lives, avoiding contact with others. Female-only as of now.



Clans:
Each race also has clans. That is, people of the same race with different ways of life and living conditions. It's confirmed that female Dunesfolk and Seekers of the Sun can have different colored eyes. Other clans are unknown, but seem probably.
Elezen Wildwood - Live in the forests of Eorzea. Lighter skintones. Often head to urban city settings or roam the plains.
Elezen Duskwight - Live in peace and seclusion in caves throughout Eorzea. Darker skintones. Many live a life of robbery and pillaging, though.
Hyur Midland - Over half of all Hyur, they are found all over the world, and are often more educated than most other races or clans.
Hyur Highland - Much larger in build than their midland counterparts (but not as big as Roegadyn), their numbers are small since the fall of Ala Mhigo. Female Highlanders do not seem to be playable.
Lalafell Plainsfolk - They live in the plains areas, often in thatched huts. Their hair is often of earthy and grassy tones.
Lalafell Dunesfolk - Dwell on structures built on the backs of large beasts of burden (no clarification yet what those are). They often were a small gemstone on their forhead.
Roegadyn Sea Wolves - Sailors and mercenaries, most probably live around Limsa Lominsa.
Roegadyn Hellsguard - Bodies are tinted reddish frrom the intense heat of the desert and surrounding volcanic region. They stand guard over the volcanoes, believing them to be gates to the underworld.
Miqo'te Seekers of the Sun - Love the light of day and worship the goddess of the sun.
Miqo'te Keepers of the Moon - Live in darkness (not necessarily evil) and worship the goddess of the moon. Often apply warpaint to their faces.




Classes:
Classes are split up into 4 distint categories. They are the Disciples of War, Magic, Land, and Hand. Each class uses a single weapon type that identifies that class. Like in FFXI, you are not restricted to one class, and there are no racial restrictions on class. You are able to change your class any time you are not currently in battle. The class structure is:
War:Archer - Bow. Many skills to debilitate enemies and provide damage from behind the lines.
War:Lancer- Spear. Skills focus on TP manipulation, triggering weapon skills often, and some specialty abilities such as attacking multiple enemies in a line with a skewer.
War:Gladiator - Sword/Shield. These are the main tanks, but still retain decent offensive capability.
war:Marauder - Axe. These guys are huge damage dealers, focusing on single, devestating attacks and critical hits.
War:Pugilist - Fists. Pugilist are versatile fighters that can act as damage dealers or tanks, depending on their stance. The longer a pugilist is in a stance, the more benefits he gains from it. They can also steal.
Magic:Conjurer - Wand. The main mage class, they are capable of casting both high level elemental spells as well as healing spells.
Magic:Thaumaturge - Staff. A more 'hands-on' mage class, they specialize in debilitating spells such as absorbing stats, as well as light and dark magic.
Land:Botanist - Hatchet?. Specifics unknown, most likely gathering plants.
Land:Miner - Pickaxe/Knapping Hammer. Able to mine ores with a pickaxe and quarry with the hammer.
Hand:Alchemist - ?. Alchemy-based items.
Hand:Blacksmith - Hammer/File. Smelting ores and forging metal items, armors, and weapons.
Hand:Culinarian - ?. Food items.
Hand:Tanner - ?. Leather-based items.
Hand:Weaver - ?. Cloth-based items.




Additionally, through the alpha client and footage, some unannounced classes that are very likely to be in the game can also be surmised:
War:Muskateer
Magic:Arcanist
Land:Excavater
Land:Fisher
Land:Harvester
Hand:Armorer
Hand:Woodworker

There's an additional category with the abbreviation MAN which is unknown.




Equipment:
The following locations are available for placing equipment:
Primary Arm, Secondary Arm
Large Pouch, Small Pouch
Head
Body, Undershirt
Hands, Waist
Legs, Undergarments
Feet

This list is strangely lacking rings, earrings, necklaces, etc. It is likely those are in the game somehow, but we don't know at this point.




Guildleves and Aetheryte:
The guildleve system is a way for adventurers to gain experience and items through quests. A player will go the the Adventurer's Guild and select the guildlevel they wish to embark on. The guildleves come in 5 ranks, where 1 is easy enough to solo, and 5 might take as many as 15 people to complete. The rewards are adjusted accordingly as well. After selecting which guildleve you want, you can go to an aetheryte crystal and teleport to the guildleve's location, and from there complete your task. When you are done, you can teleport back and turn the quest in.
There are also local guildleve's, which usually can be completed right in the town in which you obtain them. Often, these will be things like requests from clients to craft a certain item. There are also specific guildleves for disciples of land.
Aetheryte crystals are basically like home points. They will restore your health, allow you to set a home point, allow you to embark on a guildleve, and most importantly - allow you to teleport to any other aetheryte crystal you've already visited.




Battle:
There exists two states for a player to be in: passive or active. In passive mode, a player will regenerate health automatically and move rapidly. In active mode, a player will draw his weapon and move slower. It is in active mode where you can fight enemies.
Final Fantasy XIV has no auto-attacking. Instead, each attack must be triggered manually. When you engage an enemy, a bar starts to fill. This bar represents the time until you can execute your next attack. However, after the bar fills, you can keep on waiting, and it will start to fill again. You can get as high as 3 fully charged bars before unleashing your attack. Waiting and charging up an attack like this will result in a more powerful blow.
As your level increases, you will gain access to more and more abilities. To start, you'll have basic attacks such as slash and stab. But as you level up, you'll get attacks such as fire-based attacks, and reactionary attacks, such as 'after you evade an attack, quickly counter for extra damage'. Mages will get abilities that allow them to increase or decrease their spell power, cost, range, and area of effect.
Instead of skillchains from FFXI, FFXIV will incorporate what they call Battle Regimens. A battle regimen is an ordered list of attacks from multiple players. As you execute certain attacks in order, they will chain and cause additional effects. One effect for example, when a gladiator and marauder did a simple battle regimen of the basic gladiator attack followed by the basic marauder attack, caused the enemy to receive a physical defense down effect. The longer and more complex the regimen gets, the better it will be.


In addition to these features, the devs have also stated that player position and distance from the enemy will play a role in combat, suggesting that damage will increase if you find the 'sweet' spot to attack an enemy from. It will be important for players to continuously be aware and coordinate to stay in their optimal positions while effectively executing their battle regimens.
And yes, disciples of land and hand will be able to participate in combat, though most likely somewhat weaker than the other disciples. The effective and specific roles of these classes is unknown, however it has been suggested that miners may posses a unique ability to increase drop rates, and blacksmiths are able to repair weapons out in the field.
Parties can range anywhere in size from 2 to 15 people. Because of this, there exists no such things as an alliance. Rather than focus on tailoring everything to groups of exactly 6 people, the dev team is focusing more on creating content completeable with variable party sizes and levels.



Victory, Experience, Levels, and Stats:
Upon killing an enemy, you obtain physical level experience, class level experience, gil, and items. Items obviously are not guaranteed, and gil is unknown if all enemies will drop it or not. In the alpha, rats dropped gil, but that could just be to help test the money system.
Your physical level is a base level. It goes up no matter what, and represents the core stats of your character. On the other hand, your class level influences things like what abilities you know and can use. When you switch classes, your physical level stays the same but your class level changes.
When you level up your class, you will gain new abilities for that class, which you can then use in battle. Mages will learn spells this way, so there is no buying of scrolls or anything like that.
When you level up your physical class, you receive a set of skill points. You are free to allocate these skill points any way you want. The following categories are all options:
HP, MP, TP
Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Agility, Intelligence, Mind, Charisma, Luck
Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Water
It is important to note that those are not the only stats in the game. There are stats such as accuracy, evasion, etc. which are displayed on the status screen but cannot be increased directly through level up points (though, dexterity may increase accuracy, etc.). Additionally, Umbral and Astral (dark and light) are not possible elements to skill up, though the Thaumaturge has spells which inflict damage of those types. The purpose of the elemental skillup section is not concretely known, but it is assumed that skilling up in an element will both increase your defense to that element, and increase your attack damage using that element.



Crafting:
Crafting is a much more involved process than in FFXI, and can be compared somewhat to Vanguard's unique crafting system. As you synthesize, there are three factors to be aware of: Progress (from 0-100), Durability (if it reaches 0, the synth fails), and Focus (higher focus = higher HQ chance).
While synthesizing, you are periodically presented with various abilities. These abilities are things such as 'large increase in progress, but possibly causes extreme strain', 'increases focus, but reduces durability', etc. By stringing these abilities together, the goal is to get progress to 100% while maximizing Focus and not falling to 0 Durability. The tools in which you use (either the primary or secondary) to create an item could potentially create different items with the same recipe.
Upon completing a synthesis, you will obtain both the item (the HQ item if you are lucky), and some skill points. The alpha manual seems to suggest you ALWAYS get skill points from a craft, rather than randomly chancing up a 0.1 skillup.
In addition, if you HQ a local guildleve, you will receive better rewards.
The /check method of FFXI is back, though instead of checking monsters there is a colored indicator next to their name which will tell you how tough they are.



Misc:
The /check method of FFXI is back, though instead of checking monsters there is a colored indicator next to their name which will tell you how tough they are.
Crystals are back as occasional drops from monsters. Their purpose (crafting again?) is currently unknown.
Rats were dropping about 20-30 gil per kill, while potions could be purchased from NPCs for as little as ~150 gil. Potions (and ethers) can also stack now, so perhaps they will play a more prominent role.
You will be able to reallocate your attribute points, however that functionality is not in the alpha.
Bazaars are back, along with a 5% tax on everything purchased from a bazaar.
It has been noted that two people in the same party received different amounts of EXP for killing a monster.
There are first and last names in FFXIV. As of right now, you are required to have a first and last name. Neither name by itself is unique, only the combination of both together.
There is currently no EXP loss upon death. There is a 5 minute weakened period after dying, however. It has been specifically noted that the effects of death right now are specific to alpha and could change in the future.
You can store up to 20 abilities at any time for use in battle, even if you learned them on a different class than what you're currently playing (there are some exceptions). Non-class abilities will be weaker than if they were used on that class.
There are 12 deities in the game. There are 2 gods or goddesses for each of the 6 elements (though umbral/astral have no gods).
Some text in the alpha client suggests single armor pieces may be able to be several different colors.
You have 80 inventory slots by default. It has also been suggested that chocobos may be equipped with saddlebags to increase your storage, and possibly other ways as well.
Cutscenes have voice acting, and it doesn't suck.














Q. Do I lose EXP on death?
A. As of right now, no, you are only weakened for 5 minutes. Whether or not this changes in the future is unknown.

Q. FFXI sucks, this game sucks.
A. That's not really a question, and while this game resembles FFXI in a number of ways, it is also very different in its fundamentals.

Q. The classes seem to all overlap and there's no distinction. Am I going to sit LFG for 5 hours again?
A. Though all classes seem to be capable of dealing damage, there does seem to be some distinction among them. However, it appears that this is to help alleviate the fact that 1 class is absolutely necessary to every party, or some classes are useless. All classes appear to have useful functions, even if there is some small overlaps in certain classes. Additionally, since party size is much more variable than in FFXI, a party could just as easily invite a 7th person instead of using 6 all the time. Even further, those who wish to solo or have trouble finding parties can do so!

Q. Will I finally be able to solo, or is SE forcing us to group again?
A. While there is still a substantial portion of the game catering to grouped content, there actually does exist solo content in FFXIV. Whether it be adventuring in the plains killing normal monsters, or doing low-ranking guildleve's by yourself, or searching for rare ore veins, there's always something to do without other people this time.

Q. Will I be forced to spend my entire life in this game to make any progress?
A. No, the target time to complete a guildleve is 15-45 minutes. It's possible some could be even shorter, and some of the hardest ones longer. Even if you only have 30 minutes, you can always hop on and do a solo guildleve so your playsession isn't a waste of time.

Q. The graphics suck, why do they suck?
A. The graphics can't appeal to everything, and while most of the models and textures are permanently done, the graphical settings are still stuck on low/medium. This means things such as draw distance, lighting parameters, anisotropic filtering, texture resolution, etc. can all be increased in the final version.

Q. Does the UI still suck? Can I finally use the mouse?
A. The UI is somewhat customizeable in that you can drag and drop windows anywhere you want. There is a folder in the alpha client directory called LUA which may suggest LUA scripting for the GUI is possible. While a gamepad is still probably the best way to play FFXIV, since it is a PC game being ported to PS3 (rather than a PS2 game ported to PC), the UI is very accessible to those who want to only use a keyboard, or to those who like using a keyboard/mouse combo.

Q. Are Moogles/Chocobos in the game?
A. Yes, chocobos have been spotted in the alpha. Although no moogles have been seen yet, data miners have found mentions to moogles in the alpha client files.













Links:
OST - http://www.cairxiv.net/music/FFXIVAOSTv2.rar
Alpha Manual - http://www.cairxiv.net/files/manual.pdf
Class abilities - http://www.cairxiv.net/jobs/
Alpha images - http://www.cairxiv.net/images/gamescreens/
Monster names and abilities - http://www.cairxiv.net/mobs/
NA FFXIV Official site - http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/
NA Beta app site - http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html
Alpha gameplay footage - http://www.justxn.tv/shiner/b/261979704 (replace x with i)
Intro cutscene - http://cairxiv.net/videos/openingHD.avi
Character creation video - http://cairxiv.net/videos/charcreationHD.avi

 

Oh Jesus. Great info, man. I'm actually getting really excited about this now. My only problem is the monthly subscription, which I can't seem to get a conclusive word on, and I'm really not into the pay-for-play model.

 

Pretty sure I got the roman numerals right in the title. Well here's a pretty nice interview with Hiromichi Tanaka, senior vice president of software at Square Enix, and online producer Yasu Kurosawa.

Source

The last question really peaks my interest. A portable MMORPG?! It apparently can be done and it would be pretty sweet if one came out but I still wonder how it will work out in the end.

 

Oh snap! SE just made all the other FF games sound like crap compared to this one. I know I'll be up for weeks playing this. On thing though, how is something like this going to work on a handheld system?

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/news/final-fantasy-xiv-dated-for/2257

So what do you guys think?

 

I think, they need to stop making new Final Fantasy games and remake their old ones.

Spoiler

​

 

I think this too, to some extent. I also will not be paying a monthly fee. That's just FFXI all over again. I Think fans would merely be pleased if they released remakes with the FFXIII treatment of gorgeous graphics. If they did that with the older games, I think square would make quite a bit of money from the sales.

Overall, I'm not into the idea of paying 156 dollars yearly(without any extra costs) just to play a video game. And the extra content thing sounds a bit...well, I don't know. I think the artwork may be nice, but the other stuff is just so-so.

 

I'd rather they finish the FFXIIIs before we get them to remake the last few games (they only really need to remake V and VI since VII-IX are obtainable through PSN).

Either way, I won't be getting this, I have FFXI but never used it cause it wanted a monthly fee and FFXIV will be just like this.

 

...

 

...

 

I do play the old games, but I also would like to see them revamped. New games are good and all, but I want to see old games first.​