[Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn] Next Beta This Wednesday July 10 (Lasts Five Days!)

Professor Snugglesworth

Update: Beta rolls out Feb. 25th. SE is still taking sign-ups, so don't miss your chance!

NA: http://entry.ffxiv.com/beta/na

EU (English): http://entry.ffxiv.com/beta/eu

Want to keep track of the story that started with 1.0? The game may have been terrible, but the story is still decent. Check out this link, or this one.

PA Players Currently In Beta. The list goes PA Name/Player Name/Server:

Professor Snugglesworth/Jorginus Arcadian/Behemoth

Greg USN/Petra Barton/Marlboro

GMaster7/Becco Ton/Tonberry

Wooden Spoon/Iadrian Viel/Tonberry

Radius/Riesz Rolante/Tonberry

Just_Bri_Thanks/Alsoa Bri/Tonberry

CorriganX/Sidaltus Veirn/Tonberry

Let us speak now of the great tragedy that befell our world, so that future generations may learn from the folly of our forefathers.

Once, a great and powerful nation spoke of grand tidings over the discovery of a new world: Eorzea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwk3Ps3Jayw&hd=1

In this world, the people would gather to embark on exciting new adventures, fulfill long desired dreams, and band together for glory and recognition.

Instead, what they found was misery and torment, the likes of which have never been felt in even in our darkest fantasies. Hatred and despair filled our hearts, and the once revered nation faced ridicule over the damage they had unleashed to their loyal populace.

As hopes dwindled to an all-time low, the impoverished masses waited for a bright light to bring them out of the darkness.

Then, finally, that light had arrived...as a light of destruction:



As if facing punishment for their arrogance, the world of Eorzea would now face destruction at the hands of the very nation that created it. The devastation would leave countless dead and lands reshaped into unrecognizable formations. Truly, it seemed that a dark end had await the dark times.

But from the ashes of devastation, a God has emerged...



No, not that God.



This God. Once a mere mortal of little renown, this man now possessed incredible power and knowledge, which he has pledged to use to recreate the dead world of Eorzea into a Realm Reborn.

Welcome, brave travelers, to the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Thread

Uh, don't we already have an FFXIV thread?


Yes, but just as 2.0 serves as a reintroduction to FFXIV, so too have we decided to create a new thread exclusively focused on A Realm Reborn and its multitude of changes from the original game.

You can still visit the old thread here in order to discuss the original game, which is set to shut down its servers on November 11th, 2012.

So how many changes are they making with 2.0? A few extra quests, a tweaked battle system, some new jobs?


How about a completely new game built entirely from scratch? In an unprecedented move, Square Enix plans to completely scrap the original game (or should we say, wipe all traces of its existence) and develop a brand new engine for the relaunch, one that is more suited for a massively multiplayer online game, as well as fulfilling all of the planned additions and content from the game's new producer/director, Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P).

And boy, is he promising a lot of stuff...too many to list, in fact. As a self-styled MMORPG fan himself, Yoshi-P claims to know full-well what makes for a good online role playing game, and has been working tirelessly to appease the very community Square Enix spat on. With his outreach to the community, his friendly demeanor and appealing promises, Yoshi-P has managed make FFXIV sound like something worth caring about again.

So basically, he's the Obama of Square Enix


Perhaps. It remains to be seen if he really will make good on all of his grandiose promises. But unlike other Square Enix employees content with telling rather than showing, Yoshida has been telling and showing the new FFXIV at every available opportunity.

Not just CG trailers, either:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOcL7fDuzMw&hd=1

But the actual game in motion, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIOq-2T5V5A&feature=player_embedded&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxJt3UOBhU8&hd=1

Some of my personal favorite new additions include:

1. A redone, fully customizable UI



Oh, how people despised the original game's UI: overly huge, clunky, and incredibly slow to open and navigate. Even if you're not a hardcore MMORPG, as a PC/Mac user you no doubt realize the importance of a quick and accessible menu screen.

2.0 finally brings Final Fantasy's UI to the 21st century, and goes even beyond that. Not only are you allowed to have all the crazy amount of icons on-screen that you want, but you are given 100% full reign to re-arrange, re-size, drag and drop every single icon on the screen effortlessly. As shown on the video above, you can choose how to personalize your UI with a single click, and with no restrictions.

2. Smaller Text Bubbles



Remember how needlessly huge the text windows were in both FFXI and FFXIV? Every single line of text, from NPCs, PCs, your own party, to even the battle stats, were all tossed into one gigantic window like some kind of text orgy.

In 2.0, NPCs have their own dedicated text bubble, which expands in size depending on how brief or lengthy the sentences are. Considering how chatty these characters get, I can't stress how merciful this addition is.

Also, Yoshida promises a lot less talking, which seems to be the case given how quickly the player in the video above accepts a new quest. And yes, even the text bubbles can be dragged around at your leisure.

3. Jumping!



This is another feature that might seem small to those of you who haven't played either online FF. Let me assure you, in the case of FFXIV, this is a game changer.

Too often have we been forced to take the long way around spiraling cities and multi-floored areas. Far too many times would we come across a gap that appeared wide enough to drop down from only to have our character stuck due to invisible walls.

With a jump button and with less restricting architecture, it's now a breeze to meet up with distant friends or hop your way out of a long trek out of an area. It's a significant improvement to traveling, and that is only further improved with...

4. Mounts!



Currently, it's unknown what limitations, if any, will be imposed on 2.0's mounts. The video above indicates that players can call up their pet Chocobos at any time without restriction. We can only hope there's no cooldown limit or a required amount of Gyshal Greens or anything of the sort: Yoshi-P promised that 2.0 would carry all the best features from MMOs like World of Warcraft (and unlike FFXIV's previous staff, he actually has played that game), so hopefully that means no limits to calling them.

What has been promised is the ability to raise and customize your Chocobo to assist you in battle. Not only can they don armor, but you can raise them as different kind of support classes (tank, healer, etc) to suit your needs. There's even talk of situations requiring mounted combat, along with other unique mounts to find and collect...including Magitek Armor.

Yes, that Magitek Armor. He is specifically pointing to FFVI here, not an inspired offshoot. Many more classic FF items, events and locations are said to make an appearance, including FFVII's Gold Saucer. FFXIV's upcoming Meteor event is also clearly taken from FFVII. Is it considered unimaginative and pandering to just dump all these FF references? Who cares, we're getting Magitek Armor mounts!

Oh wow, they're really getting serious with this. I need this game now!


Unfortunately, we don't have a solid release date yet besides 2013 for both PC and PS3. Right now, you can sign up for testing the Alpha Build , which is supposed to happen later this year. A Beta test is scheduled to follow afterward along with the final release.

So do I have any reason to play the current version of FFXIV now?


Well, the Legacy program (in which you are given an exclusive mount as well as a reduced subscription fee if you subscribed to 90 days before May) has now expired. You can still earn levels and play through the main story and/or quests until November 1st: after that, the game will go free to play for everyone, but none of the progress made during that month will carry over.

At the very least, see if you can find a copy of the original for cheap, since you'll be able to update to 2.0 at no extra cost. Square is planning to repackage the game, so if you don't mind paying $20 more just to have the update pre-installed (presumably), don't stress over it.

There are some PA folks still playing the game now (check the link above). Some are even claiming that the game is fine now as it is.

Hopefully they won't take it the wrong way while the majority of us wait impatiently for the red Meteor to come and stain their world red.

KiTA

Magitek?

MAGITEK!?

All is Forgiven!

Astale

It'll be interesting to see how their rep from the first "attempt" affects sales, assuming they release that data.

Just to compare them head-to-head.

Just_Bri_Thanks

I just want to make it clear my opinion: It is less bad than at launch currently, but it is NOT fine.

Rock the site from Orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Basil

Jeeze. They sure took their lumps and ran with them, huh?

It'll be interesting to see how this actually turns out.

Astale

Just_Bri_Thanks wrote: »

I just want to make it clear my opinion: It is less bad than at launch currently, but it is NOT fine.

Rock the site from Orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Do you mean the currently active game, or the "new" one coming out? I'm assuming the current one with the "rock from orbit" crack, but figured I'd ask to be sure.

Basil

He was just replying to

There are some PA folks still playing the game now (check the link above). Some are even claiming that the game is fine now as it is.

Vincent Grayson

I finally played the game now a month or so ago after having not touched it since the beta...and it was still terrible. I hope this 2.0 turns out well, because I'd love to actually enjoy a Final Fantasy MMO.

That having been said, has SE commented on stupid shit like paying per character slot and their atrocious PlayOnline? Are either of those changing/going away?

DisruptedCapitalist

Seems to me that the people who are playing it now and enjoying it are enjoying the community they created rather than the actual game content. Hence the reason that people like @Vincent Grayson had trouble getting into it since they weren't part of the community.

S-Starwind

I've enjoyed playing the story content, with the grand companies and job quests.
Instances are fun too. If you don't join level parties though, the leve grind can be pretty hard to live with for some.

DisruptedCapitalist

Well I think that's the trick though, without a community, most newcomers wouldn't even know where to start. Many may not even be aware that they can probably solo until level 30, right? (Come to think of it, that's probably true of most MMOs.)

Vincent Grayson

My problem going in to the game was that nothing is even remotely intuitive. Whereas something like Guild Wars 2 has gone and changed the formula to some extent, confusing long time MMO players, they've clearly done in it in service of pushing the genre forward and removing some of the things that weren't fun. FFXIV feels like it changes or ignores MMO staples just because they can and instead of making things more interesting, it just makes it less fun to play. I'll admit I played very little of it, but that's largely because I was so incredibly turned off by just everything that was going on.

Professor Snugglesworth

Astale wrote: »

It'll be interesting to see how their rep from the first "attempt" affects sales, assuming they release that data.

Just to compare them head-to-head.

As surprised as I've been with Square Enix owning up to their mistakes with FFXIV, I'm going to be even more surprised if they actually release subscription data.

Just_Bri_Thanks wrote: »

I just want to make it clear my opinion: It is less bad than at launch currently, but it is NOT fine.

Rock the site from Orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Thank you. Yes.

There's no shame in admitting that you've gotten some enjoyment from the current version. Yes, there have been some substantial improvements...which isn't hard to do considering the unbelievably stupid shit they put in to begin with (how long did that "job cooldown" feature last again? I believe it barely lasted a month).

But there is just no way I can accept the statement that the current game is "fine as it is", especially when the director himself said that there's no way they could implement the changes he wants with the current engine, and with Square Enix going to great lengths to wipe the game from existence. It'll be interesting to see which will end up having the bigger landfill, this or E.T.

Numerous technical issues still persist with the game; in my case, I would experience frequent, inexplicable CTDs, which appeared to be the result of raising the game's settings even slightly past medium. When Yoshida claimed that "a PC that couldn't run FFXIV on Low will be able to run 2.0 on High", I believe him. There were also the lag issues that not even the most elite of connections could avoid, which again SE admitted was the result of how they handled their servers; every action you clicked would result in a 2 second delay before your character actually did it. Yoshida responded to this saying that 2.0's latency will be "comparable to World of Warcraft". This one's a little harder to swallow, but I truly hope he can pull that off.

And even if you got the game running on an acceptable state, it still feels like a clunky relic. It's slow paced, requires numerous back-and-forth trips between the same areas just to get the basic shit done, equipment management is unbelievably awful (it doesn't save your equipment loads between jobs: again, it's something they promise 2.0 will have, but it's impossible on the current engine), and it's just not that fun.

But that's not the same as saying you can't have fun with it. When I joined up in March, the PA linkshell didn't even exist anymore. Supposedly there's some activity now, and a strong community will always turn the biggest trainwrecks into a relatively better experience.

But no, the current game is not fine, and it's in everyone's best interests that the Meteor leaves it a smoldering crater. I want to commit to a modern online Final Fantasy, badly. FFXI was my first MMO, and I was fully aware of its limitations and grinding issues, but I still had a lot of fun memories with it. But I also know that I couldn't enjoy that kind of game today when compared to faster-paced modern MMORPGs, and FFXIV didn't even measure up to FFXI during its prime.

Evolve or Die. In FFXIV's case, it's doing both.

Anyway, some news!

1up has a new article where Yoshida states the very obvious that he got the Meteor idea from FFVII: http://www.1up.com/features/final-fantasy-xiv-franchise-reborn

And on September 14th, there will be a new Letters from the Producer, where he'll be answering community questions live: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=5dc471e01937a5088117bc2f17761ae60e8587b2

And you can post your own questions in this thread, where he'll be looking for reference: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/53594-Your-questions-for-the-Letter-of-the-Producer-LIVE

I'm going to do my part to try and post some interesting questions (I mainly want confirmation if there will be a WoW-like feature where party members are instantly teleported to the same spot for dungeon raids), and I hope some of you do the same.

DisruptedCapitalist

I have to admit, I am getting a little (over) excited about version 2.0. Nothing says Final Fantasy than some kind of Global Cataclysm.

I'll probably be resubbing for 2.0 fer sher.

Professor Snugglesworth

I'm a bit bummed that I missed out on the chance to get in on the Legacy discount (I even had a free subscription from a website, but I just couldn't muster up the will to keep playing), but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if that discount eventually becomes the default price for everyone. Lots of people are wondering if they'll even go F2P, but....I don't expect that to ever happen. No matter how much Square wants to get their fans happy again, they still love their money more than they love you.

I think the most important thing they need to do for the re-launch is to make sure that game is loaded with content. Too many new MMOs start off with bare bones features, with promises for extra modes, areas, and jobs to come out via patches and expansion packs.

FFXIV 2.0 cannot get away with this. They already botched their chance to start off small, so now they have to make up for the lost time. I'm not saying they need to go Treasures of Aht Urgan here, but they have to at least have to have the equivalent of Rise of the Zilart.

Too many MMOs underestimate how quickly people burn through their beginning content. 2.0 needs to make damn sure there's enough stuff in there to keep people renewing their subscriptions.

The Dude With Herpes

The game is 'fine how it is' in that it's actually a playable game unlike how it was at launch.

It isn't even remotely 'fine how it is' as an MMO that people would pay to play under any normal circumstances.

I've been paying to get the Legacy status; which I got, and I want to hopefully see most, if not all, of the story content leading up to 2.0; because for all the things that the game is lacking, its story stuff, like XI, is actually quite good (at least for Ul'dah).

But if it weren't for the fact that I had a good idea of what was coming up and being able to lock in a cheaper sub price for less than I'd have paid for a full game; I'm fine with my decision to play. At no point, however, during the previous 2 years, did I ever feel like there was any reason to play the game.

Plus, on the other hand, if for no other reason, I'm fine throwing some money their way to support the idea of what they're doing. I don't know how 2.0 will turn out, but I can see how the major changes they've made since launch have turned out and that alone gives me hope for 2.0. Within the template they were working with (i.e. the broken, miserable launch game) they've managed to make a playable, moderately enjoyable MMO that has some appeal as opposed to an unplayable mess with no redeeming qualities. Whatever the reason behind SE's decision to throw so many resources behind XIV to save face; the game and fixing it has been a labor of love for a team headed by yoshiP who clearly care deeply, not just about 'fixing' the game, but making a game that players can love on its own merits.

And that, to me, is something worth supporting.

EDIT: Also, I thought we were gonna do the new thread when the current servers came down, not immediately?

Vincent Grayson

Yeah, the hardware optimization is something I'll be very interested to see in 2.0.

I couldn't believe how poorly it ran on my relatively new PC, which runs shit like GW2 with all bells and whistles at max at 60fps. Putting XIV at end a relatively moderate detail level still ran at probably 15-20 fps.

Professor Snugglesworth

Out of curiosity, what does Guild Wars 2 do that other MMOs haven't (or haven't done often)? Is it free to play or subscription-based? (Edit: Seems it is F2P. Hmm...)

Also, bah: seems you need to have an active FFXIV account in order to post in the forums.

If anyone here still has one of those, would you consider sharing some of the questions I had planned?

Darkewolfe

Professor Snugglesworth wrote: »

Out of curiosity, what does Guild Wars 2 do that other MMOs haven't (or haven't done often)? Is it free to play or subscription-based? (Edit: Seems it is F2P. Hmm...)

Also, bah: seems you need to have an active FFXIV account in order to post in the forums.

If anyone here still has one of those, would you consider sharing some of the questions I had planned?

Buy-to-play.

Levels barely matter. Servers barely matter. No gear grind at max level. Not much gear grind before then. Server v. server pvp with rotating brackets for better match-ups. Different style of actioney-combat. No healer/tank/dps triad.

Vincent Grayson

Also, dynamic events, instant travel (think WoW's flight paths but instant instead of waiting to fly from spot to spot and accessible from the map at all times), and most importantly, a lot of small changes that either reward cooperation (removal of the concept of "tapping" a mob), or don't punish helping others (XP for reviving players, no formal group requirements to essentially do group activities), and nice things like resource nodes existing in the world for you and only you to use. You'll never spot a copper ore node and get to it just as someone else finishes mining it and just be shit out of luck. If you can see the node (be it ore/trees/plants), you get to gather from it.

edit: Basically, a whole lot of things that are going to make it much more difficult for me to just accept "This is the way it works in MMOs" anymore. 2.0, Mists of Pandaria, Storm Legion, and even recent releases like The Secret World all still have a lot of these little drawbacks that put me off now that I've seen how they could be avoided.

Professor Snugglesworth

Vincent Grayson wrote: »

accessible from the map at all times

I swear to Christ there needs to be a law that forces every big world game to have this.

All that stuff sounds good, and it proves without a doubt that the old mechanics of FFXI and FFXIV just don't work anymore.

Yes, you'll always have the dedicated group of basement dwellers who delight in wasting hours a day just to accomplish the most minute things. But for everyone else, we live in an age where there's no lack of games that are easier to pick up and faster to accomplish things. The time you've spent grinding levels, backtracking between areas, and sitting for hours in an area waiting for a party invite could be better spent playing other games that learned to streamline that shit long ago.

I'm not a massive WoW fan, but when I finally gave it a try, I could easily see why that game is considered the MMORPG standard. It has nothing to do with it being trendy, but because of the smart methods they implemented. Quests that can be completed within minutes and offering instant rewards, various methods of travel, the ability to be instantly paired up with a random party and instantly teleported to a random dungeon....

This is what fun is like, people.

Just_Bri_Thanks

Yeah, I have a sub and can post.

Professor Snugglesworth

Just_Bri_Thanks wrote: »

Yeah, I have a sub and can post.

Sweet, just let me know how many questions you're willing to ask on my behalf so I don't flood you.

The most important I want to know is if it'll have WoW's instant party feature, but I also have a few "this would be cool if you added it" bits.

Just_Bri_Thanks

Give me all the questions you have in order of importance and I will do what I can with them. (PM)

Professor Snugglesworth

Done. Thanks for that.

So let's say they actually decided to include some classic FF villains/monsters to do battle again. Who or what would you like to see included?

For me, it would probably be FFIV's Four Elemental Fiends. I think that would make for a real neat party battle.

I also thought it would be really cool if they included the ability to customize sound effects straight from the older games. Say, FFVII's Limit Break effect, or FFVI's Magitek Amor lasers, or even the chance to choose your own Battle and Victory Themes.

If they really are allowing user mods, then this should be doable one way or the other.

Quical

Just_Bri_Thanks wrote: »

Give me all the questions you have in order of importance and I will do what I can with them. (PM)

Can you shoot someone a message asking who I have to do it with to get in on whatever state the PS3 version is right now please?

Professor Snugglesworth

Quical wrote: »

Just_Bri_Thanks wrote: »

Give me all the questions you have in order of importance and I will do what I can with them. (PM)

Can you shoot someone a message asking who I have to do it with to get in on whatever state the PS3 version is right now please?

I really wouldn't hold your breath on that one. The PC version doesn't even have a solid date yet since Yoshida mentioned that it hinges on how well the Beta is received.

He did promise the same level of customization with a controller, which I hope is true as I would like to play this through my TV connected to my PC with a controller/keyboard.

I should have asked about the handling of the font, as the original game was simply unreadable on my TV. I assume that won't be a problem here, since you can customize the UI to your liking (which should also mean resizing windows).

lionheart_m

Thanks to all these remakes I'm a lil burnt out on the whole let's bring back some classic SNES/NES bosses. I would love to see some new faces though. Enough Gilgamesh, Ultros (my avatar!), Chupon and Fiends (1 and 4). How about Ruby Weapon? Jumbo Cactuar? Ozma? Hell, bring back Yiazmat. Just don't make it an 18 hour affair please?

Professor Snugglesworth

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/about/game/armoury/magic/arcanist

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/about/game/jobs/summoner

Wonder if the Summoners are going to be pissed that they lose Carbuncle?

I really wish Dark Knight would come back. It feels like they're really lacking in straight up "badass with sword" jobs.

If they managed to make Dragoon look attractive (once the running joke in FFXI), imagine what they could do with Dark Knight.

Neurotika

They won't "lose" Carbuncle, assuming class/job ability assignments work in a similar way that they do now. When you have a job equipped, you can use the skills of the two base classes.

Krausier

I Honestly flip shit if somehow make a Phantom Train fight or Even The Airship Vs Empire battle where fight the Giant monster Boss Removes you from combat right as he dies!

I'm Going to Be Honset though Being and old Fan Of the FFXI and Frowning at the thought My Galka Paladin/NiNja will be a wonderful memory i Really Hope that 2.0 is able Modernlize the game alot more.

Even though i kinda wanted to buy the game just play it for the story. I just want to know if do buy it i would be able to get though all the content before it gets ShutDown in Novmember?

Just_Bri_Thanks

I'l read up on the producer questions thread and start posting questions when I get up in the morning.

Professor Snugglesworth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_737hYbSCEs&hd=1&feature=context-gfa&hd=1

Darn, too late to get into this now. Will watch later.

Javen

I've actually got to give them huge props for how they've handled XIV after the massive disappointment of its initial incarnation. The game was shitty, but we live in an age where many shitty MMOs have come and gone. But, the way they took it, admitted that the game they put out was pretty dang awful, and made, what I think might be the most concerted effort to re-engineer an existing product ever, instead of just cutting bait and distancing themselves, takes a hell of a lot of stones.

Professor Snugglesworth

That, and they still want your money.

Rikidou Hyuuga

Suddenly, holy shit I might actually consider this. The FF14 was like shoving nails into my eyes, as long as those nails were made of the most beautiful and artistically satisfying material ever conceived. Beauty beyond measure, but it sure didn't do much to stop the bleeding.

This looks like it has potential.

Krathoon

One thing that seems cool to me is that you will find the remains of the previous game world in the new one.

Basil

A crater filled with identical shrubbery.

Just_Bri_Thanks

It does seem rather symbolic, doesn't it?

Quical

I'm not quite sure why, in this game and also in the original FF14, they renamed the races that were around in FF11. They're the same races aren't they? And they're invented by the makers. So... why rename them?

Hunter_Killers

Javen wrote: »

I've actually got to give them huge props for how they've handled XIV after the massive disappointment of its initial incarnation. The game was shitty, but we live in an age where many shitty MMOs have come and gone. But, the way they took it, admitted that the game they put out was pretty dang awful, and made, what I think might be the most concerted effort to re-engineer an existing product ever, instead of just cutting bait and distancing themselves, takes a hell of a lot of stones.

It's wonderful what happens when your funding doesn't get cut by your investors/publisher. They didn't have that sledgehammer looming overhead waiting for a screwup like the majority does. It goes without saying that the people making the games don't want to lose their job. NCSoft has already axed 6, going on 7 games.