Final nail in the coffin for FFXIV?

The only news I seem to be hearing lately about FFXIV seems to be bad news and I think this could actually be the final nail in the coffin for the game. It seems that Square Enix in their infinite undiscovery wisdom have decided to add a limiting feature on the game. After 8 hours your character will start to earn less experience which degrades over a further 7 hours. After this your character will stop earning experience completely. To make matters worse, this "feature" is on a weekly timer which means you effectively have 8 hours a week to play the game at full capacity.

Square Enix say this is to level the playing field for those of us who aren't free to play on a full time basis. I'm in this category and I still think this is a ridiculous thing to do. They think this is going to limit the hardcore players from playing too much, what's going to end up happening is after 15 hours of levelling a week, players are going to grind for materials/reputation/items instead.

I think they could only really get away with something like this in a free to play business model but the fact that Square Enix are expecting you to pay a monthly fee and then limit the time you can actually progress in the game sounds like robbery to me and it's looking less and less likely that I'll be subscribing past the free 30 days that come in the box.

FFXIV to suffer from same problems FFXI did?

Massively.com have recently added a new post telling of the current beta testers who are complaining about problems in the Final Fantasy XIV which are very familiar to a lot of problems that FFXI suffered from too. It's also disappointing that the producer of the game Hiromichi Tanaka has gone on the record to say that these complained about features are actually intended.

Players are complaining that the cooldown on Guildleves (quests) is way too long, it takes 48 hours for a quest to reappear after you've completed it which is about double the amount of time that you see in other MMO's like World of Warcraft and Star Trek Online. Tanaka says that this is the case because they don't want players to rush through the quests solo, it's expected to be a team effort. This coincides with the next problem the majority of players are upset about. The regeneration of Mana in the game is slooow. This is a problem that I felt bordered on ruining FFXI for me and it seems that XIV won't be any different. Anything that breaks up the momentum of gameplay for me is a huge no-no. Again Tanaka explains that this is intended because the player is expected to tactically use points and work as a team.

Unfortunately the more I read about the game the more I'm starting to feel that they really should have just called it FFXI-2 instead of making it another numbered entry in the franchise because it really doesn't seem to be much different from it except maybe the class system and the quest system, otherwise it really is starting to look like an graphically updated XI.

As I've said before and will most likely say again, I can't really make any lasting judgements until I've actually played the game for myself. As much as I might complain about features and decisions, I'll still be picking it up at launch and playing through the first 30 days to see how things go.

Not long now!

Final Fantasy XIV Specs and Release date announced?

It seems that the official FFXIV website has posted the release date and the requirements for the game and here they.

Release Date: September 3oth 2010

Requirements:

Windows XP
Intel Core 2 Duo (2.0ghz)
1.5GB RAM
16GB HDD space
Geforce 9600 512RAM or equivalent

So there we have it. Personally I'll have to upgrade if I want to play it comfortably (or buy it for the PS3)

Check out the official website for more info (that is, if you can read Japanese) here

Alpha Testers Guide Appears Online

A lot of information has been leaked regarding the current Alpha testing phase of Final Fantasy XIV thanks to http://ffxivjourney.blogspot.com/

It seems to be all the information that Square Enix passed out to the current testers to help them along with playing. There are also a few videos to check out which reveals a bit more information about how things are going to play out.

First things first, it looks like one of my main fears has happened, something that was a main problem for me in FFXI. I didn't see any mouse movement while using the menu systems which suggests that, like XI, you'll have to use keys rather than a cursor to navigate through them. This is something that really annoyed me and it was very close to being a game breaker in XI.

Another thing that I did notice and I wasn't really surprised was the "invisible walls" which is a big issue in all Square Enix games has reared it's head here too. Places where you expect to be able to walk or fall down is really a wall. It seems to be an accepted practice for them which is why I wasn't surprised.

I also wasn't surprised that it doesn't look like the player will be able to jump either :(

I still have high hopes for the game, this is only alpha footage which is very obvious so it's almost expected that we'll see a lot of changes.

Make sure you check out http://ffxivjourney.blogspot.com/ for all the information, if some of the videos don't work, as I suspect they won't once Square Enix gets wind of them, you can see the majority of the information here on Kotaku

Official Final Fantasy XIV YouTube Channel is up!

Square Enix have opened up a Final Fantasy XIV YouTube channel which can be found here

There's only one video up at the moment but it's full of new gameplay (new to me anyway!)

The video brought back a lot of memories of FFXI to me. I think with the races being the same in both games, it just all seems very familiar but new at the same time. The locations shown in the video looked very promising, everything looked very grand and with what I'm imagining will be the theme song to the game being played in the background I'm sure it will be epic.

Unfortunately I had no clue what they were talking about but thanks to ZAM you can get the translation here

I hope that the game is still set for release this year, I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on it

So much information!

I know I haven't been updating the blog as much as I usually do, this is half in part to the huge amounts of information coming in for STO, FFXIV and even the likes of EvE and WoW that I can barely keep up with it.

So instead of writing a separate article for each part, I'm just going to post all the info here.

Final Fantasy XIV: 4-5 videos have made its way online, most of which you can find on Zam by clicking here

Star Trek Online: Vmann was awesome enough to link me to a new video of STO which shows us some space and ground combat with a voice over from a Cryptic rep, this can be found here

I think I've spent most the day looking over those videos in awe.

FFXIV's animations are absolutely brilliant, very fluid and a treat to watch, there was some clipping and collision detection issues but overall the game is really looking great.

STO is looking good too, there are some issues with the graphics which have been brought up already but overall it is looking very nice and lets hope it can only get better with time.

I hope to go into a bit more detail later on but right now, I'm still drooling.

FFXIV: Classes

Ever since we gathered all that information for XIV the other week one thing has been playing on my mind and that's been how certain classes are going to work. I think its safe to assume that there will be more classes than was announced in Famitsu but right now the one that has me thinking is "The Path of the Gatherer" which is to include the Gardener and Fisherman classes.

Compared to the other two paths we know of at the moment (Fighter and Sorcerer) the Gatherer sticks out. Most MMO's have there share of professions that you can learn like mining, fishing, herb gathering etc, but I haven't seen an MMO that has given an entire class to it. Square Enix have gone on record to say that this incarnation of Final Fantasy will be on the more casual side compared to it's older brother XI but I wonder if they might be going a bit overboard.

Unless there is some big mechanic to the Gatherer classes that I'm not getting, I think it will end up being too limited to be a class rather than a profession of some sort. Lets hope I'm wrong.

FFXIV: Music

With most MMO's that I play, within a few hours or so I find myself turning down the music of the game so I can listen to some of my own music while I go off on an adventure. FFXI was one game I didn't simply because I love that style of music. FFXIV has double the incentive this time around as Nobou Uematsu is scoring the entire soundtrack.

So far we only have 1/2 songs to go by. The one that was in the trailer and the one that plays on the official website, both have similar tunes but are a bit different. I like the theme being used, a proud nation feel to it and thats how I think a lot of FFXI players want to feel about the game.

Nobou hasn't failed to impress me yet when it comes to composing video games and I have very little doubt that he will make a mistake this time around either. Lets see how many nods to the other games we'll here this time around. I expect Chocobo, level up and of course the staff credits/FFXII opening theme somewhere in there.

Don't forget to check out the Official Final Fantasy XIV website to hear that music and also to check out the plethora of information just released.

FFXIV: Race Names and Classes Revealed!

Kotaku has gotten the scoop on XIV's race names and a few classes thanks to a Japanese magazine scan. So here's they are the new race names

Elvaan: Elzen
Hume: Hyuran
Taru: Lalafell
Mithra: Miqo'te
Galka: Roegadyn

I like them, Miqo'te just rolls off the tongue nicely.

4 classes were also announced each with 2 subclasses of their own.

Fighter (Swordsman, Archer)
Sorcerer (Enchanter, Warlock)
Crafter (Blacksmith, Cook)
Gatherer (Gardener, Fishermen).

Crafter and Gatherer will be an interesting class to keep an eye on, I wonder how a Gardener will progress through the game.

You can read the original article here which has a few screenshots also

FFXIV: Faction v Faction?

One thing that I think was missing from FFXI was faction versus faction. The only thing I remember was controlling certain areas by fighting there which wasn't very useful from what I could tell. I know that the game was all about coming together to defeat a common foe but I found that it defeated the purpose of having different factions/countries in the game unless there was a possible conflict or advantage/disadvantage that could come from it.

With it being confirmed that each race will have a different name and story than they did in FFXI, it's probably a safe bet to say that there could be new countries which gives S-E a perfect opportunity to give us some kind of conflict.

I hate to constantly bring up WoW but one great explain of how it could work is the town of Halaa in Nagrand. Constantly in a state of faction change due to players fighting for it, this is the kind of thing I'd like to see when I play FFXIV, fighting for the territory instead of it being decided for us.

FFXIV: E3 2009 Video Interview

Elmerthepointy over on YouTube was nice enough to post (or repost?) a video interview for FFXIV which came from E3 this year.



While no new information comes from the interview, its still nice to look at something FFXIV related.

FFXIV: Economy

The economy in an MMO is a massive part of the game. There are some people who play MMO's solely to play the market. Recently I've found myself to be one of those people, since I've just come back from playing WoW where at level 10 I already had 100+ gold.

I was never able to do that on FFXI. I think it might have been because I didn't fully understand how it worked but I also know I wasn't the only one that had troubles with it.

Trying to earn gil when you just start playing the game is nearly impossible which makes upgrading armor and weapons just as hard which in the end either leads to

• People stopping playing the game
• Begging for gil
• Buying gil for real currency

It does get a bit easier the higher in level you go because you can farm items from lower level monsters which brings us to that point. I 100% agree with the idea that you need to work for making big amounts of currency in a game but the amount of farming involved in a lot of Asian MMO's I think is a bit ridiculous.

A lot of people don't have the time to play all day to get enough money for items or armor, for a lot of people they get 1-2 hours per day to play and that's it.

The #1 thing for an MMO to grab new players is to make it easy to play for the first 10 or 20 levels and that includes introducing the economy. I think this is one major mechanic of the game that Square Enix need to look at if they plan on making this a commercial success out of Asian territory.

Connect!On gives a bit more information on FFXIV

There seems to be a lot of Asian media covering FFXIV, it's just a pity the western media isn't. Connect!On managed to get an interview with Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Koumoto. Zam have an article about it which you can read right here.

A lot of the information is recycled but I'm going to list the bits of information I found to be most interesting.

First up

"The keyword is "growth" and FFXIV will be sold as a game that allows improvement without unnecessary hardship. Koumoto references FFXI, saying it is a game that relies too exclusively on defeating enemies over and over to advance, and that FFXIV will bring new avenues of facilitating character growth, such as quests."

This is great news. Anyone that has played FFXI knows how much of a grind fest the game is and how long it can actually take to level up to cap. I also got a hint of a Free Realms kind of class system from that paragraph. Maybe we'll have a Postman Moogle class?

Next!

"Speaking of which, we have also heard from Tanaka that the traditional experience points and level system will not be used this time around. "

This definitely has the smell of Free Realms, I'm not really sure what I think about that, I think as long as questing and killing is an option to progress I'll be fine with it.

"The team is looking into large-scale battles as well. Also, it may not always be against an enemy. PvP content is also been worked on as an option, but it seems they are stopping shy of allowing unrestrained dueling and player killing."

This was one of the main things I think was missing from FFXI, PvP was never really there. I think this, as long as it is implemented well will bring a lot of people into the game.

"Tanaka adds that they are maintaining the same stance against griefing through PKing and kill stealing as they have in FFXI."

I hope that doesn't mean they will keep the same system of locking a monster to the character...It was a bit distressing when you were in serious need of help and couldn't fumble through the menu fast enough to get to the call for help button.

FFXIV: Death Penalty

I'm not a fan of death penalties in any game. I found XI's death penalty to be ridiculous. I think I would have been fine with losing 10% of my experience per level but with it being possible to down level was just too far.

Simply put I don't want to see this in FFXIV in any shape of form. World of Warcraft has a good system and if they were to copy any other game it should be that one. You turn to a ghost when you die, you have the option if walking back and getting back to work or resurrecting at the Spirit Healer and then you get a 10 minute debuff that lowers your stats by 75%

I'll be very disappointed if you can down level in XIV.

FFXIV: Healing times and items

As much as I love Final Fantasy XI looking back now there just seems to be problem after problem after problem and I hate to sound like I'm bashing it. With MMO's being so popular at the moment you can see a lot of trends that have grown in the last few years. Healing items and the use of food is one of them.

Back when I played XI there weren't many options for healing yourself. You either /heal or get a white mage to take care of you.

The healing times were atrocious once you got up higher in levels. You were looking at 2+ minutes once you got over level 15 and with the lack of items to make it faster it always felt like the game was trying to make you slow down.

In FFXIV I'd like to see a better system to deal with this. The /heal is a great idea and I think should definitely be kept but I think it needs to be tweaked a little to make healing just a little bit faster. If they don't make it faster then the use of food and potions needs to be implemented where they are available cheaply. FFXI was known for being cruel when it came to prices and it's something that I'll be talking about in a later article.

A perfect example is World of Warcraft, their food/drink system works very well. It's openly available, doesn't break the bank and it still causes a small amount of downtime but not enough to take you out of the game.

FFXIV: Hot Thread Thursday over at ZAM

Each Thursday ZAM pick a few threads on their forums they think is important to feature on their website.

Judging by their titles I can give my opinion right off the bat.

Thread: Jump??
My Opinion: Definitely, for the most part in MMO's it's not required at all but it's a nice feature and gives you something to do on long journeys.

Thread: Moving while casting.
My Opinion: Depending on what kind of MMO it's going to be, it really depends. If it follows FFXI then moving while casting isn't really necessary, on the flip side it could also be fun or a gameplay mechanic if the game is completely different.

Thread: UI design, will SE follow like the rest of the sheep?
My Opinion: I hope they do! The UI in FFXI was terrible to use and wasn't much to look at either. I think moving to more standardised UI like most are used to will give the game some mainstream appeal.

Thread: Auction House
My Opinion: A lot of people really enjoyed the AH and it had its moments, as long as its a bit easier to make money I'd be fine with leaving it the way it is.

Square Enix sued for 5 million

It seems Square Enix has been sued for 5 million due to deceptiveness with their Final Fantasy XI service. It seems there are hidden fees to do with late payments. I never knew anything about it but then again I always paid on time.

For the mega corporation that S-E is 5 million isn't a lot of money but it's enough to give them something to think about when it comes to how they will handle the billing system for FFXIV.

For more information head here.

FFXIV: Shortcut Keys

Back when I first played FFXI, with it being my first MMO I didn't really know any better when it came to the genre, 4-5 years later with 10+ MMO's under my belt, my knowledge and expectations have certainly grown.

Since I've been revisiting Vana'Diel I've noticed one thing that is a major pain in the ass.

A lack of shortcut keys.

The game did have a few but was missing quite a few that are nearly expected to be present in present day MMO's. The main one that I couldn't find was the first one I would want. A map key. Most games have this mapped to the M button but after reading through the guide in the picture I couldn't find one. Some of the shortcut keys that are in the game I felt had unnecessary combos like "Ctrl + i" to open inventory. There was no reason why it couldn't have just been "i" like most other games.

I think if FFXIV is going to be successful in the West with both players and the media they need to standardise their control scheme to allow for proper shortcut keys.

FFXIV: Enemies

There are a few enemies from XI that are very memorable. The Goblins and Orc stick out for the me the most since they were everywhere around San'dOria. I think one of the things that stuck with the most about the enemies in XI was the ability to "train" them all the way to the exit of an area. The first time I saw this I thought it was brilliant until 2 seconds later when all those enemies turned to look at me and killed me fairly quickly.

It got me thinking about XIV and on how they might handle it this time around. Trying to check the enemies level or exit a battle if it got too tough in XI was a chore.

/check
"Orc is an even match"
*Battle*
"TerryN calls for help!"
*Battle*
"TerryN disengages from battle"
*Running*
*Dead*

At the time when playing XI I never really questioned the reasons behind locking an enemy to the first player/party that attacked it until I saw it done better in the countless other MMO's and should be something that Square-Enix invest some time in.

The ability to get enemies to follow you is an inherent problem with this system. Enemies should have an area which they are aggressive in, once the player leaves that area they go back to their patrol route or something where enemies will not follow you forever.

One thing I'd like seen implemented too is a level system for enemies instead of vague check messages. It's not 100% important, but I'd still rather see it XIV.

FFXIV Races: Galka

The Galka along with the Tarutaru are probably the two most recognisable races from FFXI on their appearance alone. I only played as a Galka for a very short period because they suffered the same fate as the Mithra. They shared Bastok with the Humes.

Why Square-Enix couldn't give each race their own city and quest line is beyond me, from a storyline point of view I automatically assume that if they aren't important enough to have their own city then they aren't important enough for me to invest my time in.

I'd really like to see the Galka take a more centric role in the plot for FFXIV this time around, give them their own city and a grand tale with a deep back story.