Final Fantasy 14

Final Fantasy 14 Preview

Final Fantasy XIV which is also called Final Fantasy XIV Online, is the 14th installment of world renowned FF series which is due for release for Windows based PC in September 30, 2010 and for Sony PS3 in March 2011. Final Fantasy XIV is the 2nd game of MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game) genre in FF series which has been produced by Square Enix gaming corporation of Japan. The game happens in the fantasy world of Hydaelyna, especially in area called Eorzea that is filled with aesthetic combination of classic fantasy and science fiction elements. The game is to be released in 4 languages including German, French, English and Japanese.

The alpha testing of game began during March 2010 which was announced during VanaFest 2010, an event for celebration of 8th year of FFXI. There are 2 versions of the game including "Standard Edition" and "Collector’s Edition" which will get released on Sep 22, 2010. The game will have cross-platform servers which can be accessed from any country. The beta testing for the game will be carried out for longer duration that FFXI which had 4 months of testing.

The job system and battle system will be entirely different from earlier version of FFXI that was based on experience points and progression based on levels. But Final Fantasy XI has been designed in such a way that it uses skill-based progression similar to FF II. The characters races are same as FFXI and players are allowed to create Avatars. The game has balanced group and solo play unlike FFXI which focused much of Group play. The new Job System also called Armoury system is explained clearly in official website.

Players can take various roles like Thaumaturge or Gladiator by crafting various tools and wielding new weapons. The roles are classified into 4 categories namely, Disciples of Land (who gather material sources and obey natural orders), Disciples of Magic, Disciples of Hand (who craft new weapons and tools using their creativity) and Disciples of War (who are good in fighting combats and handlings arms).

The crafting system is a portion of Armory system and when players decide to handle a Blacksmith hammer, their physical appearance will be changed to resemble a Blacksmith. Similarly players can handle harvest tools and appearance will be changed to suit the tools they use.

Apart from FFXI, Final Fantasy XIV has influence from various other games like Diablo, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and World of WarCraft and also feedback and comments received from players. The role of Chocobos is different from that of earlier version. The physical level of players will impact other attributes like magic points, health points, intelligence, strength and other basic stats. There are no specific job levels like FFXI.

The nations of Eorzea were consistently at war with one another till 15 years ago till their most important city state Ala Mhigo was demolished entirely by a mysterious nation Garlean Empire. The nations agreed to combine together in order to fight against the invaders but the enemy nation never returned and this led to unemployment of wide range of mercenaries and solders who start to form guilds and call themselves as Adventurers.

There are five races in FFXIV for players to choose from which resemble the aesthetic nature of FFXI. The human race named Hyur is divided into 2 groups namely Highlanders and MidLanders. Another race which is similar to elf and are actual inhabitants of Eorzea are Elezen who are split into Duskwight Elezen and Wildwood Elezen and each of them have specific skills. Lalafell are the midget humanoids who have high intelligence and agility and come from southern regions of Eorzea. This race is split into 2 groups namely Dunesfolk and Plainsfolk. The Roegadyn is another race of physically large characters who are split into Hellsguard and Sea Wolves. The cat-like humanoids are Miqo’te who are separated into 2 sections namely Nocturnal keeper of Moon that are dedicated to Menphina The Lover, the moon goddess and Seekers of the Sun who are dedicated to Azeyma the Warden, the Sun Goddess.

Players from various parts have done the alpha testing during April 2010 which had 10% of the complete game. The game was earlier codenamed as Rapture and was first talked about in 2005 August, when Square Enix Corporation mentioned that they were working on an MMORPG which was a sequel to FFXI. The producer of FFXI, Hiromichi Tanaka has mentioned that developers were working to make Rapture a worldwide released for Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and Personal computers running Windows Vista and they officially announced about FFXIV at Game Developers Conference 2008. Later during Sony E3 Conference held on June 2nd 2009, an official announcement regarding FFXIV release for Microsoft Windows based PCs and Sony PlayStation 3 was made. The game’s trailer which had in-game sequences and pre-rendered cinematic sequences running from Crystal Tools engine was displayed during the announcement.

Hiromichi Tanaka is the producer and Nokuaki Komoto is the director of FFXIV. The music for the game will be composed by longtime sequence composer Nobuo Uematsu and art-direction will be handled by Akihiko Yoshida. There are also talks with Microsoft regarding Xbox 360 version of the game which is still under discussion among developers.

Final Fantasy XIV will definitely win the hearts of hardcore gamers and fans of FF series with its amazing 3D visual effects and astounding music. The game will have plenty of innovative features including new battle and Aromory system.

Final Fantasy 14 Information

Game: Final Fantasy 14
Developer: Square Enix PDD 3
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: MMORPG
Medium: Blu-Ray Disc, DVD
Platform: Playstation 3, PC with Microsoft Windows OS

Final Fantasy 14 Release Date

Japan: September 30, 2010 (Windows PC)
USA: September 30, 2010 (Windows PC)
Europe: September 30, 2010 (Windows PC)

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