FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn - MegaTON Info Thread ala Chocobo

[Shin Asura]

Welcome to the MegaTON Info Final Fantasy XIV
A Realm Reborn thread ala Chocobo

Story of Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn

Seeking control over the peaceful realm of Eorzea and its abundant crystal resources, the Garlean Empire (a scientifically advanced nation hailing from the north) begins gathering an army. To ready themselves for the coming conflict, the city-states of Eorzea reinstate the Grand Companies - comprehensive centers of command which combine the cities military and economic assets, but still divided by their own differences and antagonisms. The player joins one of these states to aid in the war effort.

The commander of the invading forces, 8th Imperial Legion Legatus Nael van Darnus (a.k.a. “White Raven”), has plans of his own, separate from the Garlean Empire. Driven by insanity, he plots to unleash a powerful destructive magic: Meteor. The Meteor magic is a complex scheme employing ancient mystic arts and lost technology to summon the planet's lesser moon, Dalamud (in reality a colossal machine launched thousands of years ago into the planet’s orbit by an ancient lost civilization), down onto Eorzea. Realizing the futility of standing alone against such a threat, the Grand Companies put aside deep-rooted differences and consolidate their forces under the banner of the Eorzean Alliance.

At the behest of this new confederation, adventurers from across the realm take up arms and march to the floating islands of Rivenroad. Here, the player confronts and kills White Raven, but his scheme is too far advanced as Dalamud has begun its descent already. In a final bid to save the planet, the Grand Companies turn to Louisoix, an enigmatic scholar hailing from the forgotten city-state of Sharlayan. The 'Archon', as he is called, devises a plan to summon the power of the Twelve, Eorzea's pantheon of guardian deities, and use that power to banish Dalamud back to the heavens. But for this to succeed, the rite needs to be performed directly beneath the point of Dalamud’s impact. Eventually, that point is determined to be a vast swathe of barren lowlands in central Eorzea known as the Carteneau Flats. With this information in hand, the Grand Companies order the immediate mobilization of their forces. Unbeknownst to the Alliance, the soldiers of the 8th Imperial Legion, oblivious to their leader's scheme intentions, have also begun gathering in central Eorzea. Ordered to defend the area with their lives, they prepare for a fight, unaware that victory will bring about their own demise. With two great hosts amassed, the Battle of Carteneau begins.

As the battle rages, the moon enters the atmosphere and disintegrates, showing its true purpose: all this time Dalamud was a prison for the elder primal, Bahamut. Now free, and enraged after aeons of imprisonment, Bahamut unleashes his wrath upon the realm, spewing forth endless fire and destruction. Louisoix quickly conjures a barrier to protect what remains of the Eorzean Alliance, and then begins the arcane rite that will channel the power of the Twelve and focus it into rebinding Bahamut. The sheer force of the primal, however, is too strong and the effort fails. Realizing the end is nigh, Louisoix summons the last of his strength to call upon the Twelves' power and send the survivors (including the player) into an ethereal rift, where they will be untouched by the passage of time, until it is once again safe to emerge and continue their struggle to forge Eorzea’s future, in A Realm Reborn.

Information

Why was Final Fantasy XIV shutdown and reworked into A Realm Reborn?

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada announced that Final Fantasy XIV was damaging the Final Fantasy brand, and has stated their future efforts to reform the game will likely amount to remaking it almost entirely.

One thing our lovely Wada didn't want to say openly was there hasn't been a Final Fantasy game since it's recent anniversary that's been a failure, whether it be foolish pride or giving the right person the chance to get things right remains to be seen when a Realm Reborn goes live sometime in 2013.

To give an idea of the differences between the original and the new version look to the battle interface images and character creation videos below

Original




A Realm Reborn




Original Final Fantasy XIV character creation



A Realm Reborn character creation

Key differences between the original and a Realm Reborn

• The implementation of a completely new server system.
• A new graphics engine.
• A redesigning of all field maps into 40 zones (compared to the original version's 8 zones).
• Fully renewed user interface.
• Female Hyur Highlanders, female Roegadyn, and male Miqo'te will be playable.
• A worldless content finder.
• Reworking current jobs and adding new ones (Arcanist and Summoner)
• 1v1 and large scale player versus player content.
• Introduction of the FATE (Full Active Time Event) system. FATE will allow for spontaneous field events such as hamlet defense
• In the months leading up to A Realm Reborn, a storyline known as the Seventh Umbral Era was periodically added to provide an in-lore explanation of the coming changes. The radical alterations of in game areas will be explained away by the impact of Dalamud, a massive meteor being summoned to crash into the planet. Extra quests, equipment, activities and achievements were also added that will not be able accessible or obtainable again once A Realm Reborn is launched
• The long-delayed PlayStation 3 version of the game will finally be released at the same time as the PC launch of A Realm Reborn

What playable races will be featured in a Realm Reborn?



Classes and Jobs

A player may assume different in game roles through use of the Armoury and Job system. The Armoury System allows players to instantly change their class by swapping their equipped weapon or tool. For example equipping a sword will instantly change a player's class to Gladiator, while equipping a staff will change their class to Conjurer. The Armoury System is divided into four categories; Disciples of War, who specialise in melee combat, Disciples of Magic, who specialise in offensive and defensive magic arts, Disciples of Hand, who focus on crafting, and finally Disciples of Land, who focus on gathering raw materials to be used in crafting. When using a class, the player may equip unlocked abilities from any other class they have levelled up, making classes highly versatile as they allow for the use of a broad range of skills and abilities.

The Job System builds on the Armoury System, allowing Disciples of War and Disciples of Magic to further specialise their roles by changing them into signature Final Fantasy jobs. After completing a prerequisite quests, players are able to upgrade their class to a job by equipping a certain item, and may return to their class by un-equipping said item. Jobs unlock extra abilities that are suited for party play, however unlike classes which allow for equipping abilities from any other class, jobs only allow for the equipping of abilities from two other preselected classes

BETA Plans have been detailed by Square Enix

*I'm going to be able to access this during phase 3 since I purchased the game on PC originally and registered/played the game to check things out. Have to say it wasn't very fun when I tried it but A Realm Reborn will hopefully fix that

PC and PS3 crossplay is finally here

Will the PlayOnline service be used for FFXIV?


No. Square Enix told us that the reason it is ditching the PlayOnline system is because it was originally meant as an all-in-one solution to house multiple content types. But as PlayOnline has offered less content over the years, the need for the next online Final Fantasy to us PO is moot. Whatever new service (if any) is used, PC and PlayStation 3 users will still be able to play with each other on the same servers, and Square Enix also confirmed with IGN that you can sign in with a universal ID on either system to pick up where you left off if you own both.

Music

The soundtrack for the Final Fantasy XIV launch version was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, and is the first Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy IX to have a score completely composed by Nobuo Uematsu at launch. Since original launch, and for the A Realm Reborn relaunch, additional in-game music has been composed by Naoshi Mizuta, Ryo Yamazaki, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Masayoshi Soken.

Media section

Oooh, Shiny

Alpha Media Footage Screenshots

Screenshots

Alpha Media Footage Videos



Character Creation

All-new FFXIV Gear

Instanced Dungeons

Tam-Tara Deepcroft

Levequests and Party Combat

Quests and Combat

Gathering and Crafting

The Black Shroud

Part 1



Part 2

Gridania

Limit Break Trailer

[Sir_Scud]

All of this makes me sooo happy. That instanced dungeon vid was nice. I'm so ready this!

[RyanGT]

Can we fast forward to Phase 4 already lol I wanna get in that beta!

I like the PS3/ PC crossplay idea... though I'll be playing on PS3, it's awesome that you can start playing on PS3 and if you decide to move over to PC, your characters will still be there for you to continue on.

[Sir_Scud]

Can we fast forward to Phase 4 already lol I wanna get in that beta!

I like the PS3/ PC crossplay idea... though I'll be playing on PS3, it's awesome that you can start playing on PS3 and if you decide to move over to PC, your characters will still be there for you to continue on.

Oh yes, I took full advantage of this back in the FFXI days. Started out on the ps2, then some years go by and I buy the 360 version. Enter the same details and retrieve my old ps2 character, fast forward a few years and do the same thing on PC. Having the same character for years on different systems made him feel more valuable to me. It was a nice feature to say the least.

[TDbank24]

Can we fast forward to Phase 4 already lol I wanna get in that beta!

I like the PS3/ PC crossplay idea... though I'll be playing on PS3, it's awesome that you can start playing on PS3 and if you decide to move over to PC, your characters will still be there for you to continue on.

Yup, that's how Final Fantasy XI works. It's such a unique experience. I'm still playing that game today on the 360. I started on the PS2. It's been 9 years and i don't see myself ever quitting lol.

Final Fantasy XIV is looking awesome. I'm so glad we're finally this close to a PS3 release.

[Cybertox]

Damn those screenshots have some insane graphics. I really doubt the final version will have such graphics after all the optimization. I may also imagine which machines they are using running the current version.

[PeanutButterMunky]

I want to play it now, please. <.<

[RyanGT]

Yup, that's how Final Fantasy XI works. It's such a unique experience. I'm still playing that game today on the 360. I started on the PS2. It's been 9 years and i don't see myself ever quitting lol.

Final Fantasy XIV is looking awesome. I'm so glad we're finally this close to a PS3 release.

Yeah that's awesome . A little after FF X1 was released, a friend of mine (we were both big FF fans) had gotten it on his PC, which was a monster gaming PC lol. My PC was absolute garbage, so I couldn't play the game at home.. which meant I had to travel to my friends house every so often to play it. Needless to say I loved the game, loved building my character up etc, etc

Eventually I stopped going over there and since I didn't have a good enough PC I was done playing the game, and my internet connection wasn't good enough to play on PS2. So ever since then, I've been waiting for them to come out with a new game like this. Can't wait for it.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Hol shit, PS3 and PC can play together? Thats awesome! I love that Sony have bust down that barrier. Hurry up Guild Wars 2! This and Dust are going to keep my PS3 chuggin for ages still.

[RyanGT]

Hol shit, PS3 and PC can play together? Thats awesome! I love that Sony have bust down that barrier. Hurry up Guild Wars 2! This and Dust are going to keep my PS3 chuggin for ages still.

Guild Wars 2 is already out lol Or do you mean hurry up to the PS3?

[Yuuichi]

Hopefully they will stick to non region lock servers. Always liked that in ff11.

[Kuro]

Sounds really nice!

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Guild Wars 2 is already out lol Or do you mean hurry up to the PS3?

Ja. I'm a huge GW fan (necro!!) but I'll only get into the sequel if it comes to console. Now that DUST 514 and FF14 have seemingly removed the the barrier between the two platforms, I dare say we will see more, GW2 and Diablo 3 possible. One of the benefits of having an open network.

[DarkVincent07]

I'd play the PC version if it doesn't have a monthly fee...

[RyanGT]

Ja. I'm a huge GW fan (necro!!) but I'll only get into the sequel if it comes to console. Now that DUST 514 and FF14 have seemingly removed the the barrier between the two platforms, I dare say we will see more, GW2 and Diablo 3 possible. One of the benefits of having an open network.

I started playing the original Guild Wars about 2 weeks after it was first released and didn't stop playing (on an off) until a few months ago. Very, very big GW fan myself.

Sadly, I haven't gotten around to picking up GW2, mainly because I don't have the PC for it. But if it were to somehow make its way onto the PS3, better believe I'd be all over that from day 1. Same goes for Diablo III.

[Ghost-Rhayne]

I started playing the original Guild Wars about 2 weeks after it was first released and didn't stop playing (on an off) until a few months ago. Very, very big GW fan myself.

Sadly, I haven't gotten around to picking up GW2, mainly because I don't have the PC for it. But if it were to somehow make its way onto the PS3, better believe I'd be all over that from day 1. Same goes for Diablo III.

I lost enthusiasm when I had my account hacked and had half a dozen super rare undedicated pets and 3 arm braces that I hadn't yet traded for my HoM weapons. It broke my heart, anything of value was taken, months and months of gaming, farming, saving, trading taken from me lol...

[Sir_Scud]

I lost enthusiasm when I had my account hacked and had half a dozen super rare undedicated pets and 3 arm braces that I hadn't yet traded for my HoM weapons. It broke my heart, anything of value was taken, months and months of gaming, farming, saving, trading taken from me lol...

That happened to a friend of mine, but in XI instead of GW. I know how shitty it feels to play a game for months and months building different items and what not. A real shame. He had multiple characters all with different levels of gear and items, all completely wiped out.

[Kyoji]

what is the application site to apply for ps3 beta version? i know the beta has not started yet but where will they put the beta application up at?

[PeanutButterMunky]

what is the application site to apply for ps3 beta version? i know the beta has not started yet but where will they put the beta application up at?

It's still in alpha stage and for Windows only. When the beta is released it will be available for both PCs and PS3. http://entry.ffxiv.com/alpha/index_na.html

[Kyoji]

thanks peanutbutter

[PeanutButterMunky]

No prob, Kyo.

[sentiment13]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which was previously named as “Final Fantasy XIV”, is the 14th installment in the Final Fantasy series featuring flexible class system.

[Chille]

I spent nearly all last month playing this, so much fun

[PeanutButterMunky]

I spent nearly all last month playing this, so much fun

Good to hear.

[RyanGT]

I spent nearly all last month playing this, so much fun

How were you playing it?