Having not succeeded in gaining access to the earlier beta phases, I checked my email recently to find out the beta will be open all weekend to anyone, so naturally I got my code and got straight into it. If you want to participate, click
HERE. You'll need a Square-Enix account, which you can easily make through the website or if you already have one, simply login and get the code sent straight to your email, mine arrived within seconds.
Before the beta started, I had to go through the usual update stuff - approximately 1.8GB, I have fibre optic internet and it took around 30 minutes or so. Whilst the game is updating, you hear the beautiful classic prelude piece play in the background and I can't help but think of how many memories I've had with the Final Fantasy franchise, something about that music makes me choke up a little.
To pass the time, I decided to look up the topic on the installer, which was a letter from the producer, Yoshi. P - in which he said the following:
"
Whether you're new to FFXIV, or you stuck with us all the way to the end of version 1.0, I believe we've created a game that everyone can enjoy. The rich story, cut scenes, and intense battles have all been designed to blend together seamlessly. There's so much to do in the world of Eorzea, and no matter how fast or slow you plan to go, we want you to have fun while exploring everything the game has to offer."
He goes onto other details, but this part stuck out the most for me, after reading that I felt extremely excited to get into the game finally. With the unsuccessful initial release of the game, I just hope this beta is able to prove to everyone that this re-release is so much better and deserves our attention. Let's get into the game itself.
As the game started, an explanation of the story so far was shown, which included Bahamut reigning down pure terror throughout Eorzea, complete destruction takes over. Fast forward five years and we are where the actual game begins, here I had the chance to create my character, there are so many options to choose from in terms of customization, I always thought the character creation in
FFXI was really basic, whereas in
FFXIV, I feel you can truly produce a character that is completely to your taste.
The races available were Hyur, Elezen, Lalafell, Migo'te, and Roegadyn - I chose Hyur because they remind me of the character I had in
FFXI and it suited me perfectly. There are two clans to choose from, those being a Midlander or Highlander, I believe both are neutral and don't pose a threat to each other, both have differences in terms of places of origin, muscle builds, and so fourth - depending on what you choose defines your initial starting attributes, I went ahead and joined the Midlander's.
After all of the customization, my character became a Male Hyur, Disciple of War, and is part of the Puglist class with the role of Gladiator, which essentially means I'm an all-rounder in battle, but probably won't have the best crafting skills for example. End result:
A look at the inventory screen among other things.
The first cut-scene sees my character in a carriage pulled by two big Chocobos, whilst traveling through the lands the carriage is halted by guards who discover some illegal goods on the cart, fortunately they are attacked by Beast Men, which gives the driver the chance to escape to Ul'Dah - the starting city of the game. I did notice that I was referred to as a "Warrior of Light", which is a nice nod to the original
Final Fantasy.
Once arriving in Ul'Dah, the onslaught of tutorial quests pretty much begin straight of the bat, which I can appreciate, I mean I'm not MMORPG veteran, so these tutorials actually proved very useful to me but for regular MMO gamers, a lot of it will be common sense.
The quests that follow were mainly fetch quests, meaning you simply have to get something for someone and bring it them back, which may seem mundane but it does really give you a chance to get used to the control scheme and how all of the menus work. Speaking of controls, the button layout is actually very easy to get your head around, I had doubts at first because a game like this does suit more to a keyboard and it probably still does, but the PS3 controller scheme is extremely easy to manage.
The city-state of Ul'Dah.
Whilst exploring Ul'Dah, I came across Aethryte stones, which when activated can be used to teleport to other activated stones, these proved to be very useful when I was doing the initial fetch quests. Once a stone has been activated, you are taken to the "Aethernet" fast travel menu which displays previously activated stones and the option to teleport to that specific location or not. A really nice touch to the travel system.
Something really cool I noticed was when you finish some quests, you can choose which item you'd like as a reward instead of simply been given one, things like this add a little independence to your character. After exploring a while, I thought it would be a good idea to get a feel for the battle system, which actually feels extremely similar to
FFXI, which is not a bad thing at all - it's not exactly the same,
FFXIV does have it's differences and more advanced options, but it's a system I felt extremely comfortable with.
As well as MP (Magic Points), there are TP (Technical Points), these are depleted when abilities are used, whereas MP is depleted when spells are used. Simple. Although, some spells use no MP at all, but these are usually really basic spells such as Teleport. One of the first enemies I encountered was a "Small Lady Bug", which was actually massive in comparison to a regular lady bug, but I don't know why that's important.
I'll go through how a typical encounter happens, you can either choose an enemy to fight or they will attack you against your will, the enemies that start battles are usually a higher level than you, whilst the lesser experienced enemies will be mostly docile. Once you've initiated a fight, you have a lot of different options, which can be accessed via the Hotbar - a set of actions that can be accessed conveniently.
A level 3 "Huge Hornet" and the Hotbar at the bottom
displaying various commands.
As a Gladiator, I already had some abilities to use in battle that dealt quite a lot of damage, so the first few battles proved to be quite easy. You and the enemy take it in turns to perform an action, whether it be to simply keep attacking or using an item, and so fourth.
Something very interesting about the battle fields are the "Fate" occurrences - these are random events open to all players around that area at that particular time, also known as public events, within these Fate's, you fight along with other players to slay a number of enemies. Once the Fate is over, EXP and/or prizes are given out, the amount of rewards you obtain is based on how much input you put into the battle, for example - if you were doing all the work, whilst other players were just standing still, you'll get more EXP and possibly better prizes.
Whilst on the topic of rewards, I came across a "HQ Item", which is a rare item that is different to regular items and cannot be stacked, this wasn't part of a Fate reward, just a random drop from an enemy, so who knows how many rare items can be found in the game. My guess would be a lot.
The Beta was really popular with a lot of players actively interacting with the world.
At one point, I was told the server I wanted to join was full, so I had to queue to get in.
The more I battled, the more worn my equipment got, so it is quite important to keep an eye on things like that - I'd have hated to go into a raid and half-way through, my weapon breaks and is deemed unusable, equipment can be repaired at a cost of course. I assume you can get items to repair equipment yourself at some point, but I didn't come across anything like it.
Something else to note is that you can change your job role at any time, even if it's just equipping a different weapon - if you equip a staff for example, I believe you become take the role of a more mage-attained job. I didn't actually try this, but that's the impression I got from the tutorial. Overall, the Beta left me with the impression that Square Enix have put a lot of effort and work into this re-launch, I couldn't find any flaws and the game ran very smoothly in terms of gameplay, navigating the menus, and so fourth.
The music - it is absolutely beautiful, each location is fitted with completely atmospheric pieces that put you in that particular place, also when you level up the very familiar victory fanfare tune plays, which is a great touch. It's these little things that define this as not just another MMO, but a
Final Fantasy game. It's not just the music that defines the game, every aspect oozes
Final Fantasy, from the way the world looks, the huge Chocobos running by, the little Moogles that you often see, the way the characters look, the list goes on. An extremely fun game, one that I will be buying in the not too distant future. The game is available August 27th on both the PC and PS3, and will be cross-platform.
