Discuss.

My thoughts, having played phase 1, 3, and 4 of the beta testing (I skipped phase 2, don't remember why)

OK, this is amazing and incredible.

I just hope they work out what was causing the 3201 and 90000 errors in phase 4 before Early Access starts. It's already given a lot of beta testers a bad impression.

They nerfed the difficulty from phase 3 for instanced battles. Shame. I liked how you couldn't win some of them without actually knowing how to play your class, or how to avoid enemy attacks, or both. Oh well.

Plenty of FF references, everywhere you look. Saw the Corpse Brigade from FF Tactics raiding Southern Thanalan. Their leader was even named Milluta, as a reference to Milleuda Folles. Costa del Sol is beautiful. Lightning and Gilgamesh are set to appear, as are dungeons such as The Crystal Tower from FFIII. And the places that the Crystal Tower is at? The FFXIV 1.0 location of the tomb of an ancient Allagan Emperor named...Xandes. Nice, I like it. Also, the inclusion of a remix of the Final Fantasy II main battle theme was much appreciated (and shortly afterwards, an organization with Wild Rose as a password).

Aside from error messages and technical stuff, I only have a few other criticisms. First of all, the fact that the dungeon background music - or the background music in outdoor areas in general - does not loop. Second, the Masked Ascian Mage (seen in the Battle of Cartenau echo flashback, and in the Crystal's Call trailer - not the Mage who you kill in the level 13 or 14 mission) seems rather generic from what I've seen of him so far. To the point of having a generic evil laugh...Hopefully he'll be better developed as the story goes on.

FFShrine has a subforum for every main FF since and including VII, plus an X-2 forum. I think there should be an XIV subforum.

- Rahfael Favinco, Balmung server

Well, if FFXIV becomes successful enough, and there is demand for a FFXIV section, I'll ask Sarah or Jessie if they can add a specific section for it. But until then, General FF will have to do.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it Jonah. I've been playing since the Alpha at the end of last year, and even back then, I saw just how great this game is going to be - even the Alpha was vastly improved over 1.0, and each successive phase of the Beta only built on it. The world is beautiful - the new engine is really being used to it's advantage and renders Eorzea in vivid detail, a stark contrast to the bland, copy and pasted textures that 1.0 had. The gameplay is simple yet easy to get into and has a lot to do to keep the player occupied, another improvement over 1.0's release. Chocobos and airships are available at launch.

And yes, the little in-jokes and references to past FF games are everywhere - Naoki Yoshida stated he wants to make the game like FFIX in some ways in that it's a fond call back to every FF game that came before it, and it shows.

As for the Ascians, well, if you compare them to this appearance from 1.0:

I guess that form was far too horrifying so they gave them a more 'human' appearance in ARR (not to mention in 1.0 it was stated on the Lodestone at least one had been getting around in the appearance of an elezen), but we'll find out in due time.

Anyway, I'm happy to see someone else enjoying FFXIV - maybe we'll see each other in a Duty Finder party one time (I play on Ridill, but I do have an alt I had transferred from Gungnir to Balmung).

I think I'll have to remake my sig now to compensate for FFXIV taking precedence for me over FFXI, but anyway, this is my character info:

Enkidoh Roux, Ridill server (JP Legacy), Legacy member, Gridanian miqo'te female Seeker of the Sun, GLA 17, CNJ 16, MRD 11 and PGL 8 (at end of P4).

Yeah, the Elezen Ascian was Travanchet in the Limsa 1.0 storyline.

I was a beta tester for 1.0 as well, but it was so unplayable that I said screw it and forgot all about it till patch 1.18. I started playing again in 1.19. Don't worry, I did a better job as a beta tester this time, as opposed to just treating it as early access with no responsibilities. >.<

I'm sure we'll see an explanation for the differences in appearance between humanoid Ascian and bestial Ascian.

As I said, I'm Rahfael Favinco. US Legacy, Balmung, Ul'dahn Hyur Midlander male, LNC/DRG 50, GLD/PLD 50, THM/BLM 40, 45 Goldsmith, 38 Miner.

For all the blandness and repetitiveness of places in 1.0, I miss 1.0 Coerthas. After playing 1.0, it feels so unnatural to have Coerthas be so snowy. Oh well, an Umbral Era will do that you.

I'm sorta worried about how much time I'm gonna end up using playing ARR. I'm going off to college by the end of the month, and it's gonna be pretty hard to focus on assignments with an MMORPG addiction. Not to mention that at some point I want to resubscribe to XI ( Sanctferum on the Carbuncle server) and finally get around to beating Promathia (I'm on one of the final Sea missions, I think the final battle against the Twilight God is like 1 or 2 missions away, three at most), and maybe completing the storylines I haven't beaten besides CoP (beat the original game and Rise of the Zilart and Abyssea, need to finish Bastok Missions, Aht Urghan, Wings of the Goddess, and start Adoulin and the add-ons...).

So much Final Fantasy, so little time...and that's only the MMORPGs...I have plenty of other FFs I need to beat...*cries*

Oh well, I guess until I get into a college routine and have more time-management experience I'll stick to ARR (the abbreviation sounds like a pirate, Yoshi-P confirmed to be from Limsa?)

On another note, a lot of people dislike the English voice acting. I enjoy it. I don't get why so many people are complaining about J.C. Miller/Raubahn's voice...and I hear Urianger is voiced by Gideon Emery/Balthier, so that's something to look forwards to once I get to the level 20 or so missions. (And Gaius van Baelsar, for those wondering, is Richard Epcar, one of the VAs used for Ansem, Seeker of Darkness from the Kingdom Hearts series. Louisoux, on the other hand, is voiced by David Lodge, who is a Carebear.)

I think the reason for the complaints about the voice acting in ARR is the fact that SE has recast them from 1.0, and a lot of the characters' voices don't fit (for instance, Yda, who sounded a lot more mature in 1.0 now sounds like a squeeky little girl), although Gaius still sounds badass. But then, I've never been a fan of voice acting in the FF series so I guess I'm rather biased against it period. :p

I really like the game, when I can actually play it. I know there's some issues to be expected at launch, but it's getting silly now. It doesn't really feel like I've had my "early access".

I'm not one of the many people absolutely ranting and raving about how bad the game is because of these server issues, but I am a little disappointed. My day of playing yesterday was kind of ruined by being kicked out mid-quest 3 times. And then today I try to get on and am being told repeatedly that the world is full. And it's not even putting me into a queue.

@RikkuYunaRinoa : There's been a lot of problems with the NA/EUR servers... fortunately it hasn't spilled over into the JP servers. Here's hoping it gets resolved before released.

PS3 Trophies have been confirmed as well, for those on PS3 with a possible list:

Platinum - A Realm Restored - Obtain all available FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn trophies.
Bronze - To Crush Your Enemy - Defeat your first enemy.
Silver - To Crush 10,000 Enemies - Defeat 10,000 enemies.
Bronze - Page One - Complete your first quest.
Gold - Warrior of Light - Complete the main scenario.
Bronze - An Adventurer's Duty - Complete your first levequest.
Silver - An Adventurer's Life - Complete 1,000 levequests.
Bronze - For Glory - Complete your first guildhest.
Silver - For the Realm - Complete 100 guildhests.
Bronze - Meddler in Materia - Successfully affix materia to an item.
Silver - Master of Materia - Successfully affix 100 materia.
Bronze - Dabbler in Carpentry - Synthesize an item as a carpenter.
Silver - One with Wood - Synthesize 1,000 items as a carpenter.
Bronze - Dabbler in Smithing - Synthesize an item as a blacksmith.
Silver - One with Steel - Synthesize 1,000 items as a blacksmith.
Bronze - Dabbler in Armorcraft - Synthesize an item as an armorer.
Silver - One with Mail - Synthesize 1,000 items as an armorer.
Bronze - Dabbler in Goldsmithing - Synthesize an item as a goldsmith.
Silver - One with Gold - Synthesize 1,000 items as a goldsmith.
Bronze - Dabbler in Tanning - Synthesize an item as a leatherworker.
Silver - One with Leather - Synthesize 1,000 items as a leatherworker.
Bronze - Dabbler in Clothcraft - Synthesize an item as a weaver.
Silver - One with Wool - Synthesize 1,000 items as a weaver.
Bronze - Dabbler in Alchemy - Synthesize an item as an alchemist.
Silver - One with Ether - Synthesize 1,000 items as an alchemist.
Bronze - Dabbler in Cooking - Synthesize an item as a culinarian.
Silver - One with Food - Synthesize 1,000 items as a culinarian.
Bronze - Swing of the Axe - Mine a mineral deposit.
Silver - Veteran Miner - Mine 1,000 mineral deposits.
Bronze - Swing of the Hatchet - Log at a mature tree.
Silver - Veteran Logger - Log at 1,000 mature trees.
Bronze - Swing of the Rod - Fish with your own rod and bait.
Silver - Veteran Fisher - Fish 1,000 times.
Bronze - In and Out - Clear your first instanced raid.
Gold - Repeat Offender - Clear 100 instanced raids.
Bronze - Seeker of Truth - Clear the Binding Coil.
Bronze - Slay Thy Neighbor - Participate in PvP.
Bronze - Destiny's Child - Join a FATE.
Gold - Destiny's - Complete 1,000 FATEs.

Source: Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn PS3 'Possible' Trophy List (http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/final-fantasy-xiv-realm-reborn/208294-trophylist.html)

There'll probably be a similar unlocking method like in Final Fantasy XI Online for the Xbox 360, where you speak to a NPC in Lower Jeuno and if you've fulfilled the requirement to unlock them, you can select them from a menu to unlock.

Game wise, I'm enjoying myself a lot (as Enkidoh can attest to)... very easy to get into and leveling up isn't a chore like in Final Fantasy XI Online. One can tell SE's gone all out for this, after the abysmal launch of Final Fantasy XIV Version 1.0.

Some of those are actually the same as the in-game SE Lodestone trophies (like the 'Warrior of Light' one), so it's likely they'll activate simultaneously for PS3 users (I wouldn't know as I'm playing the PC version). Also the US servers are still heavily congested, yet Japanese servers are fine, so really, unless you want to wait around for a week for sever populations to balance themselves out, I'd strongly reccomend ignoring the US servers completely and just playing on a JP one. Come to Ridill! We're Legacy and hence better! :P

gonna play on a free server with high rates.
final fantasy should never be online.
even less PAY to play.

---------- Post added at 04:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 AM ----------

gonna play on a free server with high rates.
final fantasy should never be online.
even less PAY to play.

@ROKUSHO : Final Fantasy XI Online was a financial success for SE, having paid for it's development 6 months AFTER it was released. Hironobu Sakaguchi's dream was to create a game where people from all over the world could come together and play the same game alongside each other. Just because it's a subscription based game, doesn't mean anything.

Dunno if there's any free servers for it yet anywayz, as it's not even a fortnight since release either.

Haven't had any server problems worse than a 1 or 2 person queue to get into a world (delaying me by 2 or 3 minutes at the most) since they added the new worlds on the 3rd. The game itself is great! I'm really enjoying this.

Currently I have four characters on Balmung (NA Legacy World). My main is Rahfael Favinco, and I've been going through the story as a level 1+ Archer to capitalize on XP. Currently a 45 BRD with 4/5 Artifact Armor (AF) 1 pieces, trying to beat Garuda. Damn she is crazy.

Darth Revan: For the achievement rewards, such as titles or special items, the NPC is in Gridania. Somewhere at or around Apkallu Falls, I believe?

Nice to see XIV/XIV: ARR now has its own FFShrine subforum!

Yeah, the server issues are (mostly) now sorting themselves out, although weekends are still very busy and still have the dreaded 1017 issues, plus because I play on Japanese server, trying to login from about 5pm to 11pm my time (GMT+8) is very difficult, due to that being around Japanese peak time when lots of players are trying to login after work/school.

And yes, the achievement NPC in Gridania is located in Apkulla Falls (he's standing next to the miqo'te who talks crytically about Louisoix ;)). I presume there would be simillar NPCs in Ul'dah and Limsa, but I haven't found them yet.

And thank Asamiya for the FFXIV forum, as he's the one who added it. :D

gonna play on a free server with high rates.
final fantasy should never be online.
even less PAY to play.[COLOR="Silver"]


Either this is bait, or you are really daft in regards to how the MMORPG business model works, and haven't probably played either online Final Fantasy.