When the community thinks of sources for the latest information on Square Enix titles, they typically turn to Japanese forums or Japanese magazines.  We may be seeing some forces at work trying to balance things out – or not.  The latest issue of Beckett Massive Online Gamer arrived at my door step today, and I admit I got excited when I saw 1st Look FINAL FANTASY XIV on the cover next to a smirking Mr Spock.  Opening to the table of contents revealed that not only was there an article on Final Fantasy XIV, but there was also a Final Fantasy XI Community Team interview.  Both articles were written by Juan Castro – maybe he is a new outlet for our Final Fantasy online fix.  The FFXIV article was a 2 page spread sporting some screen shots that have been around a while, at least to people already involved with the community.  There was no mention of an already bustling community across multiple popular sites however.  The article is titled “The Story So Far, Part 1 – Our First Look at Final Fantasy XIV”.  While the article is admittedly not chock full of information or very revealing, it is well written and gives the fans a new hope – a hope for a more diverse coverage of the most anticipated title we all await.  Juan mentions a bit of the game’s setting and races.  Are we seeing a change in the flow of information?  This sort of magazine is not as popular as it’s Japanese counterparts, but who knows, maybe Square Enix will continue to work with Beckett or other printing publishers to help feed their starving English speaking audience.

The write up on the Community Team is more in depth and longer.  It’s worth a read to learn more about the hard working community team at Square Enix.  If you’re looking for a Final Fantasy fix, pick up a copy of Beckett.  A subscription would save you some cash if you’re hopeful more will come from Square Enix and Massive Online Gamer.  Their last issue also featured a Final Fantasy XI article covering the 3 add on scenarios.  I am hopeful we will see more coming from this.  After all, the article is titled “Part 1″.

Did you enjoy all the new information this weekend?  We had an official NA and JP site update and people on the forums have been sifting through the information and finding all sorts of interesting things.  I know some people have been busy updating the wiki as well.  Starting it all off though was a lot of translated information from magazines like Weekly Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation.

But wait!

We haven’t talked about the interesting stuff that was in Dengeki PlayStation yet.  This time we’ll be covering the long Q&A portion of their FFXIV coverage.  It covers general questions related to the upcoming alpha/beta test, character creation, and the various classes overall.  In another article, we’ll cover the shorter class-specific questions.

First, let’s talk beta.

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Just a quick update (with thanks to community member zenshiro) to point out that GameStop is now accepting preorders for Final Fantasy XIV – PS3 Version and PC Version .  Same prices (for now) as Amazon, but for those that told us they were waiting on GameStop to add FFXIV to their listings, wait no more.  We’ve updated our tracking and preorder page accordingly.  And no, we won’t announce when each retailer allows these preorders, but we know a lot of people were waiting for Amazon and GameStop.

One Siphon is for MP, One for TP

It’s time for a Lost in Translation check!  We have new official information in English but it doesn’t match up with everything that is out in Japanese.  Let’s do a quick comparison of abilities and weapon skills and see what’s changed.

Archer Ability Replenish:
[J] Use up all of your arrows to be able to fire off multiple arrows at once. 
[E] Consume MP to replenish your projectiles to capacity.

Marauder Ability Murderous Intent:
[J] Increases critical hit rate.
[E] Increases critical hit rate, reducing TP generation.

Marauder Ability Defender:
[J] Increases defense.
[E] Increases defense.  Increases enmity generation while in steadfast stance.
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We’ve been impatiently waiting for the update of the official Final Fantasy XIV website for North America ever since we received information about the newest Japanese Magazines, and even more so after the Japan site got their update a few days ago.

Have no fear! The NA site is finally updated with new content including screen shots, and a plethora of information about the disciplines! Make sure to check it out!

And for those who were lucky enough to receive first wave beta invites, the site has a notice that the test site is now open!

Official Final Fantasy XIV Website

After some screen shots were released from the playable Guildleve build at Gamescom, we  jumped in and gave them an in depth analysis and even went as far as re-creating the image in English! With the release of a new image showing off the upgraded user interface, we figured it was time to do it again! Lets see what changes are in store for us!

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Another day, another article.  Today’s information is also courtesy of Famitsu.  Along with the developer comments they had for the various classes, they also had a short one page interview with the three developers.  Once again, let’s take a look at what Battle Director Atsushi Okada, Planner Sei Sato, and Planner Kenichi Iwao had to say about their game.

Famitsu: For starters, could you give us a basic idea of how combat works?

Okada: While you can play solo as well, the general idea behind combat in FFXIV is “Many versus Many” where the enemies are also in parties.  We’re also building it under the assumption that people will be moving around while fighting rather than staying at one particular camp and having somebody bring the enemies in.

F: So basically people will move to where the enemies spawn and heal between battles?

Okada: That’s right.  However, one of the things that makes FFXIV special is that, in general, your MP will not recover.  This isn’t to say that there are absolutely no ways to get MP back.  For example, once a player has grown in their class they’ll learn abilities to help them recover MP.  Also, if you stop by an Aetheryte location, you can recover both HP and MP.

Iwao: Classes with MP have to think of MP as something to use carefully and learn how to make it last over a number of battles versus using it all during just one battle.  That’s a part of how FFXIV works.

Sato: When you start on a particular objective, everybody is going to go out to the location together.  At that time, it’ll be important for you to start thinking about how you will manage your MP.  There is even a class built around the idea of managing a party’s MP usage.

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