FF XIV's alpha test was just launched on April 8th,
2010. For all testers, it is a duty to keep the test information only
available at the special forum for members. Now, a First Impression of FF
XIV alpha test has been sort out by 4gamer.net, and translated by warm hearted SteveManly
from ffxivcore.com. Hope you enjoy it.







Final Fantasy XIV - Trial





Character Creation: To Limsa Lominsa!
All races except Miqo'te are present in the character creation. A few of
the gender/tribe combinations were also unplayable, but you could
give your character a first and last name, along with a great number
of options available for:

• Height
  
• Voice
  
• Skin color
  
• Hair style
  
• Hair color
  
• Hair highlights
  
• Face type
  
• Eye color
  

Finally, choose your birthday and guardian deity, followed by your
starting point. The only one available for play in the alpha test was
Limsa Lominsa.

By the way, Limsa Lominsa and its surrounding areas only make up about a
fifth of the final product area.
After you make your character, there's a cut scene. It appears you're
on a boat, and it pans across the scene to show other people lounging
around the ship. I thought at first it was a prerendered opening, by
my character showed up in the cut scene! These amazing graphics are
created real-time by the in-game graphics engine.















All the cut scenes in-game were done in real time rendering at
1280x720 resolution with English voices and Japanese subtitles. It's
much more realistic-looking than FFXI, and, along with the on-a-boat
opening, reminded me of the opening to EverQuest II. The story also
changes along with your starting point, apparently.

When the cut-scene finished, I was presented with the user interface and
was given control of my characters. I looked across the room and
noticed many things.

• The boat is an instance
  
• NPC names were in Japanese (In FFXI, names were in English even
  in the Japanese version –Manly)
  
• The minimap was in the top-right
  
• The parts of the UI were widgets and could be moved by dragging
  them with the mouse
  

After a bit, there was another cut-scene. The storm that the boat was
engulfed it seemed unnatural, as if caused by some force… My
character went up onto the deck to check things out, and I was brought
into a battle.












This battle was my first experience with FFXIV's battle system. When
you take out your weapon, the action gauge fills up. When it's filled,
you can activate a command from your action menu.

For example, as a gladiator, you have “slash” and “stab” in your action
menu. It takes about four seconds for the action gauge to fill. After
that, you attack the monster with stab or slash. You must choose a
command every time you want to attack a monster.
You can put not just attacks, but magic and other special abilities, and
even potions into your action menu.







You can fight by just pressing slash and stab, but if you leave the
action gauge where it is, you can start charging the effect gauge. The
effect gauge has three levels, and the higher the effect gauge, the
more powerful your action will be. Timing will be very important.









This is the basic flow of battle. Of course, the timing of the action
gauge will change depending on battle style and weapon.
FFXIV's battle will feel fresh, even to MMORPG veterans. It's not all
that hard when you actually play it, and it feels like some of it is a
little difficult to put into words. I'm sure battle will eventually
make it into the YouTube FFXIV Channel eventually, so be sure to check
that out.















Limsa Lominsa and Guildleves




After cleaning up the monsters, the ship arrives safely in Limsa
Lominsa. This is where the instance ended and plopped me into the MMO
part of the RPG. Even though it was the first day of testing, there were
so many people in the city. It was quite a lively experience that I
don't think I could ever get tired of.










Here, adventurers go to the adventurers' guild to get their
guildleves and head out on their own adventures.
The things I was able to play through on my first try of this test
was pretty limited, but these are just my first impressions of the
alpha. Even so, there were so many things to see! I have a feeling
FFXIV is going to become quite a fine, polished product through the
help of test feedback, and I'm glad I get to be a part of it.