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*note: This was written back in February and is really the only well-written "A Realm Reborn" hands-on interview/game-play impression of A Realm Reborn i could find.
I wanted to see what the actually differences are right now between Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 and A Realm Reborn, and i definitely found a great article that gave me exactly what i was looking for.
Take head that again, this was written back in February, so all this information stems from Alpha/Pre-Beta phase 1 data of the game, and currently pretty much whatever on-going changes have been implemented through the current beta phases, are cloaked by a heavy NDA.
But this Article alone was enough to get me excited.
21 February 2013 • Story by Kim Richards
To say that FFXIV had a troublesome launch is an understatement. Upon release in 2010, every single aspect of Square-Enix’s MMO was broken. It was a disaster. Since then, the original development team has been re-hauled and now, after 3 years of rebuilding this sinking ship, FFXIV has emerged as A Realm Reborn. But how far do the improvements go?
I recently attended a hands-on session and returned to Eorzea to see for myself. I also interrogated new producer/director Naoki Yoshida as to just what the hell happened. Here’s what I found out.
New Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida knows what an MMO is.
Shortly after FFXIV’s disastrous launch in 2010, I interviewed then-producer, Hiromichi Tanaka and was astonished to discover that, apart from FFXI, he hadn’t played any MMOs.
New guy Naoki Yoshida is the complete opposite. When not cracking the development whip, he’s playing Guild Wars 2. Before this, he spent many sleepless years in Ultima Online, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, Tera, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift.
Yoshida himself is refreshingly different from most Squeenix dev heads. He’s completely open about just how much of a failure FFXIV was, taking every criticism I had to throw at him, agreeing, then telling me just how he and his new development team have fixed the flaws. He talks with conviction, with the innate knowledge of someone who once ranked first as PvP Champion in Dark Age of Camelot (true fact). He knows what he wants, not just as a developer, but as a hardcore MMO gamer, and his mixture of humility and confidence is reassuring. Square Enix made an excellent call when appointing him to dig FFXIV out of it’s grave.
FFXIV:A Realm Reborn has been entirely redesigned.
“Everything is new!” Yoshida exclaimed during our time together. And he really means it. The entire game has been “remade” and “redeveloped”, hinting at how the game became a ‘realm’ ‘reborn’. Cute. The dedicated graphics server, battle system, user interface, map systems...even the smallest design details have been scrutinized, with idiotic ideas - such as having to buy individual arrows if you’re an Archer - being tossed away like crumpled nighttime tissues. The biggest change however, comes with the server architecture, which has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Aside from the fugly, labyrinthian UI, the original server was a biggest cause of complaint from players. It was highly unstable and about as successful at match-making as Shag-A-Gamer. But no more! Why? Because “Square Enix will not give up!” (Yoshida’s words, not mine).
The gender lock on various races has now been lifted, so you can be a sexy man cat thing.
The world in FFXIV: A Realm Reborn looks completely different.
As well as boasting bland, empty locations, the original FFXIV was caught out for copy-pasting entire areas of dull terrain - something last producer Tanaka tried to explain as just the way they did things back then. No. Really. Well, that’s not the case anymore. Every single environment has been spruced up and filled out like a Grand Designs special.
Remember how Moraby Docks didn’t actually have any docks, and was in fact just a seaside cliff? It now boasts regal white structures rising out of a glittering ocean. Remember how Camp Tranquil was a deserted ghost town? It’s now full of tents, rope bridges and lush vegetation, while Black Brush (a place Yoshida described as “a plain that’s too plain”) has become a watering hole bustling with resting adventurers, sharing tales around fireplaces.
Square-Enix’s has always prided itself on top-notch graphics and creating rich, gorgeous worlds, and FFXIV: A Realm Reborn really has hit it’s stride in this department. There’s a lot more going on, both visually and physically, making the world feel much more alive than the soulless wasteland it was before.
You can now jump. A feature that wasn’t in FFXIV. Yup.
It plays completely differently, too.
What a difference 3 years, millions of dollars and a complete development overhaul can make. When I played the original FFXIV, I could barely make it into my starting city and buy a goddamn sword without getting lost, walking into a lagging NPC, or failing to figure out just how the hell I could in fact buy a sword. Battles were so slow and tedious, I was actually relieved when the game crashed. This is no longer the case. During my hands-on, I pootled around the leafy rural town of Gridania, marveling at how much more comprehensive the menus are, how much more intuitive and sensible the interface is, and how the map actually has markers on it. Quests themselves were fairly standard tutorial based missions that gently introduced you to the controls, the guilds, the classes, the lore, but humorous enough.
I then partnered up with fellow journos, jumped into an advance save with a level 35 tank, and headed to a derelict dungeon full of eerily neon plants and aggressive scorpions. Combat is unrecognizable in a ‘Gosh, they actually listened to my screaming’ sort of way. It’s faster, sleeker, and far more entertaining than FFXIV ever dreamed of being. The only thing that’s missing is a way to see the range of your attacks - at the moment there’s no indication beyond a stern ‘TARGET IS NOT CLOSE ENOUGH’, meaning you just have to wade in, tapping ‘attack’ until the proximity is just so. But what I experienced is promising, and the final boss took us working as a team to make any sort of headway - just as any seasoned MMO player would want.
I wanted to see what the actually differences are right now between Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 and A Realm Reborn, and i definitely found a great article that gave me exactly what i was looking for.
Take head that again, this was written back in February, so all this information stems from Alpha/Pre-Beta phase 1 data of the game, and currently pretty much whatever on-going changes have been implemented through the current beta phases, are cloaked by a heavy NDA.
But this Article alone was enough to get me excited.
21 February 2013 • Story by Kim Richards
To say that FFXIV had a troublesome launch is an understatement. Upon release in 2010, every single aspect of Square-Enix’s MMO was broken. It was a disaster. Since then, the original development team has been re-hauled and now, after 3 years of rebuilding this sinking ship, FFXIV has emerged as A Realm Reborn. But how far do the improvements go?
I recently attended a hands-on session and returned to Eorzea to see for myself. I also interrogated new producer/director Naoki Yoshida as to just what the hell happened. Here’s what I found out.
New Producer/Director Naoki Yoshida knows what an MMO is.
Shortly after FFXIV’s disastrous launch in 2010, I interviewed then-producer, Hiromichi Tanaka and was astonished to discover that, apart from FFXI, he hadn’t played any MMOs.
New guy Naoki Yoshida is the complete opposite. When not cracking the development whip, he’s playing Guild Wars 2. Before this, he spent many sleepless years in Ultima Online, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, Tera, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift.
Yoshida himself is refreshingly different from most Squeenix dev heads. He’s completely open about just how much of a failure FFXIV was, taking every criticism I had to throw at him, agreeing, then telling me just how he and his new development team have fixed the flaws. He talks with conviction, with the innate knowledge of someone who once ranked first as PvP Champion in Dark Age of Camelot (true fact). He knows what he wants, not just as a developer, but as a hardcore MMO gamer, and his mixture of humility and confidence is reassuring. Square Enix made an excellent call when appointing him to dig FFXIV out of it’s grave.
FFXIV:A Realm Reborn has been entirely redesigned.
“Everything is new!” Yoshida exclaimed during our time together. And he really means it. The entire game has been “remade” and “redeveloped”, hinting at how the game became a ‘realm’ ‘reborn’. Cute. The dedicated graphics server, battle system, user interface, map systems...even the smallest design details have been scrutinized, with idiotic ideas - such as having to buy individual arrows if you’re an Archer - being tossed away like crumpled nighttime tissues. The biggest change however, comes with the server architecture, which has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Aside from the fugly, labyrinthian UI, the original server was a biggest cause of complaint from players. It was highly unstable and about as successful at match-making as Shag-A-Gamer. But no more! Why? Because “Square Enix will not give up!” (Yoshida’s words, not mine).
The gender lock on various races has now been lifted, so you can be a sexy man cat thing.
The world in FFXIV: A Realm Reborn looks completely different.
As well as boasting bland, empty locations, the original FFXIV was caught out for copy-pasting entire areas of dull terrain - something last producer Tanaka tried to explain as just the way they did things back then. No. Really. Well, that’s not the case anymore. Every single environment has been spruced up and filled out like a Grand Designs special.
Remember how Moraby Docks didn’t actually have any docks, and was in fact just a seaside cliff? It now boasts regal white structures rising out of a glittering ocean. Remember how Camp Tranquil was a deserted ghost town? It’s now full of tents, rope bridges and lush vegetation, while Black Brush (a place Yoshida described as “a plain that’s too plain”) has become a watering hole bustling with resting adventurers, sharing tales around fireplaces.
Square-Enix’s has always prided itself on top-notch graphics and creating rich, gorgeous worlds, and FFXIV: A Realm Reborn really has hit it’s stride in this department. There’s a lot more going on, both visually and physically, making the world feel much more alive than the soulless wasteland it was before.
You can now jump. A feature that wasn’t in FFXIV. Yup.
It plays completely differently, too.
What a difference 3 years, millions of dollars and a complete development overhaul can make. When I played the original FFXIV, I could barely make it into my starting city and buy a goddamn sword without getting lost, walking into a lagging NPC, or failing to figure out just how the hell I could in fact buy a sword. Battles were so slow and tedious, I was actually relieved when the game crashed. This is no longer the case. During my hands-on, I pootled around the leafy rural town of Gridania, marveling at how much more comprehensive the menus are, how much more intuitive and sensible the interface is, and how the map actually has markers on it. Quests themselves were fairly standard tutorial based missions that gently introduced you to the controls, the guilds, the classes, the lore, but humorous enough.
I then partnered up with fellow journos, jumped into an advance save with a level 35 tank, and headed to a derelict dungeon full of eerily neon plants and aggressive scorpions. Combat is unrecognizable in a ‘Gosh, they actually listened to my screaming’ sort of way. It’s faster, sleeker, and far more entertaining than FFXIV ever dreamed of being. The only thing that’s missing is a way to see the range of your attacks - at the moment there’s no indication beyond a stern ‘TARGET IS NOT CLOSE ENOUGH’, meaning you just have to wade in, tapping ‘attack’ until the proximity is just so. But what I experienced is promising, and the final boss took us working as a team to make any sort of headway - just as any seasoned MMO player would want.
Last edited by Neoyoshi on Mon May 27, 2013 4:36 pm; edited 6 times in total
