A quick search on Twitter will reveal that quite a lot of players aren’t all that happy with their requirements.

Previously, we’ve posted about if FFXIV was worth $1k for a new rig. From the comments, not everybody have an i7, so most people are I guess… “below average” PC?

Isn’t this just going to discourage people from playing? If you have such high of a spec requirements, you will turn away customers, when they read your box inside a game store and think “um… well I can’t play this, I don’t have the spec”.

I still think the best way to judge if you can play FFXIV is run their benchmark. But people in-store do not have access or may not even know you have a benchmark program. So I’m not sure posting such a high requirement on your game and the retail box (if they do) will do Squeenix any good.

On the other hand, twitter revealed (yes, its a pretty niffy tool) that SE ended beta earlier than expected today. Uhoh!

Lag Issues? Control issues? Or simply they’ve achieved their objective and decide to shut you guys off from playing!

I’ve contemplated this for awhile now, and have been feeling anxious since this announced release date. Not because I’m eager to play, but because it seems like it is too soon. I know we all want to play; I am reminded of this by how many people feel disappointment when they weren’t included in the latest batch of beta invites. But whenever I think about it, in a little over two months, S-E would be ironing out bugs, implementing different features, adding who knows what, and then sending the game to press. I know the Japanese have a strong work ethic, but it seems like a mountain pile of work ahead of them to release a game that is as close to polished as they can get.

I honestly wouldn’t mind a delayed release date. I know it seems crazy, but I want to see XIV do well. I would rather see people buying the game not just because its made by Square-Enix but because they know they will find a fun and satisfying experience playing XIV. I am crossing my fingers and toes hoping for the best for XIV, and am hoping that the September 30th release isn’t too soon for this highly anticipated game. Your thoughts?

PLEASE NOTE: If you are part of the beta and you include – any – information pertaining to the beta in your comment, then your comment will be deleted!

I have played a number of games with my long time boyfriend, but typically I like to have him choose races that will compliment whatever I choose. So if I choose Elvaan, I wanted him to choose Elvaan. If I choose Tarutaru, well it would be awfully weird and awkward if he were anything but a Tarutaru. For XIV, we agreed to create a pair of Lalafell and something to pair with my Miqote. Of course, I’m not quite keen on pairing my Miqote with the Highlander Orophen is choosing, but he isn’t quite keen on choosing a Midlander because he thinks they look a little too froo-froo for him.

That aside, I wanted to know how many people reading FFXIVBlog actually have a significant other they plan to play with and what kind of pairing they plan to choose.

Before giving serious thought to the implications of this pricing plan, I was originally baffled as well as annoyed that such restrictions were being imposed. Now that I had time to think about it, I came up with pros and cons that dissuaded me from seeing Square-Enix as wanting to milk me dry of my money:

Pros:
Many people looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV is without a doubt familiar with Final Fantasy XI’s pricing scheme: $12.95 for your first character and $1.00 for every character created after the first for a total of sixteen total characters per account. Because of Final Fantasy XI’s ability to change jobs and level different jobs on one character without having to make a new one, often people naturally gave one character their primary focus and would create mules if inventory space impeded their progression in the game, to hold onto extra wares, or to have additional space selling items on the auction house. There were, without a doubt, some who did level a second or third character but more often than not people typically leveled one character and stuck with that throughout their time in Vana’diel. This often made that frequently played character the player’s sole identity that people could relate and conferred to, because it was the “face” of the player that people saw often.

This is an appealing factor to some MMO gamers who may be frustrated by other games who allow for easily creatable characters that one does not need to mold themselves into permanently. This problem often arises when attempting to contact a friend who may have switched characters in order to play the favored role-of-the-day or those who wish to grief others and then switch to avoid backlash for their actions. For Square-Enix to urge this type of game play by offering lower rates for the first character and extra fees for the additional characters, it adds an incentive for people to spend time with that character and build ones identity with it to become further immersed in the world of Hydaelyn and the regional land of Eorzea. And for the intrepid gamer, the $3 fee could mean nothing at all to be able to have the extra character molded into a different race or experience the player may decide to partake in. The fees could also dissuade people from certain actions since it comes with a price tag to be able to do more than what is initially provided at cost.

Cons:
When the game was initially announced, my boyfriend and I talked fervently about creating not just one character but two. Then my boyfriend said he wanted to make three for the fun of it, and had even told me exactly what races and genders he had planned to create. With such gorgeous character models, it is sometimes hard to pick and choose what to play; especially when you can see the visual appeal of playing one race or another and don’t want to choose between different preferred races. Though retainers take the place of “bazaar mules” that are able to sell your wares for you while you are offline, the flexibility of playing as another character is sometimes desirable. This desirability can stem from players who may wish to play “solo” in an MMO game and without the social distractions that could arise from a more known character. However, at the price of an additional $3 for each character it is likely to stem those with a budget to create more than two characters or burgeoning entrepreneurs who may desire more retainers vs. purchasing another character slot to fit their whims.

As of this posting date, there is currently no known information if the limits of how many items sold at any given time will carry from Final Fantasy XI into XIV.

Though I still feel a little put off by the current pricing scheme for XIV, I still plan to keep to my plan of two characters: a Miqote or Hyur (primary) and a Lalafell (secondary). Though I had hopes that a discounted rate (for players who plan to have subscriptions to both XI and XIV) would be available at the time of posting this, I am hoping that an announcement will be made to address this issue for those interested in playing both without hurting the pocketbook (too) much!

FFXIV Box Art

Hello Everyone!

Well at first we were all wondering if that could be a rumor, but after hearing it from Square Enix, yea it’s pretty official. (We wanted to ensure it is the real stuff before posting )

Again, the game will come with 30 days of free game time and a monthly fee of 12.95 with each character of 3 dollars (I have to say, this model might make more per customer than other MMO models). AND, retainers ?!??!?!?! (yes, I guess basically, a character that is still logged in when you are logged out, not playable but sells/bazaars!)

This is a new one, collector’s edition which cost $25 more will have a week earlier of access. I’m sure most of us will fall in that category and buy the collector’s edition. You also get another token, if you did not get one already, a code to get the Onion Helm, Early Access to the game (8 days!), Behind the Scenes DVD, Travel Journal with art, and a cover for the game done by Yoshitaka Amano!

I think it’s a good compensation :O. I’m thinking about collector edition (I just hate to think its a steal!) but… its hard to resist -_-”

Also, I think its also quite a big gap to see PS3 version to be at least 6 months later. I would hate to be the PS3 player. Though, I’m sure the PC industry would be thanking FFXIV for releasing it 6 months later so desperate player will most definitely be buying a PC… I mean… how can you wait 6 months? lol!

One more thing, is it me or does everyone think its beyond early for a release I just hope it’s not a Microsoft Vista, a half complete Windows 7 for sale…

Source: Andriasang

FFXIV and iPad
FFXIV and iPhone

Source here.

Obviously its not iPad/iPhone having FFXIV installed, its actually a remote desktop that connects to a home PC, which is already running FFXIV/Logged in.

Rather if FFXIV is playable in that state or not is a good question. Streaming like that over 3G would be one hella data consumption (though, WiFi might be okay). However, I wouldn’t mind whipping out an iPad, login to FFXIV just to check AH, make a few purchase and chat with linkshell members. Nothing like doing quest or fighting that’s probably a little too much in latency anyway.

Do I know which app/program? Nope! My apple GF tells me it’s TeamViewer. Or is it? I don’t know anyone know?

Thanks to Otak for the tip :p

[update]

Still thinking about buying a 1k rig for FFXIV? Buy the rig in Japan and the first 1000 person will even get a FFXIV Beta key

Now, come to think of it, it seems like SE wants people with cutting edge technology to beta test their games

Final Fantasy XIV Official Benchmark Download

Note: If it says you’re missing some dll files, or need to reinstall because it can’t run, try obtaining the latest driver from ATI or nVidia before you uninstall your Windows!!

For most people, we are still using our FFXI rig, which is possibly a Pentium 4, Core 2 if you upgraded in the meantime. When you finish that benchmark, it’d probably be like, 600 and 1000 if you really squeeze it.

If your PC is aorund 2-3 years old, you’d probably have a Core 2 Duo etc, which will probably score something between 1000-2500.

I happen to just build a new rig for my other game titles that I intend to play this year. Lets see…

Female Lalafella in FFXIV Benchmark

That got me 4000 in High-Res and 5500 in Low Res. (Be warned, I didn’t resize this picture! I didn’t cheat )

Obviously, FFXIV also supports other platforms including PS3. If you are just building a rig for PS3, you are better off using PS3. PS3 is like… cheap and easy to carry around (Remember, it’s also less likely to get a keylogger )

Now if you have other use of your PC than FFXIV (I hope you all do, like play other games etc), then a PC does seem like an okay idea. But at the price of $1400, it’s rather hard to justify (and my PC is… just an okay build, not even bleeding edge technology). PC are so cheap, blowing $1400 just doesn’t seem worth it.

Some might argue… why doesn’t Square Enix make something that is less demanding. Well, with Crysis and other very realistic looking game, Square Enix can’t really drop the balls and go with something lower. Although, scaling would be nice, such as if you have a not-so-good PC, then render the polygons like FFXI. But I guess they don’t want to have “PS2 limitations” again by lowering the specification

Well, I’m already set for FFXIV (just need a Beta Invite, common Square Enix!), but I’m sure a lot of people are still thinking if they should buy a new rig for this MMO. My advice is, PS3 is the way to go unless you can list yourself 10 reasons you need a good PC.

For those that got the cutting edge technology, what score did you get and what’s the spec? Post a screenshot too. I’m sure a lot of other readers would find the comments beneficial, for money spent vs benchmark results

As promised, here it is. The brand new Final Fantasy XIV trailer debuted today at E3 2010! Enjoy!

Along with the new trailer, we’ve got two new videos straight from Square Enix at E3. The first shows off the newly revamped battle system which will be implemented for the beta phase of the game and beyond. From the looks of it, it’s a lot faster and more robust than the system that was in place for alpha. The second video is a tech demo of FFXIV running with some sort of 3D setup.

My own personal predictions for what we may see during the week:

- New playable demo, probably from the newest beta version of the game, which would include our first peek into the revamped battle system.
- A finalized release date? {Yes, please!}. Let’s put all these delay rumors to bed once and for all SE!