New interviews with Final Fantasy XIV producer /director Naoki Yoshida and lead artist/ UI artist Hiroshi Minagawa have made the rounds on several Japanese gaming websites, including 4Gamer and Game Watch.
A member of the FFXIV official community forums has passed along a quick summary of those interviews in English for those of us awaiting similar discussions in western media.
Here’s what he/she shared regarding the PS3 version of the MMORPG:
- A Realm Reborn’s PS3 base resolution is 1280 x 544, which is then stretched/adjusted to 1280 x 720. Reason: PS3 memory limitations, etc. It’s possible to set it higher as they’re trying to fit every model into 10GB (the limit is 20GB), but with future considerations in mind, they want to set the bar relatively low for the sake of smooth performance.
- PS3 UI elements is still somewhat customizable in the sense that it can be moved around. Resizing the UI, however, is still up in the air.
- With the gamepad cross-bar system, one can register up to 128 actions (there are a total of eight 16 slots) on the bar, per class.
Final Fantasy III boss Amon will make an apperance in A Realm Reborn
Other gameplay related information:
- All 1.0 players will get a chance to remake their character (appearance) for ARR. However, this can only be done once, and within half a year after launch.
- Monster AI will operate under a FFXII-style ‘gambit’-type system. Likewise, Chocobo AIs will operate under something similar.
- Depending on what class you start as, your starting city will be locked to where that class’ guild is located. (ex: If you start off as a MRD, you start in Limsa)
- They (somewhat) ended up changing the map/layouts of the three cities after all.
- Raid bosses will always drop some type of reward – somewhere around 2~3 rare drops per party, random lotted. Even if one didn’t get the rare drop, the players will be rewarded with tokens which you can then exchange for rare drops. In exchange, the chances to participate in the random lottery will be limited to 3 times per week. (Stanislaw’s notes: The text in the interview here isn’t really clear. What I’m assuming this means is that the chance to get that 2~3 rare drops is limited to 3 times per week, but one can still get tokens by trying the content over and over again. On the other hand, this can easily mean the return of horrid re-entry times.)
- Titan is confirmed to be in A Realm Reborn from the start.
- Odin will ‘appear differently’ compared to that of other Primals.
- Depending on how one raises one’s chocobo, what they can wear in equipments will also be different. (ex: If you raise it as a mage-type chocobo, then it can wear mage gear; if you raise it as a tank, it can wear tank gear, etc)
- The new dungeon in the concept art will be one of the many leveling dungeons introduced in ARR, this one being one from R40~R45. Compared to the current slew of dungeons where it’s mostly ‘cave’ type dungeons, there will be more ‘ruin/tower’ type dungeons introduced in ARR.
- Hamlet will undergo a complete revamp. It will no longer be the ‘closed’ type content it currently is. The reason why it’s the way it is the current version is due to 1.0 limitations. In ARR they can finally implement a more open-style content, which is what they originally wanted to do.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is due out simultaneously for the PS3 and PC this Winter.
