First Look: Final Fantasy XIV Online

First Look: Final Fantasy XIV Online

Posted on Friday July 9, 2010, 14:09 by David Scarborough in Infinite Lives

It’s been mere months since the last Final Fantasy game soared onto consoles, bringing with it the renowned cocktail of spunky protagonists, spiky hairstyles and eye-popping visuals. So, it comes with some surprise/elation that Final Fantasy XIV is nipping at the heels of its predecessor, heading online and bringing with it more sword-swinging mystical madness than you can shake a Chocobo at.

Ushered into a conference room, tucked away within the penetralia of Paris, we’re standing before a huge monitor. Within it: the yet unexplored online world of the tongue-flummoxing Eorzea, the setting for Final Fantasy XIV Online. Of course, this is not developer Square-Enix’s first foray into the world of MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games), Final Fantasy XI accomplished the feat back in 2002 (delayed for UK gamers until 2004) and quickly became one of the most popular MMOs to boot. Not bad for the then fifteen-year-old series.

From the outset, this is clearly more than just an expansion pack with a generous visual tweak. As names of creatures, classes, factions and locales are thrown towards us, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the extraordinary detail within. Yet they also retain traits familiar to anyone who has traversed any Final Fantasy or mythical online realm in the past decade. By the end of the brief we’re given on the history and cultures that shape the story of Eorzea, it was a relief to report that Square-Enix’s pen remains assiduously sharp.

That’s matched, unsurprisingly, with visuals as sleek as one would come to expect from the franchise. Standing over the sea, high on a wooden platform within the port city of Limsa Lominsa, the amount of detail is breathtakingly serene; the shimmering sea flows beneath us, sitting before the luscious green mountains that lay beyond. These are all places you can travel to whether by boat, foot, teleportation or weird chicken-like mounts, and just a glimpse of these distant peaks is enough to convince us that you’ll want to.

Our time with Final Fantasy XIV was accompanied by renowned producer Hiromichi Tanaka (Final Fantasy XI, Secret of Mana), on hand to discuss the eye-bulging action before us. ‘We decided to create Final Fantasy XIV mainly because Final Fantasy XI has been out eight years and it’s dated from a technological point of view,’ Tanaka explains, ‘we decided to make a new type of MMO, different from others.’

As we jump into our online avatar – a delicious mix of wizard, human and cat (Miqo'te) – we’re given some time to make ourselves familiar with the luminous surroundings, gaining a tiny taste of what to expect. Hunting down missing pages from a book, initial fumbling with controls soon became natural, allowing us to discover items and go on the offensive against legions of Megalocrabs, evil fairies and unsuspecting Dodos. It was a simple Quest, allowing us to become familiar with the fundamental gameplay structure that it evidently masters, even translating the usually convolute interface over to the Playstation 3 controller with relative ease.

While we weren’t given a choice for the demo, the class system is interesting as it divides up into four ‘Disciplines’, allowing you to become a Disciple of Magic, War, Land or Hand. Each comes with professions to hone your desired skills such as Archery, Mining, Weaving and Alchemy. While we were bundled with our heroine with a wizard’s hat several sizes too big, our Mage proved to be no conjuror of cheap tricks, casting spells with vicious proficiency.
While initial skepticism may suggest otherwise, it would be wrong to diminish this effort as a simple XP-grind that breaks lesser titles. Final Fantasy has always been about delivering storytelling in a way that can only be described as effortlessly epic. ‘Because it was a Final Fantasy series title it was very important to have an epic story,’ Tanaka agrees, while detailing the Missions that’ll launch players into grander exposition-tight tasks that are separate to the smaller Quests. ‘People will enjoy both the MMO aspect and the storyline.’

Having an overall story in an MMO may seem a detrimental task undertaken by the developers. After all, when gamers reach the conclusion, why should they keep on playing? That doesn’t seem to worry Tanaka. ‘We would very much like to ask the players to try and solve all the mysteries of the game. It could take one year for players to experience the whole story,’ he enthuses.

As an MMO experience, it clearly delivers sprawling landscapes with a variable display of visual flourish, whilst retaining the predominant traits to appease both the genre die-hards and Final Fantasy aficionados; but it also manages to encompass an unrivalled immersive storyline that could take a whopping year to complete. It’s the sort of scale that you could devote a lifetime to. As far as online gaming is concerned, this could be your final fantasy.
Final Fantasy XIV Online is heading to the PC this September, with a release on the Playstation 3 following in March next year – so start sharpening your Buster Swords now.