[MMO] My Phase 4/Open Beta Experience and Error 3102

Hello, hello...

Disclaimer: This is a long one. Skip past the wall of text to to get to the photos. 

Sorry for not updating much recently. This weekend marked the final phase of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and what an eventful weekend it has been.

If you were in the previous Beta tests, Phase 4 began on Friday. I was unable to play because I was busy on that day, but it seems the day went by without a hitch. Many budding players all logged on, loaded up their designs from character creation and got straight into the game.

However, Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of problems. People were getting kicked out of servers, servers were too full, people couldn't create characters on their desired servers so had to go to other ones... it was hectic. I somehow managed to miss all this by fifteen minutes. On Saturday morning, around 9.45AM (UK Time), I decided I would go on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It all loaded up fine, I selected my character design and off I went. According to my boyfriend, fifteen minutes after that open beta began - which then was followed by all the server problems. I got very... very lucky.

A major problem over the weekend was "Error 3102". Basically, when players are trying to sign in, they are greeted with this error code. So, everyone turned to the forums, making multiple threads about the error. The forum moderators responded to this and made an official thread for the error. They asked people who were experiencing the error to list their character name and server. That thread now, reportedly, has over 1,000 posts. The forums are down currently so I am unable to check what the exact page count and post count is, but a lot of people are suffering from this error.

I am one of the lucky ones and it didn't affect me - but it did affect my boyfriend. Now, since phase 1, he has dutifully tested and provided feedback. So, as you can imagine, being locked out of the game for the beta weekend has had quite an impact. He has not been able to log in on his character since Friday. I can imagine there are so many other people who are in the same boat.

However, it is a beta test. It exists purely to test for things like this. It is also open beta, meaning anyone could sign up and log onto the game. At one point, the game was reported to have over 120,000 concurrent connections. There was so many people trying to get into the game, that Square Enix had to open up two new servers on the Japanese side. I hear today they also opened up two new servers on the EU/NA side, and consequently locked all the other servers in a move to push players onto the new servers, and hopefully spread out the amount of players.

Crazy. The commercial that was released to the public the other day has obviously done it's job. They've amassed more players than they can handle. Of course, one does wonder, all the errors and server shut downs have probably pushed a lot of people away, but still - they really have made an impact. The official launch is getting ever so close. One side of me is wondering if the game will crash again, or will they have learned from this weekend and be able to handle it better. Also, with so many people rushing to play the game, it may end up being a historically huge launch... we can only wait and see.

My Phase 4/Open Beta Experience ...told in pictures.


I managed to get a good days worth of Phase 4, and took some screen shots of my adventures. I rolled a Miqo'te Thaumaturge. She is a Seeker of the Moon named "Aylin Moon". (Don't roll your eyes! I'm not good at names...).

And here she is...

She hasn't quite grasped the concept of gloves yet

Uh... that could have went better. This is just shortly after I made her. She is sporting a lovely mage hat which almost resembles a sombrero. She's rocking it.

Ready to explore!

There we go! Minus the interface... she randomly has... across her legs! Finally worked it out. 

So do you come here often?

She made a new friend. He doesn't talk much. Keeps repeating "Kweh", for reasons she couldn't understand. There also another one of them in the background... showing us what he thinks of it all.

This is awkward.

Ended up in a pretty awkward situation with a random guy in a pub. He kept falling off the chair. She just acted like she wasn't looking. (She was.)

Her eyes look like moons. I went all out with her.

Isn't she cute? I never really liked the idea of face paint but considering she is a THM, and she has such bright eyes... I decided to go with it. Obviously, the hat really sets off her eyes here. Meow.

I am the tallest one here. Ha.

After some adventuring, some killing, some questing, some ooh-ing and aah-ing... I got some new robes from the little Lalafell's in the THM guild! They totally make her oven gloves mittens hand gear look awesome.

Ooh, flashy

Here she is in action, showing those Cactaurs who's boss. I love the cactuar in this picture. It's so like "Come at me bro!". It even brought it's friend. "We can so take her on!". Silly Cactuars. 

ALL DEM THMs

Helping out in a FATE. I found it hilarious how many THMs were there. THAUMATURGES, ASSEMBLE! You ain't got nothing on our Blizzards, Fires, Thunders, Sleeps, Tranposes... we own Thanalan.

This...this would make a pretty cool hat.

NEW ROBES! NEW THREADS! EAR SLOTS! So I marked the occasion with this fancy tourist-y picture. She doesn't look too happy about it all to be honest.

This adventurer business ain't too shabby.

Upon returning to Ul'dah, I was informed I now had a room at the inn. Went to check it out. My reaction was something like, "Niiiiiiice." Pretty spacious. Good amount of natural light. Good storage. A cute little table. A very flat bed.

Maybe it's too little.

The table could be better. Can just see her little ears popping up at the top there.

Perfect weather for mischief.

Upon returning outside... It was foggy in Ul'dah! I had read the patch notes and was aware that they had added in the new weather cycles, but this was my first time seeing Ul'dah being anything other than sunny. It is really well done... I loved it when it was foggy.

Action shot

Weather soon cleared up and I was back on the adventure - this time I had a friend! Boyfriend had to make another character just to get on the server. But any where, she looks pretty awesome when she's casting.

And that's it...! That is all I got up to really. I managed to get to about level 12. But I am purposely taking my time with levelling - I really enjoy the story and the scenery, so I do tend to go off on tangents and just go off exploring.

My thoughts so far... I love this game. Considering I've been able to take such fun screenshots and spend more time running around, just soaking up the atmosphere says a lot. I am really excited for full release and although all the server problems it has experienced this weekend is a little worrying... as I said before, it is a beta test. These things happen.

I am really enjoying playing THM. When I get to level 15, I will be switching over to Arcanist. I am quite looking forward to it! I think from today onwards, I will document my time on FFXIV: ARR like I have here. It's fun.

I leave you with this quite serene picture to see you off.

If you have any cool screenshots or stories from your time on Beta, let me know in the comments box below! :)

[MMO] Final Fantasy XIV Japanese TV Commercial Released

It looks like the advertising for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is in full swing in Japan!



Quite an interesting commercial - a lot more interesting than the leaked one (which eventually turned out to be the actual one!

What I thought was pretty cool was this shot of some armor...

On a Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn group I follow, someone suggested it was the Paladin AF+1 gear. It's looking pretty snazzy.

The Japanese commercial is advertising the release/launch date which is the 27th August and the Open Beta/Phase 4 dates which is 17th August until the 19th August.

Exciting stuff. Personally... I can't wait! I genuinely feel sorry for this blog... It will either turn into an FFXIV blog or I'll never update it.

I must find a balance... ;-)

[PS3/Vita] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD English 30 Minute Audio Sample

Breathes in...

SOME MORE INFORMATION ON FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD: 30 MINUTE AUDIO CLIP AND NEW SCREENS *squee*

Breathes out...

I'm bad at headlines, ok?

A little background:
Square Enix announced a HD remaster (Note: not remake - there is an important difference. I think.) of the most amazing game to ever grace the PS2 Final Fantasy X and the not so great Final Fantasy X-2. 

It's not a remake because it's not being completely remade. They are essentially just remastering it. Updating the textures, audio and cleaning off a few cobwebs (it has been 12 years since it was released. Bet that makes you feel old!).

Square Enix recently released a sample of a 30 min audio "episode", to give you an idea of how it's all going to sound.

As you can hear - doesn't it sound different? It's totally brand new. And we finally hear how they pronounce Tidus (it took 12 years!).

It has also been confirmed that the Western release of this will feature all the extra content the Japanese games got... so essentially it's the international version. If that makes sense. Dark Aeons, Penance and I think the "Last Mission" from FFX-2 is included on there as well. 

There has also been a ton of new screens released showcasing what it looks like... and it's looking great. 

Menus have been updated and there's trophies!

There hasn't been an release date announced yet, but I think it's safe to assume it will be dropping later this year. It will be available on PS3 and PS Vita.

Sources: EMGNow (more pictures!), Playstation Blog

[PS3] Drag-On Dragoon 3 or Drakenguard 3... depending on what side of the world you are on.

OK, so my boyfriend sent me this trailer of Drag-On Dragoon 3/Drakenguard 3 a while back.

I thought to myself, "This game looks awesome." So... I did some research! Then, I thought to myself, "I'll write about it on Game Otaku Desu". Then... forgot about it! But I remembered so it's OK.

I did a tiny bit more research today because there does not seem to be much around about this game. What I have managed to gather from mainly Japanese sites is that it is being released in Japan in October, it is not "Nier or Drakenguard 3 so if you were expecting that you will be disappointed" ... and that's it.

I don't know if it's just me (it's probably just me) but this game has so much mystery about it. It looks so awesome yet I cannot find anything on it that isn't in Japanese. I have searched around some Japanese sites like 4Gamer.net, Famitsu and this site (which has a more game footage. Check it out.) and cannot really find much on it which sucks. :(

But I thought I will share what I have found so far, because this game looks great, and it seems that it will be a while before we see it on Western shores... if we ever do.

From what I can find, the games story is a follow on from the manga "Drag-on Dragoon: Shi ni Itaru-aka". (They have the first chapter available on there - if you can read Japanese, give it a read!)

Zero - in all her glory

It seems it will follow the story of two "utautai" - two girls who are able to manipulate magic through songs. One of the girls is Zero, a girl with a flower sprouting of her eye and an artificial left hand. She is quite laid-back, almost being described as lazy. Whereas her sister, One, is described as being "serious and intellectual." Quite the difference.

It is an action RPG, which is always fun. From the gameplay footage, probably a lot of hack'n'slash. An interesting point about the combat is that when the characters are caked in blood, their "utautai" skills get really powerful. Awesome.

It seems they will also be releasing a 10th Anniversary Box Set when this game is released in October. The box set will include...

Drakengard World Inside book
Drakengard Chips Music CD with tracks from Drakengard, Drakengard 2, Nier Gesalt and Nier Replicant.
Drakengard Novel Prelude
Drakengard Visual Book
Drakengard 3 DLC code - which after some searching around seems to be Kaine's costume from Nier.
Drakengard 3 for Playstation 3 with an illustration by Kimihiko Fujisaka, featuring all the characters from the Drakengard games.

Phew. You can get all that on October 31st for the sweet price of 19,800 yen which is roughly $202. Best get saving!

I am not even a Drakengard fan but I am stoked for this. It looks brilliant. Very interesting story, too. Well, from what I could find about it. It is a shame that there has been no word on an English release yet, however when I was doing some searching around, I came across a petition to get Drakengard 3 localised and released in the West. May be worth signing if you do not fancy breaking the bank on importing the game over.

Or, if you are like me, you just want the game so you're gonna buy it regardless. Yeah, impulse buying rocks! ;)

Drakegard 3 is set to release on October 31st in Japan. You can pre-order a copy on the Square Enix store:
Drakengard 3
Drakengard 3 10th Anniversary Box Set
(If you need help navigating the site, let me know in the comments and I'll post up a tutorial!)

or if you prefer to do everything in English,

Pre-order it on PlayAsia - free shipping as well!
10th Anniversary Box Set - out of stock at the moment but may be restocked upon release!

Gah, I want the game now! :(

Sources: Siliconera, Square Enix JP site, 4Gamer, Kotaku JAPAN

[MMO] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Producer 8th Live Letter Summary

So the 8th Producer Live Letter just finished a while ago, and boy, was it a long one!

I am just going to summarise what was mentioned, major dates and announcements in this post for those who missed it.

Open Beta Phase 4 will be from the 17th August until 19th August. For those who were already in beta, it starts on the 16th. (Yay!)
Early access will be 24th August until 26th August, and there will be no down time. That means it will lead straight onto launch.
Open Beta/Phase 4 is capped at Level 20.
PVP will be in OP/P4 but is only available to Legacy players who already have level 50 characters. It seems they want to focus on testing higher level PVP.
Player Housing will be in available in P4 in Limsa Lominsa.

Arcanist will be available in OB/P4.
 - Arcanist will mainly be a DPS class.
 - It seems Arcanist won't be as strong as other DPS classes without taking advantage of Carbuncle.
 - Carbuncle can long range DPS.
 - Stat-wise is MND (Mind) based.

Scholar as we already know is a Healer.
It was said on the Live Letter that for a fully balanced 8-man group it is advised to have both a WHM and a SCH. So nobody is left out! ;)

They showed off Summoner a few of the Egi summons they already have. More Egi will be released when the level cap is reached.
Summoner stat-wise will be INT (Intellect) based.

Summoner rocking that awesome hat

Good news for PS3 players, in Phase 4 they will be adding a screenshot feature.

Gametime cards will be available. 30 days and 60 days.

There will be a World Transfer service available 2-3 weeks after launch.

There will be a smartphone app on iOS named, "Libra Eorzea". - Good news folks, it's free!
Yoshi-P mumbled something about Android, if I'm not mistaken, it will be available a few weeks after the iOS one is released.

You will be able to retry bosses/primals with the same group... I didn't catch much of this so I will update this when I know about it.

Barber shop in 2.1 patch! So you don't have to worry if you character isn't how you wanted it. You can change hair styles, hair colour, eye colour, beard, face tattoos and face paint/colour.

There will be seasonal gear for Summer/Christmas. They showcased a few off the items. Something about fire-resistance gear is vital for one of the events!

There was some information about Crystal Tower/Bahamut's Labyrinth.
 - Bahamut's Labyrinth will explain what happened on Behemoth's Attack. (Credits to @ffxiv_finn for this one - I missed this in stream but read it on their Twitter!)
 - Crystal Tower is a 24 man raid.
 - You will be able to use duty finder to group up for a raid.
 - Crystal Tower will be in patch 2.1 - something to look forward to!

UNICORN MOUNT
 - Have to complete Conjurer quest to get it
 - Can be used with other classes

A lot of cool items for the Housing system. I saw stuff like Tonberry lights and chocobo chairs!

Veteran Bonus Award System - get rewards based on how long you subscribe, rewards for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and so on and so forth.

...and I think that is everything.
If I have missed anything out - let me know - I will add it in here.

Big thanks to the awesome FFXIV Community on Twitter who were constantly updating through the Live Letter! I missed some thing because I zoned out a few times and my brain couldn't process the Japanese quick enough. So thank you to all you guys on there!

I will edit this later with pictures and the like but yah - this is the summary for now! Hope it is helpful to someone. Be sure to check out other FF communities and Twitter because it will be available all over the place.

:)

[PS3] Tales of Xillia is making waves!

Tales of Xillia was originally released in Japan almost two years ago(!) and has only just been released in the US, with an EU released scheduled for August 9th.

It has been getting great reviews all around, when first announced in Japan, it got the most pre-orders out of all the Tales games, as well as getting a 39/40 from the popular Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu.
IGN have just recently gave the game 8.0/10, saying that the combat is fun, has an interesting story and lots of replay value.

The game is set in a world that has been divided into two by a spirit called Maxwell. In one world, Rieze Maxia, they can all use mana and live in harmony with the spirits, whilst in the other world, Elympios, they all use advanced technology and use the lives of the spirits to supply power. (You can probably see where this is going.) In order to stop them from doing this, Maxwell created a barrier around Rieze Maxia, but somehow the folks in Elympios have managed to break in, form a group and start stealing spirits.

In Tales of Xillia, there are two protagonists and at the beginning of the game you can choose which one to play. One is Jude Mathis, who at the time of the game is a medical student investigating a research facility and treating patients with suspicious injuries. Whilst there, he meets Millia Maxwell, the other protagonist who just so happens to be Maxwell's successor. The two of them then set off an adventure to stop the folks from Elympios creating a weapon powered by Spyrix (which uses the lives of the spirits!).

Millia Maxwell

It seems that the story is a stand alone, so no knowledge of the previous games is needed. However, if you are a fan of the series, it seems there is a lot of things tucked away in the game for you too.

What really interests me about Tales of Xillia is the fact you can choose from two characters at the beginning of the game. It seems that one story isn't better than the other and it is really just down to preference and how you want to play but from reading around it seems Jude's story is a bit better, whereas Milla has better battle music. So it's your call! 

The combat seems to be like any other Tales game, with a few added elements. I haven't really played any Tales of games so here is a video showing the combat! (It's better than me trying to explain it.)

As you can probably tell, it isn't a turn based system. It kind of reminds me of Star Ocean, which had some amazingly fun combat, so if you were hoping for a turn based system - don't be put off! Battles like this are usually fun and get really challenging so be open-minded! :)

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Get your own copy of Tales of Xillia at PlayAsia! (US only m'afraid! EU will version will be up in a few days so I will update this!) Though it seems this has no region protection so if you are really desperate for it, you're in luck!

Practise your Japanese and get the JP version!
And if you are a collector like me, get the game guide! Awesome if you can read Japanese then you have this awesome guide and really cool collectors item. I'm being serious. I think it's awesome.

Check out IGN's review of the game here!

[PS4/Xbox One] Some Bad News Or Good News, Depending On How You Look At It

Square Enix trademarked "A World of the VERSUS Epic" ... What do they have up their sleeve?

It has been reported that Square Enix have trademarked "A World of the VERSUS Epic". This spells one thing. Sequels. A lot of sequels. Set out in a compilation. Yipee.

The reason I am not so excited for this is... look at Final Fantasy XIII. From the start we all knew that they wanted to do more than just one game with it, and I thought that came in the form of Final Fantasy Versus XIII. I mean they showed off images of Lightning and Noctis contrasting with one another, and it looked like it was going to be something awesome.

Then, the years go by, Versus disappears off the face of the earth and we are left with XIII, XIII-2 and Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns. Final Fantasy Versus XIII reappears at this years E3 but is now Final Fantasy XV, leaving fans who have been following it all like, "What the hell just happened?"

But that aside, Final Fantasy XV as a stand-alone game does look alright. They have said from the start the game play would be something different, so those who are waiting for a classic turn-based FF may have to wait a little longer. But even so, it looks fun. It looks promising. But that is the game play. The premise for the story is a "fantasy based on reality", and it looks like they have plans to squeeze a few more games out of it.

I mean, I cannot say anything now because we don't even know if the story/game is good yet. But I suppose what I'm trying to say is I'm worried that it's going to be just like what happened with FFXIII. Fans just saying, "Please stop milking XIII, we're done with it." - Will fans be saying that with XV?

I will be honest with you guys - I never finished XIII, I never played XIII-2 and I think Lightning Returns looks ridiculous. And I am someone who has loved Final Fantasy since I could hold a controller. It worries me that fans who have been around a long time like me, and even those who have been around even longer, are losing all faith in this series. What if this "epic" they have planned is the final nail in the coffin?

But alas, as I say, we cannot really say anything yet as we could all end up loving this game. But these are just my initial thoughts and feelings. It may be fun to go back and read this when the game is out. Ha.

To summarise, this will be a compilation, that will be a part of the Fabula Novis Crystallis compilation. We heard you like compilations, so we put a compilation in your compilation so you can compil-- yeah you get the joke.

Any way, here is some game-play footage of XV, so you can see for yourselves where they are going with this game. 

(Psst. I secretly think this looks awesome.)

Source: Nova Crystallis

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Interested in Lightning Returns? Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII | Buy Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (US Version) for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

[News/PS4/Xbox One] Kingdom Hearts III will mark the end of the saga, but not the end for Sora.

Kingdom Hearts III will see the ending of the first story arc, as Nomura plans to do more with the franchise. 

Tetsuya Nomura speaking in an interview with The Times confirmed that the first story arc of Kingdom Hearts will come to a conclusion in Kingdom Hearts III.

“As a core game, this is finally the third, and 10 years have passed. I couldn’t call this a trilogy. There have been so many spinoffs. In ‘Kingdom Hearts 3,’ the battles that the characters have been fighting for the past 10 years will come to a conclusion. That is the plan. But the series will continue. Only the particular enemy they have been fighting the past 10 years will come to an end.” 

 Tetsuya also recommended that if fans want to try and get an idea of where the game-play is going to play Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. It is reported that he will be using that as a starting basis for the game-play in KHIII.

“We tried many experiments in that game that will be applied to ‘Kingdom Hearts 3,’ ” he said. “If you play ’3D,’ you will get some hint of ‘Kingdom Heart 3.’”

Although, it seems Nomura went onto say that it is still open to change, however he reassures fans that his "creative policy" will remain unchanged, no matter what Square Enix decides to chop and change (Think Final Fantasy Versus XIII → Final Fantasy XV!).

Source: LA Times

KHIII has yet to have a release date, here's hoping it doesn't take nearly 7 years like FFXV... which doesn't even have a release date yet. *Rolls eyes*

Pretty exciting news for the KHIII fans out there. Personally, I've only played KH1, and watched a play through of KHII, so can't say I know too much about the franchise. Either way, it looks pretty interesting, and I'm surprised Square Enix have finally announced this. Not sure how long we will have to wait for more news though...

- Jade

Pre-order KHIII at Playasia!
Or if you fancy getting a taste of KHIII's gameplay, order KH 3D: Drop Distance here.
New to the franchise? Try out Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX.