[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)

[MMO] So I Had Some Fun...

Warning... this is going to be a picture heavy post! I don't really know how to make it less picture heavy (apart from get rid of pictures) and one picture is especially huge but just bear with me... it's full of pretty Final Fantasy XIV characters.


As you may all already know, on August 1st Square Enix released a new benchmark along with some character creation for all of us to play with as we eagerly await the release of Final Fantasy XIV.

I was exceptionally bored today so I played around with it for a few hours and came out with a few designs. I thought I would share them all here. I did a lot of them but I only ended up like 3 or 4 ... I'm picky. I'm also not that adventurous with designs as others are, but hey, I try my best.

Any way, I also got Photoshop CS6 back again today (like the new banner? It is should be way better quality but blogger took a huge crap on it) so I created this little introductory image...

Yaaay!

I made this purely to get back into Photoshop... but I liked enough so I thought I would put it here. The Miqo'te in that is the first design I did, and was originally the design I was going to go with but then I ended up playing with it more and...

Out came this cutie. (She is also the Miqo'te in my banner! She will be this blogs mascot... for now). Whenever I make Miqo'tes, I usually always make them Seekers of the Sun, but instead decided to experiment with a Keeper of the Moon...

Those eyes. Her eyes are white so they kind of all blend in but those eyes. I absolutely love how large their pupils are! I love how the Seekers of the Sun have small pupils and huge irises, but I love how the Keepers of the Moon have huge pupils and little irises... it's just too cute ♡

I think she will make a purrrfect Thaumarturge. 

Then, I went onto make a Roedagyn... Such strong women.

I originally went with this hairstyle...

But I thought it was too subtle and for such a strong looking character it didn't suit her. So after some playing around...

I saved this as "choo choo motherf*cker...apologies.

YEAH, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!

I absolutely love this design. I was really chuffed with myself. Her hair looks like fire man, and look at that pose! I made her eyes a bright crystal blue to contrast with her skin and eyes. Man, if I wasn't so dead set on Miqo'te, this would be my main. She rocks my socks. 

Then after I had my fun being inspired by my Roedagyn, I went back to Miqo'te, but this time went male...

I tried to go for a ... I don't even know. Think Baywatch. I love female Miqo'tes but I love the males more. Haha. Out of all the characters, they are perfectly proportional, and just look awesome. I usually don't like facial hair on a character but this guy looked super baby-faced without it so I had to add it :'D. But he is my favourite. What a babe.

I am proud of him. So, I will let this guy see you out. ;)

But in all seriousness, if you haven't already, download the benchmark! I linked it here in this post, download it, see how the game runs on your computer... then get making some characters! The character creation is really flexible and you can do so much more with it - I am just a boring old fart when it comes to character designs. You can really get some unique designs out of it if you spend enough time on it. This here is just a small taste of what you can do.

I wanna see your creations! Link me them! :)