In 2012, the Final Fantasy series celebrated its 25th anniversary. To mark the occasion, there was a special event held at the ACT Theater in Seattle during PAX Prime 2012: The Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Experience.
There were several areas of the room decorated to represent the “eras” of final fantasy. From the original release on the Nintendo Famicom (NES) all the way up to the most recent releases at the time. Small living room sets allowed attendees to take a seat and enjoy the games just as they might of when the titles originally released.
During this event, there was a special presentation for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn introduced by Senior PR Manager David Yang, and presented by Product Manager Morten Haugaard.
David Yang: Hello, hello! How are you guys doing today? Thank you very much for joining us today. It’s awesome to see so many people here. My name is David Yang and I’m the Senior PR Manager here at Square Enix and on behalf of all of us at Square Enix, I wanted to reach out and say thank you very much to all of you for not only attending our anniversary event but for supporting us throughout the years.
As you look around, you can see Final Fantasy throughout the ages. It’s kind of hard to imagine its been 25 years. It’s great! In addition to a celebration of looking back on titles, it’s also an opportunity for us to show some developments that we’ve made for upcoming titles and some future titles. So for this event we’re hoping we can share with you, a little more information on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.
To help us share that information, I’ve got Morten “Thor” Haugaard. And let me just bring something up, here. The man’s middle name is “Thor”…and he went with “Morten.”
But he’s a great guy and he’s got a lot of great information so I want you all to help me welcome him on stage. Morten!
Morten Haugaard: Thank you so much David. So I grew up in Texas which is probably why I go with Morten as opposed to Thor. But I want to thank you guys for all being here and helping us celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy and as part of that we really wanted to show you guys some of the new content that we’re working on for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Yoshi-P unfortunately wasn’t be able to join us today. He’s busy working on Alpha and getting the game ready. So what we’ve got to show you guys is a gameplay demo that shows off some of the changes that they’ve been doing within the game along with a new- and you guys will be the first people to see this- Limit Break trailer that shows off the new combat system that we’re adding to it.
Let me jump straight into the gameplay demo here…
So, Final Fantasy XIV had a bit of a tough launch with the original version of the game. The team has gone through and looked at everything from the fan feedback and criticism of Final Fantasy XIV and really redone the whole game. So, bottom to top redesign of major systems. We’ve added in a new graphics engine, we’ve totally adjusted the UI, we’ve added new classes and jobs that we’re looking forward to telling you guys about later on. We’ve enhanced the UI and we created this new Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A totally different game than what was launched a couple years ago.
Here you can see some of the new monsters and graphics that we’ve put into the game. We really tried to give each of the zones a sense of place, to give it a sense of place, give it a sense of feeling, to make you feel like you’re in the world of Eorzea. But we’ve kept some of the classic elements that were in Final Fantasy XIV, especially the job system and armory system. We really like how players could use that to create their own custom character that let’s you experience all the skills and jobs within the game. You’re not limited to the class you pick at the beginning when you’re still trying to learn the gameplay features. You can switch between the classes quite easily, just by changing the weapons that you have equipped in your hand, or the tool that you have equipped.
So in this case we switched over to the Dragoon. You can see some of the changes we’ve made to the combat system. We’ve changed it so that it’s more dynamic, fast paced, and part of that change is changing how weapon skills and tactical points work. Within the original version of the game, you had to build up your Tactical Points and then you’d be able to use some of your cool special abilities. In this case we’re using them straight at the beginning of combat. So he just dropped a firefall on the guy, but really making players and letting them have those cool skills and abilities right at the beginning of the game.
We’ve also changed somewhat how combos work within the game. We saw that you know, some of the range classes weren’t really being able to combo their skills together and really tried to figure out ways to get them to allow them to experience that same sort of combo mechanic. And so we changed it so that for ranged classes like Archers and Thaumaturges, they’re able to, when they combo their skills together, they’ll get status buffs and debuffs on the enemies that they’re able to use.
We’ve also really enhanced the graphics engine as you can see here as we run through the shadows of the branches. We’ve added dynamic lighting and shadow effects that’ll display on your character to really try and bring this world of Eorzea to life. We’ve made sure that we haven’t left anyone behind so that any machine from a low-end ultra book to a high-end gaming PC will be able to play this game and fully display the world of Eorzea. We’ve also added PS3 support, so PS3 players will also be able to get into the game.
No matter how visually stunning the graphics are, no matter how cool the monsters look, it’s not a Final Fantasy game if you don’t have a story. Our franchise is known for the epic stories that you get to experience as you go through the world. And so, as part of that, we’ve tried to make each zone, each setting, each environment, really feel like its part of the world and part of the story itself. So you’re not just going to random zones to get quests. It all ties into this overarching story. As part of that we’ve updated the quest mechanics and the quest system to tie it all back together into that story. We’ve added tons of new quests for players to experience so that high-level players and characters who are transferring or carrying forward into A Realm Reborn, will still have a lot of content for them to experience.
You know, our underlying philosophy is that we don’t want players to grind and level up just by killing monsters. We want them to take a part in this story and to experience what it really means to be in a Final Fantasy game and that’s the story and those epic adventures that you get. So here we see we’ve met up with one of our friends, a Roegadyn. We also want to make sure that players are able to play with all of their friends so we’ve got cross platform support so that PS3 players can play with PC players and experience their own unique Final Fantasy story together.
Here you see again, some of the visual effects that we’re adding into the game and just how pretty the world looks. We really feel like we’re one of the best looking MMOs out there that you can experience.
Another benefit of the armory system is how crafting works. You can access all of the crafting systems just by changing the equipment in your hand. So if you want to level up every single crafting skill, you’re more than welcome to do that and be the expert crafter on the whole server.
Cross platform play is part of this and PS3 and PC users will be able to customize their UI for their specific systems so you’ll be able to manage your action bars, your health, and get the system configured for your preferences with how you want to play the game.
So it looks like we’re waiting for one of our friends to finishing their crafting stuff so we’re going to kill a bit of time here by killing some of these low level monsters. Again, with the changes to the combat system all of your skills are available right at the beginning and you can call for your great special attacks like we’re doing here with our Dragoon. You don’t have to wait for your Tactical Points to build up to then use your abilities.
Another important feature we’re adding in order to keep friends playing together is this level sync functionality. So if I’m 10 levels higher than my friend, I can drop my level down in order to group my two friends here and help them experience some of the quest content that they’re not able to get to yet, or if they’re having trouble with a dungeon, we’ll be able to play together to experience that dungeon and I’m not going to lose EXP or hurt my progression. We’ll both gain EXP and progression, whether its me at the higher level, or them at the lower level.
As part of the world of Eorzea, we’re really trying to make it feel like this living, breathing space. Part of that is making sure that each of the environments within the game feel very visually distinct and feel like they’re very separate places. So you had the outpost earlier in this zone and we have another environment here, another sort of outpost, but a very visually different look between the two. We’ve got running streams, it’s a bit more open in terms of the tree cover, so very different feels. We’re really trying to make sure that each zone is very unique feeling.
Also trying to include a lot of the familiar Final Fantasy elements that you’ve seen in other games. So you saw the Chocobo we were just riding, you saw the crystal, and you know, the Airship and Dragoons. But really looking at across the franchise, there are cool weapons, monsters and other elements that we can bring in. If you guys haven’t seen the CG trailer that’s running in the “future” section, the Garlean Empire are using Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy VI. So we’re looking at what other elements from Final Fantasy games we can pull into the game and really make it the most epic Final Fantasy you’ll ever play. We’re also including things like a Crystal Tower dungeon that high level players will be able to go through and experience. We got the Moogle Post here where the friendly Moogles that have been in the franchise since the beginning will be able to send mail back and forth between you and your friends.
Also looking at, are there other mini games or components we can pull in… so as we head into the Chocobo stables here, we’ll be adding in a new Chocobo combat system in here that we’re not quite ready to talk about, but you’ll be able to have different Chocobos that fight for you as you play through the game.
So it looks like my friends… or Yoshi-P’s friends are about ready to go to the dungeon and try out the new Limit Break system. Limit Breaks were first introduced in Final Fantasy VII as a way to do these amazing special attacks that just do a ton of damage with great visual effects. And so they work very similar in Final Fantasy XIV. So as you progress through a dungeon with your friends and fight monsters, you’re going to build up a three-stage shared Limit Break and any action you do, whether it’s attacks on the enemy, healing your friends, buffing your friends, or debuffing enemies, are all going to factor into that Limit Break system. And then at the different levels you’ll be able to call upon it. With each level progressively doing more damage. So in the Limit Break trailer you’re about to see you’ll see the Black Mage call upon the level three meteor Limit Break to really wreck the enemy they’re going to be facing. But it’s all going to be class dependant. So depending on which class you’re at, whether you’re fighting a boss monster, there’ll be different Limit Breaks you’ll be able to call upon to take down your enemies with.
So we’re at the dungeon now, so I’m going to switch over to the gameplay trailer and you guys can see the Limit Break in action.
David Yang: Well thank you very much, we’re really excited for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It’s been something that Morten and the team have been working really hard on. Thank you very much. This concludes this portion of the presentation but you know, the 25th anniversary event and this venue is open until 10:00 so please stay and enjoy the drinks, some of the games upstairs, and try out some of the games that we have in the different vignettes. Thank you very much!
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