Hello Eorzea my old friend...

I freely admit I am a lunatic. Crazy in the coconut, totally sack of hammers, mad as a box of frogs. I liked the original Final Fantasy XIV. Yes, it was bug ridden, grindy, and a complete pain in the arse to play, but it was visually gorgeous, had aspects that really sucked you in , and the crafting was great fun.

For all of that, it had promise. Lots of promise, and I'm a sucker for promise.

Naoki Yoshida and his crew of developers have done amazing things with the new reworking of FF14, there's enough of the familiar for old timers like me who have had the game since release (I even stumped up for the collectors edition) and enough new toys to have everyone looking around and going "ooh, look at that!" on a regular basis.

The Phase 1 beta had limitations, a level cap, only the city of Gridania was accessible so no sun bathing in the desert city or drinking rum with the pirates in Limsa Lominsa and a few others, but the new features include a large number of features that players of MMOs have come to expect. Quest tracker on screen, hud layout adjustments, macro support etc. There's also separate logs for hunting, gathering and crafting that you can access which is a nice touch.

Visually, the city of Gridania has been almost totally reworked, the layout has cues that make you think "I recognise this" like the large water wheels on a couple of buildings and the street layout is familiar... but it's like returning to your old stomping ground 20 years after you left your home town. The changes are there and are numerous enough to put a fresh new perspective on familiar old locations.



Phase 2 introduced some new things to play with, some extra levels and other fun, but was mostly about stability and stress testing.

Phase 3! And so the NDA is lifted, the Beta is open and away we go! While I dig out my old character from Version 1.0 (yes, we can play them again ) and see what's new... hhave a look at some screenies!

Eorzea