I'm going to go linksies on this one because it is a fairly extensive interview that already received a thorough writeup.

GAME Watch Interviews Tanaka and Komoto

Some new and interesting points:

* People beginning in Limsa Lominsa will start by arriving by sea as depicted in the trailer. This is only one example of how players can enter Eorzea depending on their starting area.
* Pre-rendered scenes and real-time footage were mixed in the trailer. Real-time footage was shown in the longest stretches, but overall, there was more pre-rendered material if you add up all the separate clips of it.
* Skillchains will be in FFXIV, both chains performed with other people and possibly ones you can do solo.
* Parties will be less restrictive and not penalize players for having too many or too few members.
* Excpect some familiar abilities to make a comeback; Komoto specifically references Flee, but says it might not necessarily be linked to Thief.
* Developers plan to have FFXIV support Windows 7, 64-bit systems, multicore processors and are trying to plan for how technology will have evolved by the game's release in 2010.
* Beta testing will begin for Windows PCs only. They will be conducted as focus groups that last around 3-4 hours at a time. This will be to iron out every little detail of the game utilizing player feedback. The next stage will be weekly tests that last a full 24 hours. After this, they will begin to stress test the servers by adding people in increments - they will start at 10,000 and double the amount for each subsequent test. Finally, after expanding the pool of testers to their liking, a full open beta will be initiated.

Edited, Sep 28th 2009 3:38pm by Elmer

That was an awsome interview. I like that SC are back and their was a lot of info on the Beta testing. SOrry RMT you guys are screwed on this game.

Skill chains, Same races, Red lotus blade?

geez might as well call this FFXI-2

Even though DirectX 10 was released almost three years ago, there are currently only 38 games that actually support it. The first game that was DirectX 10/10.1 exclusive was released just 6 months ago.

I thought FFXIV would support DX10 too, but you can't really say DX9 will be a dinosaur within a year...

Thanks so much for posting this... it actually sheds a very illuminating light on a few of my questions.

What I'm excited about is setting skills and wielding alternate weapons. You could have Flee as a thief skill, but be a tank and kite the heck out of a big mob that hits very hard, cast spells while swinging a sword, heal while being an archer, etc. The possibilities are going to be immense... or, so we hope from the description!

Ohh thank God. I can finally buy a graphics card without having to wait for the 5800's to come out. Was worrying that I would need DirectX11.

As long as the people at Square are making the game, it will be gorgeous. Regardless of DX10, 9, a billion, whatever.

I kind of liked in LoTRO how there were little intro quests to quickly get you acuqainted with game mechanics. I think something like that for FFXIV would be nice. When I started FFXI, I was so insanely clueless (my first MMO). I had no clue what to do in any way shape or form. Thank altana for nice people.

Awesome info!

I'm very happy to hear the info about the game's specs. I'm optimistic my gaming rig will be able to handle that, which means my fiancee will be able to join me in Eorzea after I get my PS3!

Very excited to see how this game turns out!

The link appears to be down at the moment. :( Well hope it goes back up soon.

Edit: It's back up yay :)

Edited, Sep 29th 2009 3:09pm by ShadowedgeFFXI

fighting in towns, skill based....

I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of "EVERYBODY HTH SUBLIGAR ONLY AS WE FIGHT OVERLEVELED MONSTER" town brawls for lulz.

Oh man, how did I miss this? That's like the single best thing that's been said about the game so far.

Furnishings? Wooo hooooooo! ^.^