Opinions will differ as to whether or not Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is doing
something “new and innovative”. However, much of the sentiment out of this past
weekend’s beta test seems to indicate that Square Enix’s new Final Fantasy XIV team
under Naoki Yoshida has done the impossible in completely overhauling the hot mess
that was the original Final Fantasy XIV gil site.
Last year, Final Fantasy XIV was off my radar until I had the opportunity to meet Mr.
Yoshida himself at E3 2012. It was at this appointment that I truly began to
appreciate not only the massive undertaking Square Enix had committed to with A Realm
Reborn, but also the passion and drive of the people behind it, with, of course, Mr.
Yoshida counted amongst them.
Fast forward a year later to E3 2013 and I was set to meet with Mr. Yoshida once
again. I approached our meeting with a follow-up on our previous conversation in
mind. As a longtime Final Fantasy fan, I was never drawn to the EQ-like Final Fantasy
XI and, at least at face value, FFXI was what I saw in Final Fantasy XIV on the run
up to launch, ensuring that I would pass over it as well. I explained this oddity to
Mr. Yoshida in our prior discussion; I just didn’t feel like FFXI or FFXIV screamed
“Final Fantasy” at me. As someone who loves Final Fantasy games and MMOs, you would
think that games like FFXI, and more particularly, FFXIV, would be an easy sell. They
weren’t. How could that be?
Mr. Yoshida instantly latched onto this question. Apparently, this had been one of
the primary issues with the original Final Fantasy XIV power leveling and it was an
important one to address for the team behind A Realm Reborn, both in the title’s
game design and in Square Enix’s communication to fans of the franchise. To that
end, we saw the beginnings of this just a few short months later with the release of
“End of an Era”, an epic six minute CG trailer that, at least to me, was as
convincing of a “Final Fantasy” game trailer as one could hope for. Had I never
heard of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn at that point, this trailer would have
definitely caught my attention
Square Enix is calling this the “Cross Hotbar”. First, think of the eight buttons
typically available on the face of the controller (D-Pad/Buttons). Now imagine
holding down the left or right trigger and pressing any of these buttons and you
essentially have two sets of eight actions you can access at any moment. You can also
create and store additional hotbars that can be switched to on the fly via the
controller expanding your options quite a bit. It’s a pretty genius idea, in my
opinion, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to find that this control scheme sets
a standard for console MMORPGs down the line.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn goes live on August 27, 2013 for PC and PS3. Pre-
orders are now available for both standard and collector’s editions.