Final Fantasy XIV beta phase 4 starts on August 17th
The latest Final Fantasy XIV live letter with producer Naoki Yoshida included some pretty big news for the community: the dates of the last beta phase and early access. Beta phase 4 will run from August 17th until the 19th (with previous participants welcomed starting on the 16th) and early access for preorders and Legacy subscribers running from the 24th through the 26th. Followed, obviously, by the launch on August 27th.
All progress made during phase 4 will carry over to full release, although the level cap for the test phase will be set down at 20. Players will have access to the Arcanist class as well as the first implementation of the game’s PvP area and a housing area for testing. The transcript of the live letter also includes more interesting tidbits such as confirmation that Arcanist will not be the only class with multiple jobs. Keep an eye on the transcript for more information as the letter progresses.
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Vexia
I woke up early to watch the Producer’s Letter Live this morning (don’t cry for me though because I’m in the latest of all U.S. time zones and only got up an hour earlier than I normally do 
), and I was very impressed, yet again, by the FFXIV crew! I had two streams running at the same time, one with the video and the other with a text translation. I think it was Reinhart, who worked hard to translate for hours straight, that I was watching along with the Producer’s Letter.
I’m very excited to try things like the Great Labyrinth of Bahamut and the Crystal Tower, eventually obtain my nifty subscriber bonuses like the adorable black chocobo chick and the ahirman mount, participate in the festivals to have fun and win seasonal costumes, decorate my home with quirky and cute furniture like a tonberry lamp, malborobookcasee (the books go in its mouth ), or a plushie moogle. It seems like there will be plenty of content to keep me busy and coming back for more Eorzean adventures!
Now that things are almost guaranteed to be “for keepsies,” I’m having trouble deciding on a server. Because the servers named Chocobo and Tonberry are Japanese, and the Moogle server is European, I was going to play on Cactuar as it is the next-best cute, iconic Final Fantasy character in my eyes, but I read about the Midgardsormr and was rather impressed with its sacrifice which tempted me to roll on its namesake server. Either way, I must wonder if choosing my realm based solely on its name is a good idea.
Greymantle
Though I’m looking forward to trying this out again after the initial failure it makes me sad that they have to put a cap on leveling. Why you may ask? With 10 days of game play it would be nice to think that it would take gold farmers playing 24 / 7 to make level 20 and the rest of us level 10 to 15 max. Why do MMO’s make it so we can get to max in two weeks these days and then wander why everyone is complaining about nothing to do soon there after.
