Eure Beta - Erfahrungen und Screenshots!

It’s not every day that a fanboy gets to live his dream, but I got to do just that when I traveled to San Francisco to take part in a demo of Final Fantasy XIV hosted by Square Enix on August 10, 2010. SE took us into a room with roughly 16 computers all custom built by iBUYPOWER at the recommended specs for FFXIV (i7 core, 4GB RAM, GeForce GTX 460).

As promised in Crystal Core episode 20, I am back to talk about what I saw. Video recording and photography were prohibited in the demo room, so my memories will have to be vivid enough to help readers feel as though they were there, too. The demo had three parts. First, we got to build a character and experience the starting city of Gridania for the first time ever. Next, we made characters for the starting city of Ul’dah, another world-first experience. Finally, they let us hop onto some level 40 characters and try some Guildleves in a group of 13.

Gridania

The cut scene began with me walking through a thriving forest of bright green vegetation. A disembodied voice told me to “Hear.” “Feel.” “Think.” When my character looked up to find the voice, the sky was filled with falling meteors, just like the scene for the Limsa Lominsa opening. Next, the meteor shower faded into the real sky, where a smoking airship was crashing to the ground. My character moved toward where he spotted something fall out of the ship.

In the next clearing, I saw two people on the ground. One was a Miqo’te pugilist, the other a Lalafell conjurer. I gained control of my character and tried to talk to both. Neither responded on the first try, but the Miqo’te finally stirred after three tries and a new scene began. The Lalafell, who was moving by this time, wondered where they were. She asked something like, “Where do you think we are, Polyamo? We fell from the sky and landed in a place filled with beauty and nature. We’ve gone on to the Great Beyond, and here is a psychopomp to see us on.” She was indicating me when she said “psychopomp.” It reminded me of the dead being ferried across the River Styx in Greek mythology. Polyamo used Rhalgar’s name in vain as he disagreed with her and called her “Yda.” Just as their argument heated up, a bit, bloodthirsty wolves popped out of the forest. I had control of my character again and needed to fight the wolves.

I killed three wolves, but more came out to surround us in the next scene. Just then, these giant roots popped up out of the ground and picked up two of the wolves. A treant rose from the earth and dropped the wolves into its mouth. Palyamo and Yda started talking about how now might be a good time to…

Next thing I knew, the camera had shifted to an empty stretch of the forest. The music sped up in that classic Final Fantasy way before a big scene. Then Polyamo and Yda flew into the frame from the left. They were screaming the whole way. The camera angle shifted to in front of them, and I saw my character running for his life behind them. The treant closed in and swung its arms, just missing them and blasting a hole in the ground. We all got shot into the air by the force of the swing, but then everything (and I mean everything) seemed to freeze. My character could move, and he reached out to bat at some leaves suspended in the air beside him. Then the Moogles started flying in! They were playing musical instruments, and I figured out they were the ones stopping time.

On a ledge ahead of all of this action, a young boy with horns appeared. He slammed his staff into the rock at his feet and called for nature to let go of its anger. I don’t remember his exact words, but whatever he said banished the treant, and the Moogles restarted time. The a band of warriors joined the horned boy, and one Moogle flew by Polyamo saying something in Mooglish. The caption let me know he was saying something about how surely someone as puny as Polyamo could not have broken the rift [something similar to a notion of breaking a boundary]. Polyamo understood what the Moogle said and took exception to being called “puny.” The horned boy was surprised Polyamo could speak Mooglish but said that the Elementals predicted our arrival. He told us that we all carried a taint that angered the forest and offered to lead us to Gridania for cleansing.

Once inside the Carline Canopy tavern at Gridania, the NPCs were talking about the prophecies of a Brother E-Sumi. It seems Brother E-Sumi believed the adventurers were summoned by the forest itself. A lancer named Swethyna came in and insisted we all get a proper cleansing so the forest would not get angry again. Yda and Polyamo left immediately, but my character stayed behind to talk to Miounne, who was running the tavern. She could tell he held something unique and asked him to hand it over. It was a squirming vine that may have been what agitated the treant.

Ul’dah

The cut scene began with me arriving in Ul’dah on a chocobo-drawn carriage. The people on the streets and my fellow passengers were going on about making a few coin and joking about the unkindness of the city. As I stepped out, a bard named Thancred who had been on the carriage with me had a woman under each arm and was asking them where they were headed for the evening. Then I heard the voice tell me to “Hear.” “Feel.” “Think.” When my character looked to the sky, there was the meteor shower again. Then a girl called out to her father about fireworks in the sky. The camera moved to her, and when it switched back to my view of the sky, the meteor shower faded into the real sky where fireworks really were going off to mark the beginning of a parade.

A Miqo’te named Llaminn was passing out white flowers in the street as everyone gathered. While a bureaucratic Elezen gave the Roegadyn driver of my carriage a hard time for taking so long to arrive, Llaminn offered the Roegadyn a flower. The Elezen told him to take it because it brought good luck. Flowers are rare in the desert, so they are a symbol of growth and strength in a harsh environment. Then Llaminn gave a flower to the little girl named Ascilia who had called to her father about fireworks and passed her the basket. She told the girl to make sure everyone gets one and then did some acrobatic moves to get up on a grand float coming down the street. A spectator referred to her as some famous dancer or something like that. The float was the one we saw in the E3 2010 video—the one with the goobbue on it. Readers who saw that video will have a clue about what happened next.

As the parade entered the main street, the magical seal holding the goobbue under control broke. A mage riding nearby and acting as the animal handler tried to start casting a spell, but the goobbue smacked him off of the float. It then went on a terror-inducing rampage in the city. Thancred was in the streets with the Llaminn and her friend, Niel. The goobbue was coming after the couple, but Niel tried to distract it. When it chased him, he said that he hoped he lived to regret it. After a little bit more of this hysteria, one of the NPCs (maybe Thancred, but I am not sure) tossed away his flower since it was not bringing him luck. I got control of my character for the first time with just me and Thancred in range of the goobbue.

I attacked the goobue and got it all the way down to the last shred of its life when Thancred hopped in with the last hit. He took much of the credit for saving the Llaminn and Niel. Then the goobbue got up, and Thancred noted that it must want an “encore.” It was about to attack Ascilia. Another person jumped in front of her at the last moment. That could have been Niel, Thancred, or the girl’s father. I am not sure. Everything flashed and when the dust settled, the goobbue was down in a pile of smoking rubble. It looked as if the local militia had come to take out the beast.

An NPC led me to the Quicksand tavern, which was run by a female Lalafell called Momodi. She was talking to me about the commotion out at the parade and was asking if the goobbue really got free. Thancred walked in and confirmed the story. He then told her that he was thinking about leaving the city before he saw how beautiful she was. Now he was inclined to stay behind to be near her. She liked the attention but got serious when Thancred remarked that being so far north and close to the Empire made him nervous. She told him that if the Empire attacked Ul’dah they’d lose to the desert city. Thancred acted (poorly) convinced and said he would stick around to compose a ballad of her beauty before heading back to the streets. Momodi noticed that I had a rare bauble of unusual color, a sure sign I would be after some coin in Ul’dah. To get me started, she sent me out to the nearest camp.

High Level Play
For the final play experience, Square Enix had us log onto a premade level 40 characters and told us to form a party. My character was a level 40 thaumaturge. The party leader initiated a Guildleve, and we tried to take on the mobs.

Unfortunately, most of the other players at the demo were not practiced with the controls of FFXIV. They had a hard time staying together, and even those who were able to keep up with us could not figure out how to activate their skills. As a thaumaturge, I was supposed to be doing some healing, but I failed in my job because secondary targeting was not enabled on the server we played on for the demo. I was targeting the mob to use my status effects, so my heal would not cast. I had to target a party member first. By the time I did that, the tank was down and we wiped. I have no idea who or where the conjurer was.

After a handful of wipes, we had killed only one monster, so the SE team suggested we break up into smaller groups and try to kill weaker prey. A few of us tried zerging a mob in the Ahriman family for a few rounds, but it pretty easily one- and two-shotted us without proper heals. My only heals were regen-type spells that ticked for 350 or so at best.