While Final Fantasy XIV players were eagerly looking toward the end of the week for the game's newest patch, it's going to take just a few days longer for everything to be finished. In his latest letter to the community, Naoki Yoshida apologized for the delay but confirmed that in order to complete the testing process, the development team is holding the patch until October 4th. The guildleve history evaluation and the Ixali stronghold will also be held until 1.19a for further testing and refinement.
On the plus side, the full patch notes for patch 1.19will be available for viewing on September 30th. Yoshida also included a video preview of the upcoming Ifrit battle that will go live in 1.19, showing what players can expect from the first skirmish against this mighty primal. Jump on past the break to take a look at the fight as well as some hints of the game personalities involved once the patch goes live next Tuesday.
@real65rcncom FFXIV has actually helped the Final Fantasy franchise more than any other game in the series since FFX. By being so bad at launch S-E has been forced to listen to customer feedback. They never did this before as they would always make whatever they wanted to without taking fans into consideration. But 14 is making them realize how vital our feedback is.
@(Unverified) You obviously haven't followed S-E much. In all 10 years since FFXI has been out they never once opened a forums. Then FFXIV tanked so hard they did a community question thing. Immediately after it they began working on forums they then released a month later. They did this for FFXI as well. Because of FFXIV SE is listening to the community.
That guy is Nael van Darnus, one of the Legatus from the Garlean Empire. They are comparable to the (and with armor design inspired by) Judges from Final Fantasy XII. We could say he's one of the bad guys.
About what he does at that part, it's unknown at this point. Mass guessing on the official forums says he's harnessing the power of the Aetherial Gate and shooting it at the player character, effectively destroying the gate in the process. Why?
The game is only worth it, for now, because its free. I bought it, for 20, 8 months ago and play here and there because its free. so yeah its worth it, depending on how much longer it will stay free. if it went P2P in 2 months I wouldn't sub....
@Janitor I agree. I think the game should stick with a Guild Wars type pay model where you pay for the game and future major expansions but nothing else.
Honestly this delay doesn't make any difference at all. Those who love this game have had some pretty hefty blinders on since day one. Nothing will stop them from playing. And for the rest of us? Well, some of us might log in for a few minutes if we bothered to remember our password. No one is going to rush out and buy the game because of the patch.
@Laren I wonder how many people will stay with the game when they finally deem it worthy of a monthly subscription.
At this point SE's only hope is to become B2P and add a item shop imo. At least this way they are making box sales and at least generating some cash from the actual game.
The one thing I think is gonna be a fraud is when they finally release it on PS3 and it costs $60. That is way too much for this game, at any stage of its development.
While the video certainly looks impressive, I found the myself most breathless during the cutscenes but hardly during the actual battle scenes. Everything still appears too rigid and mechanical, the lack of fluid combat, while seemingly a characteristic within the FF franchise, simply doesn't seem to mix well with an MMO, in my opinion. I'm not bashing the game as a whole, as I continue to praise the FF titles for their enriching storytelling and, especially with FFXIV, the gorgeous graphics. However, as combat does take precedence within an MMO, if it's unappealing, too systematic or mechanical, or just simply not dynamic enough, I personally find it hard to come back time and time again. Hope the FFXIV team will be able to continue to make improvements to the game, though, as it's certainly a pretty one that many seem to enjoy!
That's what I meant, or at least tried to state, in my comment, namely that the combat looked dull (mechanical and labored) but the cutscenes themselves - where gameplay itself wasn't at hand - looked stunning.
