Final Fantasy XIV Game Preview

One of the biggest surprises that we have had this year was the announcement at E3 2009 that Final Fantasy XIV will be launched some time in 2010 and be exclusively on PC and PS3. A big shock from the 2008 decision when

Microsoft somehow managed to convince Square Enix to put Final Fantasy VIII on the X-box 360 only.

There is still a possible option for the game to end up on the X-Box 360 but there are still a few things that Microsoft and Square Enix need to work out first. On to the game though, SE has announced has announced a new fantasy world that is up for all kinds of adventures and fun called Eorzea. On this world there is one single huge continent named Aldenard, there are a few outlying islands on the map as well. Looking at the map its seems to be only a small square on the greater world of Hydaelyn, which hopefully means there will be plenty of room for expansions to come out and fill.

Between all the different types of beautiful terrain features in this game from mountains, grasslands, desert and lush forest there are lots of fun places to see and play around in while exploring. After SE's first success at a MMO we are all very curious to see if they can deliver successfully a second time and will it stick? Maybe even be a World of Warcraft killer? One turn of the table that SE brought into this game was the introduction of disciplines instead of classes effectively giving you the option to switch between magic and up close combat which is all going to be dependent of the gear that you equip. The new Armoury system is fantastic and promises very much with the ease of switching between the different disciplines making this MMO a very gear intense and focused game.

One think that SE is doing this time around that Blizzard has ignored for some time is the ability to quickly switch between all the gear types and effective leveling your different disciplines. Why is this important? It is making it much more time effective to jump on for say 30 minutes and be able to get some good gameplay in before having to get off. Much unlike WoW where you wold need a solid 45-60 minutes of gameplay to really get into leveling and your quests.