GamerEscape

Every Friday, Weekly Famitsu comes out with general information on console games.  Approximately every two weeks, Dengeki PlayStation covers PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 news.  This week, both have their E3 reports.

Let’s take a look at how the Japanese printed press treated FFXIV this week:

First, Weekly Famitsu.  Right after E3, they posted their version of the Japanese press interview with Hiromichi Tanaka and Nobuaki Komoto online.

I was anxious to see what they would have in their magazine but it turns out they didn’t give FFXIV much attention. FFXIV had one page in the magazine as part of their 4 “No Way!”s of E3 coverage. A mere 4 questions of the interview made it to print form. In comparison, the upcoming FFXIII was given 17 pages. It’d be nice to see this kind of coverage by Famitsu as we get closer to FFXIV launch.

Dengeki PlayStation had more coverage but that makes sense since they also have a few pages of FFXI info each week. The first two pages of content in the magazine were given to FFXIV. The bottom of the first page had the first part of the same Japanese press interview with Tanaka and Komoto. It is noteworthy that while it was a group interview, each of the different sites (GameWatch, 4Gamer, Dengeki, and Famitsu) had slightly different wording and a different take on the answers. Dengeki did not publish their version online opting only to publish the Q&A press conference. An additional 2 pages were added with the regular FFXI section and contained the remaining part of the interview as well as the Lightning Brigade’s thoughts and predictions. When the beta testing will start is still up to anyone’s guess. When asked if the beta test would start in 2010, Tanaka craftily brushed the question aside saying that official service for the game will begin in 2010 and the beta will come at some point before that. (In coverage done by other sites, like GameWatch and 4Gamer, the length of other MMOs was mentioned at being around 9 months but that FFXIV probably wouldn’t be so long. In the version of the interview posted by GameWatch, when they told Tanaka it sounded like the beta would start in 2009, he replied that he would leave it up to their imagination.)

One of the things they noticed in one of the official pictures was amusing.

They think the Tarutaru-like people are taller than they are in FFXI. Also, the blonde Elvaan-like woman sitting on the right-hand side of the picture appears shorter than FFXI Elvaan. They wonder if this is a change overall or if there will be a higher degree of customization for FFXIV. They also focused on the shape of the crystals in the background and how it is different from FFXI.

That’s all for this week. See you next time!