GamerEscape

Thanks to some vigilant forum members, we have new information about FFXIV from Japan. Images were leaked late yesterday evening from a 9 page Japanese magazine article believed to be released this week. Chances are high this is coming from Weekly Famitsu. Weekly Famitsu often uses furigana, small characters above kanji to provide the correct reading, which you can see in the leaked pictures. While the other likely magazine would be Dengeki PlayStation, which also goes on sale this week, Dengeki PlayStation doesn’t use furigana in articles. We’ll know more this weekend, so check back later this week for more complete coverage.

Until then, here is what we know from the images:

1) New Race Names!

From the pictures leaked so far, we can confirm the English spelling for 4 of the 5 races featured in the article.

First off, the familiar Humes from Final Fantasy XI are being reborn in XIV as Hyurans. Similar to the Humes in XI, the Hyurans make up the largest part of the population. The article states that they have gone through three large-scale migrations coming from nearby continents and various islands. Bringing new ideas and technology with them, they have become the driving force behind making Eorzea an advanced civilization. They value freedom in the sense of being free to do what they wish thanks to their diverse backgrounds with different languages and cultures stemming from different homelands. The race is now divided into two main groups: the Midlanders that settled in the plains and the Highlanders that settled on the plateaus of Eorzea.

Next, the Lalafells. They seem a little taller than their Tarutaru counterparts. UPDATED AUGUST 6th This race used to live in islands to the south but thanks to trade, they have now settled in Eorzea as well. Few of them live in colder areas. They tend to put a lot of weight on respecting ties by blood relationships. However, this does not mean that they are exclusive of people of other races. The Lalafells have good relationships with everyone.

Sorry for all those people who were hoping but there is still no confirmation of a playable male mithra-like character in FFXIV. Next up in our list is the Miqo’te. They are suited to be hunters due to their keen sense of smell and are very territorial with other Miqo’te. Because of this, even many of them that live in the cities live on their own. Like the Hyurans, they are divided into two main groups. Those active during the day are called Sun Seekers. The nocturnal Miqo’te are referred to as Moon Keepers. UPDATED AUGUST 6th The Miqo’te are the minority in Eorzea. They first came to the area when they were chasing after prey over the once frozen sea many years ago.

There are also no pictures of any female equivalents for the new tail-less Galka race known as Roegadyn. This race of burly strong men live near the northern seas. They often fill the role of soldiers or bodyguards. Being a seafaring race, some of them are even pirates. UPDATED AUGUST 6th There are different groups that make up the Roegadyn race as well. Zevoruf’s are the ones you often see in Rimusa Rominsa. On rare occasions, it is also possible to see members of the Roengalde clan in the city of Urudaha. This group lives in the mountains.

UPDATED AUGUST 6th The Elezen are a nomadic race full of pride. They believe they are the chosen people of the gods and were the first to settle in Eorzea. They have very keen hearing. It is said that they could hear a rat sneeze a league away. They have a bloodied history of battling with the Hyuran but now the two groups coexist together peacefully for the large part. There are some groups however who still don’t like the Hyurans, like the Shader clan who live in a remote area.

Other rumors state that there is the chance that there could be other playable races as well. However, this is not something that can be confirmed at this time.

It seems that there is an interview that goes with the article as well. It confirms there will be slight differences in the abilities between races. One rumor states that in the part of the interview we can’t see, the developer says that the difference will not be as large as it was in FFXI. Also, your playable character will be nearly identical to what you see during the character creation process so they want you to take a good long look at the screen and take time selecting your character.

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2) Customization!

Good news on this front. Players will be able to do some amount of customization to their character model. It’s not clear yet how much people will be able to customize their character but some things like hair style, skin color, and face will be customizable. Here’s to hoping for a wide wide range of customizable features.

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3) The Armory System!

We’ve heard before that character growth will be heavily dependent on the weapons you use. Inline with that, they revealed the Armory System. There are four large categories: Fighter, Sorcerer, Gatherer, and Crafter.  These categories are broken down further into various classes. Specific information has not been released on how many classes will be in each category but some examples have been given so far.

Crafter Blacksmith and Chef	Sorcerer Shaman and Illusionist	Gatherer Fisherman and Horticulturalist	Fighter Swordsmen and Archer

The write up of the article makes it sound like you change your class by changing your weapon. Other rumors include the fact that you will be able to change your class anywhere at anytime. Also, they are looking into allowing you to master all of the categories.

There are other rumors floating around right now online as well. For example, they are looking into giving people some flexibility to customize the position of windows in the user interface. Another rumor states that weapons will be damaged overtime by using it in battles or such. How much of this is true and how much is mere rumor? We’ll have to wait until this weekend when the magazines are released.