Recently in the Magazines

6 Sep 2009
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Have you seen the pictures that came out this week?  Thanks to information released through Weekly Famitsu and Famitsu Online, we now have pictures of three more monsters that will feel the business end of our swords in Final Fantasy XIV.  Players of FFXI are familiar with Puks and Opo-opos, despite major changes in appearance.  The Antelope is a new-comer to the FF Online series.

More about the three of them later as we dig through the collection of clipped out pages scattered on my floor from Japanese magazines over the past two weeks.

Ranking Report
As expected, the more people hear about FFXIV, the higher it climbs in the “Anticipated Titles” charts.  It is currently at 22 for Weekly Famitsu, rising from 24 last week and 30 the week before.  It’s dropped a bit in Dengeki PlayStation going from 5 to 11.  Titles beating it out include FFXIII, FF Versus XIII, Kingdom Hearts, and Bayonetta.

While not part of the weekly rankings, Weekly Famitsu also had a all-time top ten list for RPGs last week.  Square Enix rises above the rest with 7 of the top 10.  1st place went to Final Fantasy X, 2nd to Dragon Quest 3, 3rd to Final Fantasy VII.  They also asked what people want to see in an RPG.  60 people said they want to see some online option but most people want a good story, a fun battle system, and a character growth system that’s enjoyable.  So far FFXIV is looking to meet all three of those main desires.

Gamescom
Most of the coverage was kept short and about what we’ve already heard about from last month’s gamescom.  Square Enix released high quality pictures of four more classes: Weaver, Marauder, Pugilist, and Archer.  In order to switch into these jobs, you have to equip the appropriate weapon.  
4classesfromgamescom
Weavers require a needle, the Marauder uses an axe called Bhuj, the hand-to-hand specialist Pugilist uses Baghnakhs, and the Archer has a Short Bow.  It’s still unclear how the classes that are more crafting oriented, like Weaver or Blacksmith, will participate in a party out on the battlefield.

Dengeki PlayStation and Weekly Famitsu also went over the Guildleve system as seen at gamescom.  A lot of the same information can be found in Fusion’s report on Guildleves or the other interview summaries on the site.  To quickly sum things up, you start at the Aetheryte and confirm which leve you want to take part in.  Once you are out on the battlefield, you can use your map to guide to you where your target monsters are.  As you defeat your enemies, an on-screen counter will show your progress.  For some leves, there will be a puzzle element.  At gamescom, the leve involving puks required players to kill the dodos first before the puks would appear.  It is not possible for other players to attack or be attacked by monsters for your guildleve.  After you finish, a mini warp appears that will take you back to the Aetheryte.

ffxivmonstersHigh quality images of 5 monsters were released around gamescom.  The three new ones for this week are Puk, Opo-opo, and Antelope.  The Puk looks a lot smaller and bulkier compared to his FFXI counterpart.  The Opo-opo is very similar.  The only major change in appearance seems to be the tail, which has a thicker base and is shorter than the ones in FFXI.  Antelopes weren’t a part of FFXI.

Player Opinions
Connect! On magazine started doing monthly FFXIV surveys a short while ago.  In this month’s edition, they printed some of the responses.  By and large, the people who wrote in feel the same way we do on the things that have been released so far.  For example, one person said they were impressed by the graphics and other people said they are looking forward to the new battle system.  For a more complete look at what they said, check out Elmer’s write up on the magazine over at ZAM.

By and large, there wasn’t anything we haven’t heard or seen elsewhere besides the three new pictures.  This will probably continue until Tokyo Game Show or until even later.  While Tokyo Game Show will be the last major game show for awhile, there is still the possibility of information being shown at a future FFXI Fan Festival.  Dates haven’t been set yet but hope is high in both countries for some kind of event before year’s end.

Some people may have noticed that this week’s report is later than normal.  September is a very insanely busy month for me, even outside of Tokyo Game Show preparations, so updates from the Japanese magazines might be a little slow.  Real life responsibilities have to come before anything else.  Hopefully most of you can understand that.  If there are any super amazing articles that come out though, you can be sure that we’ll let you know.

See ya soon!