Havoc Snow

I think I must be the only person from the western market who actually liked FFXIII.

The game already has dimension hopping in it before they announced this. Yoshida and Fernehawles have both said in two separate interviews (there is even a video of one on these forums) that Xande and the Cloud of Darkness will be in the Crystal Tower raid. That effectively means this raid was ported straight out of FFIII, endgame bosses and all. This is just the "Dragoon" Limit Break hate stirred up all over again, and I'm pretty sure we'll see more of this kind of thing in the future since Yoshida stated he enjoyed cameos and wanted to see more stuff like it in the future. People will either get used to it, or we'll see this kind of rage often.

Well another thing to keep in mind as well is that, whatever Mana is, it is something that can be replenished by drinking a potion (Ether). I suppose however that depending on how you interpret how potions work, it could either be literally giving you more mana, like filling a gas tank, or making your mental acumen stronger so you can focus better (like a mental stimulant). I know some people had different interpretations of how Potions worked as well, such as it either physically healing your wounds, or merely numbing the pain from them.

Does it? I've had it backwards then, it made more sense the other way around. So have a stronger mind makes you better at healing... while being more religious gives you more mana? That's... weird, to say the least. I look at it more as belief in whatever your character feels gives them power-- be it gods, themselves, etc. Perhaps, but the use of the word Piety bugs me. By definition it's a measure of how religious, or godly, a person is. So by using the word Piety as the statistic for your Mana Pool it then implies that Mana comes from something religious.

Does it? I've had it backwards then, it made more sense the other way around. So have a stronger mind makes you better at healing... while being more religious gives you more mana? That's... weird, to say the least.

Given that your Mana Pool is directly tied to your Mind stat, I could understand it being considered mental fortitude, however how would you explain a Thaumaturge's use of Blizzard spells to effectively restore your depleted mental fortitude, and why does the use of Fire spells completely halt its replenishment? The idea would suggest that casting Blizzard allows the THM to think so clearly, or have such a strong mind, that he never runs out of Mana, while casting Fire makes the THM brain dead.

You can't actually enter your code in yet, so make sure you keep it somewhere safe. The site you'll eventually be able to enter it in however is http://preorder.na.finalfantasyxiv.com/us, at least if you're from NA.

We're already getting access to Magitek Mechs in 2.0, a gunblade class doesn't seem like too far of a stretch, perhaps as Garlean deserters (much like Cid). Engineer maybe? Who knows.

That reminds me... Back in 1.0 there was those "streets" or "halls" or whatever for the market where we put our retainers and we could just leave them in the open or rent an actual stall, which I thought was pretty cool. I read something about there being an Auction House though. So do we still get to set up shop in places or anything? I know Yoshida said they wouldn't have the stalls like they did before, but that you could setup a store in your house where your retainer could sell stuff for you. I believe it was in the last live letter before E3.

Again I have to agree with FreelanceWizard on this topic, there is plenty to suggest in the game that every PC in the story are one of the chosen few who can learn things with ease. However I think ultimately it all boils down to personal preference, nothing says you have to play your character how SE intend. If you make a MRD but want to RP as a Chocobo Breeder I see nothing wrong with that, so long as I'm not flamed or blacklisted for wanting to play my character how the Warriors of Light were intended based on the storyline. In most games, the storyline isolates the character into their own metaplot where everything they do is treated as if they were the only special snowflake in the world, and more often than not they only serve as a sidekick to a much more powerful character. For example, in World of Warcraft the game never really acknowledges that there are hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of other people all doing the same thing as you, it treats you like the hero of your own story, but more often than not you end up just helping main characters do stuff. In Final Fantasy XIV they went the exact opposite of this route, instead treating the storyline (for the most part) as a global metaplot that completely acknowledges the fact that you are not the only Adventurer in he world, let alone the only "special" adventurer/Warrior of Light. Because of this it is much easier to actually include metaplot in your characters story and development. Again, too each their own however.

Doesn't that just give more ground for the idea that players learn class/job skills easier than non-players? If the quest lore even acknowledges that we as players can learn skills that would take a normal person years to learn, and it only takes up a few weeks or so, then it would stand to reason that the game already justifies playing a character who has unlocked the potential of all guilds. I'm not arguing that this can't make you a mary sue, or that it can't lead to god moding, but that the game already implies based on this that we far exceed normal people as far as our capacity to learn and utilize the skills of each class. In short, I'd say playing a character who has access to every class you've unlocked does not make you a god moder or a mary sue/gary stu, so long as you don't play it like you have access to all powers, all the time. You could always limit yourself in the same way the game does, not able to access skills or spells in the middle of a fight you don't already have equipped. For example if you're RPing as a Black Mage, not being able to swap to Dragoon suddenly mid RP.

One thing we must also consider however is how difficult, in the game world, are these things to actually learn? If we look at THM/BLM for example they effectively only get three spells and a handful of minor buffs. Your first three spells are Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, and every other spell from then on (with the exception of Scathe) are just some variation of those spells. Fire II is just a weaker hitting Fire I that covers an area, and Fire III is just a harder hitting version of Fire I, while Flare is essentially a combination of Fire II and Fire III. Blizzard effectively follows the same pattern. Does it really take a lifetime of dedication to learn how to cast the same spell a few different ways? Even the THM questline seems to imply that all it takes to be a great caster are midichlorians is the ability to channel aether. Let's look at MRD/WAR next. All this class learns how to do is swing their axe around like a berserker, hit things really hard, and upon becoming a WAR you learn to channel your anger into more devastating attacks. Again, would this REALLY require a lifetime of dedication to learn? So why would it be so hard to consider a character who has mastered (or at least become considerably proficient) with swinging his axe around like a madman and flinging fireballs a few different ways? I'm fully behind FreelanceWizard here, especially because the story and lore for the game, unlike many other games, does not make any implication that you are the Chosen One, but instead that you are one of many chosen ones. It could even be stated that anyone who does not master all forms of combat and skill is not a true Warrior of Light.

The way I look at it is there is no longer any White Magic or Black Magic like there was in FFXI, it's all just elemental magic. Even Cure is considered Wind Elemental. So it doesn't seem like that big of a stretch if you have CNJ/WHM and THM/BLM to claim your character has mastered all the elemental forms of magic. Likewise, a character who starts as a MRD/WAR and then trades his axe in for a spear to go LNC/DRG could also claim to be a master of both. I don't think we'll see a lot of people claiming just because they have every class at 50 they can RP as being a master of every class (but I could be wrong), but I don't think multiclassing should be considered taboo in general. Plenty of characters in game tend to bend or break the rules, such as Thancred supposedly being a Bard but he uses a weapon not even available in the game (throwing knives), or Y'shtola being a White Mage or Conjurer but having crazy psychic powers (or at least her spells in cutscenes appear like psychic powers).

My 1.0 Keeper of the Moon has heterochromia so it was a trait shared by both. The reason why Keepers have round pupils and Seekers have slitted pupils are based on their genetics more than anything. Keepers of the Moon are nocturnal, so they have wider pupils in order to take in more light during the night, while they are also natural hunters which is why they have longer tails, fangs, and larger ears. Longer tail allows for better balance while running, while fangs are obviously meant as natural weapons, and the larger ears for keener hearing. The Seekers on the other hand are diurnal, as well as primarily being from the desert, so the slitted eyes take in less light. In a way I always saw the difference between the clans like Wild Cats (Keepers) vs Domestic Cats (Seekers). As for not being able to determine someones clan immediately IC? I'm not so sure about that, not entirely anyways. If I saw a Miqo'te with black skin and white hair, I think it's a safe bet to assume their a Keeper, just like if I saw a red skinned Roegadyn it's safe to assume they are Hellsguard. With that being said, you can be born one way and raised another.

Personally, if I took the time to level up Warrior and Black Mage as an example I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to claim my character has taken the time to train and become proficient with wielding black magic and an axe. FF games are all about pushing the envelop and doing things above and beyond what the normal person could do, so playing a character who has an affinity for all things combat wouldn't be unheard of, and the time it would take to level a new class from 1 to 50 you could easily explain the training in a new field of combat.

When the last batch of beta codes went out there was a notification in it saying that phase 3 would be ending on July 14th, which sort of falls in line with the idea that the final test for phase 3 would roughly be a week long. Then 1-2 weeks of debugging would put the launch of phase 4 possibly around August 3rd to August 17th with a little more than one week before launch for early access.

Just out of curiosity, what is your screen resolution set to and do you run it n borderless window mode or fullscreen mode?

Based on searching the market board last weekend, there are at least two other dyes I can remember (pure black and pure white) though I have no idea how to obtain them yet, I assume they're probably crafted or gathered.

I don't think we'll see actual cameos of characters from old games, more like the above post I made where they made Nael van Darnus very close to Sephiroth... but then again in that video posted on the forums about how to pronounce stuff Fernehawles says something about Xande being in the Crystal Tower, so maybe they will? Edit: Maybe Hydaelyn is actually Hollow Bastion before the Heartless get to it, and eventually we'll have all the Final Fantasy worlds merge together there! Kidding of course. Edit Edit: Personally I'd rather see them stick with vague references than full blown cameos, though in some cases it's alright for recurring characters. I can definitely say I was super excited when I saw But if they just straight added characters like Cloud Strife or Kain Highwind I'd be a little more disappointed.

As someone who is fluent in Irish Gaelic, I just want to state that he actually pronounces Cait Sith incorrectly (though to be fair he said he wasn't certain). Cait Sith is pronounced how he originally says it, Cat Shee, and depending on the dialect (Irish or Scottish Gaelic) it's either spelled Cat/Cait Sìth (Scottish) or Cat Sidhe (Irish). It basically means Cat Fairy.

Why does she sound like that... it hurts my ears.

One of the things I've always loved about the Final Fantasy franchise was seeing how the next game would remake things from the old games, whether they be weapons, monsters, or anything else. Final Fantasy XIV is no exception, in fact it probably has more easter eggs, cameos, and references to the franchise than any other game to date. So with that being said, I wanted to start a discussion about all the different things people have found in the game that are from previous games, whether they be just a mild nod to an older game, or a full blown cameo. Feel free to speculate as well, though let's keep it light hearted! I'll go ahead and start us off, though I know some of these are already well known. Nael van Darnus and the Seventh Umbral Era storyline seems, at least to me, a not-so-subtle reference to the storyline from Final Fantasy VII. While there are some aspects that might be merely grasping, like the scene where he defeats the player and then casually strolls into the fire leaving them for dead being a nod to a similar scene where Sephiroth does nearly the same exact thing, or the silver armor being a nod to Sephiroth's silver hair, there are other aspects that are not so easy to overlook. If we make a comparison of the Legatus to SOLDIER, than we now have a super soldier who claims to be descended from an ancient race that once inhabited the planet and now intends to wipe out all life using a Meteor. Sephiroth believed initially he was descended from the Cetra, while Nael claims to be descended from the Allagan, and the only major difference in their motives is that Sephiroth is compelled by his Mother (Jenova) while Nael van Darnus is driven by Dalamud (Bahamut). Next we have the Crystal Tower, something anyone who has been playing the series as long as I have will remember as being the area where the Warriors of Light confront Xande. One can speculate that the new version of it will also have a fight with the Cloud of Darkness even, perhaps the antagonist behind the Masked Mages/Ascians. I could go on, but for now I want to see what else anyone else has found in their travels!

Ack. Really? I'm a bit concerned now as my 1.0 character got the same opening as all the beta characters I've made. She's also stuck as the job I logged in as unless I do the quests. Hopefully I'll get the "legacy" cutscene in phase 4 if I'm meant to. I haven't seen any official word on it yet, but a lot of people on the beta forums were saying it was a bug and that come phase 4/launch all 1.0 characters should receive the "legacy" opening. Edit: And just to clarify, I have a non-legacy character that I started in Ul'dah who got the opening where you ride to the city on the chocobo caravan, I then transfered my 1.0 character when they opened the legacy servers and started that character in Ul'dah as well just to reference the two openings and see if they were different and the legacy opening I got was definitely different from the standard one. As I mentioned above, not everyone got this (in fact I have a friend with a lvl 20 legacy character who just got the stock opening as well) which is why most people believe it's a bug.

I don't even see a reason for toggling it off, for one it's a cool mark that sets you a part from the new heroes joining the fight (without giving any benefit to unbalance things), and almost every armor beyond maybe a subligar or the heat resistant clothing will cover it up. To be honestly, they couldn't have put it in a worse place if they wanted people to actually show it off.

As far as the game is concerned any character from 1.0, whether you are level 1 or level 50 are treated as if you were at the Battle of Carteneau and were teleported to the future. I only had a level 1 character from 1.0, so when the legacy servers came up I logged in to see if there was a difference and I got a different opening where my character was teleported and entered the city. Likewise he also had the legacy mark on the back of his neck between his shoulder blades, so based on this the game makes no distinction on how far you progressed in the previous story, only whether or not you were a 1.0 character. Edit: I'm also not a Legacy Player, I just have a "Legacy" Character so the tats are not only for people who got the promotion, it's for EVERY character from 1.0.