Imagine me one day playing Battlefield 3 with my clan members when I saw the most coolest thing. One of my friends on my list was playing Final Fantasy 14 beta. To my excitement I rushed over to the play store only to find out that it wasn’t there. So I asked my friend how did he get in the beta. His reply made me want to cry. He downloaded the XMB skin on PSN. Something so simple I didn’t do. To my surprise it was gone. So I ran to the internet looking for a way in. Everything led me to the official site. So I signed up and gave them everything I thought would warrant me the beta pass. Fast forward 2 months later lol I got the email and the pass to download on to my PS3. So let the fun begin!
Time to download. In the BVI that can be a while
What do you know more downloading….
After leaving my PS3 on over night I already knew that I would have to do that again. Why cause this is a MMO. You know it will have updates. Lots of them. So after the lengthy downloads I was ready to get in the game. Now being Final Fantasy 14 there is a story. I won’t lie I zipped through all of the fluff stuff. To give you an idea of what is going on basically Behemoth made a mess of things and now they are rebuilding. He still around somewhere and there is something evil a brewing. So that is where we come in. The adventurer.
The character customization is basic. You have the choice of different races. You have the human, elf, tiny dwarf and the hulk dude. I know they have special names but really we all know that each one serves a specific role. The human is the all around character. The elf dude can be a toss between magic and ranger type character. The tiny dude for magic and the hulk dude for tanking. The system for class is unique. What I mean is that once you change your weapon you become that class. So instead of having to change a whole character to be a healer all you have to do is change your weapon to a staff or what they call change your gear. I love the idea. Right now I am a Archer. Just call me a nerd for the hunter type. That is what I played in World of Warcraft.
BATTLE
Just as you expect the battle is in real time. Seeing that I am playing the Beta and have not reached a high level the little that I gathered was good. Fighting is fluid and simple. Not so simple that it is a button masher but very strategic. I chose an archer class and while I was attacking one of the icons lit up so I used it and to my surprise I dealt more damage. Then there was another time when I followed up with one attack then used the finisher attack that dealt major damage. So only being a low level 9 I saw the potential for an exciting match up.
FATE
Also I want to talk about the Fate Matches. These happen randomly. Sometimes in different areas but when they do happen best believe it is awesome fun. Sometimes it is more than one enemy on the screen. Sometimes it is a huge boss type enemy. The satisfaction of defeating the enemy comes with great experience points.
GEAR SYSTEM
Now for the most part after playing Final Fantasy 11 whenever I was on a mission and saw that my friends went on a raid everyone had to either change their character based upon what is needed. For example if there was no healer in the group someone had to change their character. Now in the Final Fantasy 14 all you have to do is change your weapon. As simple as that is it adds a huge strategic element to your character. In the midst of a battle one can become a tank if he sees his friends in danger. Even better if you have everyone tanking and you want to deal huge DMG (damage) can flip into a mage and cast spells from far. Even an archer. I was to low a level to get this done but I saw some other players while in a fate battle did that and it blew my mind. I always wanted to be able to flip between classes with just one character. So this is a welcome addition to the MMO world.
I have pre – ordered this game on the PS3 and I will be definitely give a deep review of the story and other aspects of the game. I think if you are a fan of MMO’s and don’t mind paying the monthly subscription of $12 or $15 then I say give it a try. There are strong numbers in the servers for the beta and I know that will translate to many other gamers to party up with and maybe you will meet new friends in this vivid new MMO world. This game will be released on both PC and PS3. Good news that players on the PS3 and PC will be playing together. Also if you bought it for PC and want to play on the PS3 would be able to transfer their account seamlessly. All you have to do is buy the game for the PS3. Expect this game August 27th 2013.
CaribGamer 