[SteveManly]

A short but sweet article about alpha play by a Famitsu spin-off magazine/blog focused completely on FFXI. Well, almost completely. Now they're looking at FFXIV, as well. Will there ever be an Eorzea Tsushin?

Source is Vana'diel Tsushin blog.

Translation by SteveManly.


Vana’diel Tsushin blog: FFXIV alpha test play impressions 2 ~First half~

FFXIV’s alpha test is taking place regularly now. I’ll be bringing you my impressions of the test as a FFXI player. Sorry that it’s mostly first-person.

Keep in mind the test is still in the alpha version and a lot of things are probably temporary.

Last time, the test was cancelled due to an error, but this time I was able to log in pretty quickly after a few retries.

I began in Limsa Lominsa’s “Drowned Dolphin” pub, the place where all adventurers arrive after finishing the instanced opening, so adventurers were popping in left and right. As an FFXI player, I was somewhat used to the feel of the buildings, and the chat log was flowing at a good speed. Good to see this sort of liveliness in FFXIV.



I talked to an NPC and was able to receive some levequests. Right now, there are many people gathered in the adventurer’s guild, so things ran a bit choppily. I decided to explore the city on my way out, and left the building without knowing where I was going. The time of day had changed from night to afternoon, and it was really bright. One thing I noticed about while walking around virtually aimlessly and entering and leaving buildings was the realism of the light changes, specifically…







…how the light becomes too bright when you go from shade to sunlight. It’s like when you have to squint when coming out of a movie theater during the day. (Ok, he didn’t say that. I’m taking liberties with localization, just like Square Enix! –Manly)

I’m not sure if this technical performance was done on purpose, but it’s something you don’t get to experience in XI, and I was impressed by little details like this. I can’t wait to see what sort of details the developers fine-tune for us next!

(To be continued)

[Requiem]

thanks! glad to see it's back on track

[Jizzles]

The lighting effects sounds awesome

thanks, Manly

[Lad]

Woop woop, SteveAwesomely!

[liondude]

thanks bro, alright now i just wish i was in the alpha...

This post has been edited by liondude: 20 April 2010 - 08:55 AM

[Grodan16]

Thanks Steve! Wait... Servers are already up again or this is b4 the major problems?

[Alixandir]

If they're up again that's great!

Also, nice to read about the lighting effects. Got to love the attention to detail.

[Vennidus]

thanks again Steve!

[DerekRox]

totally noticed the cool lighting in one of the screens.



that one! I'm excited about the lighting :P

[sickel]

Grodan16, on 20 April 2010 - 09:23 AM, said:

Thanks Steve! Wait... Servers are already up again or this is b4 the major problems?

I believe this is prior to the testing bug, so the servers are likely still down. The way I understand it, there were two runs of the alpha test (Alpha Test 1, Alpha Test 2) which were completed, although Alpha Test 1 was (as should be expected) very unstable, and Test 2 gave people some more to talk about. Test 3 began in Japan, ran for 1 hour and 20 minutes before being canceled, along with all of the other alpha tests for the time being due to a continuing instability with the arrival pub, which this fan is discussing here. Hope this answers your question.

[Requiem]

I'm still waiting for our 2nd video blog SE!

[sidion]

Thanks for the translation and spin Steve ;-). Hopefully the new one goes smoothly.

[Suirieko]

The pictures have been added! Enjoy!

[DerekRox]

wow! the pictures look awesome! im so excited! :D! yay pretty mmos!

Cant wait to see Gridania, all foresty and green ^^

This post has been edited by DerekRox: 20 April 2010 - 12:57 PM

[Kylren]

As always, thanks for the translation Steve

Light management seems awesome,
but I've been wondering how time is set on the alpha server and how it will be for release, 1 game hour for 1 real ?

[Twilight Sea]

Man this is just making me want to play 14 more and more!

[Mooga]

Cool stuff, thanks Steve.

Btw I think there is a bug with the images I see .jpg] in front of each image.

[Apricoth]

What a great observation regarding going from a dark place into sunlight. That is excellent detail by SE. As close to reality as possible. Thanks!

[NSmasta]

in FFXI, you could see trees move with the wind, and the falling rain wasn't regular, strong at moments, light at others... i even saw a rainbow once, and such tiny details made the game so incredibly deep and alive... SE was already very good at this 8 years ago, and the light effects shown here are just an example of many gorgeous details that we'll discover through the game...

[GravEstam]

Thanks Manly! You're the best.

That lighting effect sounds great. But I wonder when SE will release the next video blog.