FFXIV's Tanaka and Komoto chat with Dengeki

Recently after the hub-bub Final Fantasy XIV had at GamesCom with the alpha build already playable and a wellspring of new information about the MMORPG available to the public, FFXIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Komoto were interviewed by Dengeki about the status of their upcoming project.

They mention a wide gambit of updates and changes to what gamers can expect from a Square-Enix MMORPG. With a good technological generation down the line from FFXI, they elaborate that they were able to produce a better detailed player character and environment. While they didn't specifically say that the world of Eorzea would be seamless, they note that there has been an improvement compared to FFXI.

Dengeki also asks about Guildleves, something I have found interesting since the unveiling of the project. Guildleves are essentially the game's questing system. Now, FFXI's questing was rather sparse in comparison to WoW, and required the player to eke out a challenging(?) grind. Now, since the days of FFXI, FFXIV has implemented something that could make questing more of a dynamic and fun process. In essence, the guildleves that you collect have a wide variety of tasks that you must complete; this in turn can be rewarded with better skills and other rewards. The guildleves that you choose are designed around how much time you want to play. Only have an hour? Pick up the according Guildleve and you're off.

ZAM was awesome enough to translate the full interview; I'd highly recommend checking it out.

Some more gameplay vids for FFXIV

GameTrailers recently put up a new batch of videos from Gamescom for Final Fantasy XIV.

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Lalafell Gameplay (Cam) HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIV Online | GC 09: Character Animations (Cam)

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

SOURCES: GameTrailers

And new FFXIV scans to boot...

These are two of nine new scans that appeared in Famitsu involving Final Fantasy XIV; many of these scans are pieces that have been updated to the official site as well.




View ALL THE SCANS here.
View the OFFICIAL SITE here.

SOURCES: e3.endless.com

Gamescom gameplay of Final Fantasy XIV

At last, our first look!


SOURCES: capnsmak (GameVideos), Thanks Hokage for the heads up!

FFXIV site updates with interesting details

The Final Fantasy XIV website updated with a swell of new and interesting information about the MMORPG's world and job system. In which explains that Eorzea is just a region in the entire world in which several city-states have through trial forged a mutual alliance. New regions have been detailed, and the races have been renamed from those in Final Fantasy XI (Humes are now Hyur, etc.)

City-states in Eorzea are revealed to be a desert city with plenty of domes called Ul'dah; a castle skycity called Limsa Lominsa, and a forest city named Gridania.

Also elaborated is a "job" system annotated by an armoury of different weapons and tools. Will it be as simple as equipping a sword for a combat-heavy class and switching to a staff for a magic-heavy class? Also, it's revealed that there will be jobs (blacksmithing, like of that nature) and harvesting jobs. For a further (and better explanation) refer to the site.

Also, a new concept comes up in FFXIV; guildleves. It seems that these crystal plates are bestowed to the player when they are to complete a certain quest or objective. It seems as if they will be crucial in completion of these tasks, and I'm thinking they'll be a way to use a teleportation crystal to reach your destination far quicker than map travel. It leaves a question open that begs to be answered: "If you don't have a guildleve to say harvest in an area to complete a quest will the player be punished for this action in some form?"

Check out the official site for more.

FINAL FANTASY XIV | SQUARE ENIX

Final Fantasy XIV, artwork of

Today, Square-Enix sent out a new mail with a link to the Final Fantasy XIV website, where the E3 trailer is viewable, followed by a link into the site where a large mural created by Kazuya Takahashi was available.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Official Website NA





SOURCES: Square-Enix

Nobuo Uematsu talks Distant Worlds and FFXIV

Luckily, I was able to attend a Distant Worlds in Minneapolis earlier this year, and I was totally delighted getting to see Nobuo Uematsu in person. (He even sat with us and a few rows away from me in the audience that night!) If you ever get the chance to go to a performance, go. It's totally worth it.

Recently, Mr. Uematsu was interviewed by ZAM on the subject of the Distant Worlds concert and his return to compose the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XIV!

Distant Worlds: The Men Behind the Music
8 hours 42 minutes ago by Thayos

ZAM Wikibase Editor Scott "Thayos" Pesznecker (left) and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (right)

Nobuo Uematsu's music was heard around the world long before he became famous.

The 26-year-old musician -- who grew up in Japan listening to Elton John, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson -- was hosting friends at his home when one of them mentioned a part-time job opening at a small video game company. Uematsu applied for the job and got it.

Soon after, he was scoring the soundtrack for what would be the company‘s breakout title -- a role-playing game called Final Fantasy.

The rest is history.

“I certainly didn’t write any of these pieces with the ambition they’d be performed in concert halls,” said Uematsu, now 50. “I never imagined I’d be doing this, and that every time people would be asking, ‘encore, encore.’”

The “Distant Worlds: Music of FINAL FANTASY” concert tour, which is swinging through Seattle, Wash. this weekend, is a compilation of Uematsu’s work throughout the Final Fantasy series. Under the direction of Uematsu and Grammy award-winning conductor Arnie Roth, the iconic music of the Final Fantasy series is brought to life by a full symphony orchestra.

Uematsu, in Seattle for this weekend’s concerts, took some time after Wednesday’s rehearsal to reflect on his career and the success of Distant Worlds.

"It's just the ability to see the reaction from the fans overseas, how happy they are to hear the music," he said. “That's a really big lift for me."

As a young boy, Uematsu discovered his passion for music while playing around on his older sister’s piano. Although he fantasized about becoming a pro wrestler, he always knew he wanted a career in music.

He landed his first paid gig when he composed a radio jingle for an amusement park in north-central Japan. After that, Uematsu mainly focused on his small rock band -- he played the keyboard -- before landing his job with Square.

Now he’s a member of The Black Mages, a rock-style band that performs electrifying versions of hit Final Fantasy tracks. He’s constantly touring with Distant Worlds, which recently wrapped up overseas performances in Singapore and Taipei.

On top of that, Uematsu is halfway finished with composing the music for Final Fantasy XIV, the second massively multiplayer online game of the franchise. Final Fantasy IX was the last installment of the series to be scored entirely by Uematsu.

“It’s tough, it can be tough; there’s a lot of material to get through,” Uematsu said of his ongoing work with FFXIV. “You’ve really got to make a wide variety of patterns in the music to try to open up the score. One of the things that is an issue is obviously one person working by themselves can be limited in what they can do, so what I’m trying to do is produce a good range of music.”

Roth, the Distant Worlds conductor, has become close friends with Uematsu during the Distant Worlds series. The two work together on a daily basis to convert Uematsu’s pieces into various symphonic arrangements. Roth has written so many arrangements of Uematsu’s work that the concert series may begin returning to cities with entirely different music lineups.

Although Roth isn’t a gamer, he’s largely responsible for the birth of Distant Worlds.

The idea for the concert series was planted in Roth’s head by a colleague who had performed a Final Fantasy music concert at the 2002 E3 convention in Los Angeles. The show sold out quickly. However, the show’s venue was rather small, and skeptics wondered the show would have sold out had E3 not been happening. Roth’s friend talked to several conductors; none of them took his idea seriously.

“There’s a great prejudging, or assumptions made, with the old school presenters,” Roth said. “They all look at that and say, ‘what do you mean a concert of all video game music? That’s the knee jerk reaction. Many times, it’s that knee-jerk reaction that immediately halts a project.”

Roth took a chance on the idea. He planned an all-Final Fantasy concert called “Dear Friends” in Chicago, where he is the musical director and principal conductor of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra. Just to be safe, he stipulated that the show would only be held if a certain number of tickets could be sold.

The show sold out.

Roth was floored by the audience’s reverent enthusiasm. In rock concerts, people are usually dancing, stomping and singing along. Classical music fans are usually silent, but it’s oddly common for people to shuffle their programs at the wrong moments or head for the restrooms at breaks in the music. During that first show, everyone was quiet and still.

“These fans are maybe some of the best fans, better than classical fans,” Roth said. “They know the music so well, and they come here to listen to the live music. You can hear a pin drop during the performances, which is just a beautiful thing.”

An unnoticed exception, Roth later learned, was a man who proposed to his girlfriend while his orchestra played “Aerith’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VII. “I understand how important it is for people,” Roth said. “Significant moments of their lives took place in the context of this playing in the background.”

Uematsu wrote most of those tunes in his home office. His many inspirations include 1970s-era rockers, the Renaissance period of central Europe, movies such as “The Godfather” and classical music composers. He said he tries to craft his melodies in a way that anyone can relate to them. He is grateful to Roth for helping him improve his music.

“He kind of tends to see music as just one entity rather than pigeonholing it into things like classical, or game music, or rock music,” Uematsu said. “He tends to just have a much more holistic approach to music, which has been really great.”

In some ways, Uematsu never stopped playing on his older sister’s piano. He is incredibly passionate about his work, yet he rarely feels as if he’s had to study to improve.

He’s got the Black Mages and Distant Worlds. A single song can take a few days to write -- “One-Winged Angel” took nearly two weeks -- and a game can take up to eight months to score. That means he’ll have his hands full with Final Fantasy XIV.

Uematsu still has lots of music to be made. Only now, people know who he is.

“Through this series, I’ve really had a lot of personal freedom to what I wanted to do with my life,” he said. “You don’t get that much in life, to do what you want and to pursue your goals like that. That has definitely been the most rewarding thing about working with the series.”


Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy will be playing three shows in Seattle from July 9-11 and one more in San Francisco on July 18. Visit http://www.ffdistantworlds.com for show information.

I'd like to thank Nobuo Uematsu, Arnie Roth and the folks with AWR Music and the Seattle Symphony for making this story possible. I would also like to thank John Charlton for volunteering his time as our interpreter. It was a pleasure to meet these people who bring the music of Final Fantasy to life.

Original Article: Distant Worlds: The Men Behind the Music :: Final Fantasy XIV (FF14) at ZAM

SOURCES: ZAM
Thanks for the heads up, SuperEclipse!