Today Square Enix released the first gameplay video of Dzemael Darkhold, one of the "raid" dungeons slated to be released with Final Fantasy XIV patch 1.18. Together with it, they also published an interesting piece of "news" that introduces the dungeon's back story.

The video shows some very interesting tidbits of gameplay, like the use of devices and the presence of dynamic traps, indicating that Final Fantasy XIV's "raids" won't be just "tank and spank" dungeon crawls like some believed. Incidentally The level of challenge seems quite high.

Cutscenes are also present, giving the whole adventure a more Final Fantasy-ish look.

In related news, the game's director Naoki Yoshida recently defended the definition of "raid" in the latest producer letter, stating that they couldn't define the new instances simply "dungeons" as some suggested (given the fact that in common MMO lingo a "raid" is an encounter that involves big groups of players, while in Final Fantasy XIV they involve four or eight players) because there’s no guarantee all future instances will fit the definition of "dungeon", while even a small group of people can "raid" a given location.

The 1.18 patch is scheduled to be released on July the 21st. You can see the Dzemel Darkhold video below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/HvKmDawnngE?version=3&hl=en_US