Square Enix surprised everyone today by suddenly releasing a slew of information on the Future of Final Fantasy XIV. First of all the relatively bad news: the free to play period is coming to an end starting between late November and early December 2011.
The good news is that development will move at full speed through 2012 and towards the beginning of 2013 when the version 2.0 of Final Fantasy XIV will be launched both on PC and PS3.
The transition towards 2.0 and the PS3 launch will involve a server shutdown of undisclosed duration between october and december 2012, and a closed beta on the PS3 around the same period. With the relaunch and the opening of the new servers of the game that will support a fully new client, the PC version will become downloadable for free (even if it'll still involve the monthly fee of course), and a new free trial period will be offered.
Of course existing players will be able to retain their characters and data without losing their progress in the game:
Version 2.0, added to what will build up from the patches that will be implemented from today to 2013, is planned to be not just an update, but a full reboot of the game, with a new engine, a slew of new content, and the whole world of Eorzea completely overhauled. Just take a look at te concept screenshot of version 2.0 that Square Enix shared today. It's hard not to be excited about it.
Square Enix also shared a suite of four documents that detail fully the road to 2.0: a full roadmap, a list of features for 2.o, a lovely mini-artbook showing concept art for future updates, and a document detailing the major changes that includes the patch schedule for the next year.
The upcoming features (prior to and for 2.0) are many and basically sound like the wet dream of every Final Fantasy XIV player (and of many Final Fantasy fans in general). Here are the most juicy ones:
- Completely redesigned world.
- Implementation of a new graphics engine.
- New server system designed for increased speed and performance.
- Fully renewed user interface.
- Implementation of the Job System
- Complete redesign of character creation.
- Addition of Male Mi'quote, Female Roegadyns and Female Highlander (at long last we'll some tall and muscular ladies!).
- Release of a drag & drop "mannequin" system to change gear on the fly when changing classes.
- Complete redesign of the market wards in a system incorporating both retainers and Auction House systems.
- Primal summoning and monster taming ability available to certain classes (yay, summoners!).
- Release of a "companion" system for summoned and tamed pets that will develop over time.
- Addition of private rooms (inns and similar).
- Implementation of Hamlet Defense battles.
- Implementation of content revolving around the Twelve mythos (the gods of the game's lore).
- Release of new battles against the Garlean empire, including those against the Garlean Legatii (FFXIV's version of the Judges from FFXII).
- Introduction of legacy Final Fantasy items (Excalibur and Masamune anyone?), those items will have unique graphics and stats.
- New dungeons.
- Implementation of player housing.
- Implementation of collaboration in dungeons between Disciples of War, Magic, Hand and Land.
- Implementation of a feature to replay cutscenes.
- Full voice acting for cutscenes in all four languages (Japanese, English, German and French)
- New Seventh Umbral Era storyline.
- Implementation of multi-party alliances.
- Addition of a Signature feature for crafted items.
- Release of player-driven communities known as Free Companies. They will allow access to personal estates and cooperative crafting.
- Implementation of Chocobo gear and armor, mounted combat (!), mounted content and shared chocobos.
- Implementation of other forms of transportation.
- Introduction of a mail an delivery system.
- Completely overhauled search function.
- Content finder to find groups to enjoy content and dungeons even across different servers.
- New achievement system, with the addition of 300 new achievements and the implementation of rewards like titles and items.
But Final Fantasy XIV's future won't stop with version 2.0, as the following features are planned past the reboot:
- New Primal battles.
- Ability for free companies to summon a primal directly in order to fight him.
- Campaign of battles to defend Ishgard against an horde of dragons, with the participation of all four disciplines (wait a second as I wipe the drool off my mouth here...).
- Implementation of two PvP venues: The Coliseum and Frontlines. The first will be an arena-like system, the second an open world PvP area with factional warfare between the Grand Companies (and anyone that played Dark Age of Camelot knows that three-way RvR is full of win).
- Addition of two large-scale instanced raids named Crystal Tower and Vast Labyrinth, with further expansions planned afterwards.
- Implementation of the wandering Odin primal. He will grow in strength and drop better loot every time he's defeated.