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EU Media Event Translations
Note: All translations are done by me (Slycer) - if anything sounds inaccurate or misleading, please send me a PM or reply on one of the threads and I can look into it. My focus with the translations is on readability (staying true to the content) vs. 100% robotic word-for-word accuracy which often reads as an incoherent mess.
Game Watch: Yoshida Interview
Dengeki: Yoshida Interview
Famitsu: Yoshida Interview
Game Watch: Field/Dungeon Area Trial Notes <- You are here
Dengeki: Job Updates/Additions
Game Watch: Job Updates/Additions
Famitsu: Job Updates/Additions, Compiled Info
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Source: http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs...26_703367.html
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Field areas around Ishgard in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward
During the European media tour for Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, in addition to being able to experience the new jobs, we also got a chance to experience two of the new field areas - Abalathia Sea of Clouds and Coerthas Western Highlands. Below are my impressions of those areas.
I played as a level 60 Au Ra character with equipment at item level 170 and we were able to freely explore the Abalathia Sea of Clouds and Coerthas Western Highlands. We also had three flying mounts available to us to try flying through the sky - the griffin, the black chocobo, and fat chocobo.
By the way, the client was a dedicated client made specifically for the media tour and we were connected back to the company servers; all NPC interactions were intentionally masked. The first places you'll go are the lower and upper areas of Ishgard which we were not able to explore at this time, so we don't know what kind of stories await in the city. This is only a discussion about the general atmosphere of the areas, so please take that into account.
Fantasies abound in the largely vertical "Abalathia Sea of Clouds"
The first area in which we set foot was Abalathia Sea of Clouds, which is the area that's previously been shown to promote the flying mounts. There are countless rocks floating throughout the air, and it's a well-realized aerial area with several different areas located on the tops of individual rocks.
This area is also incredibly large. The basic map of the area is probably about 1.5 times the size of the existing maps, but because of the complex three dimensional layout, it felt more like 5 to 10 times the size. I was really excited to think of seeing dozens or hundreds of characters moving around the area.
Operating a flying mount is very intuitive and doesn't need much explanation. To start flying and ascend, you hold the jump button down. Moving around and changing viewpoints are handled with the normal keys. You'll also automatically start flying if you jump off the edge of a land mass. If you want to get off your mount, you simply need to come down to ground level and make contact to begin running on the ground, then you can dismount. It was easy to understand and intuitive.
There are two Aetherytes in this location. One is the Ishgardian outpost known as "Camp Cloudtop," and another is home newly-added Vanu Vanu beast tribe -- "Oku Zundo" [[no idea how this will be localized]]. The flying battleship "Protector" is anchored at Camp Cloudtop, and the area is fortified by vassals of House Haillenarte.
Since we could not speak with the NPCs, we weren't able to tell what kind of relationship we'll have with the Vanu Vanu tribe, but just watching their animations which looked to be repeated behavioral training was pretty humorous.
Although our timing was bad and we didn't run into any FATEs in Abalathia Sea of Clouds, hunt marks were scattered around so we were able to try one of those. The monster "Shishiutaur" [[guessing at name, I couldn't think of any obvious correspondence in English]] was too tough for us with four people so we tried it again when we had 16 people, almost all of us from the media tour, and we were able to beat it relatively easily. We obtained Allagan Tomestones of Law and Poetics as a reward. It was also exciting to think about flying around this field area and seeing groups of people hunting for monsters.
Incidentally, in addition to the "Oku Zundo" camp, a number of Vanu Vanu bases were located throughout the sky. However, in many of these you're considered an enemy the moment you land. So there are definitely both friendly and hostile presences within the Vanu Vanu tribe, and it's likely that there will be storylines around that.
With an area this large, it was fun enough to just explore. We found beautiful lakes and watefalls, the home of a beast tribe, villages with distinct architectural styles, and a number of other mysterious places which we aren't even sure about, including some strange spherical object.
The influence of the Garlean empire was felt pretty heavily around FFXIV until now, so it was refreshing to see this entirely unique style of fantasy instead of the more sci-fi style imagery. I'm sure there are plenty of mysteries in this area which we haven't even touched upon, so I'm looking forward to the beginning of service when everyone can explore the area.
The suffering of the Dragonsong War is apparent in Coerthas Western Highlands
Coerthas Western Highlands can be found across the city of Ishgard from Coerthas Central Highlands. Although the tileset of the topography is almost identical, the center is almost completely open without anything blocking the view, and snowy fields continuing far off into the distance. This is an area that you were able to enter in the original FFXIV, but was blocked off by an ice wall which formed after the seventh Calamity. The scattered remnants of the past area are a nice nod to legacy players.
The Falcon's Nest base is located immediately outside lower Ishgard. Since we weren't able to talk to the NPCs, we couldn't determine why a base would be needed immediately outside the city or what kind of story will evolve here.
We had flying mounts from the start, so we were able to take a look at the area from the sky. Across the fields of snow we found several camps, buildings of unknown use, destroyed ruins from the Dragonsong War, and even the remains of a captured dragon which reminded us of the harshness of Ishgard.
We saw multiple FATEs going on simultaneously for level 50 in Coerthas Western Highlands. I tried participating in some of them expecting the enemies to be quite weak, but they were surprisingly strong.
The participation conditions in FATEs are the same as before, with Level Sync required to have everyone at a reasonable level, but since the enemies here were level 50, it was still pretty tough to fight them one on one. We tried one of the FATEs with three or four people, and I'm not sure if it's because we weren't familiar with the FATE or because we had new jobs, but we wound up wiping and running out of time and so we couldn't clear it.
It was a reminder of the classic leveling system in MMORPGs, how adventurers who have previously defeated raid bosses are suddenly weak and powerless in new areas, defeated by regular monsters.
There were a number of aggressive level 50 monsters scattered around Coerthas Western Highlands, so we got the feeling you wouldn't want to walk if you could avoid it. It might be quite a challenge to traverse the harsh snowfields at release since you won't be able to use flying mounts at first. Since individual players might find battles to be quite difficult, you'll want to team up with nearby players to get through the area.
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Notes from captions:
-There's no height coordinate so it will be easy to get lost.
-The changes between day and night in Sea of Clouds are impressive and significant.
-Shishiutaur is a water serpent type monster with water AoEs
-Some house was found in the middle of Coerthas Western Highlands with a mysterious facility in the basement.