I know everyone is talking about it and you're probably sick of hearing about it already but I had to do this entry. Rapture was not supposed to be related to Final Fantasy at all let alone an FFXI sequel but now we know: Rapture -> Final Fantasy XIV -> FFXI-2.

So what do we know?

1. Our favorite races will be making a return. A worrisome detail from the epic teaser trailer showed us a Galka with no tail. Blasphemy!We also saw(at least I saw) a Male Mithra. Hopefully this means no more Manthra.

2. It is set in a new world or different dimension called Eorzea. There seems to be a lot more conflict in this world than in Vana'diel. The gods seem to play a bigger role in this world as well.

3. The job sytem will be returning in one way or another. From the FFXIV site we can see a WHM, BLM, PLD and a DRG. There appears to be a DRK as well but there's no way to be sure it isn't just a WAR in dark armor. There is also a belt of daggers which may indicate THF is set to return.

What does this mean?

Well it looks like they won't be changing a lot at first glance and this is what seems to be worrying most people. I want them to shake things up and go with completely new ideas. I know FFXI works from a financial stand point and they don't want to mess with a good thing for no reason but people will be less inclined to start from scratch for a prettier FFXI.

FFXIV has a lot of potential to be a great game if they don't make the same mistakes twice. But which mistakes you say?  Kings, gear that scales poorly, unbalanced jobs, a PvP system that is more inconvenient than fun, drop rates that defy reason, etc.. Basically we want more ToAU and less RotZ.

How will this affect FFXI as we know it?

The first blow seems to be to everyone's motivation. Why care about what I get done in FFXI if it won't matter next year? I know I'm feeling that way right about now.

Version updates will probably end with WotG completion depending on when it is completed. This doesn't mean that there will be no bug fixes or holiday events but I doubt we'll be seeing many "The Version Update is here!" messages after FFXIV is released. 

Cancelled accounts will likely come next. As the population continues to drop they will begin to consolidate servers. I doubt FFXI will ever "die" so long as people continue to pay to play but SE will reduce what the game costs them to run.

Will I play it?

The first deal breaker for me will be the interface. FFXI has a workable but far from optimal interface as we all know. I don't want an interface that makes me go out and find the best ToS-violating UI mods.

Next will be anything you can bot. This is a major problem in FFXI and SE's failure to correct it has lead to an "If you can't beat them join them" attitude about cheating. I don't want to see this in FFXIV and I'm sure very few others want to either.

Finally I want GMs that know what they're doing and have some real authority. Very few people have more than 5 GM calls after 7 years of playing. You think that's a good thing? It doesn't mean there's no problems. What it means is that GMs are so useless people would rather just say "fuck it" than waste their time waiting for a GM to be told "we're sorry for the inconvenience" and then ignored.


And there you have it. Comments are greatly appreciated if I missed anything(specifically about what we know so far).