That's right, now anyone can try and taste what this upcoming MMO has to offer. I have only played around with the beta for about 30 minutes or so, but I can tell it is worlds apart from my involved World of Warcraft experience.
One can tell Final Fantasy XIV is putting a hell of a lot of detail in it's atmosphere. The game features cinematics involving your character, and the three I have seen included involved animation, well done voice acting, and very decent writing. Even the quest text conversations are animated, although these are not voice acted.
It also needs to be said the game has a very Japanese feel to it, with out of place humor, outlandish monster designs, and generic anime-style characterizations (catgirl race, anyone?). This may turn some people off, although the attention to detail and impressive graphics will surely help people overlook these.
However, the wonderful graphics and detailed environments could in fact be Final Fantasy XIV's downfall. The game is incredibly demanding on the users hardware. My rig runs most current games on high settings and resolutions quite well, but with this beta, I had to turn my resolution and all other settings to it's lowest amounts to have it become even playable (and the interface still feels sluggish). The developers better learn to streamline their code a bit more, or wait a good amount of time for hardware to grow into their demanding standards. Those of you with rigs made out of unobtanium and fueled by the blood of virgin maidens; let me know how well it runs on your machine. I'm quite interested.
Anyhow, for anyone who wants to dive in and try this beta, they can do so at the link below:
Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta Test Application Site
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