Dave's Place: 2009

Taking a small detour from class-heavy posting, I decided to dedicate an entry to the new Final Fantasy MMORPG that's coming out next year or around then. One of the most intriguing bits of information released has been the logo & how it represents the new job & weapon systems. From an IGN article come these bits of information:

What is the combat system like?
The development team won't say, but it did confirm to us that... Additionally, the heavy team-play aspect of FF11 has been deemphasized, and now exploration and battle is said to be more balanced between solo and team play.

How does the leveling system work?
Square Enix is cagey about how characters advance, but it has confirmed with IGN that growth is not based on experience and that it will work on a different system entirely.

What about jobs?
Jobs will return in Final Fantasy XIV, but they will be much different than the job system present in FFXI.

How important are the weapons?
Weapons are very important and have a heavy influence on your character and how they succeed in the game world. Square Enix says to look closely at the official FFXIV logo for hints and hidden meanings about how the game will work.

What hidden meanings?
Square Enix told us that when it approached Amano to do the logo art for FFXIV, that weapons were very important and to think of the concept of a "wheel." Specifically, a wheel of adventurers that has their weapon in front of them and an exposed backside -- which leaves each adventurer to rely heavily on their comrades and their friends. Let the speculation begin.

With the official logo at the top of the page, let us begin to analyze:

It appears that all characters are indeed brandishing weapons, and the female taru (directly beneath the large outstretched hand) might actually be using a chakram as a main weapon, not just a throwing weapon. As a commenter on this blog notes, it looks to be in layers, with the swords up front, followed by the mages and the spears behind them. (I paraphrased and added to his remark.) Now, this seems to be supporting a system where, in order to have the best "party" you should have one of each of the jobs and/or weapons.

I'm wondering how this will allow for more soloability but for now, on with the analysis. The statement that "growth is NOT BASED ON EXPERIENCE" seems to be very interesting and appears to be directly related to this statement from SE:

Anything else about the weapons?

The team let slip to us that choosing weapons for specific tasks one day versus another could affect how your character develops.

I'm willing to bet that growth is somehow based on weapons used... Not exactly sure how, yet.

Just some preliminary thoughts... I'll post more later.