Sure to please Chocobo fans, players can expect those speedy, yellow birds to appear
in Eorzea. The developers relate how the audience erupted in excitement the second
they appeared during SCEA’s presentation. Apparently, everyone had been a little
confused up until then, but once a Chocobo graced the screen, everyone knew they were
in for another Final Fantasy title. In this way, Chocobos are practically
inseparable from the series and need to be included. However, just like the races,
they will be looking to develop a new incarnation of Chocobos unique to this title.
Unfortunately, it is causing them a bit of worry regarding how exactly to do this.
Originally, thought to be a PS3 exclusive, Final Fantasy XIV will in fact be making
an appearance on the PC. The developers delve into this a bit, mentioning Crystal
Tools, a development platform that will also be used for Final Fantasy XIII and is
designed to allow them to port more smoothly to multiple systems. In regards to the
PC version, the game will utilize the current version of Direct X that is out when
beta testing begins. This goes for Operating System as well. Similarly, they do not
specify Vista or Windows 7 as an operating system, saying again that it will depend
on what is out at the time. For those of you looking to prep a new PC, Tanaka claims
they are really looking to get on the cutting edge of technology with this
installment. Like Final Fantasy XI, the game specs will be extremely high for the
time, but in about 5 years, an average machine can run it on max settings with little
to no issues. Tanaka also expressed interest in making a benchmark program
available.
To compose the musical side of Eorzea, Uematsu was tapped for his extensive work in
the Final Fantasy series. Tanaka was a little nervous that Uematsu’s busy schedule
would not allow for him to bless the world of Final Fantasy XIV with his
compositions, but luckily he was happy to oblige. Although there were a few snags,
being as this is an online game, they are researching the effective way to deliver
Uematsu’s work in full 5.1 channel surround sound.
Final Fantasy XIV will have a number of Worlds/Servers, and they are aiming for a
capacity of 5,000-6,000 simultaneous connections. The exact amount of Worlds has not
yet been decided, but they have plans to add more Worlds as user demand increases.
the they can say is that they will work hard to exceed the amount of Worlds contained
within Final Fantasy XI! When asked whether they plan to have as many as 30 Worlds
upon launch, Tanaka states that he does not believe that many will be required so
soon. Final Fantasy XI started with 16, but it grew gradually with a Windows
release, NA release and EU release, so it will at less be more than that it is
assumed.