Up to date impressions of Final Fantasy XIV
I am not sure when the official FFXIV sites were updated, but I just noticed the new stuff this morning. And it is this new stuff, which I will share my impressions of.
First of all, yes, I will probably be a male Lalafell, named Cecillala, Cecilfell, or Ceciltaru, I haven’t decided yet. 
The Lalafell, definitely look more child-like than the Tarutaru, and hopefully they will not speaky-weaky like them. As for the other races, I was disappointed to see that the Roegadyn (Galka) and Miqo’te (Mithra), appear to be single sex again. It will be interesting to see if there are any racial abilities given to the different disciplines, which I cover later.
Next, is the Armoury which brings to mind a Bag of Holding, aka Mary Poppin’s carpet-bag Now I might be off in left field here, but this really sounds like a cool idea. It really does sound like a way to quickly switch between different weapons and armor, as well as different disciplines. I am still wondering if there is a Final Fantasy Tactics style of learning abilities to this, as it sounds from the second paragraph. Obviously if the real idea behind this is currently being conveyed, then this is really cool. Think about going to a Cerby, Fafhogg, Tiamat, or whatever HNM as a fighter, then switching over to mage when the current mages MP is gone, and then dropping for a new mage to heal your MP.
The idea of the different disciplines sounds really cool as a replacement to the old job system. It sounds like if you are a War Disciple, then obviously based on your weapon and equipment, determines the role you play: tank, melee, ranged, and the weapon also helps in determining the damage and frequency of attacks. As a Magic Disciple, the skills you have help to determine the “school” of magic you use, whether it is white (healing), black (attack), red (white/black), green (elemental/earth), or summoning. As a Disciple of the Land, based on what you have equipped, determines what “occupation” you are doing, such as fishing, harvesting, mining, lumbering, gardening, or excavating, which does have a slight drawback in regards to HELM, because you will actually have to equip the item, instead of just using one. And finally, has a Disciple of the Hands, what equipment you have determines your crafting proficiency. I am still left wondering what restrictions will be placed on these disciplines, or if there will be some jack-of-all-trades thing.
The guildleves sound like a cool concept to how quests and missions will be handled, giving additional special abilities based on what you or others have. It sounds like, for example, that if you have a Valor guildleve, you get a plus to your strength or defense, or maybe a guildleve that gives a plus to magic or intelligence. Or maybe a Diligence guildleve helps with HELM style tasks, and a Constancy guildleve helps with crafting tasks. So there are some really cool ideas in this system, and it will be interesting to see what they actually do.
One of the really cool concepts presented so far is Aetheryte, which sounds like really cool warp crystals. Maybe the time sink of travel is gone, but it does sound like there is a drawback to this system. For example, even though you can warp from point A in Limsa Lominsa to point B in Gridania, and then you can warp to point C in the Crypt of Eternal Evil, and then warping back to point A in Limsa Lominsa in one day, you can’t warp anymore that real day because of the effect on your body. And maybe there is further exceptions based on your “level”, so that new people will not be able to freely warp between areas. And obviously there will be some restrictions placed on where you can warp, similar to the crag crystals.
That leaves what little story has been released, and it sounds really cool. The idea of the city-states and guilds ala FFTA/FFTA2 is appealing, and I wonder what benefits or draw backs you get from these. Does this replace linkshells, but still gives you a pool of people to obtain help from? For example, I am a member of the Guild of the Flying Chocobo, and I can send out a request to all guild members for help with a fight against a particularly evil carrot. Or maybe in addition, the guild replaces the nations, which leads to some interesting ideas. Based on what guild you are in, you get a different story line (missions), or maybe even specialized quests. Now that would be really cool.
So thats about all that has been released so far, except for some filler on Limsa Lominsa, and already my heart is racing in anticipation. Obviously until some more details are released on the different systems, all we can still do is dream and brainstorm about what they might be or do.
