Thoughts on the Final Fantasy XIV PS4 Beta

Some of my thoughts on the PS4 beta of Final Fantasy XIV:

I loved it!

Though I must warn you, this is coming from someone who really enjoys console gaming. Yes, I play A Realm Reborn on PS3 (let the PC master-race comments begin). I do have a PC. I just got finished upgrading to a new graphics card. It even came with a free code for FFXIV! Which is pretty cool, but I digress. I'm thoroughly looking forward to upgrading my FFXIV account to PS4!

The PS4 adds some new functionalities to the game that were before impossible with the PS3. The touch pad adds in a mouse function that is helpful for multitasking. But of course you could (and still can) choose to play with a mouse and keyboard, but some prefer a controller.

Okay, you all knew it was coming. Remote playing from my Vita was the coolest part of playing the FFXIV beta. I personally think this is the most exciting piece of information to report on about beta. Of course this was announced last year even before the beta was. It was interesting. It was cool. It was all around fun! I'm looking forward to messing around a little more with this function once the next phase comes around.

That's me remote playing from my PS Vita

To begin this journey (again), I decided to take a different route than what I'm used to. My normal character is a male Miqo'te Black Mage. For the beta, since the character would be wiped after phase one, I decided  to go with a female Elezen Arcanist. I'm still kicking myself in the but for not taking a screenshot of the final character creation. I of course did my best to make her as sexy as possible! And I'll have to admit, she was very pretty. But no one cares about that. Moving on.

Limsa Lominsa

Since it's the home of the Arcanist guild, I started in the beautiful marine city of Limsa Lominsa. This shot above was the one I took shortly after finding out my internet connection was being terrible, thus resulting in my Twitch stream coming to a halt. I was less than pleased because I had hoped to stream my whole adventure. Oh well.

It didn't take long to learn the ropes of the PS4 controls because duh. The controls are the exact same as they are on the PS3. Besides the touch pad, of course.

This picture below is my character nearly reaching level 10 (and I'm wearing the infamous cloak that I hate to death). If you'll notice, the icons on you HUD are much smaller than they are on PS3. Of course you can change them anyway, but these are the PS4 default settings. At least they were for beta phase one. There is also a bar that shows your current inventory availability (lower right hand corner) which I think could be very useful.

Collecting crates and stuff.

Not really relevant to anything, I took quite a few pictures of random things in Eorzea. You could say it was in hopes to provide you all with some insight of how everything looks on the PS4, but in reality I was just doing it for fun. They range from characters to random scenery. Have a look.

Le me derping in first-person mode.

I decided to get up close and personal with some fellow Arcanists.

Some random Lalafell in La Noscea.

This Lalafell just looked so adorable sitting with her Carbuncle.

I invaded the house of a Miqo'te tempest...

By the end of it all I still had to marvel in Eorzea's beauty. We all get caught up in so many different things that we forget to appreciate the beauty around us (can be applied to both real life and in game). I took this picture of the shining sky just as the sun was setting in Limsa Lominsa.

Beautiful shot of the sunset in Limsa Lominsa.

Watching the stars before the end of beta

All in all, the beta was really enjoyable and I can't wait for phase two. I believe it begins some time in April, before the actual PS4 release. Phase two will allow you to play as your current characters and will not be wiped by the end of the phase.

Thank you for reading this far! You just got a real life (non-physical) achievement for helping out a guy's personal gaming blog. No seriously, I do appreciate anyone and everyone who makes the time to read my content. Next blog post will be about Leviathan!