Weekly roundups

Lightning Strikes in Eorzea

by Glenn, The Twilight Mexican November 16, 2013 0 comments

In this week’s roundup: Lightning crashes into A Realm Reborn; FFXI turns XI; FFX | X-2 HD Remaster confirmed to have all the bonus content from the International editions of the past; and Cloud gets a haircut, then trades in his polygons for pixels; plus the latest from our forum.

Storm over Eorzea (VIA vg247 and Joystiq)

The FFXIII series’ star has been spotted in the land of Eorzea as part of a promotional crossover event between Lightning Returns: FFXIII and FFXIV: A Realm Reborn.

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is hosting a Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 cross-over event, which sees the titular heroine wandering around Eorzea “dispatching foes with lethal efficiency, only to vanish before her identity can be ascertained.”

The event will be released in chapters and the schedule is below:

Event Date and Times: From Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8:00 (GMT) to Monday, December 9, 2013 at 14:59 (GMT)
Chapter 1: For the Winsome: From Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8:00 (GMT)
Chapter 2: Seeking the Scoop: From Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 8:00 (GMT)
Chapter 3: The Knight’s Passage: From Monday, November 18, 2013 at 8:00 (GMT)
Chapter 4: Wonder and Lightning: From Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 8:00 (GMT)

Event Rewards include eight new weapons and Gear tailored for both male and female adventurers. Once the event ends, the quests cannot be completed; however, it is scheduled to make a return in February 2014 for the European and PAL territories release of Lightning Returns.

As part of this cross-over collaboration, in Lightning Returns, players can complete a special quest to obtain the Miqo’te outfit for Lightning. This outfit is inspired by the Miqo’te race from A Realm Reborn, complete with the ears and tail.

In addition, you can also acquire customizable weapons and shields with designs influenced by the three main cities located in the world of Eorzea. The Miqo’te outfit not only transforms Lightning’s appearance, but also changes her victory pose and fanfare.

A Realm Reborn is out now on PC and PS3 and a free 30-day trial is included for new accounts, with monthly subscriptions starting at £7.69/€10.99.
—vg247

Despite carrying the leading role in her own two games, Lightning has appeared in Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn’s land of Eorzea. Lightning’s debut in the MMO brings with it a new story arc, the completion of which will reward players with up to eight new weapons and gear for male and female characters.

Lightning’s new quest is already on its second chapter, but players can still access the arc’s first chapter, as well as all future installments, until the event concludes on December 9 at 10 a.m. Eastern. The story’s future chapters will unlock on November 18 and November 20 and will require a character equal to or higher than level 38 or 45, respectively. If you’ve yet to try the game out, new accounts are granted a 30-day trial.
—Joystiq

Are you excited to meet up with Lightning in your FFXIV adventures or are you just tired of seeing her at this point? Share your opinion in our forum’s FFXIV thread and consider joining our Lifestream Free Company.

Final Fantasy XI celebrates its age, rewards players

Meanwhile, in Vana’diel, the land of Square Enix’s other MMORPG, a different sort of special event is taking place: a birthday party!

Final Fantasy XI is 11 years old this year (11 years and six months at this point, but that’s nitpicking). So it seems appropriate that the title is kicking off a big anniversary event on November 11th. Except that it’s really kicking off not one big anniversary event but 11 smaller ones. You see the theme at work. Whether you’ve been around for all 11 years or just 11 days, there’s plenty of rewards available for everyone.

Seal drop rates are improved for all characters in a party during the anniversary timeframe, as are are double synthesis skill increase rates and several seal-based battlefield rewards. Players will also earn double experience, doubled Salvage drops, doubled Monstrosity experience, doubled Shining Stars in Mog Gardens… the list goes on. Almost anything you choose to do between now and November 25th will see a significant boost, so take a look at the full list of bonuses and get ready to enjoy 11 bonuses for the next 14 days. (They can’t all line up perfectly.)

Are you still playing FFXI or do you just not have enough time for two Final Fantasy MMOs in your life? Let us know!

FFX | X-2 HD Remaster confirmed to have all of X-2 International+Last Mission’s bonus content (VIA Joystiq)

Good news for fans looking forward to this upcoming re-release:

Once it actually comes out, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 HD will offer the most complete version of X-2 ever released in the US. Following earlier reports of extra content, Square Enix Producer Yoshinori Kitase told Siliconera that the remastered bundle will include X-2’s content from its PS2 re-release, Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission.

“In addition to the Last Mission from X-2, additional dresspheres and the Creature Creator will be included in the game,” Kitase said.

Similar to Final Fantasy XIII-2’s Paradigm Pack that lets players enlist monsters as teammates, Creature Create allows players to capture monsters and swap them into their party in place of Yuna, Rikku or Paine. This was also possible for human characters, including FFX cast members Lulu and Kimahri or NPCs like Seymour Guado.

Who’s excited to put Rikku in a pleated skirt? I know I am. Let us know your thoughts in our thread for the Remaster.

Cid now providing haircuts, Cloud now getting them (VIA Examiner)

The launch ad for the PS4 has been officially revealed today by Sony Computer Entertainment. Several users from NeoGAF have already found numerous hidden secrets from the from the one minute video. Although most of the games that were hinted were already announced for the next-generation system, there were a few potentially unannounced titles.

Parappa the Rapper could be clearly seen as a graffiti on a brick wall during one of the sequences. In the same area, a character that looked like Cloud from “Final Fantasy VII” is shown walking out of Cid’s barber shop. Finally, a street sign shows what looks like a silhouette of Crash Bandicoot with another sign pointing to what appears to be the yellow diamond symbol for Sony Computer Entertainment, hinting that the mascot may be returning to the company.

The Easter Eggs may or may not mean that the video games will be coming to the PS4. The video ad also contains hidden secrets from PS2 (“ICO”), PS3 (“Heavy Rain,” “The Last of Us” and “Uncharted”) in addition to the Playstation Vita (“Tearaway”) platforms. You can check out some of the secrets discovered so far from the video in the slideshow near the top of this article.

You think Cloud being spotted in a PS4 video means anything? Let us know in our PS4 thread.

FFVII goes old school, properly this time (VIA Joystiq)

ROM hackers have overhauled an unofficial 8-bit version of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7, turning what was once a barely-playable bootleg into a demake that’s surprisingly faithful to its source material.

Released as an unlicensed Famicom cartridge in China, Shenzhen Nanjing’s unsanctioned port of Final Fantasy 7 featured familiar characters and settings from Square Enix’s PSOne classic, but removed many key story elements while upping the difficulty dramatically, rendering it an impressive but flawed curiosity.

After the subsequent release of a fan-made translation patch, a team led by modder Lugia2009 set out to address the game’s many issues. The final product features redrawn graphics, improved music, and an actual ending, among many other bugfixes and improvements.

Speaking to Destructoid, Lugia2009 revealed that his next project is a translation patch for Shenzhen Nanjing’s unlicensed NES port of Pokemon Yellow.

Will you be playing this? We’d love to hear about it if you do in the FFVII section of our forum.

MORE FROM THE FORUM

• The Final Fantasy VIII Community Playthrough has begun! Won’t you join us?
• Nominations have begun for categories in the TLS Awards 2013. If you’re a long-time lurker of the forum, now would be a great time to make the move to sign up. Once you have, come offer your suggestions in the thread dedicated to the occasion.