Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer XLI

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn producer Naoki Yoshida released his 41st Letter from the Producer today to talk about the upcoming beta release. Take a look at the above logo image and you’ll notice the all-new “beta version” tag, as Yoshi-P posted a screenshot of the login screen.

According to the original roadmap released in December, the beta is set to begin in mid-February. Yoshi-P did not clarify that date in the Letter or mention anything about being on or behind schedule, and only said that phase 1 of the beta will begin “in February.” Still, I would not be surprised if phase 1 did not end up starting until towards the end of February, as FFXIV: ARR’s development has generally been behind schedule to ensure that everything is done correctly this time.

But speaking of the beta, starting with phase 1, all of the races will be playable! However, not all of the customization options will be available, such as the whopping 192 hair colors that will be in the final version. Here are some new screenshots of the different races:




How cool do they look? But wait, there’s more! As I mentioned yesterday, the new PC benchmark is currently in its final stages of testing. Well Yoshi-P just couldn’t pass up this opportunity to tease us with a screenshot of it:




The rest of the Letter deals with Yoshi-P and the Final Fantasy XIV development team’s holiday and his run-ins with people from other MMOs, which I won’t go into detail on. Despite the festivities, it looks like the development team is hard at work to put the finishing touches on the beta, and I, for one, eagerly await the next update!

[Source: Letter from the Producer, XLI (01/23/2013)]