A Realm Reborn BETA Impressions

[Aulayna]

So, following the shenanigans I got up too this weekend, I definitely have a bit more to talk about once it's released.

[Cloudane]

FWIW, unless I'm reading incorrectly, NDA is lifted. Hence I've been blathering on about it

http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Tes...-the-Beta-Test

Under the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test Agreement, we asked you to keep confidential the features, information, and bugs related to the Beta Test as well as information shared on the Beta Tester Forum. As of June 13, 2013, we grant you permission to disclose information regarding the Beta Test.

I have to say, I'm really loving it. It seems ready to me (but I guess that's what they said in 1.0). I guess it'd be nice to know what my armour will look like before I put it on (my strongest armour currently is... it basically looks like a thong XD) but I guess in a world where they say "bl**dy" and "b*gger" more often than sailors, a few scantily clad men is not too much of a problem for people

Have to agree with this little write up on "the buffet effect"
http://massively.joystiq.com/<wbr>2013/06/29/the-mog-log-final-<wbr>fantasy-xivs-buffet-effect/

I've rarely if ever seen a game so well balanced in terms of giving you a choice of what to do. There's no particularly strong "shove" in one direction that has advantages over another. You can do the main quests, you can just do the side quests, you can choose to just craft, you can do the hunt logs, you can just grind the levels if you want, you can go grab a group and explore all the dungeons. Nothing has a sense of "oh dear I'm wasting my time doing this when I could be furthering my character".