Well apparently Famitsu got their hands on the alpha version of FFXIV and has an article detailing some areas and being a little vaguer about other areas in their playing of the alpha. I'll link the translation of the article at the bottom and provide the highlight here for discussion.

The first thing I want to bring up and it is at the top of the article, is the character creation. What they said of the character creation system has me really interested in how deep it goes. Because they said you could spend hours, well they said a whole day but I'll go with hours, on making your avatar and tweaking it until you are satisfied. Which sounds like we will have a lot of stuff to play with. A couple of direct mentions is being able to put highlights and streaks in your hair, which should certainly help to make everyone unique. There are apparently different voice types as well, but I can't remember how extensive they said the voice acting in the game is going to be. In addition, you'll get to pick a birthday and guardian deity, the effects of that are unknown though currently.

I think this was mentioned before, but they are reporting seamless transitions into areas and the music will change as well. They did not say anything specific about if towns to field areas will be seamless as well or not. So we still are waiting on clarity on that. But there will be instanced areas as well, but it is specifically mentioned for cutscenes, so it is unclear if there will be other uses of instanced areas in the game.

It seems that everyone will have the ability to teleport and warp so long as they have been to a Aetheryte, which is available at the very start of the game. They say it is meant to allow people with limited time to get to locations quickly and do what they want without losing all of the time walking.

During combat you can make an action, but hold it to "charge" it up for an increased effect. What was reading sounded a little vague, but it was an interesting idea if all abilities would have this sort of feature. So you could increase the effectiveness of an attack if you wanted. I think that could make some that have a lower chance of bonus effects activating more useful like a low stun rate or something. The bonuses and effects are no clear, just that you can hold the action to increase its effect.

It looks like for character development there will be experience for the job/class you are playing as well as the physical character themselves. There are job/class levels and physical levels if the translation is accurate to what SE will later be calling it. Also you will be given full control over attribute allotments when you level up. So you can build a character anyway you want, but they have confirmed that they will allow you to re-adjust stats when you change jobs so that you can focus on magic rather than strength when you go from a physical to magical job/class.

Also relating to stats, accuracy and hidden stats in FFXI will be visible to the player now in FFXIV. Which will certainly take some of the length guess work and research out of the game that existed in FFXI. Also there are going to be layers of clothes that you can wear apparently with undershirts and undergarments available in addition to the normal body and pant slots. There are also pouch slots with each hand that I don't know the purpose of them, but the main hand gets a large pouch slot while the second hand gets a small pouch slot. So it could be an augment slot like with two-hand wraps that existed late in FFXI life cycle.

There has been a confirmed weakened state like FFXI that lasts for five minutes when you revive from death. Even in alpha they are saying that the maps are quite huge and gives the feeling that they go on forever. The new Galka and Tarutaru races height and size difference is quite significant. The discipline of magic does have non-MP expending magical attacks, which is going to be a good thing since MP can't be restore by resting, though they say HP restores during passive mode nothing was said about MP during passive mode. So MP could be even more of a premium. And magic can be cast while moving.

The Alpha Test - Hands On! :: Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) at ZAM

Enjoy! What are your thoughts?