Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

In a recent GameWatch article, Final Fantasy XIV Director/Producer Naoki Yoshida had some details to share about the upcoming PS3 version of the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. He gave specifics about the new controller specific interface, tailor-made for the PS3, and also talked a bit about the graphics quality of the console version. Thanks to Reinhart from the official Final Fantasy XIV forums for providing a translation of this article.

When asked if he could give some details about the new PS3 specific interface, Hiroshi Minagawa, Lead UI designer of FFXIV: ARR, stated that “We are making it so the controls won’t be much different to those playing in PC version, meaning keyboard and mouse. With this cross hotbar, when comparing to keyboard/mouse player, it will be possible to select and execute actions at same speed.”
Using Your Controller

The system works by allowing you to select and execute actions by pressing the L or R buttons and an additional button on the controller at the same time. That’s a combination of two buttons that will allow you to use any ability on your action bar in the console version. If it’s a little difficult to grasp, here‘s a play by play of how you would execute an action:

You can select any ability on your action bar using a combination of two buttons. The key to this are the L2/R2 buttons. They work much like a shift key on a keyboard.
In the PS3 UI, there are two action bars on the screen at any given time, one on the left and one on the right. Each action bar has room for 8 abilities for a total of 16. These two action bars are called an “action set”.
When you hold down the L2 button on your controller, it highlights and activates the action bar on the left. Holding down the R2 button activates the action bar on the right.
Pressing one of the direction pad buttons or one of the circle/square/triangle/x buttons while holding down the L2/R2 buttons will fire off an ability. The key is holding down one of the L2/R2 buttons to initiate the whole thing.

A closer look at the PS3 controller specific UI for FFXIV: ARR Zantetsuken | A FFXIV Fansite
Holding down both the L2/R2 buttons at the same time and then selecting any direction/circle/square/triangle/x button will switch to another action set. There are 8 action sets in all, which adds up to 128 actions per class, since each class receives their own palette. Emotes and macros can both be assigned to any slot in your action set.

The controller specific UI is also available in the PC version as well. When creating a character, you get to choose whether you want to use the controller interface or mouse/keyboard. It was also said that you could switch modes later if you desired.

It’s a system that sounds similar if you’ve ever played Final Fantasy XI, but the way the gamepad utilizes the control scheme is different. “There are many parts FFXI and FFXIV being similar but it’s a different game,” Yoshida mentioned in the GameWatch interview. “With A Realm Reborn’s UI, we started from scratch. First we thought of a system which allows both PC version and PS3 to be controlled at the same speed and then we included popular FFXI features into it, but we didn’t want to interfere with the main design.”

This whole setup is somewhat unique use of gamepad controls for an MMO, and once you catch on to how it works, it seems like a very simple, but elegant way to navigate the various action bars using a controller.