Square Enix has been gracious enough to release several screenshots from the Final Fantasy XIV demo held at Gamescom in Germany this past week. The screens show just one area with a warrior fighting off some baddies; not much, but they’re in-game nonetheless.

Check ‘em out below and on the Final Fantasy XIV Images page.

The NA (and JP) Final Fantasy XIV site has receieved a major update. The site’s layout has been completely revamped, new music has been added, and dozens of pages have been put up, detailing several of Final Fantasy XIV’s various features. Pages added/updated are the following:

- World

• Story - Tells the background story of the Final Fantasy XIV universe.
• City-States – Gives a brief history of the 3 city-states Ul’dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania.
• Races – Describes the 5 different races in Final Fantasy XIV.

- Gameplay

• Armoury System – Details Final Fantasy’s in-depth armoury system, in which equipping weapons or tools can change your character’s class instantly.
• Guildleves – Explains the Guildleve system, a feature never before seen in any MMO.
• Aetheryte – Tells of the Aetheryte, a material (presumably a stone) that can teleport your character across the world.

The Media page has also been updated with a couple new graphics. There is also an About page which displays previously known developer information.

We will be adding pages to the Final Fantasy XIV section to accomadate for this huge amount of new information. Look out for it in the coming days!

In other related news, Japanese gaming site Game Watch Impresses has released high resolution Final Fantasy XIV scans from the August 5th issue of Famitsu. The scans are even more beautiful now, be sure to check them out below and on the Final Fantasy XIV scan page.

The August 5th issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has revealed several details, such as environments, class details, and character races. Scans from the magazine depict character artwork and even several in-game shost.

From NeoGAF:

Stages:
Desert City – Uldaha
Forest City – Gridania
Ocean City – Rimsa Rominsa
(the spelling could be way off, just going from the 2ch stuff Munba posted)

Armory System:
- you can change jobs and lifestyles freely
- by changing your weapon, you are essneitally changing jobs, and can do so anywhere
- so if you are invited to a PT and there are a lot of fighters, you can switch to a caster, then when your adventures are over, go fishing or synth some stuff
- weapons and def gear all have their own merit. if you want to hone a particular skill, you can coordinate your equipment in that direction
- rather than character levels and skills, the main thing is the skill of the item you are holding
- you can play on your own and switch between fighter and caster to heal yourself, so soloing is easy
- typical jobs of the FF series, e.g. warrior and black mage, are being avoided
- you can basically enjoy this world in any way you want. (me: freedom seems to be the main point here)

The character races set for Final Fantasy XIV were detailed by IGN earlier today:

Hyuran: The race with the highest population in Eorzea. They’re split into midlanders and highlanders, depending on where they reside.

Miqo’te: A race of hunters that’s split into day and night clans, referred to respectively as Sun Seekers and Moon Keepers.

Lalafell: A small-framed, highly intelligent farming people that originates from islands in the southern seas. They’ve now spread throughout the land, although there aren’t too many of them in cold environments.

Elezen: This ancient race once ruled over Eorzea. They have excellent hearing abilities thanks to their ears, which stick out. While they once fought with the invading Hyuran, the two races now coexist almost completely peacefully.

Roegadyn: A large-framed sea going people based in the northern seas.

These races correspond, respectively, to FFXI’s Hume, Mithra, Tarutaru, Elvaan, and Galka races. FFXI fans will probably recognize them instantly once Square Enix shares official artwork.

As detailed above, the Huyran and Miqo’te races are split into sub types. In an interview with the magazine, director Nobuaki Komoto wouldn’t disclose if this character setting will play a part in the game.

Also introduced in the magazine are four job categories: fighter, sorcerer, gatherer, and crafter. These have sub jobs beneath them. Fighter includes swordsman and archer, for instance. Crafter includes blacksmith and cook. Traditional FF classes like Black Mage and Warrior are being avoided, said producer Hiromichi Tanaka to the magazine.

Using the game’s Armory System, you can instantly change your character’s class by making equipment and accessory changes. Your character earns experience in individual classes, learning new skills along the way. Based off your equipment changes, you can create a specialist in a certain job, or make your character into a jack of all trades.

Well, we’re just full of updates today, as we should be. FFXIIIUS has been dormant for a bit, but now that summer’s officially hit (for me, anyways), the updates will be flowing in non-stop. First on our massive plate of Final Fantasy, the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV! Sure, it’s not Final Fantasy XIII, but as of right now we will be covering FFXIV as well as FFXIII, FFVersus, and FFAgito. To get you up to speed on FFXIV, one of our newest staff members, Shannon, has written a short description:

Announced June 2nd, Square-Enix revealed the next in their flagship series, Final Fantasy XIV. Unlike most of the series, however, Final Fantasy XIV takes after Fantasy Fantasy XI in being an MMO RPG, playable only online. According to the trailer released in SE’s press conference, as well as a short press announcement afterwards, it seems Final Fantasy XIV will be available only for Playstation 3 and PC. SE announced their plan was to release XIV in a worldwide simultaneous release sometime in 2010, which would be an improvement from XI, where the game became available in JP, NA, and EU with months in between the release in each region. This is the first time that two chornological Final Fantasy games are planned to be released in the same year.

Sounds great, no? You’ll be seeing alot from Shannon, as well as our other new staffers, in the coming months.

Next up, a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII straight from E3 2009. And it’s in English! Thanks to GameTrailers for the awesome video.

There was also a short glimpse at Final Fantasy XIV at the conference, provided again by GameTrailers.

For right now, that’s all. Be sure to look out for these videos up on our video page, as well as updates to almost all of our content. Continue the Fantasy!