GamesCom is Europe’s biggest gaming event and is held in Germany every year. Square Enix was at the conference and Final Fantasy XIV was playable in alpha form.
The people who played it were able to take control of a character and participate in a guildleve quest that requires players to kill 6 Dodos and 2 Puks. Upon completion an aetheryte crystal opens up and the participants get a gil reward.
A little bit about the battle system was revealed while people were playing. You can assign up to ten abilities to a hot key bar for quick access and unlike Final Fantasy XI there will be no auto attack. You will be able to change jobs by switching your weapon, but this can only be done between battles.
Another bit of information is that almost all NPCs will have voice overs done in English and Japanese, while other regions will have subtitles. There will be no voice chat for players however.
Square Enix also hopes to implement a surname system to give players a wider choice of character names and avoid situations where two players from different Final Fantasy XI servers with the same name both want to transfer their name to Final Fantasy XIV.
