A Quick Summary of the recent JP Articles

[Zantetsuken]

- Amon, the re-introduced boss from FFIII, is going to be (one of?) the boss(es?) in Crystal Tower.

Very cool, I suspected as much.

- Monster AI will operate under a FFXII-style 'gambit'-type system. Likewise, Chocobo AIs will operate under something similar.

Awesome~

- The new dungeon in the concept art will be one of the many leveling dungeons introduced in ARR, this one being one from R40~R45. Compared to the current slew of dungeons where it's mostly 'cave' type dungeons, there will be more 'ruin/tower' type dungeons introduced in ARR.

Fantastic!

- ARR's PS3 base resolution is 1280 x 544, which is then stretched/adjusted to 1280 x 720. Reason: PS3 memory limitations, etc. It's possible to set it higher as they're trying to fit every model into 10GB (the limit is 20GB), but with future considerations in mind, they want to set the bar relatively low for the sake of smooth performance.

This was rather obvious from the screenshots. Performance must always take priority, so this sacrifice is understandable.

- Raid bosses will always drop some type of reward - somewhere around 2~3 rare drops per party, random lotted. Even if one didn't get the rare drop, the players will be rewarded with tokens which you can then exchange for rare drops. In exchange, the chances to participate in the random lottery will be limited to 3 times per week.

Much better than the current system. Longer entry wait time is almost certain with this change, but considering that we are getting a slew of new content as well as revamped old content, We will have plenty to do without wanting to spam one dungeon over and over again.

No matter how you slice it, game balance necessitates that we have either:

A) Higher drop rates with higher re-entry times

B) Lower drop rates and spammable content (what we have now).

Currently we have 3~ish endgame dungeons that are spammable (and speedrun centric), Skirmish, Castrum Novum, and 3 primals.

In ARR we will have the current 3 dungeons revamped, plus Toto-rak (and possible Shposhae) upgraded to endgame, the new Lake Dungeon, the Crystal Tower, and 4-5 Primals, as well as hamlet changes, new beastmen lairs, quests, Castrum Novum (maybe?), Skirmish, New Quests, A new main storyline, and undoubtedly more stuff they haven't even announced yet.

Longer re-entry times won't seem bad at all with more content to do (and higher drop rates, thank goodness)