Rewind: First Peek at PROJECT RAPTURE - Where did this go? Can I get some of this?

[Anonymoose]

Long ago, we were given a tiny glimpse of Project Rapture, the unnamed future MMO of Square Enix. We didn't know if it would be FFXI-2, a new FF all together, or something unrelated and new.

We now have FFXIV - which, no one can deny, is gorgeous - but I can't help but ask:

Where'd this go?
http://www.gamecloud.nl/images/2008/...ig/rapture.jpg

It looks like an early concept of Gridania, perhaps - but I get a very dark and somewhat futuristic feel from it that I just don't really get with any of the areas we currently have in FFXIV. What was this place? Can we still get in on this? Not the FFXI graphics of course, but just that area...

I can't quite describe how badly I want to visit this place with the wrought iron accents, dim lightning, smoothed stones and natural decor. Have we moved on entirely from this and we have now is what it is?

What I'd give if this were the Adventurer's Guild of Ishgard, tucked away in an underground tavern somewhere in the city. . .

Am I alone on this one?

[Betelgeuzah]

It was just a demonstration of the white engine (crystal tools), and while it was probably done with the concept of Limsa Lominsa (which, from where I stand, seems like the "zone" that was developed first), I don't think it had much to do with XIV at the time at all. Considering the troubles SE had with crystal tools I don't think the development on XIV (as more than a concept) started before 2007.

[Anonymoose]

I was thinking along the same lines - much like when the Crystal Tools demo was leaked and rumors abounded that we'd end up in Ivalice due to the bunnygirl on the chocobo. Even if it was a demo, I'd be kinda bummed to see it fade away. I formed an attachment to that image almost immediately, it was probably the foundation for the excitement that led me to buy a new PC just to play this game from the beginning.

[Verecund]

It looks an awful lot like this popular concept image that was circulating before the release

http://limitbreak.gameriot.com/blogs...IV-Concept-Art

[Kallera]

Is that small room of what would likely be the guildleve counter conducive to a large audience? Perhaps it'd work in a single player rpg, but imagine hundred of people sifting through those plants and girders...

[Anonymoose]

@Verecund - Another area I'd like to have visited. Definitely wanna see more of that, too... lol

@Kallera - Definitely see your point. If you scale it up, though, it's not all that different in structure from Ul'dah's Adventurer's Guild, really. Somewhere in the fantasy world in my head, where someone gives a damn, someone's making it work... {imagines the collision issues with the cacti}... really working hard at it, too...

[Betelgeuzah]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing (even when I looked at that vid years ago)... the corridors were simply too narrow for the purposes of an MMO. However, the atmosphere in that video was pretty spot-on, with the sunset, the dragons and the hot-air balloons on the background (which I think exist here too, especially the airships of XIV which remind me of that video).

Why I think LL was the original starting point of XIV is because the AH template exists in that zone (so the Marketplace idea was not yet fully realized), as well as it being the first zone to be revealed to us both in the trailers and the alpha. And, of course, this video's city is the same in concept.

[Eekiki]

It does kinda remind me of the adventurer's guild in Gridania, which is one of my favorite interiors in the game.

Pretty sure the idea that Limsa was the "original" zone for FFXIV is accurate. Uematsu said it was the first song he wrote when composing the soundtrack.