The Final Fantasy XIV beta is confirmed for July 10th!  Just two more days until lucky testers get to jump in and play with the new and improved Eorzea.

Today, Famitsu published a few comments from Battle Planner Atsushi Okada on some of the improvements he has made to the battle system.  Check out what he had to say after the break.

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Positioning and Orientation in Battle

"When fighting monsters, the direction from which you attack can alter the power and/or effect of your techniques.  There are also other elements such as the ability to break off parts of the monster's body by attacking certain areas.  This isn't true for every single enemy, but say you're fighting a monster with two large horns on its head.  Attacking the head from the right side with a certain technique could cause the horn to break.  Similarly, attacking certain creatures from behind can damage their tail.  Such precision attacks will be a part of the battle system.  We hope players enjoy trying out how attacking certain areas cause changes in the monster."

The New Action Gauge

"In the beta version, the Action Gauge is a set length and fills at a set speed.  However, the Action Gauge now has a direct effect on the effectiveness of attacks, so we are looking into what further changes might be made.  For example, we could add an ability that makes the Action Gauge fill up faster -- something like a Haste spell, perhaps.  Also, we are testing out having the Action Gauge fill up at different speeds for different classes."

Comminication in Battle

"Since players have to constantly be selecting commands during battle, it's can be difficult to find a moment to chat with your teammates.  In order to allow party members to communicate in the midst of battle, we plan to include a set of icons intended to convey key concepts.  For example, there will be signs that indicate "Let's do Battle Regimen X" or "Please heal me!" that can be quickly and easily displayed to the party."