Every time I see a trailer for an RPG I can’t help but narrow my eyes and grumble that whoever it is on screen doing all that awesome stuff it isn’t me, just some generic ‘hero’ who doesn’t have the head I’m going to be staring at the back of for a few hundred hours. Evidently, a character creation option is the bane of marketing executives everywhere. But it would seem Square Enix have figured out how to kill three birds with one downloadable file.
Nominally a benchmarking tool, the executable also contains Final Fantasy XIV’s character creator, allowing you to tinker with the options and create a character just so, to then be imported into the game once it releases at the end of August. Not only that, but once you’re done creating you can then run the benchmark and see your newly minted hero capering around the world of Eorzea in high level armour, taking on the biggest baddies it has to offer. It’s like watching a premonition in real time, while your machine splutters and chugs trying to render everything in the highest fidelity.
As far as useful bits of marketing go, this seems to be one of the most efficient, at the very least. Especially as it allows you to avoid rushing through character creation to make sure you get the right name. Now you can take your time and make sure each slider is adjusted to perfection.