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One thing that we love to have the opportunity to do here at Gamer Escape is to be an outlet for those in the community who go above and beyond the average player and help contribute to the player community. Today we have a wonderful write up from Italian gamer Francesco (otherwise known as Dorian Weil on Balmnung) Who recently attended Gamescom 2012 and got to see the game play presentation of A Realm Reborn first hand!

Francesco was kind enough to do a write up for us talking about his impressions from the event as well as telling us about the gift that he and his friends gave to Naoki Yoshida.

You can check out his full write up after the jump!

*please note that English is not Francesco?s main language, some small edits have been made to ease readability

Hello Gamer Escape readers,

My name is Francesco, (Dorian Weil on Balmung) and I?m an Italian Final Fantasy XIV fan. Myself and two of my friends Fabio (Atlas Rubicante) and Pierpaolo (Ilmarinen Bardur) embarked on a thrilling trip to Gamescom 2012 in Cologne to see the very first game play presentation for A Realm Reborn and to meet Yoshi-P. We also linked up with Jon, an old friend FFXI friend of mine who came from England to join us.

We decided to book flights and tickets to Gamescom 2012 even before FFXIV?s presence was announced. We did it as soon as we heard about the game?s marketing campaign starting in August. We just hoped it was going to be there, and we won the bet.

I guess by now, everyone has seen the presentation, I?ve taken a video myself, but I can assure you it was even more amazing live seeing Yoshi-P playing it in front of us on his Hyur with the full RSE and then as a Dragoon in full AF and Relic. The game looked really fluid, fast, and detailed. The UI looked highly responsive, making the battles even swifter.

The lighting in the new Black Shroud was dynamic and beautiful, I guess we can confirm that what Yoshida usually says about A Realm Reborn being the MMO with the most advanced graphics created so far.

We were pleasantly surprised watching the video about Limit Breaks, and Meteor was simply amazing!

We went to the event twice during our visit. The first day was was right after we arrived in Germany. We arrived a bit late and Fabio and myself started walking really fast inside the large hallways until we reached the FFXIV stand a few moments after the presentation had started. Seeing Yoshida in person for the first time after all that struggle was a great sight! We were also able to sign up for the upcoming beta.

At the end of the presentation, Yoshida threw various items into the crowd including FFXIV themed fans, and T-shirts. The fan helped during the unusually warm days in Germany! Here you can see Fabio with the Fan:

That same day, After the presentation concluded, we saw Yoshida walking back and forth from the stage and I asked if we could get a picture together:

(From left: Me, Pierpaolo, Yoshida, Jon, Fabio)

Yoshida looked very friendly even if he was really busy. When I asked him if we could take a picture he just said ?Okay!? with a voice that sounded almost flattered. Then I told him we were going to meet the day after for the autograph session. Another ?Okay!!? from him.

We also spotted Foxclon that day as well!

My friends and I decided to buy Yoshida a present. Since we?ve read his ?Letters from the Producer? we know he works a lot and loves coffee, so we brought him a container of Italian espresso coffee and a moka pot, hoping it would give him the boost to work during the hardest hours of the rebuilding of the new Eorzea.

Here you can see Pierpaolo with the moka pot and Fabio with the coffee package, which I bought in my town. We also gave him a letter along with the gift that talked about our trip.

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That day, we relied on the cooperation of the really kind and professional Ben Bateman, Online Content Producer from Square Enix, whom I contacted before the trip. He was the intermediary between us and the Japanese side of Square Enix, and I handed off our gift to them and they told us that Yoshida would thank us somehow. Don?t be surprised if he writes something in his next letter! We couldn?t give it to him directly because of his hectic schedule.

Later that day, we got our autographs. We took some screen shots in game a few days before we left, edited and laminated them. Yoshida signed the screens for us. You can also see a picture of mine next to a German souvenir I picked up.

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The high emotions weren?t over for the day however. Ben interviewed us for the Square Enix blog, and you can see our video below:

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I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the fans who followed me on Twitter (@tremulans) throughout the event and Andrew Copeland (Fusionx) from Gamer Escape. I hope you liked our little fan report.

I sure enjoyed every instant at Gamescom and trying to report my impressions of the event.

Cheers!
Francesco / Dorian Weil, Balmung

Source: http://gamerescape.com/2012/08/22/gamescom-2012-fan-impressions/

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