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Familiar faces and holiday places in Final Fantasy XIV
While Friday saw a massive news bomb dropped for players of Final Fantasy XIV, life in Eorzea continues, albeit with a touch of a specter hanging overhead. Still, one can only hope that the first Starlight Celebration in the game will help alleviate some of that sense of doom and gloom. To the surprise of nearly no one, the celebration features a number of gifts for players, as well as a three-piece set of thematic attire that can be either crafted or received via helping needy children. It's also one of the first glimpses at the game world's backstory beyond those tantalizing glimpses in story quests. But perhaps you couldn't care less about the celebration and just want to go toe-to-toe with something more dangerous than a marmot. The December update should be good for what ails you, with the most recent preview offering up several new notorious monsters as well as two returning enemy groups. Flans, of course, have been a staple of nearly every game in the series -- but goblins are a welcome returning foe from Final Fantasy XI, complete with the same design and mercantile nature. Final Fantasy XIV players don't have a definite date for the update just yet, but it should be in the very near future, possibly even this week.
Final Fantasy XIV launches another notorious preview
We're not sure exactly when Final Fantasy XIV's large December update will be going live, but we do know that one of its major inclusions will be the addition of notorious monsters. The first of these powerful beasts has already been previewed, but a new one is now being shown for all to see... not that it would be easy to miss the enormous Tarbh Uisge. One of the last great buffalo, his mind has been eaten away through years of suppressive magics, leaving him as a bundle of violent rage. Tarbh Uisge appears to be in the same category as the previously demonstrated Deadeyes in more ways than one. This great beast is linked to a levequest as well, but he also drops the same set of runestones as his contemporary. The Templar armor previewed alongside the buffalo, therefore, can be obtained by players slaying either beast and accumulating drops, which frees players to pursue both or neither as they see fit. Final Fantasy XIV should be releasing this newest opponent in the near future, which should yield a notable boon to everyone not trampled underfoot.
Final Fantasy XIV shows off its first notorious monstrosity
Notorious Monsters. The name is well-known to any veteran of Final Fantasy XI, denoting an especially powerful opponent with accordingly potent rewards. Final Fantasy XIV is set to receive its own set of notorious opponents with the December update, and the first preview of such has just been released. Deadeyes, a wolf deep within the forests of the Black Shroud, is the first one announced, and the preview details both why Deadeyes is to be feared and what players can hope to gain from the challenge. The preview implies that Deadeyes will be encountered via a faction levequest, thus clearing up questions of how spawns of notorious monsters would work within the game. It also explains that upon his defeat, he will reward players with one of 12 runestones, with each stone being turned in to an Ul'dahn trader for a powerful piece of armor. The Harlequin set, a four-piece set for Disciples of Magic to use to enhance the potency of their magic, is shown off as one of the possible rewards. Final Fantasy XIV players have quite a bit to look forward to in the next update, and Deadeyes looks to be just the beginning.
The spawning grounds expand for Final Fantasy XIV
After the development team discussed the more technical side of the coming November version update yesterday, today's preview for Final Fantasy XIV is back to the gameplay. That's not to say it doesn't have any technical details or enticing hints for veterans of Final Fantasy XI, considering that the newest preview is discussing monster spawn placement and the upcoming notorious monsters. For example, the new preview notes that server processing is being spread across multiple servers, which should help handle large groups of monsters more effectively -- and should also help mitigate server lag and some latency issues players have experienced. As for notorious monsters... it seems only fitting that some of the most iconic residents of Vana'diel will apparently be getting a nod or two, with a promise that veterans may find some familiar faces among their new targets. The details of what can be looted from these creatures and who is coming to fight over dinner will be posted to the site in the near future. Final Fantasy XIV is working hard at making up for the issues many players had at launch, and that includes giving said players more monsters to fight against.
The Mog Log: Hours of entertainment from just one boss
Every so often, column topics fall into my lap. Like when someone mentioned in the comments the other day that they were dreading the 18-hour boss fight from Final Fantasy XI would return in Final Fantasy XIV. For those of you who don't know what in the world that was referencing... well, it's time to take a look back at Pandemonium Warden, and the now legendary story of what it took for one linkshell to bring him down. Although by "bring him down," we really mean "fight him for nearly a full day and finally give up." That's the image that Final Fantasy XI's boss fights have in a lot of people's heads. It's a great and evocative image, and it's also riddled with inaccuracies. That having been said, the nigh-on insanity of some boss fights in the game merits discussion as we get closer and closer to Final Fantasy XIV's release. Whether you're wondering about the warden's odds of return or just still believe that the boss fight properly went on for nearly a day, jump on past the break. There's a lot to go over.
A new fleet of augmented items and quests packaged in with Final Fantasy's July update
What would the Final Fantasy XI version update be if Fields of Valor wasn't expounded upon? It wouldn't be an update at all, we say here at Massively.True to form, the July version update, which is only six measly days away, will be adding Fields of Valor elite training regimes to a swath of new areas. These regimes, much like their lower level counterparts, will let players purchase a special training chapter with their hard earned Fields of Valor "tabs" currency, and then trade the chapters to glowing spots on the ground in the new areas to spawn a powerful notorious monster. As before, to trigger the spawn an item, currency, or set of beastman seals must be gambled on the fight.Gambling an item in these new battles is what most are looking forward to, as items will be returned with new level 50+ augments that were unavailable until now. But what if you're level 75? What do you have to look forward to, then?
Pandemonium Warden finally tastes defeat
Seven long months ago, players of Final Fantasy XI came across a threat worse than the notorious Absolute Virtue. It was he who resided at the end of the Zeni Notorious Monster system, he who waited for adventurers who could climb the ranks and defeat 12 other notorious monsters. It was the Pandemonium Warden.And the Warden gave FFXI a boost of publicity when the linkshell Beyond the Limitation couldn't take him down after 18 hours of straight battle. This caused the outcry of over-punishing boss battles, and the FFXI team actually dropped their monsters down a notch from all of the heat. A new rule was placed in with the Warden however -- he would despawn after 2 hours if not defeated within that time frame. Sure, he was easier, but the time limit still made him extremely hard.But now, seven months after his introduction, the linkshell Shard of Apathy of the Remora server has put the Warden down for the count. They successfully tanked through all 10 of his forms, plus his pets, with reportedly 5 minutes left before he was to be despawned. Congratulations Apathy! So when are you running him again?
Final Fantasy XI update to eliminate 18+ hour boss takedowns
The players of Final Fantasy XI have voiced their anguished concerns over a certain Notorious Monster (NM), and Square Enix seems to have listened. We recently reported on the extreme levels of commitment needed to take down the NM Pandemonium Warden in Final Fantasy XI. A linkshell (guild) ironically called Beyond the Limitation attempted to take the boss on over a solid 18 hour period, and still weren't able to succeed. Consensus from FFXI's players who've been vocal on the matter is that Pandemonium Warden isn't just beyond this particular linkshell's limits, they're beyond anyone's limits. In response, Square Enix stated, "Discussion has spread significantly throughout forums, and it has become apparent that this is indeed an issue of major unrest in the community." The company implied that the methods players have employed may have been sub-optimal, as Square Enix didn't anticipate that NM encounters would be as protracted as they've proven to be. To remedy this, they will alter the difficulty of defeating Pandemonium Warden, Absolute Virtue, and Jailer of Love. "The aim of these changes is to create battles where a decisive outcome may be reached within a shorter period of time," they said. The changes will go into effect with the next version update, which is scheduled for early September. [Via 1up]
It's Pandemonium in Final Fantasy XI
News has spread of a grueling new enemy encounter in Final Fantasy XI. The Notorious Monster (NM) Pandemonium Warden is one of the strongest opponents players can face in the game. But it seems Square-Enix may have raised the bar too high, given the extremes to which players must go to defeat Pandemonium Warden. A linkshell (guild) called Beyond the Limitation recently faced off against Pandemonium Warden over an 18 hour period, but the NM was still going strong. The NM shapeshifts into multiple forms, making it even more of a challenge to defeat; Beyond the Limitations fought Pandemonium Warden through twenty of his possible forms, some of which took hours to kill. Pet Food Alpha, a Final Fantasy XI community site, quotes a member of Beyond the Limitation stating: "People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's lives."
