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More information on Final Fantasy XIV's retainers
With the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV's release date and some details on the pricing structure, one of the concepts we've been introduced to is that of the retainers. Any veteran of Final Fantasy XI is all too familiar with the "mule" characters that would dot cities; they were all but required for serious players, used for additional storage, and parked as a never-closing bazaar whilst the player wasn't active. Rather than forcing players to pay for a second character, Square-Enix is apparently letting the practice be fully realized by the game in the form of your retainer. A new translated article helps explain a little more about what a retainer's role will be. Adventurers will be allowed to choose one retainer for free, with the selection process running similar to Final Fantasy XI's adventuring fellow. Your retainer can be called at various points through use of a special item, and allows you to set up a storefront that will run while you're offline. A retainer will also provide extra storage, serving as combination mobile bank and assistant. Take a look at the full article for more details, as well as more shots of the beta client for Final Fantasy XIV in action.
The Mog Log: The verdict on Chains of Promathia
The time has finally come to finish this series of columns, which means that as much as I might like to talk about all the interesting details of the Final Fantasy XIV release date... I really can't. That's next week. This week is Chains of Promathia, and I'm standing by it. Just because Final Fantasy XI is a little bit older doesn't mean it stops mattering, and with all of the emotion surrounding the June version update and the removal of level caps, I'd like to think at least a few people have been anticipating this. For those of you who missed the first couple of installments, part one of the trial can be found here, wherein we discuss the lack of a new job and the use of the level-cap mechanic. Part two can be located hither, and talks about the storyline and the rewards from content, as well as briefly mentioning moblins. (But, really, who cares about them.) Today, we'll kick things off with some arguments from the jury, followed by our legally binding verdict. (The fact that it's only binding under the laws of this column is not the point.)
Final Fantasy XI shows off winners for its anniversary art contest
Although the North American anniversary doesn't take place until later this year, Final Fantasy XI has been running for eight years as of this past May. When that milestone rolled around, Square-Enix announced their 8th Anniversary art contest as a chance for players to show off their talents and potentially get rewarded for them. The official winners have just been announced, complete with the requisite gallery of all the winning entries for fans to peruse, with the results both creative and indicative of the game's long history. The recurring visual elements seem to be food, tarutaru, mithra, and mandragoras -- which certainly goes a long way toward showing what's stuck out in everyone's minds over the duration. There are even a pair of entries (such as the one above) that use food itself as the medium for the celebration. Final Fantasy XI players are encouraged to take a full look at all the artwork on display in the winners' gallery -- enough to bring a nostalgic tear to any player's eye.
The Mog Log: For bidden knowledge
It's easy to get jaded about Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV at times, right up until you open your eyes and see how immense the worlds of both games can really be. The scope and the sweep of both games is dwarfing. One human being could spend quite a bit of time studying them to try and internalize all of the available knowledge. And I found the guy who did precisely that and stole his notes, so I can answer your questions about both games today. Isn't that special? egobrane asked: "What's with people crying about huge system requirements [for the benchmark]?" Not everyone has a hugely powerful computer, and there are a lot of fans of Final Fantasy XI who would probably like to be able to dive straight into Final Fantasy XIV. The problem is that the former has been around for eight years, and the latter is just now coming out. That's leaving aside the fact that FFXI's American release came a year and a half after the Japanese release, which meant that a computer that could run the game well was that much cheaper.
Celestial Nights (and days) coming to Final Fantasy XI
While there are those who might argue that the release of the June version update is celebration enough, Final Fantasy XI isn't the sort of game to let a couple of months go by without some Vana'dielian holiday event. It's time for another fun trip into the celebration of summer, and this year's festivities promise to celebrate everyone's favorite part of the season: young lovers dying unpleasantly. At least, that's what this year's piece of introductory fiction for the Celestial Nights is promising, along with the ever-popular profiteering moogles. Unlike several events in Final Fantasy XI, the actual process of the event over the past two years has remained fairly static, as has the backstory regarding the event. In short, it's a chance for characters to get some unique furnishings and the ever-popular decorative pieces of armor. This year's event will be starting on June 29th, running for two weeks until July 13th. Avid players can brush up on the guide from prior years for a good idea of how this year's festivities will most likely take place.
June version update goes live for Final Fantasy XI
It's a big day for Final Fantasy XI players the world over, as the much-discussed June version update has finally gone live. And with that comes a heretofore unprecedented change, as the level cap jumps once again for the first time in years past the old limit of 75. Unfortunately for those who had been hoping to avoid the process of the Limit Break quests, the patch notes confirm that players will have to undertake a new quest to reach the new cap of 80. Of course, there needs to be something to slow down the rush to all the new content, right? And there's quite a bit of that going around with this update -- even neglecting the raise in level cap, there are new Wings of the Goddess quests, the Walk of Echoes, newly uncapped zones, and new options in Moblin Maze Mongers. Not to mention that Visions of Abyssea goes live with the update, complete with a small update on the official site about the Empyrean Weapons. So if you haven't started patching your copy of Final Fantasy XI, now would be the ideal time -- the patch is large, and there's a lot to be done.
The Mog Log: We interrupt this broadcast for a conversation
The verdict on our Chains of Promathia trial is... postponed for a little bit. (I did warn everyone.) With the revelations of E3 and the new Final Fantasy XIV benchmark, not to mention the upcoming June version update, we've had plenty to talk about in the community of late. There's news about how the game will play, new areas to explore, new cinematics and previews, and the chance to annoy everyone in the months leading up to Final Fantasy XIV's release by posting your computer's score whenever possible. I'll admit to finding the benchmark a bit surprising, actually. The benchmark for Final Fantasy XI didn't come out until it was fairly close to release... which implies to me that the game is more finished than Square-Enix is letting on. That, in my mind, ties into the most interesting part of our interview with Tanaka, where he mentioned that this entire phase of testing was created for player feedback. I'm not saying anything, just speculating. But it's not my place to speculate this week, is it?
Final Fantasy XI reveals new and improved job abilities
Intellectually, Final Fantasy XI players knew that new job abilities were coming with the June version update. Five levels is the traditional interval for new abilities anyhow, and it would be silly not to include some form of upgrade. That being said, there's a world of difference between the vague concept of new job abilities and what's been revealed today in an actual list. The abilities being granted are both far-reaching and significant, including the retroactive inclusion of Dual Wield into a Dancer's bag of tricks at Level 20. The added abilities and traits are rather different from the norm for the game's leveling scheme, coming at several different intervals along the path to 80. Notably absent are any new abilities for White and Red Mages, with Blue Mages having no specific abilities but rather a promise of new Blue Magic over the five-level spread. And the contents of that spread are quite interesting -- new rolls for Corsairs, steps for Dancers, bonuses to damage for Rangers, and bigger Absorbs for Dark Knights are just the tip of the iceberg. Take a look and see what your Final Fantasy XI job of choice will have added to its bag of tricks next week.
E3 2010: Our exclusive interview with Final Fantasy XIV executive producer Hiromichi Tanaka
In the world of Final Fantasy XIV, Hiromichi Tanaka is kind of a big deal. In fact, he's kind of a big deal in the franchise's history as a whole, having worked on the design for several games and having been the lead developer on Final Fantasy XI. It seems fitting that one of the designers from the original game 23 years ago is now hard at work crafting the newest installment of the series -- one that promises to be many things to many players while retaining the core features that have captivated fans for years. Square-Enix have made a big push for their newest game at this year's E3, and we were lucky enough to have a few minutes of Mr. Tanaka's time to ask him about the game as a whole. There's a lot more still to be learned about the game, but from what we've seen in both the interview and our hands-on experience, it already has quite a bit to offer.
Final Fantasy XI walks the Walk of Echoes
Amidst all the changes coming with the June version update for Final Fantasy XI, players will finally be able to explore some of the Walk of Echoes. One of the most iconic and surreal parts of the Wings of the Goddess expansion, this region has only been visited in cutscenes up until now. This would be welcome in and of itself, but the implementation of the area is unique, a mixture of special battlefields and the Campaign battles. To start, players must be at least level 70 and have progressed to the "Cait Sith" mission in Wings of the Goddess. A moogle takes on the role of your transport to the timeless region, wherein adventurers will find several portals to battlefields. Once within a battlefield, players will be subject to a time limit to face off against several enemies, with no limitations on new players entering the battlefield and engaging the monsters. The loot system is poised to work similarly to Warhammer Online's Public Quests, with all participants having a shot at rewards and the highest contributors getting bonuses. Final Fantasy XI players only have a couple days left before they can take part in the new content, but there's still time to familiarize yourself with this strange new region.
A translated look at Final Fantasy XIV's Guildleve system
With the coming of a little show known as E3 -- you may have heard of it -- fans of several upcoming titles are hoping for new information. Final Fantasy XIV players are no exception, but as has slowly been the case ever since the testing began, little bits of information are becoming more readily available to players. FFXIVCore has recently translated a piece from 4Gamer, taking an in-depth look at one of the central features of the game, the Guildleve. The main source of quests in the game, the system promises to be somewhere between Final Fantasy XI's Fields of Valor and the timed battlefields. Once a Guildleve is accepted by a character, they're directed to an Aetheryte crystal to begin the quest. Touching the crystal fully restores HP and MP, as well as starting a time limit and making the targets of your quest visible. A given battle can be tuned based on party size, desired difficulty, and party level, giving players a variety of options for playstyle. The full translation has more screenshots and specifics on the core of Final Fantasy XIV's questing system, and fans are encouraged to take a look in anticipation of this week's news from E3.
The Mog Log: The trial of Chains of Promathia, part 2
It's just as well that there haven't been any huge revelations of late regarding Final Fantasy XIV (aside from the lovely new character creation video), because we're knee-deep in the trial of the second Final Fantasy XI expansion and we've got no room for anything else. After last week's examination, which included excellent discussion and some really interesting viewpoints from the community (seriously, guys, pat yourselves on the back), we're going to dive back into the meat of the trial and try to determine the worth of Chains of Promathia via examining everything there is to examine. And that's a lot, I tell you. Last time, we examined the use of level caps and the lack of new jobs in the expansion. The former looked awful at a glance, but upon closer examination had some notable positives. The latter was... well, it was just plain a keenly-felt omission. This week we're going to dive into what's considered by many to be the biggest part of the expansion -- something so overwhelming that its repercussions are felt to this day. No serious discussion of the expansion would be complete without this most celebrated element.
Final Fantasy XI rolls out the information on the level cap increase
While we knew that the level cap was going to be raised soon in Final Fantasy XI, we hadn't heard much in terms of official details from Square-Enix. The silence has been broken, and while the official announcement neither confirms nor denies that the world's most insanely fit old man will be coming around for more limit breaking, it does offer a few interesting data points regarding the increase. This first round of increases will expand characters to level 80, complete with new equipment and newly relevant areas to suit those at the maximum level. On the negative side, certain main job abilities are confirmed to be unavailable with the concurrent jump in subjob level. The White Mage "Afflatus" skills and a Ninja's Yonin and Innin abilities will be locked away from use by main jobs. A Ranger's Shadowbind and a Scholar's Accession and Manifestation skills will also be usable, but in a weakened state. Other than these limitations, however, it's full speed ahead for the expanded caps in Final Fantasy XI -- and we can only hope that the silence on a new limit break might mean there isn't one.
Players granted a vision of Abyssea for Final Fantasy XI
Mark the date: June 21st. If you're a Final Fantasy XI player, that's your currently planned patch day, and it promises to be quite a patch day at that. After all, it's the first time the level cap has been raised in almost forever, and the level raise brings with it more story, the uncapping of several Chains of Promathia areas, and more. It also brings with it the first of three add-on scenarios centering on Abyssea -- and to help whet your appetite, the trailer for the first add-on has just been released by Square-Enix. While there are no huge revelations regarding the storyline of the add-on, it would appear that there's a good reason why the pictures we've received for the scenario have so closely resembled existing zones. Could it be that, much like the recently added Voidwalker Notorious Monsters, the first scenario will involve Abyssea coming to the adventurers rather than vice versa? We'll find out in a little under two weeks, with everything due to come together at that point. Final Fantasy XI players can also take the opportunity now to pre-purchase the scenario, with the content automatically unlocking during the June version update.
Final Fantasy XI accounts compromised
With the highly anticipated June version update just around the corner, the last thing that Final Fantasy XI players want is something to distract them from the promise of wonderful things in the near future. But it's hard to ignore something as significant as a security breach, and that appears to be what has happened to the game. According to an official statement from Square-Enix, an external attack on their servers resulted in a potential compromise of some of the game's account information, although the statement was quick to point out that no payment information was violated. That alone would be bad, but the actions taken by Square-Enix to inform players have been a bit haphazard, including prolonged outages of the North American customer service department. Many players have had their passwords reset, in some cases resulting in their accounts being outright locked with no way to regain access. Players are encouraged to check their email and ensure that they can still log in to the game as before, and to contact customer service if they're unable to log in to Final Fantasy XI or the PlayOnline service.
A preview of the new weaponskills in Final Fantasy XI's June version update
We're in June now, and as the name would suggest, Final Fantasy XI's June version update is on its way to bring food and water and smite our enemies. It also will bring the first increase to the level cap in a long time, which means new subjobs, new areas for leveling, and new weaponskills. The last item on the list is something so obvious that it's almost fallen by the wayside, but Square-Enix made sure to return our attention to the upgrades via a new video on the official site. In the event that you don't feel like waiting on the download, we've taken the liberty of putting the video available for your viewing after the break. Some of the actual weapon animations look a bit standard, but others use the more dramatic animations reserved for high-end attacks (such as Bora Axe). While we don't yet know important tidbits such as which elements the skills will be for skillchain purposes, take a look past the cut to get some impression of what your job of choice in Final Fantasy XI will gain with its new levels. [ Thanks to FusionX for the tip! ]
The Mog Log: The trial of Chains of Promathia, part one
When the news first came out about the removal of the level cap in several Chains of Promathia areas, Sera and I had a bit of a disagreement on the news. Or, more accurately, we had a bit of a disagreement regarding the expansion as a whole. Sera was of the opinion that it was quite possibly the best expansion in the game's history. I, as has been stated before, feel somewhat less positive about it -- which is to say that I've usually regarded it as one of the worst. The comment thread to that news showed that this divide was not unique to the two of us. Comments were sharply divided between those who would happily blacklist Chains of Promathia and forget it existed, and those who were heartbroken at something so wonderful being toned down. So I decided to go ahead and take another look at the expansion as an aggregate, both the good and the bad. Out of all the Final Fantasy XI expansions, this one was the most unique. Was it a good experiment, or was it a failure?
Final Fantasy XI's new stress relief in Moblin Maze Mongers
We don't yet know exactly when we'll see the anticipated June version update for Final Fantasy XI. We are, however, increasingly aware of what will be contained in said update, and thus far it's looking pretty good. The list of improvements has just been lengthened with an official announcement of an expansion to Moblin Maze Mongers. Although it's billed as the Revitalization Team, and it's meant to help ease the stress of adventuring, the newest iteration seems poised to generate even more stress, unless you find facing off against specially designed difficulty monsters to be relaxing. Lying in wait in the new maze variant is the master known as Sadistiq, whose name alone should give adventurers a fair idea of what a charming fellow he is. He pits teams against a monster for fifteen minutes at a stretch, with rewards handed out based on how well the party does against said monster -- including the possibility of a reward if the party can't quite take down their opponent. While the official announcement doesn't go into details, it looks like fans of the maze system will be getting a new way to enjoy it in the coming version update -- and if killing monsters didn't burn off stress for the players, well, you wouldn't be playing Final Fantasy XI, right?
The Mog Log: Each answer I give you will only lead to more questions
This column may or may not contain any real answers. But it will contain a lot of emotionally satisfying climaxes, and maybe even bring back parts from columns that we've already finished. Unfortunately, there's no way to continue the analogy without making it sound like I was disappointed with the end of a certain well-known television show, which I wasn't. So let's move straightaway to the newest collection of questions and answers about Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. (And if we could get an island in the latter? That'd be awesome. Just saying.) Kaio asked: "What purpose does it serve to jump on top of roofs or jump off mountians with no consequence?" I've got to say that I do tend to fall with the camp that allows jumping. It's not a deal-breaker if I can't, but it's similar to people complaining about the pretty-line maps found in Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. Sure, it's not like it restricts much of your practical movement, but the fact that the choice is there makes you feel as if you could go anywhere you want. That having been said, it sure seems odd that every single character in most games is able to leap to Mario-like heights without even a warm-up stretch, right?
Final Fantasy XI expands Trial of the Magians
So you have weapons that can take a good year or two to put together, and then the game's level cap and item strength goes up. What do you do? Final Fantasy XI answered this question via Trial of the Magians, allowing holders of Relic or Mythic weapons to upgrade their weapon appropriately -- and allowing everyone else to start a new weapon they can custom-tune. With the first level cap upgrade to the game coming in the June version update, it should come as no surprise that the Trial of the Magians system is getting a concurrent upgrade. The fact that there will be new options to enhance and improve weapons almost goes without saying, as it lets players push their weaponry even further than before. There's also the promise of new trial varieties, and mention of being able to improve one's weapon skills themselves -- certainly an attractive proposition. If you're an adventurer on the go, you can also purchase a set of newly-added Magian Spectacles to check in on your trial status and progress along the upgrade path from anywhere. All told, the changes promise to improve on of the bigger new additions to Final Fantasy XI, whether you're swinging a Lumberjack or a Conqueror.
