I know that plenty of Final Fantasy XI players out there are not so patiently awaiting Final Fantasy XIV for a chance to sink their teeth into a new MMO in the FF universie, but while you're chomping at the bit why not play a bit more of XI. There will be plenty of new stuff thanks to Square Enix announcing three new battle area add-on scenarios for the game today.
The add-ons will release throughout 2010 with the first, "Vision of Abyssea," coming sometime this summer. The next two do not have official release dates yet, but are called "Scars of Abyssea" and "Heroes of Abyssea." All three will include new stages for combat, new monsters to battle and new equipment to collect. Each package will run you $9.99 and all of them require the previously released expansion packs "Rise of the Zilart" and "Wings of the Goddess." They'll drop on all of the games platforms (Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and PC) at the same time.
I know absolutely no one who is still playing FF XI, but that doesn't mean you aren't out there. Rejoice! New content cometh.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
9:00 AM on 02.28.2010
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I don't have all day to list every fault, but to begin with: The principle factor in almost every aspect of design was to extend subscriptions through scratch-rewarding, or more often, not rewarding players (my shell wasted hundreds of hours and lost a lot of sleep in dynamis getting armor it did not need and next to no currency), it has the theme of Final Fantasy (moogles, chocobos, crystals) but none of the empowerment (a insanely pimped-out tank can die in a just a couple of hits from an HNM, scaled down damage seen as a benchmark etc) or character narrative (unless you liked the badly written NPCs in the expansions), it is impossible to accomplish anything for the majority of the game unless you have a very large, diverse, INSANELY dedicated and selfless group of peers. Everything, even the instanced features, actively enabled and encouraged griefing, whilst customer service was bad and unresponsive at best, racist and arbitrary at worst. New features felt like they had only ever been playtested on test servers by designers using debug accounts, not actual player accounts. When people were passing out and vomiting after 18 hours of fighting an HNM and doing no damage, they got it wrong.
I stuck with it because of the friends I had in my shell, I hated the way the game was designed.
So no, 2010 is not the end for 11.
an MMO designed to suck money out of your pockets? no way!? but i do aggree with you. I tried it simply because it was final fantasy and didn't bother to play after the free trial.
Also: THIS (and this...)
SE has stated that as long as there is an audience for XI, they will serve them.
I quit playing quite some time ago, but there was another update not mentioned above, that the level cap will increase drastically from 75 to 99 later this year. And that might be enough to get back for the short term.
What does this means? about 3 - 4 years of more exp grinding. This is the stuff that really ticks me in the wrong side because this is something they could have released along with their previous expansions. Also 2 new summons, Alexander and Odin. and a new wave of clothing ware to show you fashion stylist how much you rule in the virtual world of fashion design.
I am sad to say this but: "little to late"
The level cap increase will take place in three stages, in the June, September, and December updates. It will be 99 by years' end. (check timeline here under "The Future of Final Fantasy XI").
And if they introduce new, higher level NMs with much better drops, it seems like it would invalidate all that time people spent going after Nidhogg for their E.bodies and such. I truly hope they don't just start adding random level 90+ weapons that are leagues better than the Relics, that would just be fucked up.
So what do they do? they use their Ace in their card, let players get DAMN levels they always wanted for years (with proof through the .dat files), break their stupid balance rule book they been following for 8+ years and keep the remaining players happy level grinding their wallets off for the next 3-4 years while FF14 takes off. Understandable but at the same time pathetic.
Maat is also an important character within the game and we've seen his limit break quests as a rite of passage for years how. I doubt they're going to change this particular element just because someone had trouble finding a couple of people to help with the first two. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've helped people do it, all people have to do is ask politely
If anything, with these new caps happening, people should be more capable of helping out.
The final quest's fight is soloed, but most jobs can't solo the enemies that drop Testaments for it. Especially when you played BRD like me and have massively underskilled melee stats so you fail the quest 8 times.
I'm not going to say every quest in the game should be soloable, because it shouldn't. Small group quests like all of the missions in the game, as well as larger ones, like Bahamut, Ouryu, Divine Might, etc, hold a great place in the game. But something as intrinsic to continuing your play, like the Genkai quests, should be completely and entirely soloable for a player of that level regardless of job. Especially as the game begins to age and fresh players you could group with are becoming a rarity.
I don't like to admit I leveled BRD to 75, but it was my first to 75 and as a BRD, it should never be difficult to obtain a testimony given testimonies have dropped from mobs that have gotten associated with more and more quests.
For example, people are still going to need to quest for ToA access, the Maat found in Campaign Zones wants them just like his present day version wants them for your G5. And they're places other jobs want things from.
There are actually three different options to tackle the ToA access, testimonies is only one of them. The second time I had to face down Maat was on another character as Ranger, I blew that fight, threw myself at Monastic Cavern right after, found a group looking for a Warrior testimony and asked if I could help with that. RNG mobs would have to die down there anyway, I'd get my test. I got it before the WAR, stayed til he got his and minutes later I put down Maat.
All it takes is a little bit of people skills. Don't even get me started about Sea access in CoP, I lead enough groups to have gotten it for five or six characters and I only have two.
I finally beat Maat about 2-3 months before ToAU came out, because I remember dinging 75 the week before I bought the game for the 360, so those alternative reasons for farming testimonies didn't really apply. But either way, I'm not complaining that it's 'too hard' or some other such nonsense. I did them, same as every other level 75 in existence. I just think it's a bit of a cheap and ridiculous move to block someones level progression by making them depend entirely upon other people. A BRD70 could MAYBE solo one of them IF they had capped skills, a dedicated melee gear set, and were using Soul Voice. That's something most first-time players don't have at that point.
And I can't complain about CoP missions, I absolutely loved them. I've done every mission except Snoll at least 3 times. The fights I particularly liked (Ouryu, Diabolos, 6-4, and the final fight) I've done upwards of 8 times. For one particular friend, we did every mission except 6-4 without a full party. I pretty much know CoP inside and out.
I lead a somewhat successful limbus LS for over a year, so I think that counts as decent people skills.
Still, we should make a Destructoid linkshell in XI or XIV. There are server transfers, are there not?
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