FFXI Journal: Prishe Goes Around Annoying the Whole World

[Hathen]

A Warrior’s Story: The Talekeeper's Gift



The Bastokan philosophy is to rely on tools instead of magic, so Rapifafa gets to practice some of the Warrior fighting styles while in Bastok. Eventually she is stopped by an old lady, who laments that his grandson decided not to follow in the footsteps of his father, who had been a warrior. Instead, her grandson apparently decided to be a doorboy.



The old lady can’t let this stand, as his grandson’s natural talents in combat will be wasted. She asks Rapifafa to help her find some special materials in Davoi to repair her son’s old sword.



It’s a long way from Bastok to Davoi, but Rapifafa can’t deny the requests of such a sweet old lady, so she makes the trek to the Norvallen region and finds the material she needs.



A few days later, Phara is able to repair the sword using the materials, and asks Rapifafa to do her one more favor- to deliver the sword to her grandson, Naji.



Naji’s a bit embarrassed to have his grandmother mocking his position given that he gets enough of that from Ayame, but he has little time to wallow in his shame as Iron Eater passes by and takes a good long look at the sword.



Turns out Iron Eater recognizes the sword, as he had seen it about 30 years ago, when Naji’s father Yasin and the Talekeeper Raogrimm were still alive. Back then, Iron Eater still went by his native Galkan name of Pagdako. Raogrimm had great respect for Yasin’s fighting skills and even suggested he could be a musketeer, but Yasin preferred the free life of an adventurer. Iron Eater himself had already made his choice at a young age- he’d follow in the steps of Raogrimm and become a great warrior.

Both Rapifafa and Naji are surprised by how many important people Yasin used to know, and Rapifafa decides to ask Phara for more details.



Like most non-Galka, Phara doesn’t seem to care much for figuring out how to say their native names correctly, but she did know that just about every single Galka had great respect for Raogrimm, save for one in particular.



Deidogg wasn’t a big fan of Raogrimm’s know-it-all attitude, which began at a young age due to his inherited memories of the Galkan people. He also believes that Raogrimm only became a Musketeer to please the Humes, magnified by the rumor that he was having a relationship with "one of their females”. Deidogg wants to prove that Raogrimm was just a phony, so he asks that Rapifafa look into the story that the Talekeeper had once defeated one of the Quadav leaders in Palborough Mines. He was supposed to bring back a particular Quadav egg to prove his deed, but Raogrimm claimed the Quadav he killed did not carry one.



Curious of the story herself, Rapifafa finds the Quadav’s nest deep in the Palborough Mines, and spots an egg similar to the one Deidogg described.

The egg was indeed the one Raogrimm needed to obtain, but before Deidogg can run off to the town square and start bad-mouthing him, Iron Eater arrives to give him a stern warning about his behavior.



Seeing the egg, Iron Eater muses that Raogrimm was never one to take the belongings of any beastmen he killed, as that was against a personal code he held. He had only ever broken his code once, taking the skin of the leeches in Castle Oztroja so he could make a pair of boots. They were not for himself, though- he had one friend he greatly respected because despite his foul mouth, he was the only Galka who treated him as an equal. Deidogg falls strangely silent at this revelation, and Rapifafa decides to check the story out- Rapifafa climbs to the top of Castle Oztroja and takes the skin of one of the leeches there. Upon returning to Deidogg with the skin, he confirms the story.



Even as a child, Raogrimm was given almost anything he asked for, but the truth was that he found the ceremonial clothes he was asked to wear highly uncomfortable. He found it difficult to reject the kindness of others so he never brought it up, but he felt comfortable enough around Deidogg to confide in him. In response, Deidogg grumpily handed him a pair of his own shoes so that he could have an easier time moving around.

Many decades later, Deidogg received a pair of greaves with an unsigned note saying “The greaves I promised”. He is a bit bewildered that Raogrimm had gone so far out of the way just to repay him a pair of boots, but with a new skin in his hands, he figures the only right thing would be to repair the old greaves. With his own adventuring days over, Deidogg decides that it would be much more appropriate for an active adventurer to have them.



Of course, Rapifafa also finds other treasures worthy of a Warrior around Vana’Diel.



Rapifafa eventually returns to Deidogg, who mentions that there’s some kind of search going on for Raogrimm’s old possessions.



He’s too prideful to actually just ask Rapfafa to help out, but she eventually gets the man to talk with the help of some local Galkan children. Apparently, Raogrimm had presented his own armor to San d’Oria as a symbol of friendship, but it had recently been stolen by Goblins. The Bastokan government wanted to obtain it for themselves as a bargaining chip, but Deidogg really didn’t want to see the armor being used in some political squabble, and points her towards the Behemoth’s Dominion.



As expected, the Goblins aren’t terribly friendly, but Rapifafa has no trouble taking them out. Unfortunately, the armor is nowhere to be found- someone had already arrived before her. Rapifafa leaves the area in a hurry to see if she can catch up with whoever had taken it.

On the road back to Jeuno, she runs into three of the Mythril Musketeers.



Iron Eater pretends to be confused as to why a civilian would know of their top secret mission, but Captain Volker quickly sees through him. Volker weighs the options he has before him- If he takes it back to Bastok, it will likely become a bargaining chip fought over by the senators of Bastok, and if they took it back to San d’Oria, they would certainly be impeached by the people for their betrayal. With this choice before them, Volker picks the only sensible option.



Rapifafa is aware of how important this item is to the Galkan people, and promises to cherish it.





Gameplay Comments

Might be kind of weird I'm not talking about the most basic of all jobs until I'm almost done with all of them, but oh well. Warrior is another one of the jobs that didn't really pan out the way SE originally intended the way it was designed, but they certainly held onto their original concept for it a lot longer than they did for Ninja. Originally Warrior was supposed to be a mixed tank/damage job, swapping between the two roles based on what abilities you were using. They do that just fine in the early levels, but SE didn't balance them terribly well for higher levels so Warrior just ended up being a pure damage job most of the time. SE did a variety of things to try to encourage Warriors to use an Axe + Shield rather than the dual wielding Axes or single 2-handed Axe most Warriors favored, but their changes were never really drastic enough so eventually they just gave up on it and gave Warrior more damage abilities. Remember kids, when at about the hundredeth time you don't succeed, just give up and double down on failure.

[Hathen]

Bastok Part 5: Where Two Paths Converge



Zeid has attacked a Bastokan adventurer in the Northlands, but more concerning is that he forced the girl he attacked to deliver a letter back to the Mythril Musketeers- the contents of the letter have been rather disturbing, especially to Volker.



Volker knows the truth of what happened 30 years ago now. He never became a Musketeer to follow in his uncle’s example, but that never stopped the rumors of nepotism amongst the people of Bastok. He worked hard to prove these rumors wrong, but now, after he has reached the top- the Captain of the Mythril Musketeers, he finds that he has been lied to his whole life. Karst’s not interested in hearing Volker’s whining, however.



Karst recognizes that Zeid has much popularity amongst the Bastokan soldiers, so it would be inappropriate for the Musketeers themselves to head this investigation- perhaps this is why he has publicly dismissed Volker from duty. Still, he knows Rapifafa was instrumental in the second defeat of the Shadow Lord, so he asks her to follow Volker to Castle Zvahl and assist him in any way necessary.



Rapifafa arrives before Volker is in sight, and she approaches the Throne Room formerly belonging to the Shadow Lord.



Zeid has apparently chosen what he thinks is an appropriate venue for this fight- this same enemy has haunted both Zeid and Volker for decades, but this was also the same place Raogrimm was finally able to conquer his demons. It was time for both Zeid and Volker to face their own.



Music: Battle in the Dungeon

As Zeid finishes warming up, the man he has been waiting for arrives.



Zeid allows Rapifafa to assist Volker in the fight, but as one of the last practitioners of an ancient Galkan art (with decades of practice to back it up), he has several moves up his sleeve Rapifafa doesn't know about.







Zeid commends Volker on being able to defeat him, but Volker believes had Rapifafa not been there to help, he would not have won. At this, Zeid points out what Volker should’ve realized long ago- Volker had never needed to fight alone, yet he has acted his whole life as if he needs to. While Zeid was the one who destroyed the Shadow Lord 20 years ago, at that time some of Raogrimm's anguish passed onto him, and since then Zeid had been trapped in his own darkness (Probably explains his terrible lack of social awareness too). Volker does not need to be trapped within his darkness or his past as Zeid is- the proof for that had followed him here.



Perhaps now more than ever, in Vana'Diel's Age of Adventurers, the Bastokan people need a strong leader to rally around. Volker is more suited to that task to anyone else- despite his popularity, Zeid cannot return to Bastok. He needs to deal with the darkness that Raogrimm passed onto him alone, and on top of that, his return would also disrupt what Gumbah has been working for.



With his path now clear to him, Volker makes another deal with Zeid, though this time a bit more friendly- some day, they'll spar another round, one-on-one.

Together, the Mythril Musketeers return home.



The President doesn't seem happy that the Musketeers failed in their task to return Zeid to Bastok, but his close friends paint a different picture of his grumpiness.



There’s still a lot of work left to do in Bastok, but from here on out it’ll be up to Volker and the Musketeer to handle. Zeid has put his affairs in order, so it was time for him and Rapifafa to deal with a different threat. Rapifafa collects her reward from the President and prepares to leave Bastok.



Naji…you’re not a girl.

Gameplay Comments

The last boss in the Bastok storyline is probably the most fun to fight out of the Three Nation storylines. Zeid has unique abilities on top of all his Dark Knight toys, the most threatening of which you saw- he can split into a bunch of copies and it's not fun when all of them Weapon Skill simultaneously on you. San d'Oria's fight against a bunch of Orcs makes sense, but isn't terribly interesting. Windurst's is probably the most disappointing, though- the fight against the Ace Cardians is fine, but all that build up for the Bearer of Darkness but you never get to fight the thing for the second part of the fight.

In all three fights, you're assisted by one of the key NPCs of the Nation. In Windurst, it's Ajido-Marujido, in San d'Oria, it's Trion, and in Bastok it's Volker. You automatically lose if they're knocked out, so the Windurst one is probably the most annoying because Ajido is really, really squishy. Trion's probably the lowest maintenance of the three, while Volker is probably the least useful because he's not as sturdy as Trion, but doesn't even get to do a lot of damage like Ajido can.

These days you're also rewarded with the ability to summon those three as party members after you beat each respective story. Halfway through each nation story you're also rewarded with a variety of the NPCs as party members, including Semih Lafihna, Curilla, and Naji. Almost all 6 of them are mediocre summoned party members except for Semih Lafihna, who is a ridiculously broken Ranger and learns Sidewinder at like level 10 (a powerful Bow Weapon Skill player Rangers can learn around level 55), as well as a unique Weapon Skill of her own. The rest of them are largely outclassed by lots of other Party Members you can get, but some of them work well if you're a beginner- except for Naji and Volker, they just suck all around.

[Hathen]

Bastok Epilogue: Do You Like Bastok?

Naji had a letter for Rapifafa. There was no name attached until the end of the letter, but it was immediately obvious to Rapifafa who had sent the letter.



Music: Metalworks

Wishing to know if the citizens of Bastok were truly okay with the way things were in Bastok, the writer did the only thing she could do.

























She is still not sure she can answer the question herself, but she has gained a new appreciation for the older generation of Bastok. Perhaps with more youths like her, a bright future for Bastok is all but guaranteed.

[Hathen]

A Samurai's Story: The Mysterious Far East



Norg is the only place in the Central Lands of Vana'Diel that has any knowledge of the Far East. Contact with the distant land is almost unheard of, but Gilgamesh himself supposedly knows some of their Samurai skills, and he was likely the one who taught Ayame. Jaucribaix wishes to forge Gilgamesh, a new katana, so he lets Rapifafa in on the secret on how to make one in exchange for helping to obtain the bomb steel and sacred branch necessary.



Rapifafa learns how to find these items by consulting Jaucribaix’s pupils, and needs to travel some long distances to find them.





Rapifafa returns to Jaucribaix, who immediately sets to work on Gilgamesh’s new sword. It takes 3 days and 3 nights to forge the sword, and when Rapifafa returns, Gilgamesh is there waiting for her.



Gilgamesh holds an extra sword, one made for Rapifafa. Along with the Mumeito, Gilgamesh gives her some guidance on how to fight like a Samurai.



With no real instructor or even a manual as she did with Ninjutsu, Rapifafa can only follow Gilgamesh's rough instructions at how the art is performed. Maybe if Rapifafa had ever met someone actually from the Far East, she would have an easier time, but no such luck.

Soon enough, Jaucribaix asks for Rapifafa’s help in an upcoming ritual, requiring her Mumeito and a handful of crystal scales from a pugil living in the Sanctuary of Zitah.



Rapifafa returns to Jaucribaix, and he thanks Rapifafa by giving her a new katana to replace the Mumeito. A few days later, she is requested to do one more task to finish preparing for the ritual. With the day of the ritual quickly approaching, he allows Rapifafa to meet Gilgamesh so she can get a clearer explanation of what they're doing.



They wish to perform a legendary ritual from the East known as the Yomi Okuri, which is said to be able to appease spirits. Gilgamesh gestures to the flag behind him, and only now does Rapifafa realize how familiar it is- it is the flag of the fallen nation of Tavnazia. Gilgamesh was at Tavnazia 20 years ago when it was lost, and those on his ship were some of the very few who survived that day. As they neared the Valkurm Dunes, they noticed the remains of several other ships- failed escape attempts by fleeing citizens of Tavnazia. At the time, they were given hasty burials, but this Yomi Okuri ritual may be what is required to allow them to at last find peace.



Rapifafa finds the giant bird she was asked to search for, and plucks a single feather from it after defeating the beast. Using the feather, Jaucribaix reforges Rapifafa’s former Mumeito into a Yomotsu Hirasaka, and sends it with Rapifafa to perform the ritual on the coast of the Valkurm Dunes.



With the spirits laid to rest, Rapifafa returns to Norg for her reward.



Surprisingly, Rapifafa is able to find other Samurai artifacts spread throughout the central lands, albeit hidden away in the outlands.



When Rapifafa returns to Norg, she is asked to meet Gilgamesh once again.



Gilgamesh informs her that while she was away, a thief infiltrated Norg and stole one of Gilgamesh’s treasures- a Myochin Kabuto left to him by his father. Not many people in Norg have been informed of the theft, because aside from how embarrassing it is for the leader of a bunch of Pirates to be burglarized, it just kind-of sort-of had a tiny bit of a horrible, awful curse placed on it- during the war 20 years ago, Gilgamesh’s father sealed demons from the Northlands into the helmet.

Gilgamesh suspects that a rival pirate group is responsible for the theft, so Rapifafa is told to find Gilgamesh’s agents outside of Norg.



Rapifafa finds one of the agents in Jeuno, who informs Rapifafa that there have been reports of a man wearing a strange helmet passing through the Zulkheim region. Few clues are found on a search through the Valkurm Dunes, so it was likely the man had already crossed the sea. Taking the boat across the sea, Rapifafa finds another one of Gilgamesh’s agents



The agent informs her that the perpetrator is just a simple thief looking to land himself a huge sack of gil, and not part of any sort of organization. Recently the innkeeper has noted some strange behavior from the man, and he set off towards Bastok. There was another one of Gilgamesh’s agents there, so Rapifafa could gain more information there.



For whatever reason, the man has left Bastok for the Palborough Mines, and the agent tells Rapifafa to meet him there when she is ready.



Rapifafa enters to Waughroon Shrine to find the agent on the floor. Before losing consciousness, he tells Rapifafa that the seal was about to break, so she needed to obtain a seal from Jaucribaix if she wishes to have a chance of defeating the demon beyond.

Rapifafa hurries back from Norg with a Banishing Charm, and prepares to fight the demon trapped within the helm.







After Rapifafa defeats the demon, all that’s left is a broken old helmet. Rapifafa brings it back to Gilgamesh, and he asks Jaucribaix to spend some time repairing the helm. When the helm is finished, Gilgamesh decides that instead of letting his father’s helmet gather dust in his chambers, it would be more appropriate if an adventurer like Rapifafa wore it into battle.



Rapifafa may have gained the shiny armor of a warrior from the Far East, but she was still left wondering how incomplete her own understanding of the style was, and how a real Samurai from the Far East would fight.



Gameplay Comments

There's the 15th job in the game, making that all the jobs the game up to Rise of the Zilart, so this is the last post dedicated to one for a while. Good news if any of you hate how the job stories distract from the main plot of the game...but I think a lot of them are pretty important to the story so I figured I'd do them all for completion's sake.

Samurai's another damage job, which is the majority of jobs in every MMO it seems. It's probably appropriate though, it seems in MMOs people tend to gravitate more towards damage classes. Samurai's shtick in FFXI was the ability to build TP very quickly. They had passive traits that made each weapon swing give more TP and abilities that made you charge TP over time. For a long while, Samurai was the only job in the game that could do a skillchain solo. Samurais also had decent skill in polearms and bows on top of their katana, so even if something was resistant to slashing they could switch up.

Without getting too much into the nitty-gritty, I'll just say that Samurai was a ridiculously powerful damage job in the game for the longest time, self-skillchains or not. In concept, it seems SE went for the idea that Samurais would be all about their Weapon Skills, thus they were probably designed to do low autoattack damage and compensate for it via powerful Weapon Skills (so I guess its consistent with FF characters like Cyan in that you have to charge up to do anything useful). But since in a lot of higher-tier content Weapon Skills would end up being the bulk of physical damage, it gave Samurais a massive advantage over other damage classes.

[Hathen]

Think I might’ve gone a bit too gif-happy. Oh well. Just let me know if it’s a problem.

Rise of the Zilart Part 5: Return to Delkfutt's Tower

Word comes from Lion. She spotted Verena being escorted by Wolfgang, the Captain of the Ducal Guards, towards the Delkfutt’s Tower. Zeid and Rapifafa hurry there, where Lion and Aldo are already waiting for them.



Unlike the first time Rapifafa had come here, the group needed to climb past higher than the elevator could reach, to the very top where the Stellar Fulcrum was. Rapifafa’s shorter legs don’t help much with the long climb.





The rest of the group arrives before Rapifafa, and the quickly devise a plan of attack.







Apparently Kam’lanaut can’t help himself, because he begins his villain speech to the group before even trying to subdue them, telling the story of how the surviving Zilart had slept within Delkfutt’s Tower for thousands of years, until an event caused a disruption in the Crystal Line 30 years ago. Apparently Raogrimm touched the crystal that was resting beneath the Northlands, and after that the Zilart spent decades preparing for this moment. By awakening Delkfutt’s Tower, they could also revive the floating island of Tu’Lia.

The group doesn’t care much for listening to Kam’lanaut babble on, so they advance on him- though clearly they forgot why they were unable to beat the Prince when last they met.











With Rapifafa entering the fray, Kam’lanaut decides she will be his first target, and proceeds to transform into the White Power Ranger.





Much like Rapifafa, Kam’lanaut uses elemental sword attacks, but apparently his spells applied to his entire body, so Rapifafa has to constantly switch her own sword to correspond to his weakness.



Soon, the fight turns into what most fights in Japanese media are- spirit bomb wars.



50 episodes later, Rapifafa emerges triumphant.



Kam’lanaut is confused why the Crystal Warriors did not come to his aid when he was in danger. The answer was obvious, but he was unwilling to see it.



Music: To the Heavens

The Dawnmaidens had warned Rapifafa and Zeid- the Elder Zilart Prince gained incredible powers after coming in contact with the crystal long ago. In that moment, he stopped aging, retaining the body of a child. Now he sets the stage for his plan.







Eald’narche explains why they did not immediately begin their plan when they had awoken- the Shadow Lord was emitting some kind of strange “noise” which interfered with the Delkfutt’s Tower’s core. It was when Rapifafa killed him that they could finally begin their plan.

Originally, Eald’narche was going to use his brother’s abilities to restore the Chrysalis Core of Delkfutt’s Tower. On his own, he discovered that using the Talekeeper, he could do so without him. However, he knew he needed someone who could speak with beastmen to tap into these memories- there was one girl in Jeuno who fit that description.





With the Crystal Warriors defending Eald’narche, the group can do nothing but watch as Eald’narche finishes the first part of his plan.

















Aldo tends to his sister, but Lion tells the others that they have little time to waste- Lion quickly leaves to return to Norg to ask her father to begin gathering information about the ruins of Ro’Maeve.

Before setting off for Norg herself, Rapifafa decides to help Aldo take Verena back to the Tenshodo hideout in Jeuno.



Thankfully, Verena doesn’t seem to be severely injured in any way, and she soon awakens, with barely any recollection of what had happened.

Aldo tells Rapifafa to leave for Norg first- he will catch up later.

Gameplay Comments

The Vanilla XI game pretty much only had the Shadow Lord as a "unique" boss encounter, instead of just being a mook made 3 sizes larger. With XI's expansions they started having a lot more of these, and Kam'lanaut's the first one in Rise of the Zilart. The Archduke likes using elemental damage, the strongest of which is Light Blade (that glowing orb thing in the gif above). Light Blade is a special ability though, he could only actually charge himself with the 6 "wheel" elements in XI (Fire/Water/Lightning/Earth/Wind/Ice), named so since the strength/weakness relationship between the six go in a wheel.

As I've said before, a lot of early XI armor had nothing but Defense on it, which meant that magic damage was usually the most dangerous thing you could run into. You could cobble together certain elemental resistance sets if you were so inclined, but that was not the case for light or dark elemental damage- almost no armor existed with resistance against those two elements, and if you had too many people hitting Kam'lanaut and giving him TP, he'll love spamming the hell out of Light Blade. It also goes past Ninja shadows so players couldn't expect to cheese the fight using them.

Despite all that, Kam'lanaut actually wasn't too hard as long as you were careful. The fight everyone remembers from Rise of the Zilart is yet to come.

[Rucks]

seems appropriately giffy

[Hathen]

Rise of the Zilart Part 6: Tu'lia, the Gate of the Gods



Gilgamesh’s men have returned from looking into Ro’Maeve, and now Gilgamesh thinks Rapifafa should go take a look herself. Lion wants to tag along, but much to her annoyance, Gilgamesh sends her to Jeuno to keep an eye on the beastmen in case they feel like stirring up trouble- they've been acting strangely restless since the Gate of the Gods reawakened.

Rapifafa once again travels past the Sanctuary of Zitah to reach the ruins of Ro’Maeve. She enters a strange temple on the far side of the area. She had been here once before, but she had never actually entered the temple before.



Music: Hall of the Gods



Rapifafa is uneasy as she walks through the deserted hallway, but she feels some comfort at spotting a statue of the Goddess Altana. As the Dawnmaidens had suggested, the Zilart believed in the same Goddess that the people now do.



At the end of the hallway was a strange grate prohibiting her from going any further.



There was nothing else she could do for now, so it was probably best to return to Gilgamesh to figure out what to do. It was on her way out when Rapifafa noticed the statue opposite the Goddess’s.



It captured Rapifafa’s curiosity for a few moments before she snapped back into reality. Just looking at it sent a strange chill down Rapifafa’s spine, and she couldn’t help but feel uneasy the whole trip back to Norg.

Gilgamesh doesn’t have any direct answers for Rapifafa, but he thinks she might be able to find a way through the grate through one of his contacts in Rabao. Supposedly this person has some strange crystal, which isn’t much to go on, but it’s all they can work with now.



Luckily, the Mithra actually has the stone she needs. She explains she found it after searching through the strange temple in Ro’Maeve, inside the lake underneath all the statues. Rapifafa is able to hammer out a deal with the Mithra, doing some “treasure hunting” in exchange for the crystal.

With the key past the grate in her hand, it was now time. Aldo and Zeid were already waiting for Rapifafa by the time she returned to the temple.





The group enters the room beyond the grate, only to find a dead end.



The woman who appears before them calls herself Yve’noile. She tells the travelers that she is a servant of the Dawn Goddess, and apparently, she was present during the events which took place 10,000 years ago. She explains that there are only five true crystals in world, resting deep beneath the surface of Vana'Diel.



The Zilart attempted to harness the power of the crystals by splitting it elementally, and when the meltdown which destroyed the Zilart occurred, what little energy they had drawn from the true crystals was spread throughout the world. When this energy crystallized within living beings, it became the crystals that craftsmen across Vana’Diel now use. It made sense to Rapifafa, since she had seen what would happen when one of these crystals touched the one of the crags. It seems Cid’s experiment did not showe that the crags stole energy from crystals, but rather reabsorbed what was once theirs.



Despite the so-called imperfections of the five races, Yve'noile is willing to give them a chance to fight for their own continued existence.









Music: Tu'lia







The floating island of Tu'lia is massive, so Rapifafa decides to begin her investigation in the prominent central structure she saw upon first arriving.





Here, she meets the Dawnmaiden Yve’noile once again.



She explains that The Celestial Nexus at the heart of Tu’Lia is guarded by the power of the five beings born of the crystal- Rapifafa needs to defeat them if she wishes to confront Eald’narche. In order to bring the five together so she may defeat them at once, she will need the power of the Ro’Maeve spring, which awakens on the night of a full moon. Rapifafa has little choice but to wait several weeks for the full moon to come. Just as well, as she needed time to prepare for such a fight.



A few weeks later, a full moon shines into the fountain of Ro’Maeve, causing it to bubble and fill with water.







Following Yve'noile's intructions, Rapifafa immerses a piece of parchment and a special ink into the waters, forming the magic item Rapifafa will need.

Now, it was time to face the Crystal Warriors.

Gameplay Comments

For a lot of XI players, reaching Tu'lia (nicknamed "Sky" by the players) gave a strange sense of achievement. Nowadays probably not so much since a new max level makes all of the preceding missions trivial, but many years ago it felt like a really long journey (for some after hundreds of hours of play) to reach this area. Barring an area behind story progression is to some a strange way of doing things in an MMO. In single player games its very common, but these days MMO players tend to be very critical of games which are lacking in "content", and having an entire area be barred behind optional story would make it less visible to lots of power gamers, moreso in a more "open" game like XI as opposed to some MMOs which railroad you into a strict linear leveled progression through areas. Since there were very few tangible gameplay rewards in XI's story other than just experiencing the story (except occasionally upon completion of an expansion), it decreased the incentive to finish the story over spending your playtime hunting for treasure or beating boss monsters.

In this case however, all "endgame" linkshells (basically XI's version of guilds) always required all their members to complete the Zilart Missions up to this point (but it seems fewer actually went past this point and actually bothered beating it, presumably in their version of the story they allowed Eald'narche to proceed to destroy the world), because Tu'lia is arguably the first true dedicated "endgame" area of FFXI. The giant island of Tu'lia isn't just for show, as it housed some of the strongest enemies in the game, many of which could decimate a full alliance (18) of players if they didn't know what they were doing. They also dropped items with massive stat bonuses, some of which would be the best item for a particular slot for over half a decade of the game's life. Of course, they were all optional, so basically its an island full of the "stronger than the last boss yet don't bother trying to take over the world themselves" encounters many JRPGs have.

Sky was also the area where many years of community drama was born, people ninja-lotting items, training aggressive monsters onto competing players, people generally being dickheads, etc. My personal favorite is one guy who trolled the XI community by leading RMT (Real Money Traders) through the story so they could bother everyone up in sky instead of just on the areas below.

Anyway, traveling through Tu'lia was quite inconvenient, as many things in XI are. Every monster in the area is classified as Arcana-type, which means they are aggressive to players who cast magic even from very far distances. There were also some which detected players by sound on top of that, which meant if you wanted to travel around the area and not get aggro'd, you would need to bring around a full bag of items to sneak/invisible your character instead of relying on the mages (or your own white magic for that matter) to cast the spell on you. Within the area, there are a couple collapsed bridges, teleporters, and some color-coded gates with their switches placed far away, some of which meant you would need to travel to the inside and weave your way through the inner dungeon before coming back out again to get around the island.

Finally, the Ro'Maeve spring- seems like an appropriate time to bring this up, but XI had actual ingame days, months and years. 25 days of Vana'diel time passes for every 1 real world day- 25 because there are 8 days in the Vana'Diel week (one for each of XI's elements), and they probably didn't want the same cycle of Vana'diel days occuring every real world day. This selectively applied to the game's story, sometimes you would need to wait for a game day or something to pass before a NPC would finish making a decision or making an item for you, but since players would obviously not be doing the story all the time, it's probably left for the player to assume that you're not wasting literally months or years of Vana'diel time before you decide to finally stop the evil eyepatch kid (also since the ingame clock has run hundreds of years since the game's launch, you probably shouldn't assume every character is now hundreds of years old). The ingame clock affected quite a bit, as the game had associated days of the week, moon phases, and seasonal weather patterns. Using your Fire spells and weapon skills would occasionally get a damage and accuracy boost on Firesdays, rainy seasons in the jungle meant you should often do the opposite, undead monsters only roam areas in the middle of the night, etc. In this case, waiting for a full moon means exactly that- the full moon is out in Vana'diel for only a couple hours every real-life week, and obtaining the Ark Pentasphere required to battle the Ark Angels can be bothersome. Though, I shouldn't really be complaining- this step isn't actually mandatory to progress the story, but I'll explain a bit more next time.

[Hathen]

Dynamis: The Shrouded Land

My dearest ****,

This may be my last letter to you. I have continued my correspondence in the hopes of retaining the gift of words, and some sense of time. But there is no escape from this hell. This realm stands apart from Vana'diel. It is a prison. There are those among the Hydra who have begun to think the world was destroyed as we lay unconscious, and this shade of reality is all that remains.

Twenty years ago, contact with an elite unit known as the Hydra Corps was lost. They had been presumed dead, their true fate a mystery-only recently were several letters from a supposed member found, apparently a young thief from Windurst. The intended recipient was tracked down, and through her tears, the woman was able to inform the Vana’diel Tribune that the letters were, in fact, genuine. Rapifafa had read the story herself, yet remained skeptical.

As Rapifafa made her preparations in the days before the full moon, she travelled to Xarcabard of the Northlands and was greeted by a familiar sight.



Raogrimm informed Rapifafa that while he had been released from his rage, some part of that rage still resided within another world, and eventually, a new Shadow Lord could be born. If the beastmen in this other world were allowed to rally around him, it is likely they will attempt to find some way into the real world. Raogrimm pleads that Rapifafa retrace the steps of the Multinational Expedition sent 30 years ago so she may gain entry to the alternate world and stop this from happening.

Rapifafa first returned home to Windurst in an attempt to track the steps of Iru-Kuiru, as she was already quite familiar with the man through her dealings with the Rhinostery. There, the Hume Cornelia appeared before Rapifafa.



Cornelia made no excuses for the horrible sins that Raogrimm has committed over the decades as the Shadow Lord, but she still wished to rescue her love from the darkness. It would have been suicide to simply confront the newly forming Shadow Lord, so Cornelia tells Rapifafa that by collecting items left behind by the Hydra Corps, she may stand a chance. By obtaining a certain rare hourglass, she should be able to enter the alternate realm.

Rapifafa was unable to find the hourglass described in any shop she searched, but eventually some wandering Goblin Merchants were able to supply Rapifafa with what she needed at quite a hefty price. The hourglass is a curiosity in and of itself- no matter how violently Rapifafa shook or upended it, the sands would not fall.

With the hourglass in hand, Rapifafa entered the alternate world through some strange markings in Windurst, with some words from Iru-Kuiru sending her off.



Iru-Kuiru had a strange feeling about this alternate world- before he met his end in the Elshimo islands, he had visited a protocrystal of one of the Sleeping Gods of Vana'diel. He felt that this alternate universe gives off a similar aura.

In the alternate Windurst, Yagudo walked the streets of Windurst, and Rapifafa quickly found herself fighting for her life. Unlike any others who may have stumbled into this world, however, she was tethered to the real world through the strange hourglass she carried. Its sands would being falling as soon as she entered the strange realm, and she would be sent back to the real world when the last grain fell.



After numerous expeditions into the strange realm, some alongside other adventurers, Rapifafa is able to find a giant Yagudo Idol in the realm. Upon its destruction, Rapifafa found a lantern in its remnants, likely belonging to a former Hydra Corps member.

Rapifafa travelled to Bastok next, where she was surprised to find one former member remorseful for his past actions.



Similar to Windurst, Bastok was filled with Quadav in the alternate world. Rapifafa repeated the task she performed in Windurst, destroying a large Quadav icon and finding an eyeglass formerly owned by a Hydra Corps member.



Next, Rapifafa travelled to San d’Oria.



Francmage stated that death does not exist within the alternate world. If a trapped individual died within, he would simply rise from the dead and continue the endless struggle. For that same reason he was confused why some of the beastmen that Rapifafa ran into were wearing leftover armor and non-beastmen currencies- if people could not truly die within the realm, where had they disappeared off to?

Rapifafa pressed on, defeating an Orcish Tombstone in the alternate world, and finding a Hydra Corps Command Scepter.



Finally Rapifafa travelled to Jeuno, where she met Yow Rabntah, the hunter from Kazham.



Upon destroying the Goblin Statue, Rapifafa found a parchment map left behind by the Hydra Corps.



With the four Hydra Corps items in hand, Rapifafa traveled north to the Beaucedine Glacier, where Cornelia gave Rapifafa her one more task before heading for Xarcabard.



Rapifafa was now in the alternate version of the Northlands. This was where the Hydra Corps had last been spotted.

I still have no idea of where I am. The area appears to be Beaucedine Glacier, but I see no sign of the allied forces. Neither day nor night has dominion here. There is no sense of time passing at all...

As Rapifafa traveled through the frozen lands of the alternate world, any traces of doubt she had of the story the letters told were removed from her mind.

I was a little disappointed when I was introduced to the other members. 'Multi-national strike force' is a misleading description--the great bulk of the unit has been assembled from the knightly orders of San d'Oria. They said it had to do with the problem of supplying different sizes of equipment, smoothness in relaying orders, and other such flimsy excuses.

Our battle has been never-ending. All for the brief flowerings of scarlet color on the endless fields of snow... Most of my companions have lost their grip on sanity, and pursue our enemies with a dull single-mindedness. Why do they fight? Why bother to spill each other's blood anymore? I am losing the will to care the longer I stay here...
I don't want to become like them. I don't want to forget you.

Rapifafa fought her way to where the ruins of Fei’Yin would normally be, and there she defeated a demon, which left behind a Hydra Corps Insignia, showcasing the golden serpent of the Hydra Corps.



With the five symbols of the Hydra Corps in her possession, Cornelia was able to send Rapifafa to the alternate world’s Xarcabard to confront the newly-forming Shadow Lord.



Rapifafa can only advance through the alternate Xarcabard slowly, getting slightly deeper in each time. During her travels through this alternate realm, Rapifafa had found some intact pieces of armor off the beastmen and leftover Hydra Corps members. Rapifafa had heard rumors that there were other adventurers entering this alternate reality and were able to find strange, powerful weapons that could speak to the wielder, but her own investigation yielded no such treasures, and she had little time for a long search. She would have to make do with the Hydra Corps armor she had found.

…they issued me with my new mission attire…when I put it on I can almost feel my abilities being enhanced. With this kind of equipment, I'm sure to survive the coming conflict.

Eventually, Rapifafa is able to fight her way through the demon hordes fast enough to reach the alternate Castle Zvahl.



There, Rapifafa confronts the newly-forming Shadow Lord.



With the help of Raogrimm and the rest of the expeditionary force, Rapifafa is able to defeat the Dynamis Lord.



Raogrimm knows that as long as he exists, he can once again be consumed by his rage. He explained that before he met his end in Castle Zvahl, a strange being had drawn him here, offering to preserve his soul. Apparently the darkness within him could not be contained by this strange being, and it began to consume the realm originally created for his safety. The ruler of the alternate realm contacted Raogrimm and gave him a new task- he was to stay in this realm and watch over it until his hatred finally subsides.

This time, however, he would not face this task alone. The Multinational Expedition once split by national and racial lines now came together to face this great task ahead.



As Rapifafa bids farewell to the legendary Expedition of 30 years past, she thought of the final words of the Tarutaru man who had written those letters.

I will not say goodbye. We will meet again one day, I swear it…

Gameplay Comments

When I said that Tu'lia was the first endgame area in FFXI, that was probably untrue. Dynamis is probably more fitting of that title, but it came in a very strange form. In this event, you would enter an area with a 1 hour time limit (extendable to 3) and a 3-day lockout (to prevent one group from taking an area all for themselves). It also allowed up to 64 players to participate (of course, I have my doubts that even the earliest groups took even half that amount of members to any given run).

Unlike most of the other things I talk about, Dynamis as it used to exist cannot be accessed anymore if you play the game today. In the years since its introduction, the event has been redesigned (though the core concept has arguably remained the same). In it's original form, Dynamis was basically just a copy of the 3 town and 2 field areas described, with a really dense population of monsters. Thus a lot of the time you needed a puller who knew what he was doing, otherwise your group would get swarmed. There were boss monsters in the area as well, but generally their unique rewards weren't as attractive as the things the random mooks would drop- the aforementioned Hydra Corps Armor and Ancient Currency.

Hydra Corps Armor was job-specific equipment, basically acting as a second set of Artifact Armor. However, because of the way itemization was set up in FFXI, these pieces weren't necessarily upgrades from your first Artifact Armor set. Armor in FFXI was designed laterally (as opposed to vertical progression where stat numbers simply become bigger the higher level you get, some armor pieces had unique effects no other armor had) so it had a very "collect 'em all" quality to them, which is part of why I think the core players of XI have stuck with it as long as they have.

However, the thing Dynamis was probably most notable for was the ancient currency drops, which were used to obtain absurdly difficult-to-obtain weapons known as Relic Weapons. Aside from generally being very powerful, they all had unique skins that could wow any passerby.



As you probably already noted, many of these weapons are given the names associated with legendary weapons in the Final Fantasy series. However, instead of them being plopped in a chest at the end of an optional dungeon or being given to you for free a'la FFV, the developers of FFXI apparently intended these weapons to be legendary among the playerbase. A typical run of Dynamis yielded a couple hundred coins, and completing a single weapon requires approximately 18000 of these coins. The numbers alone don't tell the full story because it needs to be kept in mind that each of those Dynamis runs can only happen once every 3 days and were generally done by groups of 12 or more people. This meant that you would usually have linkshells "funding" a single person in the group to have a relic, and even if you managed to have a friendly enough group to not get into a virtual war over a pixel sword, it would still take something like a year to complete a single weapon (though generally the shield Aegis or the horn Gjallerhorn were selected by groups because those were the most beneficial to the group as a whole).

As a little bonus, anybody completing a relic weapon would receive a little cutscene involving the original wielder of the weapon (though it was pretty insubstantial). While technically that means this journal is not me trying to 100% the story for you, I think I'm okay with not spending hundreds of hours grinding out a virtual weapon to show a picture of a guy going "here's my super sword". =P

The last thing I want to note is that the story of Dynamis does contain relevant plot points to FFXI's story, but I honestly always found that amusing, because by the time these plot points were addressed, I can only assume less than 100 people on every server had ever beaten Dynamis Lord and therefore gotten all of the story. Dynamis Lord was an absurdly difficult fight when it first came out, generally consisting of a stunlock strategy involving a Red Mage using their Chainspell ability with a Dark Knight subjob (to get the Stun spell).

[Hathen]

Rise of the Zilart Part 7: Divine Might

With her preparations complete, Rapifafa returns to the floating island of Tu’lia, where she is greeted by an aurora, an incredibly rare phenomenon in any part of the world.



Rapifafa makes her way to the La’Loff Amphitheater within the island’s cermet walls.









There, she meets up with her companions, Zeid and Aldo, and together they enter to face the Warriors of the Crystal.

Music: Fighters of the Crystal

















































With the Ark Angels of Tu’lia defeated, the Dawnmaiden Yve’noile appears before Rapifafa once again, using the leftover shards to create an earring for her,  in the hopes it will assist her in stopping Eald’narche’s plan.



The group finds that the way to the Celestial Nexus in the center of the island is still sealed, so they travel back to Norg to meet with Gilgamesh again.



Gilgamesh believes that the way to the core will open when Eald’narche begins his attempt to open the Gate of the Gods, so it was best if the group returned to the sealed entrance and awaited the moment to come.

Rapifafa, Zeid and Aldo each travel back to the floating island after making their own preparations. Upon arriving, Rapifafa makes her way to the Shrine of Ru’Avitau in the middle of the island.











Music: Ve’Lugannon Palace













Rapifafa follows Lion’s descent into the core of Tu’lia, where the Zilartan Prince awaits them.

Gameplay Comments

I actually didn't plan on running into an aurora in Tu'lia. In the 10+ years I played the game on and off, I think I ran into that weather effect in Tu'lia like 3 or 4 times total. It just happened to be there when I got there, so screenshots ahoy.

Anyway, whenever anybody thinks of Rise of Zilart, it's probably this battle right here. To progress the story, you need to fight the Crystal Warriors, one by one. Unlike any other Mission in FFXI though, there was option for players to fight all five of them at once, as you saw above. The reward for this is one of five very powerful earrings, so of course most people opted to take the harder route. The other reward is that its way cooler to fight all of them at once anyway. Luckily for audiophiles, they got that cool tune for the fight regardless of which path they chose. It's a real popular song amongst XI fans, though personally even though I like it as well, I feel Mizuta goes on to outdo himself many times in the future.

Obviously Rapifafa had no trouble winning since she's like 40 levels higher than the original intended level, but originally this fight was very difficult, generally requiring a whole alliance (18) of players, or close to that. Probably not too big of a surprise given that each Ark Angel was meant as a boss for a 6-person party, so fighting all 5 at once with only 3 times the members meant you couldn't just stick to the same strategy.

All five of the Ark Angels are considered two jobs simultaneously, being able to use the SP abilities of the two jobs, plus a bunch of unique abilities. The Tarutaru is a Black Mage + Dark Knight, using powerful spells and the ability to petrify people with an area with his Scythe. Since he's also a massive wuss HP-wise, he was usually the first target for any group. The Mithra is a Beastmaster + Thief, having lots and lots of evasion and the ability to charm your party members, which can get ugly if you don't control it properly. The Hume is a Ninja + Warrior, hitting players hard and fast. The Galka is a Samurai + Dragoon, using Weapon Skills back-to-back and performing skillchains on players (yep, enemies can make skillchains too). The Elvaan, a Paladin + White Mage, was probably the most annoying, because aside from having the White Mage SP ability to completely heal everyone in range, she has access to a Weapon Skill called Spirits Within (cute reference). It's a Weapon Skill that's also available to players, but since it does damage based on your current HP, and enemies always have inflated HP values compared to players...well, do the math, heh.

The flexibility of having such a large group for the fight gave birth to all kinds of different strategies, but most famous was one where someone decided to get about 15 Black Mages to all simultaneously cast Thundaga III (at the time the strongest AoE spell in the game), resulting in a victory in about 5 seconds. Of course, actually finding that many Black Mages was a different issue altogether.

[Hathen]

Rise of the Zilart Part 8: Awakening

Rapifafa makes her way towards the core of Tu’lia via the Shrine of Ru’Avitau.











Music: Eald’narche



Much like what happened at Delkfutt’s Tower, the rest of the group went ahead of Rapifafa, and again they underestimated their opponent.



Eald’narche had been waiting for the group to arrive, to act as witnesses to the beginning of a new era in Vana’diel. After he opens the Gate of the Gods, the world will forever be changed.



It was up to Rapifafa now, and she’s had about enough of Eald’narche’s narcissistic monologues.























When Eald'narche touched the crystal many millennia ago, it gave him everlasting life, but also simultaneously scarred him.

Music: Belief









Despite his powerful magical abilities, Eald'narche's falls to the sword like any other living creature can.



















None of the group had any understanding of the machine which was beginning to awaken before them. They were to bear witness to the end of their civilization.

Music: End Theme























The battle was over, and the shard of the great crystal at the heart of Tu’lia seems have returned to rest. Rapifafa is still puzzled as to how exactly Lion was able to stop the gate from opening, but for the moment that felt like it mattered very little.



With their journey over, the group say their goodbyes and go their separate ways. Aldo would likely be returning to his role as leader of the Tenshodo, and Zeid back to wondering the land.

As for Rapifafa, she decided she would take the hardest task ahead- bringing the news of Lion's fate to Gilgamesh.











Gameplay Comments

Eald'narche is actually a pretty disappointing boss, gameplay-wise. He's not too tough once you figure out that you're supposed to hit his plate armor thingies and not him, which you should probably gather from the fact that hitting him does 0 damage. People who go in a group might get caught off guard on his second form though, since even if you don't run up to him he'll eventually just teleport over to you, so sometimes you heard stories of parties sitting around resting up before they go up to him, only for him to appear out of nowhere, cast sleep on everyone and then pick off everyone one-by-one.

[Hathen]

Rise of the Zilart Epilogue: A Whisper

Rapifafa returns to the island of Elshimo and travels back to the hidden city of Norg.





Music: One Last Time





After all that’s happened, Rapifafa wishes to go back home to rest for a while. She bids farewell to Gilgamesh and travels to Kazham to begin the airship trip home. Between flights, she stops in Jeuno to visit the Tenshodo to see if Aldo has returned.















If it was from anyone else perhaps it would simply be a way of coping, but Verena has demonstrated amazing abilities before- Rapifafa, too, chose to believe that perhaps Lion was still alive somewhere out there.

[Hathen]

Guess the forum crash earlier this week kinda screwed up a couple of the posts. I'll go back and fix them later.

Good Deeds

Rapifafa went home to Windurst. Only a few in the world had known of the plot involving Zilart, and only those few knew of Lion's sacrifice. Aside from the news that the Archduke was afflicted by a sudden mysterious "illness", the world continued as it did before. A few days after returning, Rapifafa gets a request from the local Fisherman's Guild.



The guild needs assistance settling a land dispute. Off the coast of Bibiki Bay by the Buburimu Peninsula was a place known as the Purgonorgo Isle. The islands in that bay belong to the Fisherman’s Guild, but recently a strange character has appeared there and insists that that island is his.

Rapifafa travels to the Bibiki Bay, where she takes the Manaclipper ferry towards the island that the Fisherman’s Guild pointed out to her.



The area is quite beautiful, and Rapifafa spends some time enjoying the scenery all the while looking for the strange man who has occupied the island.



She eventually finds some strange markings on the ground- it’s a trap.



Rapifafa fends off the Mandragoras, and afterwards notices something she did not expect to see- an Orcish Warmachine.



She prepares to give chase, until she notices that the warmachine left behind a piece of paper- a deed to the island. Given the way the warmachine was moving, Rapifafa concluded that whatever man had occupied the island was inside it- whoever he was, he was clearly paranoid about something.



Rapifafa takes the deed back to the Fisherman’s Guild, but Chipmy-Popmy isn’t too convinced. He notices that the deed is written using the Mithran style- as in, the homeland Mithran style, so it would probably be hard for anyone in Windurst to verify its authenticity, even if she was Mithra. However, Chipmy-Popmy has heard that a Sin Hunter from the Southern continent was currently visiting the Attohwa Chasm, so he gives Rapifafa directions to find this woman.

Rapifafa’s travels past the Maze of Shakhrami under the Tahrongi Canyon, and follows the directions Chipmy-Popmy gave her through the Attohwa Chasm. At the Boneyard Gully north of Attohwa, Rapifafa runs into who see is looking for.

Upon seeing Rapifafa, the woman begins babbling about things she cannot understand a word of.



When the woman sees Rapifafa’s confused expression, she changes the subject to what Rapifafa is seeking her for. Upon handing over the deed, the Mithran Tracker concludes that the deed was written up by Mithran pirates not simply through the writing, but also the scent- the scent spoke eloquently of the deal that took place, and that secrets should be kept on both sides. The deed was authentic, and would take precedence in Mithran law. The strange man in the Orcish warmachine paid an incredibly large sum to acquire the land, so the Fisherman’s Guild were not the only ones who had something to lose in this dispute. The woman takes the deed for herself, saying that in order to properly address the grievance, the judgment of several Mithra would be required.

Rapifafa turns to take the news back to the Fisherman’s Guild, and she is stopped by the sudden appearance of a great beast.



This was the first time Rapifafa had seen one of the Wyrms of legend, but she was not interested in staying around to see more of it.



Upon taking the deed back to the Fisherman’s Guild, they’re a bit more hesitant to act hastily due to the involvement of Mithran Pirates. Aside from the danger involves, the dispute could open up all kinds of old wounds between Windurst and Kazham, so it would be best if they left the judgment to the Mithra of the Far Southern Continent for now.

Rapifafa thought it odd that a Mithran Tracker was running around the central lands again, but Rapifafa wasn't really interested in knowing right now- she was still thinking about Lion. To take her mind off her troubles, so she decides to pay a visit to Cid.



Rapifafa helps Cid on a number of tasks, bringing him lots of materials. Apparently, he was working on a large-scale project- a special airship of some kind. Jeuno has had a monopoly on airships for a long time now, and as always Cid wishes to bring Bastok to the forefront of technology.

After all the technical jargon Cid spits at Rapifafa and his assistant Raibaht, he finally says something Rapifafa can understand- he wishes for her to help name the airship, with a note that “C.I.D.” needed to be in the name. After Rapifafa makes a couple suggestions along the lines of “The Acc-C.I.D.-Ent”, “The C.I.D.enburg” and “C.I.D.’s Oversized Dentures”, Cid instead just handed Rapifafa a list of words she was allowed to use.



Cid allowed Rapifafa some time to think before making her decision.

Gameplay Comments

Might be a few weeks or so before I post the next entry, I'm going to handle the next part of the story a bit differently so I need to finish writing it up first. Naming the airship only changes a couple parts of the story's dialogue but I figured it'd be fun to have readers pick out that name. Unfortunately they didn't allow for name entry for whatever reason, instead giving this 3-part name thing.

Since I started doing it I guess I'll finish talking about the three jobs I haven't covered yet, all of which are the pet jobs.

For a while, Beastmaster was the job of choice for loners. Early years of XI required partying to complete almost anything meaningful, so there was something cool about seeing a Beastmaster running around in the wilderness fighting monsters just by himself with a monster at his side. Beastmaster has varied wildly in role over the course of the game, because even if the Beastmaster himself is limited in what they can do, their pets can do anything from tanking to healing and magic damage. But generally it was pretty consistent for Beastmasters to work either alone or only with other Beastmasters.

Dragoons can do their franchise signature of jump attacks, but in XI their most unique abilities are related to them being a weird hybrid pet job. Their Wyverns behave based on what subjob the Dragoon has, so for example a Dragoon subbing White Mage could get their Wyverns to do a healing breath. Despite being a very flexible job that was probably a lot stronger than people gave it credit for, for a long time Dragoons were the butt of jokes in the XI community. If you play FFXIV and heard the term "lolDRG" early in ARR's metagame, it was likely that originated from XI's community. For a long time, the Dragoon's SP ability was Call Wyvern, which severely limited what the job could do, because it meant if your Wyvern died, you'd have to wait up to 2 hours before being able to call it again. After a long while SE realized that was a terrible idea, put Call Wyvern as a 20-minute recast ability, and gave Dragoons a real SP ability. Dragoons have been a pretty good class for a long while now, but no matter how good they get, the "lolDRG" meme will last forever.

Summons in FFXI function more like they do in something like Final Fantasy X than they do in the older games. Instead of just being beefed up elemental damage spells, summons in XI act as pets, each with their own set of attacks, though generally speaking, the Summoner's SP Ability was what gave them access to the "signature" moves the summons are well-known for, such as Shiva's Diamond Dust or Leviathan's Tidal Wave. Funny thing is though, even though summons in XI act as pets, Summoners rarely kept them out for long periods of time, because having them out constantly drained MP. They ended up functioning a lot like they do in the older FF games anyway- The Summoner would call out a summon, have it do a special move, and then dismiss it while they waited for their timer to reset. In between calling out Avatars, Summoners were usually asked to set their subjob as White Mage so they could be a low-rent healer. These days though, Summoners generally find themselves in pet groups, so they'll have their summons out for longer periods of time.

Summoners were an odd job to play as because the majority of the summons were available to the job right from level 1, but in order to unlock them you had to go do a quest where you fight the summon in question, which required a party of approximately level 60 or higher. Because of this, Summoner was seen as a "prestige" class of sorts, since running around with only Carbuncle at your disposal was a really bad idea. It wouldn't be until several years later that SE would add a lower level version of the quest that made the job more accessible.

[Artimicia]

Hey! Just wanted to drop in and say I have really liked the FFXI I've played (never finished though), it was easier to get into because I actually did play Everquest and WoW and stuff.

Likewise, I did not read all of the Lets Play here but it's been fun to see the pictures and music links and stuff and reminisce. I think for FFXI (and even FF14 as well) there is a kind of "Oh I'm sure it's good" but many people haven't played them and such.

I did end up finishing FF14, well at least the ARR one, which all told was a pretty cool experience. Heavensward didn't look like it was the cup of tea I was drinking though so I went back to FF11, it's cool!

The learning curve is definitely high, but that's part of what makes them cool experiences. I also was playing a Red Mage by the way haha. =-)

[Rucks]

This is really rivaling Dice's FF IX run as best LP on the site.

you're a maniac Hathen.

[Hathen]

Thanks for the kind words as always. I've actually wanted to make an XI Journal for a long time since I've always felt it's something of an underappreciated entry in the series. I mean, it was actually a pretty successful MMO, but even lots of people who played the game didn't dig deep into the story and lore of Vana'Diel. Personally, I think Vana'Diel is the best setting Square(Enix) has ever put out (or at the very least, the most detailed)- even moreso than Ivalice.

Hopefully I'll have the next entry ready this weekend. I guess nobody wants to suggest anything for the airship name, so I guess I'll just surprise anybody reading.

you're a maniac Hathen.

If I actually manage to go through the entire story I'll make this the Thread Title. =P

Writing this Journal I've gained a new appreciation for the people who have written Journals around here. It's pretty time consuming.