Final Fantasy XI Virtual Media Tour - Next Add-On

Square-Enix have outdone themselves once again. Simple as that. Final Fantasy XI, one of the top MMORPGs out there, has been graced with yet another update filled to the brim with exciting new content. It was my pleasure to join the tour guide team for a quick look at all said new content, a visit that lasted well longer than any before as we tried to cram in a look at everything that was added!

The July update to FFXI featured the second of three add-on scenarios: A Moogle Kupo d’Etat. This extra adventure, available to users by simply buying an add-on key from the PlayOnline Launcher, features everyone’s favorite companion: your Mog House Moogle. An adventure featuring both intrigue and excitement - along with a healthy dose of humor - players will be drawn into a crazy scheme of Mog House renovations, hauntings, and catastrophes! The quick cutscene I was shown got me hooked and I can’t wait to dive to the whole quest. A must-have for FFXI fans!

Next up on the tour was a re-visit to the still-unfolding saga of Wings of the Goddess, the last full expansion released for FFXI. The story of Lilisette and Cait Sith gets deeper in one of the cut scenes added in July’s update, and the origin of the mysterious cat-like beings is finally revealed! It may have been a little spoiler for me, but I won’t spoil it for you; you’ll just have to advance through the missions to find out!

The Fields of Valor, which allow adventurers to complete trials for bonus experience points and elite training regimines to augment weapons and armor, have been expanded from levels 1-50 all the way up to 75, allowing the highest level players to augment previously mundane gear with exciting new properties. This has revitalized the market for many old items of gear that have been eclipsed by new additions as players attempt to augment them with unique combinations of stats and bonuses that cannot be obtained any other way.

Similar to the Fields of Valor, the new Fay weapons make their appearance in July’s update. The weapons, which are crafted by players from relatively common materials are traded to Sprites in certain Wings of the Goddess areas. Then players agree to help the sprites by fighting a pack of monsters and, if they are successful, the sprite holding the weapon infuses it with a random set of augmentations. On the bright side, the augments are always useful, because there is one Fay weapon for each job and the augments reflect the job’s needs (so no more +mp on Ninja gear, thankfully!). Also, you can re-try up to 5 times if you don’t like the augments you got before! Of course, if you still don’t like it, you can throw away the Fay weapon, craft (or buy) a new one, and start the process over again. You can’t lose, and some of the augment combinations make for weapons rivaling some of the best pre-existing (and much harder to get) weapons in the game!

On the topic of Ninjas (how’s that for a tenuous segue?), the job received a new set of abilities in July’s update: Innin and Yonin. These allow the Ninja to switch into “combat” mode or “tanking” mode, with Yonin granting bonuses to Enmity, making it easier to hold threat, and Innin granting bonuses to damage, making Ninjas a viable combat job. Both become available at level 40 however, so they can’t be used when you sub /nin. Also, when Ninjas use their 2 hour ability, they can now be Raised with no weakness and half their health, so they can jump right back into the fight! Oh, and Blue mages also got a boost in July with some new spells to learn.

Campaign battles have also been enhanced with two new battlefields, Beaucedine [S] and Xarcabard [S], bringing adventurers perilously close to the Shadowlord’s domain, and the new Unions system. Unions are, in a sense, public parties. When you join a Union, you team up with other players in that union, and fight together in a campaign battle. At the end of the battle, everyone’s performance is tallied together and some special loot is awarded to the Union. This loot can be as plain as common monster drops or as valuable as 100-piece Dynamis currency! As long as you made a reasonable contribution, you’ll be able to lot on the items, which are distributed to the Union’s treasure pool (just like Dynamis loot).

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Saving the best for last, the very amusing Moblin Maze Mongers have gotten a new adventure for players to play with: a mini-RPG! Yes, you have to train up a young aspiring goblin, find him gear, get him all upgraded, then take him to fight a boss, all within the thirty-minute time period. If he wins his fight, you get some randomly augmented loot! It’s a great little mini-game and I had a riot escorting my own little goblin around during the tour.

To wrap it all up there’s new monster types, new gear types, more notes you can play on your bells, tweaks and fixes to other classes and Super Kupopowers, and of course the Sunbreeze Festival makes its annual return for a hot summer of fun! Check out all the latest Final Fantasy XI at http://www.finalfantasyxi.com/ .

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