Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

My last press tour of Final Fantasy XI's Vana'diel came as an introduction to all of the new content packed in with the Wings of the Goddess expansion that was released in November 2007. ONE PR's Tyrone Rodriguez emphasized how much Square-Enix has opened up the game to more casual players. The new Campaign system allowed for more episodic play that left players feeling rewarded even if they could not devote hours to a single gaming session. I was impressed with the intricate story, which involved players traveling back and forth through time to change or preserve history.

This time, Rodriguez wanted to give me a peek into the continuation of that story and to introduce me to the new battle system that allows players to spawn notorious monsters (raid mobs) pretty much at will.

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Now everyone at ONE PR knows that Ralsu has the hots for half-Elvaan girls.

So, You Think You Can Dance?

Rodriguez gave me a capped monk to play with this time, and we started our journey outside a theater. Apparently, my character wanted to go see a famous dance troupe. The "bouncer" on duty deemed my ticket a fake and was do his best job at being an ass about it when the Reagelese--an esteemed guest at the event--came along and vouched for me.

After the cut scene, the Reagalese pulled me aside for a little discussion since we really didn't know each other. He had spoken for me because he had a hunch about my adventurous life style.

The performance featured three pretty female dancers twirling about the stage and striking poses. At the finale, the game prompted me to select one of the three dancers. I chose the middle one, an Elvaan-Hume crossbreed (she had slightly pointy ears). At this point, I assumed the Square-Enix team had arranged the whole tour to learn about my fetish for half-Elvaan girls, but I went with it.

After the show, I spotted Cait Sith slinking between nearby buildings. Cait Sith had told me I have special powers to affect the world on my first trip through the Cavernous Maw, So I was curious about what my little feline friend was doing at the theater. Unfortunately, the little rascal ditched me in the alleys.

This first leg of the tour ended with another cut scene in which the dancers were called in to bolster the local militia against the encroaching enemy. It turned out there was more to these ladies than dancing, and one dancer was assigned to go out on patrol immediately.

Then Do the Monster Mash
For the next part of our tour, Rodriguez took me to a town plaza to meet a non-player character named Sanraku Zeni. Sanraku is a collector who seeks photos of rare creatures. Bring some to him and he'll pay you in Zeni, his proprietary currency that you can use to buy very special items from him. Sanraku's items will spawn one of Final Fantasy XI's numerous notorious monsters, or NMs. Unlike other raid mobs in the game, these new NMs have no spawn timers, and the items that spawn them do not expire (though they can't be traded).

The new notorious monsters have some unpredictable behaviors.

The new NM encounters cater to both the casual and hardcore player groups. Casual players who work there way up and acquire the correct spawn item are guaranteed to get their mob. Organized, hardcore guilds can farm the items to trade for the spawn key and just camp the same NM for one encounter after another.

A great thing about the new NMs is that each one drops an item Sanraku wants. So while the first new NMs you spawn might require a few pictures of tough but common beasties, the next new NM you face might require the drops and photos from three previous NMs. This tiered approach allows for easy scaling of difficulty and empowers players to decide how much work they want to put into it. Rodriguez said that just collecting the pictures of creatures had become a pretty competitive sub-game for players.

As a final note about the NM, Rodriguez cautioned me that they do not exhibit the same linear behavior of many other monsters gamers have faced. That is, many of the NMs have highly powerful or disruptive skills that they may only use under certain conditions or randomly by chance.

There's more to the tale. Move on to page two.