The fourteenth iteration of the Final Fantasy series might be the center of attention in the media and in much of Square Enix’s fan community, but that doesn’t mean SquareEnix doesn’t have far-reaching plans for FFXIV’s nearly seven year old prequel, Final Fantasy XI.To help prove this point, Devin Casadey, FFXI Community Manager for North America, took Ten Ton Hammer on a quick tour of the latest and greatest features to hit this venerable MMORPG. Devin also hinted at some of the features coming in the next update slated for next month.

Trial of the Magians

Upgrading your Trial of the Magians weapon could lead to celebratory moments, like this one.

To call loot a major part of MMOG enjoyment would be an outrageous understatement, and with a level cap raise on the horizon ( from level 75 to 99 – something that Devin hinted could happen as early as the June update), many players were concerned about what would happen to their relic and mythic weapons. These were the most powerful weapons in the game - FFXI’s epics - and

The solution, according to Devin, is the Trial of the Magians – a multiple-stage quest designed to make a level 75 base weapon not only more powerful, but carefully tailored to the kind of weapon players want. Players first grab a base weapon (one is available for each weapon type) from a splintered chest next to a Celestial Moogle, a NPC located in each capital city that acts as your Trial questgiver throughout. Next, you’ll choose a trial. Trials are all battle-related, ranging from killing a notorious monster, to slaying x number of a certain type of monster, to performing a weapon skill or getting the final blow x number of times.

Completing the first trial will open up two upgrade paths (i.e. do you want to increase damage or decrease delay?) which will open up 3 paths, then 4 paths, and then the final form. This celebrated final form, in addition to having great stats, occasionally does double damage by occasionally attacking twice. “There’s actually 500 different possibilities for these upgrades, so there’s a lot of customizability, a lot of cool things you can do,” Devin noted.

But these Magian weapons are just the beginning. Devin explained that in the future, both armor and “lifestyle skills” (such as synthesis, synergy, movement, transportation, energy) might be upgradable through a system similar to the Trial of the Magians, with tie-ins to merit points system (Final Fantasy XI’s version of an alternate advancement system for level-capped players).

And while Trial of the Magians went live in a March 2010 update, the system is extensible for the upcoming level cap increase. Devin noted that it’s all building up to a new line of ultimate weapons that will be attained via Magian quests.

Voidwalkers

Take on the voidwalker Yilbegan without a strong raid and you'll be beggin' for some hurt.

Some Magian Trials have set level cap players in pursuit of a special type of notorious monsters called Voidwalkers. These powerful demons are caught between dimensions, and luckily so, because they can’t bring all of their immense powers into the temporal plane. In any case, they must be called forth with abyssite crystals of varying strengths. These crystals progress from clear to specific colors to finally black, and black abyssite crystals summon powerful voidwalkers that require more than one group to take down. In the demo, our group summoned Yilbegan, a powerful top-tier Voidwalker with the powerful “Dark Star” ability, reminiscent of the Meteor ability Final Fantasy players might be familiar with. Defeating Yilbegan yielded decent synthesis and synergy crafting loot, though Devin noted that +6 rings and other great equipment were also part of the Voidwalker loot table.

But first you have to find these phase-shifted notorious baddies and, interestingly, you can’t see them. Instead, the group member carrying the abyssite must use the crystal (or “heal” – press asterisk (*) in FFXI’s laptop-punishing numpad control scheme) to play a game of hot and cold with status messages that read like “12 yalms [paces] to the northwest.” Only when the crystal-holder is on top of the monster (which, by the way, is moving around too) will the monster spawn.

Job Adjustments

Recently, two of the more solo-friendly jobs (classes) in Final Fantasy XI got a significant boost. The puppetmaster, a pet job that specializes in hand-to-hand combat, has a host of “automatons” that can take on the role of a white mage, black mage, really whatever the player needs. These automatons have been enhanced to take more damage and put out more damage, while the puppetmaster received hand-to-hand improvements as well, allowing him or her to punch harder and hit more accurately.

Another pet / support job, the summoner, received two new “avatars.” Both are extremely powerful, therefore each are 2 hour abilities.

  • Alexander: Alexander is a defensive avatar that offers the “Perfect Defense” ability. With perfect defense, all player characters in the area get a great reduction in damage, plus this ability prevents any status damage such as blind or DoTs, for 90 seconds.
  • Odin: Besides offering one of the coolest animations in the Final Fantasy opus, Odin offers “Fierce Attacker,” which has a chance to k.o. all enemies in the area (depending on the summoner’s mp remaining and how many enemies are in the area). But if one of those enemies happens to be a notorious monster, they’ll take that possible k.o. as a percentage of their total hitpoints. Nevertheless, it’s an extremely powerful ability. “We’ve seen screenshots of players using Odin against Odin and dealing 9k damage,” Devin commented.
James Cameron has nothing on these avatars, Alexander (left) and Odin.

 

Castle Zuvall

Even as Final Fantasy XI is transitioning into the 3-part Abyssea expansion rolling out over the course of 2010, events releated to last year’s Wings of the Goddess expansion are just hitting their climax. Specifically, the fear factor is back for level 75 players at Castle Zuvall, previously a level 50 and 60 area and a ruined monument to one of the watershed moments in the last great war between the Shadow Lord and the “good” nations of Windhurst, Sandoria, and Bastok. We find ourselves rushing not only north but also back in time, because past events aren’t quite unfolding as they should. Someone’s manipulating history.

Following clues, we found a peculiar glint in the castle keep courtyard. Clicking it started a progression of cutscenes and resulting battles where we battled dark personages like Count Bifran and even skirmished to an indeterminate result with the Shadow Lord himself, who was much more powerful than his present-day self. Since these events are technically (if not effectively) unfolding in the past, many of the weapons and armor sets we saw these legendary nasties wield already were in the game (such as the Great Katana) or will be when Wings of the Goddess wraps up next month (such as the Great Katana or the Shadow Lord’s spectacular armor set).

The Shadow Lord has a good laugh at our party's expense.

Conclusion

Final Fantasy XI brought a lot of innovations to the MMORPG mainstream, from cross-platform play to an auctionhouse-based player economy to the one of the first, best integrations of an existing IP. As the March and June updates to Final Fantasy XI show, this game is definitely not in a holding pattern. I’ll give Devin Casadey the final word: “There’s a lot of rumors circulating about what would happen to Final Fantasy XI once Final Fantasy XIV came out – would SquareEnix still add content? I think, after all these announcements from Vanafest and what we see here for the future of Final Fantasy XI, it’s pretty clear that we’re going to continue to be updating with a lot of great content. Every version update will bring new life to this game.”


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Final Fantasy XI Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.

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