The Wings of the Goddess
expansion pack for Final
Fantasy XI simultaneously released in North America,
Europe, and Asia in November 2007, so the 500,00+ subscribers already
know all about it. It's the rest of us PlayOnline and Square-Enix wants
to reach. I recently got a chance to take an action-packed tour of
style="font-style: italic;">Wings of the Goddess
with ONE PR Studio's Tyrone Rodriguez so I could learn why somebody
like me--who has never subscribed to
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XI--should
start playing today.
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29218" title="Firefight">
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src="/image/view/78292">
style="font-style: italic;">Cait Sith makes an
appearance in Final
Fantasy XI.
Unmatched Cinematics
According to Rodriguez, Wings of the Goddess "takes players into even
newer and untouched lands - the nearly forgotten, war-torn past of
Vana'diel, an era where the Shadow Lord and Beastmen attempted to
destroy the three empires of San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst." My tour
began by investigating a mysterious
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29217">Cavernous Maw.
Doing so caused it
to suck me inside and triggered a cut scene. This would be my first
talking point for the uninitiated. The
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy brand
has a long history (oh, say 20 years) of bringing fantasy lands to life
for gamers. The Square-Enix trademark technique for story telling is
the use of cinematic elements woven into the game play.
The cinematic shorts in Final
Fantasy XI
help immerse the players in the world and the history of Vana'diel in a
way that is perhaps not matched by any other massively-multiplayer
online game (MMOG) on the market. Even someone unfamiliar with the
concept of Final Fantasy can get swept up in the story of Vana'diel
because of the solid technique of telling story.
A War-torn Past
My scene showed my character speaking with a quirky looking cat wearing
a crown. This cat cast me into the abyss, and my character awoke in a
field surrounded by soldiers who were debating whether or not to kill
him since he was likely a spy or an invader. A later cut scene would
reveal the identity of the mysterious crowned cat as Cait Sith (of
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy VII
fame, the game that sold me on the Playstation console in 1996). Cait
Sith
suspects I may have some special power to influence the events of
Vana'diel and charges me with a special quest.
I
soon discovered that I
had landed 20 years in the past, during the great war that ravaged
the land and divided the nations. In this Vana'diel of the past, I
could meet famous non-player characters (NPCs) as they were as
children, and I could see major cities in the throes of war. I toured
the
Windurst of the past and discovered that many of the
buildings I
saw in the present had at one time been razed during the war. I also
learned that at least 9 of the cavernous maws had been discovered, so
there was certainly room for a lot of adventure.
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style="font-style: italic;">The Scholar mixes
different magic types to support the party.
To Battle
After my tour of the Windurst of the past, I grouped up with 5 tour
guides, and we set off to experience some of the new content. We first
tried killing some random
monsters, and I got to meet some
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29221">pixies
who
randomly cast beneficial spells if you walk close to them long enough.
Our first battles were just for practice, and I did horribly as I
struggled to learn how to properly use one of the new classes,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29222">the
Scholar. The Scholar has access to black and white magic
(damage and
healing spells, respectively) but works best as a support type of
character. He can augment the power of black or white magic spells for
the rest of the party. He also has access to some decent damage over
time spells (DoTs) that allows him to stand away from the action and
still contribute.
After
a brief run with the Scholar, Rodriguez had me switch over to the other
new class, the
Dancer. This class fit my style better and seemed pretty
unique for the game. The Dancer uses melee attacks with her knife early
in the battle to accumulate a pool of TP. She can then use the TP
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/29219">to
perform dances with various effects. Some would cast haste on
any party
member who struck the targeted monster. Others would lower the magic or
physical resistances of the enemy.
Between the two, I enjoyed
the Dancer much more, but I can see the value for both in a party. To
learn more about each class, please check out Cody "Micajah" Bye's
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/28307">interview with
Mitsutoshi Gondai, Planner for
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XI.
Campaigns
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src="/image/view/78292">
style="font-style: italic;">This peiste would
have killed Ralsu if not for his capable tour guides.
The
real action of my tour, which involved more hands-on action than any
other game tour I've had the pleasure of taking, took place when we
participated in some of the new Campaign battles. This is also one of
the key marketing points for people who have never played
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XI.
Campaign battles take place in the Vana'diel of the past and pit
players against hordes of enemies in brief but intense battles. Perhaps
you'll need to defend a fort from an invasion. Maybe you
style="font-style: italic;">are
the invaders. Either way, your job is to promote the interest of one of
the three main factions: San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst.
My
experience with these battles tell me they are exciting and fun. We
killed waves of monsters of increasing difficulty for a while in one
section. There was a named "general" in another battle. Rodriguez also
says the Campaigns allow for solo missions of the delivery type. In
general, Wings of the
Goddess is supposed to add more casual content to the
game, which counters a frequent complaint against
style="font-style: italic;">Final Fantasy XI.
Parting Thoughts
When
I'd finished my tour, I played around with a level 1 Black Mage near
Windurst. Those experiences left me with another thought: people
looking for a quality game that captures the difficulty of
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest would be
well-served by Final
Fantasy XI. In fact, I think
style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest
fans would like many things about the game; it creates a rich lore for
its players, and nothing about it feels cheap or easy. Sadly, the
graphics are starting to show their age a bit (the game is over 5 years
old), but spending just a few minutes playing gets you adjusted, and
the cinematic sequences make up for it a little bit by drawing you into
the game even more.
One thing for certain is that Final
Fantasy XI is not World
of Warcraft. While Wings
of the Goddess
does a lot to make the game more appealing to casual players, it's
still a hardcore game overall. And there's certainly a place for that.
Just check out the comments in response to my
href="http://ralsu.blogs.tentonhammer.com/?p=61">Eulogy to
the Core.
Whether or not Square-Enix will follow the trend and make a new game
for the casual masses remains to be seen. Square-Enix Senior
Vice-President of Software Development will admit that the software
juggernaut is already at work on its next MMOG. What he won't say is
whether is will be a sequel to Final
Fantasy XI in both name and spirit or if it will be
something all together different.
Will you give Final Fantasy a try? Tell us why or why not href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=25170">in
our forums!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Final Fantasy XI Game Page.
