Wint takes a look at the final additions to WotG and Abyssea

Read along as I share my perspective in coming back to Final Fantasy XI after more than a year long hiatus.  Square-Enix was kind enough to invite me to a media event to see their latest additions, including the final piece of the Wings of the Goddess story as well as a look into the new and exciting world of Abyssea.

While coming back to so many new things was intimidating, it was totally worth it and I'm glad I did.  I hope that by reading this I persuade or inspire other "retirees" to come back and give it a try.  There is a lot of new things, but enough of the old and familiar to make the effort worthwhile.

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Final Fantasy XI was my first MMORPG, so while I doubt it will be my last, it will always have a special meaning for me. I took part in the North American PS2 beta test and have been playing since launch, so I was very sad to quit in September 2009, right after A Moogle Kupo d'Etat came out, but before A Shantotto Ascension was released. School, work, and family had become more of a priority, and all I really did during my time in-game was fish. My linkshell mates were gone and since FFXI really is a social game at its heart, I didn't think I would be back. 

Returning to Vana'diel

During the next year and a half, life eased up a little. I met some great friends through ZAM’s IRC chat and became an administrator for the website after having been a long time poster. One thing lead to another, and one of my friends, Daimakaicho on ZAM (Tolite on Asura), convinced a bunch of us to pick up XI again and come to his server. After all this time, I still had my PlayOnline ID memorized, so I reinstalled the game, performed the fun 8 hour patch, and logged back in to Vana'diel. 

To say things had changed would be an understatement at the very least. I started with what was familiar, fishing. I had my Lu Shang’s and I wanted to quest for the Ebisu. Before I could do that though, I had to level woodworking, as I would be breaking my Lu fairly often and would need to be able to repair it myself. Finding materials to level woodworking was challenging at times, as it seemed that some of the old staples such as arrowheads and fletchings just weren't being crafted anymore. As a result, it took a bit of doing to get woodworking leveled. 

After a while I decided to try leveling a lower job. I was thankful that I still had my lower level gear because there just wasn't anything for sale at the auction house. People didn't seem to be leveling quite as much as before at lower levels, but with the recent patch in February, it had become easier than ever to either solo or group in lower numbers than the traditional six. Fields of Valor has become repeatable and experience point adjustments were made to the amount of exp rewarded for battle outside of Abyssea. 

An Offer I Couldn't Refuse

I kept hearing Daimakaicho talking about Abyssea, but didn't really understand what the big deal was. You certainly get an earful of it walking through Port Jeuno, as everyone seems to want to do something related to Abyssea. Then I got an email from Pikko: would I like to do a press showing of the final Wings of the Goddess additions and an Abyssea fight? Absolutely, let’s see what this is all about! 

The day before the event, I was given login details and instructed to make sure I could get in. I entered the information and found myself in-game as a level 90 Hume Monk with full Empyrean +2 armor and the Verethragna hand to hand weapon that allows you to use the Victory Smite weaponskill. I was on the Atomos test server and a quick /sea all showed that I was the only one in the entire world. I was pretty sure this was going to be fun. 

I'm going to try to tell about what we did in such a way that I don't give away anything, because nobody likes spoilers and the mission lines that I got to complete are the culmination of a lot of blood, sweat, and tears by players to get to the end. I logged in on the day of the event and grouped up with some nice folks whose characters were named Ehssan, Sehi, Jiolo, and Mosaposa. We also had a conference call going and the excitement to show me what was going on was evident. I was getting a tour from people who not only played the game themselves, but were as excited to show me what new things were available as I would be trying it all out. 

Wings of the Goddess Is Complete!

The first order of business was to show me the final boss fight for the Wings of the Goddess expansion. I got to see all of the cutscenes leading up to and after the fight, I got to try out the Monk ability Impetus, and as also tried the new Victory Smite weaponskill during the fight. The cutscenes reveal a story that, while unfamiliar, is intriguing and definitely worth the effort. I'm looking forward to getting more Wings of the Goddess missions done with my friends. 

Yeah, that's not ominous or anything. 

The New Frontier: Abyssea

After we finished the fight, the next stop was to show me what Abyssea is all about. Abyssea is an uncharted frontier that you can access after purchasing the Visions, Scars, and/or Heroes of Abyssea expansions. You access one of the nine Abyssea areas using cavernous maws scattered throughout Vana'diel, and your time within Abyssea is controlled with key items called Traverser Stones. Once you complete the proper quest, traverser stones begin accruing at a fixed rate. Each stone will grant you 30 minutes within Abyssea and you can have up to three stones at once for an initial time of 90 minutes in Abyssea. While in Abyssea, there are things that can be done to increase the rate that stones build up, increase the time the stones grant, and increase the number of stones you can carry. 

Abyssea has a lot to offer players, both in terms of experience points as well as fantastic new armor called Empyrean armor, just to name a few things. There are a lot of quests and notorious monsters to fight as well as a lot of areas to explore. In particular, Dominion Ops, which were introduced with the Heroes of Abyssea expansion, really crank up the fun by way of increased experience point gain and the ability to purchase augmented weapons. 

We headed over to Abyssea-Uleguerand. There we had a slight glitch in that I couldn't get infused with something called Atma, which are key item enhancements that you can turn on while in Abyssea that augment your characters statistics. Some of them are decent, some are ridiculously powerful. It was unfortunate we couldn't get the Atma working, but we picked up Dominion Op #01 and proceeded to fight some interesting looking monsters called Mechanical Menaces. Dominion Ops are really cool, and if you don't have Heroes of Abyssea you should really consider getting it. Basically, it’s like Fields of Valor, but you can keep earning experience points and dominion notes (which are used to purchase items and augmented weapons) over and over, rather than just once per game day. The experience points come fast and easy, both from the dominion ops and from the monsters you kill (during some fights you can get up to 670xp per kill after building up your "chain" by not killing anything other than your dominion ops targets), and the alliances you party in are fairly laid back and easy to play in. 

Shinryu The Wyrm God

After our experience with dominion ops, the last thing to try was the Shinryu boss battle. Shinryu is the final boss of the Abyssea quest line. The name of the final fight is "The Wyrm God", which should give you an indication of how big of a battle it is. I'm not going to give anything away, but there were some fun surprises during the cutscenes before and after the battle. Even though we were invincible, the fight was still intense. I can't wait to do it for real with my friends and have experienced the entire storyline. 

I wonder what this could be?

This all took place about a month ago. In the time since the tour, I've had a chance to really explore what the Abyssea expansions have to offer and I must say I'm excited. At first it was all a little too much to take in. There is a LOT to learn about and even more to actually do. My advice, as a newly returning player, is to just jump in and join an alliance to see what it's all about. Check out the official guide for a bunch of information. Do the quest The Truth Beckons to get Traverser Stones accruing. Next, spend the time necessary to go examine all of the Cavernous Maws, so you can teleport to any of the Abyssea Cavernous Maws. Obviously it is incredibly handy for when you get that next party invite. There are also quests and key items that will make you get traverser stones faster, get more time from the traverser stones, and be able to hold more traverser stones, which are all good things to keep you in Abyssea as long as possible. After you have tried a few dominion op parties, you will see how much fun they can be. It took me a little under two weeks to go from 61 Black Mage to 90 Black Mage, and now I'm really starting to explore Abyssea by starting to quest for my Empyrean set, checking out Notorious Monsters within Abyssea that drop great things (Bakka and the Goetia Chain anyone?), trying to gain new Atma, and looking into which Trials of the Magians I think I want to do first. 

Abyssea has a lot to offer existing players, players who have quit but may want to return, and even new players just starting (in the form of an incentive to reach the levels where participation in an Abyssea party becomes fun and lucrative). Even though you level up fast, going back for more partying is still worthwhile to build up skill points, collect seals for Empyrean armor, do the overabundance of quests available, and to bring that next job that you've always wanted to master up to the highest levels. If you're on the fence about returning to Final Fantasy XI, pick up an Abyssea expansion and give it a try. I’m confident that you will like what you find.