FFXIV Player Journal #3 : Collector Edition Unboxing

Final Fantasy XIV Collector edition was released on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010. Funny thing that EB games called me that the game would be ready on Tuesday and I was like ‘Oh, RLYYYYYY’.  She said it with confident that it would be ready for me the next day until I told her that it’s great that I could get it a day early ^^;; then she put me on hold and told me that she got the date wrong. What a way to get my hope up on getting the game early >.<.

My player journal (Changed the name after my friend suggested to change ‘Digest’ to ‘Journal’) #3 is mainly about unboxing my FFXIV Collector Edition (NA version).

For $79.99, you get this nice big box with clear plastic cover and nice FFXIV art at the front and back.

I took out the plastic cover so you guys can see which parts belong to which.

When you open the box, you will see the DVD box on the left side and a security token and a travel journal on the right side.

Here is a side view of FFXIV Collector Edition.

More front views on FFXIV DVD box and FFXIV travel journal

The DVD box includes 1 game DVD, 1 behind the scene DVD, 1 registration code for in game item – Onion Helm, 1 registration code for FFXIV , Right of Passage voucher and a buddy pass registration code which allows you to invite one of you friends to play for 30 days.

Inside the travel journal, there are some FFXIV arts on each page, although, the colour ones are only on last couple pages.

More close-up shot of FFXIV security token password. When you press the red button, you will be given 6-digits numerical password to use in addition to your standard password when you login to your Square-Enix account. This is a very useful tool to prevent those keyloggers from getting access to your FFXIV account. A very nice move from Square-Enix since we had an issue few years ago in FFXI with accounts being hacked.

if you live in Europe region, you are lucky since apparently you get more in FFXIV Collector edition in Europe. Check out this unboxing post from FFXIVblog.com. The author has a Europe version of FFXIV Collector edition. T.T I want the map and tumbler. I didn’t know that NA gets the cheap version >.< until half an hour ago.

Final Fantasy XIV Player Digest #2

Another day is just another adventure in Eorzea. I am surprised that I still find time to play MMO despite my busy schedule even though quite a few friends of mine don’t have the time due to real life and at the same , trying to keep my blog updated. I changed the post title a bit and replaced ‘Daily’ part with ‘Player’ since it’s really not so daily ^^;; as one of my fellow blogger pointed out.I will probably change it to another name since ‘Player Digest’ does not sound right for some reasons. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should my FFXIV related post ?

Quick updates on what’s going with FFXIV; Open beta will end this Sunday, September 19, 2010, three days before collectors edition released date. In addition, I have been fishing like a lot and got my self to rank 15, however, my fishing adventure will be told in my next player digest.

Note: click on an image to view the larger version ^^

From my previous digest, I started as a Thaumaturge but I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I thought it would be because it’s very similar to Red Mage in FFXI. Well, maybe because it’s still in a beta phase. Honestly, mage class in FFXIV kinda sucks because there is no way to heal mp other than some abilities like Thaumaturge’s Exaltation. In FFXI, I was able to recover HP and MP by resting as any job. A lot of work needs to be done on Disciple of Magic in my opinion.

Moving on from Thaumaturge, I switched to Fisher and as they said, once a fisher is always a fisher. Back in FFXI, fishing was my first and last level 100 craft. I fished so much back in the day and not to mention, my linkshell (or what you other people called ‘Guild’) starts as a fishing linkshell. Fishing in FFXIV is like chocobo hot and cold game back in some previous Final Fantasy series (I love chocobo hot and cold game in FF9).

One very important to note if you ever decide to play FFXIV, please buy a controller before hand if you don’t have one because keyboard and mouse are almost useless in this game except for chat purpose. I use my ps2 controller with a usb converter and it works really well. I prefer keyboard + mouse over a controller so I hope Square Enix fixes eventually. Mouse cursor is laggy in this game and not responsive enough.

In this digest, I want to focus and explore on main menu. Lets start with attributes and gear. MMO veterans should be familiar with the concept HP and MP, however, only those who played FFXI before know about TP which is used for weapon skill. Attributes wise, they are strength, vitality, dexterity, mind, intelligence and piety which is something I am not familiar. Basic concept of those stats are pretty much the same as any other MMOs except what other benefits aside from the basic ones are still a mystery. Typical Square Enix, they don’t tell us anything and let us to figure them out on our own. In FFXIV open beta, vitality increases your max HP and mind increases your max MP but other than that nobody knows ^^;;

List of equipments that you can use has increased quite a bit since FFXI. Instead of just rings and earrings, there are left earring, right earring, left and right index finger, left and right ring finger, left and right wrist and pouch.

The next one is “Actions & Traits”. Here is the place where you set all your abilities, traits and battle actions. Each section has a limited action point (AP) and each ability, trait and battle actions costs action points. Maximum action point goes up as you level your rank. Note that you can use any other job/class ability/trait/battle actions in addition to your main as long as it allows you too and you have enough AP (still trying to figure it out how it works). My character level is low so I don’t have anything to equip from other ranks/classes ^^;;.

Point Allotment is where you set all your attributes and resistance. Up until level 10 physical, you will get 6 points each level and after level 10, you get 8 points each level. You probably get 10 points after level 20 based on the trend but cannot confirm it since my character’s physical level is 15.

In addition, you may reassign your points if necessary. I am sure there is a calculation involved on how many points you can reassign at each level but at level 15 physical, I can reassign as many as 18 points.

As far as inventory goes, I think Square Enix did well in this department. No more 30 inventory on a starting character just like in FFXI and you are given 80 slots as your starting inventory which is awesome :D. Items, crystals, keys and bazaar are on their own section.

Similar to FFXI, party search in FFXIV is pretty straight forward.

Social lists consists of your friend list and blacklist. Functionality wise, it pretty much mimics what FFXI has. You guys may not believe it but I had a chance to use blacklist in couple occasions and have a total of four gil sellers or RMT (real money traders) in my blacklist already because they were shouting at Adventure’s guild in all three main cities.

Adding someone to your friend list is really easy. All you need to do is to click on ‘add’ then input character name and you are done. First person that’s lucky enough to be in my friend list is ‘Elured Tripod’ lol. He appears offline in above image, however, if he is online then there will be a green icon right beside his/her name.

Unlike other MMO , FFXI and FFXIV use a specific term to identify guild/clan and we call it Linkshell. It’s not that much different compared to linkshell in FFXI except that there are more variety in linkshell colours/symbols.

Now, this is one of FFXIV feature that I really don’t get. At Adventurer’s guild area, you can get a retainer for yourself. The NPC that I talked to told me that retainer can help getting stuff for me and etc. I haven’t used it since I don’t know how to use her. Oh btw, you can name your retainer anything that you wish.

This is Limsa Lominsa map at lower level. Limsa Lominsa is one of the main cities in FFXIV. This city gives the feel that it’s lke San’doria in FFXIV and not to mention the crest colour is also red.

An interesting feature that Square Enix added in FFXIV is the existence of NPC linkpearls. It basically lets you talk with a particular NPC about a quest and so far it’s related to the main quest (or you can call it mission) for your starting city. You actually already start your quest when the first time you enter the game. Remember how you got couple cutscenes in first few minutes into the game.

Remember how it was such a pain to travel between cities back in FFXI especially when it was just released ? Square Enix heard our complaints and they gave us teleports ^____^. It works similar to telepoints in FFXI and as long as you have been that particular telepoint, you can teleport there. Big difference is that in FFXIV, we don’t need White Mage teleport spells anymore as we are able to teleport any place that we have visited before. Awesome, eh ?

The down side of teleport is that it costs you some anima. If it’s within the same region, it will cost you four animas and if it’s to another region (another main city), it will cost you six anima. As far as my observation goes, anima does replenish every day (or week? ) but I am not totally sure.

Support desk option in the main menu is a compilation of recent updates and FAQs. Nothing unusual in here so I didn’t bother to check it ^^;;.

Lastly, configuration is where you …….. you know…….. configure stuff ^^;; ? Note that the last setting in this menu is where you are going to setup your macro but I will leave that out for  another digest ^^. And with that, it sums up FFXIV player digest #2 and I hope you guys stay tune for the next one.

Alicia Melchiott 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya

As you probably already saw in my WonFes Summer 2010 wish list, Alicia Melchiott 1/8 PVC figure by Kotobukiya is one of them. Back in WonFes Summer 2010, she was unpainted thus we all are little curious how she will turn out after being painted. Let pictures below be the judges ^^. A little big of backgound about Alicia. She is a sergeant in Squad Seven in Gallian militia army and is a second in command after Lieutenant Welkin Gunther. Valkyria Chronicles is originally a game developed by SEGA for PS3 and is a war tactical RPG that sets in Europa, a fictional version of Europe.

All Valkyria Chronicles fans have been longing for a figure manufactured by well known manufacturer such as Alter, GSC, Max Factory, Griffon Enterprise, Kotobukiya and many more. It turns of out that Kotobukiya lives up to the fans’ expectation.

After seeing couple images all around the net, I think she turns out really well. Her base is just lovely since it gives you a worn-out look and correct me if I am wrong, it looks like she’s standing on top Edelweiss, Squad 7 tank driven by Isara. Hanz, the winged pig, is also included as part of the whole package. Having an extra is always nice, isn’t it ? besides who would not want Hanz, the mascot of Square 7 in a hit game , Valkyria Chronicles.

What do you think ? I think she’s pretty much the same as the original one that we saw in the game/anime series. Kotobukiya may have nailed it on this figure, however, I still need to wait until I get mine on December. Her eyes have quite a few details and they are nicely done.

I am even more amazed with how well made and painted her rifle gun is. Slightly nitpicking on my side, the white strip on her gun is too bold/thick. It should have been slightly transparent and rifle colour would have been better if it’s lighter colour.

So far I am happy with how she turns out so she will stay in my pre-order list ^^.

Hanz, a winged pig, is the mascot of Squad Seven in Valkyria Chronicles. Will you still buy the figure if Hanz is not included ?

Additional tidbits

Manufacturer	Kotobukiya
Scale	1/8
Original	Valkyria Chronicles
Release Date	December 2010
Retail Price	¥6,400 (Price varies due to discounts or other promotions for each store)
Available for preorder	Hobby Search, Hobby Link Japan, jlist, Otacute, Play-Asia, Ami Ami

Claymore Chapter 107 : Phantom & Illusion

Chapter Summary

Chapter 107 is reserved for Miria and the twin. Continuing from last chapter, Miria is having difficulties against two opponents with similar trait as Alicia and Beth. Even though the twins are pretty much green in term of battle experience compared to Miria, they cannot be underestimated since one of them can easily turn into an awakened being while the other controls the awakened being.

Even though Miria’s battle ability was couple levels higher than she was 7 years ago when she was no. 6 in the organization, fighting two at the same time is no child’s play and as time goes one, fatigue becomes an issue. From outside, it looks like Miria is on par with the twins,however, her breath becomes heavier and heavier as she was forced to be more serious than fighting other Claymores before.

As she fights the twin, her mind wanders whether or not she should kill them because it’s close too impossible to win without killing them at this point since the twins’ level is nowhere near previous Claymores. Then she accidentally cuts one of the twins’ arm and since one of the twins get injured, the twins’ alignment does not work as well. Miria mind’s continues to wander whether or not to kill the twins and one of the twins finally manages to put a scratch on Miria’s arm.

Meanwhile, the other twin who got her arm cut off is almost done reattaching her arm. Miria saws this and is concerned  that once the twins are back together, it would be even more difficult to fight both at the same time. Miria tries to knock down the one she’s fighting but she fails since her attempt is easily dodged by one of the twin. On the side lines, no. 10 claymore, Raftela prepares herself for a battle. Apparently, in every generation, no. 10 is specifically chosen regardless her battle ability due to excellence in a specific ability. That special ability is sensory control by youki synchronicity. To simplify, she can dive deep down into her opponent’s heart and create an illusion to confuser her opponent.

Unknowingly, Miria falls into the trap easily since she’s confused by image of Hilda, her former friend that went over her limit and turned into an awakened being. Ironically, Miria was the one that killed Hilda without knowing that it’s Hilda (see previous chapter). The fight went down a hill since Miria lost her concentration and got badly injured. Fellow claymores that she knocked down earlier starting to regain consciousness and finished Miria easily.

Thoughts

What a tragic end for Miria and it just annoys me the fact that Miria finally gets some scenes and the author killed her within two chapters. The way that Miria died is something that never crossed my mind since I was hoping that she fights fair and square and dies. I guess that didn’t happen since she was outnumbered by 3 vs 1 and not to mention, a cheap trick by the organization using Miria’s heart took her down easily. Arghhhhh, I am really irritated by the way that Miria died. Does anyone get annoyed with how Miria died ?

Now that Clare and Miria died, I wonder who is next ? fellow readers, care to venture a guess ?

Since onemanga.com is no more, you can read chapter 107 here.

Final Fantasy XIV Daily Digest #1

Managed to snatch a beta registration code this morning after  2 days of waiting O_O and battle of F5 on Tuesday night which of course crashed Square-Enix website since everyone was doing the same thing ^^;;. This will be a start of a new post series about my FFXIV daily adventure in Eorzea.

Two thumbs up to Square-Enix for making this game. Despite the random rumours and disappointed alpha/close beta users, I believe FFXIV will live up to its Final Fantasy brand. First half an hour in the game, I had a good feeling about this game and I think it has a potential to be more popular than its predecessor , FFXI.

I am quite impressed with user interface on creating a new character even though it’s barely couple minutes playing the game. For beta, you were given 3 characters to play around with it.

As you probably already know that there are five races in Final Fantasy XIV. The first one is called Hyur, a human like race. In FFXI game, they are well-known as Hume. When they first announced races in FFXIV, I was little disappointed that they are pretty much  a copy of FFXI races with different name. On the other hand, I am glad that my favourite race is back in this game.

The next race is Elezen. Their figure reminds us of Elves from any other games or movies and they are similar to Elvaan race in FFXI.

Next one is arguably everyone’s favourite race. They are called Lalafell who are well-known as Tarutaru in FFXI. Their appearance looks like children , however, don’t be fooled by their appearance because they are a lot of older than other races and wiser too, hence, Lalafell is a great race for mage jobs.

Now, next race is my personal favourite race which is a Miqo’te. They have a cat appearance look a like or more knowingly as cat girl. A similar race also appears in FFXI which is called Mithra. For Miqo’te, playable race is only female and there is no male. I am not sure if there are any male Miqo’te in past history but in FFXI, there are actually male Mithra being mentioned in the story line.

The last race is Roegadyn. The easier to remember what Roegadyn looks like is to imagine a big/tall dwarf ^^;;. When I was playing FFXI, Roegadyn(read: Galka in FFXI) was pretty much the least played race due to their appearance.

Each race is divided by 2 clans and each clan differs in appearance especially their skin colour. Since I chose Miqo’te, I have two options between “Seekers of the Sun” and “Keepers of the Moon”. I selected “Seekers of the sun” ,however, in the next few steps , you can totally customize her appearance the way you want her to be. ” Seekers of the Sun” has a lighter skin colour and smaller pair of ears.

Meanwhile, “Keeper of the Moon” has darker skin colour, bigger ears and longer, skinnier tails.

The next step is where I get really confused since you have 4 options to choose from for basic appearance of Miqo’te. I like ‘Type 1″ hair but her skin colour is little bit pale imo.

I guess “Seeker of the Sun” clan can have a darker skin colour too even though her other traits follow strictly “Keeper of the Sun” clan. “Type 2” is also pretty decent since I do like short hair.

Not exactly a fan of “Type 3” since I generally don’t like long hair so I passed.

I finally decided on “Type 4” even though it does not matter since you can customize everything after this.

She gave me a thumb up when I selected her. I was like…. “That’s cool”.

In the next step, this is where you can freely customize her appearance (Hairstyle, Hair Colour and Highlights).

Since I like “Type 1” hairstyle from above, I selected that one and changed the colour to dark blue. After you select a hair style, you get another option called “Variation”.

“Variation” option lets you choose type/colour of the hair band on her pony tails.

So far, I amazed by the amount customization that FFXIV has compared to FFXI. In FFXI, it’s pretty normal to run into other characters with the same appearance as yours, however, in FFXIV, I think that will be quite difficult to happen.

For hair colour, you have 32 colours to choose from so take your time ^^.

Now, this highlight option is actually pretty cool since you can add a nice touch to your character hair like what I did with mine. It’s hard to notice using above image but if you check the bigger size  version, you should be able to notice.

Once you are done with hair, you can customize her face as the next step. I accidentally chose this face when taking a screenshot lol. She has this sleepy look or “don’t mess with me” look.

At the end, I chose “Type” for her face. In addition to face type, you can customize her eyebrows,eye shape, iris size, eye colour, nose, mouth and features. Iris size is very uncommon to customize in MMORPG and this option is probably only for Miqo’te, although, I may be wrong since I haven’t checked the other races yet.

After messing around with settings, here is my final Miqo’te looks like ^^.

I just love next option because I can change her tail type ^^.

As last touch on her face, you can add some characteristic just like what I did with mine above ^^.

I spent few minutes deciding what skin colour I should choose (I know I am such a nerd >.<).

Once you are done with physical appearance of your character, the next step is too choose with class you are going to be. There are four disciples in FFXIV: Disciples of War, Disciples of magic, Disciples of the Land and Disciples of the Hand. Disciples of War consists of Gladiator, Marauder, Pugilist, Archer and Lancer. Disciples of War is what you call melee/ non magical damage dealer.

Disciples of Magic consists of Thaumaturge and Conjurer. I am little bit disappointed with only 2 classes to choose from in Disciples of Magic. Thaumaturge concept is similar to a Red Mage in FFXI while Conjurer, I would imagine that it’s like a Black Mage.

The last two disciples are what I called crafting classes since they are not meant for combat (at least I don’t think so ). Disciples of the Land is similar to gather ing skills in World of Warcraft. It consists of fisher, miner and botanist. I probably go with fisher as my other job since fishing was main craft back in FFXI ^^.

The last disciple is Disciples of the Hand consisted of Carpenter, Blacksmith, Armorer, Goldsmith, Tanner, Weaver, Alchemist and Culinarian.

You know what they say, once a Red mage is always a red mage. I found myself selecting Thaumaturge since it’s somewhat similar to Red Mage job in FFXI ^^.

The next step is to choose your character’s nameday and guardian. No sure what’s the purpose of this but i did it anyways ^^

My character’s nameday is 4th Sun of the 5th Astral Moon and my guardian is Menphina, the Lover.

Another cool feature in this character creation is that you can save your character appearance data, thus, if you are going to create another character with similar appearance, you can just load your previously saved data. You are allowed up to 8 saved data (I think, feel free to correct me if i am wrong).

For beta version,  there are 14 worlds available to choose from:

• Cornelia
• Melmond
• Kashuan
• Palamecia
• Gysahl
• Mysidia
• Istory
• Figaro
• Wutai
• Trabia
• Lindblum
• Besaid
• Selbina
• Rabanastre
• Bodhum

All those names are taken from previous Final Fantasy series. Can you guess which one they come from ? ^^

When choosing your character name, you can enter her given name and surname which is a nice move by Square Enix. Guess what I use for my character name!!!. The same name where ‘Saku’ nickname is originated from ^^

Similar to previous FFXI, you are given 3 choices as your starting city: Limsa Lominsa, Gridania and Ul’dah. I opted out to Limsa Lominsa since that’s where Fisherman Guild is ^^;;.

After selecting your world, you are given a nice cutscene and I am complete speechless with the amount details and they all look so pretty (I do have a powerful graphic card).

My character is hearing voices from out of nowhere.

Love this screenshot. I think it would be a nice desktop wallpaper ^^.

And this one also is nice. My character sure looks gorgeous ^^

Bunch of monsters attack our boat and the ship crews were trying to defend it.

Nice pose by this Rogadynn. Killing a monster using his right hand and shooting another monster to save a crew member with his gun. I want his gun ^^;;.

More monsters are coming and they seem to be running away from something.

And a lot more of them come aboard the ship and the crews cannot handle all of them at the same time. “Sakura Kinomoto” is in deep trouble.

White haired miqo’te saves me with her barrier. Coolness factor is 11/10 ^^.

Meanwhile, a creature that scares all other monsters  jump above the ship.

Does anyone familiar with this creature ? Anyone knows ? I’ll give you a hint for its name. It starts with letter ‘L’ ^^.

After a rough journey, I finally arrive at Limsa Lominsa. what a beautiful scenery.

Once you get off from the boat, you are free to do whatever you want as you have a full control of your character.

I started wandering around and checking out the city. Yep, that’s right, I am a newbie all over again ^^.

Had a talk with this NPC and he spoke in a yar language. He quickly warns me that this place is not for one with light of heart.

When he sees the white haired Miqo’te, he did a poor attempt of hitting on her ^^;;

I went outside the city to get my very first quest and the name of the quest speaks for itself. Look at the reward, it’s a 1000gil and it looks like an easy money to make in this game since it was a pain to make money in FFXI when I just started.

That last screenshot sums up my FFXIV daily digest for today. I hope you guys enjoy it and look forward to more my FFXIV adventure as a Miqo’te named  ‘Sakura Kinomoto’ in Eorzea.

Final Fantasy XIV Open Beta

Approximately about 1 hour left at the time I am writing this post, FFXIV open beta will start. Everyone can join in and all you need to do is register on Square Enix site, download FFXIV client , update patches, grab FFXIV open beta registration code and play. Regardless you were on alpha/closed beta or not, you can join.

Note that open beta was supposed to start yesterday, however, due to critical error, Square-Enix had to postpone to today. Thankfully it’s only one day delay because yesterday, they announced that open beta was postponed. Not a great move by Square-Enix postponing open beta especially with bad press all around internet concerning alpha/closed beta and the rumoured fatigue system. I guess they probably forgot to remove the fatigue system ^^;;.

I believe this is a great opportunity for not only those who have been looking forward to play it but also those who were skeptical about getting FFXIV due to bad first impressions from alpha/closed beta tester. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion so the best way to check if FFXIV is a game you should look forward is to get yourself involved in this open beta.

FFXIVcore.com provides a simple and straightforward guideline on how to get you going and they even have the patches uploaded on Megaupload and other file sharing sites. If you are trying to get updated patches from FFXIV official client, I have to say good luck with that as it’s really slow ^^;;, thus, it’s better if you use utorrent or any other torrent client.

Don’t forget to watch the latest FFXIV Prerelease Official Trailer (North American version but I think all regions have the same trailer). It really kicks @$$.