The World is a Vampire

Wow, long time. Last time I posted was Christmas, huh? Well, with so many other blogs, websites, and wikis covering FFXIV, I was growing bored with merely keeping up with the trickle of information that was coming in. Also, my desktop of eight years finally crapped out on me. I type you this message from my new laptop. I never thought I'd become a massive tool and buy one of these things, yet here I am.

Anyway, with the official website now full of information, many new videos circulating, the beta underway, and the release date(for the PC version) announced, I actually feel out of the loop now. People are talking about the classes, playing the beta, complaining about how the PS3 version won't be released for another six months after the PC version. Seriously, folks, it's never fun when you find out a game you really want to play isn't coming out for a long time, and I know SE were real douches hyping up the PS3 version and saying it would be a simultaneous release with the PC version, but life goes on. As someone who was planning on playing the PS3 version, I'm bummed, too, but there will be other games between now and FFXIV:

Ahem, among other things, of course. To be perfectly blunt, I am in the camp of people who think SE's rather sudden announcement of the PC version release is an attempt to compete for shelf space with Cataclysm. SE has acknowledged World of Warcraft's success and have been saying that Final Fantasy XIV will be competition for WoW. It makes sense; I just have a feeling the PC version is being rushed and will be extremely lacking at first(you know, like Wings of the Goddess was) and I will be glad I waited the extra time to play the PS3 version when it's more of a complete game.

Or in an ironic twist, the game will rock right out of the box, and I will be left whimpering like a puppy and wishing I'd shelled out the extra 200 bucks for a better graphics card for this laptop so I could play it. Maybe then I wouldn't have spilled a glass a water on this thing a mere month after buying it and had to pay 160 dollars to repair it, thus losing the very 200 dollars I wished to save. Yeah, my cup runneth over(Hey, that was a good one.).

Patience is not something I'm normally good with, but with the extra FFXI content, Cataclysm on the way(hopefully), Trauma Team still left to be "XS'd", Rock Band 3 and Fallout: New Vegas coming out this fall, and a Mortal Kombat remake on the horizon, I won't be bored. That's not to mention my backlog, but hey, I should be talking about FFXIV, right?

This game continues to astound me graphically. I know I've been saying this from the beginning, but graphics are not something I usually geek out over. FFXIV is the most visually impressive game I've seen. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If Final Fantasy is nothing else, it's good looking.

As a non-beta player, it's still hard for me to formulate an opinion on gameplay. All I have to go on are videos and the vague testimonials of the beta players. Combat sounds like a good time, but I haven't heard anything mind blowing. What I've been hoping for with all the emphasis that's being put on the four disciplines is that every job has something to contribute to the fight.

If you look at the official site, you'll see Blacksmith and Miner have the ability to weaken certain types of enemies. I looked through the other classes in the Disciplines of "Land" and "Hand" but didn't see anything similar for them. It may just be that it's too early to post everything about the classes.

It'd be nice if even the crafting classes could at least play a support role in parties. One of the things that always irritated me about FFXI was how out-of-the-way crafting felt. Having to stop to fish to make gil felt like I was putting the really fun things on hold to go play a lame mini-game. Hopefully, the crafting jobs in FFXIV will make me feel more involved in the "main game." How about a Miner weakening an enemies' defense with his pick axe? Why not a Culinarian on the sidelines keeping the other party members fed? Whatever. Anything. Just don't make me feel like I'm taking a time out to go craft.

So far, I've not heard anything of this sort. Seems like combat is still combat and crafting is still crafting. It's just a hell of a lot more convenient since you can switch among the four disciplines on the fly. I guess I'll have to wait for more information to surface. I'm sure everyone is too busy playing the game to write anything about it. I should be so lucky... Damn you, PC gamers!

Merry Christmas; Jesus Hates You

There hasn't been much to report, but now we've got a new trailer for FFXIV. It's pretty and all but doesn't explain the details we'd all like to know. However, there's a lot of new info at Eorzeapedia that was compiled from an interview GAME Watch conducted with Hiromichi Tanaka and Nobuaki Komoto.

A minor detail that, personally, struck me was that every starting nation will have it's own prologue. The ship arriving in the trailer above is the prologue for characters who start in Limsa Lominsa. It's a nice extra touch considering how unceramoniously you arrived in Vana'diel no matter what nation you picked.

The above commentary would have made a bit more sense about three months ago. It was part of an entry I meant to post way back when the above trailer was first released. For whatever reason, I saved part of it and just never came back to finish it.

Luckily, everything I said is still true. There hasn't been much to report. It's the reason I've been neglecting to update this thing. I got tired of making sarcastic comments to myself about the miniscule news leaks we've been getting from SE... I'm just kidding; I never get tired of being a sarcastic jerk. I've just been playing a lot of video games and haven't really felt like doing much else. Plus, it's the holidays, and I get especially depressed and cynical around the holidays. Partially, it's because I have to run the gauntlet of visiting relatives, but also it's because this time of year gets me thinking about the true meaning of some of these holidays we celebrate in our culture.

If kindergarten taught me anything, it's that Christopher Columbus discovered the earth. Or he invented America. Or maybe it was gravity. Well, in addition to those great accomplishments, he also failed to find a new trade route to India and initiated what would become the genocide of an entire race. That's why every year, on the second Monday in October, we observe this man for giving us an excuse to take off work.

Speaking of reasons why I drink--I mean, October, Halloween is another popular holiday(and a reason I drink). Originally, Halloween was a day of religious cults slaughtering livestock to appease the evil spewed forth from the underworld. In other words, it was pretty cool. Nowadays it means that one night a year, I am expected to buy several townships worth of candy and distribute it to every person who comes to my door wearing a headband with cat ears on it. If I do not oblige these “Trick-or-Treaters(cat people),” by fulfilling my end of this socially accepted norm, they are required, by law, to egg my house. I must then reciprocate by slaughtering a small dog to appease them. They're usually so appeased, they run screaming all the way back to their homes(in the underworld).

After Halloween, it's time to start shopping for a Christmas tree but not presents, because Thanksgiving is coming up, and there's still a whole month until Christmas. It's customary to wait until the night before to go shopping, despite the fact we begin preparing for it at the end of August.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is the commemoration of when the pilgrims invaded the Indian's house, ate all of their food, went through their medecine cabinet, and later killed them. I guess that's basically what we do today, minus the Indians since they're all dead. I guess some holidays retain their original traditions.

Of course, Christmas is not one of those holidays. By some cruel joke of the universe, Christmas embodies all things anti-Christian and is simultaneously regarded as the holiest day of the year next to the super bowl. In reality, Christmas is an amalgamation of traditions steeped in pagan rituals, false gods, and materialism(like the superbowl). You'd actually be hard pressed to find a heathen celebration or blasphemous element to which Christmas isn't connected. Watch. The origin of Christmas to Kevin Bacon in six steps. Go!

Early Roman winter festivals were celebrated with the [1] worship of sun gods, gift giving, and decorating with lights and Yule logs. [2] Yule logs were burned by Scandinavians and vikings to honor Thor, the god of thunder. “Yule” is synonymous with “Christmas,” which is a contraction of “Christ's Mass.” [3] Christ's birthday was decided to be, without any evidence historical, biblical, or otherwise, on December 25. December 25 marks the beginning of what would become “the twelve days of Christmas,” [4] a time of celebrating with lewd and sinful activities. This was especially popular in the middle ages along with the incorporation of ivy and evergreen trees, which were used in winter solstice celebrations for [5] tree worship. The Christmas tree is a mandatory part of the modern Christmas celebration, as is Santa Claus. The myth of Santa Claus encourages the accumulation of material wealth as well as promotes [6] greed, one of the 7 sins. “7” is a number in the title of the upcoming movie “The Magic 7” which will feature [7] Kevin Bacon as himself. Darn, so close.

I thought it was June 31st..,

but that doesn't exist. So it's July 1st.

Here's some more news on FFXIV. http://ffxiv.zam.com/story.html?story=18628

Well, it's more like elaboration on old news... Actually, it's more like reiteration of old news but said more eloquently.

A couple things about it disturbed me, though:

According to Koumoto, battles in FFXIV will involve more thinking and strategy than FFXI. While FFXI was about timing and quick action

I'm all for strategy. I just could have sworn they said the same thing about FFXI, initially. I'm wondering what changed and also if SE is just filling my head with false promises. That concern has more to do with my paranoia than anything. What really bothers me is this:

The keyword is "growth" and FFXIV will be sold as a game that allows improvement without unnecessary hardship. Koumoto references FFXI, saying it is a game that relies too exclusively on defeating enemies over and over to advance, and that FFXIV will bring new avenues of facilitating character growth, such as quests.

It's great that SE is borrowing concepts from other games, but that raised a red WoW flag. I know I shouldn't jump to the WoW-clone conclusion. It's not like that was the first MMORPG to employ quest experience, but SE has cited WoW specifically as a source of inspiration in their last interview.

I'm just worried the atmosphere will no longer feel Final Fantasy. SE has already said that the world FFXIV takes place in will have a very different feel from Vana'diel and they're still throwing around phrases like 'solo play.' I'm glad they're making FFXIV less of a time sink, but the more I hear, the more it sounds like WoW.

Hopefully, it's just my paranoia talking again. That's enough splitting hairs and over analyzing though. The "new" information released hasn't shed enough light on anything to start drawing any real conclusions. So let's move onto another game: Devil Survivor.

I'm not too far into it, and I hate to say this so off the cuff, but it's shaping up to be one of the best MegaTen games thus far. At the very least, it more than lives up to the MegaTen name.

For a handheld game, Devil Survivor throws a lot of things at you. What's amazing is how seamlessly the game eases you into each of them. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 were supposed to be the more jRPG traditional games of the MegaTen franchise, making them easier to get into while still maintaining the unique MegaTen difficulty. They succeed, but Devil Survivor improves on the formula even further, combining new concepts with all the familiar elements of the MegaTen series: the press turn system, demon fusion, and skill learning/copying and simplifying them enough so that they aren't overwhelming. Add that to the challenging tactical gameplay and the minimalist yet strangely immersive environment, and it makes for a unique experience. Add a DS to your wishlist along with that PSP I told you to buy.

Rapture

In case you didn't know, SquareEnix's new super, secret, totally un-Final-Fantasy-related MMORPG is "Final Fantasy XIV." I think they should have chosen a different name for it...

I can tell you two definite things regarding the game from that trailer. 1. That the game is Final Fantasy related. 2. That I will have to buy a PS3 sometime in the near future if I want to play it. SE is hinting at some fairly high-end specs. If that and the trailer are any indication, my typewriter-attached-to-an-etch-a-sketch of a computer will not run the game. I play, mostly, older PC games. The newest PC game I own that I can actually play is Gothic 3. I attempted to play Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine; it wasn't pretty, and I mean that quite literally. Besides, SE has also said the game will only run on the most current OS. That means upgrading to Vista, for me. Pass.

Despite all that, I'm pretty excited about the game. I was an FFXI player for some time(on Titan. Name was "Enrich," if you were at all interested.). Though SquareEnix is only dropping vague information about their upcoming game, I'm very interested in what I'm hearing. Mostly, that FFXIV will be "COMPLETELY DIFFERENT" from FFXI. I guess that means Mithra will be a male dominated race, Galka will be hemaphrodites, Taru-tarus will be gargantuan, Hume males will actually look masculine(if only).

Apparently, leveling up will be a thing of the past. Weapons will be the significant means of improving one's character. When I first heard this, my brain screamed in horror because they tried this once before, and it didn't work out:

When I came to, I considered the possibility of that statement instead meaning we'd learn skills from weapons as in the Tactics games. Then again, they could have just meant outfitting one's character with uber equipment is the way to get stronger. Hm, perplexing. Hey, SE said the FFXIV logo was designed with the "weapons" theme in mind. Let's take a look:

... Well, anyway, color me intrigued.

The final cryptic detail SE has made public is that the game will be far less of a timesink than FFXI. Since FFXI is not going to be discontinued(though you wouldn't know it by observing the overdramatics of most FFXI boards), SE is taking into account that many players may want to play both. Hopefully, in addition to realizing we have only so much time, SE will also realize we have only so much money and will cut the subscription cost of at least one of the games. Something tells me that won't happen. SE has likely created the image of a company concerned about their fanbase because they are in the position to do so, and their generousity doesn't extend as far as they'd like you to think. Sigh, a man can dream.