Consoles

After last week's foray into the colorful world of Phantasy Star Online, I knew I had to step it up for a great follow-through. That's why I got in touch with three excellent MMO bloggers who have long histories with PSO and were more than eager to share their perspective on this unique game world!

The Game Archaeologist: Who the heck are you and how did you first get into Phantasy Star Online? What class and race did you play?

David: I'm David Lambert, but many people know me better as Branick, host and producer of the LOTRO Academy podcast. I first got into Phantasy Star Online with the original Dreamcast release, which I picked up only about two weeks after it came out. I actually had eight different characters (I bought six VMUs in addition to the two I already had specifically for this purpose), but I definitely favored the HUcast. I wasn't big on using techniques, and the HUcast had the highest attack power in the game.

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Today does not quite mark the two-year anniversary of The Mog Log. That was back on January 24th, but I decided to run just a wee bit late with annual retrospectives. We're now close enough to the year mark for argument's sake, which gives me a chance to look back at how the past year of the column has shaken out, what's gone right, and what hasn't. That ties into the issue that one invariably finds when a single column covers two games: There's a split.

Whether or not you like Final Fantasy XIV, you can't argue that the past year has brought an onslaught of changes to the game. On the flip side, there's been less going on in Final Fantasy XI than in any of the game's previous years of operation. As a result, I've had a difficult dilemma to try to juggle: There's one game moving at high speed and one staying rather stagnant, but I don't want to give undue attention to one over the other.

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The Dreamcast was a brief but shining aberration in the gaming world. Coming along years after Sega had fallen out of its position as a top-runner in the console market, it represented the company's big attempt to reclaim its former glory. While it failed to succeed in that respect and ultimately closed up shop in 2001 (ending Sega's interest in the console market), the Dreamcast became a gaming cult favorite responsible for some of the most innovative titles ever made. Games like Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, and Shenmue have remained fan favorites long after the Dreamcast's demise, which shows the legacy that these dev teams left behind.

But perhaps the Dreamcast's greatest gift to the gaming world wasn't crazy taxis or space dancing but a surprisingly forward-looking approach to online gaming. In 2000, the Dreamcast took the first steps to bringing an online console RPG to market, and while it wasn't a true MMO, it certainly paved the way for titles like EverQuest Online Adventures and Final Fantasy XI.

It was bold, it was addictive, and it was gosh-darned gorgeous. Ladies and gentlemen: Phantasy Star Online.

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It's been a little quiet on the Final Fantasy XIV front since the new year, but the team behind the game has been hard at work preparing the launch of patch 1.21. And it's going to be quite a massive patch, as outlined in Naoki Yoshida's most recent producer's letter for the fans. Not only does it contain the addition of the long-awaited Job system, but it also includes UI improvements, housing, two new instanced raids, a food and medicine overhaul, and a variety of smaller changes.

While the team had originally aimed for a launch in the second week of February, Yoshida notes that the patch will likely be delayed two weeks due to the sheer amount of content going in. He also discusses what he calls temporary server merges prior to the launch of 2.0 in November; as he puts it, the main concern is allowing players, especially from European regions, to have an ample playerbase to adventure with. It's a bit of unpleasant news for Final Fantasy XIV players, but it's packed in amidst many things to look forward to.

If you think about characters in the online Final Fantasy games compared to the console-based equivalents, you have to come to a kind of demoralizing conclusion: Your character online is pretty weak. In Final Fantasy XI, you can cap out your Black Mage and you'll still never learn Ultima. In Final Fantasy X, by the time you have your Black Mage using Ultima, you've still got most of the endgame ahead of you. Final Fantasy XIV might move the power scale upward, but at this point your character hasn't even actually mastered being a Paladin, much less summoning anything. Final Fantasy VII, by contrast, gave us three different versions of Bahamut to summon just to keep him relevant, and he was still nowhere near the best.

And you know what? It makes the games much more fun to have these barriers in place.

Players have been clamoring for high-end summons in Final Fantasy XI since forever ago, and the fact that it's not even on the visible horizon for Final Fantasy XIV is disheartening to some. But there's something to be said for a play environment where these touchstones of power remain out of reach, certainly for now and possibly forever.

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If you're playing Final Fantasy XI on your PlayStation 3, you might want to head to Gamer Escape to get the details on an upcoming hardware tweak.

The website reports that sometime in February, Sony will release a system update for the PS3 that will increase the hard drive space necessary to run the PlayStation 2 version of FFXI. PS3 models that feature 60GB and 20GB drives are the only units being affected, but it's worth noting because the FFXI client will require an additional 9GB of space after the patch (21GB total).

The PS2 version of FFXI isn't changing, nor is the Windows version, so don't sweat it if you're not playing the title on your PS3. If you are, though, the source article is worth a read. As of press time, Square-Enix hasn't divulged a reason for the space increase.

[Thanks to Andrew for the tip!]

DUST 514 is somewhat revolutionary in that it's attempting to tie together two separate games (on two separate platforms) that take place in the same fictional universe. CCP is also innovating on the backend according to a new article at Develop.

The upcoming EVE Online MMOFPS tie-in will establish universal PlayStation Network microtransaction rules according to CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson. Petursson told Develop that the ongoing CCP/Sony negotiations will ultimately result in the establishment of price tiers for virtual items as well as the revenue split between Sony and third-party devs.

CCP is also exploring retail options for DUST 514, despite early reports that the title would only be available as a digital download. Finally, Petursson tells Develop that the PlayStation Vita version of DUST will "give people access to more asynchronous parts of the game." While he doesn't commit one way or the other, it's possible that the portable version of the game will connect to both the PlayStation 3 and PC versions via EVE's universal ISK currency.

One of the funny things about writing a regular column is that sometimes, when you start out writing a series of connected columns on a topic, you have a point you want to make. Other times, you find a point making itself as you go, and you realize that it's a pretty good point. After our first three columns covering the various classes in Final Fantasy XI, that effect is on my mind, especially as I move into the fourth installment.

As before, the standard caveats apply. Nothing below is meant to debate relative power levels or overall worth; instead, I'll judge the class solely on its own merits -- how much does it offer other jobs, does it have a unique mechanical identity or not, and how cool is the darn thing. With that in mind, let's round out the advanced jobs from the core game with Beastmaster, Summoner, and Bard!

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Every so often, there are pieces of information put out that are transparently false, stories so insane you know they simply must be fabricated... like the idea that Final Fantasy XIV would promise the introduction of a new mount and that said mount would be one of the toothy monsters known as a goobbue. It's the sort of thing that could be immediately ignored as being a series of enterprising photoshopped pictures if not for the fact that it's being passed along by the official site.

Yes, apparently, the lumbering beasts that terrorize players in both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV will be added to the stable of mounts alongside chocobos. The preview video itself (embedded just after the break) states that they'll only be available for a limited time before version 2.0; the lore article claims that the very idea seems absurd even in the game world, but there it is. Hopefully players can learn how to obtain the mount soon, with the added caveat that we'll probably have to believe it's a real thing at that point.

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One of the big selling points of Final Fantasy XIV before launch was that there were many classes devoted to doing things other than fighting. The promise was made, more than once (if memory serves), that even non-combat classes would get to take part in the main story, and it was also stated that these classes would still be useful to an adventuring party even if not quite as good as another Disciple of War or Magic.

At this point, of course, we can confidently say that part was a lie. A Botanist is about as useful in combat as an actual botanist in a fistfight. But Naoki Yoshida has gone on record that the former part is a lie as well -- that if you want to take part in the main storyline, you really do need to level a combat class. It wasn't something that was really highlighted, but it was still there, and it's worth unpacking as we look forward to another year of the game's ongoing development. If you came in expecting to only craft and gather, you're no longer going to have your run of the place.

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There's a certain brilliance to the fact that the first six classes in Final Fantasy XI mirror your selections back in the first Final Fantasy game. Once you hit 30, you can start transferring into the more iconic and frequently bonus-laden advanced jobs, but your initial selection is meant to call back to the start of the game. Those are the classes that I've already covered in this column, first with a column on the three physical classes, then the three caster classes. But that's barely the tip of the iceberg.

The core game only offered six advanced choices: Paladin, Dark Knight, Ranger, Beastmaster, Bard, and Summoner. Today, I'm going to be taking a look at the somewhat more physical side of the group, using criteria established way back when I started talking about class design philosophy. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to discuss strict power levels; that's the sort of thing that gets fiddled with easily enough and frequently enough that a unique mechanical identity matters more than who's on top at any given week. On with the first batch of advanced jobs!

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As we enter the twilight of 2011, I can say with absolute certainty that my predictions for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV were wrong, which is fine, since when I made them last year I seem to recall saying to myself that I was predicting more on the basis of "should happen" than "will likely happen." I was overly optimistic about several things, overly pessimistic about a couple of others, and going in a completely different direction from the design team on the rest -- which is fine by me, actually.

That having been said, whether proving that I'm not afraid of failure or that I don't know when to quit, I'm coming back for another round of predictions for this coming year. But there's one major variable in the equation that's horrible to try and account for, and that's Final Fantasy XI. I can easily see the game going one of two ways, and while I think one's a bit more likely, there seem to be more divergent futures for it than for Final Fantasy XIV.

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