 |
 The Voracious Resurgence |
 
| |
| Prime Weapons • Ultimate Weapons • Ultimate Augments • Abjurations iL119 • JSE Necks • Divergence Augments • Escutcheons | |
| Reforged Armor Artifact: +1 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Relic: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 Empyrean: +1/+2 • iL109 • iL119/+2/+3 |
Guides • Crafting • Trusts • Apex Monsters |
The History of Final Fantasy XI/2008
Navigation
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Header Key
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beta Information2008 - The Age of Mythical Weapons
In 2008, Final Fantasy XI saw the very first Mog Bonanza. Furthermore, Mythic Weapons made their debut.
Wings of the Goddess saw many storyline updates, which for the first time incorporated both Quests and Missions to develop the storyline.
The Version Updates in 2008 were all incredible and well received by the community. Apart from the slow Missions/Nation Quests, the other content added was on-par with the great Salvage update.
| Jan. 1st, 2008 |  A Black Rat Family appears! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 2008, Qiqirn (Rats) appeared in various places from January 1st thru January 15th. A large Qiqirn named Lucky Mouse was followed by smaller Qiqirn named Lucky Rat.
By trading the lead mouse random gifts, players had a chance to obtain the furnishings Snowman Knight, Snowman Miner and Snowman Mage. This event was accidently triggered and started on November 19th. Players prematurely were receiving the snowmen by trading items. There were player reports that GMs sent in-game messages instructing players to drop the snowmen, and even the items disappearing from some player's inventories. The event was turned off until the appropriate time with an emergency maintenance. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 4th, 2008 | Valentione's Day 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Valentione's Day event ran from February 4th thru February 15th.
The content was the same as the previous year, but the new item Cupid Chocolate was added. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 13th, 2008 |  Absolute Virtue video released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As promised at the Fan Festival 2007, Square Enix released a video of the development team fighting Absolute Virtue. Although only five minutes in length, the video shows the same player characters using 2-hour abilities many times. The community was skeptical whether or not the development team would use their GM tools to fight or fight legitimately as real players.
Immediately, the community dissected all languages of the AV videos that were released. This included frame-by frame of all four; the Japanese, English, German, and French versions. Some new information was learned, as well as many crazy theories put together. In the end, Absolute Virtue was still as difficult as always. Manafont Meteor spam would continue to wipe entire linkshells. |
Above is the video created by the developers, showing hints at defeating Absolute Virtue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 18th, 2008 | Announcement of "Rapture" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| During Game Developers Conference 2008, Square Enix revealed that their new MMORPG will be using the same engine that was used for titles such as Final Fantasy XIII. Previously known as the White Engine, this new multi-platform engine is now known as Crystal Tools and expands throughout Xbox 360, Windows Vista, Playstation 3, and Wii.
Square Enix also gave the first code name to this title, Rapture. |
Starting with this announcement, rumors of the game shutting down popped up every couple months on community boards.
With Wings of the Goddess offering no real incentive for veteran players to stick around, many players began to take breaks around this time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb. 21st, 2008 | The Doll Festival 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Doll Festival returned from February 21st thru March 3rd. The MHMU delivered the furnishings Bonbori and Festival Dolls to all player's Delivery Boxes.
To coincide with the event, another Fan Art contest was held. The theme was "The Ladies of Vana'diel." The entries can be found here, be sure to click the "Next" button on the top or bottom of the page to see the other pages of entries. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 11th, 2008 |  The First Wings of the Goddess Update - Scholar Overhaul | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The maximum number of screenshots storable within POL was increased from 99 to 200.
|
Lack of Missions The lack of additional missions was a let down for many players. The half quest/half mission setup was pretty undesirable. Players were more interested in answering pertinent WOTG questions like: What is that comet in the sky? Why did the cavernous maws appear? What is a certain Regal Feline is up to? Instead, we had to endure the uninteresting city quests while waiting seven months for the June 2008 update to further move on with actual missions. Major Job Adjustments Job adjustments in this update were regarded as a "7/10". Content in this update, on the other hand, was a 1/10. Cheese Sandwich During the Fan Festival 2007 in Anaheim, California players were able to submit written questions directly to the Dev team. Players were free to ask anything to the Devs, but there were no assurances that their questions be selected. That fateful Friday, Hempknight of the Phoenix server was one of the players to have their question selected:
The Devs agreed to it, and the sandwich was introduced in this update. Hempknight later allegedly expressed regret at the end of the Fanfest. Likely for the attention it garnered him and for wasting a once in a lifetime opportunity on a low tier Allakhazam meme for the lulz. Which is redundant as Alla was always low tier.
Scholar Before this update, Scholar was considered the "lol" job. There was no place or purpose to level Scholar, and it seemed to be a gimp Red Mage more than anything. The dedicated players that levelled Scholar in the quasi-state it was in when first released had their efforts pay off with this update. Post update, the job came into its own. Sublimation and Raise II were quite shocking to players. Scholar as a subjob became the new meta for White Mage and Summoner. Red Mage Many career Red Mages had legitimate complaints about this update. Giving Raise II to Scholar before Red Mage was a huge shock. Sublimation further took them away from the spotlight. Some sort of enfeebling update was required to make Red Mage significant again. As quoted by a BG Forums member after the update: "What is needed for RDM? The ability to land our enfeebles on everything that matters? You know- Shijin, Jailers, ToAU world spawns. Nothing like full enfeebling merits with millions of gil and years spent getting some of the best gear possible only to have most of your spells resist." Dancer Popular merit party spots included imps in Caedarva Mire, which had the dreaded Amnesia status ailment as a TP move. Dancers were rendered utterly useless, and were always overlooked as any type of main healer. Dancer sub was still somewhat useful for self cures in Campaign, despite the nerf. Their new Artifact Armor had great stats and was well worth obtaining. Samurai Samurai gained yet another new Job Ability. Many players considered it to be a great, but unnecessary, addition to the job. Following this, all that players could mention was "How about Red Mage and Monk?". Neither of those jobs saw any type of adjustment for quite a long time.
Pre update: Campaign was a pleasant experience where players could go out and earn some casual Experience Points. Post update: Campaign became a place to go and get your ass handed to you. Nobody fought Campaign battles in the new beastmen strongholds due to the unneeded difficulty in reaching the destination, and for lack of any rewards for the extra effort. Players preferred to continue fighting in easy, low level areas for Experience Points. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar. 13th, 2008 | The Egg Hunt 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 2008 Easter event ran from March 13th thru March 24th. Again, the event was similar to the previous year with the exception of a couple new rewards; the Clockwork Egg, Hatchling Egg and Melodious Egg. To obtain these, adventurers must own the previous furnishings, and match eggs for "Region First 5" (The first five letters of a region that is controlled by the country where your participating in the egg event). |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 14th, 2008 | Odin World Overpopulation Announcement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An announcement was made that due to open world selection that was implemented in 2007, certain worlds became overpopulated. Odin had about 70,000 characters and 23,000 registered users, compared to an average of 55,000 characters and 15,500 registered users for other worlds.
To alleviate the issue, a free world transfer service was made available to players on Odin to less populated worlds. Some players took advantage of this, but it was not enough to fully resolve the issue. Odin was considered for removal from the list of servers available to start on from the character creation screen. In addition, the team was considering removing Odin as a destination via the World Transfer service. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 17th, 2008 |  Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection 2008 Released in North America | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection 2008 was released for Windows. All expansions to-date were included at an MSRP of $29.99.
As usual, the package features a fold-out map of Vana'diel, command lists and mini starting nation walkthroughs. Every copy came with a 30-day free trial and a Vana'diel Buddy Pass to invite a friend to try FINAL FANTASY XI. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 23rd, 2008 | Wings of the Goddess OST Released in Japan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 songs were included on the OST, at an MSRP of 2,100 Yen (tax included). |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 23rd, 2008 | Announcement regarding the rise of Unauthorized Access | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Square Enix officially recognized third party access as an ongoing threat to the player base. Relief measures became easier to access, and more resources for assistance became available helping players who became victims of attacks get their accounts back.
Furthermore, a larger selection of recovery points was implemented to roll back a character that has been compromised. Real life newspapers even had articles about the account theft situation. One example was a player who fell victim to a friend stealing his account. He tried getting the police involved and was to no avail. The article can be found here. |
Even with the reassurance by Square Enix about their support, many players became victims to RMT or other trusted players stealing their accounts. The whole issue started peaking around December of 2007 and continued for a few months. The popular map website ffxi-atlas had malicious code inserted into the website, with the use of iframes. Noscript became a necessary add-on to browse FFXI websites safely.
Some players successfully retrieved their stripped accounts, only to be banned for "RMT Activity" a few weeks later. It seems that there was a major disconnect within the company itself with lack of communication. At around this time, players began realizing the way the Special Task Force works. If an account is flagged as RMT, SE started banning accounts based on credit card information association. This was if one account was properly (or improperly) flagged and banned, other accounts that used the same credit card(s) for payment in the past were also banned. This affected many friends who paid for other accounts, or family members/siblings using the same credit cards as the culprit. Whether or not the owner of the banned account was guilty, the banhammer knows no mercy. Many legitimately innocent people were banned. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apr. 28th, 2008 | The Feast of Swords 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Feast of Swords event ran from April 28th thru May 7th.
This year, the weapon that was first obtainable was changed to the Ibushi Shinai. Upon trading the sword to the ??? target after defeating the NM, various rewards were again available including the Ibushi Shinai +1. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 2nd, 2008 | The Myraid Arms of Balrahn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At last, the announcement regarding Mythic Weapons was unveiled. Mythical Weapons were being unlocked in the June 2008 version update!
An article regarding the lore of the weapons was posted, and players got their first glimpse of the long-awaited weapons. Of course, no statistics were shown. The article was posted on the wiki here: The Myriad Arms of Balrahn |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 5th, 2008 | Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition Available in PAL format | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rounding out the 2008 collection was the PAL format on the Windows and Xbox 360 platforms. Like its counterparts, the disk was DVD format. Only one registration code is in each pack which unlocked the base game and all four expansions.
As usual, every copy came with a 30-day free trial. The Windows version also came with a Guest Pass to invite a friend to try FINAL FANTASY XI. |
 
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 12th, 2008 | The 6th Adventurer Appreciation Campaign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The sixth Adventurer Appreciation Campaign was held from May 12th thru May 28th. Like the previous year, the Anniversary Ring was available upon speaking to Moogles in town. Statistics were again displayed for your character.
From this year forward, a Mog Bonanza took place coinciding with the annual Adventurer Appreciation Campaign. |
New this year was a special page was available for viewing within Playonline entitled "The traces of adventurers".
Shown on this page were the statistics for the top three players of each world, as well as average statistics per world. The statistics shown were "Parties joined", "Chat numbers", "Enemies defeated" and finally "K.O.s". Character's names were hidden for privacy concerns, though. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 16th, 2008 | The 8th Vana'diel Census | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In addition to the previous year's data, we saw three new items of note: Campaign Allegiance distribution (pictured to the right), as well as Campaign medal progression.
16.42% of all players signed up with Campaign were the current maximum rank of Emblem of the Holy Knight. The total number of Maat's Caps in all worlds was 6,575. |
 Campaign allegiance distribution. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 16th, 2008 | The 6th Anniversary Mog Bonanza | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The very first Mog Bonanza was held in conjunction with the 6th Anniversary Adventurer Appreciation Campaign! The prizes are lackluster according to today's Bonanza standard, but at the time they were amazing. Winning numbers were announced on June 30th, 2008.
Note: See 6th Anniversary Mog Bonanza for details on the event such as prizes and results. The idea for the Mog Bonanza came from the the 2007 FFXI Altana Festival in Osaka. Sage Sundi mentioned during a talk session that he was considering a lottery event. He was quoted saying "There are people who like gambling, and I think that there are also such people who will never receive high end items from NMs. I think that it would be nice to have the chance of a dream somehow." |
 Market Disruption With the first Bonanza came the usual player controversy. Coveted Relic Weapons could not yet be obtained via this method, but the expensive Behemoth Hide was a mere rank 4 prize. NQ and HQ Dusk armor as well as hides/leather were flooded in the market on all worlds in a rush to liquidate gil due to inevitable price drops. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| May 28th, 2008 | Final Fantasy XI & All Expansions available on Direct2Drive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In North America, Final Fantasy XI and all expansions were made available for purchase and download from Direct2Drive.
The cost was $19.95 per title, so it was quite expensive if one were to purchase all of available software through this service rather than the more popular all-in-one Vana'diel Collection 2008. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 10th, 2008 | The Mythical Weapons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Mythical Weapon Debacle Upon first implementation, the Alexandrite requirement was set at 50,000. With the current drop situation, completion time for the quest was unrealistically long. Negative feedback was made regarding this from all ends of the community. The "uncompleted" versions of the weapons were the only portions added at this point. Half of the player base assumed the real statistics were hidden effects. The other half called them useless as the actual base damage and delay were shown. These two stats were compared to other much better weapons. At this point, Mythical Weapons were regarded as useless until some poor sap obtains the weapon and discovers the actual effects. The Life Sentence The following chart was circulated around for laughs, depicting just how much effort players were expected to contribute towards a mythic.
It was clear that completing a weapon was impossible for ordinary players, even nerds and hardcore players. Many opinions were that a substitute method was needed. As development goes, mythic weapons were probably the centerpiece of TOAU content. Although completing a weapon was very difficult, it was a fact that mythics far extended the life of the expansion pack. In the following two version updates of 2008, improvements and adjustments were made to relax the difficulty of Mythic Weapons. ZNMs Almost all ZNM gear was incredibly useful, and many old-school pieces were finally replaced with rare/ex superior gear. The pop system itself was ingenious. Players enjoyed not having to compete with others for pops. The event reinvigorated the forgotten Pankration system and made it semi-relevant to an extent. Many rogue ZNM groups were formed in and outside of endgame linkshells, which caused many scheduling conflicts with other events. Many players elected to dedicate their time to ZNMs over their HNM group's camps. This caused quite the fuss with internal drama among many communities, as many players were cherry picked to join. This left many excluded. Einherjar Adjustments Ease of the event Many linkshells were not able to handle the huge waves with all monsters in the area automatically linking by family type. This opened the event to many less experienced, as well as smaller groups. Furthermore, there used to be no reason to stay in the chamber if the event was going south. Players used to warp out and receive no compensation for their efforts. This adjustment again helped less experienced groups get their feet wet. Adding Imperial Wootz Ingots to potential drops in chambers lowered the gigantic cost of the Salvage Armor bodies. Odin Pre-update it felt more like an accomplishment to defeat Odin in Einherjar, compared to post-update where it was more of a regular event. Some linkshells spent many weeks getting all of their members all nine wins, and not even challenging him yet. Now, Odin's Chamber became much more accessible with this update to the entry requirements. Instead of sitting in Dragon's Aery every day, linkshells became more focused on spamming Odin in hopes of the still coveted Adaman Hauberk. Mules became the norm to take to the event for quicker Odin's Chamber access. With some careful planning, it was possible to rotate an Odin kill every four runs. Ixion is Come!  On June 6th there was a snippet posted on the Playonline Website regarding Ixion. The article gave a little backstory regarding Ixion. Speculation was that Ixion was a the long awaited new Summoner avatar. Like it's counterpart Sandworm, Dark Ixion was able to spawn in multiple zones in the past. Unlike Sandworm, however, it was a much more predictable spawn timer. Ranger made a triumphant return after this update, as it was the main way of defeating this new Notorious Monster. Widescan was the main way of camping him, as well as Stygian Ash must be thrown at Ixion in order to pull it. This was the first Notorious Monster to not have a health bar, except for when it's horn was broken. Dark Knight Souleater zerg was possible, but not done much. As far as drops, the Hermes' Sandals were the first Movement Speed gear that Warrior and Puppetmaster have seen. The Ixion Cloak was sought after for Refresh and its high mage stats, as well as the Ixion Cape for its decent mage stats. Because these items could be sold, linkshells made Ixion part of their daily routines to fund LS based events. Sandworm Doomvoid was ninja added in this update, as well as the unique BCNM battlefields and NMs. NPCs in the past hinted at the ability, but players did not catch on. After the discovery of Void, HNM linkshells dedicated a lot of time to hunting this HNM. The bodies that dropped were incredible, and at first sold for millions of gil. There was a myth for quite a while that Sandworm would immediately come back to life in another zone if it took Reraise from an alliance member. Quality of Life Adjustments Nomad Moogles One of the first major quality of life changes, it was an appreciated addition to have Nomad Moogles added to Selbina and Mhaura. Many players considered the dunes as an initiation/rite of passage phase, and adding the ease of job change felt more like the easy way through Valkurm Dunes. Outpost Warp Retention Unlike the Nomad Moogles adjustment, all players fully enjoyed the Outpost Warp retentions. They still did not transfer to new nations, but that was easily forgiven. The major factor holding many players back from completing the other nation's missions was the loss of invaluable Outpost Teleportation. Campaign Soloing campaign was so much easier and more enjoyable with the additions of Physician NPCs. No longer did players try to seek out White Mage NPCs in hopes of them tossing cures. These NPCs were much better. Inventory Relief After the news blip was posted about Storage adjustments, players thought SE would decrease storage instead of increase. That was not the case. With the new boosted storage capacity of every Furnishing, Storage became very easy to max out. Before, it was really easy to have half of your Mog Safe filled with Furnishings just to be able to have 80 storage. This freed up many Mog Safe spots. Regardless of the new inventory space, it was quickly consumed by Soul Plate pictures for Zeni... Job Adjustments Merit Points The additional breathing room for Merit Point Group 2 choices allowed for much more customization. The two additional tiers per upgrade made abilities like Feint even better. Everybody was happy to see that Overwhelm was nerfed after its 3rd upgrade. Samurai did not need more buffs at this point. Pianissimo The new Bard Job Ability was incredibly useful to single out players with specific songs. This also helped keep Bard out of dangerous area of effects when singing to tanks. Red Mages were not too happy with seeing Bard receive something great, and only additional Group 2 merits given to them. Sure, they were nice, but that is only if you were lucky enough to land that debuff... Footwork There was not much use for this ability. Players tried stacking more "Kick Attack" gear, but in the end, it didn't prove too useful. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 25, 2008 | Piano Collections Final Fantasy XI on sale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On the CD was 11 piano arrangement songs. The CD was priced at $19.99 (2,800 Yen). The CD was quite popular, as the songs were many of the fan favorites. Ronfaure, Jeuno's theme, Whispers of the Gods, etc. were on the disc.
Available with all first edition orders was a Campaign Code redeemable for the in-game Harpsichord furnishing (pictured below).  |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jun. 27th, 2008 | Celestial Nights 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Celestial Nights returned in 2008 from June 27th thru July 8th. This year, the event was changed significantly from the train wreck in 2007 involving the Linkshell Community.
Advice was given from two NPCs named Princess Amdina and [Prince Yahiko]] appearing in the three nations. Players had to use emotes on these NPCs as well as other "groupie" paparazzi NPCs who attempt to approach them in their walking path. Rewards were based on the city colors where players participated in the event. Red Bamboo Grass, Green Bamboo Grass, and Blue Bamboo Grass were up for grabs. Following those, the Yukatas could be obtained. Onago Yukata/Onnagimi Yukata for females, and Otoko Yukata/Otokogimi Yukata for males. Finally, Festive Fans and Summer Fans were obtained upon completing the event a third time. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jul. 25th, 2008 |  The Premier Site Summit 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Premier Site Summit 2008 took place on Friday, July 25th, 2008 in El Segundo, California. Like the previous year, representatives from each premier fan website were invited to the Square Enix offices. Each of the seven sites was given a sneak peek at a preliminary version of an upcoming finished mythic weapon, and each of them shared their opinions and findings on their website.
Seven sites in total attended, and each one was allowed to play the game with a character who was in possession of a completed Mythic Weapon. In attendance was a German FFXI premier site, as well as a new French premier site. Below is an outline of which websites attended, as well as members who were at the summit, and which weapons each team had:
Other News
|
Square Enix again flew two leading members from each website out to El Segundo, CA. The guests were put up in hotels and rode together again in a Cadillac Escalade limo.
Guests were taken to the Square Enix headquarters. VIPs from Square Enix who were involved were Sage Sundi, Mocchi (Community Planner), Saori Hill (Community & Service Manager London), Yasu Kurosawa (North American Online Producer), Kenji Nakamura (Community Manager), Robert Peeler (Senior Community Relations), and Matt Hilton (Senior Community Relations). At the first meeting, the premier sites introduced themselves and their achievements since the previous year. SE officials voiced their concerns about keeping in-sync with the premier sites, and how to keep players excited about future version updates. Square VIPs mentioned that they would like to work with the premier sites to have unique in-game events and promotions run through them to better reach the community. Next, the group toured the Square Enix facility again. Points of interest included the Playonline Information Center, GM room, and Community Team offices. After the tour, the group went to lunch at Salt Creek Grill. At lunch, there was more discussion about unauthorized access and how much of a problem it has become for players. SE said that because it was a new problem, procedures and tools were not in place to handle the situation. When a customer calls about unauthorized access, the info center rep must go through zone logs manually to find out what needs to be replaced and/or when the recovery had to be done. Robert and Micah said that new tools were being worked on to streamline the process for quicker turnarounds. The group then headed back to SE headquarters. SE's goal for the next year was to increase dev team communication. Further discussion was exchanged about premier in-game event crossovers. It was now time for the premier sites to get their hands on the Mythic Weapons. Each weapon was pre-matched by SE to a community site. See to the left which site had which weapon. Each site was told to have a write up on what they thought of their weapon and weapon skill. A couple pictures were given to each site to use on their news reports. Q&A continued, and then the group went to dinner at a Korean restaurant named Chosun Galbee. The SE President joined the group for dinner. At the end of the meal, each community member received a gift bag. Enclosed in each were all three nation keychains and a chocobo plushie. Each Premier Site was given an FFXI Piano Collections CD signed by composer Naoshi Mizuda to hold their own community contest and give it away as a prize.  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jul. 28th, 2008 | Special Support Line for Unauthorized Access opened | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A dedicated chat line was opened specializing in assisting customers with Unauthorized Access on their accounts.
Players were told to not contact the information center, but instead utilize this new web-based chat utility. It was unknown if this new form of assistance was useful or not, as it was only advertised to Japanese players. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 1st, 2008 | Sunbreeze Festival 2008 - Mumor! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Sunbreeze Festival was held from August 1st thru August 18th. As with previous years, fireworks and festival music played at night around the three nations areas.
New this year for the Sunbreeze Festival's center stage event was the charismatic Mumor and the Superheroine Stage Show. She was up against her arch nemesis Ullegore. Swimsuits with a blue design were available starting this year, which was the reward for assisting Mumor with dancing emote commands and correct timing.
|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 18th, 2008 | Final Fantasy XI Player's Collection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Square Enix announced the "Final Fantasy XI Players Collection" on August 8th. This was to be a line of real life collectible accessories related to Final Fantasy XI. Three accessories were planned, starting with the Tidal Talisman. Also announced was a "Final Fantasy XI Original Name Tag" as a second item with no release date. The talisman became available for purchase on August 18th in Japan and North America. The talisman itself was quite flashy, with a Leviathan motif circling around the pendant. The MSRP for the talisman was $42.99 USD, or 4,500 Yen. In Europe, the talisman was not available until October. When it did become available, the price was 24 pounds. Included with every talisman was a Campaign Code for the real prize, an in game Tidal Talisman trench coat. With the use of this item, warping was possible between the three nations, Jeuno, Kazham, and Aht Urhgan. |
 Ye Olde Controversy Because the Tidal Talisman in-game item was included, a lot of players voiced their disapproval of Square Enix selling real life items and in-game counterparts. Many even went as far as to call it RMT. "If you don't like it, don't buy it" was the response from players who were for this new merchandise & in-game item combo. The Talisman added even more controversy as it was a limited availability item with the first ever in-game effect associated with it. Before the flashy pendant on the coat, all armor had static designs. European players felt left out, as JP and NA players were able to purchase their talismans long before them. Many EU players had NA friends purchase the item for them just for the in-game code. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug. 28th, 2008 |  Final Fantasy XI at Games Convention 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Final Fantasy XI returned to Leipzig, Germany from August 21st thru 24th.
Unlike previous European appearances, presence was incredibly low at this event. There was only a simple six-machine setup to play demo versions of the game. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 9th, 2008 | Mythical Weapons Implemented | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Mythical Weapon Adjustments From Life Sentence to Term Punishment With the adjustment to the Alexandrite requirement, Mythic Weapons became obtainable via farming all Alexandrite by "doing your best for two or three years". Nevertheless, until 2013 the restriction on entering Salvage was set for 3 players minimum. There were always shouts requesting other players help for a small payment and force disconnect their character before the farming player entered. This assisted players with soloing their mythics. Unlocking a Myth Overall, the new animations for these Weapon Skills were amazing. As far as usefulness, they were limited. Of particular use was Paladin's Atonement. The weapon skill was amazingly Enmity based, so it was a great new hate holding tool for Paladin. Statistics Out of all Mythic Weapons, the Burtgang was by far the most fapworthy. Nirvana and Tizona were close seconds, and the Bahamut's Staff was finally debunked. Nyzul Isle Floor 100 Data on players Runic disc used to be erased after defeating the floor 100 monster, in exchange for a 100% armor drop chance. Players used to exploit this by having the Runic Disc holder warp before the rest of the group arrived on the top floor. This was called "100 DIJON" to JP players. It was incredibly risky for a team of 5 to take on the Floor 100 boss. This tactic at least allowed for flexibility, and trial and error without much repercussion. The disc holder could never get armor, so usually groups had two different discs. This also helped the situation where the player with recorded data would run out of tokens quickly by warping. From the very beginning of discovering this method, opinions were divided on "whether it is a bug or a circumstance of the event". Since it was clearly stated that "data will be erased when tou kill a monster", it is clear that data was not erased unless the monster was defeated. It was an easily conceivable condition, and difficult to think the dev team did not assume such a tactic would be used. After this implemented change, it was a possibility that it was a bug. This change seemed to have been the only way to patch the exploit but worked in favor for easing Mythic Weapon acquisition. Time-Limited HNMs The decision to limit Absolute Virtue, Pandemonium Warden, and Jailer of Love to two hours most definitely came from bad press. Destructoid released an article on their website reporting an 18-hour Pandemonium Warden attempt that resulted players becoming sick. Regardless whether the article was taken out of proportions or not, this time limit rendered them near impossible to defeat with normal means. This change deemed the term "AV and PW were the bosses that players were never meant to kill". Players already used to spend three or more hours for just Dynamis runs (including gather time). A two-hour time limit was completely unreasonable. Seal Storage Pre-update, many players would rather throw away their Beastmen's Seals and Kindred's Seals in favor of inventory space. The ability to store them was a huge relief at the time and opened doors for more players to participate in BCNM content. New JSE Blue Mage, Puppetmaster and Corsair's new Relic Armor and Artifact Armor +1 pieces had all around good stats on them. Of course, there were a couple fail pieces as usual. Stronghold NMs Of particular focus was the Zha'Go's Barbut. This item became the go-to Ranger TP helm for Rangers everywhere. Level Sync The new level sync system was quite good for newer players and came completely out of nowhere. It allowed experienced players to level with their friends, thus less time was needed to form an experience points party. It was almost necessary to use weapons at the level you were syncing to, though. Higher level weapons and armor performed very poorly. Accuracy was also needed at lower levels, so melee needed to invest in accuracy gear to be efficient while synced. Another benefit to the system was that camps lasted much longer. If one player levelled too fast or was too high of level compared to fought monsters, Experience Points would sharply drop. Syncing alleviated this issue. Remedy Nerf Farming Mistletoe and crafting them into Remedy, and then NPCs the results had pretty good Gil earning potential. This was mainly due to the multiple yield results possible if the synthesis resulted in an HQ. One of the best areas to do this in was Leshy in Lufaise Meadows. Bard Songs in Campaign Bard songs that were played during a Campaign battle gave a steady amount of evaluation points prior to this update, but the maximum evaluation per tag was capped at 300exp. If you were solo, you could sing 15 songs and reach the Experience points cap of 300 in about five minutes. By repeatedly turning in your campaign tags after capping to 300 EXP with songs, one could earn about 1800 EXP per 30 minutes. While not very significant compared to an EXP party, you could earn quite a lot of EXP with minimal effort. It was certainly the best, most stable way to level Bard from level 5+. It is said that this was only nerfed due to the Japanese website GAME Watch's interview with the development when the issue was brought up. The following question was asked: "Next, I would like to ask you about the problems with Campaign Battles. There are things called ... "song earning"". Planner Izumi Ito answered "there is a problem", and he also mentioned countermeasures were currently being considered. It seems that this nerf was a direct response to the interview. Experience Point Change This update's EXP increase was significant. Now that players obtained so much more EXP, soloing and small parties became more attractive. The EXP rate was similar to what Even Match enemies gave. Players would now focus on Easy Prey for fast kills for a significantly more amount of EXP rather than spending 2+ minutes fighting Incredibly Tough with a full party. Overall, it seems that players obtained 1.5x more Experience than before the update. This also allowed parties to stay at camps for a longer period of time, as they became more viable for longer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 16th, 2008 | Absolute Virtue Souleater Nerf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Absolute Virtue's stats were ninja adjusted along with its new 2-hour time limit. This allowed well geared Souleater Dark Knights able to finally hit him. With an emergency maintenance came the nerf to this strategy on Absolute Virtue.
Before the fix (or rather, nerf?) came along, many linkshells were able to farm quite a few kills. It was not a foolproof strategy. A bit of luck was needed to pull it off. |
This fix was the nail in the coffin to the "AV was never meant to be killed" statement in the community.
The real problem was that they should have thought of this strategy ahead of time. AV's stats did not go back to what they were, he just gained a Souleater resistance. It was the dick tease that really was the killer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 26th, 2008 | Blazing Buffaloes 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A totally new event made its appearance, Blazing Buffaloes. The first rendition of this event ran from September 26th thru October 6th.
Buffaloes appeared in the areas surrounding the three nations. Players had to receive a Bovine Brand Card and capture three types of Buffalo with various techniques. The top prize was the Aldebaran Horn furnishing for 30 "Bullmarks". Additional prizes included the Drover's Belt, Drover's Mantle, and Miracle Milk. This event was a throwback to the Blitz Buffalo event in 2005. The event was not done in 2006 or 2007 but became annual starting with 2008. The event itself is modelled after Spanish style bullfighting. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep. 30th, 2008 | Final Fantasy XI & All Expansions available on Metaboli | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With the two other regions receiving a direct download option, it was now Europe's turn.
Unlike the expensive North American option to download the game and all expansions separately, Europe could download the Final Fantasy XI 2008 collection via Metaboli. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 6th, 2008 | Allakhazam Pumpkin Carving Contest | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sticking with their promise at the Premier Site Summit, Allakhazam was given a high end PC by Square Enix to give away at their second Pumpkin Carving contest.
|
Grand Prize on the left, and First Place on the right
Second Place on the left, and Third Place on the right
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 9th, 2008 |  FFXI at Tokyo Game Show 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TGS 2008 was held from October 9th thru October 12th. Final Fantasy XI did not have any exhibits or events at the Tokyo Game Show 2008. but the new Free Trial and download sales were announced at the Square Enix booth. Downloads and announcements were released on Playonline at the same time as the announcement. The Akihabara massacre occurred this year, so security was much tighter at the event. This could have been the reason why TGS was much more scaled back.
Hiromichi Tanaka and other Square Enix staff wore Yukatas representing those in-game and handed out a fan depicting a Lycopodium. The fan had information and instructions on the free trial. At the merchandise booths, three new items were for sale. The new Final Fantasy XI Card Case had a leather front, with the middle lands depicted. Also, two new metal Key Chains in the shape of a Goblin and Mandragora were for sale. Finally, a case was setup with the soon to be released Shadow Lord statue on display.  |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 9th, 2008 | Final Fantasy XI 14-day Free Trial available! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As announced at TGS 2008, Final Fantasy XI was now playable as a 14-day Free Trial. Game files were able to be downloaded from popular file hosting websites for each region, such as Fileplanet in North America.
Players all over the world could now experience the world of Vana'diel with 3 content IDs and 14 days playable for free, and without the need for a credit card. If players chose to continue playing, character information could be transferred to the full game within 90 days of the free trial conclusion. The free trial eventually ended on September 30th, 2010. Since then, the Free Trial was rejuvenated and once again became available after that. |
 New TV ads promoting FFXI were set to start running on Japanese TV. They were essentially cutscenes from the game, with a humorous re-dub.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oct. 17th, 2008 | Trick or Treat 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Halloween event this year ran from October 17th thru November 1st.
The event was similar to the year before, except for the addition of the Pyracmon event. Players had to receive a level cap status, and then defeat bats outside of the three nations. New rewards included the Eerie Cloak and Eerie Cloak +1. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 22nd, 2008 | Vana Festival 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vana Festival 2008 was held in Korakuen, Tokyo on November 22nd, 2008. The location was called JCB Hall but is now known as Tokyo Dome City. Unlike last time when it was held as part of TGS 2006, the Vana Festival became its own independent Final Fantasy XI event like Altana Festival in 2007.
Tickets cost 3,000 Yen each. Attendees received a Campaign Code to redeem for the Town Moogle Shield and a Pest Repellent.
 |
 
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nov. 22nd, 2008 | Three Add-on Scenarios Announced at Vana Festival 2008! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The major announcement at Vana Festival 2008 was the upcoming release of the three new Addon Scenarios.
These scenarios were to be released in full, but in separate Version Updates in 2009. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 5th, 2008 | Fan Festival 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fan Festival 2008 was held in Hollywood, CA at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel on December 5th & 6th, 2008. The address was 1755 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Since then, the hotel changed owners and is now called the Loews Hollywood Hotel.
Tickets were $40, which sold out almost immediately after going on sale. Players had to be lucky enough to navigate the half broken fanfest website to purchase theirs. Many east coast fans were disappointed that the Festival was on the west coast again, despite Square Enix offices being on Los Angeles. Attendees were given a "Gobbiebag" of items and souvenirs. Included at check-in were players nametags with their character name and linkshell printed on them. A hole punch was used on the card to signify the events that the attendee participated in. Players were given five of a random Tarut Card, based off the in-game quest Collect Tarut Cards, to trade and collect all four. Attendees received a Campaign Code to redeem for the Nomad Moogle Shield.  Events included:
Unknown to players, this would be the final real-life event for Final Fantasy XI held in North America. BlueGartr had a large group attend the event. BG assumed that Sage Sundi had the authority to ask the Development Team player base questions. They soon found out that this wasn't the case. Only Tanaka could ask fan questions to the panel. Tanaka did not care about community sites that were not Japanese based. BG was in-particular on his shitlist for bringing up WoW-related FFXI questions at a previous interview. Swiftly after WoW was brought up, that interview was over. BG was abmonished for bringing up WoW. The community soon learned that the rule of thumb was to never speak of other MMORPGs, or even of their existence. No comparisons, no contrasts, nothing. The only MMO that existed was FFXI, and it was the most perfect game with no issues. At FanFest 2008, BG was given a list of questions, and picked the pre-determined topics (and inevitably pre-written answers) they wanted to add. Sundi did his best for the community and tried very hard to get clear answers, but the answers he already had were literally all he had. The "I don't know", "wut", and "I'll take that back to Japan" was his only way of communicating to us. BG gave him a hat and Sonomaa told him we knew he was doing his best. Since Tanaka didn't want to tell BG anything, Sundi brought back with him all the hopes and dreams for the NA community.
|
 
During the first dev panel, RMT banning was discussed. There was a scrolling Star Wars reference list of RMT that have been banned. The list started moving faster to the point it was illegible.
As announced at the Vana'diel Festival 2008, the three upcoming Add-on Scenarios were again discussed. They would be mini-missions rather than a full-fledged expansion pack. Scholar and Dancer Relic Armor made their debuts at Fan Festival 2008. Stats were not shown, only what the armor would look like. Also announced was a tuxedo set for male characters to go along with the [[Opaline Dress] set. "At Vana Fest SE announced Scholar's Group two merits, and at Fan Fest, we were shown the Dancer Group 2 merits. It was probably intended that only one side knew one job's information, but thanks to the magic of the internet we walked into Fan Fest knowing all about Scholar." -PFADuelly@Reddit
The Swarm was the new BCNM battlefield available for play. The pre-built characters were equipped with the new Mythic Weapons. Also available was the upcoming Moblin Maze Mongers content. MMM was very unimpressive, and staff kept trying to get attendees to re-play the shallow content offered. The demo even crashed at one point during play.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 9th, 2008 | Fields of Valor along with Dancer & Scholar Artifact/Relic Armor! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Lackluster Update The player base was spoiled with the last two updates, so there was a lot of disappointment when MMM was delayed. New missions were still huge, as well as new AF/Relic for DNC and SCH. The stats on the equipment were spot on, and well thought out. Everyone was still wondering where the next Campaign medals were, as well as Beaucedine Glacier (S) and Xarcabard (S) were. Fields of Valor Fields of Valor offered great Experience Points boosts for completing pages. It felt like a decent alternative to XP rings. Undispellable Reraise There were many instances where content was lost due to Reraise being dispelled before a full wipe. With this change, it was much more likely that players were able to recover from a massacre and continue with an event. This was especially true for Dynamis if a pull went wrong. <stpt> & <stal> With these two new commands, healers no longer lost target on players who changed gear during a heal. This greatly assisted in keeping tanks alive. BlinkMeNot did exist at the time, but not all PC players used it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 16th, 2008 | Tuxedos now available in-game | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As announced at Fan Festival, tuxedos were available with the wedding support service starting on December 16th.
A rare/ex version was purchasable (Benedight Coat and Benedight Hose) during wedding registration. As with the female version, a non-rare/ex version was also released that was craftable. |
Players who already were married simply needed to speak to Modiste and trade 50,000 Gil while in possession of their Wedding Ring. This would provide them a full set of the rare/ex gear.
This service was available until Tuesday, January 13th, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 18th, 2008 | Delayed MMM Content Released | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
MMM The event itself did not catch on at first implementation. The convoluted system was confusing for many, and lack of worthwhile rewards kept the majority of players away. The hype that players had for a Customizable Dungeon system was not delivered with MMM. It just wasn't very fun. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 18th, 2008 | Character Creation suspended on Odin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Despite the countermeasures implemented in April, Odin's character population continued to grow to the point that it was unsustainable.
A free character world migration service was offered, and new character creation was suspended. New characters were unable to be made on Odin until the major world merge that took place on March 23rd, 2010. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 18th, 2008 | Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign was held from December 18th, 2008 until April 15th, 2009.
All characters whos account has been touched within six months should have been able to be restored via the campaign. Returnees all received an Anniversary Ring. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 19th, 2008 | The Shadow Lord Sculpture Art on sale | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At last, the $229 (24,800 Yen) Shadow Lord statue was available for purchase.
No in-game item came with the statue. Regardless of that, the item itself was quite impressive. Extreme detail went into creating it. The statue weighs almost 12 pounds (337.5 ounces), and is 26 cm tall. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec. 19th, 2008 | Starlight Celebration 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Starlight Celebration took place from December 19th thru December 31st.
New additions to the event were the Astral Boxes and NPC Present Deliveries. Particularly, the Dream Bell and Dream Bell +1 were new equipment this year. |
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Navigation
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Header Key
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
