Archive for the ‘Final Fantasy XI’ Category

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11 Years of Final Fantasy XI

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Believe it or not, it’s been eleven years since Final Fantasy XI originally launched, marking the first MMORPG entry for the franchise. First revealed at the Square Millenium Event in January 2000 (seen above), the game has blossomed into one of the most successful online RPGs since. Five expansion packs, including Seekers of Adoulin in March, have marked transformation on the world of Vana’diel as the game continued to evolve alongside its community.

Whether you’re a first-timer or a veteran looking to return to the game, you can currently get the Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition for Windows PC and Xbox 360. For Steam users, you can currently download the collection for $29.99, it includes every expansion pack and add-on scenario in the game’s 11-year history.

The community team has a wealth of events planned, you can learn more by following the links below:

• The Eleventh Adventurer Appreciation Campaign
• The 11th Vana’versary Mog Bonaza
• Shield Design Contest

Are you a current player of Final Fantasy XI? If you aren’t, what made you leave (or return to the game)? If you haven’t played Final Fantasy XI or any Final Fantasy MMORPG, what are your reasons why? What are your most treasured memories, be they with the game itself or the community around it? Share with us your memories by leaving us a comment below!

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New Adoulin Patch Brings High-Level Content

Thursday, April 25th, 2013

ADOULIN

Releasing on Monday, April 29th, a brand-new patch for Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin will introduce high-level battle content for veteran players and those that have made their way to cap. This new content comes in two forms: Delve and Otherworldy Skirmishes.

Delve: By using a special item, up to eighteen players can plunge into spatial distortions known as “fractures” to vanquish five powerful monsters and their leader. Players are rewarded with powerful equipment after completing a successful fracture.

Otherworldly Skirmishes: Up to six different players can enter an ethereal realm to fight against a swarm of enemies by using a special sculpture in the land of Ulbuka. Surviving against the swarm will yield victors a cache of powerful armor and additional armaments.

Check them out in the “in-development” screenshots below!

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin is available now for PC and Xbox 360 for $29.99. The Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition includes the game and its four previous expansions and various scenarios in one box, and is available for $39.99. You can also purchase the collection on Steam, and right now a 25% discount applies.

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Feast of Swords Returns to Vana’diel

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

xi

It’s time again for the Feast of Swords in Vana’diel, a holiday brimming with the culture and allure of the Far East. These lands hold the secrets of the Samurai art, and for this the Feast of Swords is aptly named. Should you take a breather from your exploits in Adoulin, we’ve provided the details for participation below. Customary with any new Final Fantasy XI holiday events, the team has provided a short story revolving around the reverie here.

If you participate in this spring’s Feast of Swords, feel free to share your spoils with us by leaving a comment below! Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin, the newest expansion to Vana’diel, released on March 27th.

Begin: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 @ 1:00am (PDT),
End: Wednesday, May 8, 2013 @ 1:00am (PDT)

1. Firstly, converse with one of the event moogles stationed in the following locations to procure an ibushi shinai:

Southern San d’Oria (J-9) / Northern San d’Oria (D-8)
Bastok Mines (H-9) / Bastok Markets (G-8)
Windurst Waters (F-5) / Windurst Woods (K-10)

2. Having equipped said ceremonial arm, proceed to have it imbued with a dose of moogle magic by one of the friendly neighborhood M.H.M.U. representatives in the areas below.

West Ronfaure (I-6) / East Ronfaure (G-6) / La Theine Plateau (J-8) / Jugner Forest (I-8) / Batallia Downs (K-8) / North Gustaberg (L-8) / South Gustaberg (L-8) / Konschtat Highlands (I-6) / Pashhow Marshlands (K-6) / Rolanberry Fields (K-5) / West Sarutabaruta (J-8) / East Sarutabaruta (G-11) / Tahrongi Canyon (I-6) / Meriphataud Mountains (E-5) / Sauromugue Champaign (E-5)

3. Join forces with your comrades to seek out the armor-thieving brigands and put an end to their vice and villainy! Word has it that successfully fending off your enemies’ special attacks with your enchanted shinai will reap you considerable rewards…

4. When the battle has been won, trade your shinai to the ??? that has appeared in place of your vanquished foe. You just might be awarded a fabled blade for your feats of valor!

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Return of the FFXI Double EXP Campaign

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

To kick off the launch of Seekers of Adoulin, the fifth expansion to Final Fantasy XI, the team is kicking off the next Double EXP weekend starting next Thursday. If you’re looking for an opportunity to kick your new Geomancer or Rune Fencer levelling into gear, here’s the perfect excuse!

Begin: Thursday, April 4, 2013, 8:00am (PDT)
End: Sunday, April 7, 2013, 7:59am (PDT)

* Slaying monsters in Vana’diel will bestow the bonus excluding Abyssea areas.
* The Dedication effect gained from experience bonus equipment will also be doubled.
* Experience points earned by clearing content or using items will not be doubled
* Adventuring Fellows cannot be called in the new areas added with Seekers of Adoulin.

In related news, Square Enix has launched their Software Token for account authentication when you log in to either Final Fantasy XI or Final Fantasy XIV. The app will provide you a string of numbers, a one-time authentication for your login to provide a dramatic increase in account security. If you have the physical security token, you’ll need to manage which one to use through your Square Enix Account, as you can’t use both at once.

Your smartphone must be iOS version 4.0 or higher, and Android version 2.2 or higher.

For more information including setup intructions, click here.

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Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin Out Today

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

Releasing on Windows PC and Xbox 360 today, Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin is the fifth expansion to Square Enix’s decade-long MMORPG saga. Take to the wilds of Ulbuka as a Geomancer or Rune Fencer, two brand-new jobs. Colonize Ulbuka by setting out from Adoulin to take on the various reive challenges to further your fellow pioneers’ progress.

Service for the expansion pack is scheduled to begin on the evening of March 27th, 2013 Pacific Time.

For those of you looking to buy the Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection -Seekers Edition- on Steam, which includes Seekers of Adoulin, the team updated the official site to say that it may not be available right away at launch. They are working quickly to bring the collection to Steam for fans to purchase as soon as possible. For developments, I recommend following the game’s official English twitter here.

To freshen up on the latest release information, refer to the links below or hit up our “Final Fantasy XI” section in our Coverage column to the right.

► Seekers of Adoulin Overview
► Sample the Seekers of Adoulin Soundtrack
► Live Preview with the Final Fantasy XI Community Team
► Seekers of Adoulin Preorder Incentives
► Final Fantasy XI+XIV Panel From PAX East

Will you be spending some quality time with Seekers of Adoulin this week? What are you most looking forward to playing in the new expansion? Leave us a comment with your thoughts below!

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Springtime Contests Come To FFXI + FFXIV

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

spring

Whether you’re a resident of Vana’diel or Eorzea, there’s still time to enter the Springtime Egg Decorating Contest being held by the Final Fantasy XI and XIV community team this month. If you’re unfamiliar with egg decorating, the team has put up instructions as to how you go about it, as well as the rules for submission. Check them out through the links below:

Final Fantasy XI — Springtime Egg Decoration Contest
Final Fantasy XIV — Eorzean Egg Decoration Contest

The deadline for entry ends: April 1, 2013 1:01 PST.

In related news, Square Enix will release a mobile authenticator app for your smartphone next month. Previously, the company has used press “tokens” to provide a string of numbers as an extra password — commonplace for companies with MMORPGs today. Through your Square Enix Account (when the feature goes live), you’ll have the ability to add an authenticator, which will prompt you the next time you log. This is an entirely optional feature, but speaking from experience as a player of several MMORPGs, it’s worth your time to look into!

Yoshi-P has also narrowed down the date his next Live Letter From the Producer Live: April 4, 2013 at 11:00 GMT.

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Final Fantasy XI+XIV Panel Live From PAX East

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

Join Square Enix North America’s Matt “Bayohne” Hilton, Morten Haugaard, and David Yang for the PAX East Final Fantasy XI+XIV panel, scheduled to begin on the top of the hour. The subject will include Square Enix’s two upcoming MMOs, especially the Seekers of Adoulin launch next week and A Realm Reborn this year. The team will be debuting some new art from the game, so stay tuned for surprises!

Final Fantasy Series 25th Anniversary
- Morten Thor Haugaard takes the stage!
- The panel begins with a retrospective of the numbered Final Fantasy titles.

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin
- Matt “Bayohne” Hilton takes the stage!
- A preface of Seekers of Adoulin, out next Tuesday.
- Matt outlines the Geomancer, a unit that relies on party buffs and debuffs through Geocolure and Indicolure spells.
- The Rune Fencer is next, a class that uses runes elemental resistances as a tool to tank for the party.
- The launch trailer for Seekers of Adoulin is shown. (You can watch the JP version here in the meantime.)

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
- Morten Haugaard takes the stage, thanking players for sticking with the game thusfar.
- A message from Yoshi-P is played live for the audience.
- Morten walks us through the story of A Realm Reborn.
- The three pillars of the story include the Primals, the Empire, and the Grand Companies. Beastmen summon the Primals (Eidolons) into Eorzea as they worship them as gods, but consume the planet’s aether (a kind of lifeforce tied to crystals) to do so. The Garlean Empire launches a ruthless invasion into Eorzea to put a stop to the beastmen. The Grand Companies (and Free Companies by extension) of Eorzea, of which the player character can ally, band together to fight the Empire. The story will revolve around the crystals as the “lifeblood” of the planet.
- The team is looking into incorporating many summons from the series as Primals in Final Fnatasy XIV.
- Morten explains the Armoury system, with different jobs like Warrior, White Mage, and Black Mage.
- The team shows off a new equipment set for a Disciple of Magic, and a chocobo(?) set of gear that looks hilarious.
- Airships and chocobos will be featured as a mode of transportation, the former will shuttle you between city-states.
- Chocobos will fight alongside you, and can be customized through their barding (armor). Chocobos will be able to tank, deal damage, or heal.
- Some Final Fantasy VII references (that are not hinted at yet) have yet to be revealed!
- Matt shows off the gamepad UI that will be implemented in beta phase 2, which will also work for the PS3 version.
- The benchmark trailer for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is shown. (You can watch that here.)
- Limit Breaks, a system where players can charge up a special meter in a party, will be fully revealed later.

Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD
- The trailer was censored on stream, but will go live on March 25th. More about the game here.

The panel concludes with a trivia session.

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Adoulin Preorder Includes Musicbox Adventures

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

xi

If you’re planning to pre-order the North American version of Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin, the fifth expansion to Vana’diel, consider ordering from the official Square Enix shop? Why? Pre-ordering from the shop will net you a special gift, an exclusive digital mini-album called Musicbox Adventures. This album includes five songs from Final Fantasy XI and is arranged by Naoshi Mizuta for a music box performance:

01 Vana’diel March
02 The Grand Duchy of Jeuno
03 Whispers of the Gods
04 Mog House
05 Arciela

You’ll be able to get Musicbox Adventures by pre-ordering Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin for PC or Xbox 360. If you’re planning to get caught up by pre-ordering the Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection -Seekers Edition-, which contains all of the expansions including Seekers of Adoulin, you will also get Musicbox Adventures as a pre-order gift. The Seekers Edition is also for PC and Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin will cost $29.99.
Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection -Seekers Edition- will cost $39.99.

To pre-order, check out each game on the North American Square Enix shop by clicking here.

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin will release on Tuesday, March 26th.

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Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin Live Preview

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Join Devin “Camate” Casadey and the Final Fantasy XI team as they stream the newest expansion to the game: Seekers of Adoulin. Starting at 8PM Pacific (on the hour), we’ll be treated to live gameplay of the new content, which will last “about an hour”. We’ll document any and all announcements and all the major sound bytes here in this post, so stay tuned!

Update: The stream has concluded. Check out our gallery below, and hover over the images for highlights! When the stream is made available, I will re-embed it into the post header. Enjoy!

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Seekers of Adoulin Streamed Live Wednesday

Monday, March 18th, 2013

Update: Due to technical reasons, the stream will begin at 11:00PM EST/8:00PM PST on Wednesday.

For those of you anticipating the release of Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin next week, the community folks at Square Enix North America will be streaming the game Wednesday to make the wait a little more bearable. Senior Community Planner Devin “Camate” Casadey and Community Manager Robert “Hvinire” Peeler took to the internet today to hype up the next expansion to the first Final Fantasy MMORPG.

Wednesday at 11:00PM EST, live from the BEHEMOTH room, you’re invited to get an early glimpse of Seekers of Adoulin and all the new content coming to Vana’diel. For a bit of a refresher course on Adoulin, hit up our Final Fantasy XI coverage by clicking here.

To catch the official stream, be sure to bookmark the stream page here.

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