Distant Worlds: Let's Play FF XI

Welcome to the first episode of my pseudo let's play of Final Fantasy XI.  As to why this is a "pseudo" let's play and a few other details, see my previous post.  Today is going to be mostly some background information and setting the stage, so let's get to it.

What is Final Fantasy XI?

As one might surmise from the name, FF XI is the eleventh entry in the long running Final Fantasy series.  What might not be obvious from the name alone isthat FF XI was the first online entry in the series, making it fairly different from most of the rest of the series.  It was originally released in Japan in 2002 and for PC in North America 2003.  This would later be followed by a North American PS2 release, official European releases and an XBox 360 version.  One of the unique aspects of FF XI is that all players played on the same pool of servers regardless of platform or region in which they lived.

FF XI was released whilst Everquest was basically the pre-eminent MMO of the day.  In its height, FF XI boasted around 500 000 players which made it one of the larger MMOs of its time (see the second chart here).  One could make the argument that FF XI was the last (or one of the last) successful pre-Warcraft MMOs.  But that's something that is perhaps best left to the historians.  For now, let's look at getting started...

In Character

The first thing one does in an MMO (and in many RPGs for that matter) is create a character.  But I suspect you already knew that.  Character creation in FF XI is, actually, kind of anemic compared even to other things of its time (to my knowledge, anyway.)  Whilst I can only speculate as to why, I suggest the two following reasons:  FF games, in general, don't place much emphasis on visual customization of characters, so Square-Enic (henceforth SE) was somewhat inexperienced in this matter, and PS2 limitations.  Speaking of which, this seems like a good time to comment on one of the larger monkies on FF XI's back.

PS2 Limitations.  FF XI was (perhaps still is) tethered to the PS2.  While it was a decent enough system for it's time, it has a number of limitations compared to more upgradable systems like the PC, most notably (I think) it's limited memory.  It became somewhat of a joke among the players that "PS2 Limitations" prevented any number of things from being added to the game.  Regardless, things did well enough, technical limitations aside.

Anywho...  the first part of character creation is picking a race of which FF XI provides five choices:

FF XI Races from left to righ:  Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Galka, Mithra

Humes.  These are basically your boring old humans.  They're the most balanced, in terms of stats.  Nobody invites them to parties because they're boring.

The majestic Elvaan - er, Dhalmel.

Elvaans.  These are, in theory, FF XI's version of elves, if elves were tall, awkward and gangly with long necks.  Players sometimes called them "Dhalmel necks" after giraffe-like monsters in-game.  Elvaan stats skew them towards melee fighters with high HP and low MP.

Tarutaru.  The littlefolk of FF XI.  Many of them have names that rhyme or containing repeated syllables, many also have various speech affectations, presumably because someone thought it would be cutaru.  Tarutaru are skewed towards mages, particularly the kind that blow things up, having the highest MP but lowest MP.  Fun fact:  the name Tarutaru apparently comes from the Japanese pronunciation of Tartar sauce.

Galka.  These are big, hulking meat bags.  Technically, they are genderless though they are typically referred to in-game using male pronouns.  Galka supposedly reproduce via some sort of cycle of reincarnation, but how that would actually work is a mystery.  At any rate, Galka have the highest HP and lowest MP and are skewed to wards being tanky.

Mithra.  These are a race of cat-people and are therefore the best, because cats.  Male mithra are rare and thus are kept at home as breeders so only the females go out adventuring.  This means only female mithra are actually playable.  Mithra are probably the second most balanced after humes, being skewed towards dexterity.

Job Search

After picking a race, one picks a starting job.  Being a Final Fantasy game, characters can switch jobs (and unlock new ones) later, but to start, one can pick one of six jobs.  These jobs are the six classic FF jobs that first appeared in FFI.  I won't go into much detail here, but here is a quick run down:

Warrior - wears heavy armour and can use a wide variety of weapons, but focuses on axes and great axes.  At low levels can serve as a tank in a pinch, but is mostly a melee damage dealer.

Monk - wears light armour, uses hand-to-hand weapons and likes to punch things in the face.  Or whatever the passes for the monster's face.  Monks are pretty uncomplicated.

Thief - uses daggers and stabs things in the back.  Also steals things because shinies.  A melee class that does spike damage and can help control enmity/hate/agro levels.

White Mage - the classic Final Fantasy healer.  They keep everyone alive and ticking.  They also cast Holy.  Holyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Black Mage - they cast the spells that make the people fall down.

Red Mage - supposedly a hybrid melee/mage that can cast white and black magic, but in practice ended up being mostly a support/healer.  I could go on at great length about the short comings of red mages as implemented in FF XI, but I'll spare you all the rant (for now.)

Place Mats

The world of FF XI is called Vana'diel and the last thing the player selects when creating a character is one of three starting cities.  These are:

San d'Oria

The Kingdom of San d'Oria.  A castle town at the north end of the Ronfaure forest, the kingdom is primarily inhabited by Elvaans.  San d'Orians are a somewhat xenophobic bunch and, oddly enough, have french inspired names and have a religion headed by a strangely pope-like figure.  I do not judge, I merely report.  San d'Oria is at odds with the reptile-like Orcs.

Fireworks in Bastok

The Republic of Bastok.  Affectionately refered to as "Lastok," the Republic is an industrial mining town in the Gustaberg region which is the least visually of all of the starter regions owing to basically being a blasted wasteland.  Bastok is home to predominantly Hume and Galka populations.  The local beastmen are the turtle-like Quadav.

Cherry trees in Windurst

The Federation of Windurst.  Located at the southern end of othe Sarutabaruta savannahs, Windurst is home to the Tarutaru and Mithra and is, therefor, the best (owing to the Mithra, not the easily puntable, bite-sized Tarutaru.)  The Federation has an uneasy peace with the bird-like Yagudo.






Guide Lines

And this brings us almost to the end of our inaugural episode.  Before we go, lets meet the tour guides for this Let's Play.

Mirayrl was my main character and will (I expect) serve as the primary guide for the Let's Play, but Beruthiel will likely show up from time to time.


I'm going to try to keep these generally less wordy than this post and hope to push through at a steady rate.  Next time, the plan is to cover levels 1-30 of one of the starting nation storyline.  If anyone is still reading and has a preference, should I start with Windurst, Bastok or San d'Oria?

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Let's Something

So... no Word Smith page this week.  (Episode 8's off to a great start, ne?)  This is partly because I one panel is being a little more difficult than usual, partly because I haven't been quite as diligent with things as I could have been and partly due to fine tuning dialogue and related things.  In the end I decided not to rush things and just push the page back to next week.  However, this post isn't just to say how lazy I am or to waste time when I could be doing something more productive, no, I also wanted to make an...

ANNOUNCEMENT!

In addition to my (semi-)regular Word Smith updates, I am going to start a pseudo-let's play of Final Fantasy XI and wanted to get some of the preamble out of the way.

What's a "Let's Play"?

For those who might not be familiar with the concept, a Let's Play is a thing where someone plays through a game and posts about it in some form.  The Let's Plays that I peruse are primarily presented on forums using screenshots and various commentaries.  Depending on the person doing the Let's Play and on the game being played, sometimes reader's are asked to vote on how to progress through the game.

Why is this a "pseudo" Let's Play?

Well...  that's because I'm not currently playing Final Fantasy XI.  See, FF XI is an MMO and, while I played it for a while, I'm not currently subscribed to it and have no plans to restart.  Thus, I will be relying on my collection of screenshots for the Let's Play, supplementing it with outside sources as necessary.  It also means that there won't really be any reader interaction in deciding how I proceed, other than maybe voting on the order in which I cover certain things.  Anyone who is interested should still feel free to ask (relevant) questions in the comments and I shall do my best to answer.

I am also quite happy to talk to myself on the interwebs if there are no comments/questions.

If you're not currently playing it then why bother?

Because I feel like it.  Also, I'm considering this to be part of my tongue-in-cheek recaps of each final fantasy game.  As FF XI is different from most other FFs, I thought I'd do the recap in a slightly different manner.  This also means that the tone of the Let's Play is likely going to often lean towards the sarcastic/snarky side of things.  But we'll see how things play out.

So how is this going to work?

I plan to make one post a week until I'm through all of the major storylines in FF XI and I will try to make the first post this weekend.  I may talk a bit about game mechanics and other non-story stuff as I progress, depending on feedback.  So I guess my first question to anyone who's interested is:  how much detail should I include?

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Irony: Good for the Blood and Keeps Your Clothes Wrinkle Free!

What is this?  Can it be?  I think, perhaps, it is...  That's right, the title page for the eighth episode of The Word Smith is live on the internets!  Now quick, put it back in its bottle before it makes a mess of things.

I'm hoping to get back to my one page per week schedule (more-or-less, anyway) though it's always possible that I'll miss a week here and there.  Stay tuned to find out!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

This Space Unintentionally Left Blank

It seems like I probably fail at blogging, not that the internet cares.  Regardless, the gap betwixt posts has been longer than intended.  Not that I've had much to blog about, but whatever...

Anywho, the only real purpose of making this post is to indicate that there is a new interlude for The Word Smith in the usual place.  I am aiming to start posting episode 8 sometime in the next couple of weeks.  The script is (more-or-less) done and thumbnails are coming along.  I just have to set aside time to start drawing the actual pages.

And with that,

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Year of the Freak

NARF!!

Unfaq Vol 4

And welcome to episode 7's edition of "questions nobody cared about in the first place," or, "unfaq."  I consider these to be a sort of "post-mortem" for the episode so let's get on with the rambling.

Episode 7 - Revenge of the Waitress

So you might ask, "who is this waitress and what's up with her?"  She was a minor character from episode 1 - a waitress, as you might expect, and certainly not a Sith Lord - who worked at the Street Meet Cafe.  The Word Smith kind of trashed the cafe a bit and now she's out for revenge, more-or-less.  I don't recall why I decided to bring her back, I suppose I wanted to tie back to the first episode at some point.  Some may also recall the waitress from an interlude during episode 6.

I did a number of design sketches when working out the title page:

From the looks of it, I more-or-less went with the first sketch (upper left) though I used a different pose.

If you ever asked yourself "where exactly does The Word Smith take place?" this episode should make it fairly ambiguous.  Page 1 starts off with an exterior shot of the PAC at the University of Waterloo, page 3 shows an interior shot (technically the fencing scenes are also interior shots though I wasn't working from any specific reference photos for those) and Waterloo Town Square forms the backdrop for pages 5 and onward (minus the flashback page.)

In this episode we also finally get to see The Pen in action for a fencing match, even though she was first implied to be a fencer way back at the start of episode 2 (some fencing periphenalia is also visible in her room in episode 4).

On pages 1 and 3 we can see what I referred to as "the cheering squad."  They're basically a few friends of The Pen who, at this point, don't have actual names.  I did a couple of design sketches for them:

Page 2 is the first of two flashbacks, this one showing some of the events of episode 1 from the perspective of the waitress.  Once again we see a pair of hitodama floating above the waitress in the final panel - these are things one sees periodically in anime and manga.  The "memory cam" thing is meant to indicate that we're seeing things from the waitress' point of view and that the recollections might not be 100% accurate.

On the first panel of page 5 we see the business woman and her daughter who have shown up periodically through the comic (we haven't seen them for a few episodes).

Random trivia:  the combination of the waitress' "Prepare to be served!" on the first panel of page 6 and her Tray Volley attack makes me think she might play volley ball.

And speaking of page 6, one might notice that I drew in the whites of the waitress' eyes on that page which isn't something I've typically done (at least not since episode 3 probably, I think...)  I decided to not bother with that on subsequent pages.  The only one who routinely gets the whites of his eyes coloured is The Word Smith, and even then only when he's wearing his mask.

Page 8 is the second flashback shown partly from the point of view of a shadowy figure who has been seen before.  The sequence in the middle tier was meant to be similar to that at the end of episode 3.  Dun, dun dun.  Things might be afoot.

The cheque that The Word Smith is writing at the bottom of the page is presumably to cover (at least some of) the damage he caused.  This is meant to (hopefully) make him seem a bit less of an ass, especially since insisting that The Pen leave her tournament (as he did in this episode) is rather jerky.  I think he's a well meaning individual, he just gets rather hyper-focused on language related issues at times.  I had a bird fly off with the cheque because, well, it amused me.

And that brings us to the final page!  Nothing too much to say here as it's  just wrapping things up for the episode.  The waitress realizes she didn't really care about that lousy job after all and she and The Pen call a truce while The Word Smith continues to do his own thing.

Anywho, that's all for this episode's unfaq.  As mentioned previously, episode 8 will mostly like start sometime in January so in the mean time,

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Jupiter Power

I was going to write up the episode 7 unfaq today, but I was skimming my sketchbook this morning and realized that there were some design sketches that would be good to incorporate into the unfaq.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to scan them in this morning so instead I'll post the unfaq tomorrow or maybe later tonight (probably tomorrow.)  Instead, today I'm posting an interlude.  Here is the sketchbook version:

Whilst it is a bit late for Hallowe'en, here we have The Pen cosplaying as Sailor Jupiter.  You can tell it's Sailor Jupiter because of her choice of footwear, or by looking at the colour version.  I suspect that The Pen would be more likely to cosplay as Malie C, if she were to dress up as one of the Senshi, it would be Sailor Jupiter because she is clearly the most awesome one.

Anyway, that is all until tomorrow's unfaq.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Run for the Finish

Could it be?  The final page of episode 7 of The Word Smith is now online, which sees another page completed in just one week!  This just goes to show that I can get a page done a week when I try and don't actually procrastinate too much.

As mentioned previously, The Word Smith will be on hiatus until the new year, resuming sometime in January, or possibly February, depending on how busy I am in January.  There may be some interludes in the interim, but I am not promising anything.

I am still planning to post stuff in this blog from time to time in the interim.  The episode 7 unfaq will be next week and the week after that I may wax philisophical about this PhD thing I'm currently embroiled in.  After that, who knows!

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Turn Around

Wow!  It's only been a week since my last post!  It seems I can get these things done in a week if I don't procrastinate too much.  What this means is that the Penultimate page of episode 7 of The Word Smith is available in the usual place.  At this rate, I may even have the final page of the episode up by this time next week.  Here's hoping, anyway.

And that is all for the moment, it would seem.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

A Bunch of Words

Page 7 of episode 7 of The Word Smith is finally up in its rightful place.  The page took longer than I'd intended and I have no excuse - it sat sitting mostly finished for a couple of weeks whilst I was distracted by other things and/or lazy.  I wonder if I'm getting project fatigue... 

Anywho, there are only two pages left in episode 7 and I'm hoping to get them both done relatively quickly - by early November at the latest, with any luck.  After that, The Word Smith will probably go on hiatus for a little bit.  Partly so that I can recharge my batteries, partly because I'm expecting to need to devote a bit more time than usual to school stuff and partly because the holidays will be coming up quickly at that point.  But, we'll see when we get there.

And for now, that is that.

Freak Out,
-TFitC