Category Archives: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy XIV Lightning Strikes Chapters 2 + 3 Tutorial and Impressions

Leave it to the lady writing the tutorials to forget the actual dates the new chapters of the Lightning Strikes Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn event started! It feels like just as I was posting my impressions of chapter one, chapter two was going up, and before I knew it, chapter three was out, too! But since the formula of each chapter is pretty predictable, it makes sense to combine these two middle chapters into one. Yeah, that’s it, I was planning it all along…

Vega Knuckles 

First, here’s a shot of the Pugilist weapon that I got from chapter one of the event. They look pretty neat/massive, but as I mentioned in the last post, they’re too low level to be useful.

To participate in chapter two, players must complete the chapter one quest “For the Winsome” and be level 26 or above. The quest NPC for chapter two, “Seeking the Scoop,” is Dural Thural and can be found in Uldah, Steps of Nald (X:11, Y:8).

Looks like news of Lightning is spreading across Eorzea like a wildfire, and all the reporters want the best story! After accepting the quest, it’s off to Little Ala Mhigo in Southern Thanalan (X:21, Y:11) or Highbridge, Eastern Thanalan (X:28, Y:26). In both cases, the Lightning FATEs are unique to the event and will be titled “Lightning Strikes – Armored Beast.” 

I had the wonderful luck of forgetting that my inventory was full when I did the FATE, so I wasn’t able to receive the item the first time I completed it (for the record, the very first time the FATE spawned I was too busy trying to get screenshots to even participate). Since it takes a good 30 minutes for the FATEs to appear, I was rather grumpy at this revelation.

Luckily Mog had my back once again and got a really great screenshot of the beast in this FATE! But “Armored Beast,” really? Can’t we think of a cooler name? Anyway, I’m glad they brought in an enemy from the Final Fantasy XIII universe, as it makes things a bit more interesting.

After I went and got rid of some items in my inventory, I decided to hop over to Little Ala Mihgo to try the FATE there. The beast you fight is the same, but I love this shot I got of my baby imp minon with Lightning! It was fun to see people follow her as she waked away after the FATE was completed.

This time around, you only need the one Strange Otherworldly Parcel to complete the quest. Unfortunately, the chapter two parcels can not be redeemed for the weapons with the NPC who stands next to the chapter one quest-giver, which means folks who were hoping to accumulate parcels to trade for weapons over the course of the four event chapters will be out of luck. You can only get them from the chapter one FATE! 
And there’s my reward… Snow’s pants. 
As for chapter three, “The Knight’s Passage,” I ended up completing it in an extremely roundabout way. Since the level required is 38, and I was only 37 (after much grinding) when it started, I actually did the FATEs before accepting the quest itself! If you find yourself in the same position, I’m happy to report that you still obtain the required item from the completing the FATE even if you haven’t accepted the quest, so you can always go back and do the quest when you’ve reached level 38. 
For the folks who want to go about it the conventional way, you first need to speak with Kipih Jakka in Old Gridania (X:10, Y:8) to obtain the quest. As always, you’ll need to have completed all previous chapters before you can proceed. The FATEs themselves are located in the snowy land of Coerthas, near Whitebrim (X:15, Y:20 ) and The Weeping Saint (X:31, Y:7).
Chive and Lightning battling side by side! 
Here you’ll be faced with another boss battle with Lightning fighting by your side. I’m starting to sense a theme… This time, however, the enemy is a Clockwork Dreadnought in a FATE called “Lightning Strikes – Dead on Arrival.” As before, it’s the same FATE in both locations, and right now they’re going down extremely quick as everyone rushes to complete the quest, so it may be worth waiting near where they spawn so you can make sure you get a gold medal. 
This time around, you’ll be trading in a Simple Otherworldly Parcel in exchange for a pair of boots, meaning chapter four’s reward will (appropriately) be the final touch to your outfit, a dramatic Lightning or Snow coat. As I mentioned before, I ended up doing the FATE before accepting the quest, so all I had to do was talk to Kipih to accept the quest and then immediately talk to her again to turn in the item. After you do so, you’re treated to a short cutscene where Lightning shows up. Fully voiced, too! I gotta say, though, it looks like she’s lost a lot of weight… 
After his hard work was done, I took Chive to a resort to celebrate: 
Now, the fourth and final chapter of Lightning Strikes will start on the 20th, but there’s no way I’ll be at the required level 45 by then. If I’m lucky, I’ll make it with time to spare before the December 9th deadline! Here’s hoping the finale is a little more exciting, as sitting around waiting for the Lightning FATEs to spawn hasn’t been the best time I’ve spent with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn so far. I did luck out with chapter three, though, since I was able to complete the FATEs while I was leveling.  
If you don’t manage to hit 45 before the 9th, there will be a chance to complete the chapter when the event relaunches in February to celebrate the western release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. I gotta say, though, I’d like to be one of the cool kids who completes it early… Wouldn’t you? 

Final Fantasy XIV Lightning Strikes Chapter 1 Tutorial and Impressions

It’s high time I went back to my Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn coverage, wouldn’t you agree? Last I spoke of the game was on episode six of Chic Pixel Plus, and though I was loving the experience, I wasn’t sure if I’d go all in for the full three month subscription. Well, I’m happy to report that I did (my wallet is less happy), and I play it nearly every day! As a first-timer when it comes to MMOs, I find the allure of seasonal/special events very strong, regardless of how cheesy they might be. Luckily for me, FFXIV is already on its 3rd special event since its official launch, this time commemorating the impending Japanese release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

The special event, called Lightning Strikes (I see what you did there, Square Enix), finds Final Fantasy XIII‘s Lightning spirited away to the world of Eorzea for reasons unknown. The first chapter, For the Winsome, released on Thursday, November 14th, and rewards those who complete it with a set of gloves modeled after either Lightning’s or Snow’s, depending on the gender of your character. That means Chive wound up with the Bohemian’s Gloves, even though Snow himself doesn’t actually appear anywhere.

To initiate the quest, players must make their way to an NPC named Petyr Winsome, located at the Lower Decks of Limsa Limonsa (X:9, Y:12). Luckily, for the first chapter, players only need to be level 12, but subsequent quests will have increasing level requirements, culminating in level 45 for chapter four.

So, who’s this Winsome fellow? Let’s take a closer look…

Apparently he’s a reporter looking to gather information about a mysterious traveller from another world (Lightning, of course). Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to… find and observe her, really.

As an added touch, the “quest accepted” font is actually the font from Final Fantasy XIII! I didn’t get a screenshot of that, but we’ll see it again later on.

After accepting the quest, you need to go find Lightning in a FATE (Full Active Time Event). She appears in two: Sister Crustacean (Middle La Noscea, X:16, Y:12) and Tender Buttons (Western La Noscea, X:32, Y: 28). Both of these FATEs already appeared in the game before the Lightning Strikes event, and Lightning only shows up every other time the FATEs spawn, which averages out to be approximately once every 30 minutes. I ended up going for the Tender Buttons FATE because you get to fight a giant Dodo (Sister Crustacean is a giant crab battle, so whatever floats your boat).

As you can see, there were a lot of folks eager to participate in the event! It’s clear when Lightning is present, as the music will change to the Final Fantasy XIII battle theme (very cool), and she’ll say a few lines of dialogue. Many thanks to Mog for taking these screenshots, as I wasn’t able to actually see Lightning on the PS3 with so many other players running around.

Dead Dodo!
Completing the quest with a silver medal will net you one Other Worldly Parcel, while a gold medal will reward you with two. If you want to collect all the different event weapons, you’ll need to stick around and do the FATE a few times to collect more Other Worldly Parcels, as one will be given to Petyr Winsome to complete the quest and any extras can be used to purchase the weapons. To complete the quest and get all the weapons, you’ll need 9 Other Worldly Parcels total. 
The Final Fantasy XIII font lets you know you’ve done the right FATE

Lightning will stick around to exchange a few words after the FATE is completed. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see her – unfortunately for me, things were so crazy I never got to actually see her in my game! I’m sure it’s just unusually crowded since it’s the first couple days of the event.

After heading back to Petyr in Limsa Limonsa and handing him an Other Worldly Parcel, you’ll be gifted with either the Guardian Corps Gauntlets or the Bohemian’s Gloves. You’ve just completed the first step towards a full Lightning or Snow cosplay! Unfortunately, if you’re a higher level, the gloves themselves are pretty useless since they’re only level 13. In fact, all of the subsequent items in the event are level 13, which is a bit of a shame.

Now, if you have any extra Other Worldly Parcels, you can head over to… er… Syngiwyb to exchange them for whichever weapons you want (she’s standing right next to Petyr, you can’t miss her). You won’t be able to move these out of your inventory, so unless you’re a big collector you may not want to go for every single weapon.

Interestingly, the official website states that by completing Chapter 1, players will gain access to a new hairstyle (presumably Lightning or Snows’s) in patch 2.1. This isn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the quest, though… Here’s a shot of the full outfits obtainable in the event, including the hairstyles:

And there you have it! That’s the end of chapter one of Lightning Strikes. Chapter 2 will be available from Saturday, November 16th at 12:00 am PST in Uldah, and you’ll need to be level 26 or above to participate. All of the chapters will be available until the event ends on December 9th, and the whole event will occur again in February alongside the English release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. You can find the full details on the official website.

All in all, this event so far has been rather tedious. I couldn’t stand to just get one of the weapons, so I waited around for the FATE to respawn so I could get at least 5 packages… and it takes quite a while! It seems like rather poor planning on Square Enix’s part to have Lightning appear every other time. And why couldn’t they make a unique FATE just for the event? I imagine we’ll see that as the event goes on, though, especially with that Final Fantasy XIII-esque beastie pictured in the promotional screenshot at the top of this post. My other nitpick is it’s odd to have items designed after Snow be the reward for male characters, but he doesn’t seem to actually appear anywhere in the event. Hopefully he’ll show up to fight alongside Lightning later on…

If I’d been smart, I’d have taken shots of Chive with some of the weapons from the event! I’ll add those to the Chapter 2 post on Sunday if anyone is interested. Even though it’s tedious, there’s no way I won’t try to get every item available! Now let’s see if I can get to level 45 before December 9th…

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn just launched and I’m already addicted

First, I should qualify that statement with the fact that not only did I participate in the phase four beta weekend, but I also put in some time during the early access period before today’s official launch, so it’s not like I just started yesterday! Of course, that probably makes me sound even crazier, especially since when I mentioned Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn on the other day’s podcast, it had only just piqued my interest. Well, all I can say is that a lot has happened since then!

This isn’t my first time playing an online game – long-time readers will recall that I had a brief stint with Phantasy Star Online 2 last year, but Final Fantasy XIV is much more of a traditional MMO in that you’re with hundreds, if not thousands, of players at the same time. I won’t delve far into the gameplay and systems because frankly, I don’t really know much beyond what I’ve played so far (approximately 10 hours), but I’ve heard it’s similar structurally to World of Warcraft. 

The first thing that drew me to FFXIV was its amazing art direction. In fact, I love the art so much that I immediately went and downloaded the PS3 theme as soon as I knew it was available. I hate to be superficial, but when a game’s art captures my heart, that can often be enough to make me want to give it a go. Since FFXIV had a free open beta weekend before the full launch, that’s exactly what I did!

Especially fun for the open beta weekend was the fact that people could choose to try the game out on both the PC and PS3, as normally players have to purchase both versions separately. I gave both a go, and while the PS3 version was competent (and ultimately the one I went with for logistical reasons), I can see why most MMO gaming is done on the PC. Unfortunately my PC isn’t much of a powerhouse, so I couldn’t get any real high quality screenshots, but even on a low-quality system the game looks very nice, which can again be chalked up to the great art direction. All of the pictures in this post, by the way, were taking on said PC during the open beta weekend.

Can’t have a Final Fantasy game without Moogles!

Of course, one of the most fun aspects of an MMO is creating your own character. As soon as I heard about the different races available in FFXIV, I knew I wanted to be a male Miqo’te. As you can see, the Miqo’te are blessed with some very neat cat-like characteristics, making them a popular choice for the catgirl-loving crowd in particular. My suave catboy is named Chive Thistlewood, continuing my trend of naming my characters after food. Here’s my full character card courtesy of Firestream.net:

For a starting class, I chose pugilist, which means Chive specializes in hand-to-hand combat. For a quick comparison, think Yuffie from Final Fantasy VII. From a gameplay perspective, I’m much more interested in getting in close and hacking away at enemies than I am at hanging back and dealing ranged damage or shooting fireballs, so it seemed like a good place to start. The great thing about Final Fantasy XIV, though, is that you can change your class at a drop of a hat by equipping a different weapon, so if I ever get tired of being a pugilist, a new class is just a click away! There are also a variety of non-combat classes such as fishing or mining, but I’ve decided that appearance is everything, so I’m working on leveling up my weaver class so I can outfit Chive in the best threads in town!

Race ya!

Suffice it to say, after playing just a few hours over the open beta weekend, I was hooked. I immediately went out and preordered the PS3 version in order to get an early access code (which meant I could start playing a few days before the official launch). Unfortunately, by the time I had committed myself to purchasing the game, the North American version of the amazing collector’s edition was all sold out, so I settled for the regular version… and then proceeded to scour the internet for stores selling the collector’s edition like the hopelessly obsessed woman I’ve become. Lo and behold, I managed to nab a European PAL copy, and should be coming in the mail in a few days! I’ll definitely do a post sharing that when it arrives.

What’s a Final Fantasy game without Chocobos?

Unfortunately, the game’s early access and official launch yesterday have been marred with issues that plague all MMO releases: login errors and overcrowded servers. I personally haven’t had many issues logging in until today, but I’ve been amazed to hear that some folks weren’t able to sign in at all during the early access, or that people literally can’t create characters on the servers they want because they’re full. Since none of this as been a major issue for me, it hasn’t significantly impacted my impressions of the game, but it’s worth noting for those reading this who are thinking of jumping on board.

If you asked me a month ago, I would’ve never thought Final Fantasy XIV would be my cup of tea. Now, I practically eat, drink, and sleep FFXIV! Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but it’s safe to say that this is the first Final Fantasy that has grabbed me in a number of years. I hope Chive and I have many more months, and maybe even years, of adventuring ahead of us!