My Last Treasure chapter 1 part 2 - The knight

My Last Treasure chapter 1 part 2 - The knight

*Crash*

Ugh! What in the world… Where am I? Ooooooowwwww……. My head hurts like crap…

Pain racked his entire body. At the moment, he felt oblivious of the fact that he is in a sack. As a knight, he had always put his life on the line to defend the weak. Most of the time he comes out of these fights bloody and unconscious, but always victorious. Tons of times he tries to change this… someone else always tries to take the credit for what he has done.

He tried to make sense of his surroundings and looked around. He found that some of the bandits have been beaten and a lone figure stands above all of them.

Ah, here we go again…. I guess, why would today be any different than before? So much for change. Why does this always happen to me… ooowww… my body hurts like crap… where did I put that medicine.

He felt like an utter failure. His mind, dejected. He covers everything up with random words but his heart, heavy as he watches the lone figure walking slowly to a cra leaning on a tree. The fog and the darkness hide his features fully but the cra is scared stiff. This must be a really strong iop.

That man will take credit. I have defended that town with my all and yet, I will never get any recognition. I will always be a low ranked knight of Astrub.

As he wallowed in despair, the clouds parted a bit that enabled him a glimpse of the savior. Fur. White wet fur covered in patches of blood. The cra spoke softly to the figure, probably asking for mercy or forgiveness. The figure spoke back yet from where he lays he can only hear low growls. The cra spoke again in retort, clearly they can understand. The furred figure raised his great clawed arm and swung it down hard. The cra spoke no more.

There was silence apart of course from the pitter patter of the rain. The figure stood staring far away to the east. After some time, he looked back to something tiny a few paces away from the knight. A small sobbing sound can be heard in the air.

A CHILD! And the monster moves closer to her!

He summoned all his strength and ripped through the eco fiber bag. He forced himself on his two legs and grabbed something from his small haven bag on his waist. From the mouth of the bag he pulled on a solid shaft. As he dashes to the child he withdrew his arm until the full length of the lance shows a full seven foot. He stood in front of the monster ready to act. He wields the lance on one hand as if it weighs nothing.  He slowly paces and puts himself in between the monster and the child.

“Halt friend, may we speak a while?”

The monster halted and slowly crouched, ready to spring.

What am I doing talking to a walking bag of fur? Friend? We haven’t even shared ale yet, ah… I am talking to myself again… am I that scared? Wait…

He then saw the tusks… this is not a boowolf, this is a man. An enutrof. Someone that can be reasoned with.

“Friend, were you the one that cut us lose? I see three of the children from the town I defended.”

He gestured towards the child and the fallen dragoturkey carrying two other ecofiber sacks. Curiously enough, the monster followed his hands looking to the children.

He has the capacity to think. He haven’t lost his mind to the primal nature of drhellzerkers. I can bring him back… but how? Oh shoot!

The drhellzerker shot up from the crouching position and led with a hard swipe. The knight manages to bring his lance up to block the blow.  It threw him a dozen paces though, too far away to defend the child. The monster roared and raised an arm against the girl.

“NO!”

The Astrub knight called upon the positive energies swarming around him, he threw the lance between the primal hunter and his prey and yanked on a chain of wakfu forming between his hand and the lance. He was pulled towards the lance and as he landed took to his knees and put the lance between the drhellzerker’s blow and his own body. He deflected the blow but placed himself out of balance to defend the oncoming follow up.  He was hoping for a swipe, maybe he can get in position to defend again after… It was an incoming stab.

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The child screamed as she saw death coming swiftly for the knight and herself. She closed her eyes and shuddered as she saw her parents’ demise in her mind, replaying over and over. She hardened and looked up to see a confused and surprised face on the monster.

The monster then put his hands on his face and changed back to his enutrof form.

“How could I have raised my hand against a child… I cannot keep this form… I will not lose myself again…”

The old man saw the child and showed a very pitiful expression.

“You are safe. The threat is done. You will be home soon.”

Despite being scared witless, the voice gave her refuge and she drifted back to unconsciousness…

A Gamer's soul: FFXIV ARR Chapter 2 part 2

Chapter 2 part 2

"Well you sure took your time. I've redone my hair a couple times already."

I heard a sudden outburst behind me. There stands a lalafel woman with her fists rested on her hips. Her head slightly tilted to her right as she sighs with an annoyed expression. Despite the attitude, I was surprised I don't feel cross. Instead, I felt my facial muscles pull a one-sided smile instead.

"Then you wake up and what? YOU FORGOT TO CALL ME! How am I to know you are back?"

She started to pace slowly back and forth and with a serious face started an 'I am telling you' gesture with her fingers wagging back and forth.

"Not to mention everyone has been waiting! We were supposed to meet an hour ago! Keep doing this and I am telling you, we will be replaced."

She stopped pacing in front of me and had both hands folded together.

"Be serious for once, Cocozan!"

The smile never left my face. I always piss her off yet she always stays with me. We have been together for a while too... I don’t know what I would be without her. She and I are alike. She jumps consciousness too. A soul jumper.

"Nice to see you too darling. Am I late?" I waved a hand in front of me in a gesture and pulled a list out of nowhere. I don’t know how such technology exists in eorza.

"See? Our guild leader is not even on yet. Where are Krono and Midgetpants?"

"Baking some food to recover spirit. Our mages and healers can’t seem to get enough money to pay for that themselves." She rolls her eyes and looked at me from head to toe.

"Why are you not dressed? Equip your proper gear, paladin!"

"Oh, shoot sorry! I remember we took a photo before and that was what I choose to wear."

With another gesture I pulled out a screen with my old gear and changed it to my paladin's raid gear. One by one my gear disappears and another reappears sometimes giving a glimpse of my smallclothes. No one ever seems to mind in this world... And it happens often for everyone.

I inspected myself and made sure I have all important things on; a full gleaming suit of white plate chestpiece, a crown, greaves, sabatons and gauntlets on top of a blue silk shirt and nice shiny mail underneath.

I changed my weapon and shield as well. Curtana, my sword is a white glowing one handed weapon while my shield is the hold shield of the paladins.

"This feels right. I am ready."

“You have your potions?”

“Yeah, got them. Let’s head to the meeting place.”

With her in tow, I started to teleport near the Coils of Bahamut.

FFXIV: Big Yellow Birds....of Eorza!

No, not the one in the kid's show sesame street. I am talking about CHOCOBOS!

Chocobos have been a staple on most installments of Final Fantasy not to mention starring in their own spinoff games (Chocobo's Dungeon, Chocobo Tales, etc). So it is of no surprise when we saw them running around in Eorzea in FFXIV v1.x as the official mount. Problem with that though is that they were depreciated by the spells teleport and return. Players have found very little use of these cute yellow aves.

A Realm Reborn gave our avian companion a new breath of life (so to speak) with lots of aesthetic armor and the ability for the birds to answer the call to adventure!

The Chocobos can now fight alongside its adventurer as a healer, tank, damage dealer or a free thinker. They can scratch, scrape, peck, kick, heal, tank or cast chocobo spells to help best the adventurer's quarry. They still, of course, serve as mounts to help us move around from a spot to another, so no, rest assured the game is not about chocobos...the name was not changed to Chocobo RPG: Battle the Primals.

As mounts...

When a player reaches level 10 they are allowed to visit the chocobo porters stationed in all the major camps and towns in the game. They will have preset locations that the chocobo will head to (auto drive :S ). You may, however, right click on the "chocobo-mounted" icon on the top of the screen to dismount at anytime. The chocobo will run away unfortunately, prematurely ending your ride. It is also possible to rent a free-running chocobo from the main towns but you will be limited to 10 minutes of riding time before the chocobo drops you and runs away.

After you have progressed enough in the main storyline (around level 21-ish) you will be inducted into one of the grand companies and will be allowed to purchase (using company points) a chocobo whistle to summon and mount your very own chocobo! These chocobos can be freely controlled and does not have a time limit.

Barding...

Leather barding

Uldahn barding

These grand company owned chocobos can be dressed by obtaining "bardings". Currently, you may purchase bardings by company points to dress them in company's colors.

At the most current release they only serve to please the eyes but in future releases, it is rumored they will have stat boosts for their masters.

The developers have also confirmed many other bardings to dress the chocobo at launch and in patches. (There is a behemoth barding rumour running around already)

As Companions...

Now, what does separate FFXIV Chocobos from other MMORPGs? It is the companion system. Once you are able to obtain a mount from the grand companies, you can speak with the wandering minstrel (right outside the grand companies' main office) and teach your chocobo to fight alongside you. Once taught, you may open your skills page and navigate to the "companions" tab and find a lot of skills added. These skills are shown below:



You can summon your chocobo by using a gyshal greens (which can be purchased in the main towns). This will add your named companion to your party (as shown in the very first picture). They cannot be manually controlled, though, you will be able to assign them to stances. This will give them set amount of gambits (ala FFXII) that they will follow to accomplish their role.

 Attacker Stance: This stance gives the chocobo a direct-damage role. It will scratch, peck and kick until the fight is over or until you assign a different task for it to follow.

Healer Stance: The chocobo will prioritize healing you (or itself) than it's other skills. It can also cast support magic as shown on the next image (chocosurge).

Your chocobo can also take a tanking stance and take damage for you. Very handy when you are a spellcaster or direct damage dealer. 

Or you can have them think for themselves via a free stance, healing when you are low, dealing damage when you're not.

You can also ask your chocobo to follow you around Eorza (though i would rather ride a chocobo than run around with one ;) ) or if you wish to take a break on your adventure you may ask your chocobo to withdraw.

Take note though, like all pets they thrive in incentive and what's more gratifiying for a chocobo than a gyshal greens? they would want one everytime you call upon them. Actually... its more like a bribe... since you cant summon them without one. XD

These big yellow birds had a lot of screen time in this installment of Final Fantasy. And I for one am very glad they did. See you next time! 

All company, product, system names and/or company logos and marks are the 
registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright (C) 2010 - 2013 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

FFXIV Leve Quests

 Final fantasy XIV 1.0 introduced a central hub style of questing. Instead of running around talking to NPCs and gathering quests, you simply talk to a single person in each main town. They will give you a certain number of quests a day, a la WoW dailies, which after you have completed will give you job experience and gil. "Very handy!" We say. "No more time wasted running around!" We added. Well yes, it would be... If that is not the main source of exp. Unfortunately, it is. There is also a limited amount of them and that they are very repetitive. In short, boring.

FFXIV:ARR took a different direction in getting precious exp (actually, a lot of different directions). You can do your main quest, job quest, side quests, FATEs (explained in an earlier blog post), Guildhest (will be explained later), dungeons and if that is not enough, you may still partake in 1.0's patented central-hub-style questing!


If you have decided that this type of leveling is your cup of tea, you may speak with any <Levemete> tagged NPC in either the three main towns or in the camps/villages all around the world. Those in the town will give all leve quests from level 1 to your current level in increments of 5-10 levels, whilst those in camps/villages will provide you with quests in the level range of the region where the camp resides.

You can accept up to the amount of allowances you have (replenishes by 4 every 12 hours to a maximum of 100) or to a maximum of 16 leves at a time.

The quest description, location and rewards are listed to the right so you can choose the leve quests with rewards or difficulty that interests you.

You can then run to the location of the levequests indicated by a red area on your minimap/map (press m or square). If you mouse over on all red areas in your map, it will inform you of the quest/leve it belongs to. Once within the area, open your journal and click "initiate".

Your progress and timer can be viewed on the Task list to the right of your screen. This will also inform of what you need to do to complete your quest. (if you remember FATEs, it looks exactly like it)
I noticed that if you enter a FATE while under a Leve, you will not see the FATE description to the right of the screen. I am unsure if you are contributing to the fate event then.



If you die while under a Leve, as long as you are saved in the same region, you may continue your quest without starting over. If you leave the region though the leve will fail and will penalizes you 1 leve allowance for every retry.

Once you have completed the task, you have the choice to run back and reap your rewards or continue questing and stay in the area.

Regardless of when you speak to the NPC again, all completed Leves will be rewarded with gil, exp and sometimes, an item or piece of equipment.

Instead of becoming your primary source of exp, these leve quests now allows us different avenues of leveling. get bored with one, there are always other ways to achieve your level 50. With all that explained, I will see you again next time!

-Yanyi

All company, product, system names and/or company logos and marks are the 
registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.

Copyright (C) 2010 - 2013 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

FFXIV FATEs: an explanation

Final Fantasy XIV beta boasts Full Active Time Events (FATEs)

Hi guys! Its Yanyi giving you insights on Final Fantasy XIV!

When FFXIV 1.0 came out, there was an awful big void to fill after you finish your daily leve quests. It also felt too monotonous just going from one main town to another asking for leves and completing them after. The development team of FFXIV have released a whole lot of content to fill-in the gaps on questing and going into dungeons in FFXIV. One of these would be Full Active Time Events or FATEs.

FATEs are dynamic quests appearing in the world without anyone activating them. They are not instanced for a group (like leve quests) nor are they first-claim-first-serve. They simply either pop up in your mini map or an NPC will start offering the FATE quest. Regardless, you can join them whenever you want(within a set amount of time that the FATE is occurring), in a group or solo. "Now wouldn't that make it too easy if there are a lot of people going for them?" you ask? No, it adjusts itself dynamically according to the number of people attempting the FATE. It ranges from killing all FATE enemies in the area, killing a Notorious Monster, gathering key items either on the floor or by killing a certain monster and giving it to an NPC, defending a town and keeping the inhabitants(NPCs) from being abducted, or if they were abducted, rescuing the said inhabitants. This makes FATEs a lot of fun to play through. It is, to simplify my description, "dynamic".

You will notice FATEs by looking at your mini map. FATEs will have a range indicator around a FATE icon and will give you the level range when you pass over it with the mouse. Once you go to the location, a prompt saying that you have joined the event will show up in the middle of the screen. You can then either join in or ignore the quest. Then again, how can anyone ignore a starving kid asking you to gather/fight cactuars for cacti meat? You don’t want to make them cry do you? well, do you?!? ahem, moving forward. If your level is too low, your contribution will not amount to much. If you are too high, there will be an icon on the mid-right of the screen called "level sync" this will remove some of your abilities to match what the level range is for the event. Allowing you to contribute and receive rewards on par with those within the level range. This will encourage everyone to simply go at it.

The objectives for a FATE event can be viewed on the mid-right of the screen right above the quest viewer. Since there won’t be an NPC to start the quest for you, this is the only way to know what you were supposed to do. Be warned, if it’s one of those quests where you need to turn in items to an NPC, if you simply keep killing and stock up the items, once the NPC have enough items, you cannot turn them in. Therefore, no contribution... no rewards T.T Healers will be happy to know that starting phase 3 of beta, healing will not add contribution as well. YEY healers!

Once a FATE event is done, you will be given a screen providing you with the spoils, usually in the form of gil and experience.