Moving right along! I've created two characters so far for the trial, but I'll likely only keep playing one. I decided to make my main a Tarutaru, the diminutive race which was designed to be the magic-users. It was a kind of tough choice, since I didn't really want to play as a kid-looking dude, but meh, it's growing on me. I moreso didn't want to play cross-gender right now, and the female-only Mithra was the only other class that interested me, so Tarutaru it was. I started as a BLM (the abbreviation of Black Mage), since I want to have some decent magic power to start with, and win battles at the same time. I think eventually I'll switch to RDM (Red Mage), and if I get that far I'll tack on /BLM (an abbreviation meaning Black Mage as sub-job; the full abbreviation would then be "RDM/BLM"). I'm not looking too far beyond my 14 days for now, so I may not pass the sub-job quest yet.
Starting out, I was given a little history of the Federation of Windurst, a wonderful land of trees and magic where small children and sexy catgirls live. Upon seeing my character, I was told by some NPCs that I should seek Selele for guidance, and the Gatehouse for missions, both at the eastern gate leading to Sarutabaruta. I also saw that I had a ring and a Stone magic scroll, so I equipped and/or learned each of those. Most of this first session was just spent speaking to NPCs and getting the feel of the city. This was partly because many of the PCs whom I met ignored me. Oh well, it was expected. One very helpful NPC told me all about elemental defense, and pointed out that many status ailments are associated with elements. For example, if I have Ice resistance, I'll be less susceptible to paralysis. This is something I would not have expected, and I'm glad I found that so early.
During my exploration of the town, I met a Porter Moogle who had a heck of a lot to say, and none of it very useful to me. During his long speech, a Hume (I think) player named Cordareo came along and cheered me on! I appreciated the nice gesture, and rushed through the remainder of the Porter's dialogue so I could greet him in return. After some fumbled attempts at chatting, I said hello and explained that I was new, and trying to figure things out. His reply was classic: "Well, this moogle is not for you sir." Not for me, indeed! At that time he invited me to join his party; at that time my son woke and began to cry, so I had to go. However, he stayed with my character long enough to leave a fair amount of info behind, going so far as to look up info and give me more precise directions to Selele. Speaking of that, I forgot to check out the Field Manual he told me about; I'll get it next time. So if you happen to read this, thank you Cordareo; you are exactly the kind of person I hoped I would meet on my adventure!
It wasn't too long after this that I was given my first task by Selele, to raise my Weapon Skill to 5. Doing this, of course, requires using my weapon. Which is a staff, because I'm a mage. So I began by simply fighting to raise my Level until I could survive better while using my staff. My first two battles: I killed a Tiny Mandragora, and then another Tiny Mandragora killed me while I was confused by the battle system. How about that, killed by a Slime. </DragonQuest> At least I didn't lose any EXP. What can I say? I tried to run away, and I didn't realize he was still chasing me when I stopped to heal! My thoughts on camping to heal: Too. Slow. 30-40 seconds wasted if you need to recover significantly, though I suppose it's better than draining all your gil into healing items. Speaking of those, treasure chests are pretty fun. If they are locked, you get several chances to try to determine the combination based on simple clues. It's not easy--I succeeded only once, out of three, maybe four locked chests--but it is interesting. And time-consuming. Also, if there are more than one item in the chest you have to acquire them individually; no "Get All" command in this game. Anyway, it wasn't long before I'd forgotten why I was fighting but reached Level 5 regardless. My thoughts on battles in FFXI: So far, they appear to move kind of slowly. though it did seem to pick a little once I realized where to pay attention for gauges and timers associated with spellcasting.
Sometime during all that--during the time between dying and leaving town again, no doubt--I found a place with a bunch of PCs all standing together. I commented that it was the most people I had seen together so far, but no one paid me any mind until a Tarutaru named Dyoko arrived and waved at me. I took the opportunity to ask about emotes, and received some more helpful advice. Thank you, Dyoko!
Well, that's about it. I went back out and raised my Weapon Skill to 5, got some stuff as a reward along with a new assignment, and sat down for a break. Final thoughts for this post: There has been extremely little story so far to make me feel like something is actually happening, but knowing the nature of the game, it can't help but have a slow start. I'll definitely continue to play through the trial period, and we'll see what happens by the end of that.
By the way, if anyone reading this happens to play on the Bismarck world, my name is Bartholomey, so go ahead and look me up! ^_^
| My Progress | |
|---|---|
| Level | BLM 5 |
| Total Time | 02:56 |
| Deaths | 1 |
No comments:
Post a Comment