In my last post I considered possible implications for the upcoming FFXI adjustments in general. With this post I thought I'd take a moment to briefly comment on the various specific changes themselves. There was an awful lot going on here that put Fanfest 2009 to shame.




-Missions:
As expected, new missions are on their way. The only thing worth noting here is the Shadow Lord's very Aht Urghanian looking ensemble. Perhaps this is suggestive of his probable origin from Odin and the Near East? Despite the tiresome feel of WotG, it's true the story is excellent showing off incredibly polished cutscenes.

-Campaign:
Castle Zvahl and its Keep will be opened allowing for campaign battles and new Ops. If the other Beastmen strongholds are any indication then this place will be deserted. The only way players will participate here is if the stronghold Ops rewards are outstanding. There are also new special Campaign weaponskills planned. Like most of the other recent WS' these will probably be hit and miss, or have some niche Campaign specific use. The Shadow Lord (S) Ops gear at least looks shiny and new, if only it has stats to match.



-Trial of the Magians:
Yet another "system" that won't be completed upon release. I've grown very weary of these deals so I'm not going to make any bets. But potentially it seems like this could be a useful outlet for enhancing player's beloved level 75 gear to be useful beyond its time.

-Job Adjustments:
In this round BST, SMN, and PUP are in order for improvements. I have no clue how to evaluate BST given such vague info, but it seems they're getting their routine bone thrown their way. The change to granting PUP an A level hand-to-hand rating is rocking the boat upsetting die-hard Monks. To that I say: there's plenty of room for both PUP and MNK to share the uselessness. At long last the two avatars were revealed to be Alexander and Odin. I'm sure I'll be accused of being whiny here, but I'm honestly pretty underwhelmed. Sure it's damned cool to be able to summon such badass FF classics, but in practice they seem to be little more than a slight tweak to Astral Flow. Once every two hours a SMN can protect their party from debuffs or deal AoE damage to enemies with a chance of missing. Meh. It's possible they could translate better into actual gameplay but I'm skeptical.



-Notorious Monsters:
This looks like a lot of potential fun more than anything. Giant crabs and slime HNM have been alarmingly absent these last 8 years. It's time for comeuppance.



-Server Merging:
A necessary step toward providing everyone with an active server. I'm only disappointed my server is not on the list. It could use some new players as generations of inbreeding has left Siren sterile of any literacy.



-Abyssea:
A new three part add-on series that will unfold from 2010-2011. Personally I was hoping for news of a new full fledged expansion and the familiar add-on fonts made me immediately roll my eyes. However given the rest of the potentially great changes planned this year I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now this can work. Notably this new series breaks away from the prior light-hearted themed story line bundles. Hopefully it also sets itself apart in that there's no self-flagellating fetch quests either. I'm not sure if I like the idea of having to pay to access high-level event content though.

Curiously the official site states that " The expansive realm of Abyssea will comprise several new areas which will be introduced over the course of three add-ons." Initially I was under the impression from the artwork that Abyssea would take place within the Walk of Echos. But this statement makes it sound like there are three counterpart areas involved. Could this mean that we might be seeing a brand new zone available for the first time unconnected to a full expansion? This piques my interest and could imply that this series is much more content rich than the past add-ons have allowed for.