The 2010 FFXI Vanafest announced a new trilogy of add-ons to expect throughout the year. Vision, Scars, and Heroes of Abyssea. This series appears to be completely different from the last year's add-on trilogy. Where ACP, MDK, and ASA focused on a story wrapped around quests ranging from levels 20~75, Abyssea indicates it will focus on challenging high-level events. Given that the "quest" add-ons were generally scorned, this new approach is a welcome change and gives me high hopes for its success.

Here's what little info on Abyssea we've got so far. From the Vanafest site:

Abyssea is a parallel world existing beside Vana'diel. A land fraught with perils, Abyssea is home to savage hordes of heretofore unseen creatures. Ferocious, towering NMs, new-look HNMs—even the garden varieties will confound would-be challengers with their unfamiliar and formidable powers. These and a whole host more await hapless adventurers with open arms and voracious maws.

In Abyssea, concerns such as the over-population of battle areas and the need for large time investments will be a thing of the past. The development team is hard at work creating a world where parties can engage in rewarding battles with powerful foes and collect prized equipment with the least of fuss. The expansive realm of Abyssea will comprise several new areas which will be introduced over the course of three add-ons.

Not included in this info is the fact that Abyssea includes the debut of AF3 equipment. A new line of AF, new areas, and a focus on level 75 gameplay could make this a potentially great series capable of vindicating the term "add-on".

It's also interesting to consider how Abyssea fits into the fictional world of the game itself. (Mild Wings of the Goddess spoilers follow) If you've been keeping up with your Wings of the Goddess missions (you're keeping up yeh?) you know that the plot centers around Atomos creating a bridge between two alternate versions of Vanadiel. We're all familiar with the our universe where the Allied Forces won the war and the Age of Adventurers has lead to relative peace. In Wings however, we learn that there is a second universe where the Allied Forces lost the war leading to the four nations complete downfall. This second universe is probably Abyssea. (Not to be confused with Dynamis which is a kind of dream Diabolos created to escape into)

If this is the case I sincerely hope the "new areas" don't simply turn out to be yet another version of the four nations. It's one thing when enemies or equipment gets re-skinned, but when a whole zone is repurposed it's dejecting. To date we've got the standard present versions of each city, then the dream-world Dynamis versions, and now their past equivalents as well. A fourth second universe of a dystopian Windurst (e.g. "Windurst Waters_(A)") would be transparently lazy and come off as a Dynamis rip-off.

The last year of Wings content has been full of mediocrity and qualifications. Here's to hoping Abyssea brings about some fresh new ideas and fun gameplay. We'll find out in June.