Red Mage Rules

*I’ve had this post saved for a long time so i thought id finally publish it*

WotG is great so far, and that mainly comes from Campaign doesnt it? Understandable, its just out so theres no story yet.

“With Aht Urghan remember when your first stepped into the city? All those NPCs dressed in gear you’d never laid eyes on. Then in the Thickets or the Woodlands, such odd and higgel-de-piggel-ee pathways. Remember your first time seeing the array of colours offered by the dense woodland? Remember seeing that first Aht Urhgan Attercop and thinking ‘ZOMG! that spiders yellow!’ and was that a pink bird with a massive beek you just saw go by? Remember that.”

WotG:

In previous expansions they’ve had to make all the areas from scratch, but in WotG they have a template as nearly all the zones have allready been made. I’d assume this would greatly reduce the work load as most of the textures etc are already made. Because of this you’d expect the zones to be rich in alterations and differences yea? Natural zones should basically be the same, nature generally doesnt alter that much in 20 years, but zones where humans (tarus, galkas, elvaan and taru >.>) have had input should be pretty radically different. Just a normal city will alter alot over 20 years, never mind if a world war has past. 

Windy, from what i’ve read, was totally leveled during the war, i thought id see a radically different windy, in its former glory, not the  Windy we’re used too. The windy we know was rebuilt in the post-war chaos from quick materials like rope and wood so people had somewhere to live. Yet present day windy has much the same layout as the old windy and looks pretty much the same. Taking WWII for example, the city areas that were leveled to the ground weren’t built to look like they did before, you take the opportunity as a clean slate and improve on the layout that was there before, and if not that atleast the architecture would be different. 20 years has past, styles change!  The lack of difference takes abit of the games realism away for me and seems lazy.

Also in Natural zones, while the layout shouldn’t change, foliage should. I know theyve added alot of plants and grass in the past, which doesnt seem to reallymake sense, why would these all die out after the war? It should be the reverse, they wouldn’t be there during the war as troops would have trampled on them. Also, say in Rollenberry, there are tall trees that run all the way along the central path, 20 years ago i expected to see these as little saplings, planted just before the war broke out when the people had time to care about making Rollenberry look pretty, but in the past theyre the same size as 20 years in the future.

Gustaberg is another thing that annoys me, as ive said before theres the whole ramp to the top of N. Gusta, but also Gusta has alot of fortifications in the past. As the great war only lasted just over a year, and id assume the expansion is set about 6 Months into it, they sure do build fast. But 20 years in the future theres no sign whatsoever of these forts all over Gusta. why? The Quadov blew up every single one of them up during the war and made sure the ground was perfectly level with no evidence of the fort whatsoever? I cant really see a reason why Bastok would disassemble them all.(i hope they say that these forts were left over from Elvaan/Hume wars, and when the Great war ended and all nations were allied, as a sign of faith each nation disassembled their forts). Also Bastok has a supplies entrance that you use to get through to Gusta (which again disappears without a trace,) yet in Gusta the path thats been eroded by people walking it, seems to ignore that this entrance exists :/ little things like that really bug me.

Also, why the hell are aht Urghan mobs all over the Middle lands 20 years ago? Walking out into the Thickets in Ahty is great, so many unique mobs make u feel like your really are in another place. Nearly all the mobs in Ahty are unique in style or colour from the mainland – giving FFXI a realistic feeling. Ahty with its Colabri is like Australia is with its kangaroos, so isolated that evolution took a different course.

WotG pops up tho… and Colabri in Ronfaure? riiite….  numerous other mobs from Ahty are reused in WotG zones too. Not only does this make WotG seem lazy but it also takes away something from Aht Urghan as the mob are no longer unique to that side of Vanadiel.

NPCs are another issue. Fashion! It exists! According to FFXI we should be wearing clothes from the 80s/90s  though because fashion actually doesn’t change at all in 20 years. NPCs in the past wear gear that exists 20 years in the future bar 2 armour sets. Again to refer to Ahty, nearly all the NPCs have new, exotic gear to make you feel like you are in a different place.

Idk, am thinking this through too much? Vanadiel is a very tangible world, with lots of history, and when diving deeper into that history great care should have been taken. This expansion pack ignores the geography of the land and the people in it, making it seem like no thought has gone into it! 

Personally i think they’ve been lazy with the zones, just sticking in a few more bushes here and there, and not thunk what they were doing through. Future zones really needed to be patched/altered abit to make this all work (which i know will never happen). Some people say the WotG expansion seems incomplete, i don’t necessarily agree as Campaign is great. The zones however and the amount of thought thats gone into them gives this feeling of rushing. Was the expansion thrown together very fast for some reason?

“With Wings of the Goddess remember when your first stepped into the city? All those NPCs dressed in gear you’d seen before. Then Rollenberry or Pashhow, such oddly similar pathways. Remember your first time seeing the few bushes added in here and there?  Remember seeing that first Mamool Rhino and thinking ‘ZOMG! that… wait… whys that here?’ and was that a pink bird with a massive beek you just saw go by? wait? in Ronfaure? why?”

long time no post, bad me! /slap self.

I’d like to say I’ve been busy with WotG, but due to its laughable release i was a week late getting it, as with most of the people i know. However on Friday 30th Nov it finally dropped through my post box ~yay!

It installed fast, then there was a small update to get rid of all my .dat mods >.> which also didnt take long ^_^ off too a good start. It booted up to reveal new title screen music <3 I hated the ToaU one, so i’d replaced it with the CoP file, but no need now!

Having had 7 days to kill since its release id read about the new zones and Campaign so i new a little about what to do and where to go. I grabbed Spen and we headed for the Rolenberry Maw ^^ clicking on it we got the intro CS, which was very nicely done.

The maw swallowed Mill up placing him inside a mysterious zone with what appears to be Atamos in it.

While looking up in awe a light appears that turns out to be Cait Sith, who unknowingly knocks Mill of the ledge his is on plunging him into a water of sorts. He then wakes up in the past where some Jeunoian guards find him.

The CS had alot of new music which was cool ^^ at the time i was on windower and its still lagging me out :/ so it was jittery ; ; but it was very fun to watch~

I was spat out in Rollenbery, and the first thing i noticed was the great new music, which spreads accross all the zones around Jeuno. The zones are shwish in the past, with fortifications all over, much like i expected the game to be like when i first started. We ran around exploring for a while with Mandys following us  we killed a few mobs, which are alot tougher then they check, im not sure if this is an error or what but everything seems like its a tier above what it checks o_O; The next stop was The Eldime Necropolis. In the past it was a sacred burial ground to the Elvaan. I buffed right up but turns out there are no mobs inside – CRAZY! It was very cool to see it all neat. I signed up to fight for Bastok, however i needed to run to the Republic first. Flagged the scholar jobs quest, i dont think l’ll be unlocking the job anytime soon though. While in there i also got a map of Grauberg

Now the task of running to Bastok @_@

Its a picturesque stroll. Rollenberry to Pashhow were pretty straight forward. I gotta say Pashhow is awesome in the past, its so pretty. I kinda find it odd that places looked so much nicer during a great war o_O. I guessed where the zone to Grauberg was and got it right Graberg itself is one big-ass zone, and the mobs were alot harder. Me and spen fought a large mob we came accross which checked DC to me and EM to spen. Normally i can solo a DC pretty easily. . . but i should have thought more about the crappy /check in the past, so it was really EM to me and T to Spen. After getting quadov link we died XD

I wanted a pixie to come raise III us, but none showed up ;_;

A wondering BLM got us up tho and soon enough we were in Gusta! One thing about North Gusta – theres a ramp from the lower section to the upper section. Why does this not exist in the future?! Its actually carved into the hillside, it would have taken effort to remove it >_< they better explain that away or i want it putting in the future zone!

Gustabergs music is uber minted! Its a remix of the original theme, its nice to hear something new with undertones of the old. Same goes for all the City areas (i’ve downloaded the WotG soundtrack all-ready). Bastoks theme is very catchy @_@ i keep humming it. Speaking of Bastok its great in the past, makes me feel proud to be Bastokian ;P Its allot more colourful, blue flags are everywhere and there are more trees about. Why is everything so much nicer looking in a time of war? lol

So finally i became a member of Bastoks Fourth Legion. Ive tried a few of the quests/missions – atm stuck trying to get an item for mission two, a Gnole Claw. I’ve read the drop rate is about 4% which seems to be true, I’m hoping they up the drop in the next update.

So my first impressions? It seems like a great expansion pack and i haven’t really tried any of the content. The idea is great and done well so far, the music i’ve heard so far is the best on the game in my opinion. Now to try Campaign!

Red Mage Rules: -

Playtime: 100 Days, 17 Hours, 7 Minutes and 32 Seconds