FF13 demo, FFa13 trailer,
and the FFv13 trailer from last year? Geesh, yesterday was busy for some people.
..for me too. Woke up a bit late, I'd promised to Kitty I'd be up by noon since her RSE week started then. Ended up oversleeping by a bit due to this strangest dream, and then we started playing. And playing. And playing. Aside from a few pauses, the longest an hour long, we kept playing until around 1 AM. At no point did I /shutdown, just idled. Man, really gotta try to play less. @__@ Although I had an excuse yesterday, the RSE-hunting took unexpectedly long (we got one piece of Kitty's RSE in the time it took us to get two and a half for me), and leveling our subjobs (BLM) was getting kinda urgent so we did that too... Well, at least we made some progress. One more level on RDM (I think? Must've leveled at least once since we spent so long down in Shakhrami this time, even though the mobs were getting a bit weak for us) and four levels on BLM, that's really some progress there for someone who only does duos instead of partying. (and by the way? Manaburns are
godly on the exp, even with just two people)
In a couple more days we gotta go to Shakhrami
again to get my last piece of RSE...then we'll be finally done with that place, and good riddance.
..got sidetracked. FF13 demo? Looked pretty good. I haven't had the time to read reactions much, although I can totally see the kind of people who complained about FF12 battle system complaining about FF13 too. And completely ignoring that it's the same fucking system presented a tiny bit differently, once again.
Agito keeps looking interesting. I still think I'll get the Japanese version, unless it's launched at about the same time everywhere. Considering that it's SE..probably no such luck.
Why hello there, Starlight Celebration. Aren't you completely off-season by now? *sweatdrop* Please bear with me.
Anyway, this is Firewater Circle, in Bastok Markets. My first taste of the event decoration, in all its gaudiness.
More Bastok Starlight Celebration decorations. Port Bastok, just next to the Steamy Sheep. I do kinda like the tree here.
...and this is what the year's event actually consisted of. The new part of it, anyway. Smacking boxes of various sizes. xD This is North Gustaberg, east and a tiny bit north from the city gates. As you can see, there's a Cavernous Maw there in the background. The boxes led me to it, I swear!
And of course, event rewards were appropriately themed. And I, being a tall un-cute elvaan, looked pretty damn ridiculous in them. I much prefer the look of the hume NPC in them. xD
This, by the way, is from another part of the event. Basically, to deliver gifts to NPC children. The woman handed them out, and in exchange let you teleport to another nation...
Kitty, too, is a lot more cute in the event equips than I am. xD
Kitty's Mog House! That little bush there is the Windurstian Starlight tree...
And consequently, that is the San d'Orian Starlight tree. A bit of a difference there, right? xD
According to Japan, what thing no event can be good without? Fireworks, of course. Behold, some Starlight fireworks. Goblin-made, naturally.
While the previous pictures were from Windurst, this is from San d'Oria. North San d'Oria to be exact, view north across the Parade Grounds, towards the Chateau. We always have to beat everyone, don't we...
This? Is a random screenie from Pashhow Marshlands. I think I wanted to do a supply run there? That'd make this just before moving to Tampere.
Screenie just because. Hound-type mobs are pretty rare, so I almost always screenie them when I come across one.
But in the meantime, what was Ellanore doing?
...smacking boxes of course. I've seen enough mules to know that they're mostly in either event equips, starter equips, or expensive-like-woah-you-won't-get-these-u
ntil-rank-10 nation-specific coats. Considering the last option is unavailable to me, and I don't want to bazaar in starter equips (or nekkid)...event equips it is then. Which of course meant having to actually obtain them.
Northern San d'Oria, Ranperre Gate. This is where the San d'Oria moogle booth always is. This time around, the thing you could buy with 10,000 gil was...Starlight trees. I showed the Windurstian and San d'Orian ones before.
And this here is the Bastokan Starlight tree. Shorter than San d'Orian but taller than Windurstian, and white instead of green. Hmm...
I've been trying to gather some Bastokan event items for Ella. It does make sense in a way. According to her story, her fiancé is in Bastok. Makes sense for her to want to be a bit closer to him like this, right? =D;
Victory~! Or something. She does have all the Dream equips by now, although isn't wearing the hat. And the boots are almost completely obscured by her poofy pants.
And back to regular work then. She's a fricking mule, she's gotta make money. San d'Orian leathercrafting guild, South San d'Oria. There appears to be some other mule at work too. xD
Back to Jenare and Rii. After getting our fill of the Starlight Celebration, we headed on to Jeuno. The biggest city around (for bigger ones, you have to go to other continents beyond the two starting ones), the city of commerce. A melting pot of different races and nationalities.
This is from Rolanberry Fields, beyond Pashhow Marshlands. They grow rolanberries here, for food and for wine.
Of course, every vineyard must have its pests. Crawler-type pests, this time. There's also goobbue-type mobs around here, they keep these Berry Grubs in check. xD
Under the trees a bit farther are boxes of rolanberries. They don't grow in the trees naturally, but in big vines a bit outside the screenie.
Waaay north from the previous screenie, although still the same zone. Enter te gates, and you'll have arrived in Jeuno. They also have the biggest airship port around, are in fact the central hub for all airship traffic.
And yes, that mountain of a building there
is Jeuno. The whole city is in it. It's fricking huge, a man-made mountain.
...and I know, my draw distance sucks.
My first glimpse of Jeuno. Lower Jeuno to be exact. Below this is only the Port. Higher up there's Upper Jeuno, and Ru'Lude Gardens. It was either a very good or very bad choice for us to enter through Rolanberry/Lower Jeuno. Lower is the zone where most everyone gathers. It's always full, and always laggy. And the shopping opportunities there are godly.
Hard to imagine that the place was a poor fishing village just a bit more than 20 years ago, isn't it...
Some NPC shops. This here is a jewellery shop obviously, and farther away you can see an armor shop. These are from the second-floor road, there's a lower one in the zone where the Auction House is situated, so most players are around there.
A goblin shop on the lower street. I think it was called...Muckvix's...something? Goblin names are weird, Muckvix (if that's what she (? I think goblin female names ended in 'x' anyway) was called) is the shop owner. Although there are other gobs there too, selling stuff, sending you on endless quests. And apparently, holding poor little rabbits prisoner. D:
This is from the lower street in Lower Jeuno, too. The spell shop. Just look at this place! It just screams 'luxury' and 'advancement' and 'don't you dare put a foot in here you dirty little low-grade adventurer'. xD
The Auction House, at the opposite end of the zone from the Rolanberry entrance. And of course, the usual gaggle of adventurers gathered to buy and sell and try to make a profit. Economy is serious business in this game. xD
Another screenie from the AH. See the elvaan male in white/silver clothes? Those are the male wedding clothes, at that time yet newly added to the game.
Still Lower Jeuno. This is the Tenshodo headquarters. What's Tenshodo, you ask..? Well, just the biggest smuggling consortium around. Know the right people, get into the inner circle, and they sell you just about anything. xD And their front-end is of course a perfectly reputable-looking hostel in Lower Jeuno,
just next to the AH.
The mithra there is actually the NPC you can use to apply for membership. You just have to pick the hidden option when she gives her store-keeper response. And then hand in either an invite or membership application form.
As it was, invites are sold by omg-huge-profit at the AH, so I didn't have money to buy one. Membership application it was, for me. It required some walking around and I didn't get around to doing it much later, so sadly you won't get to see the inner areas of the HQ just yet.
Port Jeuno, the airship hub. While the ports in other cities actually look like ports (the ships just take to the skies after a bit of sailing), you can't really tell from the streets that there's any water here (although naturally there is, Jeuno is built on an island in a sea, and is connected to the continents of Quon and Mindartia with three huge bridges). I presume you'll see water when you go down and enter the docking area, but I didn't yet have any airship pass (I just got my Kazham airship pass yesterday, but that doesn't let you use any airship but the Kazham-Jeuno route and I haven't yet had business in/time to visit Kazham), so I don't really know for sure.
Upper Jeuno. I can't remember the exact name, but it's some sort of a chapel for the Goddess. I think also one of the places you can have your wedding in, if you pick Jeuno?
Screenie #1000! *sweatdrop* Upper Jeuno, the clocktower. You can see someone gesturing wildly at the left edge of the screenie, there's a dancer troupe there. At level 30, you can try to apply, and unlock the Dancer job.
Still Upper. This is some tavern of some sort. I've never seen the inside of it. You see, they have this most convoluted rule to get in. Every day (or was it week?) is the day of some race or job. If you're not that race or job, you can't get in. For now, I haven't been curious enogh to figure out what order they change in and try to make a serious effort to get in. I've just occasionally checked the current race/job while around the area. No luck yet.
The highest floor of Jeuno. The Ru'Lude gardens. This is a view of the Ducal Palace. There's also a big Auction House, and embassies of the three nations.
Ru'Lude appears to be so high up that it's above the clouds. Just imagine that. This huge building, with numerous floors, each floor having
buildings of its own and people living in them, and at the very top..this extravagant show of wealth that is the Ru'Lude Gardens.
Still Ru'Lude. The old guy in blue clothes is Maat. Fear Maat. Bow before him and kiss his feet. For he has no mercy for anyone wanting to reach level 75. As a Red Mage, I'm terrified of him. Make one half of a mistake in the Shattering Stars fight, and he has you dead at his feet in a split second.
Just because of this, I'm considering getting Paladin up to 70 and unlocking my ability to become 75 with that job. I'm a coward, I know. At least PLD!Maat is somewhat humane. RDM!Maat is...a god.
Just for reference, to get above level 70 you must beat Maat on one job. Maat will of course be the same job you choose, just to make it even. The quest/fight is called Shattering Stars. Beat it with all 15 first jobs, and you get Maat's hat. The ultimate proof that you have nothing better to do than play FF11. Getting 15 jobs to level 70 is...well.
The view from the second floor of the Ducal Palace, still in Ru'Lude Gardens of course.
The last of the batch. This is the zone outside of Upper Jeuno, the closest zone to San d'Oria. We decided to leave through Upper for some reason. I hate this zone. I never remember its name for one. The three zones outside of Jeuno are Rolanberry, Sauromugue and....? The third always eludes me. All I can remember is that it has entrances to the Eldieme Necropolis, and leads to Jugner Forest when you go south-west enough.
...how many screenies was that? I guess they're enough for now. I still didn't get away from December's screenies though. The very last week of it left.
busy