I have spiritbonded with my pants

Miao!

Alright, some strange things have happened in the world of Eorzea. Firsly, there is a huge fashion crisis. I mean it. Check out this picture of me and some random guy I met in the woods. That's not underwear, that's pants! And I must say they are looking way better on me.

Seriously dude, that's a bit too parade gay for a guy who thrusts lances into ... oh.

Aaaaanyway, a bit later that night I got the lovely message that I had "spiritbonded" with my pants. Okay, that's lovely game. It seems like a true spiritual bond developes when you wear an item long enough. Lovely.

So it's kindof a need-to-wash-warning?

Hey, you have worn these pants so damn long, they have fused with your body and soul! Not only will no one else ever use them now (not surprising, considering how long I have worn them without changing), they have been on your butt long enough that they are now part of your very soul. Aaaaw. Fantastic.

The very next day, I became spiritually attuned to the rest of my garments.

New adventures killing stuff

I have mostly been doing quests with Vivacia. She had her 10th level birthday today! Yatta! She celebrated with a shower in this lovely waterfall.

I have noticed that a lot of quests are "kill 5 of this kind and run back". It's a bit underwhelming, story-wise. There was a cool event with the chick in red boots and her little lallafel friend and this sequence was actually voiced! But other than that, it's been a lot of standard running around killing 5 of each kind of creature that the world provides. When I see a new kind of creature I think "oh, lovely, I wonder how many of those I will be sent to kill?"

A bit of variation wouldn't have been the worst!

I also messed around with the graphics settings and de-pimped the combat graphics. I no longer look like a bloody fireworks factory when I shoot squirrels! Also, I updated my graphics routines, so hopefully the game will be a little prettier. I have a GeForce 650, it shouldn't look like vanilla WoW.

However, exiting the game to update my graphics routines... placed me in the tough situation of trying to get in again. Without a queue system. I keep getting the 1017 error when I try to log in. Try again later, buttface! Argh. Frustration.

Get the freaking server queue system up and running!

Ending the first day

Viv is done for the day. Today I have eradicated squirrels, mushrooms, obo-obos and lots of other innocent forest creatures. I have also managed to aquire an almost complete set of new gear! Including this rather lovely tunic. Don't be fooled by the photo, it's really a nice shade of dark-blue that goes great with my hair. I also found a new bow. Miao! Kitty wants to hunt!

The Black Shroud is more open than I recall it from XIV. Not so labyrinth-like, but still pretty much deviod of spectacular views. I bet the lucky bastards who chose Limsa Lominsa got better views! But I will not be in this forest forever, I am sure that Eorzea is full of fantastic views.

However amusing the character names are, I turned them off. It's simply too spammy to have all the text running around on the screen. Some highlights I saw were "Ziggy Stardust" "Gin Tonic" "Oppa Gangnam" "Master Oogway" and "Khaleesi Stark". Nice, that last one. Seems like there is someone besides me who believes that Danaerys might end up in the arms of Jon former Snow now Stark!

Squirrel must die!

So, Vivacia set out to become the greatest archer ever to fire an arrow. I ran around Gridania, collecting quests like crazy. It seems like everyone wants me to do something! Squirrels seem to be an especially huge problem for the Gridanians, as I am asked by several NPCs to practically committ squirrel genocide.

Well, said and done, squirrels be gone!

I also changed my outfit slightly. Apparently, putting on an eyepatch makes me a better archer. I can't really figure out how an eyepatch would do that, since it messes up your depth perception. It must be some magical eyepatch with a built-in secret sight enhancement spell! Or someone at Square Enix simply had a brain fart.

My first impressions of the game...

1) Lots of quests to do. It is not lacking in content.
2) Lots of annoying talk boxes to click through. The content is basically pointless, and you usually have no choices to make.  Just get on with it, I don't need your life's story in 10 talk boxes before you ask med to fetch three mushrooms!
3) Still no talk bubbles for characters. I considered this one of the most unnecessary flaws of old XIV, and I am disappointed that it is not fixed yet. It is quite simple to give the players the option of talk bubbles! Please give it! It is hopeless trying to find the person who talks, it's easy to miss stuff in the tiny chat window, and frankly - I want the sense of being with other players when I visit populated areas. I want to "hear" them talking. In bubbles.
4) Much improved inventory and a very neat system for armor / worn gear! Apparently, clothes does not take up your usual inventory slots and you can arrange them in a very good way.
5) A market board! No more running from retainer to retainer crap. Hurrah!
6) I am a bit disappointed in the graphics. The game is nice-looking, but the graphics is noticably worse than original XIV. Wierd. The could at least have given the option of original-level graphics for the players with good computers.
7) A bit off balance with the tutorials. Some things needed more explanation, most things needed less explanation. Keep it simple, folks! I don't need 3 pages of instructions in how I right-click a thing to interact with it.
8) The combat graphics are a bit... overdone. Spammy. I am level 4 and when I shoot stuff with my bow, I get all kinds of lightnings effects emminating from me, the bow, the arrow... it's like new year's eve with every freaking shot! Can I turn this off, please? I want to be an archer, not a fireworks factory on fire.

Revival - A Realm Reborn

Alright, so FFXIV is reborn!

Meet the new Vivacia, a kitty starting out in Gridania to try out the Realm Reborn attempt to make a decent game out of the mess that was FFXIV.

So far, I am one annoyed kitty.

x) The server queues do not work - making it near impossible to log in.
x) Alt-tabbing still crashes the game, and in combination with 1), this is more than an inconvenience.
x) The intro is painfully long with way way way too many pointless dialogue frames to click through.

So, except for not being able to play, and being painfully annoyed by the game... things are looking good. I think. The graphics are not quite as nice as I recall them from XIV. Let's see where this goes. 

Where did I go?

In case anyone is wondering, I am now playing Rift and tracking my experiences in a similar way to this blog at http://theriftjournal.blogspot.com/. Join me there, or join me in Rift! It is an awesome game and despite being launched only this week, it has a very polished feel about it.

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Kitty takes a time out

Final Fantasy XIV sucks.

Plain and simple.

I shall now spend some time in Real Life, and then I shall attempt to play Rift and/or Star Wars. If FFXIV shape up, I may rejoin the "fun" in the future.

Until then. Miao.

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