1828: #FFXIV Before the Fall: Some Initial Impressions

There are spoilers for Final Fantasy XIV's latest patch ahead. You have been warned!

Before the Fall released today, opening the final chapter on Final Fantasy XIV's 2.0 storyline and preparing to usher in the age of Heavensward. For those who have been following the game, you'll know that major version updates such as this one — updates that come every three months like clockwork — tend to include a whole host of exciting new things to do, and this one is certainly no exception. In fact, I think I'd go as far as to say it is the absolute best update Final Fantasy XIV has received since its (re)launch in August of 2013.

I haven't been through everything yet, but here are a few thoughts on what I have taken on so far.

The Wanderer's Palace (Hard)

Many FFXIV players have fond (and not-so-fond) memories of The Wanderer's Palace, since it's the first level 50 dungeon you get to run that isn't story-related. Back in the 2.0 days, before Roulettes and Challenges and all manner of other weekly bonuses, speedrunning Wanderer's Palace (or WP, in FFXIV player parlance) was a popular pastime as it was a quick and efficient means of earning the "Tomestones" used to purchase gear post-level 50. It was also noteworthy as being a dungeon that featured the iconic recurring Final Fantasy enemies the Tonberries — a popular creature owing to their extreme cuteness and propensity to inflict horrible, horrible violence on people with kitchen knives.

In the original WP, the Tonberries were the bad guys. You fought a bunch as you progressed through the dungeon, were pushed ever onwards by giant Tonberry Stalkers that you couldn't kill, and eventually killed the Tonberry King at the end of the dungeon. WP's Hard incarnation, meanwhile, sees the Tonberries freed of the curse brought about by their King's rancour, and in need of help from an invading force of Mamool Ja beastmen.

With Tonberries being such a popular Final Fantasy mainstay, naturally players jump at the opportunity to "Save the Tonberries!" and thus I can see WP Hard being a favourite dungeon of many people — particularly as it's very well designed indeed. Its encounters are well-paced and interesting, and the dungeon does an excellent job of introducing a variety of mechanics throughout that are eventually all used in its final boss fight. It's a satisfying dungeon, and its "victory" cutscene is one of the most grin-inducing things in the entire game, so be sure not to skip it!

Amdapor Keep (Hard)

Poor old Amdapor Keep has had a rough life. Originally the toughest 4-player dungeon in the entire game at FFXIV's 2.0 release, it was subsequently made considerably easier until now, with most dedicated players outgearing it by a considerable margin, it is but a shadow of its former self.

Which, of course, is where Amdapor Keep (AK) Hard comes in. Because it's hard.

I must confess that having run it twice today I still don't really know how the first boss works, but I haven't had any trouble clearing — perhaps after a wipe or two if the party is new. It's cool to see the dungeon running with its creepy theme and a "headless horseman" boss, though; it looks great.

The second boss was a highlight for me, particularly as the first time I ran it my friend was bellowing "Whooo! BOOGYMAN!" in my ear. Because the second boss is indeed the Boogyman, and he enjoys hiding in the shadows, only to be revealed by a pulse of light from an enterprising (and irradiated) adventurer. "What you can't see cannot hurt you," he taunts, shortly before he hurts you very badly indeed.

The best thing about the dungeon, though, is the "gauntlet" before the final boss. Trapped in a room with fiery walls and four Demon Walls closing in on you, you're challenged to take down an intense few waves of enemies before you get squished between our demonic friends. It's exciting, and every time I've done it so far it's been thrillingly close to complete failure when we pulled it off — though I'm sure it will get easier with time (and gear).

The final boss, whom I now can't call anything but "Firedad" after a friend misread his name earlier, is a distinctly Kefka-esque entity with some nasty attacks. It's an extremely well-designed, challenging but enjoyable encounter, and a fitting finale to a difficult but satisfying dungeon. Good stuff.

The Keeper of the Lake

The main "story dungeon" for Before the Fall is essentially a lightweight Praetorium, complete with overdramatic music and tons of Imperials to fight. It's an extremely attractive dungeon with a variety of different landscapes to enjoy as you climb up its towering structure, but the real highlight is the final boss encounter against Midgardsormr, a giant and rather terrifying dragon who is so big you can only fight his head… and his two smaller dragony friends that wake up over the course of the fight.

The encounter is a good one because there's lots to do. There are many different things to dodge, and it keeps you on the move throughout. It's no "tank and spank" encounter, in other words, and while not particularly mechanically complex, it's a real challenge.

In fact, it's a good example of what appears to be a recurring theme for this patch: challenge. In previous patches, people were well overgeared for the dungeons the moment they were released, but this time around even those who are sporting item level 120-130 gear are being given a run for their money with some tough encounters. I'm pleased to see this; one of the most common criticisms levelled at FFXIV is that it's too easy — despite having one of the most notoriously challenging endgame raids in the entire MMORPG genre — and these dungeons more than make up for this.

Speaking of which…

The Chrysalis

The "secret" Trial that was teased prior to release is a fight against an Ascian, and unlike the pathetic dickslapping you give Lahabrea at the end of Praetorium, this one actually puts up one hell of a fight.

It's mechanically fairly simple, as the Trials go, but it's a challenge to coordinate, since the damage comes thick and fast and the healers need to keep on their toes to keep both themselves and the tanks standing, particularly once our Ascian friend starts casting Quake III to damage everyone.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the fight comes where the boss slows down time by sucking you into an aetherial rift, and you're pulled into an inverted-colours landscape where all your buffs and debuffs last ten times longer than they would normally. And yes, this includes things like Paladin's invincibility buff Hallowed Ground, which literally makes you invincible for this entire phase if you pop it just before getting sucked in.

Again, like Keeper of the Lake, The Chrysalis is a challenging fight that keeps players on their toes, unlike a number of the earlier story encounters. (Leviathan in particular springs to mind; it's all but impossible to fail that Trial unless you are a terrible, terrible player.)

World of Darkness

The main event for many people in 2.5 is the grand finale to the Crystal Tower side story, a sprawling homage to Final Fantasy III in which three parties of eight players each (making a total of 24 players, maths fans) journey through the Labyrinth of the Ancients to the base of Syrcus Tower, climb Syrcus Tower and eventually leap through a tear in reality to pay a visit to the World of Darkness.

The previous two parts of Crystal Tower have been enjoyable raids designed to be completable by casual players. They demand significantly less in the way of coordination than The Binding Coil of Bahamut does, but they still put up a fight with complex, interesting mechanics that people need to understand.

World of Darkness dials this up to the maximum though, with some of the most interesting fights I've seen in all of Final Fantasy XIV outside of Coil. A particular highlight is the battle against Cerberus, in which a key mechanic is one of the three parties of eight getting shrunken down to tiny size and eaten by Cerberus, at which point they beat him up from inside his stomach before being vomited back out as the giant hellhound howls in pain. Meanwhile, the other two parties need to take advantage of the distraction created by the stomachache you cause and chain him back up again. It's unlike anything else in the rest of the game, and it's absolutely great.

The final battle against Cloud of Darkness is a good one, too. Again, not hugely mechanically complex, it's a thrilling, exciting battle where there's a lot more to do than just fling fireballs at the boss or poke it with pointy things. There are lasers to dodge, snakes to whack and clouds to disperse, and while it's challenging — particularly while people are still learning these encounters — it's a lot of fun. We finished our run with less than 10 minutes left on the clock.

Urth's Fount (Odin)

The Trial against Odin, last seen at the FanFest live events, is an enjoyable battle against one of the game's most notorious "FATE" bosses that has been in the game since launch. Odin shows up every few (real-time) days and terrorises one of the areas of the Black Shroud forest, at which point scores of adventurers dogpile him in an attempt to defeat him before he unleashes his devastating Zantetsuken move, killing everyone. (In many cases, it's a lot more likely that he completely eviscerates everyone well before he starts charging up Zantetsuken, but I have been present for several victories over him.)

The Trial version of the encounter uses many of the same things you see in the FATE battle, but by limiting it to eight players makes it seem a lot more manageable. The main tank takes a lot of damage, so the healers have a big challenge, and everyone else has tons of AoE skills to avoid throughout the fight, so it's another one where you can't be standing still for too long.

Ultimately, it's not a very difficult fight so long as you're used to dodging things, but it is an enjoyable one. It's nice to finally lay the smack down on Odin once and for all — although the post-quest cutscene neatly explains how and why even after you defeat him he keeps showing back up in the Black Shroud again and again and again.

There's a lot more I haven't explored as yet. Tomorrow is a day for the Hildibrand questline, a real highlight of the game for many people, and for checking out the new "Slaughter" mode in Player vs Player play, which sounds like it might be a lot of fun. For now, though, I've been playing all day, so it's probably time I got some sleep!

1827: Before Before the Fall

Well, here we go. The servers are down for maintenance, to come back up in 11 hours at the time of writing, and then the grand finale of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be officially underway. I'm excited.

Before the Fall is the official name for patch 2.5 for Final Fantasy XIV's wonderful reboot A Realm Reborn, and it brings the main story that launched back in August of 2013 to a close… almost. Actually, tomorrow's release is just the first of three parts to the finale which is going to unfold over the course of the next three months, ultimately leading into the official expansion pack Heavensward, which is estimated to arrive sometime around April. (Just in time for my birthday!)

Why am I excited? Well, aside from the fact that Final Fantasy XIV's ongoing story has actually been very good, it's also the first time I've played a game like this through one of its transitional periods from "vanilla" to "expansion". I played a bunch of World of Warcraft back in the day, but it wasn't until Wrath of the Lich King was out that I actually made it to the level cap, and by then I already had two expansions worth of content to work through owing to the fact I had played it somewhat sporadically rather than with any great sense of commitment. Final Fantasy XIV, by contrast, is a game that I've been playing since its beta period back in 2013, and have been in love with ever since — partly due to the fact that it's simply a very good, very well-designed game (for the most part, anyway — everyone who plays has at least one thing they'd change if they had the choice!) but also due to the fact I've been lucky enough to have a regular group of people to play alongside, many of whom have been there since day one.

That sense of camaraderie, of having been through things together, of having "seen some shit", can't be understated. We may just be people scattered around the world playing a game together, but we've done a lot of different activities together. We've struggled from level 1 to level 50; we've put an end to Ultima Weapon's reign of terror; we've flattened the Primals of the land several times over; and we've started (or, in some cases, finished) to discover the truth behind elder Primal Bahamut and the fallen moon Dalamud. We've gathered legendary Relic weapons and powered them up through numerous lengthy and demanding quests; we've (well, I've) spent more time than strictly necessary putting together the perfect "look" to go adventuring with; we've crafted thousands upon thousands of metal ingots, meat pies, magic potions and deadly weapons. It hasn't always been easy, it hasn't always even been fun, but a core of us have stuck together through thick and thin and forged some close friendships as a result. And, of course, this happened.

This is, I'm aware, the third Final Fantasy XIV post I've done in a row — and with the patch launching tomorrow I can pretty much guarantee there's at least a couple more still to come. What that should tell you is what an entertaining and fun part of my life it's become over the course of the last year and a half or so; at this stage, it's more than just a video game: it's an activity I can enjoy with friends, and one I hope I can continue to enjoy in this way for many years to come.

Twelve bless you, Yoshi-P; you've done the Final Fantasy name proud and created an experience pretty much unlike anything else I've ever enjoyed in all of gaming. Here's to many more years of adventuring.

1826: Nael Deus the Darnus Things

Sunday night is raid night!

Sunday nights are rapidly becoming a highlight of my gaming week. It's the first time I've had a dedicated static raiding group to play an MMO with, and Final Fantasy XIV's raids are one hell of a lot of fun if you're with the right people — people who know their stuff, but who aren't above having a bit of fun with the experience.

For those who are less up on the MMO lingo, a "raid" is differentiated from regular dungeons and other, more casual-friendly multiplayer content by virtue of its difficulty, which primarily comes from the need to be organised, communicate and take responsibility for the things you're supposed to be responsible for. There's little room to be "carried" in raids, particularly if you're playing content that's on the (relative) bleeding edge, though if you're playing older stuff that people have since outgeared (and, in Final Fantasy XIV's case, the raid itself has also been made easier over time, too) there's a certain amount of margin for error.

Tonight our regular group tackled the final two Turns in the Second Coil of Bahamut, the second of three hardcore raids that are currently in Final Fantasy XIV. These raids are multi-part challenges that task eight players with working together coherently, and get consistently more challenging as you go through. The final Turn in each Coil is the most difficult by far, taking in very complicated mechanics and demanding that everyone is playing at absolute peak potential. A big stumbling block for a lot of players is Turn 5, the last Turn in the first Binding Coil of Bahamut, in which you take on the very angry dragon Twintania, but we successfully cleared that a while back without too much difficulty. The Second Coil of Bahamut is significantly more difficult throughout for the most part, but we've gradually worked our way through each Turn in… well, turn, and now we've arrived at the next big wall to scale: Turn 9 (also known as The Second Coil of Bahamut, Turn 4).

Turn 9 is the most complicated fight I've attempted in Final Fantasy XIV to date. It's an incredibly daunting prospect, but it's a good example of what raiding is all about. It's not a fight you can just jump into and hope for the best; it's a fight where you need to know what you're doing, what you're responsible for and how to deal with the various situations the encounter presents you with.

Turn 9 is so complicated because, like most fights in the game, it unfolds over the course of several discrete "phases", but unlike many other fights in the game, each phase is completely different from the previous and would be mechanically complex enough to be a single conventional encounter in its own right. Tonight, we spent nearly an hour attempting it, and we managed to just about get our heads around the first phase after a bit of practice and a lot of initial bewilderment. There's a hell of a lot going on, and it's initially very difficult to work out what you might be doing wrong when everyone suddenly dies at a moment's notice. As you try again and again, though, you start to notice things; you start to recognise patterns in the boss's attacks, you start to be able to predict what's coming next and you figure out the best way for you to successfully handle your own responsibilities, until eventually you reach a stage where you can effectively run it on autopilot.

This is the way to handle Turn 9. Because it's so long and daunting, it's not an encounter you can just give people a simple explanation of and plough through without any difficulty. Rather, it takes time to learn each phase and to perfect the way your own unique group composition handles it. Getting things right is exciting and enjoyable, and successfully reaching a milestone in the fight — like the changeover between phases — is cause for celebration.

This evening, we successfully cleared the first phase, which involves everything from trying not to get meteors dropped on your head while ensuring that they are dropped in helpful positions for later to getting zapped with a rather unpleasant Thermionic Beam. Oh, and the main tank (which, for part of our run, was me) keeps exploding throughout the fight, too, which is nice for them. It's tense, and a lot of pressure on everyone, but it's a huge amount of fun to challenge with people you've come to know, enjoy the company of and trust.

I'm really looking forward to our next attempt, when we'll hopefully be able to survive for more than ten seconds when a bunch of nasty golems appear and try to kill us!

1825: The Happy Couple (or: How I Proposed For Real in #FFXIV)

It occurs to me that a Big Life Event happened during the period when I was doing creative writing on this blog, and thus those of you who only keep tabs on what I'm up to through this site won't be aware of it. So now seems like as good a time as any to share the happy news that Andie and I got engaged, and we're getting married in June of this year.

You probably want an engagement story, don't you? Well, all right, then. Settle down and I'll tell you one.

As regular readers will know, Andie and I are both regular players of the massively multiplayer online RPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. In a recent patch, developer Square Enix added the facility to perform a "Ceremony of Eternal Bonding" with a partner in the game — getting married, in other words. Any character can marry any other character, no matter their gender or race, making it a wonderfully inclusive part of a game that was already extremely inclusive to begin with. I mention this latter fact because Andie and I both play female characters: mine is Amarysse the Hyur Midlander (essentially a relatively normal-looking — albeit "Final Fantasy attractive" — human-type female), while Andie's is W'khebica the Miqo'te (a race of people with cat ears and tails).

As soon as the Eternal Bond stuff launched, Andie and I knew that we wanted to indulge in it. It's ultimately a silly thing that doesn't have a huge amount of relevance to the game as a whole — your main benefits for getting married are that you get a ring that allows you to teleport to your spouse's side once every 30 minutes and, depending on which package you signed up for, some of which cost real money, a selection of goodies including wedding attire, a two-seater chocobo mount and a minion to give to all your guests when they attend your ceremony — but we still wanted to do it. I also think it's quite a nice way to acknowledge a real-world relationship in the game itself — though, of course, there are plenty of people who are getting married just for fun.

Anyway. Andie and I got up early on Boxing Day to book our ceremony. Yes, you actually have to book; ceremonies occur at specific times on specific dates, so we had to get in early in order to get a practical slot. Given that we play alongside a lot of Americans, we wanted to book it for an America-friendly time that was also not in the middle of the night for us, so we eventually settled on Saturday January 3 in the evening our time, since you have to book at least a week in advance.

Now, since we'd been talking about getting in-game married ever since the possibility was launched, I'd been pondering secret plans in the run-up to this, and decided that yes, I wanted to put those plans into motion. I had not-particularly-subtly hinted to Andie that I might be interested in buying her a shiny ring, and invited her to indicate a selection of acceptable choices that would not cause me to be thrown out on the street or anything. I did some research, shopped around and eventually settled on one that she'd indicated she particularly liked. I finished work early on New Year's Eve and snuck into town to see if they had one in stock. They did, but not in the right size; I bought it anyway, as it was more that I wanted to have it as a symbol to go with the proposal than something I could put on her finger right away. (It transpired that she put it on anyway, got it stuck and we eventually had to go to A&E to get the damn thing off again! We now have one in the correct size.)

That was that; the plan was in motion, and there wasn't really any turning back now. Well, sure, I could bottle it and save the ring for another occasion, but really, honestly, our in-game ceremony felt like an ideal time to do it.

I set to work determining how I was going to do it, including worrying rather more than I probably needed to about whether I should actually ask the question in the game's text chat function, or just disappear from my keyboard for a few moments and ask her in person. (When we're both playing, she's on her computer upstairs while I'm downstairs in the living room, so it's not as if I could have just turned to her and asked her.) Eventually, I wrote a speech that I felt expressed what I was feeling adequately (albeit perhaps overdramatically) and resolved to deliver it during the twenty-minute period of the in-game ceremony where you are invited to exchange your vows with your partner. Most players who are doing the wedding thing for fun skip over this part or just allow their friends to set off some fireworks, cheer, whoop and holler, but it seemed like the ideal moment to me. So that was what I decided to do.

The day came, and we both logged on to play as normal. While it was tempting to surprise everyone with what I was up to, I decided that it would be prudent to share my plans with at least a couple of people so that I could ensure we had a decent turnout to our ceremony, and that people knew they had to behave themselves appropriately. I sent a "whisper" (private message) to my friend Cyra (aka Phil; we actually met him in the real world a while back when he happened to be in London the same day we went down to see the Distant Worlds concert) and informed him of my plans. He squee'd a bit (well, in a sort of manly way) and then told me to leave it with him; he'd inform some of the other regulars in our Free Company (guild) and between them they'd make sure people were 1) at the ceremony and 2) behaving themselves.

The appointed hour came, and Andie and I rode to the Sanctum of the Twelve in the East Shroud. Our friends were already gathered outside, and one had been crafting multiple copies of a hat that Andie's character habitually wears, then handing them out to the guests, so we were confronted with a crowd of people all wearing flowery hats. Then it was time to go in; Andie and I were escorted to our separate rooms to get ready, while the guests were taken to their separate waiting room to wait for us both to indicate that we were ready. We both changed into our wedding dresses, rang our Eternity Bells to indicate that we were ready, and then the ceremony began.

Conveniently, Cyra/Phil recorded the whole thing. You can watch it on his Twitch page, because WordPress doesn't want to embed the video for some reason. 🙂

And, well, this happened.

1800: Pondering Some Games of the Year

It's getting to that time of year where it's time for everyone to start considering their own personal "Games of the Year", as if someone declaring something their Game of the Year is in any way meaningful or impactful on the experiences of others. Regardless, many of us still do it, if only as a means of celebrating the experiences we've found the most memorable over the course of the last twelve months.

This year I don't really have a single Game of the Year as such, but there are a number of titles I feel are worth making specific mention of. So I'm going to mention them right now.

Steins;Gate

Previously, I knew Steins;Gate was a well-respected visual novel and anime series, but little else about it. When visual novel specialist JAST USA picked it up for localisation and publishing, however, I knew that I should probably to play it, if only to know what it was all about.

I wasn't disappointed.

Spinning an interesting, exciting but plausible sci-fi tale, Steins;Gate is an unconventional time-travel/parallel dimensions story featuring an extremely memorable cast of characters, a very well-realised setting (Akihabara and the surrounding area in Tokyo) and a compelling story that, although lengthy, certainly didn't outstay its welcome.

Steins;Gate will likely prove frustrating to some due to its pure visual novel nature, and the fact that the choices you make throughout are handled in a somewhat odd manner by interacting with the protagonist's phone. If you treat it as a multi-path story rather than a "game" as such, however, you're in for an absolute treat: it's one of the most exciting, thrilling and thought-provoking sci-fi stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing for quite some time.

To say too much more would be spoileriffic, but suffice it to say that Steins;Gate blends fantasy and (obviously well-researched) reality together to create a very coherent, solid whole that is eminently worth your time.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

This one doesn't really count as it came out last year, though I have been continually playing it since last summer, which is noteworthy in itself. Moreover, it's seen four major content patches since its original release, expanding the content on offer to players to nearly twice as much what was in there at launch. Pretty impressive stuff.

The reason why I'm still enamoured with Final Fantasy XIV is the promise for the future. The next major patch promises to wrap up the 2.0 storyline with some sort of Exciting Happenings, then after that it's into the expansion Heavensward (teased above), which promises all manner of new things going on — most noteworthy among them being whole new zones to explore, because although Final Fantasy XIV's patches have greatly expanded the number of dungeons and boss fights available for players to take on, the game's rather small world (by MMO standards, anyway — it's still pretty sprawling if you go around on foot) has remained the same size throughout, with only the town of Revenant's Toll in the Mor Dhona region undergoing noticeably significant renovations over time.

It's been interesting to play a game such as this at high level for such a long period of time. I feel I know the game very well by now, but there are still things I am learning, and the most challenging stuff in the game — we're currently working through the raid dungeon The Second Coil of Bahamut — is still genuinely challenging, even with high-level gear and a party of players that knows the encounter at least reasonably well. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Eorzea and its surrounding lands.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

Regular readers will know all about my love for the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, despite its numerous flaws. Re;Birth1 is, to date, the best game in the series, bringing in the solid gameplay of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory and coupling it with a retelling of the first game's story.

Neptunia's core appeal for me is twofold: firstly, it's simply fun to play. The battle system is hugely enjoyable — if occasionally unbalanced — and it's that rare thing: an RPG where it's a pleasure to grind.

The second core appeal element is to do with its cast of characters, all of whom I absolutely adore. Neptune's hyperactive, childish nature is wonderfully contrasted with the tsundere personality of Noire, the quiet-but-occasionally-prone-to-rage Blanc, the "older sister" Vert and the other supporting characters, and the story, while silly fluff for the most part, is told in such a charming manner — featuring frequent fourth-wall breaking to bring the player into the experience alongside these cute girls — that it's difficult not to sit there with a huge smile on your face while playing through it.

I'm reliably informed that Re;Birth2 and Re;Birth3 are even better, so I can't wait to try them for myself: Re;Birth2 is coming West very soon indeed, and Re;Birth3 hit Japan recently, so we can expect it over here sometime soon-ish, hopefully!

Senran Kagura

I first encountered the Senran Kagura series early this year, and I'm absolutely hooked. Burst brought me an updated version of a game genre I've always been fond of — the 2D side-scrolling Streets of Rage-style brawler — and combined it with cute anime girls and a surprisingly strong story. Subsequent installment Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus — which also made it out this year — brought the gameplay into 3D fully intact, from what I can tell so far, and has cemented my love of the series. And as for Bon Appetit… well. All I can say is "L-lewd!"

The core appeal of Senran Kagura for me is not the fact that its cast is exclusively attractive women with massive knockers — although I'm certainly not complaining about this. (Aside: I actually rather like the fact that Senran Kagura's cast is, on the whole, somewhat on the more "curvy" side than many other video game and anime characters — and not just in the boob area.) Rather, it's about the fact that these characters are actually all very well-defined personalities, and the game explores them in great depth over the course of its unfolding narrative.

Knowing nothing about the game before playing it, I was very surprised to discover numerous levels opening not with short cutscenes then getting straight into the action, but with half-hour-plus visual novel sequences narrated from the perspectives of various different characters. By presenting the story in this manner, the player gets a uniquely personal perspective on the unfolding events as well as the opportunity to "hear" what they're thinking as well as saying. Normally in visual novels, we only get to hear the innermost thoughts of the protagonist character — normally, though not always, intended to be a self-insert for the player and consequently deliberately rather bland. Here, conversely, we're not playing "as" the girls; we're getting the opportunity to learn about them by effectively riding along inside their head as they come to terms with growing up as young shinobi, often on different sides to their friends.

My experiences with the three Senran Kagura games I've had the pleasure of playing to date means that this series is now right up there with Hyperdimension Neptunia in terms of games I'll happily rush out and buy without a second thought the moment they're released. Not bad for a game best known for T&A.

—

These are just a few of the games I've had the pleasure of playing this year. They're mostly games I played recently, I'm aware, so over the next couple of days I'm going to rack my brains a bit and think about some of the other games I've played that are particularly noteworthy, and share the joy with you lot a little bit.

That and frantically wrapping presents. It's nearly Christmas, after all.

1798: Starlight Vigil

Today I participated in something that I had only previously heard about: an entire online community coming together to pay its respects to someone.

That "someone" was a person whom I only knew as Codex Vahlda, a Final Fantasy XIV player on the Gilgamesh server whom I became aware of this morning after a casual browse of Twitter.

I didn't know Codex at all. I don't even play on his server, so it's unlikely I would have come into contact with him unless he randomly showed up in a Duty Finder group for running a dungeon, since those pull players from several servers to make complete groups.

Sadly, I'll never have the opportunity to know Codex, as he passed away recently due to complications from renal failure. Both he and his family and friends seemingly knew that he was going to pass on, and it was as he lay on what was to become his deathbed that Final Fantasy XIV players from around the world, and from several different servers, all gathered in the same place — the beach in Ward 1 of the player housing district Mist — and held their own vigil for our fallen adventuring comrade.

Normally, this sort of thing is an event that you tend to hear about after the fact, but I happened to be online just as someone on Twitter was posting about the vigil taking place on Ultros, the Final Fantasy XIV server which I call home. Largely out of curiosity, I logged in to take a look at what was happening, ran down to the beach and, sure enough, found a line of players facing out to sea, "wind-up sun" minions out, bathing the group in a soft light, contemplating whatever they chose to be contemplating as they paid their respects to Codex. I joined them.

After a moment of quiet reflection, people spontaneously began letting off fireworks and balloons — these are items you can acquire in the game and are intended for use upon celebratory occasions such as seasonal events or the newly added "Eternal Bond" wedding system. It was a celebration not only of Codex's life, but also of how one stranger could bring all these disparate people from all over the world together in one place to do the same thing. It was a really, really beautiful moment, and extremely moving.

It's easy to think of the Internet at large, social media and online games in particular, as utterly "toxic" (that's a favourite word of critics at the moment) environments in which everyone is constantly at one another's throats. But every so often something happens that reminds you that an awful lot of human beings are fundamentally decent people, and that regardless of where you're from or what — if anything — you happen to believe in spiritually, the cycle of life and death is, pretty much without fail, something that will always bring us closer together with one another.

Rest in peace, Codex; I never knew you, but I hope wherever you are now, you feel the love of all the strangers who came together to celebrate your life today. May you forever walk in the light of the crystal.

1787: Eternal Bond

I'm pleased to report that today went somewhat better than yesterday. I feel like I'm still shaking off the aftereffects of the stomach bug I've had, but things aren't quite as bad as they have been, which is nice. I also bought some new headphones (which I promptly forgot to take with me today) and got a new ID card lanyard, which was also nice.

Andie and I got engaged, too.

Hah! That made you look twice, huh. We didn't really. Well, we sort of did, though not in the traditional sense. Instead, taking full advantage of the new Final Fantasy XIV patch which came out today, we both signed up for the new Eternal Bond ceremony: Eorzea's take on marriage, with no restrictions on the genders or races of the two people involved. We didn't actually get "married" in-game today; doing so is more than a simple throwaway thing to do when you feel like it. Instead, it involves a number of different steps, none of which are difficult, but which do demand you demonstrate a certain amount of willingness to help each other out as a couple, which is nice.

First up you have to acquire "Promise Wristlets" by signing up for the ceremony on the game's website. There are three tiers of ceremony, ranging from the free one (where there's only limited customisation of the ceremony available) to Platinum tier (where you have the most possible customisation options, a prettier dress and free gifts to offer your guests). Gold and Platinum weddings cost real money, though not very much, and because Andie and I are both idiots, we went for the Platinum ceremony.

After making our intentions clear and being issued with our respective pretty dresses, we were informed that we'd need to prepare our own wedding rings. We worked together to acquire the materials necessary to do so — thankfully the ring itself isn't difficult to create — and soon enough we were ready to begin our preparations in earnest.

What followed was an enjoyable if straightforward "pilgrimage" quest where we had to visit all the main regions of Eorzea together, find the symbols of the Twelve — the gods of the lands — and pray before them. In doing so, we blessed our respective wedding rings with divine power, ready for the ceremony. We then had the opportunity to talk over what kind of ceremony we wanted and given the ability to customise the chapel to our liking. We had to actually agree on what we wanted, too, otherwise when the big day comes the officials simply pick one of your options and run with it.

That's all we could do for now; bookings for the actual ceremony — yes, you have to actually book — open on Friday, so we're going to have to get in when we can and find a suitable time and place to get virtually hitched and invite our virtual friends to come and watch and cheer us on. I'm actually very curious to see how the whole thing goes down; I know a number of massively multiplayer online games in the past have had the ability to get married in them, but I've never been in a position where I was actually able to get married to someone, whether "seriously" as Andie and I are doing so, or just to see how it worked with a friend. (I'm a bit of a traditionalist, though; while a virtual marriage isn't legally binding, of course, I do actually kind of believe it has a certain degree of meaning, and as such I'm glad to be able to do it with Andie; it wouldn't have felt right even just "trying it out" with anyone else if, say, she wasn't playing.)

I tell you what, though, even with all the charging past hordes of kobolds on chocoboback on the way to find another pilgrimage stone, getting virtually married is nowhere near as stressful as arranging the real thing!

1751: Speaking in Tongues

My Final Fantasy XIV Free Company was afflicted with something that seems to come to all MMORPG guilds at one point or another recently: that which is colloquially referred to as "drama".

Ultimately, the drama itself wasn't particularly serious — no-one was hurt and no damage was done, though arguably an ill-thought-out prank by an outgoing member was not the best means of handling the situation — but what I found interesting was the discussions that followed it up.

Essentially, the conclusion that many of us came to is that communication is important. It may sound like a simple piece of advice — common sense, obvious, even — but it's so easy to forget, even in an inherently social situation like a massively multiplayer online game. In a Free Company the size of ours, it's inevitable that cliques form, friendships blossom and smaller subgroups start doing things together. That's the natural way of things, and it's not necessarily a bad thing at all. That is, until it starts having a negative impact on the group as a whole for whatever reason — perhaps some members see these smaller subgroups as somewhat exclusionary; perhaps the subgroups find it difficult to relate to other people; perhaps everyone could just stand to be a bit more open and honest with one another.

There were a number of contributing factors in this instance that I won't bore you with now, but suffice to say that a lack of communication was the root cause of the issues we suffered. And, positively, said lack of communication was correctly identified quickly as the root cause of these issues, and people have been making determined efforts to try and make things right. Although the initial "drama" wasn't particularly pleasant or fun to witness, it turns out it ultimately had a positive impact; people are talking more, cooperating more and doing more things together. Plans have been put in place for more organised cooperation on the more difficult things the game has to offer, and people are just generally being more helpful and pleasant towards one another.

It's testament to the overall quality of people we have in the Free Company as a whole that the active members — many of whom could be argued to be implicated in the whole exclusivity/lack of communication thing — have taken this stuff happening on the chin, haven't got angry and upset and have done something positive from it: they've learned from it, identified things that we can do better and differently for one another, and ultimately the Free Company will hopefully be a far more pleasant place overall as a result.

Me, I'm mostly just glad it all seems to be over and done with for now. I hate to see friends fighting with one another, or — in this case — just misunderstanding one another. It's a great pity that the situation led us to lose a few Free Company members who had been with us since the beginning — and people I enjoyed playing with, moreover — but these things happen, and ultimately we'll be a stronger group as a result.

Now let's all just enjoy the game!

1746: Tomestones of Poetics

Andie and I have had more of a chance to delve into Final Fantasy XIV's latest patch Dreams of Ice today, and I've now had the chance to jump in to most of the new pieces of playable content, with the exception of the Final Coil of Bahamut (which is still a way off yet) and the Extreme difficulty version of the fight against iconic Final Fantasy character — or the Final Fantasy XIV incarnation of her, anyway — Shiva.

The first couple of days after a patch drops are an exciting, enjoyable time to be playing, because most people who are online at the same time as you are in a similar situation to you — they're learning new fights without any foreknowledge of what is to come, and with the fact that guides for these new fights tend not to crop up until a week or two after the actual patch drops, you have little option but to either try and figure things out for yourself or trust the word of the people you're playing with. It's a lot of fun, puts everyone on a much more level playing field than later in a patch's lifecycle, and leads to a certain degree of camaraderie as everyone comes together to work out the best ways to take things on.

After two days, we have a few bits and pieces figured out.

We know that the first boss in Sastasha (Hard) has a very powerful attack that hits anyone except the tank, and this can be stunned — though like most enemies in Final Fantasy XIV, it builds up a gradual resistance to Stun if you keep doing it over and over. Instead, it's important that the healers ensure no-one is afflicted with the "Slime" status effect when this attack comes, as although the attack is powerful, it will never kill you outright; the damage over time from Slime, however, may well finish you off after one of these almost-deadly blows.

We know that the second boss in Sastasha (Hard) is sometimes bugged, but that you can proceed through the fight even if it seems to have frozen up by stopping your attack for a moment.

We have no idea how the final boss in Sastasha (Hard) works, but it seems that killing all the Kraken's arms prevents it from summoning deadly waterspouts, while keeping out of reach of its tentacles allows you to pelt its head with impunity.

The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) likewise has three interesting bosses. The first is a multi-part boss who seems to go down quickly if you kill his parts in a certain order, ending with the head. He has a habit of summoning nasty quicksand traps for you to be dragged under.

The second Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) boss features regular DPS checks, any time it starts casting 100,000 Needles (which actually only does 25,000 damage, disappointingly, but this is still enough to kill even the most well-geared tank). Throughout the fight, he has friends pop up, some of which are simple cannon fodder, one of which is aggro-locked to a random player — often the healer from the look of things — and another of which covers the main boss, protecting it from damage.

The third Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) boss is relatively simple mechanics-wise, but enjoyable to play. Essentially you're playing Waves mode from Geometry Wars 2, avoiding occasional sweeping waves of mummies that run across the battlefield, cursing you if they touch you, while simultaneously trying to batter the boss down to size. Later in the fight, you also have to contend with a line-of-sight attack which also inflicts the curse status on you — get four stacks of this and you temporarily turn into a mummy, running diagonally across the field and potentially afflicting your allies with the curse in the process if they don't get out of the way.

Snowcloak, meanwhile, is unusual in that it's actually part of the main story for once — most of the other level 50 dungeons have been unlocked through sidequests. Snowcloak is a part of the main narrative, however, but it still works in much the same way, and again has three interesting bosses to power through, as well as some enjoyable "enemy gauntlets" to fight through.

The first fight in Snowcloak is relatively easy. Like the final boss of Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard), you're trying to avoid getting four stacks of a debuff on you — though in this case, it freezes you for a few seconds rather than turning you into a mummy.

The second fight in Snowcloak is becoming known as "Yeti Billiards" because it involves freezing Spriggan adds in the boss' area-effect attack, then hitting the snowballs this creates back into the boss. Freeze the same snowball more than once and it will grow in size, causing it to deal considerably more damage when it hits the boss.

The third fight in Snowcloak is actually pretty straightforward. You simply have to avoid icicles falling on your head, then spot the two that are going to shoot across the battlefield, injuring anyone in their path, then hide behind the third one before the boss does his group-wide Lunar Cry move, which freezes anyone it has line-of-sight with. There's a lot of moving around, and it's a lot of fun — if a little easy once you know what you're doing.

All this isn't even getting onto the utterly ridiculous but hugely enjoyable fight against Final Fantasy VI characters Ultros and Typhon, or the conflict against Shiva. There's been a lot to discover over the last few days, and people are still learning. It's a fun time to be playing; over time it will settle down into more of a "routine" like in previous patches, but for now, it's one of those times that, for the most part, tends to show the community at its best, most cooperative and most helpful towards one another.

1745: Dreams of Ice

Andie and I journeyed all the way back from Aberdeen to Southampton today — a trip that took somewhere in the region of 11 hours altogether. I offered to drive some of the way, but Andie decided that she would be just as comfortable driving as she would be in the passenger seat, so I was relegated to the position of passenger and entertainment-chooser. (We have plumbed the very depths of everything the BBC Radio iPlayer catalogue has to offer.)

We were both quite keen to get back today due to the release of Final Fantasy XIV's fourth major patch, dubbed Dreams of Ice. This is the penultimate big patch in the series before the full-scale expansion drops next year, and as such the main storyline is starting to build to a climax. Alongside that, one of the principal "side stories" — that of the super-difficult endgame dungeons The Binding Coil of Bahamut — finally comes to an end in this patch, so the most dedicated of raiders can take on what is effectively the game's "true final boss" with their friends. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other stuff to keep slightly less hardcore players occupied.

I haven't done everything yet, not by a long shot, and I wasn't expecting to in the space of a few hours this evening. I have, however, had the opportunity to check out two of the new dungeons — Snowcloak and The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) — and play through roughly half of the new episode of the main storyline. I haven't yet taken on this patch's "big fight" against ice queen Shiva, but that's coming up, and since my friends and I are yet to clear the Second Coil of Bahamut, the Final Coil of Bahamut is probably some weeks or even months away yet.

There's plenty of new stuff to get stuck into, though, and once the initial excitement of brand-new content has worn off in a few days, there's a lot of gear to set my sights on. The addition of a new endgame currency (and the retirement of one) has led to a new "tier" of equipment being added to the game, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact that has on the already spectacular amount of damage that my Black Mage puts out without breaking a sweat. I'm also intending on gearing up my Paladin a decent amount, too, because 1) it's already catching up with Black Mage and 2) I'm really enjoying the tanking I've been doing. With our regular group seemingly putting me in one of the tank roles for the Second Coil of Bahamut, it will probably pay to have some better gear, too, anyway.

But now it is 2:45am and I am very tired. Both Andie and I rallied a bit once we got home and started playing, but now I am abundantly ready to go to sleep and hopefully wake up rather late and reasonably refreshed tomorrow. I have the rest of the week off, so I intend to enjoy it fully by bumming around not doing very much at all except playing Final Fantasy XIV. No change there then, huh?