Port Bastok
-This is in the Gustenberg Mountains.
-Still a newborn nation compared to San d’Oria and Windurst.
-Advanced technology and natural resources though.
-Most citizens are Humes.
-The Galka make up about a third, originally from Zepwell. They are the driving force behind the mines.
-I’m an adventurer here seeking fame and fortune. Ok.
-A woman named… HAH! A woman named Cornelia (nice FFI callback!) is trying to get outside, but two guards are stopping her. A Hume named Nicadio and a Galka named Tiger Tooth. She seems important.
-She has to go help a friend.
-Cornelia walks away pissed. Nicadio is nervous she’ll tell “the boss.”
-She sees me, introduces herself. She wants to find a way to get out of the city. Do I smell a first quest??
-I ask Nicadio why the guards won’t let her out, and he just says: “Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.” Uh.
-New in Bastok here and he asks me what I want to do first. Fight monsters, shop, or find work. Hm. Let’s go with… fight monsters. Why not.
-He advises me to not go out, but if I do, “check” my target before fighting it. Oh right! Back in EverQuest, you had to /con (“consider”) a monster. If the resultant message was green, it was easy. Light blue meant doable. Dark blue meant a great challenge. White means even, but I’d probably lose. Yellow means I’d almost definitely lose. Red meant it’d squash me like a bug.
-He gives me an “adventurer coupon” for someone named Dulsie in front of the drawbridge.
-Neat! The game has a map system, and markers.
-My character looks a bit goofy because her head looks way too small for her body, but again, my graphical expectations are not high for this.
Let’s explore!
-Talked to Argus again, the guard. He gave me a “mission.” To go to the Zeruhn Mines in the western section of the Mines District and collect a report from the overseer.
-I’m starting to navigate my UI. It’s a bit overwhelming, so I won’t try taking it on all at once. Just as stuff comes up.
-There are both Missions and Quests. The thing I got from Argus is a mission. The missions are broken down by… I dunno. I think it’s by expansion? One of the categories is “A Moogle Kupo d’Etat,” and I cannot WAIT to find out what that’s about.
-Argus’s mission is “The Zeruhn Report,” classified under Bastok.
-I have no current quests.
-There’s a Voidwatch Purveyor here who seems to be a token vendor that trades in “Conquest Points.” Whatever those are. He sells a cobalt cell and a rubicund sell. Again, no clue what those do. All I know is that I don’t have the 2000 points necessary.
-HI, MOOGLE!! I found a “Dealer Moogle.” Another trader, who wants Mog Bonanza prize exchanges. Idk.
He reminds me a lot of Stiltzkin from FFIX.
-Found Dulsie. She seems to be a tutorial person. Let’s see what’s up.
-She tells me there are four individuals in Bastok Mines with quests, 9 individuals in Bastok Markets, 5 individuals in Port Bastok, and 2 individuals in the Metalworks. So that’s already more than I was expecting.
-Cool! Just saw an airship fly by.
Well, it was on the water, but it had propellers.
-Whew, there’s a “tutorial event.” I have to talk to Gulldago near the gate to South Gustaberg in Bastok Markets.
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Tutorial Event
-When I cross into the Bastok Market District, someone starts telling me about Adoulin, a trading city to the west across the Sea of (I swear this is its real name) Zafmlug. There’s lots of open land around it, and people can do “pioneering” to use it somehow.
-Okay. I had initially intended to clear different areas of the world as I went. Talk to everyone, note everything, etc.
Change of plans. There’s simply too much. The amount of stuff and people here makes the FFVIII tutorial system seems light, and most of this stuff is likely intended for people at different levels, different times, different jobs.
-So I’ll focus on what’s in front of me. This tutorial, getting started. There will no doubt be sessions where I just explore cities, but I won’t set any hard and fast rules that I have to talk to every single NPC before moving on.
-There are blue crystalline structures around the city called “Home Points.”
I can teleport to different home points…AH! In Everquest, these were called “bind points.” The caster classes could bind anywhere, but non-casters could only be “bound” in cities, which often made for long corpse runs.
-I found a tutorial here on “how to get people to like me.” It’s legit solid advice for MMO gaming:
“When speaking with others, it’s critical to listen and be mindful of what they say. Always talking and never listening may come across as rude. Always be mindful of the listener. If someone said that to you, how would you feel?” Etc. How to not be a dick.
-It sounds like “linkshells” are FFXI’s version of guilds. Not going to try that for now.
-Found Gulldago. I think the last woman I talked to was just pointing the way. Gulldago is the main tutorial dude.
-Conquest points: when a border guard casts “Signet” on me, it makes it so that when I kill monsters I serve Bastok somehow and gain Conquest points. Nations compete to control different regions. Killing monsters while I have Signet active lets me get crystals from enemies.
-Signet also gives bonuses like increased healing, defense, evasion, etc. Not sure what the point of ever not having Signet on is.
-As a reward for completing this mission, Gulldago gives me beef jerky. “There is more here than ‘meats’ the eye! That was a joke.” Hjdklsfhadjkls
-lol I just ate a strip of beef jerky and a FIERY AURA OF POWER ENGULFED ME.
Accurate depiction of eating jerky..
-Time to go fight. There are enemies outside. I have to check each enemy first before I fight them. If it is “very tough” or above, the Signet’s bonuses won’t work.
-As I use a weapon more and more, I eventually get weapon skills. Like, if I use daggers enough, eventually I’ll get “Wasp Sting.”
-Checking my inventory it seems I have access to learn one spell. “Dia.” A white mage spell that I really haven’t seen a lot of in the FF series. Heck, I dunno if I saw it outside of FFI even! It was a white mage spell used to damage undead. I have it now.
-I head to “South Gustaberg,” the next zone over. Wasps are flying around. This is so exciting! IT’s combat time.
-First up: a Huge Hornet. It “seems like a decent challenge.”
-VICTORY!! I WIN THE GAME!! LET THE TRUMPETS SOUND FOR I HAVE DEFEATED A HUGE HORNET!!
-I like the way combat appears in this game. I get combat music, and the camera zooms in, and I’m always facing the target. So if I move left, it strafes, keeping me facing the target.
-I got a wind crystal and a pot of honey. Also, my various skills went up through combat.
-oh shit I’m almost dead after a couple of fights. I forgot that this isn’t like a modern MMO where I heal up super fast after combat. So I now have almost no HP. How do I heal?
-Checked my control mapping ,and one of the buttons is for “Heal.” It makes Detolilla do a kneely thing and she eventually heals up.
-DING LEVEL 2! I got the classic FF victory music for leveling up. That’s satisfying.
-A few more kills got me to level 3 and also got my dagger skills to 5. That was my main goal. Time to head back to Gulldago.
-When I zoned in, got a message: “The Crystal resonates deep within my soul!”
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????
-Getting a random cutscene. A snowy land. Vana’diel, Year 898.
-Someone pops in in front of a GINORMOUS crystal. Dunno who they are.
???: “I must make haste for Reisenjima and find the master before…” So Reisenjima may be some end gamey place. Like, the Zanarkand of FFXI? Idk.
-A title screen appears as the unknown dude walks away from the crystal: Rhapsodies of Vana’diel.
-Not sure if this is the name of one of the FFXI expansions, or just the name of whatever story arc it’s showing me. We’ll see.
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Tutorial Continues
-Meanwhile, back in the Bastok Market.
-As I fight, I accumulate “Tactical Points.” When I get 1000, I can use a powerful weapon skill. Sounds like something I’ll generally keep in store for when I get overwhelmed.
-If I come across “beastmen’s seals,” I should hang onto them.
-Crystals are “extremely significant.” No shit. I can trade them for rewards, sell them, and more. Speaking of FFIX callbacks, Gulldago says I can also use them for synthesis.
-Synthesis seems to be FFXI’s craft system. Or at least part of it. Gulldago has me use a Fire Crystal on a lizard tail and honey to synthesize a “chunk of sweet lizard.” Yum.
-There’s an auction house system. That’s next in the tutorial: visit the auction house.
(Again, I’m pleasantly surprised that there is one. It’s commonplace in most WoW-gen MMOs, but back in EverQuest you had to set up your character as a vendor in a certain zone and leave it logged on in vendor-mode to act as an auctioneer.)
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Next time: visiting the auction house.
