Rhapsodies of Vana'diel
Overhead on LS:
Quistie: Back in the day, getting 5K XP per hour was considered a decent rate.
Quistie: These days, getting 5K an hour means you've been AFK for 58 minutes.
Hey, remember back in the day when getting 5000 XP an hour was considered a pretty good rate? Topo received 5000 XP on *one kill* earlier tonight. Sure, Topo is receiving quadruple XP thanks to the double XP campaign *plus* the dedication effect from an anniversary ring, but it's safe to say that the dreaded XP grind is mostly a thing of the past these days. Whereas 10 years ago, most players spent most of their time leveling or meriting, such activities have diminished in importance. Not to say grinding is gone from FFXI completely, of course, just that you tend to grind for other things in today's Vana'diel.
I brought this up because you get a key item that increases your experience point/limit point gain by 30% just for completing the very first part of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. The same key item also increases the rate of skill gain by 100%. One of those things is absolutely essential and addresses a problem that should've been addressed, oh, at least 5 years ago. The other buff feels rather uninspiring. (Crucially, the key item does not bestow bonuses to capacity point gain, which is what most people are grinding for these days.) It's a bit of a mixed bag. Subsequent key items reduce the waiting time for Assault tags/Remnants permit as well as tone down the difficulties of the level 70 level cap quests. Again, a bit of a mixed bag. Making Assault/Salvage more accessible is a welcome change, but toning down level cap quests that have been around for ages when the vast majority of players are level 99 seems unnecessary.
At least the basic premise of the story seems promising. This time, the heroine of the story hails from the Far East, and presumably she will eventually interact with all the past heroines of FFXI-even though I have no idea how Lilisette will fit into this storyline. Not much is known about our heroine Iroha, except that she is a priestess and she has an awesome bow.
At least in this case, having to interact with past heroines is something of a hindrance. By modern standards, Lion is more caricature than character, and the Rise of Zilart storyline is...pretty bad. People generally don't think of storytelling as a kind of technology, but this is one aspect of the game that has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, and that improvement is in many ways a technological one. Whereas I never understood what Lion was all about, more recent characters like Prishe, Lilisette, and Arciela have at least some resemblance of motivation, quirks, and foibles. (Lilisette is interesting in that her quest started out as a personal one. It didn't quite end up that way, of course. Arciela from Seekers of Adoulin isn't a particularly compelling character, but her fondness for sweets makes her relatable-though probably only because I happen to have the same weakness.) Lion, of course, has a bit part in the first few missions of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. The story, as it is, is only setting the stage, so Lion's presence doesn't really detract from the experience. However, her presence also doesn't enhance the story in any way. It feels a bit forced to me, and I kind of wish she had stayed dead at the end of Rise of Zilart.
All this is just a long-winded way of saying that Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is off to an underwhelming start. I remain hopeful that the story will pick up, though. The next chunk of missions should be far more substantial both in terms of content and story, and hopefully the good will outweigh the bad then.