MithraPride

It appears you can pre-order this expansion (and probably have been able for a while) from ebgames.com. No box art of yet, so they've stuck in a filler graphic.

$30 to cough up for the extra areas and whatever else is coming with the expansion.

Ultimately the question is:

Will you be buying it?


EDIT: They've come out with box art for the expansion - looks kinda neat.

It'll cost me $60 for both systems....

but yeah - more than likely I'll end up buying the PC version soon after it's released.

Yup!

Maybe. Not at first at least. As a general rule, expansions for MM games = content for high level characters. I am not high level and as such would get more enjoyment from the 6 meals or so that $30 will buy me.

ahh crap...your right i forgot about buying the ps2 version...my friend will usually come over and play on my ps2 maybe i can convince him to split costs

Fayin wrote:Maybe. Not at first at least. As a general rule, expansions for MM games = content for high level characters. I am not high level and as such would get more enjoyment from the 6 meals or so that $30 will buy me.

Rise of the Zilart seemed to contain places for just about all lvl ranges.

While I will buy it the moment it is out, I cannot say I am excited a bunch.

As the slowest leveler I know, I still haven't seen 1/2 of the planet. Not even after the Sumerfest duengons.

Yes, while there will certainly be a fair bit of high-level content, I also expect it to mirror Zilart's area distribution somewhat, i.e, at least one area for every level range beyond 20 or so, plus at least one new town that anyone can visit fairly easily.

But whereas Zilart included three new and compelling jobs, the "hook" for getting people to buy CoP is less clear. Is there anything more than new areas and the things that go with those areas? (Note that I am not advocating more new jobs. Personally, I think Square hasn't even managed to properly balance the jobs that do exist, and DRG, SAM, and NIN still feel tacked on to a certain degree.) But, for example, if I'm standing in Sarutabaruta, will I even know an expansion has taken place? I'll bet people noticed the first time a dragoon started levelling in Sarutabaruta! Zilart distinguished itself by making at least some of its effects visible to all, and as such, it made the game world a more exciting place for everyone. How will Chains of Promathia sell itself to the average player?

The strongest deciding factor in how quickly I will get the new expansion is how much content there is like this, which has an effect beyond the areas which are added. Time will tell shortly whether Square-Enix is merely keeping the broadest-reaching parts of Chains of Promathia under wraps, or whether they have gotten lazy, and believe that merely increasing the size of the game world is sufficient.

Edit: I accidentally typed Chains of Promathia instead of Zilart in the second paragraph. I've altered this to alleviate confusion, but some following messages may still refer to the original mistake.

Huh? Therrre are new jobs in the game? Where is this posted?

Prrsha wrote:Huh? Therrre are new jobs in the game? Where is this posted?

When FFXI first came out in Japan, there were only 12 jobs. The first expansion pack, Rise of the Zilart, added DRG, NIN, and SAM, though few English players are aware of this, having started after Zilart was released, and having gotten it for free with their copies of FFXI. Still, I refer to DRG, NIN, and SAM as the "new jobs", since they are newer than the rest. And for the record, no, I don't believe we will see any more new jobs. I believe Square has said something official to this effect, though I can't find where, precisely.

But whereas Chains of Promathia included three new and compelling jobs, the "hook" for getting people to buy CoP is less clear.

Syine meant Rise of Zilart had 3 new jobs. Just a mistype.

Yeah, there are no new jobs. I think I wrote a story over that over on RPGamer, but I'm too lazy to drag it up.