Final Fantasy Online

Nabutso

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May 18, 2013
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Foreword: Yes, I'm advertising for a game loosely based around FF1-3. It's made in an engine called BYOND (more info here, you will need to download the BYOND client to play). I apoligize in advance if advertising for a fangame is frowned upon; the community works very well when it's growing and new players are coming in, as it is entirely community-run, down to the way towns are built, conflicts are settled, etc. It needs players, and this seems like the perfect place to find people interested in this sort of thing. Thanks for hearing me out.

(Long-time player of both FFXI, FFXIV, etc. To be honest, when you get down to how addictive this game is, it far exceeds both of them, and in a classic FF style).
I've been playing this FF fan game on and off for the past few years and haven't really considered trying to advert or get a ton of people to play until just recently. It's graphical style fits the tileset of FF1, but has some borrowed icons from 2 and 3 as well. It's just a small indie game that SE don't really care or know about, since it's nonprofit, doesn't take donations etc.

If any of you are familiar with the BYOND engine, you might recognize it but have been wondering where it went, as it was one of the fairly large FF fan games hosted through BYOND; and has since been removed from the HUB there since it was basically taken out of development. Well, it's back, and in desperate need of players, as the entire community takes part in the building of towns, politics etc. It's entirely open PvP and has a lot of competitive players all trying to be the best of the best.

It's been quite stagnant over the past few years because the previous dev was completely uninterested in doing any more development, but refused to pass the game on to someone else. The new dev set up a site for now with some simple instructions as to how to get started, that site is here -> http://byondfinalfantasy.com/ (pardon his english, I think he's eastern European or something).

As far as the gameplay style, it's very point-and-click. You select a skill/spell to use and then you select a target. Every move you do has a specific recoil (aka, attacking with a knife will allow your next 'turn' to come more quickly, as opposed to a large sword). But it's all realtime... it's an interesting system, and many newbies mistake it for lag, which, if you've messed with the BYOND engine, yes, it lags, but you get used to it, and I feel like FFO deals with it very gracefully. Gear drops are random, diablo style, and the overall pace is very interesting. You need to both level up and spend EXP into certain proficiencies, for example, leveling up "Cure" which will make the spell more effective, have longer rangem and will eventually make you learn Cure 2. Theres a level cap which slowly increases over time, and which will cap out at level 40; pretty high. It's at 27 as I write this post. Players who play the bare minimum and just try to stick with the level cap and specialize in their most important abilities can still compete with those who grind like its a korean grinder. I do a little of both.
Theres different armor types of course, and to be honest any class can use any piece of gear... ok, every class can EQUIP every piece of gear if they have the proficiency required, but a Red Mage might pick up that Sage Robe over the Adamantine Armor because they'll barely be able to cast any spells with that heavy piece of shit weighing them down.

Theres a day and night system that spawn different monsters at different times, and also a season system. Currently it's winter time, and it will be for quite a while. Game time is 6x real-time, It is currently 2:52 p.m. --- 6th January, 64 CE as I'm writing this. In about an hour it'll be full fledged night time, a dangerous time to be alone.

As far as the gear grind goes, the amount you can actually buy off of shops is fairly low-mid tier, so anything higher you need to really search for. For example, our group has a Knight with a Warlord Blade... the 2nd strongest 2 handed Sword you can possibly find. That's really rare to get, and it dropped off of Garland, which you can only do once per character after a long quest line. Theres also rare monsters that drop gear better than what the shops give you aswell, it's all random really. Gear definitely makes a difference but it doesn't win the fights for you. The learnign curve is pretty steep, especially at the start. Thankfully, theres something in FFO called "Nsay" (Newbiesay) which you can use to ask questions, find other parties of newbies, etc.

After you leave the Newbie island, though, you're on your own. Not that people won't help you, but you've basically tossed yourself into a very difficult, unforgiving world. You need to make friends, and be wary of making enemies with the wrong people! A strong, dedicated group can do anything. You and your friends could be the 4 players who rule the world (not that there is a party limit), and rule it however you so choose.

Here are some screenshots so you know what it generally looks like:

(Me and 2 others got wrecked by some bats. Horrifying. When you hit level 20 you can submit a custom icon (so you don't just use the base Fighter/Knight for example, you can get one that you've made or someone has made for you, that still fits the FF style and theme, heres a quick example of a custom icon: )


(Fighting some Frost Dragons. Fearsome beasts indeed.)


(The first player-built city I ever lived in. I still remember the day it was burned to the ground... by myself and some 'friendly' Black Wizards who needed a Knight to chop wood for their OWN town on another continent. This was done over 4 years ago and some of them still hold grudges towards me to this day)

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I'm a veteran who has been playing for the better part of the past decade. It's gone through a lot of changes and is better now than it ever has been, but the community of 100 or so regular players has dwindled down to about a dozen, and the occasional 1 or 2 newbies who first try it are turned off immediately by BYOND itself. If you can cope with the BYOND system then you will have the pleasure of enjoying probably the best Final Fantasy fangame of all time.

If you prefer to ask me questions ingame, I am the guide named "Elin" in nsay.

If the instructions on http://byondfinalfantasy.com are difficult to understand, heres the instructiosn on how to play:

1. Download the BYOND client
2. Register a BYOND key (account)
3. Add a bookmark to the server IP in BYOND (byond://99.25.253.82:2442) OR Go to the World at War BYOND hub and join the server there (the World At War hub is currently being used until FFO has it's own Hub page again).
4. Create your character! Make sure to read all the tutorial messages you are given, you will need them. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Happy adventuring!
 
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