Recently GameShark and other leading media outlets were invited to take part in a media tour of Square Enix' Final Fantasy XI Online, lead by members of the company's US offices. The event was meant to give media outlets that were involved in the beta as well as media outlets that weren't familiar with the game an idea of what a high level character was capable of. Our journey began at 11 AM PST and lasted for about 90 minutes. Square Enix gave participants one high level character and a linkshell to allow for group communication and then organized players into tour groups. Something that I had noticed off the bat was that there were a lot of members of the media in the tour that had perhaps never played an online game in their lives, along with more seasoned players like myself that had been fortunate enough to be actively participating in the beta -- so we kind of knew what we were doing.

For the purposes of the tour only, I was given a high level female Tarutaru, whose name was so bizarre that I don't recall it. Needless to say, the character was ultra cute (blond hair with two perky pigtails protruding from the back) and very powerful. This character was a level 32 Red Mage with a secondary level 16 job of White Mage - a good mix of offensive elemental magic and defensive and healing magic. My cute little character was grouped up with a powerful tour guide from Square Enix named Lekaka, who also was a Tarutaru mage - black. A rough recollection of our groups composition included monks, fighters, and various other characters of varying races including Humes (both male and female), more Tarutarus, Elvaans, Galkas and Mithras. A good portion of the 90 minute tour was spent getting people ready to go, getting people linkshell pearls (needed to talk within their respective tour groups' linkshells) and getting newbies situated and ready to go. After everyone was ready, we were told to gather close as Lekaka cast a portal spell. We stepped in and began a long and satisfying journey across the many landscapes of the game, both common and mystical.

When we reached our first destination we were given a chance to try out some battle skills against a sheep creature that was at least as large as an elephant. Now while this mighty creature would be quite a formidable foe to battle against, when you pit ten high level characters against something that size, it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to figure out who is going to win. Our tour group made quick work of the beast. I personally cast spells that hurt the creature defensively and offensively - my character had well over 30 spells to choose from and not having an opportunity to look through them all made the battle a bit awkward for me. Elemental magic is an integral part of the game's magic system and my character had a variety of spells in various elemental spheres to choose from - from "hold" spells to damage spells that used wind, water and fire. After casting lots for various bits of the creature (horns, hide, etc) the group returned to its journey again.

Our next stop on the tour was to a Chocobo merchant who rented each of us a lovely bird to ride on. Chocobos are a quick way to travel across large distances and a common mode of transport for those folks that can afford to cough up the rental fee (anyone that has played a Final Fantasy game knows and appreciates these lovable yellow plumed creatures). Chocobo rentals don't last more than an hour from what our tour guide said, so we all saddled up and took a long scenic trip to our second stop. Lekaka told us about the "follow" command in the game, which allows players to lock on to a specific target and follow it - a great way for a newbie to follow a veteran player in unfamiliar territory without getting lost. Not wanting to get separated from the group I locked on to Lekaka and paid more attention to the scenery than the labor of trying to keep up with the group. Because a lot of other participants chose to follow manually we spent a lot of time playing stop and go as the leader stopped every so often to make sure no one got lost.

We were headed to Lathiere Plateau, in Jeuno - but first we had to pass through the Jugnar Forest. The area we journeyed through was comprised of swampy marshes, thick and lush forests and rugged mountain ranges. Along the way I saw a number of interesting creatures including Goblin Ambushers, Forest Leeches, Brutal Sheep and Stag Beetles. While we didn't get the opportunity to battle these creatures, I knew from playing the beta that -- had I not had a high level character and decided to go up against these creatures -- that I'd most assuredly be "toast". Luckily these weren't the kind of creatures that were aggressive. We pushed past these creatures and arrived at a city. We couldn't take our Chocobos inside the city, so we all dismounted and the lovely birds fled -- apparently back to their master who charged us through the nose for them. As I let mine go, I wondered if the giant yellow bird tasted like chicken. Inside the city we ran into a few regular beta testers and we were apparently quite an amazing site to them. We were not allowed to interact with regular beta testers or to talk about what we were doing there so we simply ignored them but when you see ten people at ridiculously high levels in a game you've been playing for nearly a month, it certainly draws your attention.

One thing I have noticed about the game from both the media tour and participating in the beta is that Square Enix is really trying to capture the flavor of the old games and combine it with the slickness of its new titles. I think that they have really managed to present a world and characters that will appeal to both hardcore, long-time Final Fantasy fans and new players used to games like Dark Age of Camelot and EverQuest. The game is very stable; I have had not had one moment where the game has slowed down on me or kicked me out because of a technical problem or connection issue. Also, when you zone into a new area it takes very little time to load the next area. That's pretty impressive for a beta -- the last time I experienced that was when I was in the Dark Age of Camelot beta test. But I digress - after passing through this town whose name escapes me, we gathered at another area in town and waited for Lekaka to cast another portal spell.

Lekaka told us that we were going to fight against a dragon, so with that goal in mind, we entered a freshly cast portal spell and began a second journey on foot. Due to some problems with logging into the game as a guest, many of the tour members didn't' get to keep the screenshots they had taken, which was a real shame (we wouldn't find this out until many hours later - luckily I took some notes), but thanks to the aid of the good folks at Square Enix USA, we were able to get some tour shots of the group riding on Chocobos and some other interesting shots of the groups' members. The reason I mention this now is because while we headed to an area many steps below, we passed through an interesting village filled to the brim with many a nasty creature. These creatures were two times the size of a Galka and very menacing looking to say the least (A Galka is huge for the record). Sadly these shots were lost, as well as a few shots of a high level beta tester battling many of them in our midst. We passed through the well constructed, yet primitive village unmolested by the creatures and made a quick stop so that the tour guide could explain how Skill chains worked. While we can't talk in-depth about skills chains, the basic premise is that certain job skills used in a specific order can make for ultra powerful attacks - if timed correctly. Lekaka went over each specific class and explained to us (with examples of specific skills that I can't disclose) their usefulness in battle. Each class' importance to a group was also detailed - nothing new here - Monks and Fighters are "tanks" or front line fighting forces, while mages and other classes are for offensive and defensive support.

Armed with the knowledge of skills chains, we headed down below towards the dragon's lair. Along the way some aggressive creatures attacked one of our members (or he attacked it) so we were forced to take them down - they weren't able to overcome our powerful group for obvious reasons, and we made quick work of them. Our journey lead us to a small area of the underground cavern with a circular fire colored platform. We all were instructed to step in, so we entered the dragon's lair. The dragon is a high level quest and comes complete with an in-game cutscene where elves discuss beating the dragon and then hand the task off to the player - apparently they had a dinner date or something. So our group encircled the monster and we attempted to take it down. At some point our tour guide went down fighting the beast, but the group itself did a fantastic job and suffering no other casualties. Wanting to really get a taste of how this powerful character would work through practical application, I used every offensive spell in my spell book, pummeling the poor creature from the sidelines while the tanks in our group viciously pounded away at the creature and its bizarre companion. After beating the dragon we went after the creature (a weird floating sphere with two hands like that creature on the cover of Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy). Our group made even quicker work of that sorry creature. After some kind words from Square Enix about our battle skills we returned to where we began our journey and did an ultra brief question and answer session.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any free time with the high level characters they provided us on the tour, but the event was a lot of fun and many of us involved in the beta test got to see a side of the world that we would not see for a very long time. The game really has quality story content, compelling character classes & races and things to do in the game that are worth investing time into. Square Enix may very well have a runaway hit on its hands with this game if they can keep it stable and continue to keep it fun. The Final Fantasy flavor of this game is on spot and I'm looking forward to playing the beta until it runs its course to see what new and exciting things they'll accomplish before it is released here in the United States.