And so it begins...

When Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIV (14) was going to be an online game I was initially unsure about it. I've played XI (11) on/off for over 5 years now and although I've hardly touched it in the last 2 years I still think positively of the game and I just wish I had more time to actually play it. Final Fantasy XI was my first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) and the whole game is very much about working with other people and when this works it's a lot of fun. However it's also really bad because when you can't find a group of people you end up doing... nothing. For hours at a time. However then I heard that XIV wouldn't be quite so demanding on having a party and where as having a group is always going to be better, it won't be such a requirement. Where do I sign up? :)

Collectors Edition: Game, Tumbler, security key, blank journal and cloth map

Back in July I pre-ordered the collectors edition above (and the regular version, but we'll come to that in a minute) and it arrived on the 22nd September... but I couldn't play it yet, because I had to also wait for the regular version to arrive (30th September). Both editions come with a code for an ingame item, but the code could only be used BEFORE you create your character hence my waiting until the 30th to get the 2nd code to add both to my account and finally I could start playing... I wasn't actually that worried though because I was lucky enough to be in the beta 2 and beta 3 tests so I'd already played it quite a bit before so knew exactly what to expect.

My friend Laura was also kind enough to give me a limited edition code from her PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII (13) which could be redeemed for an item in XIV (are you keeping up with the numerals? lol) and because she didn't really need it/has no intention of playing 14 I was really grateful, this means I ended up starting the game with an Onion Helm (Collectors edition), Garlond Goggles (Regular edition), Asuran Armguards (PS3 code) AND Hermes' Shoes (Because my FFXI character is still active) - Phew! Creating the character though is always the hardest thing and although it was different from my beta characters I eventually decided on:

Yes I have green and red hair... what's your point? :)

On Final Fantasy XI the race of your character made a big difference to your skills and I was a Hume (good all-rounder) and although that isn't important in FF XIV, I decided to stick to what I'd previously had (except they're now called Hyur instead of Hume for some reason!). It doesn't really show up so well on the picture, but my hair is actually dark green, I figured that would be pretty radical and I don't think it looks (too) stupid? :) I've started out as a Conjurer as my previous main job was a White Mage, although you can change any time you want.

Sadly here's where it got complicated... the majority of my linkshell (people I play with) were on a server that was closed due to congestion, I literally couldn't get onto the server to actually create my character and start playing no matter how often I tried - Argh! Thankfully Enedin (our linkshell leader) decided that the existing server (Gysahl) was too crowed and laggy and him and his brother were moving to Saronia... fantastic! I was able to create a character on there with no problem what-so-ever.

I haven't actually been on it very much yet (literally long enough to log in and meet up with the others to join the linkshell and get a screenshot), but here we all are:

The start of the AlwaysFune linkshell on Saronia

The headpiece that Enedin is wearing is the Onion Helm and sadly you can only wear the Garlond Goggles OR the Onion Helm since they both use the head slot, you can't wear both at once - Boo! However I'm also demoing the Asuran Armguards and the Hermes' Shoes :) However with those glasses I think I look a bit like a cross between Neo from the Matrix and Stringfellow Hawke from Airwolf... what do you think? :)

Sadly (?) I've got real-life plans all weekend so I won't be able to play until Sunday evening, but it's going to be great! Good bye life, hello Eorzea! (the world that Final Fantasy XIV is set in!). LOL.