Good day, adventurers!
Matsui here with your monthly XI update.

Tokyo has been undergoing a bit of a cold spell, making me wonder what on earth happened to autumn. I hope those of you in colder climates are staying bundled up.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover for November, so I’ll cut by usual greetings a bit short and get right to it.

First up, we are introducing a new battle system known as Master Levels.
This is a new character advancement system to power up jobs for which you have earned the job master designation. Increasing master levels increases your basic attributes.
Although you can increase you master level in your usual stomping grounds, we have a couple of adjustments coming for those of you who want to cut your teeth on foes a little more challenging. This includes some adjustments to monster spawn locations, which will continue in future version updates. Take a look at the official patch notes once they go live for more information.

Next up, we were very glad to see that many of you enjoyed the adjustments to Valaineral in the last version update, but this has opened our eyes to another issue: the shields that various alter egos have equipped are a little bit weak in high level ranges.

As such, we have made a special shield that internal systems will consider the alter egos to have equipped at higher levels. This is a system-side change only that will not affect alter ego appearances, and all alter egos that equip shields—paladins or otherwise—will be a little bit more sturdy after the update. Hopefully this adjustment will increase the usability of some of your favorite alter egos.

Continuing on, we’ve also got another update to The Voracious Resurgence. This installment takes us to the Far East, a land that remains a touch mysterious even after our previous visits to Reisenjima. This months storyline expands a little but upon relationships within the Yagudo, which we hope will shed a little more light on what exactly is going on. I’ve also received word that you may have to fish up a little something special to progress in the storyline, but the landlubbers among you don’t need to fret—you won’t have to have a super high fishing skill to do so.

While I’m on the topic of fishing, we’ve also added some fish to the list of those one might be interested in for the quest Inside the Belly—mostly fish that first appeared in Seekers of Adoulin or later. This means that we have added additional rewards and have also made several adjustments to rewards for catching particularly big fish. Cast your line and see what you might receive!

The final major update for November is a return of the Mandragora Mania minigame—but it’s gone from a limited-time-only event to an endeavor that’s available whenever you want! We’ve also made it available in more areas than ever before and have adjusted the rewards to be more appropriate for content that’s available on demand.

Although that about covers this month’s major topics, we’ve also got a couple other minor adjustments coming your way. Take a look at the bottom of the thread to see the rest!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to plug the WE ARE VANA’DIEL site, which I hope that many of you have been enjoying over the past months. The most recent entries have interviewed XI fans from other companies, and I think it’s really fun to see the love that other game creators have for such a storied product. The interviews are very casual in tone, so I’d encourage you to give them a read.

This month’s interview is back with SQUARE ENIX, where we talked to FINAL FANTASY Series brand manager Yoshinori Kitase. The two of us joined the company at around the same time, so the conversation starts out pretty light with anecdotes form our early days at SQUARE, but we end up talking about all things FINAL FANTASY spanning the last thirty years, so we think that everyone from passing to hardcore fans will find something to enjoy.

Finally, I’d like to remind you all that we are only a scant six months away from FINAL FANTASY XI’s 20th Vana’versary. We’ve got more fun stuff planned in the lead up to the celebration, and I hope you’ll be with us in Vana’diel every step of the way.


Mission and Quest-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-Progress TaskDetails
NovemberRecords of Eminence・Update monthly objectives-
NovemberThe Voracious Resurgence・Add new quests-
NovemberDynamis-Divergence・Add new requirement to begin reforging relic equipment to +3-
NovemberOmen・Add new requirement to begin reforging artifact equipment to +3-
NovemberQuest “Inside the Belly”・Add to list of applicable fish
・Add to list of items obtained
・Adjust item obtainment rate for certain fish
-
NovemberQuest “Apocalypse Nigh”・Adjust waiting time that occurs during the quest-
Content and System-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-Progress TaskDetails
NovemberAmbuscade・Add new notorious monsters
・Replace reward items
・Add new reward items
-
NovemberMaster levels・Add new progression system-
NovemberMandragora Mania・Change mini-game to be permanently available-
NovemberTrusts・Adjust certain shield equipment for certain alter egos-
NovemberTitles・Add new titles-
Battle-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-Progress TaskDetails
NovemberAreas・Changing monster spawn locations in certain areas-
Item-related
Implementation TimingUpdate Task and DetailsIn-Progress TaskDetails
NovemberItems・Add new items-
NovemberPorter Moogle・Add to list of supported items-