Revisiting The NES Classic

In my last blog, I talked about how I got a Sega Astro City Mini Arcade and how I failed to secure a gamepad for it. Well, I decided to see if I could find a replacement controller on Amazon. I came across a Bluetooth adapter that lets you use modern controllers with pretty much every mini console. The item description also lists the Sega Astro City Mini Arcade, but I can't find that listed anywhere in the instructions, so we'll see. 

Anyway, the adapter arrived today and I thought I'd test it out on the NES Classic while I wait for the Sega City Astro Mini. I know I wrote blogs on Sega Genesis Mini and TurboGrafx Mini, but I never did for the NES, SNES and PlayStation Classic. So, since I'm now using a Switch Pro Controller to play with this adapter, I thought I'd write up a few blogs on them. I'll only be playing the games a few minutes at a time, because I honestly don't have enough time to play through 70 or so games in the next couple of weeks. So the first blog will be about the NES Classic. 

Balloon Fight

This game's one of those classic NES games that exists in about 10 different variations. In fact, I remember finding an NES and Balloon Fight in the original Animal Crossing on the GameCube. I love, though, how everyone tries to say that Nintendo is so innovative, yet one of their most well known games is a modified version of Joust. If you never heard of Joust, I'm far older than you apparently. Anyway, gameplay is really simple. You're tethered to a balloon and you press a button to flap your wings and ascend in an attempt to get above your enemies and pop their balloons and knock them off the screen. Each level gets a bit harder, and I've actually never been good enough to make it past 10 or so levels. There's also a mode called Balloon Trip, which is the earliest example I can think of of permadeath. You only have one life to get through as much of this obstacle course as you can. Never had the nerve for it. 

Bubble Bobble

What a weird time 8-bit games were. This must have been a game conceived by someone who was on acid to be played by gamers on acid. A simple little action platform puzzler, you play as a dragon - I think? - who spits bubbles at monsters and while they're bubbled up, you kick them around and they... turn to fruit? You collect the fruit for the extra points and then you slip into the next lower level of madness. The thing about this game is that I don't think it's really aged very well, at least not this version. It's clunky, and its monotonous music could be used for psychological warfare. 

Castlevania

Wanna guess where I gave up when I started playing this again? Yep, World 2 and those stupid medusa heads! What better way to kill someone than barely touching them and yeeting them off the platform? Anyway, what more needs to be said about this classic game? It's the original Castlevania that started one of the the longest running action adventure franchises of all time, one of several franchises that made Konami a household name. Known for its insane difficulty, it's far more cheap than it really is challenging, and I've never been one for the original for that reason alone. Super Castlevania IV has made so many improvements while also being such a great throwback to the original that it makes the original simply unplayable for me. Some day, I'll make use of the Classic's save state feature and actually finish it. 

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

This is a love/hate game. I remember I rented this game back when I was still renting NESs and I definitely did not love it. I remember getting very lost by the game. Breaking the convention of a level-based structure, Simon's Quest could be considered open-world. Yet, it was also pretty aimless telling you where these Dracula's Riddle answers are without actually telling you where to go to get them. I also think this game looks worse than the first; it's really not very pretty at all. I will say, though, that the game did do some cool things back in the day like having a night/day cycle where everything is worse at night. "What a horrible night for a curse" indeed. I don't know... some day if I'm ever REALLY bored enough, I'll come back to this. It's a crying shame that Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was not included in this collection because THAT would be the Castlevania that I would play all the way through again. 

Donkey Kong

Hey guess what? The first Donkey Kong game was published in 1981, so that makes Mario 40 years old! While Nintendo's celebrating Super Mario's 35th birthday ... by no longer selling Mario games in just a couple of days, Mario is really 40 years old! Donkey Kong on the NES is a game that unfortunately is just too old for me. After failing a few times, I really didn't have much desire to keep at it. What kills me is that if you don't jump off a platform, even if it's JUST a foot off the ground, you fall to your death. It'll always have historical value, but it's been 1 Up'd so many times that I really don't see any reason to play this again. Makes me want to play the amazing Donkey Kong on the Game Boy again, though. 

Donkey Kong Jr.

Another classic for obvious reasons, yet just like his father, it's just too old for me to enjoy. Swapping out Mario with Donkey Kong's son as the main character, Donkey Kong Jr. has to climb up and down vines to get to the top in order to free his father from the Mario's cage. It's a nice twist on the hero/villain trope. I tried a few times to get past the second level, but it's just too janky for me to enjoy. I really hate the fact that these games kill you by just falling a couple of feet. I wish I had the arcade versions to play, because I remember them being far superior. 

Double Dragon II: The Revenge

I remember this game was one of those games I played with friends during sleepovers because we stayed up way past midnight trying to beat this game. It was so much better than the first game in every way because of all the combat and level enhancements and variations. I think the game's a lot easier than the first because I got to stage five without losing any lives, but then... lost them all in that mission. There are a couple really cheap deaths due to some positions where you fight certain mid bosses. Still, for a "Classic" console, the first game should have been included as well, because even though DDII is far superior, the first is still very much a classic. Also, I remember having lots of pizza nights with that game. 

Dr. Mario

If you've owned an NES for any considerable amount of time and enjoy puzzle games, you'll most likely have played Dr. Mario and Tetris, the latter being surprisingly absent in this collection. I've spent God knows how many hours playing this game, killing thousands of viruses by matching them up with their respective colored pills. Dr. Mario's such a classic that it's still widely represented today with a Super Smash Bros. character and a mobile game. I tried the mobile game once, and not surprisingly, it wasn't very good. I actually had to force myself to stop playing this so I could write about it, because I felt myself getting addicted to it again. This one's truly a classic.

Excitebike

Once again, another classic NES game. Many sleepovers with many pizza-stained controllers. I was never good at the final tracks, but I loved trying. The gameplay was simple yet thrilling trying to balance your bike's pitch so that you launched off ramps and didn't crash on the way down. I also remember this was one of those rare games that appeared on a Game Boy Advance eCard reader, which I think I still have. I do remember I got Excitetruck for the Wii, but that wasn't really as good as it could have been, Also, Excitebike's such a classic that it got its own track in Mario Kart 8. That's a testament to the game's classic status. 

Final Fantasy

Sadly, I've never been able to get into this one. I know full well of its significance, because without Final Fantasy, I wouldn't currently be playing Final Fantasy XIV. I also know the meaning behind the term Final Fantasy as it was going to be Square Soft's final game. Obviously, it turned out to be successful enough. I always seemed to never get off to a good start, and just after a few battles, I already lost my warrior. I've no weapons, no items and no magic. Some day, I'll do some research on this game and learn how to properly play it, but if I ever do, it's not going to be this version. It's going to be the enhanced PlayStation version. 

Galaga

Space Invaders is perhaps the most iconic game when it comes to arcade-style space shooters, but Galaga takes it to another level. The goal is the same: kill all enemies in a level to move to the next. Instead of alien invasions pretty much remaining static like in Space Invaders, the enemy ships take off in all directions after their formation. They swoop in and out in all different patterns. This version's ok, but I was reminded of a friend I had back when I was kid who had his very own Galaga arcade unit, and that was so much more fun. Also, I'm not sure if there's a way to get an extra ship to fight by your side in this one, because twin ships made the game that much more fun. 

Ghosts'N Goblins

If you think I had much patience to play this game for even 10 minutes, you don't know me very well. Some people consider G'NG to be the grandfather of the Souls games, because the difficulty is BRUTAL. It's cheap, all of it. You can be a master of reflexes and pattern recognition, but you need luck and persistence to make it through this game. I've got a save state on the Genesis Mini, and if I ever go back to beat one of these games, it's going to be that one. For one, I hate how the NES and SNES don't have a way to do a save state that doesn't involve you getting up and hitting the reset button. I know there's a remake of this game out now, but I'm going nowhere near it. 

Gradius

One of the most well-known side-scrolling space shooters around, Gradius is a true classic and tough as nails. The issue is, I have better versions of this game on other mini consoles. Again, the issue is that I have to get up and hit the reset button every time I want to save it. It's just more convenient for me to play on other systems. Gradius is a shooter that is dependent on you building up your power ups and not getting killed, because if you do, you have to start building them up all over again, usually putting you at a huge disadvantage latter in the level. When it comes to games like these, I really do abuse the save states because I just hate starting over again. 

Ice Climber

I know people have a lot of memories with this game, but my only memory is "WHY YOU DO KEEP MISSING THE JUMPS!" Seriously, I'm glad this game's so forgiving, but the amount of times where my character should have made the jump but didn't would be extremely infuriating if I kept dying all the time. I got to Mountain 5 when I felt I finally had enough. I also want to say that I owned this game either in the original Animal Crossing or as an eReader game on the Game Boy Advance. Not sure if I'll ever go back to finish it, though. 

Kid Icarus

For someone who has his own character in Super Smash Bros., Kid Icarus isn't a very prolific series with just three entries in the franchise. I've played the first Kid Icarus before and didn't really take to it, and upon playing it again, I still have the same feeling. I hate that the arrows have such a short range. I entered some room and got completely assaulted by so many flying enemies and because of how ancient these games' controls are, I didn't fare very well. Also, there's some kind of graphics glitch that's messed up the life bar. You only see part of it at first and when you start taking damage, you see a new part of the life bar show up and empty to the RIGHT of what's there. Not sure if that's how it's always been or just a bug in the emulation. 

Kirby's Adventure

For some reason, I thought Kirby was a bit older than this, but this game released in 1993, a year after Kirby's Dreamland introduced everyone to the pink puffball on the Game Boy. Of course, everyone knows Kirby, who has about 30 titles of his own, including a mini golf game on the SNES because of course. The visuals, though, haven't aged very well at all, hardly any better than the Game Boy's, ESPECIALLY since this was a '93 game and NES game graphics kept getting better. I only played a couple of levels and yeah, it's exactly what I remember. Sucking up enemies and taking their powers and cussing when you get hit and your power goes flying off as a star in the other direction, which you have to chase down. Not sure if I ever beat it, though, so maybe I'll go back some time and do it. 

Mario Bros. 

Believe it or not, most people still believe that Mario started his platforming adventures after Donkey Kong with Super Mario Bros., but there was one other game before that: Mario Bros. It's a simple one panel game where you hit the ground underneath turtles and crabs to flip them over and then hop up and kick them off the screen. I actually own this game on the Atari 5200, and based on memory, I do believe the Atari version is better. I played a few rounds and lost interest in it rather quickly. It was far more enjoyable when this was all you had because you didn't have an NES yet.

Mega Man 2

Ah, the Blue Bomber. I still own this game and have beat it multiple times so I don't really need to play it again to talk about it. I tried, though, and unfortunately I'm actually detecting some input lag on the wireless controller adapter. If you know Mega Man games, you know the platforming requires split second reflexes and lag simply cannot be tolerated. Anyway, I love Mega Man 2, so much so that I still argue that it's a better game than Mega Man 3. This reminds me, I still have a Mega Man game collection on the GameCube that I need to go back to and finish. Shame about this input lag, though, because I really was in the mood to play it again.

Metroid

Another classic that started a long running franchise, Metroid introduced us to the interstellar bounty huntress Samus Aran. I've beaten a lot of Metroid games but never the first. The first is unfortunately just too old for me. I tried playing it for a while, but once I became aware of the input lag in Mega Man 2, all of a sudden that was all I could notice. If you remember the early stages of Metroid, you'll remember the vertical stages with lots of platform jumping. Very frustrating with input lag. I do at some point need to return to this game and beat it just so I can say I've beaten all the Metroids I've played. It's just, the series has evolved gameplay-wise so much that it's really hard to go back to the basics, especially since there's no map!

Ninja Gaiden

Like Ghosts'N Goblins, this one can stay in the recesses of my mind. Hard for hard's sake and I've found it almost unplayable today. I hate that you get stuck on walls and can't simply drop down. Too easy to get set up for cheap one-hit deaths when  you get bumped off a platform. Back in the day, this game was awesome, but again, I just can't find this version enjoyable anymore. I have the superior version on the TurboGrafx Mini, but I have no desire to go back to that one anymore either. I also just remembered I used to have a Ninja Gaiden Tiger Electronics handheld game. Oh man, those were... terrible.

Pacman

What can I say? It's Pacman, probably the only video game icon more recognizable than Mario. This version is just basic Pacman, nothing special. I wanted to play more of it, but again, it's the damn input lag from the wireless controller that's screwing things up. I really need quicker controls to make some of these turns. If I want to play this again, it's going to have to be with the wired controller. 

Punch-Out!!

Maybe I'm getting tired.. maybe it's just the controller... I cannot freaking beat Glass Joe. I think it's the stupid stamina system they put in that's screwing me up. The far superior Super Punch-Out!! makes me never want to return to this one again, regardless of its classic status. Also, if you boot this version of the game up, you'll see two copyright dates, one in 1987 and one in 1990.  If you know, you know... I won't put any controversy in this blog post. Some day when I'm feeling in the mood, I'll return to it because I would like to see if I can at least get past Glass Joe. 

StarTropics

"Dr, Jones, no time for love!" Ok, so it's not an Indiana Jones game, but it does involve you saving your uncle - I think? - whose name is Dr. Jones. This is an action adventure game that involves you jumping on a lot of tiles. I stuck with it until the boss of the first dungeon, but I ended up dying and had to start the dungeon all over again. Just not in the mood for an ancient game like this. Also, you'll never convince me that star you're given is nothing more than a yo-yo. I do know that StarTropics is a great game if you just give it a chance, but it's gonna be a while before I give it one.  

Super C

 "The C stands for Contra." I'm sure I've heard that from somewhere. Anyway, the very first thing I tried was the Konami code, but the classic Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start didn't work. The code that did work was a much different version, and it only gave me 10 lives instead of 30. Turns out, only the Japanese version bequeaths 30 lives. Huh... Anyway, Contra is another well-established franchise by Konami that they've done hardly anything with as of late, yet Super C remains to be a solid game. I just really, really suck at it. To my credit, I did manage to beat the far superior Contra III: The Alien Wars, but I've never in my life been able to beat the original games. Some day... 

Super Mario Bros.

Do...do I really need to talk about this? The one NES game that EVERYONE has played in a million different versions? I can't count how many times I own this game, including a Game and Watch that I bought last year. Anyway, I tried to play a few levels, but again, this damn input lag is infuriating me! The game as anyone knows has tight controls, and when you need to do precision platform jumping, you just cannot have any input lag. Anyway, I warped, to 4-1 and that's when it all got worse. Once I ran out of lives, that was enough for me. 

Super Mario Bros. 2

Do I really need to talk about this one too? I'm sure everyone who played the first has played the second. Well, I guess I can say that some people might not know that SMB2 didn't start out as a Super Mario game. Instead, it was originally called Doki Doki Panic in Japan. The original Super Mario Bros. 2 was released later in the states as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. If I remember correctly, the Japanese SMB2 was believed to be too hard for Western gamers, so instead, Nintendo of America repurposed Doki Doki Panic as SMB2, which is why outside of Super Mario Odyssey and Sunshine, it is the most bizarre game in the series. Anyway, I played a couple of levels until once again, I got fed up with the input lag. I know, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Why don't you just plug a wired controller in?" The whole point of me even revisiting these minis is because I'm testing out my wireless adapter, but I digress. I also love that in SMB2, you can also play as Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach, each one of them having their own advantages. Anyone who remembers the desert level knows Toad is ace there. 

Super Mario Bros. 3

Come on... seriously? I need to talk about this one too? Well, if you must know, it stands as my all time favorite SMB game... of uh, all time. It was when the series truly began to evolve in all aspects. It introduced the overworld with stops along the way that had mini games to earn more lives. It had all sorts of gameplay improvements such as power ups and being able to hold shells and still has in my honest opinion the best collection of suits in any Mario game. The Galaxy games came close, but seriously, I need a frog suit again. Come on, Nintendo!  Plus, I feel this entry had the best soundtrack before Nintendo decide to go orchestral. 

Tecmo Bowl

I've never been into football games, so I never played this game when I was a kid. I know all my friends were really into it, though, and props for having the Denver Broncos in it. I tried playing a game and I got fed up when I threw two interceptions. It doesn't really hold any meaning for me, so I didn't bother trying to finish the game. I did think it was pretty cool, though, that there were a few voices in the game, which was big for 8-bit games back then. 

The Legend of Zelda

I'm not going to bother replaying this game, because this was one of those games I did spend some time on when I first got my NES Classic. It's a game that I've never beaten but I've never been compelled to actually go back and do. It's a bit aimless, and the gameplay is obviously stiff being a game of its era. It's just every Zelda after this and Zelda II have just been so much more fun to play. Some day, though, I'll go back to it and actually beat it. 

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Same with Zelda II, I'm not going to spend time revisiting this one just because its still fresh in my mind when I replayed it when I first got the Classic. I do remember this was one game my friends got when it first came out and we spent loads of time trying to finish. It's just stupidly hard for all the wrong reasons, and like Simon's Quest, it was variation from what made the original game so great. Like the first, I never finished but to be honest, I simply have no desire to, not even on my most bored day. 

If you read the whole thing, thank you. You're the real MVP. I'll have the SNES blog out in a few days. I think I need a bit of a break from old games. 

Looks Like I'm Getting Another Mini Console: Sega Astro City Mini

This is the Sega Astro City Mini, a miniature arcade that contains 37 games. They are as follows: 

• Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (with Stella)
• Alien Storm
• Alien Syndrome
• Altered Beast
• Arabian Fight **
• Bonanza Bros. *
• Columns **
• Columns II
• Cotton **
• Crack Down
• Cyber Police ESWAT
• Dark Edge **
• Dottori Kun (Dot Race)
• Fantasy Zone
• Flicky
• Gain Ground **
• Golden Axe
• Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder **
• My Hero
• Puyo Puyo *
• Puyo Puyo 2 *
• Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R *
• Puzzle & Action: Tant-R *
• Rad Mobile
• Quartet 2
• Scramble Spirits **
• Sega Ninja
• Shadow Dancer **
• Shinobi
• Sonic Boom
• Space Harrier
• Stack Columns *
• Thunder Force AC
• Virtua Fighter
• Wonder Boy
• Wonder Boy in Monster Land *
• Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

As you can see, that's a crapload of games, and they're also the arcade versions, not Master System and Genesis games. Some, obviously, I am not familiar, while others I am and can't wait to play again. The main one I wanted is Virtua Fighter, because I've never owned that game, and another real treat will be the arcade versions of Altered Beast, Shinobi, and Golden Axe. God, the number of quarters I had wasted on those games.... I'm hoping that there will be unlimited continues here. 

If you want to get one yourself, I'm afraid you're out of luck, unless you want to go to eBay or Play-Asia. Limited Run Games only did a very small run for the US of 3,500 units! I got the email yesterday morning that the preorders went live, but of course by the time I checked the website, they were sold out. They were going to do a second and final batch at 4 PM MDT, so I made sure that I had my window ready to go. I was logged in and kept refreshing while that countdown timer got closer to zero. Finally, the Add to Cart button popped up and I was off to the races! 

Oh, but hold on. I was put in que. I started panicking a little bit, because I was afraid I was already too late. I also put the separate game pad in my cart as well, so it was just a matter of time before being allowed to check out. When I got to the checkout screen, to my dismay, the game pad was already sold out, but the Mini itself wasn't. I think it was because I had to spend a few extra seconds putting in my payment information that cost me the gamepad. Oh well, I'm not too concerned about I'm sure I can find one later on. Then when I finished checking out, I refreshed and not a minute later, the system was sold out. Looks I like I lucked out again. Man, preordering has really become a major headache lately. 

The funny thing about this mini arcade is that I knew it was coming, but didn't really know how badly I wanted it until I found out how limited it was. Just knowing that I could finally own Virtua Fighter in some capacity was enough to make me try to get one. I think it'll be a novel idea to be able to play arcade games on the go (although you'll need a USB battery pack, since there's no built in battery, which is a huge drawback) and hooking it up to the TV via HDMI to play at home. I've never owned a mini arcade system before, so I'm really looking forward to this. 

Looking over the list of games again, I doubt I'll even bother with most of them, as the ones I'd probably play I already own versions of on the Sega Mini. I do want to point out one game, though, and that's Rad Mobile. Ever seen Encino Man?

Although I couldn't find the clip of Brendan Fraser's Link playing Rad Mobile, I did find the one where he thinks driving in real life is Rad Mobile. It was a really cool reference, and I'm trying to remember if I ever played the game, although I'm pretty sure I have. It'll be nice to own the actual arcade version of it. 

So yeah, my collection of mini consoles keeps growing. I think I'll do what I did with the other mini consoles and blog some quick impressions of the games as I play them. So, look forward to those!

My Current Thoughts on the Jobs of Final Fantasy XIV

Because I've been playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV, I thought I'd write out some of my thoughts about all the different jobs I've been leveling since the game launched back in 2013. I'll group them by their roles and talk about them individually. Also, when I refer to 'high level', I mean level 70 and above. Currently, I have every job to at least 70.

Tank

Before I get into this, I just want to talk about the role of tanking. When I first started playing Final Fantasy XIV, I was an Archer during the beta, then an Arcanist/Summoner when the game launched. I spent most of my initial run as strictly DPS (damage per second, a term I still don't personally like. When I played FFXI, it was DD for damage dealer, which just made more sense to me). The early days of FFXIV had tanks marking their targets in order for DPS to focus attacks on. Keeping an eye out for any new monsters popping up (adds) and positioning bosses correctly during fights made this role very intimidating for me. Somewhere down the road, though, I decided I wanted to play everything, so I sucked it up and tried a tank out. I don't remember which one I started out with. 

Paladin - One of the original jobs, the paladin evolved from the starting job of gladiator. The PLD job has always been about defense over offense, so much so that I still find it to be the most boring out of the four tank jobs. Healers love them because of their high defense, which means that more brazen healers could DPS more often. PLD saw the removal of one of their most used skills, Flash which increase aggro/enmity and blinded mobs, when it was reworked in Shadowbringer. I loved the sound and flash that Flash made, but one of Shadowbringer's focuses on pretty much all jobs was increasing their AoE (Area of Effect) skills so PLD got a couple of AoE slashes to make up for their lack of the adorned Flash. High level PLDs are a little more fun to play but the lack of offense still has me leaning towards pretty much any other tank. 

Warrior - Another original tank job, the warrior began as the marauder. Its quest line was rather enjoyable dealing with pirates and an NPC named Curious George that remains one of my favorites. The warrior's main crowd control move is Overpower, a cone-shaped frontal attack that deals damage and raises enmity, but the issue with Overpower was that you had to position the group of mobs correctly for the attack to hit them all. In the early days, it was rough learning how to be play as a Warrior because directional-based melee DPS couldn't be efficient if you were constantly moving the mobs around. Overpower also consumed TP (technical points), and it was very easy to run out of TP if you weren't good at crowd control. Shadowbringer actually did away with the concept of TP, and the game plays much better without it. As Warrior progressed, many damage-based skills were unlocked and activated with a Wrath meter, and high level Warrior is probably still my favorite of the tank jobs. It's very satisfying to unleash your wrath and watch you do big numbers to the boss, even as a tank. The only downside was that Warriors were offense over defense so they died a lot to inexperienced healers. 

Dark Knight - Dark Knight was a new job in the Heavensward expansion. Heavensward also took a departure from the main game's jobs and didn't require you starting over at level 1, and you didn't need to level a previous job to evolve from. I still have issues with that decision, because it's a lot to take in when you start a new job and have a full hotbar of skills you've no idea how to use, but I digress. I played DRK in FFXI, and it was a straight up damage dealer, so seeing them turn this job into a tank took me by surprise. Granted, it does more damage than PLD (anything does, actually) it was still counter-intuitive to actually be the DRK that took all the hits. In FFXI, it was highly recommended NOT to get hit as a DRK because they had very little defense. Also, because of FFXIV's jobs being bound to one type of weapon, that means DRKs were stuck with great swords and the days of seeing scythe-wielding DRKs were over. Still, DRK was very much fun to play because of all the cool-looking and sounding effects. Pre-Shadowbringer DRKs were a bit harder to play, though, because of MP management as most of their skills consumed MP, but Shadowbringer tweaked them making MP management a non-issue. 

Gunbreaker - Having skipped a new tank with Stormblood, Shadowbringer introduced a fan-favorite weapon wielder: the Gunbreaker. You may have recognized the gun/sword hybrid gunblade as a weapon of choice by Squall from Final Fantasy VIII. Gunbreaker has very quickly become one of my favorite tanks, just edging out Dark Knight and falling slightly behind Warrior. Gunbreaker's all about keeping your gunblade loaded with ammo from combos, dealing DoTs (damage over time), swinging your sword around for crowd control and unleashing punishing gunblade shot-enhanced slashing combos. When you get in the rhythm, Gunbreaker is very fun to play, but it has one of the worst near death abilities of all tanks, Super Bolide. This move makes you immune to almost all attacks, but drops your HP to 1, and this freaked out many a healer. They usually panic not knowing what's going on and before they can heal you, your Super Bolide wears off and you die. I very rarely even use it. If I die, I die. The job was also used prominently in the story as two main characters took on the role of swinging around gunblades. 

Healer

Just like tanks, I was scared to try to healing. For the first 30 or so jobs, healing wasn't very hard to do, but it was somewhere around level 30, the dungeon called Haukke Manor, that the game started to take off the kid glove. I remember the first time I tried to heal that dungeon, it did not go well. Before Stormbringer, there was a move called Cleric Stance that increased your healing potency. Turning it on increased your damage output. I loved to DPS while I healed, but trying to find the balance in juggling this stance while keeping everyone healed overwhelmed me at that point. Many people try to heal, fail and then never heal again. Because I'm stubborn, I kept at it and eventually could heal my way through almost every dungeon. 

White Mage - One of FFXIV's original jobs, WHM stems from the job Conjurer and is regularly considered the defacto healer of FFXIV for its pure healing potency and Holy spam. Although Scholar is no slouch either, WHM is simply an overall better healer with more DPS output. As I mentioned before, earlier WHM was tricky to balance DPS and heals because of Cleric Stance, but once that was removed, it was much easier to play as WHM. I would usually keep myself in the middle of the fray and just not care about being hit because I'd simply heal out of it. WHM was also one of the few jobs that had an exclusive mount that could be earned from its storyline. I wasn't around when SE greatly altered WHM between Stormblood and Shadowbringer, but from what I've read, a lot of handy abilities were removed, but from the high level WHM runs I've been doing, I wouldn't have known. 

Scholar - This job's an oddity. Another original job, Scholar evolved from the Arcanist job but so does Summoner. Regardless of what you choose at that point, the other will level alongside you. Early SCH and SMN shared stat points, so if one went SCH, they would have poor Intelligence and weak offense. If one went SMN, they would have poor Mind and weak restorative power. This required a complete reset and redistribution of one's stats if they wanted to switch to the other job and play effectively. Thankfully, that was fixed a couple expansions ago. As for SCH itself, although I've always had access to it, I never really bothered to play with it mid to high level unless it was to heal easy content. Accompanied by a summoned fairy that provided healing and buff support, in theory it meant that healing shouldn't be too hard. Plus, the job had a good amount of damage mitigation abilities, but I never really liked the fact that the job's healing output was on the low side. I do believe SCH is far better at 80, though. 

Astrologist - Heavensward introduced this new class, a rather tricky one to play. There have been very many bad ASTs, so much so that people refer to them as Asstrologists. It's an interesting job, nonetheless, as it plays a support role along with healing due to the cards the AST draws. Early AST used to have very specific cards, each of the six increasing a job-related stat, and good use of drawing cards meant that everyone's stats would be increased regularly. In Shadowbringer, the card system was reworked splitting the six cards in two groups that enhance damage for either ranged or melee jobs. Even though WHM far outclasses AST in terms of healing potency, I do enjoy the numerous different abilities AST has. It's just far easier for me to panic when the tank decides to do multiple pulls at once. 

DPS

As I already mentioned, I dislike the term DPS, or Damage Per Second. They are split into three different subgroups: Ranged, Melee and Magic, but when queing for regularly duties, it doesn't really matter what type. 

Ranged

Bard - An FFXIV original job, it evolved from the Archer, which was the very first job I played when I tried out the beta in 2013. I played BRD in FFXI, which was completely different as it wasn't considered DPS. It was purely support. An archer in FFXI was actually a Ranger, and that job did a lot of damage, but was dependent on the player supplying their own arrows. When I started playing Archer in FFXIV, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't need my own arrows. When I evolved to BRD, I started having more fun with it because of the songs I was able to play. Early BRD's songs were more job-specific depending on who was in the group. If someone was magical, there were songs for that. Melee, the same. But after Shadowbringer, songs pretty much only benefit you to activate procs (procedural actions) for increased damage. I still enjoy the job, though. Plus, it's nice to have a BRD for Peloton to help speed up the movement of the party. 

Machinist - This was the third and final addition that Heavensward brought. The MCH's weapon of choice was a firearm, something that a lot of people were looking forward to. I think after level 40, MCHs also gained the ability to spawn a drone for extra damage. Early MCHs used to have to keep their weapons loaded with rounds in order to do significant damage, but Shadowbringer scrapped the ammo mechanic entirely replacing it with an overheating mechanic for the gun and a battery for the drone. At one point, MCHs even got some BRD abilities as both jobs were viewed similar enough to benefit from a little homogenization. I do enjoy the changes they made to MCH, as I think it's easier and more fun to play, and high level MCHs have some really kickass heavy damage abilities. 

Dancer - The second of the two new jobs Shadowbringer introduced, DNC is a rather powerful support DPS. Being able to deal a burst of AoE when dancing, the DNC also increases the attack of a paired party member. Abilities to increase attack for the entire party as well as a one-off party healing ability and a defense buff make a well-experienced DNC an essential job to have in any party. It does take some attention to play, though, as your dance steps have to be executed in order, and they are a lot of fun to watch when they're dancing. 

Magic

Summoner - Ahh, the Summoner, my main. Like Scholar, it also evolved from the Arcanist. I used to love playing SMN in FFXI, but I gave up early on when some of the best summons could only be obtained by defeating their level 70+ versions. I was hoping that FFXIV's summoner would have been as fun to play, but the array of what it could do was greatly reduced. FFXI's summoner had at least 10 different summons, each one of them having different uses, but even after eight years, FFXIV's SMN still only has the same four: Carbuncle, Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan. Even then, the latter three aren't even the same representations of the actual summons, just weird-looking "Egi" versions. As for playing the job itself, it's very fun because I've always liked jobs with pets. Early Summoner was more complicated to play because of different situational abilities depending on what type of summon you had out. It was also considered more of an AoE magic job while Black Mage was more single target focused, but Shadowbringer reworked both jobs to be more even. I still think SMN edges out BLM when it comes to AoE damage as high level SMN can call Demi Bahamut and Demi Phoenix for a lot of beautiful, bright blasting. I guess technically, you can say SMN has six summons, but I can't count Demi Bahamut and Phoenix as you can only summon those when certain conditions have been met. Anyway, as I said, this is my main, so this is the only job that I spend doing post content with in order to get better armor. 

Black Mage - Yet another FFXIV original job, BLM stemmed from the Thaumaturge. I remember first hearing about the Thaumaturge job and had to Google that word. To be perfectly honest, BLM is the hardest job for me to play. It has to do with the BLM's states of Astral Fire and Umbral Ice. Depending on which state you're in, it affects damage potency and MP consumption, and if you want to be effective, you have to have a good rotation and keep it up. As the BLM got higher in level, it only became more complicated, and at 70, I've yet another ability that is tied to me keeping my rotation going. When I tried to use it again after not playing for a couple of years, I was actually panicking and screwing up badly and I could just hear the other players saying to themselves "Man, this guy sucks." But I was just out of practice. The real problem, however, is since spells take longer to cast than other magic jobs, it's very hard to stay efficient because you're always having to move to avoid getting hit by enemy AoEs. 

Red Mage - I believe it was Stormblood that introduced the Red Mage. Unlike other jobs FFXIV introduced, RDM was the closest to what I actually remember playing in FFXI. It casts both offensive and healing magic and can even melee, although melee effectiveness is based on building up black and white mana, and that's the tricky part. You have white and black spells you have to cast alternatively, but you also need to cast your basic Jolt spell first in order to get a Dualcast proc that lets you instantly cast the next spell. If you aren't paying attention, casting can take too long and you won't be efficient. Once you build up enough white and black mana, you can rush in, do a melee combo for huge damage, and rush back out to safety. High level RDMs gain the ability to follow up the melee combos with powerful Verholy and Verflares. I love playing RDMs, but I admit that it can be hard to play because I have to pay more attention to it because of the Dualcast proc, or I really start messing up. 

Blue Mage - I almost forgot about this one entirely. Scratch what I said about RDM being the closest to the FFXI jobs. Blue Mage is exactly what it was like in FFXI. Introduced in the tail end of Stormblood, BLU is an outlier as it's considered a limited job meaning that you can't use it to run normal duties as it has potential to break the game. In order to learn spells, the BLU has to have enemy spells used on them, and certain spells cast in conjunction with one another can one hit entire groups of mobs. One of my favorite spells is Bad Breath. Yes, that menacing spell the malboros use the inflict 10 status effects on you. One of my favorite moments with BLU was when I used Bad Breath on a malboro. HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, HUH?  Anyway, instead of spending time running normal content with BLU, BLU players spend the majority of their time tracking down and learning over 100 monster spells and abilities. There's a Blue Mage log that can be used to organize dungeon runs with other BLUs and there's an event called the Masked Carnival that caters tailor-made single player instances where you can earn currency to buy specific BLU gear. Also, they benefit from a massive experience boost when soloing out in the open world. I really enjoyed playing it, but they're currently only capped at level 70 and I wish I could keep going to 80. 

Melee

Dragoon - An original job of FFXIV, the DRG evolves from the Lancer. Now, I used to main a DRG in Final Fantasy XI and one of the best things I loved about that job was being accompanied by a young wyvern. Sadly, the DRG in FFXIV is solitary. But, the DRGs do jump! In fact, so many early DRGs still learning the ropes jumped at the worst times always putting themselves in danger, some even leaping to their deaths. It was a running gag for a while that "dragoons gonna dragoon." Early DRGs also had a lot of positional-based moves, but Shadowbringer got rid of most of that. Once DRG entered 60, it was given the state Blood of the Dragon, a very cool effect of a blue dragoon enwrapping your character and allowing you to pull off some punishing moves. It was also the focal job of Heavensward, since that expansion was all about dragons and everyone's favorite dragoon Estenien. At 70, it's only gotten better, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it plays at 80. 

Monk - My least favorite of the melee jobs and another original job, MNK got its beginnings as a Pugilist. I also used to play one in FFXI, but of course, the MNK in FFXIV is vastly different. Still a damage dealer at heart, MNK not only has to pay attention to positional attacks, but also to the form they're in. In order to be effective, you had to know your rotation and what stances to change into in order pull off certain moves. Early MNK was somewhat frowned upon in lower level dungeons as they weren't very effective with AoE attacks. As per usual, Stormbringer fixed this giving them a much needed boost. High level MNK has actually been pretty enjoyable since I have many more abilities to use and am not just spamming the same three attack combo all the time. 

Ninja - Introduced in the tail end of A Realm Reborn (2.0), Ninja grew from the job Rogue. Rogue was FFXIV's Thief, a job I mained in FFXI. As usual, FFXIV completely reinvented jobs I was used to. FFXI's THF had a mechanic called Sneak Attack Trick Attack which allowed you to pull off a very damaging attack behind the tank and the mob would think the tank was the one that hit it and it would increase enmity. Since tanks in FFXIV don't need assistance in keeping enmity, Rogues no longer needed this mechanic. They still kept Sneak Attack, though. When they changed into Ninja, they began to learn ninjitsu, but this was a mechanic I still haven't 100 percent perfected yet. To cast ninjitsu, you have to hit 1-3 buttons in a certain order, and then cast the spell. You can throw fireballs, lightning bolts, increase your movement speed and enter a state where you can execute Sneak Attack without being hidden. Add in a couple of extra AoE abilities and a few extra ninjitsu spells and you've got a very busy job, but I like it though. When I'm in the zone, playing as NIN is very satisfying. The one real problem with this job, though, is that it only takes a little bit of lag to ruin your ninjitsu summoning. 

Samurai - The star job of Stormblood's campaign, the Samurai was the new melee addition in that expansion. Just as with NIN, SAM requires the player to pay close attention to what they're doing in order to be as effective as possible. Powerful moves are can only be executed when you obtain the symbols Ka, Getsu and Setsu, and you need to remember which combinations do what. SAMs are particularly powerful against singular targets, but they're no slouch when it comes to AoEs either. They've only gotten stronger with Shadowbringer's retoolings as well. I really enjoy playing as SAM building up my gauges and symbols and unleashing nasty strikes. Plus, it's one of the best sounding jobs as well when that katana gets to slicing. 

Gatherers

A downside to FFXI was that it was rather easy to go broke very quickly, especially if you played a job like Ranger where you had to supply your own arrows. This isn't the case with FFXIV. Not only does the story campaign and side quests provide you with enough gil to get you through the game, you can literally make money right off the bat just by leveling any of the three gatherers.

Fisher - To be honest, fishing isn't for everyone. It is the slowest of all the jobs to level. As expected, fishing requires you to stand in one spot, cast a line, wait for a bit and reel it in. ... Over and over and over again. Fisher has also had a problematic history in the game as it doesn't have very many really interesting abilities, and a lot of the fish you hook hold almost no marketable value. It has gotten better over time and in Stormblood, the ability to dive underwater was added, so you could actually spearfish. But fisher was also more of a struggle to level quest-wise as you had to sit through a bunch of casts that net you fish you didn't need. I only have my FSH at 80 because of the insane XP bonuses the recently added beast tribe quests offered. I do remember having some fond memories with my old Grand Company members, though. We would try to hook legendary fishes and just took a break from the rest of the game and chatted while we waited for a bite. 

Botanist/Miner - I'm lumping the two together because they play exactly the same. As a BTN/MIN, you go around the world looking for mining and harvesting nodes. When you inspect one, you see a list of gatherable materials. Your gathering success rate is determined by your level and gear, and you can use a number of abilities to raise the chances of getting higher quality items that nets more XP and more money. One of the fastest ways to make early money was just being a BTN/MIN, harvesting crystals and selling them to crafters. The one thing that annoys me about gathering, though, was having to wait for certain nodes to appear to get rare materials. I really dislike scheduling my day around having to show up at certain places at certain times. 

Crafters

I'm not going to bother going into detail about every job, as they all play exactly the same now in Shadowbringer. Before SB, they each had their own specific moves that you could share across other jobs, but SB removed shared abilities altogether and made one unified moves list. Anyway, if you really were serious about making money in FFXIV, you probably spent hundreds of hours crafting. It was the perfect way to be self-sufficient because if you needed anything, you could just make it yourself. If you had enough materials to make several, you simply sold the extras. If you leveled your gatherers along with your crafters, you wanted for absolutely nothing. That's what I did in the early days. I leveled all the crafters and gatherers and became rich. Although I'm still leveling them, I doubt I'll spend any time making more gil just because I really don't need or want to buy anything. I have roughly 30 million at the time of this writing and I sell all the stuff I get from doing dungeon runs and whatnot, and that's more than enough to live on. 

If you made it through this long post, thank you so much! If you play FFXIV, what are your current thoughts on the jobs? Do you play just one or a handful or are you like me and play everything? If you don't play FFXIV, I hope this blog gave you a good idea of what it's like. Thanks again for reading!

Returning to Eorzea Yet Again

Final Fantasy XIV is technically 11 years old. Launching in 2010 on PC with plans for a PS3 release months afterward, FFXIV was not met with much critical acclaim. In fact, it was met with disdain. The game was so broken on so many fundamental levels that Square-Enix made the tough decision to literally nuke the game world and reboot it three years later. 

In 2013, I got my first taste of FFXIV on the PS3 when I lucked out and got a beta invite. Still somewhat fresh from FFXI, the quality of life changes were numerous. The game played faster, the combat was more involving, I didn't need to stock arrows as an archer. I was instantly hooked. At the end of September of that year when the game officially relaunched, I was there day one and blew through the main story. Left with nothing to do, I began leveling jobs and doing post-content dungeon runs to improve my gear. Knowing how addicted I was to FFXI, I was afraid I was getting addicted to FFXIV all over again, so I made the decision to delete my character and cancel my subscription about two months later. That... was a mistake. 

It turns out, I couldn't shake the pull of FFXIV, and I ended up starting up all over again a year or two later when the first expansion Heavensward (3.0) was released in 2015. Because I had to redo everything I did in A Realm Reborn (2.0), I sacrificed pretty much all my free time to get back up to what I was doing. With the main storyline finished, I went back to leveling the other jobs and once again got burned out. I quit yet again, but this time did not make the same mistake of deleting my character. I merely canceled my sub and moved on. 

In 2017, SE released FFXIV's second expansion with Stormblood (4.0) and this one was epic. More new jobs, more new dungeons, an Asian-inspired world and storyline, I was once again hooked. This time, I had no more catching up to do, so I didn't feel the same amount of pressure to keep playing. After finishing the main story, I tried to level up my other jobs to get them to the level 70 cap, but I lost interest a few levels before I got there. Even though I played it a good amount of it, I felt it easier to break free.

With the third expansion Shadowbringer (5.0) release in 2019, for the fifth time I started up my subscription again. I found myself enjoying this story more than any previous expansion, but I did have several issues with all the reworks they did to the jobs and combat. Once I got acclimated, I found the game even easier to play and tore right through the storyline. I tried once more to get my other jobs up, but once the first patch 5.1 released, something changed. I couldn't even finish getting through the first new cutscene. I just up and quit and started enjoying other games again. 

Now in 2021, a new expansion Endwalker (6.0) is scheduled to release this fall. On top of that, a PS5 beta is scheduled for April and my friend even said he'll play it with me, so I got compelled to start up the sub again and work on getting caught up. It took longer than I thought to get caught up on the story, and now I'm currently working through my jobs to get them into the Shadowbringer content. 

My current feelings on the game are that I want to keep playing, but I'm constantly feeling the pull by other games as well. I started Bravely Default II a week or two ago, and it doesn't help that I simply can't get into that game much, but that's another blog entry. Unlike my first year or two, I don't let the game consume me that much where I don't do anything other than play FFXIV. I still take breaks to read and I still take my nightly walks. I still have PS5 games I want to play, and there are other big games that are coming out soon that I'll want to get into, but so far, my desire to get the other jobs up to 80 seems to be pretty strong. If only Bravely Default II was better... 

We'll see what happens, though. I'm waiting for the right game to come across that will finally make me quit FFXIV for a while, but it's also going to be harder as I kinda want to keep playing to justify the six month sub I just paid for. I'm really enjoying getting reacquainted with all the jobs again, and I can't wait to take them through the new dungeons. I've also really enjoyed experiencing their own storylines, and when I look at it that way, it's not really just a "I got to grind everything!"

Even though I'm trying not to play as much, it is a game that's technically incomplete on my backlog. I'm hoping that Endwalker might be the final expansion based on the name and how the current Shadowbringer story has ended, but I heard them say they might run it another five years, which would mean at least two more expansions. FFXIV has been the most costly game I've ever played. The base game, three expansions, at least four years of sub services... I'm trying to determine if it's really all worth it, but the way I'm looking at it is I've invested so much time in the game that it would almost be a waste to not see the game through to the very end. If Endwalker isn't the end, maybe I might have to reevaluate. Can FFXIV really last another 10 years? Will it finally make the move into free to play? If that's the case, it would make playing it another 10 years a much easier decision. Even so, the trend seems to be six months on, a year and a half off. That seems like a reasonable place to me.