Buttons, Adventures of a Tarutaru.

Happy Holidays from Eorzea.

2011-12-19T13:38:00.000+01:00

Happy Holidays everyone!! Wow it's been a long time since my last post. Sorry for that. But here I am again with some newer and older screenshots for your enjoyment. ^_^/

It's so much fun hanging out with friends in Uldah. This is also the last screenshot I got with Graham before he disappeared. We miss you Graham, please come back!

Doing the lv20 Pugilist quest.

More fun Ifrit battles!

My bench sure was popular. :o Went afk and came back to this. :D

I also started levelling my THM again.

Mage Shiha and Buttons!

I love my friends and LS.

My THM hit lv50 in Natalan. Thanks to my LS for the help! Auxie and Hunty also hit lv50 that day. ^_^

I finished the last THM storyline quest, wow that Lalafell was evil. @.@

One day after I hit lv50 on my THM Ifrit gave me his cudgel, yay!

Farming the turban for my Lancer in Zaharak with the LS. Thanks for the help guys, even if it took countless hours.

I love my turban!

Fear the Lalafell trio of doom!

Ulmy preparing to ulmy-backhand-slap Hunty. xD

Farming the Sentinenl body-piece and er.. going to sleep? :3

Hunty got his Ifrit harpoon! Congratulations.

Lalafell line <3

Getting into the Christmas spirit with Hunty and Auxie. :)

With patch 1.2 also came the new and improved christmas event. This year the winter is slow in coming so I need to help builg a gigantic snowman!

*throws snowball at the snowman*

The reward this year are these amazing reindeer outfits. xD

Looky, the event artwork is even in-game!

I love the new /happy emote.

derp!

Happy Holidays!

I did some of the new grand company quests which expand the main storyline and WOW, things are getting interesting...

I reached the highest company rank. :D

Snowball fight!

Doing the new pre-requisite NM fights with the LS, so we can challenge the king of moogles in combat.

Tree monsters!

Cutscene intro to the moogle battle, so cute!

The music for the moogle battle is so amazing. It has to be the catchiest tune I have ever heard. <3

We didn't win the fight, but it was a lot of fun trying.

My linkshell has already won the fight so I hope I get to join soon. I really want to win as well and get the Moogle wand and cane. I love them, so cute.

That's all for today. Happy Holidays everyone. Spend this amazing time of the year with your friends, loved ones and family. So happy holidays from all us Lalafell in Eorzea and see you again soon! ^___^/

Ifrit, Lalafell friends and Halloween in Eorzea.

2011-10-30T14:56:00.001+01:00

Time for my Halloween post! Hope you guys are all doing well. Let's get started with some new screenies.

I met Petyr the journalist for Limsa Lominsa. I gave him an interview in German the one day and in English the next. Plus I also listened to Delea giving him a french interview. :D

Eldy crafted this awesome set for my Conjurer.

Waiting for Bebe in Limsa.

Bebe crafted this awesome Lancer set for me. Thank you!

We had a cross LS event and went to U'Ghamaro mines. Was fun.

Wiped on our first try lol.

We made it to the NM room and successfully killed the NM a few times. :D

Such fun chaos.

Shiha showing me his little chocobo.

Lalafell friends.

Barriath is known for his erm unique fashion sense, so he asked that I post this picture of him. :D

I did this cool quest in Ul'dah where you see Raubahn fighting.

OMG the sultana of Ul'dah is a Lalafell!

Bebe showing me his Ifrit blade. So cool.

Delea got an Ifrit bow! *__*

My first Ifrit fight, we wiped lol.

Halloween Buttons!

After 3 more failed attempts we won!

Not only did we win, but I got Ifrit's Harpoon and Sleepy got Ifrit's Staff! Thank you soo much guys!

Hunty and Mousy-taru both hit lv50 Conjurer! Congrats you two.

My gladiator is lv36 now so I did a few of the gladiator class quests.

I feel so bad for beating a little Lalafell. :(

Killed old-six arms a bit to get Hunty the lance he drops.

Looky, I now has a Lalafell army in coats!

Helping Bebe farm some ingredients for craft attempts.

Afterwards I got invited by her LS Cafe Latte to do Ifrit. We beat him in under 6minutes on that run, if only I had take a screenshot lol.

Shiha got the bow he wanted and Niruru got an awesome axe from Ifrit.

One big family!

More awesome Halloween decorations in Limsa and Gridania. Really well done in my opinion.

Delea has done so many Ifrit runs she now has one of each of weapon. So amazing. Congrats Delea! (I really want that staff lol, I'll get it too! *__*/)

I love this staff, so cool.

That's all for today. I wish everyone a Happy Halloween and all the best~~ See you next time. ^_^/

Loving patch 1.19. ^_^

2011-10-07T18:12:00.002+02:00

Hey everyone. Patch 1.19 has hit and I have been having tons of fun. So time for a new blog update.

Here are a few screenies pre-patch:

Dancing with Graham, a new Lalafell in our LS.

Avaxx fell through the floor and got stuck haha.

Goofing off with friends in Uldah, dang Chim's undies are revealing o.o

He danced for us.

Telli was not impressed. xD

Saw the games first female Roegedym, the Admiral of Limsa Lominsa in a quest. So cool.

Camping the ultra rare Snurble mobs for their tufts right before the patch.

Yay, got one.

After the patch I went to the airship dock in Limsa.

Getting on another airship. :D

Did my company quests and saw the speeches of all the leaders of the different countries.
Gridania.

Uldah.

Limsa Lominsa

I decided to join Gridania's Grand Company so I went to do the quest and saw Cid again.

Yay.

I also was now able to receive my own personal chocobo, here I am picking him up.

Meet Mini, Button's trusty friend and Lalafell-sized Chocobo.

Zoooom!

New Materia Goblin. o.o

Showing Mini to Auxie.

Exploring the new low level 15 cave.

Last boss was easy at my level but I bet it's a challenge for new players. First coeurl mob in FFXIV too, so cool.

My new /salute.

Doing the quest to unlock the level 25 encounter with Ifrit.

Fight!

He ran away from us!

Uh oh...

I am Buttons. Buttons Taru!

This can't be good.

o.o

Eep he is gonna launch a blast of pure aetheryte energy at us innocent Lalafell, ruun!

Niru and Buttons in their new fancy company coats.

Helping Ulmy in Mor Dhona with a quest.

Helping Secret with his quest to get a chocobo.

Graham in his fancy robes I gave him.

Shiha and Buttons!

Taroo making materia.

Uldah airship dock.

One of the new beastman strongholds. We went there to get treasure and to grind XP to turn our old gear into materia.

Buttons making his first materia!

Helping Delea and Auxie with their lv25 ifrit fight.

Making more materia!

That's all for today. Patch 1.19 really is amazing and I am so happy at how good the game is becoming. See you guys next time. ^_^/

Rank 50 Lancer Buttons!

2011-09-19T11:04:00.000+02:00

Wow. Can't believe it's been over a month since my last blog post. Hope you guys enjoy this new post that I prepared. :D

Lalafell gathering in Uldah. Random shouts went up asking for Lalafell to stalk this Roegedyn. Was so funny.

I also finished the last lancer quest.

Oh noes, the Moogle is sad. ;__;

Ugh, those Uldahn merchants tried to kidnap the Moogle!

I've been a bit burned out on Darkhold runs but I did still do a few every now and then.
Root and Buttons bound to the floor by the nasty eye. Angry Lalafell are angry!

I had a very fun party with the Japanese Lalafell LS, Lalafell Cafe. Was so much fun.

Later that day some people from the LS helped to get Hunty some NM gear. :D

Buttons and Hunty waiting for the silly wolf to respawn.

Hiya ^_^/

Our luck sucked, but at least we got Hunty his nifty new blue coat.

I've been levelling my Lancer a lot lately, usually with Dokter or Niruru.

Treespeak leves give amazing SP nowadays, that's why it's usually so full. O,..,O"

Hanging out at my stairs with Taroo and Cipher. ^_^

Buttons wearing his funny Moon-earring from the event. o.o

*wave*

Doing some leves with Niruru.

Sitting in Uldah and chatting with friends.

Duoing Doblyns outside of Uldah with Dokky.

Such an amazing view.

We had fun exploring and trying to kill various high level monsters. SP was decent as well.

Also been doing leves regularly with Dok.

And I had some amazing grind parties at Raptors in Coerthas. Tons of fun and amazing SP.

Buttons and Serge. :D

Buttons about to impale a monkey... >.>

Elezen with such cool eyes sitting next to Buttonses. :)

Had fun doing some leves with Tail. :D

Then yesterday I joined Niki and Taroo for some leves and also did a faction leve for Niki where we had to fight Ixcal. Was pretty cool.

And Buttons' Lancer has finally hit rank 50. It's been a long time coming but considering how casually I have played lately I am really happy. Thank you everyone who has helped me the last few weeks, I really had fun.

And of course Lancer's get the best looking attack in-game at rank 50. Chaos Thrust!

Chatting with Root in Uldah.

And having more fun with Chaos Thrust. xD

That's it for today. Hopefully the patch 1.19 will hurry up and be here soon. So maybe the next time I post I'll have my own little chocobo. See you guys next time ^_^/

Post No.100. Jumping Lalafell and speedos?!

2011-08-12T15:31:00.001+02:00

I can't believe it. Post 100 on my blog. Thank you so much everyone for your support the last few years. It has been a fun ride. Let's hope for many more fun years to come. ^_^/

Time for some new screenshots. :D

We really love hanging out in Uldah. :D

My retainers Shorty and Yuki wanted to be featured again. xD

Lalafell line in front of the dungeon entrance!

Fighting the icky Ogre and Batraal.

Casti got the rare trousers she wanted.

Enyyx and Buttons

Some more friends

Duoing with Niruru.

I tried Archer for the first time, actually a fun class.

Pewpewpew

Tall is so large. :o

Grind party, we had so much fun

I love how Doomspike II looks. Jumpy Buttons. :D

Levelling at Raptors, such amazing SP:

Posing with Dokky.

Some more levelling.

The Summer event just started yesterday, we've been having tons of fun. Just look at the cool promo artwork. (This is the Japanese one)

The ferry ride has been imrpoved. The water graphis are better now and the ferry was decorated for the event.

We have to lure bombs with poses in our new swimsuits to make them explode in a furnace, so they cant harm anyone.

And omg, look at that Lalafell on the right oggling that lady!

Found this cute couple in Uldah.

Lol I look so silly in my swimwear. xD

/pose

Hiya. :D

Posing for the ladies!

Dok, Buttons and Ulmy. An unbeatable trio!

Delea wanted to pose as well. :D So pretty.

And to end off this post, one of those cool wallpapers you can make on the lodestone once you have collected all different pieces of swimwear.

Batraal defeated! ^_^/

2011-07-30T01:28:00.001+02:00

Wowie. First of all this is post 99! ^_^/

Hi guys, time for a quick middle-of-the-night update. I finally killed Batraal today! Not only did we manage to kill Batraal, I also somehow got almost all mage drops today, in only 3 wins. O.O I am shocked. First a week of nothing now this. I want to thank all the people that helped with this and especially Nuinn Nomi, he was supposed to get the cane but he opted to pass it to me. Thank you so much Nuinn. I'll make it up to you somewhow!

Before we go to the drops, Lalafell and their babysitter!

Yay, it's dead!

Posing with Serge.

Posing with Klasher who just came back and Eldy who also got lucky with drops.

My drops, so excited. ^_^/

Pictures of the actual fight and stuff will follow in the next proper blog post. And yes Shiha-taru, you'll be in it too! ;P

See you guys then~~

Post 1.18-patch adventures.

2011-07-26T20:04:00.001+02:00

Hey guys.

Time for some post 1.18 patch impressions. Let's just say I am highly impressed. While there are still a few rough spots we know they'll be evened out in 1.19. The game is definetely picking up though and I have been having a wonderful time.

Hanging out with Crumpet right before the patch hit:

The new settlements in all the zones rock. Looky pumpkins in Thanalan.

Ugh, it's Urianger...

Woo Papalymo!

Go away Urianger...

Yay, Thancred. :D

I've been doing the rank 45+ dungeon quite a few times with my linkshell.

What's this?

Euw, the boss is a big ugly Ogre.

Needless to say we have wiped to the Ogre countless times. Quite tricky to figure out the best strategy.

Waiting outside the dungeon with some friends.

More dungeon runs

Ogre keeled us again.

Buttons and Xiaro. :D

They tweaked the lighting and shadow engine it seems, so beautiful now and everything runs smoother.

OMG looky, it's Cid! I like this young blonde version. Better than scary-teeth Cid in FFXI.

I found Enyyx!

Quest NPC with some nice clothes.

People gathering in front of the rank 25 dungeon in the black shroud. So many people. O.O

I love this dungeon.

A Garlean magitek device o.o

Wow, A Seed-seer and Moogles!

Time to kick some boss butt!

Yay we won. Reminded me of winning a boss battle in FFIX.

Lyssa gave me some deaspected crystals so I got this cool new hat. Hanging out with Lyssa and Stinky.

More Darkhold fun.

Ouchy

Serge and Buttons.

I love Moogles.

A beautiful dungeon.

Puddings!

Come at us!

Yay.

We finally figured out a strategy for the Ogre battle.

OMG we won, yay! Look at how low our MP is, I had run out like 1 minute before we killed it. Was nerve wrecking trying to regen MP and to keep our tank alive.

Wait a second, that wasn't the final boss, there is more to do!

Uh oh..

Euw skeletons...

You have got to be kidding me, a dual-wielding demon?1 *runs for the hills screeching*

Boy what an insane battle. There are the two powerful Ahriman floating around, like a bazillion skeletons and those damn ghosts keep teleporting in and out. Not to mention the crazy demon going all ballistic...

The skeletons got me. ;__;

We haven't won this fight yet. You need to hurry through the dungeon, beat the Ogre fast enough (which is hard enough by itself), then get past an entire level of more mobs and face off against the demon and his minions. Some linkshells have won the battle now and I saw a good strategy for it, but damn it seems exhausting. xD

After we finished that run I went exploring in Coerthas and found this nice lake.

Then I found Bebe in Gridania.

o.o

Not you again!

Ooh looky who it is.

Ooh Illusion magic? Nifty.

End of a long day, sitting in Uldah with Key. ^^

Last update before patch 1.18.

2011-07-21T13:46:00.001+02:00

Hey guys. I know it's been a loong time since I did a proper post. Sorry for my absense. I was busy with end of term University work and just could not find the time and energy to blog.

But with the big 1.18 update coming tonight, I thought it's only appropriate to do a big pre-patch post. :D So here are all the screenshots that I managed to take inbetween work and studying. :)

Sitting in Uldah with Ulmy and Nuinn.

Uldah sure is beautiful.

I was helping Nuinn with his screenshot comics, so I had to be an actor'fell!

Buttons acting as if he is being attacked.

Oh noes, I was actually being attacked. O.O"

Buttons and Clover!

Clover screeching like a girly-girl.

We are now super-heroes! Punch'afell and Punchycat!

Buttons fighting Kadaj over the roofs over Uldah!

Hiding under Serge's table, teehihi.

You looking at me'afell? >:o

Showing Fitzy the amazing view of Uldah. This was also the last time I saw Fitzy. ;__; His PC has been giving him immense troubles and he has not been able to play the game lately. We miss you Fitzy and hope you can come back soon. ;__;/

Lalafell line!

Trying to reach the ruins at the north part of the forest....

Even at top rank this is as far as I got, at least I got to see them from a distance.

Helping some friends fight Cactuar Jack.

Dang, little Xiaro is rank 50 already! I was so busy I missed so much.

Levelling my Lancer with my Lalafell friends, so much fun.

More Lalafell!

Onion Knight Buttons!

Spearfisher Buttons!

More fishing.

I got to rank 30 so I did my Lancer quest, was pretty cool.

Had to escort these merchants through the forest but we got into trouble!

Stampede!!

*gasp* Oh noes, squished Moogle! ;___; (Don't worry he is alive though).

Also did my rank 20 leatherworker quest, I enjoyed it.

She threatened me, after I helped her.. :(

My old friend Crumpet from FFXI started FF14 as well, welcome to Eorzea Crumpy!

Little Five-taru is rank 50 already, grats!

Us Lalafell love climbing up onto high places. *__*

Helping my linkshell by giving them some of my leve-links.

I found a cool rank 25 mission in Gridania that had be fighting Ixal, first time I saw those ugly things in-game. o.o

Lancer Buttons!

I was sitting afk in Uldah while playing Final Fantasy IX on my PSP when suddenly tons of friends started gathering around me. Most of them from the friendly French linkshell on our server. :D

I'm glad that I was able to end this post with such a nice group-shot of friends. :)

Patch 1.18 is coming tonight and things are going to greatly change in Eorzea. Implementation of Auto-attack and job rebalancing. Raid dungeons and the Grand Companies of Erzea. The summer event which will provide us with swimsuits. New equipment, new recipes and lots of new quests. I'm really excited for what is to come.

And the next patch, 1.19 will introduce rental chocobos and airship travel! And the new job system that will introduce classic FF jobs such as Bard (!!), White Mage, Black Mage, Paladin, Monk, Dragoon and Warrior will probably come in 1.20 or maybe 1.21 at the latest. Recently it was also confirmed that player housing is in the works, player jumping will be possible as well, and we'll get pets too! We'll even be able to raise our own chocobos. FFXIV really has amazing things coming in the next few months. The big change starts tonight. :) See you guys in Eorzea. ^_^/

Goblin Airmen

2011-06-17T23:55:00.013+02:00

There was a funny thread on the FFXIV official boards, asking for bomb-dropping, flying Goblins.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11531-dev1031-goblin-airman/page

I thought they would make a brilliant NM for FFXIV so I whipped this up using the XI models in Altana-View.

Basically it's a tough NM fight with 3 Goblins, airborne on balloons. Mages and Archers need to damage the Goblins in order to pop the balloons. Meanwhile the Goblins shoot with their crossbows and the main goblin drops goblin bombs. You can evade these bombs, similar to the rank 46 main mission fight.
Once a goblin's balloon is popped he falls to the ground, temporarily stunned. Now the melee fighters can deal damage to the goblin. After a set time the goblin inflates a new balloon and takes to the sky again.

There could be a set of missions or side-quests leading up to the confrontation. The Goblin Airmen are a notorious group of thieves who are up to no good again. Only this time they stole something really powerful and valuable (your reward once you defeat them hehe)and a very important Lalafell asks you to track them down.
You however have trouble confronting the Goblins, as they keep evading you and flying away. So what do you do?
You go looking for help. Maybe the Goblin Airmen's arch-nemesis, the Cactuar with his pointy needles can help you deal with the flying nuisance...

I could even see the Goblin Airmen become a recurring quest/NM for Final Fantasy XIV. Final Fantasy XI had amazing quest-lines such as the Star Onion Brigade and Babban Ny Mheillea.
The confrontation with these tricksy goblins could be a fun distraction and they could turn up every now and then when you least expect them.
You could have challenging battles, lovely rewards, funny comedic scenes and maybe even an ally in the end who helps you ally with the beastmen and confront the empire. The name is also open for suggestions, I liked the suggestion of Goblin Balloon Brigade. :D

I know FFXIV devs have tons to do but would it not be amazing for them to consider something like this in the future? ^_^/

As people have been interested in the idea, I expanded the lore a little and also have a new image ready.
The Goblin Balloon Brigade pilfered valuables from a very influential Lalafell family in Uldah. It is this family that first contacts you. So you get to meet new awesome Lalafell NPC and then go on your journey to hunt down the goblins who keep evading you. Not only do they always manage to be a step ahead of you, they pilfer from Limsa, Gridania and even Ishgard. They are a real pest.
Somehow their balloons have an odd enchantment protecting them, so you have difficulties confronting them. Your Lalafell employer then mentions the rumours of a little Cactuar community that the goblins despise. You find these Cactuars and are astounded that they can actually communicate with you, but it should have been logical since you have the power of the echo! A young cactuar agrees to accompany you and aid you in bringing down their pesky balloons. (Or he just gives you a special needle. xD)

Here we have the Cactuar-Trio taking on the Goblin Balloon Brigade. (Since I only have FFXI models to work with, the Cactuars look different. Please excuse this.) The Goblin Balloon Brigade leader, Flyhigh Dizzylots, also sports his ultimate weapon, the Goblin Bomb Launcher. :)

Eorzea and Vana'diel fun. ^_^/

2011-05-27T17:36:00.003+02:00

Hello everyone. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time. Been a bit busy with University and stuff. I do have some FFXI and FFXIV screenshots for you guys today, enjoy. :D

Hanging out with Root. :D

Lalafell! :D

Levelling my THM.

Did the rank 30 THM quest and was disappointed by how bland it was compared to the Conj quest.

Never thought I could hate a Lalafell but the one in the THM quest is pure evil and ugly to boot.

Fought Kokoroon again and got the mail for Fitzy and myself.

Lalafell warriors!

Hanging out with Eli and Solomon. :D

Fitzy and Buttons. :D

I love Cassie Hollow. :D

I helped little Five get his egg event hats.

I found Lyssa! xD

Saw the ominous GM who appears randomly in town and tells us the world is ending. o.o

Fought this NM so many times to get everyone their masks.

More Lalafell fun.

"Oi Buttons how did you get up there?!"

^__^/

NM hunting fun with friends. :D Stupid Dodo did not want to drop the shield for Shiha though. =.=

Levelling with the LS.

We went to hunt Bardi after we were done levelling. Kinda got distracted and took screenshots instead. xD

Levelling with Fitzy.

Sitting with friends in Uldah. :D

As is the case for many others, I am waiting on the big summer updates for FFXIV at the moment. Since I was a bit bored I decided to resub to FFXI again for a bit. The server merge had just happened. One day later I logged on and to my horror, someone on Ragnarok had taken the name Buttons.

It's hard to describe how absolutely shattering losing your name is. Buttons is who I am and to loose that name was pretty horrible. All variations of Buttons were also taken. Button, Buttonss, Buttonz.

I settled on another name I had always liked but never used. I know there was once a little Taru called by this name and I remember reading the post his friends had made when he passed away. I had always loved the name and thought it suited a Taru perfectly and felt it also suited little Buttons. Thus Buttons is now Squeekers on Ragnarok. :)

Pythean summoned a cute Chocobo onto my head so I felt happy again. :D

I met up with so many old friends again, I had so much fun.

I found little Guvgu.

I also levelled my Bard to 90 and started working on my AF3+1 items. Xmystic helped me farm the seals for my hat. :D

Looky Buttons...erm Squeeky on a froggy!

I managed to get my AF3+1 hat, AF3+1 feet and even managed to get AF3+2 legs for my Bard. So exciting. :D

Also got the AF Bard necklace.

Fought some scary new NMs with the LS.

Don't I look cute. :D

The new Destrier Beret is amazing, wish I had one. But I did get my Charity cap for donating to the earthquake relief. I was not expecting anything when I donated but I must say I love this hat.

Hanging out with my friend Avnii.

Leeching some of my subjobs while friends are farming Dark Rings. Thanks guys. :D I also got a nice PDT/MDT Ring that day and a refresh pin.

Was skilling up my Dagger skill in Altepa when I decided to hang out at the Oasis for a bit. So pretty.

That's all for today, see you guys next time. :D

Missions, Events, Rank 50 and NMs.

2011-04-29T14:18:00.003+02:00

Hi everyone. I have tons of fun new screenshots for you today so please bear with me if they take a while to load. :)

Lots has been going in in-game. We've been busy again with levelling and Buttons finally hit rank 50. Yay. :D The easter event is also underway and is tons of fun. And I have been doing tons of quests and missions. So here come the screenshots, enjoy. :D

Of course there are also more NMs in-game now. So my LS has been busy killing them, so much fun. ^_^

I did the main storyline rank 46 mission and it had the most amazing cutscenes I have ever seen in an MMO. It was simply amazing. I am going to try something new today, I will try and post these screenshots in a spoiler box so those players who have not seen the mission yet but want to read my blog can do so and not get spoilered. ^_^ Let's hope this works. :D

Spoiler:

My friend Bebe, such a friendly Lalafell.

Fighting Amaal'ja for a quest.

Exploring the bottom level of Copperbell Mines.

Posing with a friend. :D

Oh noes I got squished o.o"

Enyyx, Fitzy and Buttons!

Dokter and Buttons. :)

Dang Fitzy has a gigantic bow!

Questing with Fitzy.

Gridania during the easter event.

Fought Queen Bolete almost 13 times until I got the armour she drops, was fun though.

Ding! Rank 50 Conjurer Buttons. Thank you guys!! ^_^ I would not have made it without my friends and LS.

Going egg hunting for the special event hats with some LS members.

Took us 3 hours but was lots of fun. ^^

Love these egg hats. :D

Looky! He is making a hamburger!

Beautiful Limsa. :D

Helped Fitzy get his egg hats as well. :D

Fought this NM with Fitzy, took a long while but was fun. :D No drop sadly...

Lalafell pose!

Mad Buttons shouting at NPC for giving me silly quest reward. xD

My LS went on a NM fighting spree yesterday, the high level rank 50 ones. :D Was a first for me on some of them.

Thanks guys for your support and I hope you enjoyed the post. See you next time ^_^/

Post-patch fun. :D

2011-04-15T17:57:00.000+02:00

Hey guys. It's gonna be a shorter update than usual, but with the big patch landing last night and the easter event I just wanted to post some stuff. :D

First, take a look at the beautiful artwork for companies and the easter event. :)

Had some more leve fun, am now rank 46.

Then went to do more sidequests.

A side-quest took me back to Mistbeard Cove. Saw my first Slime there.

Cool door hidden deep inside, I wanna go in. o.o

Staring at a fishtank with Bonbon. xD

Lalafell fun!

Pewpewpew o.o

Fighting one of the new NMs with Ulmy and Gulk. It gave me a cool helmet for my lancer.

Floating eggses O..O

Met up with Caya and we went NM hunting. I got 2 different shields and the new mage coat. Caya also got one of each. Drop rates are not always to good so we had to kill some NMs multiple times, but the short respawn times are very nice. :D We also got very lucky and managed to outclaim tons of people. :3

The new NMs are very tricky considering the fact that they drop rank 25-30 armour. Some 50s can solo them but you do want a duo or trio to make things go smooth and faster. Rank 35-40s will probably need a bigger party.

Posing in our fancy new coats. :)

Cool event NPC. *___* Somehow we can get egg helmets similar to hers, we just need to figure the event out.

My new shields. One has VIT and HP on it the other MND, PIE and MP. Need to decide which one I want to use. :D

See you guys next time.

Lots of Storyline. ^_^

2011-04-10T15:05:00.001+02:00

Hey everyone. I've got a nice new post lined up for you today. It's got a lost of main storyline spoilers in it though so be warned. :)

Little Nathaniel had one of his awesome ideas again... needless to say we got into trouble.

We got caught and taken prisoner by the Amaljaah.

They summoned Ifrit and wanted to sacrifice us little Lalafell. @.@

Uh oh..

Dang Ifrit has changed, he looks more like Bahamut now. o.o"

Amazing how brave Nathaniel suddenly is, scaredy-tarufell is suddenly gone and he keeps on talking and talking. :o

Ifrit spits some weird mind-control blue fire on us but Nathaniel and Buttons are not affected. o.o

So the Amaljaa attack us. o..o" Fight was a bit challenging for me as I was totaly unbuffed and had forgotten to set my Sleep spell. So i kited the mobs and tried to set Sleep in my action bar haha.

Bah this primal sure is moody. Bah you is defying me boo *spits fire* =.="

Gogo Nathaniel!

Sceptical Buttons

So we have some sort of latent power we don't know about and some god is using us, well that's nice >.>"

Oh noes we got told off, silly Nathaniel getting Buttons into trouble again. ~_~

Buttons hanging out with the Japanese Lalafell LS. :D

Was also time for me to do my next Conjurer quest so off I went to the forest again. :D

Oh noes Brother Morris! o.o

Wonder what's up with these Elementals.

*Travels back in time into Morris' memories to see what happened*

Stupid wolves again -.- Always trying to eat people.

So Morris was taken by the elementals as a child. :o

I also got invited to do my first roaming NM, The Great Buffallo. He looks the same as the one I did before, but he is like double the size and a LOT stronger. :D

It felt nice being able to contribute to the team.

Sadly no drops. Afterwards we went to do the easier version, the Faction Leve Buffalo. Was so easy compared to the big one.

Posing with Ulmy. :D

We also continued to level a lot, my Conjurer is now rank 44. :D

Fishing in the middle of the desert haha. :D

Smile. :D

Zakky logged on again yay. ^_^

Uh oh Nathaniel. I have a feeling we are walking into some sort of trouble again...

And I'm so sorry about your uncle. ;__;

It went well again this time, but I feel something is about to happen.

Gogo team!

Levelling fun. ^_^

Found a nice spot to sit and Eldena and Wolfy joined me. :D

Wolfy gave me these amazing goggles, now I can run through sandstorms and my eyes wont hurt. :D

Rank 40 and lots of adventures!

2011-04-01T09:14:00.003+02:00

Hey guys it's been a while. I've been really busy in-game so look forward to tons of images once again. I hope you enjoy them. :D

I've been trying to get my hands on a tattered robe for a while, so Bebe surprised me by not only giving me one as a present but having this nice Japanese person in her LS craft it into the vintage version for me. :D

Thank you Bebe. :D

Lyssa and Enyyx hard at work as usual. :D

Klasher and Biscuit. :D

Been working on my crafts a bit and Zephy kept me company. :)

Yay I made some HQ shoes. $__$

Main storyline mission time!

Had to travel to a certain spot in Mor Dhona which was hard to reach from the South camp so I went all the way through Coerthas to get there. Was a real challenge due to all those high level aggro mobs.

Mor Dhona is such a cool zone. *__*

Took the Black Shroud route on my way back. ^^

Sigh this Garlean Empire.... :(

Nathaniel my path companion rocks :D

I decided to take up fishing and so far I'm loving it. :D So much fun. My favourite gathering class so far.

Lyssa crafted this amazing vintage shield for me. Thank you~~~

Doc made us put on skirts! @.@

Levelling fun with my Linkshell static. :D

Uldah is full again on Palamecia, the number of players seems to have gone up again. Especially Japanese players.

Eep thats a big froggy O,..,O

Lyssa joined us when we went levelling, not used to seeing her not craft. xD

Fish Fish Fish *___*/

Craft Craft Craft \*___*

Doing Behest with a nice Japanese person. :D

Stupid vampire dogs, such a pain!

Side-quest fun.

Biscuit you really think we can take the boat for a spin?!

Sleepy Lalafells after all that adventuring!

Fishing on the ferry. ^^

Decided to take up alchemy to turn the fish I catch into crystals. :)

This is for you Ulmega, a pic of Gulky dead! xD

Yooda has such a giantic axe. Awesome Lalafell.

And Monky has a moustache hehe.

Camp Broken Water behest fun. :D

More levelling.

Yooda, Buttons and Ulmy. :)

The kitties sneaked into our photo! xD

Friends :3

Haha looky the Lalafell are chasing Gulky!

Yaaaaay rank 40 Conjurer!

We've really been levelling hardcore lately but it's been lots of fun and I am so happy to have finally hit 40. Next goal rank 50. xD

Had to kill some scary mobs for a side-quest. Was actually a bit challenging, I enjoyed it.

Lalafellses :3

Lalafell class with our teacher Clover.

Our Galka (Don't ask me to spell out the official FFXIV term, I can't. xD) friend Snoose. :D

Holy §$'*&$§ he is gonna sneeze! Duck for cover!!

Levelling my THM with Ulmy, Biscuit and Galka. :)

Yay rank 24. More spells that I can now sub on my Conj. *,......,*

I must say I've been having an amazing time in FFXIV and am looking forward to the upcoming patches. Some of the stuff they have mentioned seems amazing. :)
I do miss Fitzy though and hope he comes back sometimes, need my Lalafell sidekick!

See you guys next time and remember to smile a lot, it makes you happy. ;3

Many FFXI and FFXIV screenshots.

2011-03-13T15:40:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone. :) This is going to be a pretty big blog update, so please be patient if it takes a while to load. I chose many nice screenshots so I hope you'll enjoy this post.

First and foremost my thoughts and prayers go out to Japan and its citizens. I sincerely hope they get everything under control and I am trying to send as much positive energy as I am able to. :)

Now on the the actual post. Last weekend was actually pretty interesting. I resubscribed to FFXI on a whim and spent the entire Sunday playing FFXI. Getting access to all the new Abyssea zones, doing my genkai quest and just randomly exploring and enjoying the music and zones I loved so much.

Hello, looky who is back Mr Moogle!

Wait, how did I end up in the bushes. The old grandpa hit a Taru! Call the police!!

My friends were really helpful, so we went to Abyssea to farm a few items for my Bard. The first item I got was an Augur's Jaseran. Thank you. :D

Lol Pythean made a Chicobo sit on my muffin hat. xD

Next on the list was my arch nemesis Megamaw Mikey, who always refused to drop my belt. We did have to fight him three times again but woot, new fancy belt for my Bard!

Don't I look snazzy. :D

My friends Pythean and Xmystic then took me to farm some Bard head seals. Unfortunately it was already past midnight so we only got one seal. I still had a lot of fun and noticed how rusty I was at playing FFXI. O.o"

I was soo sucked back into FFXI and I had an amazing time. So I honestly thoght I'd be in FFXI 24/7 again, but oddly enough the day after this I got sucked into FFXIV so badly.

I have gotten so much done in FF14 now and I must say I have fallen in love with the game all over again. I met so many nice friends and we have had so much fun. So here come a flood of FFXIV screenshots. :D

First up on my to-do list was my r20 weaver quest. It's about a little Lalafell girl with an evil stepmother who hits her and is mean. ;___;

*evil Lalafell stare at bad lady*

Stupid cow-lady!

She is so cute. :D

The next thing I wanted to get done is the rank30 main mission. Boy what an interesting storyline and some of the cutscenes were really nice.

This Lalafell NPC looks like Fitzy with red hair. :D

Eep danger.

Beastmen sure are fugly...

Nathaniel and Buttons had to fight them!

Sigh, still squabbling..

Suddenly the beastmen fled and the Lalafell NPC yelled at the Sylphs to hide us with magic, what's going on?!

An Ascian.....you literally get goosebumps when this thing comes onto the screen. It's so scary and creepy. I wonder what the storyline has in store for us.

I like my silly path companion. xD

I found this very unique-looking Lalafell the other day. Never seen anything like it before. :O

Doing leves with my linkshell again. It's become a daily thing for us to do leves during the evening. I don't play every single day but a few times a week I log on and we do leves together and get amazing sp and xp. :D

Phear the amazing Buttons and Gulky! Bwahaha. *___*/

Ugly toad is ugly. o.o

FFXIV also got its first side-quest patch the other day. Now I know lots of people have been complaining about them and the rewards, but I actually love them. The only thing I would change is to let quest mobs five us SP. But if you look at the quests from a new players perspective they are perfect since they provide gear appropriate to the leve. Of course if us rank 30/40/50s do a rank 10 quest we wont be happy with a Cotton Coif. But if you are new and do the quest once it becomes available, you will most likely get a use out of the rewards.

Not to mention that I really enjoy the lore of the quests. It finally makes the world come alive. :D

My friend Xmystic from FFXI finally logged onto his Lalafell Biscuit Muncher again. Wish you would log on more often, we still need to level together!

Silly drunk Galka wanted me to bring him worms to get rid of a stain.....worms?! O.o"

They also increased mob size last patch....um the Marmot is now bigger than me heeelp. xD I actually like the bigger mobs as it makes my Lalafell feel smaller and more like a Taru. The only mobs where I don't like the new size are the cactuars. Cactuars are supposed to be tiny, not gigantic. O.o" (Only Cactuar summons are gigantic in FF games, not the normal ones.)

Relaxing on the ferry. :)

More leve fun.

This was my favourite side-quest so far. A shipment of cloth from Uldah to Limsa got lost. So you travel to Limsa only to hear it was taken by pirates. So I get to go to Cassie Hollow and beat up big bad Galka pirates. I also got cool silver spectacles as my quest reward. :D

I also got invited to my very first NM hunting runs. We did the levequest NMs which are easier, but it was still very exciting for me to do rank50 content at my low level. I was a healer for the team and I really enjoyed it, as I felt I was really contributing. :D

We fought the big bad Buffallo NM.

Gulky got a Buccaneer Shirt and Delea got a Harlequin Cap.

Then we went on to the Drake NM. It actually killed me once with its Fire breath. So scary.

Unfortunately no drop. :( SE really needs to change this. If you spend 400 faction points which takes ages to get, you would at least expect to get more than 5 crystals. :(

Little Guai already has many NM items though. Looky at his fancy templar set and his fancy Aeolyan Scimitar.

Hanging around Uldah with some friends while they gather for a NM run.

Having some fun doing side-quests again.

Visiting my friend Lyssa who is crafting my new shield in this picture. :D

Doing my first rank 40 leves with the linkshell. So much fun.

Eeep this little Lalafell is now fighting Peiste.... and the one levequest even tells the story of how these Peistes eat Dunesfolk Lalafell. ;__;

Dang these froggies seem to keep getting bigger. xD

Buttons and Fitzy, the tag-team duo! :D

Sneaky NPC... can't believe I fetched her love-potion ingredients. She tricked me!

Those who have been reading my blog for a long time might remember the cute little Taru called Klasher who only played FFXI shortly. He now joined us in FFXIV. Welcome Klasher. :D

Showing off my new robes to Gulky. Then I notice Gulk is afk. -.-"

Beautiful Ul'dah.

Doing leves and behest again. :D The rank40 camps sure are fun.

I can't believe how fast I have levelled, it was so much fun.

Oh noes the Peiste bit me. ;__;

Gulk has so many fancy NM drops for gear. *___*

I got asked to help out on a NM run again yesterday since there are never enough healers. Was so much fun and looky how flashy this Pugilist skill looks. :O

Buttons zaps the silly evil cat-lady.

Unfortunately we only got one Buccaneer shirt to drop, leaving many people who had also linked their leves disappointed. Hope you guys get your drops soon. :x

Last night we did some rank 30 leves as Guai wanted to join and Gulky wanted to level Marauder. We had soo much fun and I got my conjurer to rank 36. I can't believe how fast I levelled this week and am really content. I shall be doing the rank 34 main mission soon and will post some screenshots once I am done.

Due to the earthquake in Japan and electricity needing to be conserved, both FFXI and FFXIV will be closed down for a week. I fully understand but I will miss my friends. So if you guys are reading this, I'll see you once the servers are up again.

Take care everyone and thanks for reading.~~~

Rank 30 Job Quest Fun

2011-02-25T16:21:00.000+01:00

Hey guys. I haven't been able to play at all for over a week due to having caught the flu. Am finally starting to feel better so I thought I'd post some screenshots from last week.

Fitzy bought me a cool green cowl, gloves and wand. :D Thanks Fitzy. ^_^

Lyssa gave me this cool Beret, thank you. :D

Some more leve-fun with the linkshell.

Uh oh..ruuun!

Looky, pretty trees! *^^*

Hello :3

Catch the petals!

So relaxing just sitting around in Limsa.

Lalafell gang!

Lalafell guild leves!

Fitzy and Buttons duo'ing a bit to get Buttons to r30.

Yay am rank30 ^__^

These trees should stay in Gridania, so beautiful.

Wowie o.o

Since I hit rank 30 Conjurer I was finally able to do the next job-quest. And boy was this a long and cool quest. Amazing storyline and nice cutscenes. :D

During the quest I also went exploring a bit. :D

Story time!

This hamlet of Ishgardian Knights is so cool.

Poor knight, no one believes him... So Buttons uses his magic to look into the guy's memories. :D

Holy smokes O,..,O

Dragonses?

A Lalafell with an instrument! Please give me a Bard class @.@

Powerful Buttons!

Fitzy made some confetti so we had fun with it. :D

Levelling fun with friends and the LS.

2011-02-12T13:25:00.002+01:00

Hey everyone. Time for a big blog update. :D

I started levelling THM since I wanted some of the spells for my Conjurer.

Waiting with Latromi for the rest of our LS party to gather. :D

We had an amazing party and the new SP system is amazing. So much sp. O.O

Then we found Tigole and Lacus so they joined our party. :D

I got my THM to 21 that day so afterwards I went to do my rank 20 Thaumaturge quest. :D

So many books for me to read. O.O"

I have to avenge someone's death'aru?!

I found the goat that killed the guy so I whacked it around for a bit. :3

Afterwards I found Tootzy in Ul'dah so we hung out a bit.

More Lalafell yay.

More LS mates yay. xD

Straw found us as well, so we had fun goofing off. :D

Straw and Tootzy. :D

Sneaky Lalafellses are sneaky!

New armour for Buttons. :D

We had an awesome LS party yesterday. :D Four Lalafell and Gulky the cat. :D

Boom. :3

Senna and Buttons in fancy red coats. :D

Doing leves and Behest in Nanawa mines is so much fun. *___*

Delea gave me a fancy crash helmet and a fancy Haubergeon. Thank you so much Delea. ^___^/

Hanging out with Delea and Guai. :D

Eeeep don't scare'afell me like that! >=0

Hope you guys enjoyed the screenshots. See you next time. Hopefully we'll have even more content in-game by then. The quest patch should be just around the corner. ;3

Oh and one more thing. Last week a very nice person sent me a tell ingame and told me how they enjoyed my blog. I was busy cooking food so I had to run and afterwards I forgot to check for more tells and reply. So if you are reading this I am so sorry. ;___;/ I wanted to contact you but I couldn't remember your ingame name, my Lalafell memory sucks. xD

Post-patch Impressions :3

2011-02-04T16:12:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone. Sorry that I haven't updated much lately, I just have not been playing much.

I was and am still waiting on proper content in FFXIV so I was busy reading about all the fun new stuff in FFXI and just playing console games and focusing on my studies.

I did however log on for a bit after this weeks patch and I must say I am impressed. I like the friendly and positive tone the new director is setting and I know the game has a brilliant future ahead of it.

I love the new SP system and I even saw parties again today, I missed seeing parties. Behest is insane now, I got 6k SP earlier from one and was soo happy. I think SP is finally perfectly balanced. Especially for those who do not have time to grind for hours on end. :D

I am really really really looking forward to the content patches now, I hope we get the first quest patch soon. ^__^/

Went exploring again today, havent been inside Casseiopea Hollow and explored throroughly since Closed Beta 3.

Uh oh...

KABOOM *___*

Oopsy I got distracted during Behest. >:3

Yay, FFXIV has a bright future. :D

2011-01-21T19:20:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone. It's been a while since my last post. I was a bit discouraged by the lack of FFXIV update news so I have not been playing that much. Not to mention that I am busy with course work again at the moment. But the FFXIV director's letter from today gave me new hope and I am really excited again and looking forward to more fun times. To see all the juicy details, just check the lodestone.

I do have some nice images waiting for you guys though so I hope you enjoy them. I am going to be trying a new image host today. Even though the tinypic file size limit is 600kb, they have constantly been compressing my 300-400kb images to 30-40kb, making them all fuzzy.

I hope the new image host works better and you guys can enjoy my posts in full quality. And don't forget to spread the news about my blog. Who knows, maybe Buttons can become a mascot for Square Enix one day and promote FFXIV. :)

Mana was nice enough to craft my silver bunny helmet. :D

Zephy, Fitzy and Buttons posing in their bunny helmets. xD

I decided to go exploring again. I just love Ishgard.

I found a pretty waterfall. :D

Peekaboo I see joo! *____*

Huh? O.o"

Gladiator'fell Buttons!

The Lalafell Gang. :3

Some random levequest fun.

Silly burping Dodos.... o.o

Goatses :D

Did a r30 Behest with Fitzy, boy the imps and elementals hurt....

Doing one of the fun Necropolis leves.

Exploring with Fitzy again. :D

I love the Mun-tuy cellars.

Soo pretty. :D

Can I please has one of these as a pet Mr Square Enix. *___*/

Yay, I found some Goblinses.

Crafting with Eeky in Uldah. :D

Why is my crafting table so tiny, look at the Roegedyn. O.O

Haha looky at this smart lalafell. He is fishing straight out of a cat-girls pocket. That is what I call smart. xD

I thougt I'd end this post with a pic of a cool looking gladiator'fell. See you guys next time. :D

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T15:59:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year to everyone in Eorzea. I hope you all had a wonderful 2010 and may 2011 be the best year yet for all of us. Thank you to all the friends I have made in the game and all the help I have received. I am very fortunate and grateful. ^_^

エオルゼアのみなさま、　明けましておめでとうございます。

本年もよろしくお願いいたします。

I have a great blog update for you guys. Just be warned, there will be some spoilers of the rank 26 mission. :) I also apologize if some of the blog images now seem blurry, it seems Tinypic images have suddenly become compressed and lower quality. I have no idea why this is so and could not find anything online. Let's hope it goes back to normal soon.

I finally got a Faction Leve with the Onion Doublet as a reward so I went out and did it.

Afterwards I found Guai in Limsa. He has such glowy eyes. >:D

I stumbled across the Arcanists guild for the first time. I hope we get this job soon, it seems really interesting. Just look at this NPC's interesting weapon.

The LS Lalafell protecting eachother from a Lalafell hater! >:o

Some random leve fun with Fitzy.

I am hiding under the bushes. *___*

More Behest fun, I loooove Behest. xD

Helping Fitzy on his Faction Leve.

Since my Conjurer is rank 26 I was finally able to access the next part of the storyline and it was one of the best so far.

Oh noes, the Sylph are in trouble!

Ugh stupid Garlean Empire..

Yay, I get to go on an adventure with my NPC Nathaniel.

Oh noes, Sylph have been killed. How horrible...

Uh-oh

*gasp*

Sylphs bewitched the soldiers so Nathan and Buttons could sneak past them to save the podlings.

I don't like these things, so huge and scary...

Runrunrunrunrun

We made it!

See, we're inside the Sylph home I posted last time. We're past those boulders. *__*

Runrunrun back, must save the podlings.

Phew, we made it. But it's still so sad. Their home was attacked and many died. :(

Nathaniel is so naive and cute. xD

Did he really just say that? Haha. xD

Hanging out in Ul'dah as usual.

Lalafell friends!

Doing some leves with Fitzy, Tootz and Straw. Was really so much fun, too bad I had to leave before we were done.

I was unlucky with the New Years event so far and got no helmet. Fitzy did however get two in a row and gave me one. Thank you Fitzy, my Bunny Samurai Kabuto rocks! xD

I gave Tootzy the ingredient he needed to craft his Kabuto into the black one, it looks cool. Lalafell power! >:D

Don't ever try and mess with us bwaha ;3

Hope you guys all have a fun 2011. See you next time. :D

Hope you all had nice holidays.

2010-12-26T18:12:00.000+01:00

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and lots of fun. I know I did. ^__^/

Just look how cool the Christmas chocobos look. xD

I also purchased a fancy coat to wear on special occasions. *__*

Finally had the chance to play some more and boy did we do a lot of leves and behests. xD

Since my Lancer had reached rank 20 I went to Gridania to do my first Lancer quest.

Look how cute this Lalafell NPC is.

Had to get rid of some pests in the forest (hey, just like the conjurer quest! >:o) but then I got attacked by an elemental. O.O

I was saved by the cute little Moogle though. :D

She doesn't take me seriously, I bet there is something up with the Elementals! :(

Fitzy took me exploring through the Black Shroud and we actually found the Sylphs and their homes. So beautiful, after you have seen this you won't say that the forest is boring anymore...

A sylph!

We found some sort of Sylph gathering place.

There is an entire Sylph town/city behind these boulders. Why the hell did they block off the entrance, we wanna go inside and see so badly! ;__;

Looky how nice the Sylph houses look. They remind me of the Mandragora houses in the Boyahda Tree in FFXI. I hope they just tie it into the story somehow and don't just leave them there as decorations only.

I actually found my first Goblin but I got distracted and the Efts in the background shot their lasers at me. No I'm not kidding, those ugly oversized newts actually shoot thunder from their mouths....

Fitzy bought some high rank gear for himself, it looks so nice. Especially the weapon.

Had a fun behest party outside Limsa. :D

Trying on Fitzy's cool set. It really DOES look nice. :D

More Behest fun. *__*

Bought a Canvas Robe Set for myself. I love the colour brown. xD

Thanalan really is beautiful.

Behest are soo much fun, am addicted. xD

Nighttime at camp Horizon. *___*

Another Behest *^^*

Avaxx showed up while I was waiting for a Behest to start. :)

Fitzy is trying to sneaky up on me. o.o"

Kaboom xD

Saw this cool Lalafell Pugilist in Ul'dah. Look at the size of those knuckles. @.@

Hanging out. :D

Oi someone pushed us over....lalafell domino. ;__;

*munch munch munch*

Found this cool Jester's hat for 30k in someone's bazaar. Only way to get it is to pay over 200k to a NPC so I was really happy about my cheap purchase. :D

Fitzy has been levelling Archer and he crafted this set for himself :D

This NPC in the Alchemists guild rocks, her potion is all stinky so she holds her nose while she stirs. xD

Fitzy levelled his Archer today and I levelled on my Lancer for a change.

Dang look how strong we are. Kapow!!

Fitzy can jump soo high. O..O

Such a fun Behest. My lancer is now rank 21 and my Conjurer is just 1k away from rank 25. :)

Enjoy the rest of your holidays everyone. See ya next time. ^_^/

'Tis the season to be jolly.

2010-12-18T10:06:00.001+01:00

Time for a new blog update. :D

Fitzy and I decided to go exploring again and ended up in scary Mor Dhona. The zone is pretty amazing though and the music in the zone is just amazing.

Oh noes Fitzy, a poison cloud'afell!

Looky

Pretty crystals are pretty *____*

Oh noes the piggy tried to eat me... ;___;

Had to track down some assassin'afells who were up to no good.

Also fought against some skeletons. My god they are scary, they do a high pitched scream when you hit them....

People have been complaining about FFXIV's weapon skill and magic animations, but one thing is for sure. Mobs got amazing-looking skills. O.o

Not to mention that this one hurts like hell. ;___;"

What was I doing again? I forgot...*swish swish swish*

Nerdy Buttons sitting in Ul'dah.

Yay, the Starlight celebration is here. Snow in Ul'dah! O___O"

Got my Dream Suit pretty quickly, so happy. :D

The cities are amazing at the moment. Lots of starlight decorations, falling snow and a very nice christmas soundtrack. :D

Oh looky, I found a Fitzy! :D

Don't you try and mess with us Tarufell!

Myau was in Limsa as well so we posed in front of the tree. ^_^/

Oh noes, they super-glued hornses to the chocobo's head....

Catch the snow, catch the snow!

Hanging out with my retainers. Buttons' cousin Shortytaru and Shorty's best friend Yukitaru. :D

Fitzy and I bought these new hatses, Leather Calots. They remind me of my Goblin Coif from FFXI, I love it. :D

Why do I always fall over when I try and sit somewhere... xD

Hello. :D

Look at all the pretty ladies. They all seem to be wearing that new outfit with lotsa boobage going on. :O

Yay, I completed my dream attire and crafted a dream hat for Fitzy. :D

Found a huge Lalafell in Gridania, he was pretty nice though and posed with us. ^^

Fitzy and I went to do some leves when Behest was about to start. Oddly enough it was only us two and a cat-lady who signed up. We teamed up and headed out. She was pretty strong, an Archer with a very high rank THM subbed. When I died to these cute little sheep and their weird snot bubble spell, she raised me. Had never seen that spell before. o.o"

We were a good team though and killed off all the Behest mobs and netted over 2.5k SP. :D

Afterwards we went to do some guild leves, had a 6 between the two of us. :D

Die crabses die! xD

ooooh, one of those new miteling mobs. Ugly though. >:o

Walking home to Ul'dah after a long day and enjoying the stars above Thanalan. Have a wonderful festive season everyone and see you next time. ^__^/

Storyline fun and more adventures.

2010-12-04T22:27:00.002+01:00

I have a ton of screenshots in store for you guys today, so the page might need some time to load. Hope you enjoy them. Also don't be shy to leave comments, the comment section has been pretty empty lately. ;_;

Did quite a few leves with Fitzy, was tons of fun because we upped the difficulty and kept dying and runnig back trying to win. xD

Then this stupid Peiste decided to try and eat me. :(

Fitzy bought some fancy black velveteen gear for himself but let me try it on. Looks pretty fancy. :D

My conjurer finally hit rank 20 so I was able to do the next storyline quest, things are getting so interesting!

I had to wait for the lady so I fell asleep on the comfy bed. :D

I also got to pick my path companion. I chose a scaredy-cat Dunesfolk Lalafell Gladiator called Nathaniel. :D

I liked this cutscene, we actually sat at one of the tables in the adventurer's guild.

I also bought this awesome looking red cotton acton. :D Love it.

I gave Shortytaru a makeover. He looks way cooler now. Now he actually looks like what he is, Buttons' cousin. :D

Fitzy and me blasting some stuff to smitherines again. >:D

Did the Conjurer r20 quest. Was interesting just a bit too short.

Had to rid the forest of some rabid wolves... @.@" Wolves scare meeee!

Take that you bad wolfy!

*Punts the wolf with his staff* *THWAK*

Posing in Gridania on my way back to the Conjurer's guild. :D

Wonder what is gonna happen next..

Enjoying the serenity of Gridania. ^_^

Did some Faction leves with Fitzy and managed to get both the Onion trousers and shoes! Now I just need to save up points again and hope the Onion Shirt is up for grabs soon.

Crafted myself some nice new undies. *__*

Found this cool Lalafell in Ul'dah, she has red eyes. O.o

Found some more cool-looking lalafell.

Decided to level my Lancer some more as I really wanted to level a melee class as well.

Pewpewpew

*Poses*

Looky, a Buttons in a box!

Ugh these wolves are such a pest, now they are terrorizing La Noscea...

Levelled my Lancer some more, hit rank 17 today. *___*/

Shorty posing in the stuff he is going to be selling for me now. :D

You - shall not - pass!!

Huh, what's THAT?!

Buttons got a crown! *Is a Prince'afell* Fitzy got a pair of glasses since his eyesight was so bad. Now he is Fitzy Potterfell.

I tried on the glasses as well but it didn't feel right.

Crafted new gloves and a bandana for myself. Needed to match my armour. :D

Gave Fitzy a yellow bandana, thought it would go well with his blue robe. :D Plus those bandanas have nice crafting stats on them. :)

Fitzy wanted to play gate-guard too. :D

FFXIV is back on track. :D

2010-11-26T23:51:00.002+01:00

Since FFXIV got a big update yesterday, it's about time for another blog update. :D

Before the update went up I had a bit of fun levelling my Lancer. :D

We kill so many helpless little critters but never take the time to actually look at them, so cute...

The first thing I did today after the update was get some Local Leves and craft a bit. Got my Weaver to rank 15 and leatherworker to 12. Very happy. :D

I love the new updates and the inventory-sort is a godsend. I decided to do some r20 leves so I headed to Camp Horizon.

What amazed me were the changes to the SP system. I know that party SP from rank 30-50 seems to be broken now and I am sure it will be fixed soon, but the way we can level from lv10-30 now is soo cool. I did my guild leves with guardian favour and got 400-600sp per mob! I went from lv16-18 just by doing my guild leves! @__@

Managed to get to rank 19 today on my Conjurer and can't wait to get r20 to be able to do the next Ul'dah mission as well as the conjurer mission. :D

Am so excited for the December update now. If SE continues like this FFXIV is definately gonna have a bright future. And don't worry guys, the SP in parties will be fixed. *pats Gulkeeva consolingly*

Halp!!! high-way robber-lalafell!

Ouch why are you attacking me I don't wanna be hurt. ;___; Stop it!

I said STOP! Ok that's it.... SUPER LALAFELL BLAST!!!!!!! <(Ì,....,Í)>/

You don't mess with a Tarufell! >:0

Die Impses dieeeee!!

Waiting for Behest to start.

Had the most fun Behest ever and it got me almost an entire level lol. I just wish they would adjust it so everyone who signed up is automatically in one party or mobs could be claimed by all like campaign and all get SP and XP.

Off to Gridania for more leves! :D

Opsy got distracted...swish swish swish.....

These pesky impses sure get around don't they. :o

I found one of the new mobs. It was sitting there peacefully but when I buffed myself it went berserk and tried to eat'aru me! ;__; I narrowly escaped death by blasting it to smitherines and spamm healing myself. xD Wonder if it actually does magic-aggro. :O

We can now have our retainers wear the gear we are trying to sell. Doesn't Shorty look snazzy. *__*

Fitzy finally logged on so of course we had to hang out! Too bad I was such a tired Lalafell, we need to party tomorrow Fitzy!

Looky Fitzy, new magic!

Pewpewpew

Lemme try and blow this sandstorm away!

Ok....Plan B. Put on mouth protection and ignore the sandstorm.... @.@"

Ending a long, exciting afternoon in Eorzea next to the cool fountain is always fun. :)

Adventures in Vana'diel and Eorzea.

2010-11-14T17:47:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since my last update, but this is gonna be a pretty big one. Hope you guys enjoy it. :D

Last weekend I really missed FFXI and my Taru so I decided to activate my account again, at least until FFXIV gets more updates. :D

I had a lot of fun in Abyssea parties. I managed to get my Bard to lv85 as well as my White Mage from lv40-49. ^_^

My Lv85 AF3 hat looks so awesome. I may start upgrading it soon since the +1 version has such nice stats. :)

Vivi has been a busy Taru, his new hats look so cool :D

So much as changed in FFXI while I was gone. It's nice to see how much there is to do in Abyssea, but it also makes me a little sad, seeing how everything else has sort of died off.

In FFXIV I've been taking things easy, since everyone is waiting for the updates the game has become a bit emptier, but I have still been able to have fun and am really excited about things to come. :)

This Pugilist skill looks so cool, flying Buttons!

I love sitting around the campfire.

But us Lalafell tend to become sleepy xD

Many crafters are attaining pretty high ranks already and so many velveteen items are being made. This Velveteen Sugarloaf hat is so cool, it has glasses attached to it. *___*

Swish Swish Swish

Pink chainmail O,..O

I decided to spend an entire afternoon exploring. People who say the areas are uninspired and boring really have not explored properly. I can understand and see which areas were copy, pasted but there are so many little details to see and find. I was honestly amazed by all the things I was able to find and fell in love with the game again.

Scary mines. o.o

This area looked so nice but then an ant spit on me.... :(

Yay I found the ocean. :D

This Ishgardian Chocobo is gigantic, I'm only as big as one of its toes. O...O"

I fell asleep'aru while waiting for the ferry to Limsa.

The trip was wet @.@

I spent the entire day today, really taking my time to explore Limsa and actually talk to every single NPC. It was so much fun and there actually are tons of tidbits of story hidden in there. Sure, the game needs more lore and actual quests but the basis is definately there. :D

So cuute, this NPC fell asleep. xD

I have never been to the Marauder's guild before so I was amazed to find out it's actually a pirate ship! O.o

They have a bard onboard. I love seeing Bard NPCs as I can't wait for them to introduce the bard class. What's even more amazing is that this bard plays the main theme on her harp.

Cool, they have ratses as pirates. xD

I wonder if I can steer this thing. >:3

Euww, what IS she feeding those fishies? :o

Such a nice view, I never knew there was a third level at the top of Limsa. So cool.

I also love looking at the gear the NPC wear, like this pirate taru....erm lalafell. xD

Decided to take a quick detour to Gridania. :D

Aah, so refreshing.

Squish the flies! >:P

The Conjurer's Guild is so cool. *__*

A juggler Lalafell! <3

Serious Lalafell are serious!

I love my city! :D

Oh noes, standing near this Lalafell is dangerous. xDD

FFXIV Version Update Notes.

2010-11-11T10:52:00.003+01:00

Looky looky guys, big things are coming to Eorzea!

Comprehensive Content of Upcoming Large-Scale Version Updates (11/11/2010)

This Topics post will be detailing the content included in the large-scale version updates scheduled for release in the months of November and December. In addition, content slated for release in future version updates will also be introduced

November & December Version Updates

First 2011 Version Update

Quests

The addition of new guildleves

Adjustments to existing guildleves

The implementation of a feature allowing players to lower levequest difficulty after activating the leve

Adjustments to local levequest rewards

The Addition of a feature allowing players to abandon local levequests

The implementation of main map markers to indicate the locations of local levequest clients

Adjustments to existing behests

The addition of new guildleves

Adjustments to existing guildleves

The addition of new main scenario quests

The addition of new class quests

The addition of new tutorial quests

Adjustments to existing tutorials

Combat

Adjustments to classes

Adjustments to combat balance

Adjustments to enmity rates

Adjustments to physical and magical accuracy rates

Adjustments to how skill points are awarded

Adjustments to monster population and territory

The implementation of notorious monsters

Improvements to the targeting feature

Further adjustments to classes

Further adjustments to combat balance

The further differentiation of actions to enhance class identities

Adjustments to the effect of various parameters

Adjustments to enemy population and territory

The addition of notorious monsters (NMs)

The addition of new battle content

The addition of notorious monster-related battle content

The addition of hamlet defense battles

The addition of item exchange quests

The addition of graphic displays to better clarify the effective ranges of actions

The addition of countdown timers on status icons

The addition of an "/assist" text command

Items
Synthesis
Gathering

Adjustments to existing synthesis recipes

The addition of new synthesis recipes

Improvements to synthesis controls

The addition of a list that contains a player's eight most recently used recipes

A reduction in the amount of commands necessary to begin synthesis

Adjustments to gathering balance

Adjustments to stack totals on select items

The addition of a repair icon

The addition of an auto item sort function

Adjustments to item durability

An increase in player inventory capacity

Further adjustments to existing synthesis recipes

The addition of new synthesis recipes

Further improvements to synthesis controls

The addition of a reference list that contains all previously used recipes

Improvements to repair controls

A reduction of the number of commands necessary to begin repairs

The addition of a manual sort function for items

The addition of a gameplay feature that determines the quality of materials obtained from battle and gathering

Markets
Retainers

Changes to how players access the market wards

Adjustments to retainers

A feature allowing players to change their retainers' equipment

Changes to the retainer interface

The addition of a default display of prices next to each item in a retainer's bazaar

The implementation of icons for bazaar statuses (buying, selling, looking for repairs, etc.)

An increase in the number of employable retainers

The addition of an item search feature

Further adjustments to retainers

An increase in retainer inventory capacity

An increase in the number of items that can be placed in a retainer's bazaar

A fix assuring that retainers do not leave their bazaar locations after server maintenance

The addition of a sale/purchase history

Functionality changes to the "buying" feature

The addition of a delivery service

User Interface

Improvements to the Main Menu

The splitting of Attributes & Gear into two separate menu options

The addition of a Loot option for easy access to the loot list

Changes to how statuses are displayed

Improvements to the Map

The addition of mouse scrolling functionality

The addition of a zoom feature

The addition of party member location markers

The addition of new customizable keyboard commands

Improvements to the action bar, allowing players to freely position the widget

Adjustments to macro functionality

Changes to main menu display format

Changes to inventory list display format

Improvements to various user-interface layouts

Improvements to the Interactions menu

The addition of a help text window

The reorganization of on-screen information

The reformatting of existing widgets, allowing for access of multiple windows at the same time

Improvements to Actions & Traits menu response time

Improvements to mouse and keyboard controls

Improvements to character controls

The addition of drag and drop functionality

The addition of mouseover popup help text

The addition of right-click menus

The addition of a feature that will allow the cutting and pasting of macro buttons from the macro palette

Communication

The addition of a party invite feature to the friend list

Changes to linkshell display

Improvements to chat functionality

The addition of a chat mode toggle feature

The addition of multiple log window tabs and a feature allowing for multiple log windows

The addition of chat filters for synthesis and harvesting

The addition of a feature allowing the customization of chat mode font color

The addition of "companies" (player-run guilds)

The addition of company-owned ships

The addition of company-owned buildings

Improvements to existing linkshell features

The addition of an in-game/Lodestone mail feature

The addition of new search features

Others

The further alleviation of server-load issues

The reduction of various anima costs and the introduction of a feature that allows players to set "favorite" teleportation destinations

The addition of player titles

The Lodestone

The addition of a linkshell page

The addition of new linkshell page features

The addition of a company page

The addition of a linkshell and company search feature

An expansion of viewable character information

The development team will be focusing their efforts on the three points elaborated below.

Gameplay Improvements

As part of the version update scheduled for November, areas within the game will be partitioned across several servers to mitigate load-balancing issues and increase response times. In addition, a general restructuring of user interface (UI) operations will lessen lag and sluggish response times.

The UI will also be undergoing several additions and adjustments aimed at creating more intuitive and user-friendly controls. Furthermore, a new UI geared towards users playing with a mouse and keyboard is currently being designed, and will hopefully be ready for implementation in a coming version update. The current in-game UI will remain available for those users who prefer to play via controller, while the newly designed UI will be available as an option for those who wish to use a mouse and keyboard.

User feedback will continue to play a major role as we further address issues and make ongoing improvements in these and future version updates

Goal-Oriented Content & Comprehensive Tutorials

Together with the aforementioned improvements to gameplay, the availability of "goal-oriented" content and items, and the need for comprehensive and clear tutorials are issues that will be immediately addressed.

In the hopes of providing players with opportunities to engage in such content as soon as possible, the November version update will see a reduction in the amount of skill points required to reach rank 20. By effectively reducing the amount of time necessary to reach rank 20, players will sooner be able to gain access to class quests and high-rank guildleves.

Further content scheduled to be released in the Decemeber version update:

Notorious monsters

Item search feature

We believe that these additions will go a long way towards fulfilling the need for goal-oriented content and improving general usability of in-game features.

Notorious monsters (NMs) are a special category of enemy that can be found throughout the various areas of Eorzea. Sometimes associated with levequest objectives, several of these formidable opponents, and a vast array of equippable items associated with them, will be coming with the December version update. This will be the first of many installments bringing NMs to Eorzea, with future updates promising to introduce even more NM-related content.

Implementation of a item search feature will serve to stimulate the in-game economy by helping prospective buyers and sellers to find one another. This will be accomplished by making it easier for users to discern what items are currently available, as well as simplifying the process of finding a specific item.

In addition to the above, the version updates will also feature adjustments to class balance, changes to enemy population and distribution, and the addition of all-new quests, items, and recipes. It is our hope that this will allow users to enjoy their time in Eorzea by providing them with a more concrete sense of purpose, no matter which class they choose. Additional tutorials are also slated for introduction in November and December, and will greatly simplify the learning process when using the game's various systems and engaging myriad content.

Establishment of In-Game Communities

The forthcoming November and December version updates will introduce what are known as "companies," a special type of linkshell with more group-oriented progression and goals.

Once estbalished, companies will be able to work towards acquiring their own communal assets, such as buildings that can serve as headquarters, or ships that can be used to access multiplayer content. The system will provide concrete benefits to players who align themselves with a company, as well as motivate already established companies to seek out new recruits. In essence, the focus will be on providing new, innovative content for all players to enjoy. The FINAL FANTASY XIV Lodestone will also offer a number of online services covering both companies and linkshells.

All of the additions and changes mentioned above are currently in the final stages of development, and we are optimistic that they will be implemented in the version updates of November, December, and early 2011. Beyond those listed here, there are still numerous other features being planned. More information on these will be released in the future as details become available.

While there is nothing we would like more than to address every individual issue raised by the community, the upcoming version updates will be centered on resolving the problems and shortcomings within the three categories outlined above. We apologize if there is an aspect of the game not mentioned here, and assure you that we will be working to make as many refinements and improvements as possible.

We hope that you continue to enjoy your time in Eorzea, and promise that things will only be getting better!

---
FINAL FANTASY XIV Development Team

See the original announcement here:

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/topics/detail?id=9a18c549d68b08a4e6f2d162f5bd4263ed466626

This is all so exciting, I know for sure that I am really looking forward to these updates. :)

Exploring and partying is fun. :D

2010-10-30T21:55:00.001+02:00

Shorty wanted another cameo. :D

I've been exploring some more lately and I found this cliff overlooking Ul'dah and it's soo beautiful.

Running through Limsa at night, Buttons decided to go there on holiday again. :D

Found this cute Lalafell NPC but she was mean to me and threatened to shoot me. :o

I fell asleep peddling sitting at the nice square.

Did my first Battle Warden today and we fought this goblin thingy, made such weird screeching noises.

Tried to party today but we kept getting glitches, hope SE fixes them soon since we were having so much fun.

I sat with some random peeps around the campfire after my party disbanded.

Used the party function and joined a cool party and did tons of guild leves. Was soo much fun. Have never been in a big party before and it was so fast-paced and hectic. I loved it. Felt like a different game.

After we disbanded I entered Caseopeia Hollow for the first time since closed beta, it's so beautiful.

I decided to extend Buttons holiday and so I went'aru to Gridania. I'll be staying in a pretty treehouse with a big comfy bed. :D

Found Fitzy while I was running through town. :D

So of course we had to explore and get up to some Lalalfell mischief. >:D

Gridania has soo many benches to sit on. Why can you only sit in the Golden Square in Ul'dah, we want more benches pleeeease! ;__;

We went swimming, so refreshing! :D

Be careful'aru!

Sitting near the waterfall at nighttime, so many litto fireflies in the air. O.O"

Amazing Storyline.

2010-10-25T15:16:00.000+02:00

Hey guys. It's been a while since my last post and that is why this post today is going to be a mega-post. So don't be surprised if it takes ages to load. xD

Did lots of exploring with Fitzy. Eorzea has tons of interesting places if you ust take the time to explore.

Fitzy falling asleep on the boat-ride.

Oi! No running on deck!

Found this little port outside Limsa, so cool. :D

Ended up in a cool dungeon with amazing music. It's like Norg 2.0. :D

We died relatively quickly so had to recover with our giant feather hatses on. >:D

Hanging out at the playground in Gridania. Lalafell love to play silly games! :3

Fitzy posing in his fancy new Canvas Robe which he got from a rank20 Botanist Leve. :O

We found so many hidden caves in Thanalan and this one is now our secret Club House'aru. We even have a pet Cactuar and our friend who loves his Clink-Clink. xD

If you look closely on the map of Thanalan you see there is a hidden temple of Nald to the south. We went to find it since we had already found the other temple near the Black Shroud zone-line.

We found it after lots of aggro-dodging and adrenalin rushes. xD From the outside it looks so cool.

Inside.

Posing with Ulmy. One of the most hard-working crafters I know. :D And she always helps me, thanks a lot. :D

Looky my new outfit! Ulmy crafted some cotton gloves +2 and some pants for me and I found a blue Cotton Gown for cheap. :D

Also got a new hat. *___*

Sitting around a campfire is fun. We roasted some marshy-mellows! *_____*

Concentrate'aru! *think think think think*

Fitzy, I think we failed. ;__;

Doing some fun lv20 leves in The Black Shroud with Fitzy and Rush. :D

I finally hit rank 15 on my Conjurer so I was able to access the rank 15 Ul'dah Storyline. I am going to post lots of screenies of this mission so if you don't want to see the spoilers, stop reading here. :3

Oh noes, the little girl has gone missing. Buttons and panty-cat to the rescue!

We found them!

Oh noes this guy is evil! O,...,O

A magical horn from the Empire! I have a bad'aru feeling about this...

Oh noes, a Coblyn invasion! ;__;

The twins going after that evil elf, keel him you two! *fumes*

Haaaalp! @__@

Buttons and big Roegadyn have to protect cat-lady and Syndicate boss dude. Was a fun fight.

Die stupid rock-monster! *pewpewpew*

Oh no, she was hurt...

Twins were not able to track him down. :o

Have to go check up on her at the hospital.

All the influencual people gathered in one room. So many Lalafell... yay. xD

These beds are cool, you can actually sit on them. Hope our mog-houses are like this once we get them. I'd be so thrilled.

Had to go through a heavy sandstorm and go look for my friend the bard. Seems everyone is hunting him down.

We found him.

Oh noes. This little Lalafell is in one big mess. The Thaumaturges of Ul'dah are busy perfecting a new spell able to raise people from the dead. That is the reason why Ul'dah is threatened by the empire, they want to steal and make use of the Necromancy.

And now that idiot elf wants to let the Ossuary raise the child's dead father from the grave in order to get the information he took to the grave with himself...

*run run run run run*

I have a bad feeling about this...

Someone attacked the head-elf!

Eeep behind us!

The poor girl saw it all happen. ;__;

Nuu why am I taking this odd looking gem..

Eep flashback. @.@"

This scary creature was the attacker. :o

Eeep what happened to us'aru....

OMG what's going on.

This is bad, poor Neillefresne.

Fire raining from the heavens... ;__; It's not the empire threatening Ul'dah, it's something way more powerful. :(

Not another death....I feel so sad'aru. ;___;

Must hurry!

I is feeling all woozy...

Huh, where am I. O.O"

Oh it's my friend'aru Momodi.

I have to say the rank15 mission was amazing. I had my doubts but SE proved that they are still masters of suspense and story-telling.

If the game now gets the necessary fixes and patches and we get tons more of content like these storylines, the game is going to become amazing.

I can fully relate to the criticism of the game and am personally taking it very easy. Only play a few hours a week at the moment. Am also waiting for patches and content. But I am excited to see where this story is heading, please hurry up Square-Enix. xD

That's all for today, see you guys next time. ;P

Exploring Eorzea with Fitzy.

2010-10-15T20:27:00.005+02:00

Hey guys. Thought it was about time for another update, have a few nice screenshots waiting and it would be a shame not to share them. :)

I love these Mammets in Ul'dah. I really hope we'll get proper player housing soon and I would not mind having a little Mammet run my house. :D

I found this interesting NPC in Ul'dah. I never knew that Ul'dah originally belonged to the Lalafell. Such an interesting tidbit of lore. :D

Ul'dah is really beautiful at night.

This happened a while ago but I forgot to post it. Had some fun levelling with Zakaru. :D

Found this scary celar under the forest outside Gridania. Was too scared to explore any further, need to bring a big-ass bodyguard next time. :o

*salutes*

Went to visit Fitzy in Gridania.

Fitzy gave me a cool mask. Feel Like a Vizard-Lalafell. *looks for missing sword*

HALP, they sold me a Roegadyn-sized staff! I want a refund. O..O"

After days of gathering ingredients I finally was able to craft a few Hempen Robes. Such an annoying recipe, thanks for the help Ulmega. :D

Looky Fitzy, doing squats is good for being a fit Lalafell!

No Fitzy, that's the Can-Can. >.>"

We went exploring today but the stupid sandstorm made us get lost!

I fell asleep on the boat.

Herrooo! :3

Fitzy fell asleep too xD

Oi, no running on the deck'aru!

Are we there yet?

Fitzy and I took care of this nasty little Impy that was'aru burning down houses on the island!

Then we went'aru to zap some Jellyfishses!

Pose for the camera! :D

We ventured all the way to Wayward Cove. It's the new Norg! Amazing music and scary monsters. o.o

I wanted to try and kill this icky spider thingy...did not end well for me. :/

It stabbed Fitzy too so we had to sit with our awesome Onion Hatses and recover from weakness!

The announcements today of all the things to come in future updates really made my motivated for the game again, I can't wait for all the new shiny stuff. See you guys next time. ^__^/

Lalafell adventures. ^_^/

2010-10-08T20:10:00.000+02:00

I've been busy in-game for the last few days. Took Lancer to rank 7 as wel as leathercraft to rank 7. Hit physical lv17 and did tons of exploring. :D

Hanging out with Biscuit.

I love sitting on walls, just wish Ul'dah had as many places to sit on as Limsa and Gridania do.

Crafted my first cotton coif. Ugly hat is ugly haha.

Decided to go exploring today, this place gives me deja-vu of running to Hagun ENM.

This sort of reminds me of the Lifestream reactors of FFVII. O.O"

I managed to make it Mor Dhona alive and boy oh boy, what an amazing zone. Scary as hell with those nasty warthogses and flying eyes, but the music is amazing. Heavy use of synthesizer, reminds me somehow of a classical last dungeon theme of some JPRGs. Simpy amazing.

The frozen Bahamut and Garlean airship. Can't wait to see what the story has in store for us.

The entire zone is crystallized, really looks beautiful.

Decided to teleport over to Gridania and enjoy the scenery for a bit. Also found a cool new hat. :D

Found my friend Fitzy. :D He had started as a giant galka but then rerolled. Once a Taru always a Taru. :D

Had this weird glitch where his staff looked galka-sized on my screen. O_O"

Lalafell stare-off!

Fitzy managed to duplicate the original brown-haired Taru look even better than I was able to. Looks so cool. :D

I was fortunate enough to receive a pearl to the BG Forum linkshell. Now I have people to talk with yay.

Plus my own little Linkshell that Biscuit founded has become more active. Fitzy also joined now. We're mostly EU members so if anyone on Palamecia is looking for some people to talk to, contact me. :D

A little Lalafell looking for friends.

2010-10-06T17:55:00.002+02:00

Time for a new update in the journal of Buttons' adventures.

Looky, I found a Minstral Lalafell. I really can't wait until they introduce the Bard and Samurai classes. I am missing them already. xD

Haha I love these Lalafell twins. Dragging icky troublemakers by their heals and throwing them out of the door. xD

I've come to love Gridania. And being the little Conjurer that I am, I just have to visit the city often. Not to mention that you can level better in the Black Shroud than in the desert outside of Ul'dah, way more monsters to blast to smitherines. >:D

My weaver is now rank 10 and I've made a few hempen cowls. Unfortunately the market is so saturated by crafted stuff my stuff just won't sell. Crystals and materials can be costly for crafting gear, not to mention how long it takes to craft one of these cowls. But there are millions on sale right now and with prices dropping, it's not worth crafting them anymore atm. Low level items are on sale everywhere, but try and find a lv1-6 body piece, almost impossible. Every crafter is making the higher level cotton gear which most people cant use yet. *shrugs*

The storyline has been amazing so far though. Just my luck and I am stuck'aru in a giant intrigue in the city of Ul'dah. Seems these rumours of war with the Garlean Empire are making people's brains all fuzzy. O.O

Ul'dah really is a gorgeous city. ^__^/

Seems the nice cat-lady has adopted the poor orphaned girl whose father was crushed by the rampaging Gobbue. It's all so sad. ;_;

It seems that the girl's father came from one of the cities that were destroyed by the empire and he had valuable info, so little Buttons was sent to the creepy Thaumaturge guild to ask whether they could talk to the dead. O,..,O

The guildmaster sure has a nifty cloak, I'd like one of thise myself one day please. :3

Buttons was invited to the funeral and let me tell you, funerals are not the place for sensitive little Lalafell. ;___;

The place does have interesting decorations though. :o

The following day, Buttons decided the adventure'aru some more. Buttons found this outpost in the middle of the desert and decided to take a tiny rest.

Afterwards, this icky spider decided to eats me! Buttons was not amused! -.-

Concentrate, concentrate!

Looky, Buttons found a new friend, meet Mr Cactus! I tried to hug him but he poked me. ;__;

There is this amazing hidden temple in the desert, willed with moles and bogeys. :o I blasted them and explored a bit.

Busy Buttons is busy. Made so many hatses and gloves and none have sold...*sad Buttons*

Buttons decided that little Lalafell deserve a break, so a holiday in Limsa Lominsa was in order. Sitting on the wallses and staring at adventurers is fun, I just wish'aru I could understand them Pirates with the ARRR matey funny talk'aru. O.O"

Was time to head back home to Ul'dah. Was sleepy and fell asleep in the cabin. Thank goodness I was not robb'arud!

Looky at these funny trees!

I got back home and found this grandpa Lalafell. :O He has whiskers like a mousy. xD

Pointy hat! *magic magic*

I must'aru say I've been a lonely little Lalafell the last few days on Palamecia. The friends I joined the server for have been busy and not online at all. And not having a real linkshell, it's so quiet all day long. I was hoping someone would talk'aru to me at the camps or invite me to levequests but the citizens of Palamecia seem very secluded and don't reply to tells. ;__; If anyone on Palamecia wants to chat with a little Lalafell, don't be shy.
This little Lalafell has been shouting for help on his Dodo leve for a while but everyone was ignoring him. So I joined him and we had tons of fun, we almost died but Lalafell > Dodos!

Buttons been studying some dark arts.... >:3

Today I decided to go exploring in Gridania again, seeing as this little Lalafell has not seen the entire city yet. It's huge. :O

So glowy. *___*

Buttons is level 16 now with Rank 10 weaver, Rank 10 Conjurer and Rank 10 Thaumaturge. Gladiator is Rank 3 but the sword was too short and stubby, gimme a Samurai sword.
I hope I can level my Conjurer more this evening, just wish the skill-ups on mage classes were not so random, it feels sooo slow at the moment. :o
That's all for today. If anyone on Palamecia reads my blog, don't be shy and say hi. :D Catch'aru you guys next time. :)

Buttons' thoughts on the FFXIV complaints.

2010-10-04T21:18:00.002+02:00

I've been playing around a bit, trying to make the blog look nicer. Since my images were always pretty big, finding a proper template was not so easy. I think from now on I may just continue my posts with 800 width images instead of 1000 width. Let me know what you think guys. :)

I've had a few days to experience FFXIV and I thought I'd chime in as well in regards to the complaint and criticism being voiced all over the place.

But before I get to that, time for a few photos. :)

Imagine how happy I felt when I got home from my trip and had my FFXIV CE waiting for me. The nice box now has a spot on my shelf next to my Taru figurines. Shantotto is still missing, will try and buy her off ebay sometime soon.

I love how the EU version got the beautiful artwork as the game cover instead of the CG image. The tumbler is also very well made and I like it a lot.

I haven't gotten to unpacking the map yet but from what I could see it seems nice as well.

The artbook is not really an artbook, but a journal with beautiful printed images on the pages. I really love this leatherbound book and there is no way I am ever writing in it lol.

I found this little guy towards the end of my trip in Jeansmate in Akihabara. He was very expensive at around 18 Euros but I had wanted one for a while but never ordered from the SE shop since they would only ship from 35 Euros onwards.

Now it's time to get to the main part of the post, or more importantly. What inspired me to make this post?

As some of you may recall, I had bought the following two books in Japan. The Dengeki no Ryodan (電撃の旅団) article collections.

For those who are not familiar with these, there is a famous Japanese linkshell that has been playing the game since release. Their adventures were chronicled in the monthly Dengeki Playstation magazine. Each issue of the magazine had a special section dedicated to FFXI and covered all the expansions and version updates, showed the adventures of the linkshell and also featured little comic strip, usually featuring the infamous little Tarutaru leader, Peaberry, with his trademark assault jerkin, dual daggers and feathery beret.

They even have their own website with links to all their printed media available for purchase on Amazon Japan.

You can view their site here: http://ff11.dengeki.com/

You can find an article Elmer wrote last year about them and the books over at ZAM: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=20251

Their twitter is over here: http://twitter.com/DPS_lb/members

As I was saying, these books that I purchased feature all articles from February 2002 to December 2006. It seems there are also two 2010 volumes, the first being available already and the second being release towards the end of October. I was sadly unable to find the first volume in any Japanese bookstore. :(

These books are full to the brim with amazing images, tons of articles and various little Peaberry cartoons. Since I joined FFXI relatively late compared to other players, I find it fascinating to look through these books and see how far FFXI has come. I haven't taken the time to really sit down and start translating some of the articles so I can actually understand them, but from what I have seen there is tons to find in these books.

And now this brings me to FFXIV. Most forums are filled with complaints and doomsday messages regarding Final Fantasy XIV. The general lack of content apart from levelling and guild leves, the annoying party bug which means no skill points if there are more than 4 members, how mages level way slower than DoW classes...the list goes on.

Now I must say that I do agree that the game was pushed out too early and that a lot is missing. An auction house or a bazaar search system, inventory sort as well some sort of housing system would make a huge difference. But then again, I have been playing MMOs for years and I have not yet played a MMO that was not buggy and full to the brim with content on release.

Sure, it's 2010 and we should be able to expect more from Square Enix. I just noticed in general that Japanese companies are often very slow to change, with SE being no exception. While it is incredibly frustrating to us, it's sadly the way things work. I am majoring in Japanese studies and believe me, this phenomenon can be seen in various Japanese companies. They used to be on top and they felt like they were in the middle of the universe. Sure, the "West" existed and were important trade partners, but things could usually just be done the way they saw fit. Now times have changed and especially in the videogame industry some Japanese companies suddenly feel the pressure and are struggling.

I for one am glad I am not in the shoes of the people at Square Enix. I have noticed a trend in recent months, where it was the "in" thing to bash anything Square Enix. The sheer amount of Final Fantasy XIII hate is just astounding for example. I own the game, I play the game. It may not be the best FF in my opinion but boy it sure does have a lot of unearned hate. It seems that after a while even people who have not even played the game were just quoting Neogaf's hate for the game, or other popular media pages.

So where am I going with this? I just want to say that yes, the game is not optimal right now. But things can only get better guys. I have just found that so many people have way too many expectations of games nowadays. Games get bashed right and left, especially MMOs and JRPGs. I love JRPGs and I am easy to please. I don't have these enormous expectations and I am able to find the joy in little things.

So far I have trmendously enjoyed my time in FFXIV and while some issues do annoy me, I am not letting them ruin the experience for me. I was not able to be in FFXI from the start but now I am able to experience this journey in FFXIV and I'll not be deterred from having fun by issues I know will be history in a few weeks/months.

That is why I made this post about the Dengeki no Ryodan books. In them I was able to see just how bare-bones FFXI was at release. I could see all the different version updates and expansions and how it affected the players and how this linkshell was happily exploring Vana'diel and testing the new content.

Yes, maybe we can expect more at release in this day and age, especially in a p2p game. But Square Enix, while making amazing games, is very slow to learn. We knew this and should have expected it.

But don't give up hope. FFXIV will gets its updates, expansions. We will have some sort of auction house or bazaar search system, inventory sort, a sort of housing system and our little yellow chocobo buddies.

Just look at the opening movie, we can expect a lot of amazing storyline in the following months. Say what you want, we all know SE are the masters of amazing storylines and immersing worlds. And what about the racial differences, Dunesfolk Lalafell live on the backs of gigantic turtles? What about the Midlanders, the different Miquote tribes? I am positive we'll get storylines into these aspects in the following months.

I must admit I am not a very patient person, but patience is an important virtue and it is never too late to learn some patience. Why not learn some patience in a game that can be fun? Explore, hang out with friends, craft some nifty items for your character to wear. Why rush into it and complain about a lack of content. In a year FFXIV will probably become closer to FFXI with people telling you what to wear and what skills to sub. Enjoy the time we have now, enjoy being a little nublet that can just explore and run around to your heart's content.

To end this post I thought I'd show you guys a few pages of the Dengeki no Ryodan books.

FFXI release. Pages and pages of introductions, starting guides and lots of discussions and people excited about the game. Remember, at JP release they did not even have the Zilart expansion yet!

Chains of Promathia Release.

Treasures of Aht Urghan release.

I hope I was able to give some people at least a little glimmer of hope for the game. We just need to be patient and I for one am very excited about all the things to come.

I'll make another normal post with my screenshots and adventures sometime this week, little Buttons has already experienced a lot. ;3

Buttons starts his new adventure.

2010-10-02T23:12:00.000+02:00

Hey guys. I'm finally back home after 5 weeks of being in Tokyo. I had a blast but am very happy to be home.

I spent the entire day getting started in Eorzea and as always, you guys get to see what Buttons was up to.

Due to Mysidia being full, a friend told me to come to Palamecia as many of them had gathered there. I'm sorry I can't come to Mysidia Kono-taru. :(

I am happy to see that the game has been optimized more since I last played in closed beta. I now get constant 45-60 fps. Very happy. :D

I did tons today. Got Physical Level 11, Thaumaturge to lv6, Conjurer to lv5 as well as Weaver to lv8. I had never crafted much in FFXI so it was so much fun crafting today. :D

Now I'll just let the images do the talking, enjoy. :D

Oopsy I fell over. O..O"

Limsa Lominsa, a sight for me sore eyes.... hahahahaha xD

Huh, what's this'aru? :o

Oiii, you drooled on me you stupid sheep! *clonk*

Doing some Leves with Zakky and Biscuit.

Love how nice Ul'dah looks. Reminds me of Whitegate and Rabanastre.

Yay, I made my first ever piece of equipment and HQed it as well. So happy. ^_^/

Introducing Shortytaru, Buttons trusty sales-buddy. If you peeps on Palamecia see him around, please help support Buttons piggybank. Would be much appreciated. :)

Relaxing at the end of a long day. :)

What is to become of Buttons?

2010-09-20T10:50:00.001+02:00

Hey guys. :D

With FFXIV right around the corner I have had a lot of things running through my mind. Since I am in Japan for two more weeks I am unfortunately going to miss the CE release and 1-2 days of the official release. Since I am away from home, I was also sadly unable to try the Open Beta. I have however been following all FFXIV related news online and I have been gawking at all the FFXIV posters and trailers on display in Akihabara. xD

Now the question remains, what is to become of little Buttons? To be honest I have no clue. The FFXI updates seem amazing, but due to my holiday to South Africa and now my one month stay in Japan I have been absent from FFXI for weeks. A part of me will always love my little Taru to bits, but another part of me just does not want to level subs yet again, then get 4 merits and those 5 seals to unlock the new genkai, followed by burning to 85 in Abyssea.

FFXIV seems so new and shiny, Buttons is going to go on an adventure into a foreign world. :D My FFXI account will stay active and I will definately log in every now and then. I just think I won't do any events anymore for the time being and try and see what I want to be doing. I'll be focusing on FFXIV primarily but I have a feeling I'll still continue to play FFXI, especially if I get tired in FFXIV waiting for an expansion or something.

With the start of FFXIV I find myself in another dilemma. My friends. :( I had hoped to be able to coerce all my friends into playing on the same server, but sadly it's impossible. My FFXI Social Linkshell is heading over to Lindblum server, my friends Fievel and Snick are going to another server and another close friend is going to head over to Mysidia.

Believe me, it has not been an easy decision at all. :( I am still not 100% sure of where I am going to end up, but I think I am going to head over to Mysidia with a close friend and have a fresh new start. Hopefully I'll meet many cute and friendly little Tarus...erm Lalafell. :3 I'll miss my social LS a lot, I have met countless fun and funny people in my time with SecretFellowship. Maybe I'll transfer over to Lindblum at a later stage, but I think for now that a fresh adventure in Mysidia could be a lot of fun. :D

Before I headed to Tokyo, I was able to try Phase 3 of the Closed Beta. When I got back from my holiday to South Africa I had 3 weeks back home. I had bought a brand new PC for FFXIV as well as a new monitor, new speakers and a shiny XBOX 360 Windows wireless controller. :D

Specs:

i7 870 @ 2.93Ghz

4 GB Ram

Gigabyte nvidia Geforce 460 GTX 1GB

Gigabyte H55M- USB3 motherboard

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.

Am very happy with my new PC and FFXIV ran pretty well on it.

To close off this post, here are my FFXIV Phase 3 CB screenshots. FFXIV release hype wooot. :D

Warning, incoming image dump! :D

Hope my screenies got you guys hyped a bit for the game. :D

I'm still in Japan till next Friday and tomorrow we're going to Disneyland and on Wedsnesday to the Pokemon Center in Tokyo.

It's been amazing here in Tokyo but I am looking forward to going back home. I'll be back on October 1st so with luck I'll see you guys in FFXIV on October 2nd. :) Still need to decide on a starter city, but Ul'dah seems fascinating. *__*

Buttons goes to the Tokyo Game Show

2010-09-18T16:01:00.001+02:00

Hey guys.

Today I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Tokyo Game Show, so I thought I'd share a few photos. :)

Even though I had my ticket a few days in advance, we still had to stand in line for roughly 2 hours before we were able to enter. There were just way too many people. It was so hot today I almost melted, not to mention the sunburn I got while waiting outside lol.

It was really impressive, there was soo much to see and do, but due to the amount of people you had to stand in a queue whether you wanted to play something, just watch a preview or buy items. @,@

This giant Sora was next to the SE booth.

Giant Chocobo floating above the booth.

Since I had read online that there would be FFXIV merchandise on sale, I decided to stand in another line, this time for the Square-Enix merchandise booth. Took roughly an hour until I was in front. I was given a sheet with all items listed as well as a pen and was able to look at the glass cabinets and decide what I wanted.

I really wanted to take better photos of all the cool merchandise but the employes were constantly ushering us forwards and I was being knocked around non-stop by tiny little Japanese girls going bonkers trying to take photos of Kingdom Hearts statues lol...

Looky, FFXIV Moogle in the cabinet! They also had amazingly cool Guild-Leve keychains but at 1800 Yen each I didn't even wanna think about purchasing one. :/

Just so you guys have an idea of how crowded it was today... @,..,@

The side of the SE booth:

Square Enix were soo strict today. No photographs were allowed near the trailer screens. And if you wanted to see the FFXIII versus and Agito trailers you had to stand in a line.....to be selected to stand in front of the screen....you werent allowed to watch from the sidelines, so at the end of the day I still did not see any Agito footage since we were constantly shushed away and screw standing in a line for 40 mins to see 10mins of footage. :/

I did however manage to snag one photo of the Dissidia 012 vid. xD

The Monster Hunter 3 PSP booth was insane. The people over here really love these games. :D

Level 5 had footage as well as demos of the studio Ghibli Ps3 RPG Ni no Kuni. Photography was forbidden but erm...my camera slipped... >:3 *ebil Taru*

So you guys have probably been wondering...Buttons waited over an hour to go shopping at the SE booth, so what did he get?

A FFXIV Moogle!! :D I thought I was too old for plushies but this guy is so cool. xD

I also picked up something I wanted for a while, my own Prinny!

And on another note, I picked up a few random Taru figurines in Nakano the other day. I spent way too much money on them and ended up with 3 Arujido Marujido and still no Shantotto. The only Shantotto on sale was 2300 yen. ;__;

I'm just gonna buy a Shantotto on ebay once I get back home to Germany, it's so rare over here in the figurine stores it's insane. ;_;

A Little Taru's Adventures in Tôkyô..

2010-09-07T06:39:00.002+02:00

Hey guys, it's been a while. As some of you know I was back home in South Africa for a while and now I am in Tôkyô, Japan for an entire month.

Before I left for Japan I was able to test out the FFXIV closed beta for a bit and I must say, I was impressed. :D

Tôkyô has been amazing so far. Akihabara has to be the best place in the world for anyone who loves games, I know that I already spent too much money there haha. These are my pickups so far. I even got those Dengeki Ryôdan FFXI books that I wanted. :D

Visited the Tôkyô Tower last night, was amazing.

FFXIV is pretty hyped over here. Every electronic store in Akihabara has the trailer playing 24/7 and the posters are everywhere. I'll be back home on October 2nd and am looking forward to FFXIV's release.

As for my plans for FFXI, I still want to continue playing. I'm just behind atm, need to level my subs again for the new level cap release.

I'm off to the Square Enix shop today and hope they still have the Taru figurines on sale, so wish me luck guys.

I'll update some more at a later time, have fun in Eorzea and Vana'diel everyone, and remember to be nice to little Tarus! :D

Even more Abyssea Escapades. O.O/

2010-07-23T22:56:00.000+02:00

Wow, another post this has to be a record haha. xD

So last night I was just sitting at home playing some FFIV DS when a friend asked me on MSN whether I would like to come level in Abyssea again. When I heard that I was allowed to come on my SAM I immediately ran over to Tahrongi. xD

Abyssea seems a bit changed since the emergency maintenance, it took us an hour longer than usual to increase XP. I did however go from lv75 (uncapped xp, no buffer) to halfway through lv78. :D

I was up until 4am so I slept in today till who knows when. xD When I logged onto the game this afternoon I saw my buddy Konda was in Abyssea levelling. So I jokingly sent him a tell saying to recommend me if a spot opens up. Sure enough 10mins later I was asked to come. :D

Setup was not as good as our usual ones but it was a lot of fun. Only problem was that XP did not want to increase. Took ages for my XP to become decent. Guess SE really did change something or there are still knuts and bolts to be sorted out.

I did ding lv80 in the end. Can't believe it really. Wanted to finish my DNC and WAR subs and get rose strap before lvling my SAM again but now my SAM is 80 already haha.

Once I get back from my vacation I'll need to look into tweaking my SAM a bit, but for now I am content. I did quite well in Abyssea even though I am missing a Rose Strap. (Means I can't use Dusk Gloves instead of Hachiman Gloves).

Of course I also got some Perle Gear. Body for when Acc is capped, feet for Y/G/K and hands for my Pentathrust Set. :D

Fancy taru is fancy. *____*/

Also found my AF BRD set in storage and had to wear it for a day, Hobo Taru! <3

Went to visit a friend in Bastok but was distracted by the fountain. Us tarus sure are easy to distract haha. xD

Also caught some fishies since my taru-piggybank almost completely empty. ;_;"

Abyssea XP is insane!

2010-07-20T15:35:00.000+02:00

I thought my previous post was going to be the last one before I leave for my vacation but seems I was wrong. xD

Last night I was about to go to bed when a friend invited me to come level in Abyssea. Of course there was no way I could turn down an offer like that!

Waiting for everyone to gather.

And off we go!

Magic pewpewpew!

The whole activating the right lights at the start is a bit confusing to me but thank goodness our leaders knew what they were doing. I was just the little Bard who helped the other Bard pull and was on perma sleep duty. :D

WTF ding lv79?! I was 76 when we started lol.

Ice Magic is pretty. *___*

Holy Smokes, lv80! *_____*/

I took the time to zoom in the the stuff we were killing and they are actually darn cute. O.o"

We entered at around 11.15pm my time and I left at 3.15am. I went from lv76 to lv80 with a 40k buffer and I got around 40k Cruor. Just before I left we even hit the XP cap of 600xp per mob. Simply amazing.

That was one of the most fun experiences I have had in a long time. It's just very strenuous on the Bards. Even with two of us Karaek and myself died quite a few times since bats tend to either link or randomly pop on top of you and aggro. xD Thanks everyone, I had an amazing time and now I can go into my holidays feeling happy and content. :D

Ooh, I splurged and got myself a full Teal Set. Bard only gets situational uses out of it (Feet for Lullaby and Elegy, Hat for stoneskin and cure set etc., Body almost same as Errant/Osode for enfeebles) but I wanted it anyway. I like the look of it on a Taru, now I look like a blue smurf RDM. xD

Buttons going on vacation.

2010-07-18T21:54:00.001+02:00

Hey guys. It's been quite a while since my last post. As some of you know I had exams this month as well as that big paper that needed to be finished, so I was not able to play as much as I would have liked.

Big changes in the game since my last post, the gigantic version update breathed new life into the game. :D

Luckily I had 3 merits stored up so I was able to do the new Genkai Quest immediately once the server was back up.

Lol the shiny Moogle hit me with some shiny stars. O.o Reminds me of the animation the chocobo summon had in FFVIII as well as the fake Meteor in FFIX's play at the beginning.

I also purchased Abyssea and got some nice cutscenes.

Hewwooo. :3

Kabooom o.o

Due to all the times I died in Einherjar (sheesh that event hates bards haha, always killing us xD) I had no proper buffer. I got invited to a very fun party with some Japanese players. Our party's warrior was also the 2nd lv80 on Caitsith. Was so exciting. :D

Yay, lv76 Buttons!

My Einherjar LS had another Odin and it went so well, was tons of fun.

Drops were really good, two E-Bodies! Personally I was disappointed though, I was first in line for Shadow Coat and it did not drop. ;_;

After this I had my exams and was busy studying non-stop for quite a bit. Luckily they all went well. Don't have the results yet but I had a good feeling.

This weekend I was finally done with this semester so I went to play a bit. Litto Vivi's BLU is now lv80 and has a cool pink outfit. xD

Did some random Abyssea exploration with the LS, such an interesting zone.

Exy also has one of those new snazzy sets, looks really nice.

On Friday I tagged along on an Aybssea run with peeps from my Einherjar LS. I was under the impression we would be levelling but sadly it turned into a NM run. None the less, we had tons of fun.

Huge Tiger. O.O

Yay drop!

Deadly Bunny.... O,..,O

The ring dropped, but in the end no one wanted it lol.

Yesterday I was dead set on levelling in Abyssea. I've been reading stories about amazing xp in Abyssea and I wanted to try it out so badly.

Karlean and myself seeking for an Abyssea party.

2hours later Buttons still seeking...

6 hours later and still nothing.....

I was really disappointed. I turned down a few invites to normal parties since I wanted to try out Abyssea xp so much. But for some reason no one wanted to invite me, really made me sad. :(

Exy tried to cheer me up though so we went to Abyssea-Tahrongi to get the Confluxes, to make future runs there faster.

Such a cool zone....beautiful.

Sneaky sneaky sneaky past all the big baddies!

Oi! Dragonses?! I didn't sign up for this, don't wanna get eat'arud!

We also found miniature sized Adamantoise...ok they're still as big as a cow, just miniature compared to the big bad NM one. xD Can I has one as a pet pwease? :3

We managed to get all Confluxes in the zone and my Cruor ran out. :( Now I have zero Cruor, am still lv76...definately need an Abyssea party to fix that! :D

Afterwards the three of us did a few Royal Jelly runs. Not a single good item dropped sadly, and to make matters worse I accidentally zoned and lost my entire lootpool. Went to bed feeling pretty sad and disappointed.

On a more exciting note, I am going on a pretty long vacation! :D

I'll be heading home to South Africa for the first time in seven years. Am soo excited. I'll be leaving in 10 days and will be back mid-August. But wait, that's not all. I'll be going to Tokyo Japan for an entire month! August 29-October 1st! It's going to my first trip to Japan but as a Japanology major I simply have to go. xD

I'll be going with two fellow students. We rented a nice apartment in central Tokyo for the four weeks, only 3 mins walk from the station and 10-15mins ride to pretty much everywhere we wanna be. On top of that, the Tokyo Game Show is in mid-September. So I'll definately be attending. Have always wanted to attend but neevr thought I would be able to, really a dream come true. :D

I am very excited, but am also a bit sad. During the summer I usually catch up with my friends online since I am always so busy studying during term. This year I'll be gone from FFXI for roughly 2 months. I'll miss my friends dearly and I would so like to finally have the time to level my jobs lol.

I'll be back in October and the new semester will start shortly afterwards. As to what my gaming plans are, I have no idea yet. Ideally, I would really love to stay in FFXI. The people in the game mean a lot to me and I have so much I still want to do. I did however order the Collector's Edition of FFXIV and I am planning to buy a new PC once I am back from my trip. So I'll definately try that new shiny MMO, maybe even try to play both.

But for now I don't want to plan too much in advance. One way or another Buttons has a million adventures ahead of him. See you guys once I am back from my trips. If I get any interesting gaming goods in Japan I'll post them on my blog. ^_^/

A bit of progress. :)

2010-06-18T21:44:00.001+02:00

It's time for another little update. :D yay.

Obi-taru is a rare Taru, you don't see many blue onion-head Tarus around. :O

Headbuttarus!! xD

I had a long day. As I mentioned in my last post I had been busy the past few weeks working on a paper for my japanese law course. It was handed in last week. I didn't get to really relax though, since today and the rest of this weekend we're having a seminar in which we present our results. I was the first one to do a presentation in our course but it all went well and I had the feeling the people enjoyed it. Now I just have to sit there and listen for the rest of this weekend.

Anyway, when I got home I logged on to just chat with some friends. The LS was levelling in Qufim though so I headed out with my 38 WHM which I wanted to finish.

Yay, lv40, first sub done for the update.

I quickly changed to NIN for which I had no gear whatsoever lol except some RSE stuff. xD It was fun playing Ninja in Qufim again. :D

Buttons made the wormy go kaboom!

Woot, NIN lv40. Now my Bard subs are done for the update, DNC and WAR will be lvled to 40 hopefully soon'ish.

Vivi also finally came back to the game and got 75 BLU in like a week or two. Insane little taru, grats Vivi. :D

Buttons versus Odin. O..O"

2010-06-13T21:01:00.000+02:00

Hey guys, it's been a while. I had a big paper to write for my seminar on Japanese Law so that had me busy for the last few weeks. I did howwever get a lot done during this weekend ingame.

With my trusty anni ring in tow, I set out to finally finish my WHM sub.

Was the first time since levelling my WAR that we went to kill Sahagins, was so much fun.

Hewwo. :D

Seer's Gear is soo cute on tarus.

No sub levelling run can be complete without a visit to Qufim. :D Went from 27-35 in one afternoon.

Had an awesome East Ronfaure party with the LS, am now 800xp away from lv39 on my whm. So one more level and 800xp and whm is prepared for the lv cap increase.

With my new sub done, I waddled over to Hazhalm for my very first ever Odin. The LS has recovered and now we have a nice roster again, Odin was tons of fun.

Drops weren't that exciting, was hoping one or two Hadean Abj. Bodies would drop since there is only one person in front of me for Shadow Coat. :D Pyth did get a Hofud though, I love the way that sword looks.

Thats all for today, see you guys next time. ^_^/

Happy Anniversary Vana'Diel!

2010-05-11T15:23:00.001+02:00

Happy 8th Anniversary Final Fantasy XI. Hope we still have many years more of taru fun. ^_^/

A little Bard tanks a big bad Ultima. O.O!

2010-05-09T21:59:00.001+02:00

Time for an update again. :D

For the first time in months we did an Ultima again. Our Limbus group had quite a few new people who had never done it before.

Everything went well and according to plan until at 20% things went a bit awry. For some odd reason Ultima's Citadel buster glitched. Our Nin had hate and everyone else ran and was out of range. I two houred and put up Light Carol on myself and the tank when Citadel buster went off. It killed most of the alliance except for the two of us who had Light carol on. O.o" The weird part is that everyone was out of range, far far away. Everyone quickly got up and our NIN died. Suddenly there was a big bad Ultima attacking a little Taru Bard.

I actually managed to tank that thing for a while until Pythean on his Blu and Arte on RDM came to help out and took over tanking.

It was a very exhilarating experience suddenly tanking a bigass NM as BRD/NIN lol.

After that it was a challenge getting everyone up and rebuffed with Ultima blasting us right and left and killing off everyone trying to tank it. I know I held it a few times before someone else took over again. Oddly enough I think I was the only person not to die once during the fight. @.@

In the end our efforts were rewarded. Triple drops. Great job everyone, not every LS can recover from such a wipe. :D

I also did some Campaign again this weekend with some friends. Was a lot of fun. :D

Just one afternoon and roughly only 10k of Xp netted me this. :D Only four more rank ups and I will be able to get a Rose Strap for my SAM. Yaay!

Found some cute Tarus in jeuno

Our Einherjar shell is back and going strong. Many people came back and we recruited lots of new nice people. :D

Tarus ftw!

We finally were able to do something over Wing 1 again. We did a Wing II and did an excellent job and won. Makes me very happy considering it was the first ever Einherjar for a few people and we only had two bards. Little Laugana and myself were working our asses off in BRD rotation, then sleeping all the mobs as well as sleeping charmed people during the Boss fight. Awesome job Lau! :D

That's all for today folks, tune in next time for more Tarutaru adventures! ^_^/

ByeBye Crumpet

2010-05-02T15:24:00.001+02:00

Crumpy is going back to his original server and I wanted to dedicate this post to him. He originally transferred to Caitsith to meet me and have fun in my LS. We had tons of fun together and I'll miss you Crumpy, was awesome having you aboard. :)

I wish you all the best in Bismarck, hope you get lots of shiny stuff in your new endgame shell and I hope you'll continue to have lots of fun. :D
You'll be missed little Taru. ;_;

Renegade Samurai Armour? o.o

2010-04-30T19:09:00.000+02:00

Hiya guys, it's been too long since I last posted. The new semester started for me so I've been busy with course-work and classes again, but here is a little update of what i have been doing ingame.

I've been making some progress with my gear. I finally got my Omegas Ring, AF+1 Brd Legs and AF+1 SAM Legs. Am a very happy Taru. Thanks guys! :D

Vivi finally got his Deulist Chapeau, grats little taru!

Einherjar is still fun as always (Buttons always gets to borrow a Manteel xD), sadly a few people left and now our attendance is horrible, so we'll need to see what happens to the shell.

I also helped my friend Exy camp that Orc NM in Monastic Cavern. Was a lot of fun.

Levelled by WHM sub a bit more when I found the time, lv27 currently so still a few more levels to go.

Since I kept losing the same damn campaign rank 5 times in a row I went on a campaign spree for an entire day and had tons of fun with friends.

I managed to get a few merits for my SAM and finally got a rank up! Unfortunately I still have a ways to go until I have the rank for Rose Strap. :(

Makam has such a funny hat. :D

Yesterday I helped the LS do some MMM NM runs to get some members an Ermine's tail. We did 4 runs and none dropped in the first or second chest, I was about to go to bed when we decided to let me copy the maze as well and to give it one more go.....

The main treasure chest had nothing in it. I open the second chest which drops directly into the Maze owner's inventory and ..... got an Ermine's tail. I felt so bad, some people really wanted one and I don't even have dagger skill levelled. >.<

At least it looks nice, will level my dagger skill sometime so I can use this dagger on my bard to poke stuff for fun.

I had a day off today and decided to do the Samurai Event which I had never done before. It was frustrating at first, especially solo. The timing has to be perfect to absorb the attacks and being alone is very risky. But luckily there were always 2-4 other Japanese players who helped me out. After about 4 hours I managed to get every single item, all the wooden Katanas as well as both new furniture items yay!

And to fit to the Feast of Swords Theme I threw on my shiny relic set. :D

My Mog House has changed a bit since my last post since I decided to use an area .dat for the first time and i just love how it looks now.

Obiwubi-taru came to visit so of course we did what all tarus do, we danced around a bit. :D

Mog House Tour

2010-03-26T02:53:00.001+01:00

Welcome to Buttons humble little home in the heart of Windurst. :D

I'll start'aru the tour with my plant corner, mhh the air smells so fresh over here.

Next to the corner we have my fancy egg safe that I obtained last year. This is where I store all my cutlery for special occasions. ^_^/

I decided to purchase a gigantic bunk bed. My best friend Mog the Moogle needs a bed as well you know! Since he is scared'aru of heights he gets the bottom bunk. Kinda odd for a Moogle who can fly to be scared of heights. O.o

Next to my bed is also my bookstack. Nothing better than a good read'aru before bed-time! Mog likes the scary-wary stories the most. So I read to him from the book "The Galka Reaper"....only problem is he can't sleep after hearing scary stories. :(

Trying to climb the ladder, am so short...

Over here you can see my Windurst banner which the Star Sybill'aru gave to me. I also put all my shiny things on this piece of furniture. See all those many drawers? That's where Mog puts all my equipment when I don't use them. All those drawers are full of flutes and harps and various pieces of jewelry! Oopsy maybe I should not have mentioned that, need to remind Mog to set up our security spell before we go out.

This is my work corner where I develop'aru and sort out all of my photographs of Vana'diel in order to entertain you guys. And next to my desk there is an entire case of my favourite drink. Chocolate milk! *___*/

Sadly this drawer is stuck once again, gotta pull'aru harder....

And to end this tour you guys get to meet my pets. See I have two fishies who love to hide, but I managed to snap both of them for you guys! The blue one is called Fishy and the Orange one's name is Wishy. Fishy and Wishy. >:3 Fishy is the fatso though, he gobbles up all the food when Mog feeds them.

I also have two butterflies. They were given to me by an old Elvaan near Knightwell in West Ronfaure last year. There was this sort of fishing competition and I got these Butterflies as a prize. So I quickly had a little taru called Fuzzylemur (yeah his head is so fuzzy, hair all over the place, needs a comb badly!) craft a cage for my new pets. I call them bug one and bug two. >:D Don't know what they eat though, I think Mog throws in some magical dust or something to keep them alive. :o WHAT there is a third butterfly you say, seems they have been breeding. o.o

Where is Mog you ask? Well he is a shy little Moogle so when he heard I was giving a tour he quickly went to the Windurst Food Market in Windurst Waters to get us some food for the weekend.

Thanks for coming to visit, see you guys next time. ^_^/

Why do we play this game?

2010-03-19T16:48:00.003+01:00

In the last few days I had to think more and more about why we actually play this game. I remember how much fun I had when I started. Everything was new and amazing, people were so friendly and the only goal was to level, unlock exciting jobs and do missions to see some of the storyline.

In May this year I will have been playing for two years. I still love the game and there is so much i want to do, but I have also noticed that I often forget to have fun in-game.
For most people it's all about gear gear gear gear gear. We set a goal, work towards it and finally get a shiny new piece of gear. We're happy. But wait, our char is still not perfect, we're still gimp by elitist standards. Gogogo we need more new gear.

That's the one thing that makes me sad in this game. The elitist thinking. I admit, I am a regular visitor to BG forums and during the last few months I have set my own standards up very high. To me only the best is good enough. I put a lot of pressure on myself so that my Bard and Samurai are up to par.
But I do have to admit I miss the times when I was just a little taru who could explore to his hearts content and be happy.

The problem in this game is that it's already been out since 2003. There are quite a number of players who have been playing for years. They have almost everything you can get, they're in very strong HNMLS and to them gil grows on trees. I often hear: "Come on dont be dumb, making XXX mil is easy as cake."
Then when we discuss it further we notice that making this "XXXmil" is done by using your LS points to get items to sell, or from LS allowances. Or from maxed crafts. So even these people have to admit that for a player that has only started recently and is not in a LS that gives their members gil and a player who does not have crafts levelled, obtaining gil has been a very tough challenge since all of the farming nerfs to combat RMT.

I'm not complaining. I manage to get by somehow and I have amazing friends who help me out and not a moment goes by where I am not grateful for this.

The thing that gets to me is how this "ZOMG I need better gear" mentality affects not only myself, but also my friends. Recently a very close friend of mine got mad at me cause another friend had bought me a piece of gear. I had not asked for it and had even sent it back, saying that I felt I had already received enough presents during my FFXI time. He insisted I keep it, since he had bought it to make me happy and for me to use it.
My other friend saw me with this item and felt it was "getting old" that I always get stuff. It really made me feel bad. I care about my friends and I am always happy when they get stuff since it helps their chars grow and also helps the LS become better at events.
If you're reading this, I don't want you to be mad at me. I've heard before that some people think I gloat when I get things. But to me there is a difference between genuinely being glad over obtaining something and voicing it and gloating about something. I think it's just the way I was raised. I was taught that when you get or achieve something you should be thankful for it and you are allowed to openly be happy about it. So if anyone thinks I was gloating, I am sorry, I definately was not and it was not my intention. I just believe that being happy about something and talking about it a lot shows positive energy towards something which just attracts more positive things. So no negativy around me please, I like to be a positive Taru.

The "I need leet gear" mentality is something you can find in every single MMO and not something that will disappear. But I have found a bit of the old fun I had in the game when I started and will try to focus more on that and less on gear. We all have our weak moments but I'll try my best.

My social LS has been growing even more and it's a really interesting LS to be in. We have some major elitist people with full salvage sets, then we have Buttons who tries to be top tier but still has a ways to goo and is a noisy taru that yacks nonstop (haha), we have very dedicated levellers who instead of trying to max gear on one job level every single job for the fun of it, we have casual players ranging from lv20-75.
Although my LS has been turning into an event LS with us doing Sea, Sky, ZNM, Limbus and ground camping when we feel like it, we also have a few players with a very unique take on the game who inspired me to try and find the fun in the game again.

We have a galka in our Linkshell called Yellowmage who has been playing for a few months now. His highest job is only lv20 but he literally went and did every single quest he can, because he wants to see the story behind vanadiel. I often felt bad when he asked for help but everyone in the LS was too busy with events to help out.

I just love his way of thinking. He doesn't play to be the highest level with the best gear, he plays for the story, content and adventure. He visited La Theine for the first time this week and was so amazed by the rainbow that I just had to stop and think. I definately wanna feel like that again.
My little taru friend Markus also reminded me today that the game has more to offer than just logging in to events a few times a week. He has not been in the LS as much anymore and it turns out he has been taking in quite an amount of new little Tarus and helping these players get started in the game.

Wow that was a wall of text lol. But it feels good to get it out of my system. xD I'll continue to strive to get my Bard and Samurai to be the best they can be and there is no way I will give up my quest to get my bard a Manteel haha. xD
But I want to focus on the fun in the game again. On my friends who I've met in the past few months and who are all special to me. :D

Thanks for reading guys, the next update will have tons of screenshots again, I promise. xD

Tarutaru fun. :D

2010-03-09T22:08:00.001+01:00

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I officially have vacation atm but it still does not feel that way since I am working on one of two papers I need to finish until the 15th and 30th of March, respectively. So I'll quickly do a recap of what I have been up to ingame. :D

For the time being I have stopped Dynamis. I haven't officially quit and I love my Dyna LS but I am on an extended break now. My mood has improved a lot and I enjoy playing the game again. Putting Dyna on hold was the right decision.

ZOMG.....food! O.O"

Wonder if it's a traparu. :o

I can't reach! ;__;

Can I has it pwease? :3

Love these trees. *^^*

What do little tarus do in Whitegate when they are bored? Dance-off!!

My social LS is becoming better and better and we've been doing fun events. I helped out for a Sea run, was a lot of fun, it just took sooooo long lol.

My LS also organised a Bahamut version 1 fight, it was awesome. *__*

Afterwards we had our a ZNM run and started off with Dea. And ZOMG, it dropped my Oracle's Pigaches. Thanks guys! <3<3<3<3

Also did an Armed gears which netted Malys a Tomoe. Grats Mal.

Poty! :D

Did a few MMM runs to get Alixia's dancer an Ermine's tail dagger, no luck so far.

I finally started Einherjar and I love the event. Short and sweet and lots of fun.

Friend of mine lets me borrow his Manteel for Einherjar runs since I am one of the only Bards without one. *blushes*

Leeches. O.O

Icky pudding staring at me. HALP!

Some of the new synergy looks amazing, found this cute taru in Jeuno.

My Bard has a Minstrel Ring now, I want to thank the people that helped me get the Ring and pieces for the latent set, thanks Konda and Avey. :D

Posing with Kon. :D

Since I only have 70k gil atm, I started fishing Moat carp again lol.

That's it for today, till next time guys. ^_^/

Copyright..... O.O"

2010-02-22T16:52:00.005+01:00

Just a notice. I hereby officially state that all pictures I posted on my blog of the game Final Fantasy XI are copyright of Square Enix and belong to them.

My Dynamis leader just received a 800 Euro fine because he used a FFXI picture as the banner for our Linkshell Website. So better safe than sorry, gonna put the copyright into my blog banner. >_<"

He is being sued by the Waldorf Lawyer group, a well known agency in Germany that specialises in copyright and goes after people who illegally download movies and music. But to hear them now sueing someone over an image on our private Dynamis website is just scary.

A little Taru takes on the Gods!

2010-02-14T20:46:00.004+01:00

Hey guys. Most of my exams are done now (only one left as well as two big papers to write) so I thought I'd post an update. :D

I finally started the WotG Storyline and wish I had started it earlier, so interesting!

I also went to help Lucy get his BLM Af hat. :D

Afterwards we had a fun Dunes party, I got my WHM up to lv19, hope it will be 37 soon so I have that sub done and over with.

I met a very nice Taru. Crumpet is a fan of my blog and actually came to our server to join my social LS! We've already had tons of fun, great to have you on-board Crumpy! :D

Lucy needed the coffer for his BLM AF hands in Garlaige Citadel but it was behind Banishing Gate 2. We went there and this stuuupid NM was in the way. So I pulled it and ran as fast as I could while Lucy got his coffer. Well I died lol. Lucy ended up Tractoring me through the entire Citadel to get me to a spot so Athlir could raise me lool. Thanks for coming to Raise me Athlir. :D

Also went Zeni hunting with Pyth and Poty and got a Wulgaru pop for the LS. Hope we can do a new ZNM soon, am so eager to get Oracle's Pigaches.

Today my Social LS had its very first Sky Gods Run. We do all sorts of events in the LS casually and over the past month the LS has been collecting pops so we had one for each god plus two for Byakko.

I haven't had this much fun in a long while. :D

Sadly both Byakko only dropped D-Legs and poor Pythean still doesn't have his haidate. I am praying we get em next time Pyth.

We decided to to a Kirin since we had a pop set. You gotta remember we are a social LS with everything from a few hardcore players to players with their first 75s. Most have never even done Sky before today, nevermind Kirin. But we decided to give it a go. :D

I even surprised myself by landing Elegy. (No Ele-Seal, don't have BLM lvled lool)

W-Legs!!! Grats Vivi. :D

I want to thanks the LS, this was a wonderful day. Our Kirin did take a long time since we kited it the old fashioned way, but our three PLD did and excellent job, and our BLM were insane! Gogo guys! xD

Group Pics! SecretFellowship ftw!

I'm back to the game now with mixed feelings. I've had a lot of fun yesterday and today but something has been bothering me. A friend of mine offered me a spot in his Einherjar Shell. I have wanted to do Einherjar for a long time and now have the chance. There is no one on the list for Shadow Coat and it would be an amazing piece for my Bard, not to mention I could really use an Omega's Ring.

The problem is the times clash with my Wednesday Dynamis Run. Here the drama starts. As my close friends know I have not been happy in Dynamis for quite a while. Our LS is full of nice people, but Dynamis brings out the worst in everyone (including myself). The atmosphere sucks in Dyna, everyone is anxious, moody and one little mistake and everyone goes bonkers. Give us a run with bad drop rates and people become downright mutinous.

I joined Dynamis last year in September/October because Lucross asked me to come. I made it clear at the beginning that I don't want to come fulltime, I just wanted to experience something new and take screenshots. On my 2nd run I got Samurai Shoes and from there on I felt compelled to come. I enjoyed Dynamis a lot and I must confess I was VERY lucky with my drops, finishing SAM and then going 4/5 on BRD. I attended every single Dynamis run, even on a specific day when I was sick. I was blackmailed into coming, being told I would lose my points if I wouldn't come. It made me mad but I understood they wanted people to come. I had a perfect attendance until December, when I took a few runs off every now and then when I had to study.

I feel I put a lot of effort into Dynamis. The people in the LS are all my friends and I enjoy our time together. But Dynamis as an event just is no longer fun for me. It's too long and even Lucross who was co-leader has left.

I am currently on a break from Dyna since I am still in my exam period. But I don't know what to do.

When I mentioned that I would like to start Einherjar people became downright nasty. Saying all I care about is drops. "Yeah you got everything you needed in Dyna and now wanna leave". I've had all the important stuff I wanted since December and I still attended. I came to help out my friends to get their relics. But now some people feel I am selfish for wanting to go to Einherjar on Wednesday. I didnt say I would quit Dyna completely, I wanted to come on Sundays. But the reactions I got just make me want to quit Dyna altogether.

I would like to progress in-game. Most people do Endgame to get items. I know my Dyna Leader thinks this is horrible, but sadly he is one of the few people who really do it for fun. But sorry, the majority of the people do stuff for drops. I always had the feeling I had worked for the drops I got. I do admit I got my stuff fast, but sorry I don't make the drop rates. If I was really a bad person I would have left the second I got my Bard hat since by that time I was already sick of Dyna. But I did not. I stayed out of loyalty to my LS.

At this point I just don't know what to do. I am becoming more and more busy in RL and it seems some people hold it against me. I just don't have the time or energy to do Dyna 2 times a week at 4 hours a pop. I want to continue doing Limbus since its short. And I love helping my social LS (who is like 70% if our Dyna LS anyway). And I DO really want to try Einherjar, it sounds new and fun and exciting. I need something to keep me in the game so I dont burn out.

I just wish it could be my decision as to wether I want to only come once a week to Dyna or quit alltogether, without someone holding it against me and trying to make me feel guilty. I try to help where I can, I know I do not help out as much as other people I know. But my priorites are shifting towards my University work. So the time I do spend in the game I would like to have fun, do short events. I want to look forward logging in, not dreading it like I did for Dynamis.

Toby I respect you a lot as a LS leader and as my friend. What you put up with leading our Dyna shell is amazing. I just feel like I need a break from Dynamis for the moment. I need time to think it over. If I have the time and energy I would love to help out on Sunday runs. I would just like to be able to try something new and fun that will also help my char become better, without having to feel guilty for it. :)

And to end of the post on a nicer note, Malys wanted a cameo haha. Here ya go Mal!

Drops galore, scary missions and another goodbye.

2010-01-07T14:30:00.001+01:00

Time for a new update. ^_^

Poty finished his DRK to 75 and already has 3/5 Homam Gear, our LS has been busy in Limbus. xD

Five and Konda were nice enough to help me get my Illrusi Atoll Staging Point. I have no idea why I didn't have it lol, guess it was such a pain that I forgot about it.

Awesome as we are we managed to aggro almost everything on the way there LOL. xD

I did get there in the end though, thanks you two. ^^

We saw our very first SAM relic hat in Dyna for the LS. It might not be anything spectacular but it was the last piece I needed to complete my set, thanks guys.

A few days ago I happened to browse through the Server specific forums on Allakhazam which I usually never do. I found a post by a new player called Gewrew asking for someone to help him get into the game. The post was a few days old and I felt really bad that no one had bothered to answer.

Two days later I was in Windurst and saw a little red-headed Taru sitting alone in a corner without a Linkshell and saw it was the same person who posted on the forums. So of course I immediately gave him a linkshell, gave him a bit of gil to get him started and we all went on a roadtrip together to get him to the Dunes as well as get his Crag Crystals. Was a lot of fun. And Gew is a hard-working little Taru. His BLM is already lv30 and he unlocked Blu and Nin already.

Four little Tarus exploring the world.

My LS has turned into a mini HNMLS lately, but not in a negative way lol. We just introduced a point system and now help eachother with various NMs that players need help with. We've also done some stuff in Sky and Sea and we will be doing some ZNMs soon. No one is forced to attend, we are still a social LS but we also do our own events now to get people stuff they need.

Evyen still needs an Adamantoise Egg as the last item for her black belt (we already camped Behemoth and got the item), so we were often sitting and waiting for the turtle to pop along with a bazillion other people.

We've managed to claim quite a few Adamantoise so far, but sadly no drop yet. Claiming it can be so messy since everything around it loves to link and eat you for breakfast. But thanks to some awesome members we've always managed to recover and finish off Ada.

My Bard has been lv75 for a while now but I still need /whm as a sub. So I headed to the dunes with the LS.

Stoerbi came to PL us so I didn't really need to heal anyone lol. Still got a lot to learn about playing white mage. xD

Got to lv15 and the went to bed. I really need to finish this sub but it's not my favourite type of job lol. @.@

The majority of the Linkshell still needed to win the fight "Divine Might" to get the special earring reward and to advance in the Zilart Storyline so we can fight Bahamut.

So Evyen gathered up 17 people in the Linkshell and organised the fight for us.

We decided to do a dry run first to get used to the battle and to maybe adjust our strategy if needed.

The amazing part though is that we managed to kill off the Galka, Mithra and Tarutaru Ark Angels without too much trouble. The wyvern and mandragora pets were pretty annoying and killed a few of our BLM so I kited and slept them as BRD/NIN with some help from Evyen's Bard as well. We decided to wipe on purpose since there were only the Elvaan and Hume Ark Angel left. So we were all dead, the two pets had disappeared and the two Ark Angels returned to the middle. We all got back up, recovered and then went all out. The black mages blasted the Elvaan to smitherines and our DD 2 houred the Hume.

We actually won our experimental dry run, I was so proud of my LS! :D You hear so many horror stories about this battle and everyone recommends doing it manaburn style with 18 black mages, but we managed it with one blm party and two normal ones! Awesome job guys.

Scary Ark Angels!

So cool yet so evil @.@

Preparing

We won yay! (Can't believe we had to kill a Taru, even if he was evil. )

My Samurai finally has his Bushinomimi! <3

Our awesome group. :D

Goofing off before Dynamis Xarca on Sunday.

A friend loaned me his Manteel again, wish it was mine. ;_; It's just so awesome.

Our run on Sunday was the best Xarca run ever, drop wise at least.

Yay I got Bard pants. Not necessarily the best piece but hey, they look cool. xD

The unthinkable happened, we somehow got two Thief Gloves in our loot pool. Some Linkshells go years without seeing a pair of these and we get two in one go! Not to mention our LS got 3-4 in November/December last year. Our THF all have their TH4 gloves now, we'll have to freelot them soon at this rate lol. O.O" Now if only we could get RDM hats, poor Vivi is still waiting for his.

We also saw our first ever SMN horn, grats Kazza.

Posing in my frilly shirt! It may look silly but the stats are too insane to say no to. Someone wanna donate one to the Buttons Bard fund? xDD

One of my closest friends ingame came back, Fievel! :D

He has however decided to switch servers with his brother to join a Linkshell with a schedule that suits his playtime. It was a real shock, I'll miss him a lot. I wish I could convince him to stay but that would be selfish and I can totally understand him wanting to join a Linkshell on Seraph, I read about them and they do seem awesome.

A few days ago I found a goblin coif in a bazaar. What got my attention is that it was signed by Harken. I don't know this person but my own Goblin Coif which is my favourite hat was signed by this person. So I randomly decided to buy this twin hat of mine without knowing why.

Hearing that Fievel was leaving, I gave him the twin Goblin Coif. Now we both have one, signed by the same person. So now he can never forget he has a little Taru buddy on Caitsith who is waiting for him to come back some day.

I wish you all the best Fievel, have fun in your new LS on your new server. We'll really miss you~

Seems like there are still a lot of adventures out there! :D

2009-12-22T13:38:00.001+01:00

Hey guys, hope you're all enjoying the festive season. It's time for a new screenshot dump. :D

We tried Dynamis Lord once again but only got him to 50% when Ying and Yang respawned and wiped the floor with us. We need 1-2 more RDM/DRK (only had 3) and we seriously need more damage output. I felt so useless during that battle. Our BRD rotation went perfectly and I know my buffs helped, I even sang my Marches in my singing gear to reach the higher tier. But seeing the damage whittle down so slowly I wanted to be on my SAM so badly and give it a go. I think one problem was that our usual DD were on Mage classes that evening and most of our SAM there, were our usual THFs. I saw at least two SAM 2 hour immediately after engaging which made my hair turn grey. I had told them to Meditate and Sekkanoki first, then 2 Hour and then Ikarus Wing and WS again. I'd love to try and come SAM the next time and organise the DD party, but I fear I'll be stuck on BRD again hehe.

Very nice try though guys, best attempt we had so far! *^^*/

Five is back for the Christmas Holidays, it's been so long since he last played. Welcome back little taru!

Another friend of mine who has been gone even longer is back, welcome back Red!

Vivi is the mage in white and Buttons the one in Black. O,..,O

We did our only 2nd Ultima a while ago which was my very first. A friend loaned me his Manteel for the fight. It's such an amazing piece, I want one sooo badly. Attention all: Buttons Xmas wishlist: Sha'ir Manteel. haha xDD

Ultima. o.o"

Ultima went very well. Our two Ninja tanks did their job perfectly and we slowly whittled down Ultimas HP. We didn't use any DoT since it was only our 2nd try (first one was a disaster) and we wanted to get used to the fight.

Sadly, we timed out at around 5%. Ultima was a total bastard and kept using his magic-invincibility skill so we couldn't properly damage him. Our only DD were two BLUs and tons of BLM. Next time we'll have to bring some SAM or DRK to zerg it down faster. It was a very good try though and we know our strategy works now, we just need to tweak our setup a bit more and I'm sure we'll win. We also had a glitch where one of our BLM was unable to enter although he had soap and the card. If he was able to be inside we might have won, stupid glitchy game!!

After Ultima I went to visit a friend who was camping Vivacious Vivien so I helped out with the fight. The title you get is awesome, The Vivisector (reminder: my taru buddy is called Vivi! haha) No drop sadly.

Chrono came to visit me, we had a blast.

My Jeuno Christmas tree from the new event. It's pretty. :O

Vivi and I did the new event and both got our NQ and HQ bunny hats! :D

Vivi showing off the costume effect the new hats give. :D

My LS has a tradition that we do a special LS event every Christmas. So we all gathered together to do a Brenner in event gear and weapons haha. I had missed this event last year so I was so eager for it this time. :D

Love my LS! <3 We've grown a lot in the last few weeks. The majority of our Dyna shell decided to join our social LS since we also do tons of other events together (Limbus, various NMs (Ground, Sky, Sea, ZNM...whatever a person wants really.)) We try to do most things casually, no pressure and no 24/7 events. But it's also nice to have a LS you know will help and come kill some nasty critters with you or level in the dunes or merit with you. :D Not to mention our funny convos hehe.

Boy Brenner sure is fun. It's such a shame that little fun systems like these don't get used by the majority of the players, although they are so much fun.

I was sooo on the wrong job though, I should have come SAM/DNC or SAM/PUP...not BRD/NIN. I kept trying to Requiem people to death haha. xDD

Taru war!

Markus such a sneaky taru, kept trying to keel me! xDD

Haha I love this screenshot, chasing Tahvo and trying to kill him. (He was way better though, as BLM he blasted me to smitherines while I only slept him and tried to whack him with my bells lol)

That's all for today. I wish you guys a very Merry Christmas! ^_^/

75 Bard!

2009-12-05T21:19:00.000+01:00

DING. Lv75 Bard. Now I can use the items Octy left me. Thank you again Octy, your Osode, Ixion Cloak and Novia will be cherished and used well. Miss you taru.

I can't wait till the conquest tally tomorrow. Can pick up my AF+1 gloves from the NPC then. I will probably get a buffer on Bard soon and merit a bit and then of course finish my /whm sub since it's still lv12 =_="

Muffin-tarus? :O

2009-12-04T22:52:00.000+01:00

Time for another update. ^_^

Chrono proved what a nice little taru he is once again. Surprised me with a Demon Helm+1 for my bard. :D

Biast was up while we were gathering for Dyna. No drop though. :(

Picnic time in Dyna! xD

ZOMG THF drop again, we already got 3 in October. o.o"

It's December now so Happy Holidays everyone, it's my favourite time of the year! *__*

Did my first ever Assault runs with the LS. Am hoping to find a static or form one soon to do Periquia Assaults for a Yigit Body for my bard. If anyone on caitsith is interested let me know please, would love to get that body.

We had one of the best Dyna Sandy runs ever, we got 2x BLU, 2x SMN, 2x SCH, WAR, RDM, BRD to drop. The Dyna-Taru Squad!

Remember I said BRD dropped, well....it was mine! Yes Bard's Roundlet finally dropped for our LS again and I was first in line. Thanks so much guys, I'Ve wanted this hat since the day I unlocked Bard.

The muffin-tarus!

Having fun in Limbus.

Our limbus group has grown so much that we split into two groups now and get multiple zones done at once. :D My LS behaved for once and actually lined up to get their coins! Had to SS it. xDD

My Bard is now halfway to Lv74 and I just turned in my AF gloves to be upgraded to AF+1, will be able to pick them up on Sunday. Cannot wait to hit lv75 as Octy left me his Ixion Cloak, Osode and Novia Earring which I will use on my bard. :D

Saying goodbye is hard.

2009-11-22T23:17:00.001+01:00

Saying goodbye is something I am really bad at. I get really attached to people and am always so sad when people go away. Having friends leave the game is always painful, but I do understand the need to move on for them.

My best friend in the game has decided it's time to bid Vanadiel farewell. I met Octy long ago, he was a little Ninja taru who had seen me post on Bluegartr forums and wanted to meet me. We started hanging out and I enjoyed adventuring together. It was only weeks after we met that I noticed that he wasn't a little Lv6x Ninja taru but he was actually a veteran who had played the game for years already.

Octy became my best friend in-game and always helped me left and right. I am completely honest when I say I have never met such a selfless person in my life. That is why it saddens me so much to see him leave, to me having Buttons best taru friend was part of the fun of Vanadiel. We helped eachother, had adventures together, met new friends through eachother and just enjoyed the game to it's fullest.

Thank you for all the fond memories Octy. I wish you all the best in life and I know we'll still be in contact, even if it's not in-game anymore. I still secretely hope you decide to come back one day but totally understand that you feel your time in Final Fantasy XI is over. Thank you for everything, thank you for being the best friend a little taru could ever have. :)

Busy Life of a Little Taru.

2009-11-10T14:59:00.001+01:00

Hey guys. I've been wanting to update for a while now but I've been so busy with University that I just had no time. But today I have a cold and am at home for once so I thought I'd post a little update. ^^

A few weeks ago I was helping Fievel camp King Vinegaroon, that silly scorpion HNM. We had the time of death so were just sitting around waiting for the weather to change.

"Um Fievel, isn't that the thingy we want?" xDD

Fievel started kiting it and called his LS to help out. Was going pretty well until he got drawn in, stunned and killed. So I thought oh wells time to give it a go and started kiting it a bit as SAM/DNC lol. Draw in+stun was what ended up killing me in the end, but by then Fievel was back up and his LS was close by.

The fight was extremely fun to watch, just wish I could have helped out as well. Seemed like so much fun!

Congrats on your hat Fievel! Fievel was so glad I helped him him that he bought my Bard a Mary's Horn. Thanks fievel ^_^/

Limbus is becoming more and more fun. At first I didn't want to start a new event with my schedule but it's so much fun to go to events lol. So when they needed Marches and Ballad for Omega I was up for it of course!

Grats on your pants Poty.

Funny Pic. Buttons on BRD and Starla on SAM. Switched Roles. o.o"

More Limbus fun. ^-^

Did my very first ISNM with Fievel. Was fun and it's worth it. o.o"

Woot I got a Khroma ore on my run. :D

I thought it was about time to get my Minstrel Coat so I headed down into the wet cave and saw a galka farming down there. He seemed familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it lol. Turns out he was the friendly galka who helped me win airship! Am such a forgetful Taru! He had just killed the NM i was looking for but offered to claim it for me while I could do something else. So i watched a bit of tv and chatted a bit and we fought two NMs together.

OMG the coat dropped. Thank you soo much ^_^

Hanging out with friends. :)

Did a whole lot of Dyna Xarcas but SAM hat never dropped. ;_; We did finally get this though:

On our first Dyna Beaucedine run after our entire month of Xarcas, my Samurai Body piece finally dropped! *-* Thanks so much guys. It may be useles but dang it looks awesome. xD Am 4/5 now on SAM relic, hope the hat drops soon.

This double drop was funny. o.o

More limbus runs wee:

I actually have both Bard AF+1 items already! As soon as I hit lv74 I'll be turning in my gloves to upgrade. :D

Hanging around in Jeuno can be insanely fun. xD

Just got the first two CS of the Shantotto expansion. Storyline-wise it does seem excellent so far. :o

Also killed two of the new NMs. Was so hoping that Belladonna would drop the Acc+12 Att+4 belt but no such luck. No drop on the Colibri either. ;_;

My Bard is lv67 now so I hope I can quickly get to 72. Love the job and can't wait to use it more. :D

Wow I havent posted in forever. =O

2009-10-23T22:53:00.000+02:00

Hi guys, been like a month since I posted, been busy busy busy. Uni started again for me last week so playtime is down again. But I did manage to get a lot done before it started.

Adorable tarus in Jeuno. *.*

Was in Castle Oz with Shokun getting scrolls for my BRD when Quu Domi was up..... 0/12 now... -.-

Hanging out with Octy. Octy hasn't been playing much lately since he has been really busy, I miss my best taru buddy. :(

I started the OpoOpo Crown Quest, boy what a pain. Malys was nice enough to help me farm the skull.

Took an entire week but Vivi helped me farm most of the items, thanks Vivi!

Woot am a King-taru!

Did my first Dyna Beaucedine and we had tons of drops and got the win. Pup body went freelot and almost floored so I lotted it for my Lv19 PUP. may need to finish PUP after BRD is 75 now. o.o"

Bought some town gear, am a royal taru now!

Did the Halloween Event with Vivi, so much fun. :D

Kon helping me get the castle Zvahl Baileys Coffer Key for my Bard AF hands.

Solo'd Dark Spark. >:D

Woot! Awesome Gloves for my Bard.

Got out my hat for Halloween! Boo!

Vivi helped me do the fight for Bard AF body, was fun. :D

The story behind the Bard Artifact pieces is so sad. :(

Bard AF armour complete!

Jelly set up a Soboro run for us. Was SO much fun. The first time I got to take my BRD to an event. Sadly we went 1/7 on drops. The drop rate is soo bad. Grats to Ethalio on his Soboro though!

We did Dynamis Xarcabard on Sunday and Wednesday this week and boy where we lucky. We actually got THF hands on Sunday and then on Wednesday we got 2 THF hands in a row! It was soo insane. Sadly still no SAM body from beaucedine and hat from Xarca for me. ;_;

We also got various other drops, BLU which we never get, COR, MNK, WAR and a lot more which I just forgot about. Sadly no BRD gear or SAM so still nothing new for me. :(

Kirol finally hit 75 on his DRK, soo cute. *.*

I camped Stray Mary for 2 days straight to get the Mary's Horn for my Bard while studying on the side. No Drop, I hate this NM! Anyone wanna donate a beggar brd a flute? xD

Yesterday Lucy convinced me to tag along for Limbus and I actually got to go on my Bard even though it was only lv60! Was a lot of fun and I even managed to land quite a few Elegy's which astonished me. :D

Posing in my AF before getting warped out. xD

Got to lv61 today on my BRD before we disbanded, halfway to 62 now. :D

Toby totally shocked me today. He is a friend and my Dyna LS leader and let me borrow his Osode until I can afford to buy my own since he never uses his NIN anymore. I hope I can manage to save up enough gil asap to buy my own, it's just so awesome! *_*

Finally!

2009-09-28T21:10:00.001+02:00

FINALLY!! ENM gave us a Hagun, I finally have my Hagun! <3 Thanks Ali and Mal. ^-^/

Mal also signed me a Hauby, I love it :D

Got my BRD to 57 and posed with my brd-twin. *.*

Next post will be longer, just had to post this! :D

The singing Samurai?

2009-09-26T16:56:00.001+02:00

It's been a while since my last post so time for an update.

A few weeks ago Mal fell through the bridge in Windy and was forced to take a bath. O.o" Was kinda funny, I wanted tp fish him out but we had to wait for a GM.

I started levelling Bard, and of course I had my trusty little Pamama assist me!

Both Saruta NMs were up so Konda killed Tom Tit Tat as well as Nunyewatchamacall it for me. xD

I also farmed the Bunny NM for the CHR ribbon for my bard.

Wee the Dunes! o.o"

Jeebz is such a cute taru lol

Had a super fun dunes party with some japanese players. :D

Dob has the same clothes as me. o.o

We did another swift belt run and got Alixia her belt.

Potato is next in line for his belt but he was hacked and we don't know how long the character restoration will take. How could someone hack a cute little taru, damn RMT. -.-"

Taru-line before Dynamis.

All leaders were absent on that Sunday but we decided to go ahead anyway. Was a fun run, drops sucked but we got the win at least for those that needed it. And I got my SAM pants! :D

Look at the chicken being sneaky, hiding under the bridge!

Some more BRD levelling, Qufim island XP is just insane! :D

I was in Upper Jeuno when I saw a message that a Mog tablet had been found in Altepa. So I knew they were scattered. I got a chocobo and run out to Batallia Downs, I just had a feeling I needed to go there. I followed my feeling to a spot near the Jugner Entrance side and what do I see on the floor, a Mog tablet!

I turned it in and got the Kupofried Ring as well as an item I always wanted for my mog house, a bookshelf!!

I had to redecorate my house!

Some more Bard levelling. I love the job and have been levelling a lot in Qufim Island and East Ronfaure S. Been using my anniversary ring so XP is just insane lol.

We did another Dynamis Valkurm Dunes and it actually went very well. We wanted to only practise getting the fly pulling done fast since we have problems with that a lot of the time and then go over to farming. The flies died fast and we started farming and got a 100 currency as well has 3 relic pieces.

Did the quest for a Farie Piccolo, such a cute little taru bard. :D

Some more Qufim levelling. :D

Did another Dynamis Sandy, sadly no BRD relic hat dropped, I would have loved to get one. We did get the win though so that was nice. Sadly drops were very few which was weird since Sandy always gives so many.

Solod the fight for my Bard AF. The storyline for the AF is a bit weak though, but I noticed that the old jobs have boring AF storylines compared to newer jobs such as Corsair, Puppetmaster or Blue Mage.

Cerise helped me this afternoon to farm my Nest Coffer Key and found the coffer for me as well.

My Bard is Lv54 now and halfway to 55 and I am very happy with my progress. I need to find the Castle Oztrojah Coffer now (Have the key already from when I accidentally lotted Anand's >.<) and need to do the fight for the AF feet.

I'm a Muffin!

I was also very lucky, Jeebz sent me this, am so happy! :D Thank you! I also want to thank Octy who lent me his Monster Signa up until now. ^-^

I will end this topic on a very very sad note. Last week my Sky LS Phailure broke. Our leader was just burned out and people were skipping runs and then complaining about no pop sets. I want to thank everyone. I was only in the shell for a little over 2 months but I had the time of my life. I loved my sky runs, I had fun and made many new friends. I got my awesome Haidate and have so many fond memories.

I miss the linkshell and the runs already but I totally understand and respect Malys' decision. Thank you for the awesome memories Phailure LS. :)