Massively^™

We've already talked about the big news from this past weekend's Final Fantasy XI Fan Fest - the announcement of the Scholar class. We've also noted the ease with which you can revisit the game, as deleted characters can be restored for folks coming back. But there were several other minor details dropped by the Square/Enix folks in the last few days.

A few of the moves for the other new class, the Dancer, were announced. They'll be a front-line melee class - hitting mobs to build up TP, and then expending it to fuel their healing dances and enfeebling steps.

Some more random details were also announced, affecting all players, like the expansion of the macro pallet to 4000 buttons. Little things make the game, right? I know I for one will be happy that players can now invite others into their Mog houses.

The developers also confirmed what everyone already assumed, that portals to the past will be opening across Vana'diel. Known as 'cavernous maws', they will allow adventurers to move some twenty years into the gameworld's past.

Finally (just in case you'd forgotten), the game will be shipping on or around the 20th of this month. There are so many new features that all players (regardless of whether or not they're buying the expansion) will need to endure a pair of updates. The first dropped earlier this week, while the next is scheduled for about the 12th.