Massively^™

Late last week we had the opportunity to get a hands-on look at the most recent expansion to the venerable MMO title Final Fantasy XI. Wings of the Goddess was released to excited Taru Tarus and enthusiastic Galkas in November of last year, but the new content is still being explored by the several hundred-thousand strong playerbase. Featuring two new jobs and an intriguing story arc that ties the present of Vana'diel to its war-torn past, Wings is easily the most ambitious project the Square/Enix development team has delivered to the online space. While it hasn't been as well received as some previous expansions, it's nonetheless a watershed moment in the game's history.

The reason? The FFXI developers are reaching out to the community, both inside and out of the game. Don't play Final Fantasy XI? Don't worry – we haven't in a while either. That's why we went on this tour, to experience the newest and greatest the gameworld had to offer. While talking to the developers was great, nothing can compare with seeing the sights and trying out the two new classes firsthand ... and did we ever come back with spoils! We have descriptions of playstyles for both of the new classes, details on the newest Campaign-style collaborative combat gameplay, dozens of screenshots, half a dozen videos, and one very special cinema featuring a certain cat that might be very familiar indeed ...

It's odd to think that any one game could inspire players from all walks of life to set aside two days and flock to one location in celebration, but MMORPGs are unique in that they are as much instruments for social networking as they are video games. Because of this, perhaps it isn't all that surprising to see such fantastic devotion as we've seen here at Final Fantasy Fan Festival (say that five times fast), Square Enix's annual party celebrating all things Final Fantasy XI.

The event, limited to just 1500 attendees, also doubles as a launch party of sorts for the MMO's latest expansion, Wings of the Goddess, which ships on November 20. Goddess adds a number of interesting changes to the existing formula, including two new jobs – Dancer and Scholar – as well as takes the setting back in time to let players take part in, and possibly change the events that helped shape the history of Vana'diel. To find out more about this game, as well as the other changes Square Enix has in store for the MMO, we went straight to the horse's mouth, and joined a handful of other journalists in a private interview session with the game's development team, including Hiromichi Tanaka, Akihiko Matsui, Mitsutoshi Gondai, Kouichi Ogawa, Kenichi Iwao, and Sage Sundi.

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.