Going Full Circle: The Birth of Jyonenshi

Assassins are self-sufficient characters. They don't need to rely on other people to level up or to hunt for items. With the right equipment and skills they could even stand up to boss-type monsters where other character classes normally could not. But I found it sort of boring to just point and click my way to the level cap.

Maybe that's why I gave the Acolyte-Priest class a second try. Don't get me wrong, though. I ain't anywhere near 'saintly' in real life. I just found this character to be cool and challenging. I could say the same for Wizards too, but they're too fragile as I see it. Maybe I just like to let other people do the dirty work of slaying monsters lol.

But before they suggested that I go and do them the favor of being the healer I tried out something that I've heard was a good character build. A Battle Priest. It had high STR and AGI, stats that an orthodox Priest will never make any good use of (except for the additional inventory capacity that STR gives) and the skill build was sufficient enough for the caster himself. It had the best of both worlds.

So I made one and trained it like any melee character, going through the same leveling path as what my assassin Yoichi went through. But as I leveled up my Battle Priest Zenebatos (from The Law City Zenebatos, of The Legend of Dragoon PS1 RPG) it dawned on me that it wasn't a far cry from that first character I made in the Chaos server back then. Sure it was nice to be self-sufficient and cost-effective (Heal skill = virtually no healing potions needed of course), but to be truly effective in battle this build must have a varied arsenal of weapons and even armor, so as to much the strengths and weaknesses of the monsters of Rune-Midgard. To me it was a luxury I cannot afford. Thus I abandoned this prospect and proceeded to what I never would've thought the archetype of my online gaming life: supporting.

They say the third time's a charm. True, this would be the third time I create an Acolyte but it would only be the second time I play a Priest. So I went ahead and planned for the skill build. I even downloaded a skill tree chart to guide me.

Because a Full-Support Priest needs to have a lot of skills, it is best that they go past Job Lvl 40, the prerequisite level for the 2nd job change quest, and go all the way up to the limit, which is Job Lvl 50. This would give the much needed skill points to unlock and strengthen the skills needed for supporting. As for stat point allocation it was simple, most builds focused only on VIT (Vitality) and INT (Intelligence). VIT increases HP and reduces damage to a certain extent, and a good FS Priest does not die before the ones they support. INT boosts SP for skill usage. Perfect for spamming Heal during tight situations. I didn't really worry about equipment yet because I was focused on getting the 'Acolyte' part of this task right.

I think my mind was kind of set back then that I would be using this character for a long time, or that I will definitely stop character class hopping, that's why I spent some time looking and figuring out a name for this new character. During this time I was watching the Hunter x Hunter Greed Island OVA and saw this one guy that seemed to be a very important character (at least his abilities are as far as the story goes). His name was jyonenshi. From what I recall jyonenshi means nen-remover or something. This guy was important because he was needed by the bad guy (I forgot his name lol)  to remove some sort of deadly curse technique that was put on him and he was the only one that could remove it.

His ability was sure that only of his in the entire world, and his name (or what he was called) was quite unique among the sea of japanese names used in MMOs XD. So from then on I went by the name of Jyonenshi and began a new journey in the kingdom of Rune-Midgard. And it stuck with me on other MMOs since then XD

The Two Themes

ou may have already heard of this, but there's been a buzz pertaining to Final Fantasy XIII. Sure everyone's excited about the game, but the current rage is regarding the theme song.

You see, for the NA and Europe release of FF XIII, Square-Enix chose Leona Lewis's "My Hands" from her album "Echo" as the theme song. The Japanese theme song is entitled "Kimi Ga Iru Kara" and sung by Sayuri Sugawara. Now people are split regarding this decision. Here are the two songs (that I saw on youtube) and hear for yourself.

"Kimi Ga Iru Kara" sung by Sayuri Sugawara:

"My Hands" sung by Leona Lewis:

As for me? To be honest "My Hands" is a very good song, but for me it kinda doesn't fit. Unless they actually use an orchestral version instead of this one then I'd have no qualms about it. The tune of "Kimi Ga Iru Kara" kinda grew on me since I've heard it repeatedly while watching the trailers. I hope they use both or at least make an english version of this one. They were able to pull it off with FF X-2's 1000 Words so I don't see a reason why they shouldn't do it again ._.

Ascetic Turned Assailant

By the time the new server, Iris (named after the damsel in distress from the manwah) was announced to be launched as a second server to accommodate more players, I was getting tired of leveling up the hybrid acolyte. It was too late to try to reverse the mistakes of allocating points to every stat, making it mediocre for support and solo leveling.

So I did some research on the other job classes and like everyone else, I had my sights on the thief job class. After all, who wouldn't want to try a character that attacks swiftly while dodging most hits from the enemy, with an ability to steal money and items to boot? But the real reason people go for this class is its 2nd job, the assassin. This was one of the most populated job class during the early days as it really was cool with its very quick attacks and high critical hit rate.

And as the servers opened I created a new character on the new server, naming it Yoichi (from the Yoichi Bow weapon of Final Fantasy fame and other RPGs lol) with typical purple long bad-ass hair XD I swept through the tutorial but I made sure the answers to the questions by the end of the tutorial would lead me into the NPC suggesting that I'd be a thief (following the suggestions nets you a few useful items and a trip directly to the town for the job change quest). By the time I was finished from the tutorial I was a level or two away from being eligible to take the thief job change quest.

The town for thieves was apparently Morroc, southwest of the main city Prontera and had a middle-eastern feel, it was in a desert after all XD. The actual thieves' guild was to the northwest of the town, inside a pyramid. The inside of the pyramid was like a labyrinth, and to get to the thieves' guild you'd need to find you way to the center. But there were some monsters that were too strong for novices that wanted to take the quest, so what we did was we'd run in groups trying to avoid them (hoping one of us would be the bait LOL) or use this item called a fly wing that would teleport us to a random location of the map. I made more than one attempt to get there lol.

The Desert Town Morroc

Eventually I made it and moments later I found myself outside the pyramid doing the quest. I looked for an NPC that would take me to a map wherein I'd collect the quest items I needed. It was tedious and boring but worth it. After about an hour or two I finished the quest and was now starting the life of a thief XD The double attack skill was its best ability as it enables to do double damage to a target for up to 50% of the time. But that wouldn't be enough to even make a dent to the monsters of Glast Heim, so I looked for another place to level up.

That's when I heard from my friends about this place called Byalan Island. Apparently it was a great place for melee characters. It was located east of Prontera and required to ride a ferry. When I got to the island (that looked like a skull on the mini-map) indeed there was a lot of people, be it waiting for others, regenerating, asking for party members or selling healing items. I entered the cave on the center of the island, and as expected, the monsters were marine creatures, well most of them are XD

Marina

Thara Frog

Penomena

Marc

Just some of the "marine" life you'd see inside Byalan Island XD

The cave was sort of half-submerged in sea water that's why there are even squids and err... mermaids. The lower levels are even crazier as it turns out that the cave leads into a sort of Atlantis (with underwater bubble effects to boot!) that amazingly, enables the characters to breathe and move with ease XD But the monsters there are tough so I stayed on the upper levels. And true to everyone's word, leveling there was fast and easy.

Eventually the EXP and Job EXP acquired became too low to make it productive leveling down there, so I looked for other places to level up. I remember going to places like the Payon Cave, Orc Dungeon, Goblin Forest and even the sandy eastern desert of Morroc, where the island that was home to the assassins' guild was located.

Before the Comodo patch arrived there were no 2nd job quests so I had it easy when I changed jobs into an assassin. As soon as I left the assassin guild building I was eager to try out the skills. Sonic Blow was first on the list, and it was amazing, hitting the enemy with several slashes at lightning speed. Their cloaking skill was very useful too as it enables the assassin to move while remaining unseen, though back then you had to stick to within 2 tiles of the edge of the terrain (walls/cliffs etc.) or else the skill will deactivate.

Male Assassin Artwork

Assassin Yoichi, my first second job character XD

Anyways, I decided to go deeper into the Payon Cave to gain some levels and hunt the elusive Sakkat (as far as I can remember it was there that I found one). The Sakkat is a headgear that looks like a straw hat worn by rice farmers and it adds 1 AGI when equipped. Back then this headgear was the craze, I tell you, so when I got one I was so excited XD.

So there I was, inside the deepest parts of the Payon Cave, wondering why there is a town underground (I even made a fanfic regarding the place and the boss monster there - a half-girl/half-cat named Moonlight weilding a giant bell attached to a stick). The monsters there were typical darkness fare - skeletons, chinese (or korean) zombies called Munak and Bongun (the Munak Hat headgear was a fad too back then) will-o-wisps called Horong, even ghostly maidens called Sohee.

A fighting game-ish screenshot thingy I made with my Priest Jyonenshi and the boss monster Moonlight in Ragnarok Battle Offline style XD

I think I got to lvl 70 while hunting in there when the withdrawal syndrome kicked in. Maybe it was because I had no good equipment to move to tougher places to level up faster. I don't really remember how in the world I wanted to become a support character again, but I think it was because we (me and my friends of course) lack support characters, most were melee characters. So I guess that was the sign to throw in the towel and go back to asceticism XD

Farewell to the New World, among other things

*sigh* It'd be only natural for anyone to get tired and bored of something once they reach a roadblock. In my case, the appeal of Granado Espada has been lost for several reasons:

1. I got addicted (and still am) to Persona 4 lol.

2. I don't have enough money to buy the items I need so that I could pass the lvl 100 barrier and continue leveling up and questing with my three main characters.

3. Seeing as this game is really expensive (well all games are but this one's really way up there) if you want to maximize your enjoyment out of it, I think I'll be staying clear from it for now.

4. My PC specs are actually crappy for this game, so I'd probably go back when I've upgraded :D

I just want to say thank you to Summerscent from the Rembrandt server who was really kind enough to help me transfer stuff from my cash cow account (that is now dry XD) to my main account. Without him/her I wouldn't have had the chance to acquire Irawan, Catherine, and Claire :D

On other news, FF XIII will be available on Dec. 17! Wish I could understand japanese though; That and a cool (albeit girly) Lightning Edition PS3 8D I've read somewhere that the english version will be out around may next year.

This game looks to be promising what with the amazing graphics and the new battle system. Though there would probably be a lot of naysayers regarding the transforming summons, which is by the way, over-the-top coolness IMO XD Plotwise, it looks like its not a disappointment like that of FF XII. I just hope that it won't be an emo-fest since there was a lot of drama on the trailers I saw. If you haven't checked them out yet, here's a link to the japanese website:

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/ff13/

And now I leave you with an image of the first (and hopefully not the last) twelve members of the Tenebroso family :D

The Life of the Ascetic?

We all know of the cliche "What you do not know will not hurt you." And indeed it held true for me during my first adventures in the world of RO. Since this game's character building is based on allocation of points (that you obtain from gaining levels) into your stats, namely strength, agility, dexterity, intelligence, vitality and luck - it was easy to mess up and having a weak character later on. The same point allocation system is also applied to the skills of your job class. Nevertheless I didn't pay any attention to any of that, not yet at least.

As my novice was nearing the minimum level requirement for the Acolyte job change quest, my stats were mostly balanced. I think I put a point when I could to each and every stat, since I had no idea what each of their strengths really was. Then it was time to take the test.

A map of Rune-Midgard, with the capital city Prontera at its center

I entered the so-called church located on the north-eastern corner of the game's capital city Prontera and talked to the quest NPC. The quest was pretty simple. First it involved talking to three people located around the world map but weren't that far that you'd risk encountering strong and aggressive monsters, unless you lose your way XD. After that you'd just have to return to the quest NPC to finish the quest. And so my life as an Acolyte began.

The Capital City Prontera

I immediately trained to gain skill points to try out the skills. Yeah Heal was pretty useful, I thought. It was actually crucial to my survival as I was more like a fighter rather than a healer. I even trained at places like Mt. Mjolnir and the fields near the magical city Geffen - places an Acolyte should not be training unless he's with someone else, bashing every Ambernite (monsters that look like giant snails XD) i see. Then I've heard of this great leveling place which was the Culvert of Prontera. The monsters inside were mainly bugs that loot items dropped by other monsters and gang up on you if attack their comrade. Lol. I think I got to lvl 35 inside that place.

The Magical City Geffen

At around that time there were already a lot of people playing the game. As I was looking around town I overheard (more like oversee XD) a conversation about an excellent leveling place for acolytes. They called it "GH". I later learned that it stands for Glast Heim. Thanks to the useful Warp Portal skill of Acolytes, players can get to the place easily. So I hitched a ride.

When I arrived there were a lot of people, but they were just sitting there or waiting for someone. We were outside a building that seemed like a church. I thought this map was like a town where it would be safe but the music and the dead plants, not to mention the dilapidated structures betrayed that thought. And I confirmed it to be a dangerous place when I saw this huge monster that was actually a black armored knight riding an evil-looking horse. Unsurprisingly, it was called Abysmal Knight.

the dreaded Abysmal Knight that was very popular during RO's early days

What surprised me was how ridiculously strong it was. The people around me started falling down like crazy when they were hit by its attacks. Of course, like the others, I entered the church to seek sanctuary. Or so it seems. The inside of the church was like a scene from Silent Hill - dark and desolate. Good thing I have the Teleport skill XD. There people in here as well but they were moving in the same direction. Must be the training grounds I've heard of. So I followed them. During the short but dangerous trip some characters, lowbies like me, didn't make it, as there were undead monsters that got to them.

When I arrived at the next area, which I presumed to be under the church, I was surprised that there were trees even if they were dead, lol. The place looks more darker than the previous area and soon I learned that it was some sort of graveyard. I was amazed at the number of people in the area. I noticed some people were just sitting around, probably because they were in a party and didn't need to fight. But it dawned on me as they wouldn't dare to attack the monsters here, as they were very strong. Although they moved slow, which worked to the advantage of archers and mages, and acolytes!? I've played games before wherein healing the undead would damage it but I never imagined it would be possible in an online game because I thought it would be imba XD

The Evil Druid was an excellent source of EXP for ranged attackers since it moves slowly.

So now I was more like an Acolyte than ever before, fighting the undead and evil instead of bugs and what-not XD For the next few times I logged in I was there spamming Heal on Evil Druids, Ghouls and Zombies, sitting amidst a group of people to regenerate SP (needed to be able to use skills of course) and running around or teleporting to avoid the occasional Hunter Fly that acolytes and lowbies in general have no chance of winning XD

But then I heard that they were launching a second server, since the occassion of lag spikes due to the stress the amount of people on the server caused. It even came to a point that no one could get in the game because it was full of people, brought on by the bonus exp event the administration held XD So I decided that I would move to this new server, since most of my classmates are moving there as well :D

Welcome to Rune-Midgard

Before July 2003, MMO (Massively-Multiplayer Online) games were virtually unheard of here in the Philippines. But then Ragnarok Online came along. I first heard of this game during the first week of college when people were introducing themselves. I was liek "wow, an online rpg with a local server??"

But I immediately shrugged the idea of playing it as I know that our pc at home was so crappy back then that it would not be able to process even a game with this level of graphics. I think our RAM was 128 mb and our video card was a lowly 64 mb XD

Nevertheless, the game freak in me wanted to dive into the world of Midgard. I remember getting the installation cd from a magazine store. I made an account and installed it,  selected the only available server, which was called Chaos, named after the main protagonist of the manwah "Ragnarok Online: Into The Abyss" which the game was based on. But alas after the character creation screen I was stuck. So the next choice was to try playing it in internet cafes.

Back then there were few internet cafes as they were mostly only for surfing and LAN games. But I managed to find one that has Ragnarok Online installed. Even if the rate was expenive, I had to try. I wanted to see what all the fuss that I keep on hearing in school is all about.

I don't remember how that novice character looked like more so what his name was, but I remember the excitement as I moved around that small island where all novices start off. Moments later I found myself inside a building with several other characters moving around and talking to the different npcs, sometimes seeing angels appear above their head, a sign that they received experience points from talking to the npcs and leveled up.

So I did what the others were doing and found myself reading the tutorials thoroughly XD. After the tutorials I entered a field where there were these round jelly-like monsters, the infamous poring XD. I equipped the items given to me and clicked it. At first I was like "Battles in MMOs are kinda meh." But I quickly got used to it and found myself clicking and clicking, gaining EXP as I go.

Who wouldn't love the cute Poring? XD

After I gained enough levels to move on I had to talk to different npcs that gave information about the job classes available, the swordsman, acolyte, thief, magician, archer and merchant. I didn't know what to choose so I talked to the npc that evaluates what I would be best suited for based on the answers I gave to its questions.

I was surprised when it said that I best become an acolyte, a job class that specializes on healing and strengthening other characters, nothing like me in real life LOL. But meh, so be it. After reading the final lines of the npc I was sent from the training grounds into the town where I would take the job change quest.

Welcome to Rune-Midgard indeed!

The Story So Far

Hi. Lol what a way to start XD The idea of blogging my adventures through the different cyber worlds I've been through has been bugging me for the past few days and now that I'm actually doing it I don't know what to put in. Well I guess these things take time, which is okay, 'coz I have a lot of that right now (too much even).

I guess I'll start off with an overview of what MMOs I've played / been playing. The very first MMO I played, like most of the people here in the Philippines, was Ragnarok Online, which was launched here around july 2003, around the same time I started my college life. This game actually made it easier for me to make friends (in the real world of course), and made it easier for my wallet to dry out XD

The oldest screenshot i could find of my RO days. Sadly, the older ones were lost :(

Then around 2 years later, i think, came the launch of Rising Force Online (RF Online). At the time the only 3D MMORPGS i know of where FF XI Online and WOW XD. And the setting was unique, siding with 1 of 3 races that are at war with each other; I definitely had to try it out. I had a lot of fun in that game as well, so much that I became inactive in RO. Though I had to quit around May the year after (2006) because I needed to focus on my on-the-job training and thesis, not to mention the fact that I felt alienated in the guild that I co-founded (my other co-founders whom i knew iRL quit XD)

First RF Screenshot lol

It was about at this time that I started playing O2Jam, which was an online rhythm game, and was kind of like stepmania where you had to press the corresponding key at the right moment, so that the melody you'd hear would sound right. I think I only have one screenshot of that game because most of the time I played on internet cafes outside the office during lunch break XD I think that was also the reason I got hacked in RO lol.

Not even a screenshot, just my avatar. I must've deleted it ._.

Let's see... Ah yes. Well I remember I stuck with O2Jam until after graduation since I don't want to go back and get addicted to MMORPGS again (yeah right XD). But I yielded to the evil (lol) and decided to try something new. It wasn't really new in the market but I decided to try it anyway since it had a unique school setting to it. Yes, Ran Online XD I don't remember how long I've been in this game though, but I remember I got to lvl 85 I think? Anyway it was fun while it lasted but our crappy dial-up connection back then discouraged me from continuing on playing it ._.

This wasn't even my screenshot, it was just given to me. I wonder why I didn't take any back then? ._.

So after my short time from that game I think I went back to RO to start a new adventure on the server where most of my iRL friends were. We were all in a guild called Annihilation back then. I think the guild is kind of dead now but the friendship is still strong to this day :D Anyway I enjoyed this second RO life much more because of the guild (questing / power leveling with guild mates, siege battles XD).

Then around july-august 2007 there were these two new games that appeared. Granado Espada and Pefect World. I was actually getting bored with RO, despite the fun and challenge of being an int-type ninja, but the Multiple Character Control system of GE and the amazing landscape of PW piqued my interest. When I tried GE I learned that after the open beta period the game would go P2P and that I had little time to earn free 2 months for my account. I had to lvl my party to lvl 20 before the OBT period ends. I didn't make it XD

First decent-ish screenshot of the Mescherchmidt family from who-knows-what server back then.

So I gunned for Perfect World instead XD This game was amazing with its features and graphics. But I only lasted around 8 months! Why? Coz it was so expensive! Even if it was free-to-play you'd have no choice to top-up if you want to continue leveling once you get near the high-level tier. Still, the friendships i made and the times I spent admiring the landscape are priceless XD

First screenshot yet again. My low-end rig does not do justice to the eye-candy it could give >_<

After that I went back to RF to try to start anew, but the game was so different from the first time I played it. I only got so far as lvl 41. It was not newbie-friendly at all. That and there were a lot of jerks even w/in your own race. But destiny made me quit before I decided to. Our broadband + phone line got cut off and the next time I was able to go online at home was december last year. This time I was looking for something new, again XD At first I planned on playing Nostale PH but I ended up downloading the client for GrandChase instead. I actually got addicted to this game because of its graphics and side-scrolling action gameplay. But it was a game that could get lonely since it was on an instance basis. I don't know if things changed now, but last august there were a lot of people using third-party programs that enabled them to finish dungeons in a minute or so where it would normally take of up to about half an hour. Plus my friend iRL stopped playing :| So I quit too.

Yep, the default character is a girl. Elesis, the tomboy-ish swordsman. You get to unlock the other characters as you progress though.

I also got to try out Exteel SEA when it launched its CBT phase, but only for a day. I got tired trying to connect to the game. Our broadband connection's always fucked up and can't enter some sites, even if I restart the connection <_< Its a FPS game wherein you control mechs, so expect it to be cool. I had several screenshots of it but I forgot to copy the folder when I uninstalled it ~_~ At around February of this year, the same time I was playing GCPH, Rohan PH was launched here. Like always I decided to try it out. I only lasted through the whole CBT phase. At first I liked it, but it became quite mediocre for my tastes later on, as the grinding steadily made its presence. But the real let-down for me was the fact that it was difficult to be a support character here, and the constant threat of getting PK'ed is annoying. And I was still committed to playing GC at the time XD

wow the first day of CBT was my birthday lol.

From mid-August until now, I am exploring the world of Granado Espada, again. I didn't use my old account, just because. XD Now I am pioneering under the name of the Tenebroso family in GESEA's Rembrandt server :D

Long story short: I am two-bit, half-baked wanderer XD

Whew what a summary. I guess I'll get to start telling my RO days next.