Nostalgia

A bit o'nostalgia, right here. Found this relic while I was cleaning out my closet. Also a lot of skeletons. Figurative and literal. 

Yep, what you're looking at is the original FFXI PS2 HDD forged in the depths of hell. This was one of three I had over the years, having lost the previous two during moves across the country. Contained within is, I'm assuming, several vengeful spirits, possibly Elvaan, that will devour my soul upon release, covering the planet in blackness for all eternity until we take our own lives with forks to the temple.

Let's crack this bitch open.

Eh, no vengeful spirits, but I did find a few HDD utility discs, which is sort of the same thing. I doubt any of us ever used the web browser, but it came with that as well. The manual was a neat thing to flip through. It did a very good job of explaining keyboard commands to a generation of losers raised solely on four buttons and a joystick.

It was actually very fascinating to see exactly how many user-friendly applications they packed into a console game. It simplified party structure, questing, combat, and social crap. Emotes and macros were something of a mystery to me back then, and I probably would have understood things better if I actually read the manual.

There's also a little section in the back about the then newly added expansion, Rise of the Zilart, which came standard with the North American release. It gave a bit of info on the new regions added, along with Ninja, Dragoon, and ya boi Samurai.

Side note: Remember when Dragoon's 2hr ability was Call Wyvern? This manual does.

My collection of expansions. Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urhgan, I vaguely remember, were purchased somewhere in Louisiana. Wings of the Goddess, I distinctly remember, was purchased at a Gamestop in Miami, FL and I was fuckin' hyped for it.

It's really interesting checking out the little inserts giving an overview of what each expansion adds. Everything is taken for granted nowadays, people often forget there was a time when all these things were new, and new regions were being added constantly. It's commonplace for MMOs to throw out updates every month or so, but FFXI held off on everything and gave us a shit ton of content in each expansion.

Them's were the days, guys. Them's were the days.

This.

This fucking thing.

I remember spending $80 on this. I remember taking a week off of work to get a head start on early access. I remember paying monthly for this fucking piece of shit before it was forced to go free to play for a year just so people wouldn't abandon ship.

My blog is full of the horrible things FFXIV used to be, so I won't harp on that any more than I have to. But this thing begs to be burned. Why have I not thrown this box in a wood chipper, smeared my face with feces and laughed maniacally while dancing naked? First of all, that's oddly specific and unsanitary.

Shame on you.

The reason I'm keeping this box is because it's literally the only thing linking me to the FFXIV that was. The notebook that came with it is gone, the CD case disappeared, and my Rite of Passage that I actually mailed in for was stolen by a weeaboo cow with bad hair. This empty husk is all I have left as proof I was there on the front lines when the going was tough.

I'd like to thank you all for going on this nostalgia trip with me. More will be in store when I find other random crap while cleaning up the dead bod- cookies.

Cleaning up the cookies.