We noticed an Inconspicuous Door and walked through it. I found a Moogle and a cutscene for my character to introduce Final Fantasy XI's add-on pack, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: Evil in Small Doses. We witnessed black evil tendrils rise up from the floor of the building, the trapping of the Moogle in an invisible box, and ghostly images filling the room.
For the uninitiated, Moogles are small furry creatures in the Final Fantasy universe with a little red pom-pom of fur which sits on the end of a "wire" protruding from their heads. Imagine a little dough-boy like character with ridiculously tiny wings and a pom-pom above their heads. Able to fly, they watch your Moghouse (player housing) and tend your garden (if you have one) while you are out adventuring. They also tend to administer many of the events and festivals in Vana'diel. "Kupo" is their trademark exclamation and Square Enix plays on the phrase "coup d'Etat" for the title of this adventure & story add-on pack which is about a Moogle conspiracy.
"Small doses?" I inquired. "Small doses," was the response. The "small doses" of evil is the theme of this mini-expansion and runs through the entire storyline. A Moogle Kupo d'Etat is the second in a series of three storyline add-ons expanding on the history and myth of Vana'diel via missions and cutscenes and phat loot. Written by Masato Kato who oversaw the initial plot conception and event direction for the original Final Fantasy XI, this story is about the cute, the humorous and the absurd. Be prepared for Moogles; lots of them, if you play the storyline through, including a big, bad, boss Moogle and his cute bad evil minions.
;)
With a new series of quests and the new storyline come strong new items at the end. In the meanwhile, new quests also provide random enhancements to weapons for the quest initiator, some with the ability to trade the weapon back for another random enhancement if you do not like the first.
The Moblin Maze Mongers have expanded their business and are providing more quests for players, including some that are a bit of laid-back fun, playing through stories. We took a moblin through one with us and leveled up his skills a bit before picking up another of his friends at the end scenario where all we really had to do was watch and cheer him on. If we had indeed played the quest through instead of short-cutting it like we did on the tour, I'm sure he wouldn't have died so quick!
The last mini-expansion saw some nice spell updates for the White mage. This one saw two new spells for the Blue mage and two new job abilities for the Ninja. The music system or /bell command (yes, hand bell choirs are now in FFXI and no, it was not an April Fool's Day joke) was expanded in this version update as well, to two octaves and changed from the diatonic scale to the chromatic scale - no longer a simple 7 note scale, the sharps and flats have been added.
;)
The end game equipment reward in the first of the story-line expansions was a chest piece. In this one, it is a head piece; the Champions Galea, Anwig Salade and Selenian Cap which has two augmentation slots. You may not select the same augment twice, but if the augments selected have common attributes, those will stack.
An exciting player requested update is the introduction of a system that went live on August 1, 2009. It allows players to add Moogles - in this case, objects - to their events, the Player Event Support system. A total of four can be placed with their own custom messages and once placed, its message, placement location, and appearance cannot be changed. I was shown how it could be used for a simple Treasure or Scavenger Hunt type event in Bibiki Bay. I started by speaking to a Chocobo Egg who asked me to find his brothers who had hatched before him by trying North, finding the Chocobo there who directed to me to the next and finally reporting back at the nest to let the little unhatched Chocobo know that his brothers were safe even if they had wandered off.
Players that enjoy the myth and stories of Final Fantasy XI will be amused by this update and add-on expansion, especially if they have a good sense of the absurd. Small doses of evil, a Moogle conspiracy, Moogle bosses! Plus some kick-ass equipment and weapon enhancements as rewards all in the signature immersive cut-scene style of Final Fantasy XI... that's A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: Evil in Small Doses.
