The Mog Blog

As if Final Fantasy XI wasn’t already a time sink as it is! Square Enix will put an end to the “Trials of the Magian” upgrades, a system where you can upgrade your gear by doing specific mundane tasks, into one final bang that will devour all your free time and social life to obtain the last final upgrade. We have heard about the legendary Relic weapons that Square Enix has established before that would take the dedication of players over years to obtain but this is to a whole new level of obsession.

To obtain the final upgrade, players are required to go back to killing some of the legendary bosses that have appeared in Final Fantasy XI history and kill them up towards three thousand times to obtain three thousand items in order to get the final upgrade. Each of these bosses are not pushovers and will require a large organized group in order to defeat them. This also does not factor in any requirements that would be needed to actually engage these bosses in a fight. We all have heard about the Pandemonium Warden incident as a group of players have attempted to down this particular boss and spent over 18 hours without actually winning to no end in sight. Nowadays with an increased level cap and nerfs to these bosses, the battles are more doable but still time consuming. Players with weapons that require an item from Pandemonium Warden will also have to farm another item that could take them (assuming they do everything constantly and perfectly as the game allows them to) 1480 real life days or 4 years and 2 months!

What do players get in the end of all this? Effectively the same weapon that they would have had if they didn’t start the this exorbitant trial but with a glow effect and a party wide buff that does not apply to the actual weapon holder themselves.

The ridiculous part about all of this is the seriousness that Square Enix is putting forth that someone would be willing to do this, even if it takes them well over 5 years to achieve, never mind the fact that the base weapon before these upgrades would take them a year or so to obtain as is. Might as well go the extra mile, assuming the game is still up and running after 5 years that is.

A community representative did state that these numbers were temporary but did emphasize this point:

The corresponding Magian trials will be exceedingly difficult to complete, such that only a select number of PCs will be able to upgrade weapons to this stage.