First group for B&W was japanese, video is on youtube somewhere but unfortunately I can't readily find it or identify the player names. Took 4-5 months after release. I was the first english-speaker to clear it(playing all 6 characters), and have a relatively shallow writeup on here somewhere. Papesse was second, IIRC, and they used a real group and may have more insight. Hate resets caused potential RNG deaths, accuracy check was very high for the time, and using RUN tank to blink zantetsuken wasn't really an option at launch so tank had to tank weakened for part of odin fight.
thread: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/49748/master-trial-black-and-white
Unafraid was considerably easier than B&W by most standards. It was beaten in 3 months or so. The AOE doom from SL was problematic, and groups that had access to both yagrush and gambanteinn had an immense advantage for dealing with that. The need for alternative weapons made accuracy check difficult initially. Mischief's group had the first well-publicized clear, but I'm not entirely sure if it was the first clear.
video/writeup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkjRTUyeJuc
Sealed Fate was beaten within 2 months of launch, and the strategy using mewing lullaby allowed for very consistant execution. The coordination required was high for the time(but low relative to modern fights), but there was little RNG so it could be easily replicated and many groups beat it afterwards. I believe papesse's group was the first.
thread: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/50346/sealed-fate-master-fight/
I don't really think there's a whole lot of complexity to FFXI, and as you go back in time there's even less. For the most part, the difficulty is in determining and preparing the correct jobs and equipment rather than any specific portion of the execution. The 3.5 second~ action delay makes it trivial compared to modern games.
If I had to rank difficulty(at time of launch), it would be B&W > Sealed Fate > Unafraid. Sealed Fate required the most strategy innovation but the least luck. I would say that they were all harder than Crystal Paradise, but much easier than Oathsworn Blade. Since the game was still rapidly releasing equipment and player strength upgrades at the time, it's important to keep in mind that even a year later they became much more accessible(despite player disinterest leaving an impression they were still difficult).
I appreciate this! I wasn't expecting anyone to be so knowledgeable about this topic. I have a couple follow-ups:
1. I assume, Papesse's video was either not their first clear, or it was posting several months after recording?
2. How did Letters from Reisenjima compare?
I think FFXI community is one of the most cryptic ones i've ever seen. You have few people who literally got gamebreaking knowledge and can do crazy things, but they'll rarely post their tricks n secrets out for the public to enjoy, they'll just keep it private for their restricted circle of ppl/discord servers. History keeps repeating itself and greediness is the new Emptiness menacing Vana Diel
1. I assume, Papesse's video was either not their first clear, or it was posting several months after recording?
Possible I have the timeline wrong, too. I'm not a historian, just been shitposting for a long time. Papesse and Mischief are both active, so if you're looking to do a high quality piece on them you should probably inquire with them and read the source threads.
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2. How did Letters from Reisenjima compare?
I didn't do that one immediately after release, so hard to firsthand judge. It was pretty simple by the time I did it. A group from Ragnarok cleared it after 11~ days and quite a few more cleared it not long after. Seems that NA mostly relied on prebuffs and luck mechanics with a basic ranged strategy like OB, while JP managed a coordinated melee win.
You have few people who literally got gamebreaking knowledge and can do crazy things, but they'll rarely post their tricks n secrets out for the public to enjoy
Those people only have that knowledge because they tried things out. Something that everyone can do. Maybe laziness and inability to test things objectively is the new Emptiness menacing Vana Diel
Possible I have the timeline wrong, too. I'm not a historian, just been shitposting for a long time. Papesse and Mischief are both active, so if you're looking to do a high quality piece on them you should probably inquire with them and read the source threads.
Thorny, I really appreciate this! I've reached out to both, players already, and hoping to hear back. I've tried to contact Mischief, probably too many times at this point. That's a tough player to get a hold of. His name and status is probably the most recognizable among newer players though, (from my experience) and I'd love to cover one of his accomplishments.
I think FFXI community is one of the most cryptic ones i've ever seen. You have few people who literally got gamebreaking knowledge and can do crazy things, but they'll rarely post their tricks n secrets out for the public to enjoy, they'll just keep it private for their restricted circle of ppl/discord servers. History keeps repeating itself and greediness is the new Emptiness menacing Vana Diel
I recently learned about Lute. I had no idea most of the stuff he did was possible. It's cool to see him return after a hiatus too.
A group from Ragnarok cleared it after 11~ days and quite a few more cleared it not long after. Seems that NA mostly relied on prebuffs and luck mechanics with a basic ranged strategy like OB, while JP managed a coordinated melee win.
The first few clears were done using melee for all adds except Lion which was a ranged specific add, Lion had an AoE full dispel which caused issues because she was the most evasive enemy in the game by far and the gear at the time just meant you needed almost every buff to hit her + geomancy was nerfed slightly for Torpor. (Also ranged parts of the fight for Lion utilised Magic WSs because Enmity was so unstable, I don't think it was ever figured out why, Just that people had success using magic WS to avoid her coming over and beating random people.) I believe this was before or slightly after the RDM buff also? I forget the timings of that, but the RDM buff with Saboteur was massive overall for this fight.
Later down the line after a few clears were done the JPs figured out you could "skip" the adds by Lullabying them and using ES/Nitro rotations to keep adds slept the whole Iroha 2 fight and win that cheese way.
Killing Iroha prior to skipping adds was hard, Pretty sure every group at the time was doing coordinated multi-steps to efficiently chunk adds down. The Ragnarok group had their tank (Rune fencer) use a Greataxe for Break WSs since GEO was nerfed and again (I believe this was before RDM buff) RDM wasn't as good so it was never used for it.
Sealed Fate (September 6, 2016 - ??? - I can't find if this is an ENG or JP team)
Th player-name "Konpar" shows up in Papesse's video as having already cleared, but I've scoured the JP blogs and twitter accounts, and I can't find a JP clear that happened earlier than March 2017, much less that player name.
ENG Clears:
Black and White (May 10, 2016 - July 4th, 2016)
- Overlordandy
Unafraid of the Dark (July 4, 2016 - August 10th, 2016)
- Overlordandy
Sealed Fate was beaten within 2 months of launch, and the strategy using mewing lullaby allowed for very consistant execution. The coordination required was high for the time(but low relative to modern fights), but there was little RNG so it could be easily replicated and many groups beat it afterwards. I believe papesse's group was the first.
thread: https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/50346/sealed-fate-master-fight/
3: I'd try contacting this person: https://www.ffxiah.com/player/Cerberus/Inuyosan - they seem most active/likely to return.
They look like a hybrid JP/ENG group, speaking both languages. Might be a blog post somewhere with the SL name?
3: I'd try contacting this person: https://www.ffxiah.com/player/Cerberus/Inuyosan - they seem most active/likely to return.
They look like a hybrid JP/ENG group, speaking both languages. Might be a blog post somewhere with the SL name?
Oh, this may be the case. His screenshots confirming a clear we're a month after Bun's group confirmed the BW clear and a week after Bun confirmed a UotD clear. If they are the same group, he likely just posted his photos sometime after their initial clears. Inuyosan will likely be able to shed some light on this.
I am looking for players with early(ish) clears on all the old Master Trials (Black and White, Unafraid of the Dark, Sealed Fate, Letter from Reisenjima). I’d like to interview a few people about their experience progressing these encounters. If you’re comfortable publicly talking about this topic, I’d like to have a conversation with you.
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Throughout the series, I've done my best to either contact one of the players involved in Progression or players who cleared before any significant power-creep. If you're interested in FFXI history, I hope you enjoy!
Our, Spicy's group, 1st 2 master trials along with our 1st Aeonic run definitely rank up there for me as some of my greatest XI memories/funniest times.
I'm glad you've enjoyed the series! I've mentioned this before, but some of the JP blogs that detailed world progression are being taken down by the hosting website. When I heard about this, I realized that this history might not be available to reference if I waited too long to start the research.
