Not for good, thanks Nick.
Your gifs are always fun to look at, keep 'em coming please.
My FFXIV diary (Leo can post here too, I guess)
DG_Nick
#64
Soul of the Ninja prt. 1
Nothing to see here, just a queer maid.
No one is buying her story, of course. She’s too suspicious to believe with these bodies laying around.
Suspicious though she may seem, you see that she had her own companions. Had, because they get killed in front of her. It turns out we weren’t the only ones pursuing her.
Another apparently allied ninja shows up so he decides to retreat for the moment. BTW, Karasu means “crow”.
“The mission” is explained later, but let’s just explain it now : p Also Oboro has the meaning of “Dim”, and Tsubame “Swallow”.
Basically, he betrayed Doma (their home country) by selling it out to the Garleans, the magitek army that is conquering all the continents and also the villains of the main story. Because of his actions, many in Doma were slaughtered, including their master who’s body was so mangled it was unrecognizable.
His true intentions are unclear but what is clear is that he won’t standby idly allow himself to be assassinated.
We don’t intend to idle either, but we need to collect information first. Oboro’s really into classic ninja inflitration techniques, but Tsubame has a simpler approach that takes advantage of her, uh, talents as a kunoichi.
The plan is pretty much get him drunk to make him blab everything. It’s very successful.
#importantquestions
Our intel leads us to a dock, Oboro takes on Karasu while…
Tsubame ( 
) and I are handling the riff-raff.
Unfortunately, he gets away. He’s really good at that. It’s like he knew the quest line was barely half over.
DG_Nick
#66
@RpgN It’s official. What makes you think it’s fanmade?
edit: accidentally replied to my own post, adding mention to avoid confusion.
Leo
#67
It might be the bikinis characters are wearing that makes her think it’s a fan-made mod. 
I’m guessing it’s that because I know she doesn’t care for seeing fanservice like that in games.
DG_Nick
#69
Building the Airship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtS3BRC9MDM
The new expansion is out. I’ve only just finished the introductory areas. My progression was largely stifled by the building of this god damn airship. Being one of the small handful of high level crafters in our Free Company, I felt that the responsibility of getting one up and running largely fell on my shoulders. For reasons I also ended up building a new house too. Long story short, I’m an idiot. My friend did a blog about what happened as a record of our stupidity and triumph: http://fastkarate.tumblr.com/post/122084188358/wasting-your-life-on-the-craft
DG_Nick
#70
Let’s Learn Ninjutsu!
I wanted to mention this because it’s one of the more unique things in this game. Many of the classes in FFXIV have combo systems, but Ninja stands alone in its Ninjutsu system. While the class has its own normal combos, you also need to perform and execute ninjutsu between your actions. Depending on the ninjutsu you want to create, you’ll need to make 1-3 button presses in a specific order, and then another button to cast the jutsu you created. Normal combos will highlight the next action you need to cast, but for Ninjutsu you need to memorize every combination. So let’s go over each one!
This is the first Mudra you get, Ten or “Heaven.”
Fuma (a ninja clan) Shuriken is a ranged attack initially created with Ten, but any single mudra will do. It’s rendered almost obsolete once you get Raiton, which is much stronger. It does have two things going in its favor: it requires only one mudra to cast and it has slightly longer range.
This is the second Mudra, Chi or “Earth.” You acquire two new ninjutsu at this stage and things begin to get complicated.
Raiton (lightning release) is a ranged attack and also the strongest single-target ninjutsu. It’s created by first casting Ten and then Chi.
Katon (fire release) is a ranged AoE attack that explodes on your target and damages everything nearby. It’s created with the reverse hand signs of Raiton, requiring Chi first before casting Ten.
This is the third and final Mudra, Jin or “Man.” I think it’s fair to say the difficulty increases exponentially because this time you acquire four new ninjutsu.
Huton (wind release) is a buff ninjutsu that increases your attack speed. It’s created with Chi, Jin, and lastly, Ten.
Doton (earth release) is a ground (hah!) AoE that damages and slows anything in the circle. It’s created with the reverse of Huton: Ten, followed by Jin, and then Chi.
Hyoton (ice release) is a ranged attack that temporarily binds the enemy at their location until they are attacked again. This one is simple, you can start with Ten or Chi as long as your second and final Mudra is Jin.
Suiton (water release) is a ranged attack that allows you to use attacks in combat that would normally require stealth. This has a similar rule as Hyoton but requires three Mudra. You can start with either Ten or Chi, but the second mudra has to be the one you didn’t start with. The third and final Mudra, like Hyoton, is Jin.
The final ninjutsu(?) is Rabbit Medium and it’s what you get if you try to make a Mudra combination that doesn’t exist. In other words, you dun fucked up son.
RpgN
#71
Firstly, sorry for the late reply!
I thought it was fanmade because of the writing. I read all of it and this mission or scenario sounds so silly.
- Playing with words
- Being midly suggestive
- The mission structure and how the girl was used for her assets during (one of the) mission(s).
- The funny dialogue coupled with the serious tone of one of the characters
This is something you read in fanmade stories or cheap low budget Japanese made games catered at a very specific and niche audience. These kind of games have writing that is self-aware of its audience. It’s not something I am used to see in FF games. Perhaps times are changing or maybe it’s just me.
I hope that made sense!
DG_Nick
#72
Soul of the Ninja prt. 2
As much as I love my kimono, I’m really looking forward to getting proper ninja gear.
Ever the meddler, that Karasu. He scatters my armor across the region in dangerous places for me to retrieve. Thanks dood!
Looks like we aren’t the only ones good at gathering intel. Our hideout has been discovered!
He has murdered dozens of people by this point, but this time he’s gone too far! He hurt Tsubame! >:(
And now his objective has finally been made clear: he only wanted a worthy opponent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsbbwr0FnWg
Oboro leaves to meditate but Tsubame knows him better than this. She asks me to track him, leading me to finding him alone at a waterfall.
He agrees with me and is proud to call me an ally. I simultaneously love and hate these dialogue options though. I know it doesn’t vary that much but I’d really like to see what he would say for all these options.
And the story ended there because I let him go alone. Just kidding…
This is actually somewhat of a significant event in the larger story, the Domans crossed the sea en masse seeking refuge in our continent of Eorzea. And here, in this Ninja job specific quest line, you meet the man responsible for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEs90Q6iEWM
Surprise! You had backup!
It’s a tough battle as these things tend to be, but Genkai makes for a fun boss fight. He has all your ninja abilities except they’re much better. Additionally, he can split himself into three additional copies which are basically shadow clones. But through our combined efforts, we eventually defeat him.
Raise your hand if you thought he actually died.
Well he didn’t show up just to tell us he faked his death, he wanted to return the chest piece that completes my Ninja uniform. I guess defeating Genkai was enough of a final test for him.
To FFXIV’s credit, they try to pull the come back to us card, but Karasu shuts them down for exactly the right reasons.
And with that, that’s the end of the Ninja storyline, at least for now. It actually continues in the expansion that just came out roughly a month ago. I’m not a max level Ninja yet so I’ll have to pick it up again later. I also need to post about the rest of the main storyline up to the expansion, although I guess I have to be careful not to spoil @Leo once I catch up to the expansion. I will say there’s a moogle village in Heavensward and leave it at that.
Leo
#73
I really should go back to playing FFXIV, but I don’t play FFXIV. Sadly, I’ve been paying the sub for the past month or so when I haven’t been playing. 
Moogle village sounds dope.
DG_Nick
#75
I re-edited the video (Youtube makes it pretty easy, only took like 30 seconds!) so that it doesn’t cut off the fight. I figured it wouldn’t be super interesting since it’s not a cutscene. Some stuff to note is how much time I have to run out of the orange circles and the sheer size of them. My health is monitored at the bottom (it’s the green bar) but it also shows up over my character. I spend some time running away at 2:20 because the rate of damage I’m taking is SUPERRRRRRR HIGH. I started to get really nervous. Also if you looked at my gifs you’ll have some idea what ninja effects look like normally, you’ll have some comparison to how mine compare to his. Lastly, towards the end of the video he’ll do the move I mentioned where he creates copies of himself. All his copies can independently perform Ninjutsu, which is pretty fucked up.
Oh I guess you can hear the final job quest theme now. I suppose I should’ve posted that but I forgot.
Leo
#76
I just wanna note, holy shit, you registered the name Nick on YT? Granted, you registered in 2006. That was still surprising to see.
RpgN
#77
Bless you for the video Nick :3 Your diary is pretty accurate and fun to read. I don’t have to play the game with your journey written for WYL!
Some gameplay videos would be nice to see once in a while besides reading about the missions and how they went. Please continue doing what you do 
Leo
#78
Old screen cap of the Lightning event two years ago. Excuse the terrible gear I had equipped.
