A beta player's run-down on the starting cities.
I'm aware there already was a poll for this, but that was before the open beta. Now we have a much better idea of the cities, I know that Danielle and I are thinking of starting in the one city we originally didn't intend on starting in: Ul'dah. Hard to say exactly why though - I think it may have just grown on us. Anyway, from what I've seen...
Gridania: Very beautiful green city in The Black Shroud (forest name). Downside of the forest (to me, anyway) is a lot of very narrow corridoors working in what basically looks like a crossword. Which means slower travels and, when you get to the harder regions, I find it annoying as you can't get past some of the monsters, it's nigh on impossible without getting aggro - especially if you want to head to Mor Dhona, although I do respect that's supposed to be hard. Also: Funguar grow in the forest and their attacks can poison you. No thanks! But... the storyline does feature moogles... :D
Limsa Lominsa: This is the other city aside from Ul'dah I'm considering starting in. Like Gridania, it's very pretty in both city and surroundings. I'd say La Noscea's green, hilly areas are the best area for leveling out of the three main city regions as there is more of an abundance of enemies regardless of what level you are. This is pretty key and, once you have the ability to teleport to all cities sorted out, you may find yourself coming back here. It should be noted that while it was free in the Beta, the people at the docks made suggestions to it not being free to travel from Limsa Lominsa to Thanalan (and thus onwards to Ul'dah and Gridania), so it may be worth keeping that in mind. I can't see it costing that much, though, as that would be a bit of a handicap.
Ul'dah: One bonus of this place for a start is that it's in the middle of the other two cities, making travel to either of them pretty quick once you need to (boat price for Limsa Lominsa aside, we don't know how much that'll be, though). This place reminds me of Dune, just not as... sandy. It's the style of desert more known to Road Runner (beep beep!) than Lawrence of Arabia. But Ul'dah itself is Dune-esque. They value water and greenery, being in the desert. It's a very majestic city - if you're anywhere in Central Thanalan, you should be able to see Ul'dah's massive structures taking up a good portion of the skyline if you're looking in the right direction (check out the screenshots thread for an example in my first post). It's not as easy to move around as in La Noscea, but far easier than The Black Shroud. Leveling is good, but again, I found La Noscea better for this. I've also found there are more enemies in Thanalan capable of one-shotting you even in Central Thanalan, so be careful who you attempt to attack.
So, what will you be going for? Beauty and Moogles? Gaming-friendly environments? Ease of travel? Some kind of healthy balance? Or just what everyone else is going to go for?
I'm pretty much in two minds over which to go for out of Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah, so I'll probably go for whatever everyone else goes for... as long as it's not Gridania ;) Huh, I suppose that name is fitting. GRID-ania. 'cause The Black Shroud is just a grid. Who designed that place? Geeze.
