"Christ! It's just like The Shining!"

Stanley Kubrick's classic horror film is not, admittedly, the first association that might come to mind when you think about Square Enix' first foray into the massively-multiplayer realms, Final Fantasy XI. However, as journalists from around the (real) world gathered in a dank dungeon in the fantasy world of Vana'diel to experience some of the new features of the game ahead of its European launch next month, you could see where the unlikely exclamation was coming from.

Materialising from nowhere directly in front of the surprised player were two Tarutaru - "scary little midget chaps," to use the technical term - both red mages, both identically suited and booted, and both sporting exceptionally silly hats and equally silly cheerful grins. A comparison with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum might have been more appropriate, but there's no doubt that there was something sinister and Kubrickian about the whole thing.