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    Final Fantasy XI Online

    Game » consists of 14 releases. Released May 16, 2002

    Players from across the globe enter the world of Vana'diel for a Final Fantasy adventure in the series' first foray into the MMORPG genre.

    dekkarra's Final Fantasy XI Online (PC) review

    Avatar image for dekkarra

    An epic adventure awaits, if you can handle the long grind.

    Final Fantasy XI is the first, and currently only, chapter in the Final Fantasy series to be an MMORPG.  As such, the criticism of making a numbered entry in the series go such a radical direction is very high, but you discover as you play, that this title is deserving of it's place in the franchise.

    The game comes as part of Square Enix's online service, PlayOnline, so with FFXI comes the PlayOnline Viewer, the game launcher/patcher program that's a bit clunky, and it's presence has been called into question by the player base from the onset.

    Once you get past the Viewer, you create a character to place into the games virtual world known as Vana'diel. A world that has seen it's far share of war, strife, and fragile alliances.  The character customization is is not as limited as some other MMOs. You have your choice of 8 races, 8 facetypes for each, 2 hair colors, and 3 sizes from each of those.  You also choose your starting job out of 6 Final Fantasy standard classes: Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage or Thief), and you choose your home nation from the three available choices.

    After a brief introductory cut scene, you are placed into the game world, and the high barrier of entry becomes evident.  Unlike other MMOs, there are no specific quest giver NPCs, and there are no "!" flags above NPCs related to any quests you are currently undertaking. This makes performing the many quests available in the areas a test of trial, error, and patience. And the rewards for many quests can seem very underwhelming.

    Something you will notice quickly is the game looks very dated, and for good reason. FFXI is a 6 1/2 year old PS2 game ported to the PC, and the game engine shows it's age when compared to other MMOs like Age of Conan. If you adjust your game settings through registry editing, you can get your game looking pretty good, but having to take such extreme steps shows the age of the game engine. Players have asked for a refresh of the game to cater to the better PCs available today, but Square Enix has said that they wish to keep all three versions of the game as close as possible to one another, so the game stays true to it's lowest end, the PlayStation 2 version.

    Battles in Vana'diel are done in a similar vein to the original Everquest. You select your target, select the "Attack" command, and you begin to auto attack.  You do have choices available while battling, such as casting offensive or defensive magic, or using job specific abilities to help swing the tide of battle, and these help add a sense of interactivity to battles other than being an auto attack fest.  Battles are the main way of collecting experience points in Final Fantasy XI, and you will learn after level 10 that battles will become much more difficult on your own. This is where you are introduce yourself to the party system, where you and up to 5 other players can fight as a group against tougher monsters together to gain higher EXP quicker than you would if you are on your own.  There are only two viable job classes in which you could play solo and gain experience at a decent pace, those being Beastmaster and Puppetmaster.  In realizing this, you can see how the developers very much put the emphasis on community and working together to advance.  This could be seen as a positive, as you are encouraged to work together as a team, and can also make friendships with people would would not have met otherwise. But, this can also be an issue as, at this point, many of the current 500,000+ players of FFXI currently have higher level characters, so finding groups pre-level 50 can be test of your patience, and can be aggravating.

    As you progress, you can begin taking part in missions for your nation. This is the beginning of where FFXI shines above many of the MMOs available, as the story lines in each nation, and the expansion packs, are truly magnificent. The characters are memorable and likable, and the stories told are engaging and true to the Final Fantasy scope of being epic in nature.

    Also in the game, you will see many staples of the Final Fantasy series, such as Chocobo's, Moogles, Cid and his airships, Cactuar's, Avatars (Ifrit, Shiva, etc.), and much more.

    So in closing, Final Fantasy XI is obviously not a title for everyone. The high barrier of entry for the game, makes it quite difficult for new players to get a foothold into the deep world of Vana'diel, and the older game engine can make it difficult to enjoy the surroundings, but if you can make it through the tough beginnings, you are in for a Final Fantasy type adventure, that you can finally share with friends from around the world.

    Other reviews for Final Fantasy XI Online (PC)

      FFXI 0

      FFXI Pros - Unique races, creative jobs, expansive zones, numerous quests, and has many expansions that allow for thousands of gameplay hours. FFXI Cons - Slow installation process, terrible economy, many jobs end up equipping identical "elite" gear, very dry end-game, boring and tedious experience grinding on repetitive monsters, quests are so uninformative you resort to online guides at all times, job classes are unbalanced, some jobs are completely worthless, and the crafting system is the w...

      0 out of 0 found this review helpful.

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