Square Enix Investigating Final Fantasy XI For PS Vita

With Square Enix still trying to figure out what to do with its troubled new MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, perhaps it's not a huge surprise to hear the company is first looking into bringing its previous online adventure, Final Fantasy XI, to Sony's upcoming portable.

Andria Sang reports on a huge Square Enix feature in the latest issue of Famitsu, where Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka said it's investigating the possibility of a straight port onto PS Vita.

...and that's basically all we know.

Square Enix hasn't formally announced any games for PS Vita yet.

We're also waiting on a firm release date for the hardware, as Sony's been vague about the worldwide rollout.

I Got This

EDIT:woot

First.

damn i wanted to be first but i have an account and i love 

Does the PS2 version of XI have an offline mode? This seems weird.

Bringing an MMO to a portable system. Brilliant.

PSV doesn't need ports it needs unique titles...

This may sound crazy, but I'm kind of into this. I was just thinking about FFXI recently, which I played for a year and a half from its launch, and I miss the intricate battle system. It really aren't just about "hack. slash. hack. slash." The way you could link physical skills together and then have mages chain their spells off of those for massive damage is something I've never really seen in other MMOs. WoW was great for awhile, but got stale. FFXI's battles never really got stale, I just couldn't commit myself to them anymore. You really had to go in with 100% focus. They just need to make it a more accessible game, with less load times and obtuse design.

I just assumed they shut this game down when they launched FFXIV. It would be interesting to have an MMO on the go (the lame marketing really writes itself there), but only as a secondary platform. I can't see people getting into it on the Vita alone, but if you could play your PC character in the Vita version on the go, then I could see it being pretty cool for fans of the game.

@Cameron said:

I just assumed they shut this game down when they launched FFXIV. It would be interesting to have an MMO on the go (the lame marketing really writes itself there), but only as a secondary platform. I can't see people getting into it on the Vita alone, but if you could play your PC character in the Vita version on the go, then I could see it being pretty cool for fans of the game.

Transfarring imo.

@freshym: No the PS2 one is online only just like the PC version.

That sounds like a technical train wreck. This game has something like 10 gigs of data these days. The installation process on any platform takes hours and hours of neverending patching. Whether you have a 3G Vita or not, people will have their batteries wasted on sluggish updates, then wasted on 15-minute boat rides. And how are handheld players going to communicate in a 9-year-old game that doesn't have voice chat? Plucking out letters on the virtual keyboard? Ugh.

I feel like Square Enix will spend the next year alpha-testing the game on Vita to learn everything I just said, and ship it anyway.

@GalacticPunt: That's what I thought too. Anyway, I kinda miss this game. Too bad there's no way I could back into the game now with SE insisting that everyone must have an 3-D Secure Card (such cards haven't barely been implemented where I live yet). I mean, you can points/time cards for almost all MMO now, even Square's own FF XIV allow something like that. But I digress. MMO on a portable might work, but not one like Final Fantasy XI.

I just don't know what Square Enix is doing any more...

@OllyOxenFree said:

I just don't know what Square Enix is doing any more...

Agreed. It's starting to seem like more of a long running joke than a game company.

I would buy it for PS Vita if it came out.  The more I hear about the Vita the more excited I am.  Suck it Nintendo (I still luv you just not as much).

It's like Square Enix doesn't care anymore or even try... *sigh*

And how are handheld players going to communicate in a 9-year-old game that doesn't have voice chat? Plucking out letters on the virtual keyboard? Ugh.

Why not? This game is popular in Japan and so are portable systems. If they can port the game with minimal effort, it could really pay off for them in the long run.

The way i see it. I treat the board members as well as the movers and shakers at Square Enix like Joe Quesada at Marvel comics..... which i think they should go hang themselves and have someone who actually cares about the fans in charge. or just stop the series all together.

ITT a bunch of people who have no fucking clue how healthy XI is and that the game is doing well.

I already own 4 copies of this game. I don't need another.

..or do i?

a game that requires you to play for at least 4-6 hours at a time to be able to accomplish anything, not on a system with about as much battery life.

Square really need to look at why people don't love Final Fantasy anymore. I even enjoyed FF13 and was excited for 13-2... until I saw it at E3?! There's an old saying "you can drag a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink". They need new blood behind these games and have to get away from this POP/casual focus.

XI is still the best MMO I have ever played.

Don't know that I would want it on Vita though....

@rargy said:

I already own 4 copies of this game. I don't need another.

..or do i?

My thoughts exactly.

However, the thought of being able to do Dynamis on the go is absurdly appealing to me.

It wouldn't be my thing but there's definitely a big market that could go for it.

I remember when they made good games.

Those were the days

@Coldbrand said:

ITT a bunch of people who have no fucking clue how healthy XI is and that the game is doing well.

Did anyone ever? I mean shit, every theatrythm news piece is making a point of "FFXI characters? OH THAT FINAL FANTASY!". Which is fine, and sums up how much of the internet did in fact not play FFXI, haha. I had no idea Shantatto was in a Dissidia game (I don't really tread outside of the numbered FF games). But lets get that out there, yes there were memorable characters and many in game cut scenes in FFXI.

@patrickklepek:

Aw man, the subtitle to this article hurts a little. As I just put up a thread on the FFXIV forum here. The overhauling and direction of that game is not only cool to watch. But at the pace it is going, it will probably be worthy of a story one day. Maybe as soon as the one year anniversary in September. For example in the next update (which is this month) is Auto-Attack. Yeah, auto-attack. That is how simple yet deep some of the changes are. That dev team is burning the midnight oil non stop, and no one is paying a subscription fee still.

When was the last time Square meant something? I'd say 2001 but hey I'm still waiting for a Xenogears remake that will never happen. I give them credit though..few companies could milk a franchise the way they have with Final Fantasy

Not a shocker. FFXI has a dedicated fanbase, has been made hell-of easier to play since release, and also looks like dog-crap anymore, so a Vita could probably run it like a dream. FFXIV is likely the prettiest MMO I've seen for pure horsepower, but it runs like trash half the time thanks to bad programming. FFXI on a Sony handheld is likely the smartest thing SE will have done in some time if it happens.

Once FFXIV gets most of its game-changing (read: game-finishing) patches in place this year, then maybe they'll "investigate" it for Vita, too, but I just hope they stick to focusing on content and patching rather than porting.

This is fucking stupid. I played this game for a solid three years (age 13 to about 16), and WoW outclasses it in every way imaginable. 

...And then Squeenix announces FF14 as a new singleplayer game.

Free-to-play or bust.

PSV doesn't need ports it needs unique titles...

'We're also waiting on a fim release date for the hardware' 
 
There's a mistake in the word fim, should be firm.

@freshym said:

Does the PS2 version of XI have an offline mode? This seems weird.

Why would a massively multiplayer game, especially one that forces grouping as much as FFXI does, have an offline mode? I realize it is a Final Fantasy game, but it is still a community-centric experience. More-so than any current generation etnry in the genre.

I honestly don't know what to think of this...  I guess FFXI is the right type of MMO, since it's all menu-based, but...  Ehhh.  It's hard to say, really.  Network issues are a lot more prevalent on handheld devices and an MMO typically needs at least a decent connection.  Sure, you can have your 3G, but that's not exactly world-class reliability.

Square trying again to put existing FF games out everywhere to make things even more confusing. Not sure an MMO even offline would work on this handheld.

 A MMO on a handheld? Well I can't say I'm not interested in this, but will this have an offline mode? I guess we'll see when more details come to surface for this.

as much as I loved XI, it ran terribly on 360 and PC. probably will be even worse for Vita.

and from what I know, the people who play this game don't ever leave the house long enough to ever need a portable console.

Portable MMO sounds like an awful idea. Porting FFXI onto the Vita sounds even worse.

Please Square. Just make another turn based RPG in the vein of Lost Odyssey and FF9.

as much as I loved XI, it ran terribly on 360 and PC. probably will be even worse for Vita.

and from what I know, the people who play this game don't ever leave the house long enough to ever need a portable console.

It doesn't matter what platform you put this game on. I still don't wanna play it.

If they release the game for PSV, they'll need at least a 20GB memory card or so. Hopefully if they do release a PSV version of the game they will discontinue the PS2 version since it limits the capacity for further expansions and any major upgrades. The real question though is what are they gonna do for a keyboard?