Final Fantasy XI

As of December 22, 2008 --



Two months ago, I doved into the world of Final Fantasy XI; I was shocked by how different the game was from the actual reviews on neoseeker. I went back, and looked at the reviews, and found that the latest one was created in 2005. Since then, Final Fantasy XI have changed into a very different world.

Final Fantasy led Square on a journey that will prove to the world that Square has what it takes to become a part of the online universe. But almost six years later, does Final Fantasy still have what it takes?

GAMEPLAY:

When Square created FFXI, they had one goal in mind: Massive Multiplayer.. and they weren't joking. Spanning across different consoles and different countries, FFXI united the world to fight the evil force that have plagued Vana'diel.

Customization
After creating your character, choosing their race, face, gender, job, size, and hair color; you choose the nation you will represent, Bastok, Windurst, or Sand'Oria. The only thing that can be changed afterwards if you dislike what you have created, is the nation and your job.

Freedom
From there, your thrown into the world of Vana' diel, and your on your way to become a great warrior (or w/e you want)... Simple as that, you are given a quest, but it's optional and is completed quickly if you know what your doing. If your new to the game and have no help.. be prepared to wander around the city for at least an hour before finding the exit to where you can finaly kill some low level monsters! When you start, you only have six jobs to choose from, but as you progress, you begin to unlock more jobs. It's nice to have all these jobs available from the beginning, but depending on your race, your best at certain things.. and it's best to leave other things alone. Saying that.. the image of true freedom is actualy only an illusion.

Races&Jobs

Races:

Elvaan
Elvaans thrive in the nation of Sand'Oria. They're an "elf-like" race characterized by their height and their pointed ears. Elvaans are "naturaly" talented in swordsmanship. Elvaans most common jobs are thieves, warriors, and as a samurai.

Humes
Humes are citizens of Bastok. Humes have well distributed attributes, making them the most well balanced race. Their well distributed attributes allow them to be well balanced in most races!

Tarutaru
Tarutaru are the back bone of Windurst. Their childlike characteristics make them the cutest of all races. Tarutarus are best as mages because of their high Magic damage and their high MP. They have little "warrior skills" making them bad warriors.

Galka
Galka live among the Humes in Bastok, they're large and bulky. Their high strength and HP makes them good warriors and tankers, but their low magic skills make them futile mages.

Mithra
Mithra live among the Tarutaru in Windurst. They're known for their pointed ears and long tails. Mithra make good thieves and ninjas, they're also exeptional as Rangers.

Jobs

There is a total of 20 jobs in FFXI, but I'll only be talking about the 6 which are available to you in the beginning. This is because the other 14 jobs must be unlocked once you get to level 30 making these 6 jobs the most important in the game. The jobs that won't be mentioned here: Paladin, Dark Knight, Beastmaster, Bard, Ranger, Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon, Summoner, Blue Mage, Corsair, Puppetmaster, Dancer, and Scholar.

Warriors
The party's #1 "Front Line Job." Warriors take the role as a tank and take all damage from enemy monsters for the party.

White Mage
The party's most important "Back Line Job." White Mage are in charge of healing wounded members, weakening the enemy's defense, and "buffing."

Monk
Monks are powerful Front Line Job "Damage Dealers." Though their damage are low, their attack rate is one of the fastest!

Black Mage
Black Mages are the Back Line Job Damage Dealers. They're known to deal massive damage, but require constant rest because of high MP consumption.

Thief
Thieves are Damage Dealers. They're most useful when attacking the monster from behind, their "Sneak Attack" skill deals massive damage to monsters!

Red Mage
Red Mages are back ups for either Damage Dealers or Healers. Their ability to wield a sword and use black magic allow them to dish out serious damage. But at the same time, they're able to use white magic and buffing skills to aid the party.

Quests&Missions

Quests

Quests in the game are optional, doing quests in the game do give you benefits though. Items become cheaper (for the nation in which you did the quest for) and you get item upon completing most quests. Your fame also increases, but this isn't viewable by any other characters. Quests that offer high fame are usually harder than those which give lower amounts of fame.

Missions

Missions are more important between the two. Non-like Quests, Missions are viewable by other players. Missions are done to increase one's nation ranks. The higher your rank, new areas will be unlocked, new events will be available, and more quests and missions will be available. These events range from slaughtering hundreds of monsters on your own, or defend towns with massive amounts of other players. As your rank increase, so will the difficulty of the quest!

And most importantly, yes.. you can ride chocobos!

FIGHT!



The fighting system is very unique.. and it is indeed FFXI. Non-like previous FF games where you randomly encounter an enemy out of the blue, you actualy see the enemy. Once you select and enemy, you can choose from a list of actions. The options you can choose from are "Attack", "Magic", "Abilities", "Item", "Disengage", and "Check." Every monster in FFXI is different, so it's important to "Check" the monster, it will tell you if it's an "easy prey" to "impossible to gauge." After that, everything else is self explanatory. There is no "limit break" so attack wont become "The End." As for magic, you do have a large list of spells to choose from, but most are useless and are rarely used. Item is also useless.. expect not to use any potion in this game...

NATION

The most important thing you'll be doing in this game is representing your nation. The more monsters you kill.. the more points you earn for your nation.. obvious, no? At the end of every week, points are gathered from every nation, and they're ranked from 1 to 3. If your nation killed the most in a "region", your nation will control that region for the week. The nation with the most regions is the winner! And if your nation is a 1, you gain access to stronger items at your local shop and vice versa. Shops actualy closes if your nation don't control an area!

Windurst

Windurst lays on the eastern continent and it's the home to the Tarutarus and Mithras. The land they live on naturaly had magic from the giant magical tree, "The Heaven's Tower," in the center of their town. The citizens live in the trunks of giant trees that once lived there.

Bastok
On the western continent, Bastok hides behind large mountains. Here, Humes and Galkaans live and constantly research about new technologies and seek answers about their past. Survival is based on Hume's superior technology and Galkaan's skills to craft strong weapons and armour.

Sand'Oria

Sand'Oria is the oldest kingdom of the three nations. It too lay on the Western Continent north of Bastok, Sand'Oria is protected by a castle wall which was built by Elvaans long ago. Sand'Oria is struggling to regain it's glory after the invasion from the beastmen, and is troubled by constant political turmoil.

GRAPHICS:

Everyone who looks at FFXI today.. will think it's ugly and embarrassing to look at. And it somewhat is, after playing MGS4 and then switching to this.. my eyes had to adjust. Like everything else, you'll get used to it. Glitches in the graphics occur here and there, like you see through trees, walk into the floor, but you'll get used to it. Special attacks and magic spells aren't that impressive either. Summoning in FFXI isn't like summoning in the other games.

PLOT:

Storyline:

There isn't really a storyline, and not many people know it (but I do): The goddess Altana cried 5 tears which created the 5 races, and later formed the foundation for 3 mighty nations (Bastok, Windurst, Sand'Oria). Out of no where, the beastmen attacked and crippled the 3 nations. Under the lead of Jeuno (a 4th nation that was created from the effort of all 3 nations), the nations united and pushed back the evil force. That was 20 years ago (meaning you play 20 years later). Even now your under constant pressure from the beastmen.

ONLINE:

This is the first Final Fantasy game that pushes it to the online community. What was it like? I don't know... all I know is that today, it's pretty empty and depressing. After level 10, your main goal is to level in a party. But it's pretty hard when there's not enough people to create a well balanced party. Average, it takes me an hour to get into a party But they tried to fix it afterwards with a "level sync," you can party with anyone now, as long as they're at a higher level than you! As for everything else, the game isn't laggy and not many people disconnect too often. The community is very friendly, and aided me since the beginning of the game, supplying me with equipments and money. Even answered questions I had

TECH SUPPORT

There are GM's wandering around.. ask for help whenever you need it, and they'll be there almost asap. I never called upon a GM before, but they're always there. Learning how to get to the menu to call the GM is the hard part.. but once you know how to do that, your pretty much set with the game.

EASTER EGGS



EVENTS, EVENTS, EVENTS. Almost every holiday, they have an update that supplies you with events. It's optional, but you get good and fun items. A pumpkin helmet, Santa's hat, you name it, they'll probably have it. But once the holiday is over, keeping it is a pain in the @$$. You barely have enough room to hold your regular items,.. where you gonna put those stuff? Cough up another dollar to make a mule? It's up to you! ^.^

LASTING VALUE:

From here, it's up to your own personal oppinion. Yes you have a free 30 day trial, but it costed me $20 to get it for the ps2. To me, I liked it for the first month, now... waiting an hour to get into a party is a huge pain in the rear. If you like it, it will last you a good 100 years! My friend who got me into it have been playing since May 2002 (ever since it came out in Japan).

SUMMARY:

Lately I've been noticing that there are more people on than before. Many people are joining or are coming back to FFXI thanks to the new level sync they added. If your going to play FFXI, now is definately the time to get on and start playing! There is A LOT to do and the word is MASSIVE, but since your leveling so fast nowadays, you barely visit any of those places

RECOMMENDATION:

Will I recommend it? No

But if you've been looking at this game for a long time, and want to try it, then you definately should give it a try. I've played many MMORPG's and this is definately one of the better ones. But I don't spend $15 of quality time playing this game every month.. so to me, it's a no.