FFXI Mini-review/Diary type thing

[Akiakaiu]

"The world of Vana'diel is a crossroads of magic, swords, and technology.
It is also a battlefield where those who believe
in light face monsters that thrive in darkness.
The struggle centers on the control of crystals:
sacred stones that are the fundamental source of all creation.

The monsters showed no mercy as they laid waste to
beautiful towns, ravaged the land,
and polluted the streams and rivers of Vana'diel.
But the people united to seize victory from the jaws of the beastmen,
earning themselves temporary respite from a life-and-death struggle.

Twenty years have passed since the people's great victory.
But now, even as the memories of battle have begun to fade,
a new evil grows inside Vana'diel...

And it hungers for the power of the crystals."

So starts the opening story to Final Fantasy XI. First let me state this game is not for people who like instant gratification. It's not like WoW or CoH where you can hop on for a few and get anything accomplished. Most missions/quests will take a party to finish, some fights will take 18 people to beat. So if you are looking for a fun game where you can solo this is not for you. Now if you like a story driven game world and working hard to accomplish goals this is the game for you. And with that said....

God I love this game, it has stolen more of my life then every other MMONG I've played combined, and I've yet to unlock every area. There is an enormous amount of things to do in this game; Nation Story lines of which there are three, one for each of the starting nations, The Zilart (ZM) story line which takes up where the Nation story lines left off, The Chains of Prominthia (COP) story line, the Treasures of Aht Urhgan (ToAU), and the new Wings of the Goddess (WotG) story line.

This is not a game where you rush to 75 (yes, the level cap is 75) for end game fun, it's a game where to get the most out of it you will be doing missions as a level 10 and as a level 75. Not to say you can do everything at level 10, the missions do get harder as you progress through the story.

I guess I should talk a bit about the game in general for a moment. It is made to be played on a PS2, as such the graphics are not the best in the world, but they are better then the cartoony look of WoW imho. So yes, it does come on a variety of platforms, you can play it (if you had a copy of the game for each) on a PC, PS2, and XBOX360. Everyone plays on the same servers, so you will be playing on your PC with someone who is playing on a PS2 or 360. As for servers, FFXI has 32 of them plus 1 test server. These servers are also not region specific, so us NAers are playing with you UKers and the JPs and everyone else in the world.

Character creation is easy, but not as customizable as say CoH. There are five races to choose from, Hume, Mithra (cat girls, come on, it's a Japanese game), the tall Elvaan, the short and cute Tarutaru, and the big asexual Galka. Each race has a specialty when it comes to attributes, ala. tarutaru have high int so they make better black mages then say a galka. But don't let that put you off, if you want to make a Galka black mage you can, gear and skill will make up for the lack of base attributes. After you choose your race and sex where applicable you get to choose your head and body size, of which there are 8 face styles with 2 hair options and 3 body sizes (small medium and large, duh!).

After you make the cat woman of your dreams or what not you choose your starting job. All this does really is determines what weapon you start the game with, as you can switch jobs immediately after you enter the game if you wanted. You start off with being able to pick from the 6 basic jobs; Warrior (war), Monk (mnk), white mage (whm), black mage (blm), Red Mage (rdm) and Thief (thf). Once you hit 30 you can do quests to unlock the advanced jobs; Paladin (pld), Ranger (rng), Dragoon (drg), summoner (smn), Bard (brd), Beastmaster (bst), Dark Knight (drk), Samurai (sam), Ninja (nin), and with the last two expansions you can unlock Blue Mage (blu), Corsair (cor), Puppetmaster (pup), Dancer (dnc), and Scholar (sch). Once you hit 18 you should do a quest which unlocks your subjob. Your subjob can be any job but you have to level that job also as you gain no xp on your sub. Also your subjob will only be half of your main job's level. So you could be 75rdm/37blm or 75rdm/5brd (really gimped and silly to do) but not 75rdm/75blm. Sub jobs will give you the spells available to your sub at it's level and add some stats, so say I'm going to be main heal on my RDM, I'd use whm as a sub for defensive buffs and harmful status effects from party members, or if someone has that covered I can go /blm for the conserve mp trait blm gets to lower mp usage.

Each job does something different, and has it's own strengths. Whm is the master of healing, blm is the master of damage spells and rdm can do a bit of both and melee on top of it. To make the most out of the game you will join parties. Almost all parties will be a 6 person group as the mobs you fight for xp will take all 6 doing their job properly to take down in an easy manner. To be honest I don't think I've ever been in a xp of less then 5 and that's when we were waiting on members to arrive.

FFXI does have something like a clan/supergroup/corp called a linkshell. Unlike most mmos you can belong to more then one linkshell. There are items called linkshells oddly enough that you equip and walla, you are now able to chat with the linkshell. Most of the linkshells are social LSs, with some endgame/event/crafting ones floating around.

Crafting is a bit rough compared to other games, as leveling it is a long process and consumes alot of money or time to gather the needed items. You can dabble a bit in all the crafts but you can only level 1 past 60 (they go to 100 and with items you can go beyond that). You can choose from Leathercrafting, Bonecrafting, Smithing, Goldsmithing, Alchemy, Woodworking, and fishing. Fishing is an oddball craft as you can take it to 100 and still level another craft to 100.

Money (gil) and equipment do not drop off of every mob. Heck, not every mob drops something, so gil can be hard to come by. Some rare items can only be obtained from fighting Notorious Monsters (nm) which may or may not drop said item, and they can spawn from every hour to once a week. So getting that uber piece of gear could take days weeks, months, even years for some relic weapons. Most gear can be bought on Auction Houses which are server specific, though some gear can only be obtained through quests or by fighting NMs.

In the late 20s you can do a quest for race specific equipment (rse) which boosts the stats your race is weak in, and in the 50s you can do quests to get your Artifact Armor (AF) which is job specific. In the 70s you can buy or craft Job Specific equipment (jse) which boosts more job specific stats. There is also AF2 which can only be obtained by entering the evil dark world called Dynamis (we call it DIEnamis cause you will die, alot) which is like an instance in which you can have a maximum of 64 people. There are also quests for AF+1 which changes the gear you received in the 50s to a more end game oriented piece. And yet there are still more armor sets you can get by doing more missions/quests.

As for PvP, there is not much of that in FFXI. There are a few side things you can do, kind of like battlegrounds in WoW, where you can enter and fight other players for the glory of your nation. As I've only slightly dabbled in it I can not really say much about it. Sorry.

As my brain is starting to hurt from all this writing I'll talk a bit about my adventures in the land of Vana'diel. My character is named.. guess... Akiakaiu, I'm a level 75 Tarutaru Red Mage playing on the Leviathan server. I've been playing since 3 months after NA PC release (it was released a few months before in Japan) and have only just hit 75 last year. I took it really really slow but have over 300 days of playtime. Now before I even started the game I did research on the jobs/races to see what I'd be in for. There are alot of good FFXI sites out there for info, if you interested in the game I'd honestly read up first so you can make the most of of your character.

Since I chose Red Mage as my main I also had to level up the two main subjobs for it, whm and blm. I also have drk and war fully leveled for sub use when I want to go solo (rdm is one of the few jobs that can get away with soloing easily in the higher levels). I have finished the Windursian story line and have since started on the other two nations stories. I have also completed the Zilart Misssion story line and am almost done with COP. ToaU was released when I was heavy into Eve so I'm about 1/2 done with that, and they are unlocking more of the WotG story now. So I'm as far as I can get in that... I think... COH took over my ffxi playtime recently.

Me and my girlfriend who also plays were accepted and got to get our characters married in-game by a GM. That was fun, she got a nice wedding dress and I got, uh, a ring.. but it's still cool.

As I've been typing this up for over 2 hours now I think I will quit for the time being. I will try to find a decent place to upload some pics (I've got about 10k screenies) and show off.

Any and all questions are welcome. I'm sorry if this is more like a ramble then a review but I suck at this sort of thing so deal with it.

[Lateralus]

I've come to the conclusion that reviews are whatever you churn out when you sit down to write one, so thanks very much for your work there Aki. It's certainly an epic post, and from my understanding reflects quite well what must be an epic game. I'm almost 100% sure that I'd never get much out of the game since I couldn't put much time into it which is why I stick to games that are easier to pick up, do X, and put down again. However, if I'd tried MMONGS as a student then I imagine that something like this could have sucked a lot of my time.

[Dog Pants]

Crikey, the thread title said mini-review

There's a lot of things there that sound very different from the other MMONGS I've played. I expect this is due to its Japanese origin. Actually, come to think of it, RO sounds to have had similarities, so that kind of makes sense. Don't think it's the sort of thing for me, I prefer a casual/solo(ish) experience, but it sounds very compelling and seems to have a lot of depth. I remember that FF games are quite pretty, so please do post some screenshots.

[Hehulk]

That actually sounds marginally tempting.

What does it cost?

[Lateralus]

I thought it might be your type of game Hehulk.

[Lateralus]

Also Aki, you appear to have not mentioned that you can raise and race Chocobos in the game. A poor oversight I feel!

[Hehulk]

To be fair, I sorta like NR as well, and I do intend to purchase it at some point. And there's lots of MMOs I've liked the sound of in the past and been disapointed with.

However I do tend to have a soft spot for games where your forced to work with others to achieve pretty much anything. It's what all MMOs should do imho

[Dog Pants]

It's what all MMOs should do imho

Remind me never to buy any MMONG you design.

[Akiakaiu]

Yeah, I started writing and the mini part went out the window. As for cost, it's $15 per month plus $1 per additional character I do believe, not sure what it is over there.

And yes, I forgot Choco raising, and racing, the pokemon style area where you can pit a mob you collected vs. someone else's mob... but then again there is still a ton more I left out too. There is that much in the game.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is a good resource if you want to see more of what the game has to offer. I'll post some of my screenshots tonight after work.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

forced to work with others to achieve pretty much anything. It's what all MMOs should do imho

I don't think any games should horse you to do anything, not in that respect anyway.

[Hehulk]

Ok, not forced, but FF XI seems to have it the way I'd do it. It's an MMO,if you want to make headway doing anything, it should require the multiplayer bit. Same way the 0.0 bits of eve work. Want to achieve something? make some friends

I do think alot of the current MMO playerbase would be offput by such a hardcore way of doing it. There's enough examples in MMOs of people just wanting a 3D platform game and ignoring the multiplayer bit by and large. That's why most modern MMOs let you do 95% of the game solo, it makes more money.

[Dog Pants]

I do think alot of the current MMO playerbase would be offput by such a hardcore way of doing it. There's enough examples in MMOs of people just wanting a 3D platform game and ignoring the multiplayer bit by and large. That's why most modern MMOs let you do 95% of the game solo, it makes more money.

A 3D platformer? WTFAYBOA?

What I look for in a MMONG is a game that I can, if I want, team up with my friends and achieve something vaguely tangible. But only if I want to. It sounds like you're saying that only the hardcore elite who do nothing but play the game should be able to get the most from it, and casual gamers like me are somehow less important. This, I believe, is called fanboyism.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I There's enough examples in MMOs of people just wanting a 3D platform game and ignoring the multiplayer bit by and large.

buh? wuh?

Pyschonauts is a 3d Platformer, Mario64 is a 3d platformer, I can't think of any MMONGs that play anything like that, at all.

You're thinking of an RPG, which to some level is what some people want, which is why guild wars is popular.

For me, a good MMONG is a game I can play with 5punkers, have some fun, kill some time, maybe make some friends in game, or not do any of those things and still enjoy the game.

It shouldn't matter how much I play with others, how often I play the game, or for how long.

It sounds like you're saying that only the hardcore elite who do nothing but play the game should be able to get the most from it, and casual gamers like me are somehow less important. This, I believe, is called fanboyism.

Hard.

[Akiakaiu]

What I look for in a MMONG is a game that I can, if I want, team up with my friends and achieve something vaguely tangible. But only if I want to. It sounds like you're saying that only the hardcore elite who do nothing but play the game should be able to get the most from it, and casual gamers like me are somehow less important. This, I believe, is called fanboyism.

FFXI is odd in the fact that you can't do anything really without some form of help. I mentioned it a few times as I didn't want someone to waste money on it if they can not put enough time into the game.

FFXI is more for the hardcore player, I think this is why some people leave for WoW to never come back, and some people leave for WoW only to come back a month later. There are days where I'm busy all the time I'm logged in, and then there are days where I'm sitting for hours looking for a party.

I kinda also agree with Hehulk on the fact that you should have to work with others to get things done, it is a Multiplayer game, not a singleplayer RPG.

[Joose]

Whilst I totally agree with Berks point that no game should *horse* you to play in a certain way, especially not a way that requires other people to not be cocks, I do kinda see Hehulks point too.

One of the major issues I have with all MMO's ever is that there isnt that much thats actually massive about the multiplayer. Take CoH for example: apart from the bits where you hang around looking at people (which, whilst fun, are not exactly the *point* of the game as such), for the rest of the game the most people you will actually be interacting with at any point is a half dozen. Unless you get into PvP, at which point that number goes up to a whopping dozen-two dozen, sometimes *slightly more*! Even when you are on raids and suchlike in MMO's, you are only being involved in a group of players that is fairly similar to the top end, numbers wise, of a Beef2 server. This is not Massive. This is Regular Sized Multiplayer.

Guild Wars is the worst example of this (dont get me wrong, its an excellent game, but it *is not* massively multiplayer), and on the other end of the spectrum, EVE is probably the closest to being what in my mind is Massively Multiplayer, with *most* of what is going on in game player driven.

Its not even like I think there is anything wrong, per se, with the WoW model of MMO's, if only they had a different name. It just seems to me that MMO is a horrible misnomer; being server and subscription based does not automatically qualify as Massive.

This is only part of what I think is wrong with the MMO world at the moment, but that, as I have mentioned before, deserves its own thread.

EDIT: Just to clarify, as I kinda wandered off point there: I dont think you should *have* to have other peoples help to achieve things. But I think everything you do in an MMO should, in some way, at least *effect* other people. Otherwise you may as well be playing a single player RPG.

[buzzmong]

and then there are days where I'm sitting for hours looking for a party.

That is quite simply BAD game design and reeks of it being broken IMO.

The option to solo, even if it's incredibly long/hard and requires a mass expense of resources to do so should be available.

If I'm PAYING to play, I don't expect to have to sit around being bored off my tits and wait for other players to do anything.

[Akiakaiu]

That is quite simply BAD game design and reeks of it being broken IMO.

The option to solo, even if it's incredibly long/hard and requires a mass expense of resources to do so should be available.

If I'm PAYING to play, I don't expect to have to sit around being bored off my tits and wait for other players to do anything.

Ok, maybe I explaned it a bit wrong, you can solo, but it's rough and time consuming. You don't have to sit around doing nothing, there is crafting, choco racing, the pit arena thing, fishing, farming.. I just sit around doing nothing cause I can alt-tab out and watch anime or read a book.

Or once you hit 30 you could unlock Beastmaster which is a solo job. That you can level to 75 and not have to worry about it taking 5 years or looking for groups. The options are there, but if I talked about everything in the game I'd be up to a 5perm count of 1 million from the post.

[buzzmong]

That's more acceptable then.

Even so, those extra "can do solo" thingies like crafting are just delays until you can find a party and go questing correct?

That's still a bit crappy if you do really need a party to do the "meat" of the game.

[Akiakaiu]

That's more acceptable then.

Even so, those extra "can do solo" thingies like crafting are just delays until you can find a party and go questing correct?

That's still a bit crappy if you do really need a party to do the "meat" of the game.

Most quests/missions run better if you schedual them with your linkshell. Some pick up groups work for missions, but like in all mmos there are the asshats that will mess everything up, like you spend an hour getting to a "boss" fight only to find out someone missed a cutscene somewhere. Sitting around waiting os more for leveling, you sit with your flag up hoping someone picks you, or you could always start your own party and not wait at all.

[Akiakaiu]

Aki learned to Flickr