Final Fantasy XI Online

[hurstshifter]

Anyone play this currently or in the past? I have a couple friends trying to get me to try it but I don't know if it will be worth it. Not sure how it compares to games like WoW or Everquest when it comes to the time you need to dedicate in order to actually have fun.

[Joeyotrevor]

All I've heard is that it's a major grindfest.

[thejahooli]

I may try this, but I don' think it will be near as good as WoW.

[ultimatedragoon69]

I've played that game for about 3-4 years. I've got to warn you that it takes a lot of partying to get to a decent level. Also soloing isn't much of an option because most things at higher level can kill you. Of course i haven't played in quite some time so im not sure what significant changes that have made. Anyway if you do play good luck it was a really fun game, i definitely liked it way more then World of Warcraft.

[hurstshifter]

I've played that game for about 3-4 years. I've got to warn you that it takes a lot of partying to get to a decent level. Also soloing isn't much of an option because most things at higher level can kill you. Of course i haven't played in quite some time so im not sure what significant changes that have made. Anyway if you do play good luck it was a really fun game, i definitely liked it way more then World of Warcraft.

Thanks for the info. I have about 3-4 friends that play so partying won't be a problem. But, they did inform me that recent updates have made it much easier to solo most of the game (until the higher levels of course). I played wow for a while but I am just not that interested in the world and lore of warcraft. Final Fantasy is much more appealing to me.

[aamesxdavid]

I have about 3-4 friends that play so partying won't be a problem.

Not necessarily. If you don't have 6 people at all times, you're pretty much boned at level 25+.

I played this game for about... 5 years. As in I literally just canceled my account about a month ago. And finally bothered uninstalling it last week. The reason for this is that I just couldn't play enough to make it worthwhile. And considering the fact that it's pay to play, that kills it. I'm thankful for that extra $13 a month on pure principal. And it is a shame, because I've yet to play an MMO that's as in-depth and immersive, but recently I've realized how much it's designed to stifle you. For example:

You need to party a lot. And I do mean a lot. You will kill hundreds of the same monster over and over, in the exact same way. And if you die, there's no exp debt - you lose experience. You can delevel, removing any equipment you have at the previous level and rendering it useless until you get that exp back.

Get real friendly with Allakhazam, somepage, etc - the quests you get in game don't tell you what to do, they drop vague hints that would take you hours to run around and figure out on your own. The same goes for crafting, you'll just need a strategy guide for everything.

Get Windower (www.windower.net) because the official one is terrible.

Getting around is a nightmare and will take forever in most cases. You can rent a chocobo, but it doesn't last all that long, and won't go into half the areas. And you can only do this once you get to level 18 for the quest, and even then you won't be able to rent them at lower levels. The places you're able to rent them are limited, and can take a while to get to. The solution for this was owning a chocobo. But this A) still doesn't last all that long, and B) requires you to go to your house every day and take care of it. This is again a huge time commitment, and a pain in the ass. Oh, and the chocobo still won't go into half the areas. You can also pay people to teleport you (or do it yourself if you get to level 60ish white mage), but even this is to limited locations, and you'll still probably have to rent a chocobo afterward, and probably have to run on foot after that because of how many areas don't allow chocobos. You can ride airships once you get to rank 5, but they all go in and out from one location. So if you're going from Sandoria to Bastok, you have to take the airship (which show up about every 15 minutes, so you could be in for a wait), to Jeuno, and then run to the other airship port to take the next ship to Bastok. This is incredibly tedious. It's worth noting that no teleports go into towns.

The traveling problem is exacerbated by two things:
1) The world is huge. Now, that's not a bad thing in and of itself; it's great. But only if you can see it all. After all my years of playing (albeit off and on), I'd say I've seen about half the content in the game, with all the expansions. Probably a bit less. The reasons for this are the absurd amount of time it takes to level, the pain of getting around, and the necessity of groups.
2) Quests make you run around a lot. It's taken me hours to do a single quest because I had to go to so many places that were so far apart.

But, they did inform me that recent updates have made it much easier to solo most of the game (until the higher levels of course)

This is either a lie or a gross stretching of the word "most". The only way you can "solo" throughout any reasonable part of the game is by having someone powerlevel (tank) you. Which is not really soloing in a true sense. There are little quests and such, and exp bonus rings, but they don't make up for one simple fact: at level 15-20+, you can't kill something of your level solo. I think that's completely stupid. At higher levels, you can't solo something 5-10 levels below you. Unless these updates have been made really recently, I don't think this is accurate.

I'll stop right here because it sounds like I hate this game, and I don't. I resent the amount of time one must play it to get anywhere. The content in the game, I absolutely love. The bullshit you have to put up with to get to it... not so much. It all boils down to this last quote:

Final Fantasy is much more appealing to me.

And I agree completely. I'll play every MMO out there, and none will be quite as interesting. It's just personally not worth the frustration. I switched over to Runes of Magic, and it solves all of these problems above. But it's still not Final Fantasy.

Personally, I'm waiting for FFXIV. They supposedly learned a lot of lessons, and used their MMO experience to improve the next one. I'm a bit skeptical, but I'll still be picking it up right when it comes out in hopes of being proven wrong.

So in summary, if you can forgive annoyances, and can deal with slow progression - go for it, it's awesome. If you'd rather have the freedom of soloing most things, and getting somewhere reasonably fast - stay away.

[ultimatedragoon69]

Well isn't that a coincidence i started playing runes of magic myself. Oh back on Topic, Final Fantasy XI is Freaking HUGE!!! i'm not just saying that either. Most of the game you will notice you will either be doing quests, grinding, or walking around. Even with a chocobo (i suggest owning your own, which is a little fun and more colorful) it will still take you hours of game play to get where you want to go. I was able to max out 3 jobs while i was playing which are the Black Mage, White Mage, and the Dragoon. Of course, i took about 2 years out of my life (meaning no school or work just game) to get to that level. Of course if you have plenty of time this game will always keep you occupied. from leveling to crafting, from questing to power leveling. There's a huge array of things you can do in this game and i think that it is really well balanced. I think the only thing i didn't like was that they had one class that was able to solo the whole game and you had to first get your primary job to such a level where you could get the advanced jobs. If you want to try soloing the game i would suggest the beast master. This is just my take on the game it was definitely fun to play and i hope you good luck.

[aamesxdavid]

Well isn't that a coincidence i started playing runes of magic myself.

Well if you find yourself on the Artemis server, I'm Thegreatdanton.

it is really well balanced

I completely agree, but at a terrible expense. My impression of how they did this is they simply looked at what was more powerful, and constantly dragged it down. And they just kept doing it to everything, until it balanced out. Which is why you can't kill things at your level, which is why you always have to party, and it's why it takes so damn long to level. It's good that everything is equal, but I think there were much better ways to go about making it so.

[Falco Girgis]

Peter, Marcel, and I had sooo much fun on FFXI. The only problem was that we had fun during Christmas break--when we could dedicate every waking second of our lives to partying, grinding, making money, auctioning, etc.

When school started back up, we only lasted maybe a month. Then we all agreed that we didn't have time to play anymore.

I have heard FFXI described as being more fun than WoW at its peak, but not as fun on average. When you have a gigantic group of 18 people all working together in harmony and doing their thing, the game is an orgasm. Sadly, it's not usually like that.

But yeah, I played a Red Mage and loved it.

[aamesxdavid]

When you have a gigantic group of 18 people all working together in harmony and doing their thing, the game is an orgasm. Sadly, it's not usually like that.

Completely agree. When I moved up here, it was over. Real job = no FFXI. I pretty much kept my account out of nostalgia, and it's not like I even noticed the expense. But I had to let it go.

But you should play Runes. It's the only MMO you can play casually.

[hurstshifter]

Wow aamesxdavid, thanks for the term paper on FFXI that you wrote for me there. I will take all of that information to heart.


The good thing is I have about 4 personal friends that have been playing for a while, and they actually know several people in-game so I will definitely have parties to roll with. I've had a lot of help thusfar (just started last night as a white mage). I don't know how long I'll spend playing this game but honestly, 15 bucks for the game with all of the expansions and a free 30 days of play is such a good deal! I couldn't pass it up. Maybe it will lead me into trying FFXIV when that is released.

[MarauderIIC]

My fiancee and I have low-level accounts on Ramuh (I think that's our server, anyway).

[Thel]

I've not played it. The level-down system just put me off.

[Falco Girgis]

I've not played it. The level-down system just put me off.

By far my biggest issue with it, but nowadays you lose a SHITLOAD less exp than you used to.

...and in it's own way, it does make people fuck around less in a party.

[ultimatedragoon69]

just remember do not stay up more then 8 days without sleep on this game it will make you hallucinate.