Final Fantasy XI Online - Review
Added July 8th, 2006 by LightK
Introduction:
Final Fantasy has finally made its way to the Xbox 360. Let me begin by saying FFXI requires patience and time…LOTS of time. This is not a “pick up and play for 30 minutes” type of game. This is the same game that PC and PS2 owners have played for several years. Is the ability to battle foes alongside your non-360 friends on a 4 year old game worth the $50 purchase and an additional $12.95 per month fee? Read on to find out.
Gameplay:
Final Fantasy XI Online is the first MMORPG I’ve played. Therefore, I have nothing to compare it to. My first impression of the 360 beta game was “I hate this.” As I adjusted to the take turn fighting, journeyed through new areas, countless battles, quests and missions, I quickly became severely addicted to FFXI. To date, I have logged close to 1,000 hours in the game.
To begin, you are going to encounter a tedious installation process. Lengthy codes are found on the back cover of your game manual. (In my opinion, the game manual is practically worthless). Installation and registration took me approximately 4 hours from start to finish. (The purchase of a USB keyboard is strongly recommended.) Now, you are ready…or almost ready to begin. What shall you name your character? This was an easy choice for me with my Coke Icee addiction -- IceeLady. What race shall you be: Hume (human in nature), Elvaan (elf-like), Tarutaru (small child-like in size), Mithra (cat-like), or Galka (large hulking figure) – female Hume for me. You have a few options to slightly adjust your characters appearance such as hair color, face and size. Now, to the last business – choosing your job – Red Mage was my first choice (I have now changed my main job to White Mage subbing the Red Mage). Jobs include Warrior, Thief, and three kinds of Mage. Do not be alarmed. If you decide you don’t care for the melee of a Warrior, you can pop into your mog house and change jobs. Later on in the game, you can add a subjob to your main and unlock special jobs such as Corsair, Bard, BeastMaster, etc…
Final Fantasy has finally made its way to the Xbox 360. Let me begin by saying FFXI requires patience and time…LOTS of time. This is not a “pick up and play for 30 minutes” type of game. This is the same game that PC and PS2 owners have played for several years. Is the ability to battle foes alongside your non-360 friends on a 4 year old game worth the $50 purchase and an additional $12.95 per month fee? Read on to find out.
Gameplay:
Final Fantasy XI Online is the first MMORPG I’ve played. Therefore, I have nothing to compare it to. My first impression of the 360 beta game was “I hate this.” As I adjusted to the take turn fighting, journeyed through new areas, countless battles, quests and missions, I quickly became severely addicted to FFXI. To date, I have logged close to 1,000 hours in the game.
To begin, you are going to encounter a tedious installation process. Lengthy codes are found on the back cover of your game manual. (In my opinion, the game manual is practically worthless). Installation and registration took me approximately 4 hours from start to finish. (The purchase of a USB keyboard is strongly recommended.) Now, you are ready…or almost ready to begin. What shall you name your character? This was an easy choice for me with my Coke Icee addiction -- IceeLady. What race shall you be: Hume (human in nature), Elvaan (elf-like), Tarutaru (small child-like in size), Mithra (cat-like), or Galka (large hulking figure) – female Hume for me. You have a few options to slightly adjust your characters appearance such as hair color, face and size. Now, to the last business – choosing your job – Red Mage was my first choice (I have now changed my main job to White Mage subbing the Red Mage). Jobs include Warrior, Thief, and three kinds of Mage. Do not be alarmed. If you decide you don’t care for the melee of a Warrior, you can pop into your mog house and change jobs. Later on in the game, you can add a subjob to your main and unlock special jobs such as Corsair, Bard, BeastMaster, etc…
Now, do we get to jump into battle? Nope, you need to make sure that you are properly equipped with armor, gear and food befitting the job you’ve selected. There are many sites out there to help (somepage.com, killingifrit.com and ffxi.allakhazam.com – just to name a few). You are now ready to leave the safety of town and enter the wilds.
It would be impossible to even begin to tell all the aspects of FFXI’s gameplay. Let me just say that from what I’ve read, FFXI is like any other RPG in the fact that you earn experience points (exp) by defeating your foes which in turn “level” your character. Leveling your character leads to the necessity of purchasing more appropriate and better gear, armor, spells and food and the ability to attack stronger monsters which can “drop” things from crystals (required for crafting such as cooking, goldsmithing, and woodcraft) to scrolls to armor and much more.
As in other MMOs, you can “party” with up to five other players to defeat bigger and badder monsters, complete quests and missions. Though this is a very enjoyable aspect of the game, it can become quite frustrating trying to find players in your level range and also of a job that fits the party. You can spend an hour or two and then as soon as you’re ready to attack, someone’s mom calls for dinner or a spouse shows up, therefore leaving you one short {sigh}. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to level your character solo, especially at the higher levels.
In between battles, you have quests which come in various forms from trade flint stones to an NPC to finding someone’s father. You must complete quests to raise your fame level so that you can acquire more complex and superior rewarding quests. Then you have missions, which raise your rank. While many of the quests can be completed in various orders and at the same time, the missions are doled out one at a time and you must complete that particular mission prior to accepting another.
It would be impossible to even begin to tell all the aspects of FFXI’s gameplay. Let me just say that from what I’ve read, FFXI is like any other RPG in the fact that you earn experience points (exp) by defeating your foes which in turn “level” your character. Leveling your character leads to the necessity of purchasing more appropriate and better gear, armor, spells and food and the ability to attack stronger monsters which can “drop” things from crystals (required for crafting such as cooking, goldsmithing, and woodcraft) to scrolls to armor and much more.
As in other MMOs, you can “party” with up to five other players to defeat bigger and badder monsters, complete quests and missions. Though this is a very enjoyable aspect of the game, it can become quite frustrating trying to find players in your level range and also of a job that fits the party. You can spend an hour or two and then as soon as you’re ready to attack, someone’s mom calls for dinner or a spouse shows up, therefore leaving you one short {sigh}. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to level your character solo, especially at the higher levels.
In between battles, you have quests which come in various forms from trade flint stones to an NPC to finding someone’s father. You must complete quests to raise your fame level so that you can acquire more complex and superior rewarding quests. Then you have missions, which raise your rank. While many of the quests can be completed in various orders and at the same time, the missions are doled out one at a time and you must complete that particular mission prior to accepting another.
Graphics:
FFXI does support widescreen. Additionally, you can play the game in 720p. You’d expect the graphics to be next-gen, but they’re the same to be found on PS2 and PC. Nothing was done to “bump up” the graphics for the 360. Much detail was given to the visuals -- your character’s shadow will move as the sun changes position, the sand kicks up as you run through the Dunes, etc… Many of the cutscenes are absolutely breathtaking, especially the ones relating to missions. Sadly, the graphics do tend to look outdated and possess an uneven frame rate.
FFXI does support widescreen. Additionally, you can play the game in 720p. You’d expect the graphics to be next-gen, but they’re the same to be found on PS2 and PC. Nothing was done to “bump up” the graphics for the 360. Much detail was given to the visuals -- your character’s shadow will move as the sun changes position, the sand kicks up as you run through the Dunes, etc… Many of the cutscenes are absolutely breathtaking, especially the ones relating to missions. Sadly, the graphics do tend to look outdated and possess an uneven frame rate.
Audio:
The audio is average, with the music changing upon entering a different area. While engaging in battle, you’ll notice a change of music. With surround sound, it’s an enjoyable, but shortlived experience. You’ll probably find yourself quickly switching over and listening to your choice of music.
Controls:
The controls in FFXI are more complex than your standard console game and while you can certainly play using your controller, I cannot emphasize how much a USB keyboard will offer you, especially since the ability to “voice chat” is absent in FFXI. You can still do a one-on-one voice chat with a friend through XBL, but communication to your party members is handled through /t (tells), /p (party chat) and /clap (gestures).
You will quickly discover you will need to create macros (designated commands or functions) to cure, attain certain weapon skills, change equipment, special abilities, etc… This is much easier hitting a couple of keys or using your trigger button and d-pad than by scrolling through a series of menus.
Whichever you choose (controller or keyboard [I use a combination of both as I don’t like to “steer” my character with the keyboard]), the learning curve is not simple. Be prepared to spend a few hours familiarizing yourself with the controls.
The audio is average, with the music changing upon entering a different area. While engaging in battle, you’ll notice a change of music. With surround sound, it’s an enjoyable, but shortlived experience. You’ll probably find yourself quickly switching over and listening to your choice of music.
Controls:
The controls in FFXI are more complex than your standard console game and while you can certainly play using your controller, I cannot emphasize how much a USB keyboard will offer you, especially since the ability to “voice chat” is absent in FFXI. You can still do a one-on-one voice chat with a friend through XBL, but communication to your party members is handled through /t (tells), /p (party chat) and /clap (gestures).
You will quickly discover you will need to create macros (designated commands or functions) to cure, attain certain weapon skills, change equipment, special abilities, etc… This is much easier hitting a couple of keys or using your trigger button and d-pad than by scrolling through a series of menus.
Whichever you choose (controller or keyboard [I use a combination of both as I don’t like to “steer” my character with the keyboard]), the learning curve is not simple. Be prepared to spend a few hours familiarizing yourself with the controls.
Replay:
As this game never ends (you can level your each job to 75), you still have other jobs to level, a seemingly infinite number of quests and missions to complete and crafting. There’s a gigantic world, which in my near 1000 hours, I’ve viewed probably less than ¼ of what’s available. There is a constant respawning of creatures (potential enemies) and playmates (both real and NPC) to keep you busy. If you like to adventure, there are countless hours of roaming ahead for you before you can claim that you’ve covered all of Vana’diel. FFXI possesses a deep complexity that I’ve never seen in a game. Rewards and leveling require more time, effort and gil (money) than most people will want to spend on a game.
As this game never ends (you can level your each job to 75), you still have other jobs to level, a seemingly infinite number of quests and missions to complete and crafting. There’s a gigantic world, which in my near 1000 hours, I’ve viewed probably less than ¼ of what’s available. There is a constant respawning of creatures (potential enemies) and playmates (both real and NPC) to keep you busy. If you like to adventure, there are countless hours of roaming ahead for you before you can claim that you’ve covered all of Vana’diel. FFXI possesses a deep complexity that I’ve never seen in a game. Rewards and leveling require more time, effort and gil (money) than most people will want to spend on a game.
Summary:
FFXI brings with it a monthly subscription cost of $12.95 to keep your “Content ID” active. (Game purchase includes a free 30-day starter subscription). Note that you are not required to have a Gold account, so you can play FFXI with the free Silver account.
While FFXI is the most addicting game I’ve ever played, I will confess that it is an unfriendly place for newbs. Unless you can find yourself a sugar daddy (or momma) who’ll help you grind through the lower levels and point you in the right direction, you’ll more than likely feel abandoned and left behind and drop the game.
I would not recommend this game as a rental, as there’s not enough time in a week to become absorbed in the game. If you do not have a tremendous amount of time and patience, as well as the schedule to pop in every RL (real life) day to check on your plants (they die if you don’t), I’d say leave this game on the shelf. If you love MMORPGs, pick it up and send IceeLady a /t and I’ll be glad to show you some of the ropes.
FFXI brings with it a monthly subscription cost of $12.95 to keep your “Content ID” active. (Game purchase includes a free 30-day starter subscription). Note that you are not required to have a Gold account, so you can play FFXI with the free Silver account.
While FFXI is the most addicting game I’ve ever played, I will confess that it is an unfriendly place for newbs. Unless you can find yourself a sugar daddy (or momma) who’ll help you grind through the lower levels and point you in the right direction, you’ll more than likely feel abandoned and left behind and drop the game.
I would not recommend this game as a rental, as there’s not enough time in a week to become absorbed in the game. If you do not have a tremendous amount of time and patience, as well as the schedule to pop in every RL (real life) day to check on your plants (they die if you don’t), I’d say leave this game on the shelf. If you love MMORPGs, pick it up and send IceeLady a /t and I’ll be glad to show you some of the ropes.
