Final Fantasy XI

[Yuthirin]

What the hell am I doing? I must be insane. Wait...nah. Here goes.

This is, quite possibly, the ONLY MMORPG with an interactive storyline. It's certainly the only one I've found. It also changes with your nationality as well. This is something that a former EQ player (and hater) would find incredibly enjoyable. Before control is even allowed to the player, you are immersed in the storyline of your nationality and given somewhat detailed history of your home city. After this, the game hands you 50 gil (not nearly enough) and sends you on your way. You start with basic equipment, which is a huge step over other MMORPGs, and with such, you can, without an intense amount of difficulty, begin to kill things outside your city. However, you can easily gain your first level though the in-town quests that are plainly offered around town!

Speaking of combat, I've found that it's well-animated, and while in real-time, still gives you the RPG-esqe feeling by bringing in weapon delays, which cause you to wait until you attack again. Combat is automatic, but the various abilities your character gains are all manual. A plus on this is that class abilities and spells aren't just a cloud of multicolored sparkles or motes of light. They're fairly detailed and quite appropriate. It's quite easy to die if you stop paying attention to the combat. An obvious flaw in the combat is, if the monster hits you with a knockback attack, there's a chance that the monster can continue hitting you, but you won't attack it anymore because you're out of range. Again, attention to combat is moderately important. Preventative measures have been taken against power-levelers in that as you increase in level, monsters grant less and less experience. Once you are two or three levels over the monster, you gain no experience at all from them.

Onward to graphics and music. The graphics...could use some improvement. They are certainly not the best, and sometimes they're downright grainy. They can be deceptive at times, and their 3D engine has a tendency to make objects appear closer than they are. Then there are times that the graphics are so heavy, or there are so many player-characters on the screen, that even the best graphics card overloaded, and the most intense lag I have ever experienced sets in. The mouse is barely responsive in these situations, and the keyboard must be used to turn your view to facing a wall so you can move again. The BGM and SFX are mediocre. Not worthy of finding .mp3s of it...but appropriate.

So there you have it. The gameplay and storyline are good, the combat is decent, the graphics occasionally make me stabby and the music fits the bill. Worth at least playing the free 30 day trial.

Please don't hurt me.

[Dracos]

I WILL HURT YOU! O_O

Not too bad a review.  Though I still won't be conned out of paying a cent for it.

Dracos

[Brian]

And then you find the bad news.

You can't just choose a server, so you'll likely not be able to play with your friends without some real effort.

The control scheme was obviously designed for a controller, not a keyboard, and it makes the interface needlessly clunky.

You get exactly one player character that you can use, unless you're willing to pay more.

I played almost six hours of my thirty day trial before I got bored.

[Yuthirin]

Well, yes. This is all true.

I still like it, though.

[Olvelsper]

Oh, hey Yuth. Just a bit of a heads up to you (or anyone else who's glancing through, really). Seems that the upcoming Final Fantasy sequel/whatever is using a system of combat that seems to be fashioned after FFXI's.

That, or this is the unholy union of .hack/games and FFXI's systems. Anywho, now that I've frightened myself beyond reasonable limits I'll open up the floor for gibbergabber.

[Anastasia]

I think I speak for everyone when I say tha Square seems intent on making a bigger shitstorm failure of a game than FF8/9.

[Dracos]

By the sheer amount of idiots addicted to it, it can't rightfully be called a failure. >_>;  At least not at the financial goal of separating folks from their money.

Dracos

[Brian]

By the sheer amount of idiots addicted to it, it can't rightfully be called a failure. >_>

Welcome to America!

[Dracos]

Fuck America.

^_^

Dracos

[Yuthirin]

Oi, oi! Let's not throw the idiot word around so easily.

I do my best here, people. ;_;

[Cora Meliamne]

I really wonder why people piss and moan about games they never play.

And I'll say this. FFXI was designed for the PC, it was released firt on PC in Japan and North America. It was ported to PS2 when the hardrive was made.

[Brian]

Because we all know the best way to introduce yourself to a new board is to make wild assumptions and generally be rude to everyone you meet.

I did play the game, and even if the game was released first on the PC, it's pretty well established fact that it was designed for the PS2.  It was meant to mainly interface with a controller, not a mouse and keyboard.

Don't bitch about other people not liking your favorite game.  Our opinions do not magically make your own less valid, and vice-versa.  You're perfectly welcome to like a game I hate -- Yuth is still my friend, even though I sass him mercilessly about his choice in games.

Being a veteran of EQ, and before that UO, and before that, various MUDs on random (gasp) BBSes, I've got something of a history with MMORPGs.  I can see the levelquest formula, and I don't like it.  This does not mean that you're less of a person for enjoying the game I think it stupid, it just means we disagree.

Let's treat this more like real life, and less like the internet, and realize that people can do this without resorting to bloodshed.  What matters most about game (for you) should not be how much I like it, or how little I think of it.  What should matter is what you think about it.

And if I'm some whiny punk-ass who's robbing himself of the nirvana of FFXI to rot in the purgetory of Worlds of Warcraft, it's not your duty to save me.  You're perfectly welcome to sit back and laugh at my inability to enjoy your favorite game without trying to be so disagreeable.


Unless, of course, for some reason, you're just making random comments to no one in particular, in which case you've succeeding in confusing me mightily.

Though, I'm told that's not much of a challenge in my old age.

[metroid composite]

Oh, hey Yuth. Just a bit of a heads up to you (or anyone else who's glancing through, really). Seems that the upcoming Final Fantasy sequel/whatever is using a system of combat that seems to be fashioned after FFXI's.

That, or this is the unholy union of .hack/games and FFXI's systems. Anywho, now that I've frightened myself beyond reasonable limits I'll open up the floor for gibbergabber.

Actually everything I've heard about FF12's battle system I've liked.  Yes, they're using a real time system...but SO2, ToS, and SoM all do as well, and from all I've heard it's closer to stop time than any of the afforementioned.  Yes, you can see the enemies on the world map and there's no battle transitions so you run away from them on the same map.  As far as I'm concerned this is a good thing; random encounters every x steps are rather lame.  If they're adding anything else "from MMORPGs" (pfft, as if these ideas didn't exist before MMORPGs) then I haven't heard about it.

[Brian]

Even though I'm growing more and more tired of the series, I will confess to a certain curiosity regarding FFXII.  It could be Square's big comeback from what I see as real disapointments -- FF VIII in particular.  IX was (in my mind,) not that bad.  X didn't impress me -- same with X-II (I admit it -- the phrase 'dress-sphere' intimidated me).  I really didn't like XI, but that was mostly due to a bad interface (in my opinion!).  XII would most likely have a much more solid interface.  If they actually make the trek through a given dungeon one huge real-time brawl, then they've piqued my interest, at least.

Of course, they could go the Chrono Trigger route for encounters, too, which honestly isn't a bad thing in my book.