Final Fantasy XI - FF meets EQ

By: Jason Denson


Final Fantasy XI has been around for a while now, and is a veteran of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game market. Not to the same extent as EverCrack, of course, but long enough to have the bugs ironed out and to be looking at ways to retain its market. FF went in with one of the best-known names in computer RPGs, and an audience it needed to not disappoint. It's got a few quirks that make it different from a lot of other MMORPGs, and overall, Square Enix has delivered a pretty fine experience.

When the Final Fantasy series first launched, it raised the bar for overall game experience, especially in graphical quality and sound. Big sweeping orchestral scores and movie-quality animation were pretty rare back then. Given that's a large part of what their reputation rests on, the games have had to keep that level up over time, and they've succeeded. Even this long after launch, FFXI's graphical quality is really excellent, especially in its backgrounds and vistas that give you a really sense of the huge size of the world you're in. Of course, they're still FF's distinctive style. If you love that, you'll love this. If the appallingly cute TaruTaru make you nauseous, the good news is FFXI recently went PvP, so you can now indulge your fondest fantasy of making adorable little shish kebab. (The fact that 800 FFXI characters were just permanently deleted for griefing and other user agreement violations can be interpreted a lot of different ways.)

What makes FFXI different from other on-line role-playing games? Well, apart from the whole chicken-riding thing, FFXI is using the old AD&D dual class system. After level 18, your character can take on a second profession in addition to your first. The game is really flexible about switching jobs, actually: you can change any time you want, though you'll be starting from scratch again, and some of your items may not be of any use to you. If it doesn't work out, you can always change back. In some ways, this eliminates the urge to have multiple characters in the game, which is good because you only get one for your $12.95/month, and every extra slot will cost you another buck.

You also can't choose your server. So if you have friends you want to play with, that's going to be a problem. You can buy a world pass in the game that lets other players create characters on 'your' server, but you still can't transfer existing characters over. This does ensure player load is evenly-spread over the servers, but it's kind of a pain from a player point of view, and that's what we care about.

FFXI is also missing some but not all of the little annoyances that come with role-playing games. Your character doesn't need to eat, and won't get tired from running a lot (which early on is just as well), but you will still have to spend a lot of time all crouched up, 'healing'. Because FF started off as a console game, the controls will take a bit of getting used to for PC gamers.

Like EverQuest II, FFXI allows groups to work weapon skill chains and magic bursts, giving well-co-ordinated groups the advantage of pooling together to produce devastating (and spectacular) combat effects. A little more effort has been put into the monster deaths, too - there's nothing like the big ugly's tongue lolling out when it hits the ground to give you a real sense of achievement.

FFXI includes crafting, and trading aspects as well as questing and combat, giving you a well-rounded experience. You even have a little home, or Mog House, where your Moogle will look after your stuff and water your plants. The game is stable and relatively bug-free, and seems to cater quite well to the needs of both FF fans, and lovers of the MMORPG genre. Though both will find a few things hard to get used to, the game should more than make it worth it.


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