1. Z

   10

   I don't know about many others, but I have played FFXI since 2004 and I've seen just about everything you can see in the game. The game started out slow, thankfully having friends to play with that I can talk to helps out a lot when you can team up to do partying. The end game starts out very brutal to people new to it. It makes the victory all the better. The game is a very rewarding experience if you have the time to play it. Which I know many people could not devote to it due to other responsibilities. I've tried many Mmos since to see if there was anything that could take me away, and WoW had my attention while I was playing final (Yes dual boxed in both games at times) for about 4 months before I got a character up to 77 and then got bored with it. I also have many other 60 + but the game never really grabbed me. Nor did any of the other mmo's I had played. My point is FFXI is a good game to play if you do have someone to play with you or at least get footing in the game with, yes it is a grind but so is any other game to get good at it. The only real complaint I hear even from people that play the game is lack of pvp, and it's understandable seeing what it could possibly turn into with the auto translating problem as well. Otherwise for the game being as old as it is, it's still a well made game that is enjoyable and still very rewarding to newer players.… Expand

   • Helpful? 5 of 5 users said Yes.
2. Mike

   8

   Final Fantasy XI looks nice and has some cool features. There are some things that holds it back. The low level hunting areas are always camped, a free for all that would try anyone's patience. The penalty for death is steep, especially losing a level on a death. This is made more glaring by the difficulty running away from a fight, it seems that the creature will follow you for miles. The interface and keyboard config is very difficult to get used to. It appears that there is no way to reconfig your keyboard to the way you like either, i would LOVE to be corrected on this one. All that aside, FF XI looks and sounds good. The gameworld feels enormous how enormous remains to be seen. Battle is a solid experience minus the inescapability and you feel accomplished when you level as it is not easy or short. The integrated auction feature that allows players to put up items for auction while attending to other things is ingenious. The gameworld never feels empty as there are constantly players around and on the go. While things may seem awefully crowded a lot of the time, a decent computer setup won't even blink at the load even at high resolutions. The wheel was not reinvented with Final Fantasy XI, but it sure provides a smooth and entertaining ride. … Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.
3. AngeredPlayer

   5

   Haven't played a final fantasy game that was worst than this since Mystic Quest. The battle system needs work, if this game wasn't called final fantasy most people would recognize the many errors that are encountered. The battle system is the most irritating part of this game, don't bother running away, monsters will hit you no matter how far you run; I know this from experience as i see players wiped out from monsters that appear right next to them from out of nowhere. Annoying instances you will also encounter are monsters that will appear from nowhere as you are resting, some will even appear during a current battle, usually resulting in a death if you are too weakened to fight. I agree that this game is beautifully created, but what's more important, a good solid bug free gameplay or pretty graphics with battle glitches that you pay for every month? … Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. TurffieL

   4

   Masochistic. Honestly it is just that; the game was heavily created around community when it first released. Don't get me wrong MMOs are suppose to be about people helping one another; but when you start forcing people to do just about everything together plus throw in grinding and deleveling, those are ingredients for disaster. From levels 1-12 that took around 8 hours to gain. After that you are off to the dunes (that is if you could safely make it there. No you can not ride a Chocobo there; because the license to ride one is level 20). Once there, depending on server you might have a long wait for a party. Back then if you happened to be half way to the next level while other party members were only at 10,100 or even 300 into a level you would not be considered into a party. Why? Because after you have leveled your newly gained leveled just half others exp while you wanted to gain an exp buffer. If the people allowed you to stay and dwarf their exp you would be considered lucky. It would be rather hard to find another party with in your level and exp range. Thus started the waiting game. To which people decided to quit, tried to solo on their own or simply play Beastmaster. Adding insult to injury Chains of Promathia also frustrated people. It was hard to find people; let alone wanting to be picky about what kind of people you wanted helping you do missions for that expansion pack. People weren't willing to help out with missions if you weren't popular in one level another. During my 1 year and 11 months absents the game introduced Fields of Valor which introduced training Regime. Which is very nice when one can not find a party or they do not have time to stand around to wait for an invite. With players running around occupying areas leveling their adventuring fellow and low spawn rates it makes it rather hard to enjoy using the field manual pages to gain exp better. Can't really complain, but better spawn rate could fix that issue. If field manual isn't one's cup of tea then level sync can help with find a party; without worry about dwarfing the rest of the party's exp. Looking at these things and noticing how nice they are and a welcome to the game, it makes a person wonder; why wasn't this here before? Had it been there before WoW wouldn't exactly be tooting their own horn about the massive amount of players.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 6 users said Yes.

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