Pros: A frustrating but satisfying crafting system, party aspect of gameplay, great sound.
Cons: Leveling treadmill from Hell, loads of lazy beggars, boss monster spawns are CAMPED!
The Bottom Line: Excessively deep game that resembles the Mana series more than Final Fantasy, just be aware of the huge time sink needed to get anywhere.
rader6795's Full Review: Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan (Add on)...
All them words below and still merely a brief overview? Crazy.
I've had my experiences with the world of the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (henceforth referred to as MMORPGs), as I wasted away for years playing Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty. I say it as if it were past tense, but I still find myself playing that game upon occasion. However, another game has taken my attention away, along with my life.
Final Fantasy XI is Square-Enix's entry in the world of the MMORPG and, frankly, it's an unforgiving game with an ungodly leveling treadmill and huge learning curve. And, when I say ungodly, I mean it.
I must elaborate just how terrible the leveling system is. Every MMORPG has its problems with leveling and adjustments will be seen throughout, but none to the scale of Final Fantasy XI.
From the start, you have access to the six basic job classes from Final Fantasy. For those not familiar with the series, that's the following classes:
Warrior
Monk
Thief
White Mage
Red Mage
Black Mage
On top of these six main jobs, there are advanced jobs available. However, you must complete quests before you have access to any of these jobs. And on top of that necessity, you also need to be level 30 or above before you can receive the quest. These jobs are as follows:
Paladin
Dark Knight
Ranger
Beastmaster
Bard
Summoner
Samurai
Ninja
Dragoon
Now, I've spent my fair share of time crafting either to raise my skills or to make some gil (the Final Fantasy XI monetary unit), but it needs to be said that I've yet to make level 30 yet after three months.
THREE MONTHS!
Mind you, I spend most of my free time playing this game, but it can be difficult to find other players for parties or get access to areas where others of your level party. Or, if you find yourself in a poorly run party, you can find yourself dead quick.
And when you die, you find out just how unforgiving the game is. Death is inevitable and unfortunate. It's a part of life and an even greater part of life in the world of Final Fantasy XI. You see, death results in a ten percent experience point penalty based off of the points needed to attain the next level.
As a warrior (which I plan on playing until I reach level cap, should I continue playing the game), my main role is to take all the enemy's aggression. I deal damage, I control the enmity (referred to by the masses as "hate") and I do what I can to keep my mages from taking a hit. If something goes wrong and the party is at risk, it's my job to take the fall. Unfortunate, but the feeling I get from others telling me what a great tank I am compared to most is more than enough reward for me.
This role, thus, leads to many, many deaths and many, many lost experience points. It's likely the most fun role in the game but Square-Enix's insistence on such a steep penalty (unless you receive a Raise II or Raise III from a white mage), is quite the party killer and more than one party has broken up because of an unfortunate death. If the penalty were reduced, it'd likely lead to better party cohesion. However, it's just another cog in the leveling treadmill.
Find yourself in a party with good chemistry, though, and it's the Mithra's meow.
What's Mithra, you ask?
Mithra is one of the five races in Vana'diel (the world of Final Fantasy XI. Mithra are a humanoid female cat class that's often roleplayed by teenagers starved for flesh, as they're scantily clad and fully feminine down to the polygonally firm rear. Most of their racial gear shows off lots of fur, if you catch my drift. Oh... and they tend to have higher dexterity and agility than other races, so their hits will connect more often and they'll evade more often.
Humes are the basic human race of Vana'diel. They're average in every way and the only time they're the top pick for any class is as a bard. They're also rather capable red mages, but red mage is the middle of the road class regardless. If you want to dabble in every class without any drawback or if you're the kind of person who picks Mario or Luigi in Super Mario Kart, then this is the class for you. My main character, Kendrick (Remora server), is a Hume Man. A Hume Man. Yes... terrible pun but you know the translator who came up with it was just giggling to himself.
Elvaan are Elvish in appearance, but not typical elves. They're taller, stronger and all around better at melee based classes than most. As a matter of fact, they have the highest strength out of all races.
Galka are huge, Hume-hating masses of flesh that resemble lizardmen. Their tails, much like the Mithra before them, serve no real purpose. They have strength comparable to Elvaan and loads more vitality and hit points, so they can take far more hits than any other race. Another solid choice for melee based classes, but terrible for mages.
The polar opposite of the Galka are the Tarutaru. This race of Wee Men He-Men are the magic users. High agility, intelligence, charisma and magic points are their trademarks, while low hit points are their flaws. However, since mages are the most capable classes out of all jobs, this is the perfect fit.
And therein lies the problem
As stated, though, this leads to loads and loads of Tarutaru. You see, mages never have to re-class to become highly effective. Whether you're a black mage, a white mage or a red mage, people will always look to have you in a party. While Humes are likely the most effective red mages (as they've a little bit of everything much like the Humes themselves), it means that you'll see tons more Tarutaru at higher levels than anything else.
This wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the regional conflict of the game. Each nation can fight to control seperate regions of the world based on the map. The more regions you control, the more resources are available in your home nation. Since you are granted racial rings for starting off characters in their racial nation, most people will do so.
Elvaan are based out of San d'oria.
Tarutaru and Mithra are based out of Windurst.
Hume and Galka are based out of Bastok.
Apparently, a boatload of characters were Elvaan when the game opened up in Japan. This lead to Windurst and Bastok always being second and third in Conquest. Thus, Square added the other races to those other nations.
However, since the game has been released in the states, a high number of players want to be powerful magic users or cat girls who wear next to nothing. Yeah... that's the mindset of America. More power, more flesh.
So, all newer servers tend to have Windurst in control of the Conquest at almost all times.
Oh well... c'est la vie.
Conquest mode aside, there's loads more to the game.
First of all, there's the crafting system. There's eight main crafting guilds in the game, listed as follows:
In addition, you'll find "fishing" in the crafting skills section, though it's not a true craft. However, it levels through usage like the other crafting guilds and the results only improve with time.
Now, getting started in crafting is rough. You'll spend tons of time just failing with items that, for the most part, sell for less than you spent making them. Before you can craft anything, you'll need crystals. Crystals are extracted from creatures and often based on what type of monster they are. They're also only found when you gain experience and have Signet cast on you.
Signet is cast by Guards located in your hometown, at embassies in other towns and at outposts in regions you control. So, if you're far away from home or these other locations, you may find Signet wearing off when you least expect.
Back to crafting, though, once you find the appropriate crystals, you need to gather items for your crafts. Some crystals are used more by certain guilds than others so choose wisely as you'll likely be purchasing your crystals from other players who don't craft. The price depends on rarity, difficulty to obtain and player demand.
A load of other elements go into crafting. The phases of the moon, your current crafting skill and the day of the week.
For those keeping score, here's the "Mana" part of the game.
There are eight days of the week, based on elements. To anyone versed in Square's past, you'll recognize this as the way time flows in the Mana series. While they're named differently, such as Wind Day (another fine pun by Square-Enix's translation team) instead of Jinn Day, it's definitely the same.
Crafting on days that the element is weak against, such as using a fire crystal on Water Day, leads to a lowered success rate with a higher crafting skill gain. However, it's believed to give you a better rate of success when trying to obtain exceptional crafting results (obtained most often when your skill is far above the crafting difficulty level). Crafting of the same day as the crystal you're using is often seen as the best as you'll get average gains, average results and fair amounts of exceptional results. Crafting on days that the element is strong against, such as using a fire crystal on Ice Day, is said to have the highest success rate but the lowest yield of both skill gain and exceptional results.
Crafting, personally, is my favorite part of the game and, often, the most rewarding aspect in more ways than one. Since most items in the game that other players use are crafted, you'll find yourself getting more gil out of crafting than anything other than camping boss monsters for days on end.
Another Mana aspect (other than the occasional Moogle, which can be found in both Final Fantasy and Mana games), is the ability to grow plants from seeds you find in battle. Sure, it takes far longer than it does in any of the Mana games, but it's the first time an FF game has brought that to the table.
As complicated as the crafting system is when you delve into it, it's simple to understand and item synthesis recipes will be given to you by non-player characters in the appropriate guilds.
Some items will also use more than one crafting skill to produce, but are often worth the effort. Some of the best exceptional result items are made when more than one crafting skill is used.
However, it'll be months and months before you can see that, unless you've a friend with loads of cash or devote your entire time to crafting, fishing, mining and logging.
Mining and logging, when combined with crafting, often leads to the greatest gil gains you can see. Some armor will improve your mining results and minimize the number of pickaxes and hatchets you destroy. Again, other elements likely come into play, such as your level and the day of the week, but you'll be hard pressed to find information on it.
Of course, let me not beat around the bush any longer, let's get to combat, shall we?
For anyone who's played Seiken Densetsu 3 (the "lost" Mana game on Super Famicon), you'll instantly be familiar with the combat system. The active time battle window is thrown out the window with each weapon having its own appropriate delay. Unlike the Mana series, however, each weapon will have its own delay based on how large it is. Great Axes and Great Swords (two-handed weapons) take far longer to attack than most one-handed weapons such as Daggers and Staves.
However, it's entirely stat-based, so just realize that certain weapon classes have consequences. Using a two-handed weapon (or dual wielding for Ninjas), means you'll be without a shield.
Also, some weapons are better than others for certain classes. Since your weapon skill improves over usage, much like the Mana series, you'll want to pick the appropriate weapon for the appropriate job. Hand-to-Hand weapons, such as Cesti, level quicker with Monks than they would with, say, a Red Mage.
At predetermined weapon skill levels, you'll gain access to new weapon skills. Attain a weapon skill of ten and you'll gain access to low level weapon skills. Combine these weapon skills with the weapon skills of others in your party and you'll create skillchains. Top those skillchains off with magic spells of the appropriate element and you'll create magic bursts.
Both skillchain bonuses result in additional damage. Combine these with enemy weaknesses, such as light against an undead class, and you can make quick work of enemies if your party can mesh well together.
Of course, early on, you'll not have many options for skillchains. Still, later the possibilities can be endless and your whole party can chain off of each other. When it works, it works well. Otherwise, it's just a little extra kick.
The game, every single aspect, is deep. Everything was thought out and, perhaps, too complex. It's a lot to take in and a huge learning curve comes with the game.
Some things make it slightly easier. You can create macros for loads of actions you use often. If you're a warrior, you'll find "Provoke" is the first thing you'll likely macro as you'll use it often. It makes the menus far less complicated.
However, quickly into your playing experience, you'll find that this game was crafted with a Playstation 2 controller in mind. Playing without a controller is clumsy, terrible experience. Using the numpad to move is the obvious choice when something like the Logitech Dual Action controller aren't available, but you can also use the mouse to move. Either way, though, you're bound to buy a controller that resembles the Dual Shock as soon as possible if you expect to make it anywhere.
It's this control option that I welcome wholeheartedly. My biggest complaint with Asheron's Call initially was that I couldn't use a controller. I've never been big on ASWD movement, er, whatever it is. It's just a shame the game is clumsy without it.
Another element that is somewhat lame is that you pretty much HAVE to party if you want to get to higher levels. While it's great to encourage it, this game does not lend itself to solo playing, with the exception of the Beastmaster class.
Otherwise, what you get out of the game is both dependant on what you devote to the game and the people you're surrounded by. If you join a linkshell, an additional chat function that comes at the price of either the 8,000 gil to buy a linkshell or the inventory space that's used by the linkpearl the linkshell creates.
So, if you can find a group of people you mesh well with, don't be afraid to pony up the gil to create a linkshell so you can stay in constant contact with these people. Of course, it's just as easy to unequip the linkpearl and throw it away. Luckily, a linkshell can create unlimited linkpearls so you can replace that person at any time.
So, uh... yeah...
Square-Enix has always been about the presentation of a game, even when they were independant companies. The sound is everything you'd expect of a Square-Enix production. Final Fantasy XI has, perhaps, the best sound of any Square game ever and easily the best sound since Valkyrie Profile for Enix back at the end of the Playstation life cycle. From the soundtrack to appropriate slashing sounds to the sounds of crystals breaking when you fail an item synthesis, there's loads of quality samples.
Also, the graphics are inspired and slightly Amano-inspired. While not superdeformed, it's pretty simple to see his trademarks, such as Bombs and Marlboros to the Tarutaru race. It's great to see him back as he was sorely missed through the less-than-inspired designs I've had to suffer through for the last few years.
Seem like a load to take in? It is. Mind you, I still haven't even seen but a quarter of the game. I've yet to experience the thrill of free movement courtesy of airship travel. I haven't delved into the quest and fame systems and rewards such as expanded inventory spaces. I haven't but mentioned in brief the numerous boss battles, some of which reward you with hard-to-find, highly desired items.
There's tons more to cover and I won't even try to do so.
I will say this, though. If you're willing to devote the time necessary to the game, if you're willing to grasp one aspect that feels rewarding to you, then you'll find a lot to love about the game.
With the recent reduction in the game's price to coincide with the recent expansion pack, there's little harm in trying. At thirty bucks and a constantly expanding world, you'll find something new nearly every month and loads that have yet to be discovered.
Just be aware that you'll also find yourself frustrated early and often. Get over the initial hump, though, and there's a lot to love about Final Fantasy XI.
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