Final Fantasy XI Review

Posted by Yuri Goldfeld April 01, 2005

Square's Final Fantasy is easily the most revered role-playing game series out there, its many entries spanning many platforms, including the NES, SNES, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Gameboy Advance, and even PC. Despite their success over the years, Final Fantasy XI for PC was a big test for Square Enix. For one thing, it was a return to the PC platform after a rather long hiatus (Final Fantasy VIII was the last title Square made for PC, and it was generally seen as less than stellar).

More importantly, it was the first major Square Enix or Final Fantasy game to offer real multiplayer capabilities. Not content at mere "multiplayer", Square Enix went right ahead and made its flagship game an MMORPG -- with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and a set of persistent worlds. The game first came out on the PS2 in , and a year and a half later, made it to on the PC platform. This means if you pick up Final Fantasy XI, you'll be playing with Japanese counterparts, and you'll have to use the in-game translator feature, which is marginally effective. Also, realize the Japanese have had a large head start in terms of experience, much as American players have a similar advantage over those hailing from Europe . (In reality, the Japanese players tend to play with each other and not the Europeans or Americans, for a variety of reasons. Not to worry -- there will be lots of fellow American and European players, where the communication barrier is not such a problem.)

Fighting alone is more stress relief than anything else.

But enough background information. Here's the most important thing you need to know about Final Fantasy XI: this game is insidious. It's fun at first, offers good graphics and a seemingly well-developed world. It'll get you playing, and the numerous high-levels running by in their beautiful armor will make you feel like you have something to aspire to. The opening video will undoubtedly leave you wanting to advance the storyline, as you battle together with Vana'diel's finest to overcome evil.

"The opening video will undoubtedly leave you wanting to advance the storyline, as you battle together with Vana'diel's finest to overcome evil."

Reality sets in slowly. The first 10 or so levels of levelling are easy and fun (once you get past the rather clunky keyboard-based control scheme that clearly derives from consoles). The first few missions, which advance the story of the game, are somewhat challenging but enjoyable, and should provide you with your first camaraderie with other players, which is always fun. You'll see yourself wandering into dangerous areas and barely escaping alive. Soon, you'll notice that you need good armor and weapons to really make an impact. You cannot get these from in-game NPC-run stores -- the stores carry only a very limited selection, and at very high prices. Instead, you'll use the PC-to-PC auction house (AH). The auction house is a robust system, letting one sell to and buy from any other player at that auction house. This is the only real way to acquire armor and other items (other than finding them yourself, which is difficult and is the reason prices can get so high). For items, you'll need gil (money). Gil is difficult to attain. In the first few levels, it's really not that bad -- you don't need much, and anything you need can be "farmed" off easy monsters and sold at the AH. You can also do quests, which range from boring to somewhat enjoyable -- but these bring in laughable amounts of gil, hardly worth mentioning. Nevertheless, up until level 20, at least, the thrill of discovery will probably keep you going. You'll get to ride your first big chocobo bird (no, you cannot own one), and, at level 25, you'll even get to ride an airship (no, you cannot get full airship capability until approximately level 50, on average). You'll do a few missions, and even will get your first slice of real story, and fight a cool-looking dragon.

You can't tell, but all these guys are enjoying FF XI's storyline cutscenes at this very moment!

Sure, there will be a dull moment or two along the way (such as trying to find a party in Qufim, unless you are a White Mage, in which case trying to find a party is very easy). For some classes, such as monk, combat may get pretty dull at times, as well. This is typical MMORPG fare -- you choose Attack, and your guy keeps hacking at the monster. But as you advance in the levels, you'll get to use some more advanced fighting capabilities, such as Skillchains (combinations of weapon skills resulting in extra damage) and Magic Bursts (a mage topping off a Skillchain with a damaging magic attack).

This all certainly seems promising...

...until you hit the Wall.

"This is typical MMORPG fare -- you choose Attack, and your guy keeps hacking at the monster."

I call it the Level 30 Wall. Starting with this level, you will want to kill yourself in this game. Armor becomes expensive; groups start becoming rare (again, unless you are a White Mage); quests give larger rewards but are still, frankly, boring; and the special quests you need to get cool stuff are prohibitively difficult. At level 30 you may still be happy; at level 40 you're either a hopeless addict, or you've quit the game. But I don't want you to fool yourself: you may still be playing the game 5 hours a day, but you're NOT having any fun actually playing it. All the fun comes from bonding with other players, perhaps (Linkshells provide a way to find like-minded players to chat with from anywhere in the world). But I don't need to say that when a game's most obvious source of fun is its chat system, the game has serious problems.

At least, at level 30, you get the ability to unlock advanced jobs, such as Samurai, Dragoon, Beastmaster, and more. These aren't more or less powerful than the normal jobs (Warrior, Monk, White Mage, etc.), but they are more exotic. Unlocking these can vary from being doable to almost impossible without high-level help (Samurai, for instance). Getting a party of like-level players to do one of these impossible quests is approximately as easy as winning the Super Bowl. Getting some high-level help, while degrading and annoying, is more doable, but almost never enjoyable. Do note that you can switch to any job that's available and back, without losing experience points -- a definite improvement over EverQuest and the likes. In fact, this adds a way for you to become disillusioned with this game later rather than sooner.

Too bad these guys are only for rent.

If you do get everything you need to advance done, you'll still want lots of gil if you want to be a good player. This is this game's downfall. Eventually, in order to equip yourself well (and many lamers choose to not do that), you'll have to spend approximately 80% of your time acquiring gil, and 20% actually using it to have fun. Acquiring gil is _not_ fun. The majority of it involves killing easy monsters for hours on end. Other methods include fishing (very boring) and crafting (won't yield any profit without a huge investment to begin with). Gardening, if you know certain secret recipes, can actually be VERY lucrative, but you'll need to read up on the net, and be very patient and not risk-averse. Finally, there's the hunting of Notorious Monsters (unique monsters that appear only at certain points and very rarely). This can result in the acquisition of extremely expensive items, but is bound to be hotly contested by lots of other players. Therefore, killing a nice NM with a nice drop is very, very, very difficult (unless you resort to cheating, which some do). Expect to spend days straight trying to do so, and don't expect to have any fun doing it.

Fishing in towns can make you some dough.

Some quests are fun, but the way you're instructed to do them is infuriating beyond belief. You see, no one in Vana'diel will actually tell you anything about the quest. All you get are VERY VERY vague hints. Anyone that actually does all the quests based on the in-game info is superhuman. Real people go on the web and find out what to do. Even if you find some random secondary NPC to tell you what to do for a quest you received earlier, this info isn't saved anywhere! It's an absolutely stupid system, and a disgrace to the Final Fantasy name. (I might also add that the battle system has very little in common with Final Fantasy and is more similar to other MMORPGs out there, for better or worse.) But some of the quests required to advance are nothing short of preposterous. For instance, the quest to advance past level 50 involves searching for a very rare item in a very dangerous area. How rare is the item? The average time to acquire just one of these items -- and you'll want one for each person in your 6-person party -- is EIGHT(!) HOURS. Of your life.

"Anyone that actually does all the quests based on the in-game info is superhuman."

Since advancing in levels becomes so difficult (largely due to gil problems and the necessity to group with others in order to gain experience or do important quests), you'll spend more and more time getting gil and less and less time doing anything resembling playing a game. It will feel like work -- yes, work -- and it's work that YOU pay $13/month for. The only reward you get is feeling uber once you reach those high levels. That reward is nice because it's so hard to attain, but fooling oneself into thinking that the reward is worth the boredom one has to suffer to get to it is only wishful thinking. The storyline "reward" is not a reward -- while the story is interesting, the amount of time observing it might amount to 0.000000000001% of your playing time... at best. This is another reason why putting Final Fantasy onto this game's box is a travesty that should have never been allowed.

Unless you have infinite patience or nothing else to do with your life, you will realize, after dropping $50 (or thereabouts) on the game and $13 per month for several months, that Square Enix has conned you out of a lot of money, and you have nothing to show for it. It's just a matter of whether you admit it or not. You see, the game is fun for a short initial period, and then starts to suck. But the more time you put into it, the more stupid you feel at the prospect of quitting and deleting your character ("I spent 3 real-life days on this character, how can I quit now?"). So you hope things get better. THEY DO NOT! Prospective buyers of this game, get that into your head. Things go ONLY downhill until you are level 75 (the max level). You have been warned.

Ganging up on a defenseless monster from hell.

"Things go ONLY downhill until you are level 75 (the max level). You have been warned."

On the plus side, the game features nice production values. The graphics are very nice. The character models, quite varied across the game's five races (including the CUTE midgets Tarutaru), look great with no visible sharp angles. The environments are mostly beautiful, and the monsters look pretty good. Unfortunately, the monsters' models are incredibly repetitive: you'll fight the same rabbit and worms at level 40 as you do at level 1, except much more powerful (obviously). There are some truly fearsome monster types out there, but it takes a while to get to see them. So, the graphics are definitely high-quality, and feature good performance on average video cards (this appears to be a DirectX 8 game), but I doubt anyone will go "Oooh! Ahhh!" at the mere sight of them, especially after ogling at EverQuest II and the like.

This guy lives in your apartment and doesn't even pay rent!

The sound is pretty non-descript. The FX are nothing to write home about, and the music is only OK, by Square's standards. I mean, there are some nice ditties here and there, including some recognizable FF staples, but, by and large, the music is unmemorable (compare that with FF7 or FF6). There is no voiceover work in this game that I know of.

In summary, I wouldn't recommend this game, except maybe to MMORPG enthusiasts, but not even them, really. The first EverQuest was immensely flawed but it was still certainly better in the end. I suppose this game isn't much worse or better than your average MMORPG -- it takes few risks. But this review isn't meant to evaluate the game against other MMORPGs, against many of which it holds its own -- it's meant to tell you whether it's fun or not. And it's not.

Pros:
- good production values
- solid and detailed fantasy world
- unlimited replay value
- deep and challenging combat and grouping system
- change job class at any time, without losing previous job levels

Cons:
- poor control scheme and user interface
- extremely repetitive monster models
- intractable economic system, money is very, very hard to get
- White Mages are mandatory in any real party, but are in short demand
- certain classes are weak at higher levels, or universally perceived as such
- grouping with others is MANDATORY to advance beyond the lowest levels
- frustrating quest journal system
- storyline-advancing missions are infrequent

Reply to This Review

6.9/10

Gameplay: 6

Graphics: 8

Sound: 7

Multiplayer (if applicable): 6

Value: 10