Final Fantasy XI has broken free from its previous role playing installments by becoming the first in the series to be completely online. Square soft (now Square-Enix) has provided us with great role-playing games throughout the years, my favorites being Final Fantasy VII, and the most recent Final Fantasy X.
This new Fantasy however brings us to the magical world of Vana'diel, the massive world in which the online gaming occurs. You're able to choose the race/species of your character from 5 different races, as well as your job class which indicates if you’ll be a warrior, a magic-user, or a thief. Those combinations alone make for diverse character development. But they also have craft guilds such as blacksmithing and leatherworking to further customize your character. As a blacksmith, you'll be able to train in a guild to make weapons, and the more you train, the better you get and the better weapon, etc.
You have the choice of starting out in one of three massive cities that will be your 'home' and also your allegiance or citizenship in Vana'diel. There's really enough to do inside the walls of the city to hold the game on its own. The cities themselves are gorgeously detailed with many shops and guilds to explore.
In addition to this, there are several auction houses in which players buy and sell items all day and makes for another great RPG gaming concept. For a while, that became a huge focal point for me. You can find items on beasts you fight outside the city walls, and then sell them at the auction! This is probably one of my favorite features of the game, as it allows for a realistic virtual economy. I'd never played any of the other Online RPGs, so this was a new and really neat concept for me.
Now, on to the fighting. The main way you build up your character in traditional RPGs is by fighting monsters. Monsters give you experience, and if you get enough experience, you go up a level. Final Fantasy has always held the torch for leveling up characters in my opinion. In their past RPGs, this process came very naturally, and it allowed for a steady progression of your character. However, Square-Enix decided to jump on the bandwagon of other online gaming companies, and make the process so long and difficult, that it forces you to spend at least several months’ worth of membership time to create a decent character.
I for one love long games. And at first I was really happy that they did this, because it allowed me to savor the game and not rush through it like every other game I've played before, RPG or otherwise. Even the old Final Fantasy games gave us about 60-100 hours of game play which was great, but this slower leveling up process would promise perhaps hundreds if not a couple thousand hours of quality gaming.
But after about the 150th hour, and my character only level 16 (where as in the past Final Fantasy games my character would be at least 120 by then), I realized this process proved to be a little TOO tedious. You end up just fighting the same monsters over and over again to get that little bit of exp to get to the next level. I understand that they sort of have to give in to this necessary evil, because the first month is free, and roughly 10 dollars a month after, so who would pay monthly for a game they've already beaten? But they could've eased up JUST A LITTLE. And honestly, this is probably my only real complaint about the game, but a notable one none the less. Moving on...
The fighting is actually more exciting than any of the previous FF games, or any other RPG I've played before. In the old days, (pulling out my smoking pipe, lol) you used to have to roam around the RPG world and suddenly bump into an imaginary enemy that would materialize and take you to your fight. Then you had an option to attack, cast a spell, steal something from the monster, or run.
The previous FF games completely maxed out this concept by giving us the most options you possibly could in fighting this way. However, in Vana'diel, the fighting monsters are no longer random.
(THANK YOU!) You can see beasts walking around plain as day, and have the freedom to go up and fight, or avoid them all together. However, be warned; they WILL attack YOU if you get to close. This provides a neat element because some areas will contain harder level beasts, and the challenge is to make it through that area without getting attacked, and the concept is pulled off realistically.
Okay, okay, the fighting...Traditional, RPG-style turn-based fighting, with many more options this time. You start off 'soloing' or fighting by yourself for at least the first 20 or so hours of the game. Then, as you get the hang of things, you have the option to start pairing up with people, and a while after that, forming teams to defeat monsters.
The teamwork element adds another dimension to the fighting. Warriors of the team will fight, while White Mages will stand at a distance and heal wounded party members. Black Mages will cast spells to inflict damage or even disable an enemy, and can also do that from a distance. If that wasn’t enough, there are also specific abilities that each job class has and when linked together, can form a 'skill chain'. When this happens, things can get really explosive and exciting. This style of fighting is the most advanced of RPGs to date.
Another neat element is the chat interface. VERY accessible and customizable. You can talk, whisper, shout, and assign different font colors for each. There are also a couple dozen 'emotes' which will allow your character to express feelings by typing in a command such as 'salute' or 'cheer'. This is used to bring the world of Vana'diel a realistic, life-like feel.
Something else that provides strong realism is the amazing graphics. The cities are as I said earlier, wonderfully detailed, with cobblestone walkways, and majestic towers and architecture, and the world outside the cities is rich in landscape design. Vana'diel is HUGE. It boasts over one hundred 'areas'. Those areas on a gaming scale are basically cities that take about 10 minutes each to go from one end to the other and include caves, mountains, lush fields, deserts, and forests with waterfalls! The game will cycle through day and night and affect the scenery accordingly. At night, the moon will rise, the stars will come out, the torches light, and it's really a site to behold. Vana'diel even has real constellations and its own Astrology!
Okay, I guess that about does it. No wait; there is one other down side that I must mention. The installation process did take a long time, roughly about 4 hours. BUT, if you compare that to your overall playing time, say two thousand hours or so, that's only a fraction of a percent ha-ha!
To sum up, Final Fantasy XI, in my opinion, is the best RPG ever made. I gave the game a 9 on the vote, but my actual score for this game would be a 94%. How can I say that if I dogged the level up process earlier in the review? That does bring the score down some, but the overall technological brilliance, fun fighting style, huge inter-activity, and stunning graphics more than make up for that. You can really enjoy a lot of the game without even leaving the city walls! Besides, us RPGers are completely used to 'leveling up'. Taking that into account, I'd say this is a must-try for RPG fans and for those curious simply because they offer a free trial.
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