Final Faqntasy XI is yet another installment in th ...

Posted Nov 30, 2004 - Final Faqntasy XI is yet another installment in the highly rated FF series. This time, its online!! Interacting with other players, Gropuing (wich i will explain later) and many other things makes this game thrilling and exiting from start to finish. The only bad thing that i can think of about this game is not being able to pick a server, because at the beggining you will be randomly placed on a server, which will definatly annoy your real life friends. Just 2 hours of this game got me hooked and I couldn't stop playing, except time off for school work and regular work. But soon I found myself never wanting to return to the real world ever again.For almost everything about this game, there is good graphics. Every time you walk somewhere you will notify yourself of the wonderful graphics and scenery that this game has. You will probably be more aware of the graphics if you have made your own RPG in the past, and once you notice how hard it is to manage graphics, you will see what square has to go thorugh to bring you this entertainment. You will explore many places in the world of FFXI, and you will encounter many adventurers, do many quests, and have many things to do. You will never get bored of this game, since it is a MMORPG, there will ALWAYS be something you can do. Whether it is crafting, leveling, or doing quests to get fame, you will way never find a way to be bored. This is the main reason why any people abandon other video games for this one. I never really put as much attention into the story of an MMORPG that I have an RPG. In my past experiences, the players make the story of an online game. Square knew this and they obviously kept that in mind while developing the story. I am not sure what some people would consider a ''spoiler'' so I'll tread lightly. There are three kingdoms, and when you start your character, you choose which kingdom you are associated with. As part of your kingdom, you assist it in gaining territories. Although, you have to keep in mind that there are other players assisting their kingdom in gaining territories. You are not at war with each other and can still help each other out, you are simply building your defenses against the beastmen (the bad guys) Those of us that have played nearly every title of the Final Fantasy series have raised our standards of audio in video games. Square knows how to match the perfect songs with the emotional setting being experienced at a certain point, from that sad scene in Final Fantasy VII with the perfect score being played in the background to the heart-racing orchestra at the end of Final Fantasy VIII. I would of givin the controls 5/10 if you wasnt able to pay with a Joypad, but you quickly get used to the controls. Graphics 9 Sound 8 Story 8 Gameplay 10 Controls 7 Overall 97% 5/5 10/10

83% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful , unhelpful, or inappropriate?

I agree with zoglog however I feel I should say my ...

Posted Nov 17, 2005 - I agree with zoglog however I feel I should say my experences Key lvl = level Gil = the money in the game gil sellers = people who sell gil over the internet Party = play with others to lvl or quest mob = monster exp= lvl system chan = killings mobs fast to get a exp bonus train = when a bunch fo mobs gather in one spot or chase some one offen attacking other partys or players main= main job sub = sub job crafting = makeing items nm = a speachail monster that may drop a rare items worth a lot of gil Farming = killing mobs lower then u to make money My experences I've played off and on again for about 2 years I have had 2 accounts gotten one charter to lvl 50 then quit and then played again got another chartever to 70 on 2 diffent severs. I'm a pritty well know player I have good friend who can lvl fast and are very good players they help me get from 1-70 in 3 weeks most the time I was partying 12+ hours a day I've seen so many people quit most could not handle how hard it is to make gil. It takes hours to make a decent amount of money most people have troble makeing 100k in one day, 100k will not buy much worth buying. Equpement really matters at high lvls and since the economeny is so bad that it makes it hard to lvl most players cant affound what they need and have to give up or spend days trying to make a decent amount of gil Races also really matters in this game centen races will not beable to play or will not be invited to a party sub also matters At all lvls there are extermly bad players 1-40 there at the worst. There are centen places to lvl at each lvl and one 30 it near impossable not to die do to some one else mistake places are over camped so u have to fight to get a mob in oder to lvl u need to chan so that cuses exp to go slower and takes longer to lvl, in a lot off of mid lvl places people train witch could last for hours and stops all lvling I've seen a lot of player have brakdowns including my self I know ur thinking this is just a game but when u get in to it it makes people sick nicer players brakedown other players tend to care more about them selves Ways to make money Crafting this tends to be the best money maker at high lvls but also takes a lot of money and time its probly harder to lvl craft then to lvl a job,. but it the only way to make consent money profit (ONLY AT HIGH LVLS) NMing is now impossable to many people use hacks and there to many people hurting nms that it not worth the time gil sellers hurt them and most the time are the people who get them Farming is the MOST MIND numbing part of this game hours killing mobs for drops best I did was killing spiders as lvl 70Red mage/35 best I might get around 8 spider silks worth about 20k each but would take so long all days about 7 hours and I might get one silk for every 30=50 spiders I killed I would say that the people in this game are not nice most are greedy and there a lot of people that will try and kill ur for fun hardly any one shares gil its hard to start or play this game I've played other games although I like the play of this game the economeny in this game and the players in this game are so bad that I dont recomend playings this game PS sorry for typos I'm dislextic and did the best I could I just wanted to say my 2 cent

64% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful , unhelpful, or inappropriate?

I had played FFXI for nearly a year and reached l ...

Posted Feb 23, 2005 - I had played FFXI for nearly a year and reached lvl 66 for my Main black Mage job and reached around 30 for various other jobs like Thief, White Mage and tried out most the jobs except Beast Master, Bard, And Dark Knight. This game was my first MMORPG which I never planned to get because I don't particularly like monthly fees but my friends bought it for me Christmas of 2003 so I decided to try it out. The game itself is pretty confusing at first. I remember first entering the world not knowing what to really do. The Initial town I started in (Bastok) was rather dull looking and the Guttersburg Area I started in was a big dry wastedump. Upon entering other areas you see alot more variety. For the Leveling System, you can usually solo (with the exception of beastmaster which is purely solo) up to lvl 11 effectively on average for most jobs. Then from then on the only decently effective way to party is to form a Party. In order to form a party you need to have certain specific elements starting with a tank (takes damage) and a healer. From then on you can fill it up at these earlier levels however you like. At early levels it could take awhile to find parties but it is not so bad. EXP at these levels comes relatively decent if you're in a good party. However from previous games before MMORPG the time spent on games totally shifted than what i'm used to. Instead of play hours you are entering into Play DAYS. I think when I finally quit I logged on 116 Playdays. Given some where spent overnight bazaaring or leaving my character idle, i'd say a pretty damn huge chunk of that was actually playing. So if you plan to even get close to lvl 75 (Max) expect to spend ALOT of time. Towards the later levels (30+) it is harder to find parties and even harder at 60+. At these levels EXP starts to come in slower and the Penalty for dying gets even worse since it is percentage based on the exp required to get to the next lvl. Around past lvl 60 when I got all my AF (Artifact Armor) from very tedious quests. I really lost much of the motivation to play. Leveling started getting extremely repetitive and you could be Looking for a party for hours end and not get one. There is little to do at this level while you wait because soloability is very much null at this point. The lowest Level (easy prey) that will give you exp will totally slaughter you unless your beastmaster. I am currently playing Everquest II which has a much more friendly leveling system so far with no delevling and more soloability options so far(lvl 25 paladin), thoug I see the soloability degrading. The chat interface in FFXI is one of the areas that really shine and some of the music (like in sancturary of Zi Tah) is quite good. I never played the game on a gamepad, but a keyboard is a defininate must of course. After awhile of play everything will become intuitive. The current economy when I quit the game was rather inflated due to rusty cap fishing bots which makes even the low level items at the auction house become expensive. Also you cannot expect to earn nearly enough gil through normal play and exping therefore you have to dedicate a serious amount of time for accumulating wealth (camping notorious monsters, farming, or crafting) which can be tedious. And usually crafting you have to invest quite a bit before you can even start making money. WE're talking in the 100,000's of gil. Traveling in the game is tedious because only white Mages only get teleports at lvl 36+. Black mages are allowed warp which sends them to thier homepoint at around lvl 18. But expect to spend alot of time simply walking or traveling which is a bit annoying. I certainly have mixed feelings about this game because there were moments I enjoyed playing and moments which I absolutly loathed and seeing how it sucked up so much of my life is both a positive and negative thing. Mostly negative since I could have been more productive, but it was a fun experience a good amount of the time. If you are a more casual gamer, i'd strongly suggest something like World of Warcraft. If your a diehard FF fan you will find a bunch of stuff to enjoy like chocobo riding (at lvl 20).

60% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful , unhelpful, or inappropriate?

Comment about this review

this game takes a lot of time

Posted Dec 21, 2005 - this is a great game, but you have to spend too much time developing your character. Also, the economy system isn't great as mentioned in the other reviews. I would try other MMORPGs. X360 is coming out with the game, the graphics are similar to the PC version.

33% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful , unhelpful, or inappropriate?

Comment about this review