Final Fantasy Grows Up (Final Fantasy XI (PC))

Member Name: thanatoszane

Product:	Final Fantasy XI (PC)
Date:	29/09/04 (578 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great graphics, No lag, Final Fantasy

Disadvantages: Fussy installation, No tutorial, Heavy on quests

Final Fantasy is a classic series that has a long history - from the Nintendo days to the Playstation 2 and the PC.

Final Fantasy XI is an online - only game where both PC and Playstation 2 owners can play with each other.

It is a co-operative game with no Player Vs Player combat as such, and has a strong Final Fantasy feel.

=======Starting Out==========

When you install Final Fantasy XI, you have to register a Playonline ID, then a content ID, then you have to link these IDs and create a character. The character that you create is on a random server, unless you have a 'world pass' that lets you choose to play on a certain server.

This whole process is pretty darn complicated. I am an experienced MMORPG player and I found it took me two hours to sign up! All because my credit card details weren't CHARACTER BY CHARACTER identical with what was on my credit card statement.

Every time you make even the smallest typo or punctuation difference, the registration gets slammed straight back to the start - lots of clicking, typing, and jumping through hoops re-starting the application over and over, just to get to the same point as you were before.

After that, there's a nice big patch to download, then more stuff to set up.

The character creation is nice though - there's some decent customisation options, and you can choose from one of several base professions - they use the old Final Fantasy 'job' system where you can have a primary 'job' that you do, and a secondary one just to spice your character up, that you can only have at half the skill level of your main 'job'

Once you finally get started, there's a nice pretty cutscene to watch, then you are presented with some scrolling text on the screen telling you about starting out with your character. Hidden in there is an instruction to give your 'Adventurers pass' to a certain person.

Then you are dumped in the land.

The quest journal doesn't tell you who to give the pass to, and the way to trade isn't immediately obvious, so the chances are you will not give the item to the person immediately. Then, by the time you have figured out HOW to trade you'll have forgotten WHO to trade with!

There's no tutorial, no help with the interface, no friendly guidance as to what to do.

The chances are you'll talk to a few people, pick up some quests, and go hunt outside. That's what I did anyway - walked out the city gates and got smacked by a monster way way too hard for me and killed in two hits.

=========Once you know what you're doing============

I painted a bleak picture there didn't I? It's not all bad though.

Once you know what you are doing you can start questing, bashing for experience (the skill system is use-based, which is a nice touch, although annoying for some classes that get the ability to use different weapons at different times) and earning money (called Gil in the FF universe).

When you go out bashing you can speak to guards from your town and ask for signet - this is a spell that will give you the ability to earn points for your race - these points go towards an ever raging battle for control of certain areas.

That is about as much competition as there is in this - it is NOT a PVP game - there are Players fighting the Environment to see if they can bash faster / harder than other Players, but thats as far as it goes.

If you want to fight other players, pick another game.

If you want to group with other players and run quests (LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of quests) then this is the game for you. If you want to bash random PVE mobs you can play this game, but really to get anywhere you need to quest. The quests are often long, drawn out, plot ridden ones rather than search & destroy or delivery or whatever.

If you like quests this is a good thing, if you want to go bash and get mass XP and 'phat lewtz lolz' then this game will bore you to tears.

===========The Interface==========

The interface is kept fairly simple - presumably to make the game playable for those using the Playstation 2 owners can play on a level field with PC owners.

It should be familiar to anyone who has ever played the Final Fantasy series - the combat in this version is real time but you select and queue up your moves with a similar interface to the turn based move selection in the older games.

Sometimes the interface is a bit annoying - the camera angles aren't the best I've ever seen, and you need to use the mouse a bit much for my liking but it is something you get used to.

===========The Little Things===========

The graphics in this game are gorgeous - who ever heard of an MMORPG with offline game graphics and cutscenes?

The system requirements are HUGE - this is not a game for people who haven't upgraded their PCs in a while. There's a benchmark you can download which will tell you if the game will run properly. I've provided the link at the bottom of this opinion, and I highly, higly recommend you download and try the benchmark before buying the game.

The game is virtually lagless - I found this utterly amazing. I can't claim or guarentee that this will always work like that for everybody, but for me this game runs like a dream - I lag badly in Star Wars Galaxies, and I lag a little in Dark Age Of Camelot (although not too much) but in Final Fantasy XI I have never, ever lagged.

This game is also nearly entirely empty of griefers - partly because the game has been coded to prevent it, and partly because of the lack of PVP.

One nice feature to stop griefing is that once you have engaged a monster nobody outside of your group can attack it, stopping kill stealing.

==========Conclusion==========

This is a welcome addition to the Final Fantasy world - it is more aimed at Final Fantasy fans than at other MMORPG fans, and focuses heavily on quests rather than on combat.

It is hard to sign up, hard to get into, and very different to most online games, but if you like Final Fantasy it is well worth the effort.

Other than the lack of a tutorial it is a well polished game and has a lot going for it - the server speed and stability beats most other games I have played.

My main concern however is how many people will have given up playing before getting into it.



Oh, I nearly forgot - here's the link to that benchmark - I'm not including system specs because they aren't really true - try this benchmark to see how it REALLY works:

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multimedia/downl oad/bench/index.html

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