Hail all,
I believe there was a discussion about Final Fantasy XI not too long ago. It seemed that a fair amount of people were interested in the game, so hopefully this post will come of some use.
Lets just say that getting into the game wasn't too easy. First you install the game off five cds, then register a account on a service called play online, then register your FFXI game, then register the expansion, then download a patch that took 2 hours on my extremely high-speed cable modem (some ppl report 17 hour patching). I put the first install cd in the computer at 10 pm eastern, and I was able to get in the game at 1:15 am eastern. I wasn't expecting this, so right away I was pretty annoyed at the amount of time it took to set the game up. The only good thing that can come out of this, is that I was able to read through the manual once.... no, twice.
As long as you have the "simplified character creation setting" unchecked in the config, you'll be greeted by a character creation system that is simply beautiful. You see your characters run around in a grassland area as you decide what race, job, and traits you want. Right away you'll notice the graphics are absolutely stunning if your system can handle it.
When you create your character, you'll notice that you can't pick what server you want to be in. So if you have a friend you want to play with, you either have to re-create a character untill you get that server, or have your friend buy a world pass-- which lets you join his server (but you can't just transport your current character, you have to make a new one). I'm not too happy with this system.
When you enter the game, you get a in-game cinematic. It's quite nice, and the cinematics are different for each starting location you pick. You will also notice later on when you get important quests, you will go into in-game cinematic mode. Like I said before, it's a nice touch.
Right away you'll notice this game was NOT developed for the keyboard and mouse. The controls are absolutely horrid. So I said ok maybe I was just not used to it, so I tried using the default controls.... Don't go through what I did; make sure you change your controls. After twinking the controls for a half an hour, I finally found something that I was able to play comfortably with.
It's almost 2 am, and I am finally ready to go embark on some quests and hopefully slay some wreched beasts. I started to talk to some local NPCs, and got a few basic quests that run you around town. It was nice how they did the quests, even the most basic ones. In my case, instead of them saying "Hey run this to so and so" they added additional dialog that made it fairly interesting. One quest I recieved was to hand out flyers from a magic shop to various NPCs around the castle. The shop owner requested you don't give any out to locals or anybody that seems adventerous, since they already know about the shop. So basically you have to talk to each NPC and find out which ones to offer flyers. Like I said before, they make the mission semi interesting too. For example, I went into a monestary and offered a flyer to someone who was striving to find a road to paradise. He then said something along the lines, "oh why thank you, maybe magic will help me to the road of paradise". I appreciate little dialog like that.
After doing all the in town missions and getting a good sense of location around the town, I decided I'll give a few of my monster slaying quests a try. I go outside and I am greeted by a fierce.... rabbit. D'oh! The exact thing I was hoping FFXI wouldn't do, is to put you up against beasts like rabbits for an hour. My first rabbit fight wasn't anything special. You notice that you lock on to your opponent, and then have a menu of what to do (attack, spells, etc).
After killing a few worms, rabbits, and bats I gained a level. It seemed that I would have to kill another 20 rabbits to gain my next level, so I decided to venture further into the forest. Here I found what seems to be the next group up of monsters. Instead of a WILD RABBIT, I was now fighting a FOREST HARE. Yay. When I "checked" (determine the stength of the foe) the forest hare, it seemed he was difficult for me. I decided to give it a go anyhow. Unfortunately the hare annihilated me, and I was back to owning wild rabbits for now. After I killed about 70 wild rabbits, tunnel worms, and ding bats; I reached level three. Now I'm onto forest hares, carrion worms, and still ding bats. One of my quests asked me to slay a orc, and for proof bring back his axe. I was quite thrilled to find out there was other beastiary besides rabbits and worms.
Of course later on, you get to fight some insanely cool monsters, and by level 9 I was owning up orcs left and right. Around level 15 you are pretty much forced to team up, as the monsters become too overwhelming to fight by yourself. Hopefully I can find a group soon, as I am almost hitting that level. I don't like the idea of forced grouping, but that is pretty much the standard in later levels of MMORPGs. If you do have trouble finding a party, you can mark yourself so that your name appears in purple, and that means you are looking for a party. I think that's a great feature, so I won't have to ask people-- they will hopefully come to me.
Even though the game has a lot of hardships, I'm enjoying it immensly right now. The game rewards you greatly if you explore a bit, talk to a lot of npcs, and delve into quests. I can't suggest this game to everyone though, it's not a solo game, and it can get boring fast if your only reason for the game is to fight.
I believe there was a discussion about Final Fantasy XI not too long ago. It seemed that a fair amount of people were interested in the game, so hopefully this post will come of some use.
Lets just say that getting into the game wasn't too easy. First you install the game off five cds, then register a account on a service called play online, then register your FFXI game, then register the expansion, then download a patch that took 2 hours on my extremely high-speed cable modem (some ppl report 17 hour patching). I put the first install cd in the computer at 10 pm eastern, and I was able to get in the game at 1:15 am eastern. I wasn't expecting this, so right away I was pretty annoyed at the amount of time it took to set the game up. The only good thing that can come out of this, is that I was able to read through the manual once.... no, twice.
As long as you have the "simplified character creation setting" unchecked in the config, you'll be greeted by a character creation system that is simply beautiful. You see your characters run around in a grassland area as you decide what race, job, and traits you want. Right away you'll notice the graphics are absolutely stunning if your system can handle it.
When you create your character, you'll notice that you can't pick what server you want to be in. So if you have a friend you want to play with, you either have to re-create a character untill you get that server, or have your friend buy a world pass-- which lets you join his server (but you can't just transport your current character, you have to make a new one). I'm not too happy with this system.
When you enter the game, you get a in-game cinematic. It's quite nice, and the cinematics are different for each starting location you pick. You will also notice later on when you get important quests, you will go into in-game cinematic mode. Like I said before, it's a nice touch.
Right away you'll notice this game was NOT developed for the keyboard and mouse. The controls are absolutely horrid. So I said ok maybe I was just not used to it, so I tried using the default controls.... Don't go through what I did; make sure you change your controls. After twinking the controls for a half an hour, I finally found something that I was able to play comfortably with.
It's almost 2 am, and I am finally ready to go embark on some quests and hopefully slay some wreched beasts. I started to talk to some local NPCs, and got a few basic quests that run you around town. It was nice how they did the quests, even the most basic ones. In my case, instead of them saying "Hey run this to so and so" they added additional dialog that made it fairly interesting. One quest I recieved was to hand out flyers from a magic shop to various NPCs around the castle. The shop owner requested you don't give any out to locals or anybody that seems adventerous, since they already know about the shop. So basically you have to talk to each NPC and find out which ones to offer flyers. Like I said before, they make the mission semi interesting too. For example, I went into a monestary and offered a flyer to someone who was striving to find a road to paradise. He then said something along the lines, "oh why thank you, maybe magic will help me to the road of paradise". I appreciate little dialog like that.
After doing all the in town missions and getting a good sense of location around the town, I decided I'll give a few of my monster slaying quests a try. I go outside and I am greeted by a fierce.... rabbit. D'oh! The exact thing I was hoping FFXI wouldn't do, is to put you up against beasts like rabbits for an hour. My first rabbit fight wasn't anything special. You notice that you lock on to your opponent, and then have a menu of what to do (attack, spells, etc).
After killing a few worms, rabbits, and bats I gained a level. It seemed that I would have to kill another 20 rabbits to gain my next level, so I decided to venture further into the forest. Here I found what seems to be the next group up of monsters. Instead of a WILD RABBIT, I was now fighting a FOREST HARE. Yay. When I "checked" (determine the stength of the foe) the forest hare, it seemed he was difficult for me. I decided to give it a go anyhow. Unfortunately the hare annihilated me, and I was back to owning wild rabbits for now. After I killed about 70 wild rabbits, tunnel worms, and ding bats; I reached level three. Now I'm onto forest hares, carrion worms, and still ding bats. One of my quests asked me to slay a orc, and for proof bring back his axe. I was quite thrilled to find out there was other beastiary besides rabbits and worms.
Of course later on, you get to fight some insanely cool monsters, and by level 9 I was owning up orcs left and right. Around level 15 you are pretty much forced to team up, as the monsters become too overwhelming to fight by yourself. Hopefully I can find a group soon, as I am almost hitting that level. I don't like the idea of forced grouping, but that is pretty much the standard in later levels of MMORPGs. If you do have trouble finding a party, you can mark yourself so that your name appears in purple, and that means you are looking for a party. I think that's a great feature, so I won't have to ask people-- they will hopefully come to me.
Even though the game has a lot of hardships, I'm enjoying it immensly right now. The game rewards you greatly if you explore a bit, talk to a lot of npcs, and delve into quests. I can't suggest this game to everyone though, it's not a solo game, and it can get boring fast if your only reason for the game is to fight.