Final Fantasy XI - Any good?

[Seeruk]

As the title says - is it worth getting? My GF is chomping at the bit fo a decent mmorpg to play while she waits for WoW (Of which she loved the beta).

Im partial to a good mmorpg myself but one with some depth. Is this just hack n slash like that shite lineage 2 or is it more in the mold of something else preferably including some empire building / crafting and great quality quests.

 

[CVSiN]

FF sucks huge...
one of the WORST mmorpgs i have ever played...
slow game
very japanese game very antisocial...
extremely long grind with little point...
WoW is 1000x the game this is even in beta...

 

[Seeruk]

Thats all I needed to know - Thanks

Phew thats 2 x £35 saved

 

[CVSiN]

very close to L2 which you hated like me... so stay away from it..

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Seeruk
Thats all I needed to know - Thanks

Phew thats 2 x £35 saved

Not if you look around. It could have been had for £25 ea

 

[skace]

Honestly, Although I wasn't a big fan of FFXI, if I knew I was playing it with my GF and had a consistant partner, I wouldn't have minded it so much.

But the key thing is, you are only getting it while you wait for WoW. That is like, 2 months tops, you arn't going to do anything meaningful in 2 months except experience the lower half of the game. I tend to buy an mmorpg with the expectation that I will play it for at least a year (that hasn't worked out very well... but the expectation remains).

 

[Seeruk]

Originally posted by: skace
I tend to buy an mmorpg with the expectation that I will play it for at least a year (that hasn't worked out very well... but the expectation remains).

Exactly - the sign of a good mmorpg is that it sucks the hours of the day, the social life, the need to eat out of you for months on end Thats what I am looking for atm and the only ones to have achieved it were the Original AC, Eve Online, & SWG (for a lesser time - maybe 4-5 months)


Doesnt mean to say you cant play two at once though

Maybe I will buy Sims 2 for her (cos I want a sneaky peek too lol!)

 

[effee]

I played FFXI for a total of 5 days, then uninstalled it and sold it away. That should tell you. It is very mindless PvE just killing mobs and levelling over and over again, PvP is just being implemented tho. It is certainly hard to find a good mmorpg these days even though there are so many.

DAOC was good till Mythic butchered the game, now its just a shadow of what it once was.

WOW looks set, but im not really keen on it, i am still going to try it out to see what its like, but i dont like the cartoony look too much.

 

[torpid]

I'd rate FFXI above EQ and DAOC, and of course well above shadowbane. All of them are pretty fun for a while, actually.

 

[Hadsus]

It's pretty useless to ask if any of these mainstreem MMORPGs are 'any good' or not. How do I know? The same question gets asked every couple of weeks and there's never any conclusion. I played FFXI and didn't like it. Still, there is no MMORPG with more subscribers world-wide. Each MMORPG has it's own rules/suxxx crowd and FFXI is no different. You're better off asking what is it about FFXI that is unlike the other MMORPGs and if you're comfortable with that. What are the classes, what are the races, what's the skill tree like, is it possible to solo indefinitely, how easy is it to group, etc. Asking if it's 'any good' ain't gonna help you. BTW, if you're asking if it's the same 'ole hack 'n slash......they are *all* hack 'n slash and repetitive.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

It's bad. I gave it a fair shot (2-3month). Just awful all around, stay away and wait for WoW.

 

[abaez]

I bought ffxi last october. It is not as bad as people say it is in this thread. Of course it has PvE (like every other mmorpg) but there are tons of other stuff to do in the game. Everyone just wants to zoom to level 75 without getting anything out of what it has to offer. How many here were able to get rank 7, 8, 9..? Barely at rank 5 the quests/storyline start to get good. The shadowlord quest alone was totally awesome. There are still several zilart missions left, plus the expansion just came out. There is plenty to do.

The economy is very good, the auction house system rocks, the game is as fine tuned as can be. There are NO bugs, everything WORKS. They just released an expansion, and there has been little to no downtime at all, and I think 4 bugs were introduced that were quite small (graphics glitches and stuff). The huge upside to the game as well is the ability to have a subjob and gain some aspects of another job (at half your level) and also to change jobs completely. I've gotten my thief to 55, a warrior to 34, and I am just now starting ninja. The time I spent leveling warrior is not wasted because I get whatever abilities warrior gets by subbing warrior, and my 1 handed sword stays at a high level.

Downsides of course, the japanese language gap can be pretty daunting (there is a translator but it doesn't have many words), so for complex jobs that take alot of setup you usually don't party with jp's, although I have. It is very hard to get gil, and some quests are insanely difficult (I got a lu shangs fishing rod - I had to turn in 10,000 (yes four zeros) moat carps (a fish) to this guy for it.) The interface was made for ps2 - not pc and many people hate it. I found it very difficult until I got a ps2 controller to use, it works beautifully now. It is not a game for pvp people (although they are slowly introducing it), and for people who want to solo (unless you are a beastmaster), but I am enjoying much more than I ever did with EQ or DAOC.

 

[gtsukada]

the thing about this game is it doesn't get better till the higher levels. levels 1-30 are just a grind, you have to get to know people in this game and work with static party's and linkshells.

 

[blazer78]

definately true for most MMORPG's these days. in Lineage II u'd get killed instantly by some idiot who doesn't like you standing a few metres near him.

luckily i'm already high up the ranks so i don't need to worry

 

[Seeruk]

I gave a little indication of what I dont like - i.e. a mindless clickfest where the ONLY thing to do is hunt. Dont get me wrong hunting is fun, but not all the time. Like I say some empire building, crafting, property, etc all gives some variation and some "stickyness" to the game. BUT most importantly the quests must be fun and creative - where it feels like an actual story driven quest. You may hate the game but AC2's storyline quests FELT like quests (there just werent enough of them!) rather than "kill 200 fish for a fishing rod" WoW seems to have got that right too from what I played. Its all about the content in terms of things to do and feeling involved... but also in things like the variety of items in the game and if I dont feel like fighting today, maybe I can build up my armourcrafting empire, or redecorate the house, etc etc etc

 

[nageov3t]

didn't like FFXI. I played it for a few months, but eventually got bored of it.

no MMORPG has kept me entertained for more than a handful of months, though. the only exception was EQ, but those were special circumstances -- I knew the people that I was playing with IRL before we started playing, so it became a fun way to play together.

 

[Zugzwang152]

level 50 sandorian whm, rank 4 as of my retiring from this game last... February.

Extremely addicting for me, but once you reach 50 and have to do painful quests every 5 levels to unlock the next set, I lost interest fast.

 

[skace]

The problem with FFXI is it is designed for a PS2. The whole feel is PS2 and it starts to get really annoying after awhile (at least for me it did). Plus, once I hit level 33 the majority of my party was japaneese. I was either excluded from discussions or it was an attempt to get to know each other using a limited dictionary of words. When you rely on communication to make leveling a more fun experience, not being able to be understood gets old VERY QUICK.

I know lots of people who quit in the 30s also. It was just when the game got 'hardcore'. Japaneese players wouldn't group with you unless your sub-class was exactly half your primary class. It was necessary for everyone to memorize intricate skillchain combos. It just turned from fun to work and I started seeing less and less plot and more and more eq grinds. I think getting caught up in having to relevel sub-classes really wore a lot of people out also.

Oh, the other problem with FFXI, which relates back to the fact that they wanted it playable on the PS2, is an EXTREMELY limited number of textures. I am talking about fighting the same freaking crab with a different name for 30 levels. This gets so insanely boring when you get to a certain level, go to a new zone, and see the same crab. It starts to eat at your brain and you find yourself asking what the point of playing is when nothing new is introduced. And just like monsters, items were also very limited. Most everything we owned was store bought as there was only, I think, 15 or so unique items that drop. They all drop off of low level monsters and get camped by high level Japaneese players, since they can get put on auction. It just so happened that my char was a thief who could benefit from most of these items that I could never get my hands on even if I could easily solo the monsters. Highly annoying way of doing items.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: Seeruk
I gave a little indication of what I dont like - i.e. a mindless clickfest where the ONLY thing to do is hunt. Dont get me wrong hunting is fun, but not all the time. Like I say some empire building, crafting, property, etc all gives some variation and some "stickyness" to the game. BUT most importantly the quests must be fun and creative - where it feels like an actual story driven quest. You may hate the game but AC2's storyline quests FELT like quests (there just werent enough of them!) rather than "kill 200 fish for a fishing rod" WoW seems to have got that right too from what I played. Its all about the content in terms of things to do and feeling involved... but also in things like the variety of items in the game and if I dont feel like fighting today, maybe I can build up my armourcrafting empire, or redecorate the house, etc etc etc

Like I said, there are plenty of quests and the storyline plays a huge part and is very very well done. I wasn't very clear earlier about the quests, there are quests and missions (the missions involve the story and are totally seperate.) There is a huge crafting market (8 different crafts I think.) Fishing is also considered a craft. The genkai 1 quest that zugzwang talked about was hard but they since have corrected the drop rate one of the pieces and it is not nearly as difficult.

To response to skace, not having any NA to party with is not a problem anymore as there are many NA players that have reached the higher levels. Add to the fact that the game was just released in the EU (and I haven't met an EU player that doesn't speak english) the nationality of the servers is not wholly japanese anymore.

As for memorizing skill chains and leveling subs, I don't see what the problem is with that? Leveled subs and skillchains make exp go faster and parties run smoother. I suppose you don't mind someone being level 40 and having a level 20 sword either. And there are way way more than 15 unique items, they are camped yes, but it's not like any other mmorpg doesn't have camped spawns. I will admit defeat on the textures, the same mobs do suck and there is no reason not to introduce some new graphics, I don't know why that hasn't happened yet.

 

[Childs]

I saw the FFXI demo at the Great Mall a couple of weeks ago and, well, I didn't think much of it, but I generally don't like those kinds of games. What was amazing was the amount of female gamers that showed up for the event. Maybe like 25% were female, and 30% of that 15% were really cute.

 

[effee]

What is it with percentages? hmm? There are pretty nice games coming out, rome total war and warhammer 40k... Pretty nice to occupy till WoW.

 

[Seeruk]

Yeah looking forward to Rome TW - loved the originals, and the demo of the latest - think it comes out friday here in the UK.

On the subject of gaming chicks and mmorpgs - well my GF is evidence that given the opportunity and a little coaching of the interface - women love mmorpgs as their is more of a social aspect to the games than a twitch shooter or other typical staples of a male gaming diet

And she is swedish, and she is hot

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: abaez
As for memorizing skill chains and leveling subs, I don't see what the problem is with that? Leveled subs and skillchains make exp go faster and parties run smoother. I suppose you don't mind someone being level 40 and having a level 20 sword either. And there are way way more than 15 unique items, they are camped yes, but it's not like any other mmorpg doesn't have camped spawns. I will admit defeat on the textures, the same mobs do suck and there is no reason not to introduce some new graphics, I don't know why that hasn't happened yet.

Memorizing every skill chain is a little obsessive though. It is one thing to know 1 or 2 good combinations that make great hits. But then there is the people that expected every player to have flow charts for combinations or some crap. They expected every player to know what combinations to know for each monster and all the different skill combinations that could be possible in a given group.

The subclasses were also excessive, if your subclass was 1 level off, certain groups wouldn't add you. Let's say you were level 30/14 instead of 30/15. And subclasses don't do as much as having a 20 level under sword. That part is fact.

As far as the camping goes, yes every game has camping, but in most games camping occurs like this: A level 40 camps a mob (possibly with a group) to get a level 40 piece of equipment. It isn't a level 75 camping a level 10 mob for a level 1 piece of equipment that they plan to put on auction for 3 million. And the reason the level 1 piece of equipment sells for 3 million is because the game massively lacks unique equipment, to the extent that if you got that level 1 piece of equipment it would last you all the way to level 50 and maybe beyond. That is rediculous.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: skace

Memorizing every skill chain is a little obsessive though. It is one thing to know 1 or 2 good combinations that make great hits. But then there is the people that expected every player to have flow charts for combinations or some crap. They expected every player to know what combinations to know for each monster and all the different skill combinations that could be possible in a given group.

I have not met anyone that has asked for or required to memorized every skillchain combo. There are only 2 or 3 good ones at certain levels or certain monsters that are weak to certain elements but people aren't like hi welcome to the party do you know all your skillchains? It's more along the lines of we have a warrior we have a samurai what can we do with a skillchain or not, it's helpful to have a chart but not required.

The subclasses were also excessive, if your subclass was 1 level off, certain groups wouldn't add you. Let's say you were level 30/14 instead of 30/15. And subclasses don't do as much as having a 20 level under sword. That part is fact.

The majority of people would not have a problem with someone who is 30/14 (of course there are some people who would) - it's the people who are 30/4 that are looked down upon because they majorly gimp the group. Sub classes do ALOT. With my fully leveled warrior sub I get the attack bonus from him, berserk (+25% attack), a str bonus, his double attack, the provoke ability among other things - something I wouldn't get without a war subjob. I could change to ninja and get his abilities, it all depends on what you want. Again this is an upside and a down - there are many different things you can do, but I suppose you can say you are "forced" to keep things up to date or risk not getting many invites.

As far as the camping goes, yes every game has camping, but in most games camping occurs like this: A level 40 camps a mob (possibly with a group) to get a level 40 piece of equipment. It isn't a level 75 camping a level 10 mob for a level 1 piece of equipment that they plan to put on auction for 3 million. And the reason the level 1 piece of equipment sells for 3 million is because the game massively lacks unique equipment, to the extent that if you got that level 1 piece of equipment it would last you all the way to level 50 and maybe beyond. That is rediculous.

I remember in everquest the mob in south ro which you had to camp to get the journey boots (which let you cast spirit of the wolf to run faster or somethign to that effect) - it was camped by people of all levels, not just high levels. Everquest had TONS of mobs that people camped all the time for items - this is NO different from any other mmorpg. The question becomes then - do you make a rare and unique item available to sell or just for the person who gets the drop? There are pros and cons to this - I would go vote for making an item unique and unable to be sold, but there are people on the other side with good arguments as well.

FFXI doesn't lack unique equipment, there are just some items that - at low levels at least - are so good everyone uses them, and there is high demand and people are willing to pay more (another aspect of the good economy, and a perfect example of the downside of making unique items able to be sold) this changes at higher levels where there is more choice. This is not unlike any other mmorpg. If wow has a quest to kill a mob for a really great low level item, do you think no one is going to try to get it? I'm sure it will be camped and if it is able to be sold it will be camped to be sold by people of all levels.