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A pleasant surprise

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 41 / 44
Date: August 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I first had some apprehension toward playing a MMORPG, but those feelings have since gone. Last summer, I started playing FFXI, and had a blast. I had to quit because of school, and sold the game. I wanted to get back into it, but didn't want to spend the money again to rebuy the game, and then get the expansion. Fortunately for me, they decided to release this collection! I snatched it up and spent most of my time since playing it.

Now for some game details: The play control, graphics and sound are all top notch. I'm using a P4 that's about 3+ years old with a Geforce MX 420 card, and I"m still dazzled by the image quality. The game is designed for endless fun. Many people complain that it takes a while to accomplish anythign with the game, but that's the whole point. The game designers made Final Fantasy XI for those that want a game that really never ends, but still keeps delivering a new and exciting experience over and over again.

Another complaint is the monthly fee... well, sure $13 per month can be a lot if you don't plan on playing frequently, but if you're an avid gamer that likes to get sucked into one game, this may eventually save you money since you won't have the time to do other things!

Bravo!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 27
Date: October 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I just want to point out the fact that you will not find another MMORPG like this. It's simply the most involving, the most up to date, and the most eventful game you will EVER play! I am going to go through each aspect of the game, simply so you can see how well the game is overall.

First of all, let's talk about the sound / video. The game's graphics are very good. They are not top notch, of course, but they are EXCELLENT when compared with the sound and the gameplay. The sound is excellent, I love the music from the game. I loved it SO MUCH that I had to buy the soundtrack. This was a five star rating for me, overall. The graphics are about four stars.

The gameplay is wonderful. I LOVE the game itself because fighting is fun, and it takes time. You have to work with your team and stay on task to win, and that is what is so wonderful about it all! If you wish to stay alive, however, you need to watch where you are. There is a lot of wandering monsters that would LOVE to eat you alive, if you know what I mean... This adds to the thrill of the game. Five stars.

The overall game is wonderful. You will get a lot from this game. It's tons of fun, and it has a lot to do inside the game. You WILL be fighting a lot, but you will also be questing a lot. You just have to have patience, and the game will grow and become better.

Let's set the record straight... An experienced review!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: April 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Just a little background about me before I begin...
Level 75 Summoner
Level 74 Black Mage
Level 65 Bard
Level 60 White Mage
These are my main jobs, although I have all of the jobs open (w/ the exception of the 3 new jobs due w/ the expansion in the next few days).

I've been playing FFXI for 3 years and I'll share some of the pros and cons I have personally experienced: (Please remember that this game requires one MAJOR thing... TIME, it IS an MMORPG, so Duh! ;p)

Pros:

Great music, story line(s) (via Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promanthia and soon Treasures expansions). Great zones. Beautiful landscapes and incredible monsters to battle. Each job has it's own Artifact armor which provides incredible enhancements to the job. Jobs from lvl 52 - 60 allow you to equip that specific jobs Artifact (or job specific) gear. Which looks awesome! Quests for other, rare gear is also available to be taken advantage of by others. Missions, require party's in many instances, to complete tell incredible stories and provide breathtaking cutscenes. Spells truly come to life on screen... Flare from a Black Mage, Summon Ifrit or Shiva or Fenrir... Cast White Mage magic and watch it come to life on screen... Use a wyvern as a Dragoon and watch it grow in power... the list goes on and on.

Cons... the game isn't perfect but the biggest beefs most seem to have is getting money (gil) in order to get around in the game. The mechanics to do so have been provided - synthesis. This provides you the ability to craft items and then sell those items to others for gil. (The system is more complex than that, but that's the basic premise.) Time is another major issue... as u level up in the game, and depending on the type of job you are---you may be seeking for party for a VERY long time. This is primarily because most players tend to rely on a basic formula to create a party which is most effective: A tank, a healer, a refresher, and three direct damage jobs). If ur job doesn't necessarily fit into any of those catagories, then invites to party would be very slow and as such, players tend to sit around for hours waiting for an invite. Now, some players create their own party's... these folks don't mind taking leadership roles in a group and either (a) have one of those jobs that truly don't necessarily fit well in a conventional party set-up or (b) don't care either way but just want to party regardless. Since your paying a monthly fee, play the game the way you want to play it... just be mindful that this game was created w/ partying/grouping in mind... in order to get far in the game you must party... u MUST group together.

Granted partying and grouping is practically required, but there are viable alternatives. Some jobs solo better than others... white mages can't solo very well, even at lvl 75, compared to say... a summoner or paladin. So you have to pick and choose your job carefully, the one you want to grow with.

There is a way to make things easier, which players who post to these reviews and online forums fail to mention; the use of Linkshells.

A linkshell is a network of players who's sole purpose to get together and help each other out. In FFXI there are thousands of linkshells, always looking for members... these linkshells can vary from goal specific to just general social linkshells. Some are job specific (black mages only) and some are mission specific (Chains of Promanthia linkshell only). But these "tools" help you group with others who are doing the same thing you are generally trying to do. Finding these linkshells, is as simple as "shouting" in the middle of town of your linkshell interest and waiting for a response from someone --- believe me, there's always someone looking for new members for their linkshell.

The Time issue is another more important detail, which many others have touched on... and it is important because if you don't have TIME to invest in the game... you won't feel the connection to continue playing.

This game requires a lot of time, dedication and patience. At higher levels, past lvl 60, you'll need to realistically spend at least 5-6 hours per night or at least 3 - 4 times per week in a specific job in order to progress. Level 75 is the maximum level in the game, but that doesn't mean your character stops growing. Merit or Limit points can be acquired when a character reaches level 75. These points can be assigned to many different attributes for a job to increase maximum hitpoints, increase maximum magic points, increase Strength stat, vitality stat, etc. So if you want to make your Black Mage cause more damage with his/her spells, and they are level 75, just keep fighting in experience party's and earning merit/limit points. Then you can assign points to the Black Mages' INT (intelligence) statistic...this will make your Black Mage's spells cause ALOT more damage.

So as you can see, leveling to 75 can take time but the rewards do not stop at lvl 75, they get better. Also at level 75, opens the door to newer, more powerful, and rare armor that you can't get from any place else... and new realms/dimensions become accessible. These new realms have monsters in them that even at lvl 75, you must party together with 50-60 or more members (creating what's called alliances) in order to accomplish a common goal and get the rewards. These drops of ancient armor are extremely rare and require multiple trips into these dimensions.

FFXI is more than your typical MMORPG. If you are looking for something rewarding and that you can play for YEARS and still not accomplish everything, this is the game for you. Good luck to all and I hope this gives you a bird's eye view of what this game has to offer -- btw, this review doesn't even touch on what the new expansion offers... that's a WHOLE nuther bag of chips. But things just get better! ^-^''

FFXI is Incredible MMORPG, Not just a hack'em slash'em game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: September 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I enjoy this game so much I bought it for both my computer and playstation. Both versions are great, although I find that the keyboard on the computer makes communicating with my party members in chat easier. This game is designed so that there is a terrific amount of world to explore, quests to do, items to collect, games to play, and a community of players to meet and spend time with as well. New players may find it frustrating initially because they may have some large downloads. Some parts of the game are geared towards team play, but you can make friends pretty quickly in the game and get through those areas easily. The servers are very well kept up and seasonal events occur regularly as well as all sorts of special events that give special items.

A Drama Epic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: September 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Welcome to FFXI or as I like to call it, Melo-drama online! The game is very good. I've been playing for about 2 years now and haven't got bored with it yet. The servers are well maintained and the game looks great on max graphic settings. There are tons of things to do, you will never get tired of the game. But be warned, the game is infested with drama. People will use you, abuse you, and spit you out. I don't reccomend this game for highschoolers or anyone on depression therapy. The only downside to this game is that some people take the game way to seriously and it basicly becomes thier lives. It is disturbing to witness. Don't let this happen to you! Heed the disclaimer as FFXI boots up. Welcome to Vana'diel, errr... Melo-drama.

Don't listen to doubters! This game is it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Don't listen to doubters! I'm 32 and I'll tell you I've played every online game out there starting from UO and on to CoH. FFXI is the best on the block. It cost 12.95 a month to start which is cheaper than most MMORPGs but with the one character you have something like 14 different jobs to do which is like playing 14 different characters! The in-game economy is player run and is very very intricate. There are hundreds of quest to do. Now granted, up til recently soloing kinda died out around lvl 20 but now SE has found some nice ways to give you a solo experience w/o hurting the overall game. The developers don't do anything "off the cuff". They fix what needs to be fixed and do it in the right way unlike alot of MMOs the fix things only to cause more problems. The game community is the best I've ever seen in an online game. Yes, like a good RPG this game can be time consuming but that's why we play these games right? There are "faster" or easier games out there but nothing quite matches the depth that FFXI has. I've been playing this game steadily for 2 1/2 years now and still no other game I've played before or since is a deep and fullfilling as this one!

probably the best online game out there

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Its the most indepth game i've seen today. only short commings are the necessity to join parties (if that is even a bad thing), and over camped Notorios Monsters, with crappy spawn rates, it takes so much time before you can really start doing all the game has to offer. Also the economy is truly amazing, once you have played for a while and have aquired enough gil you can actually invest money in items from the Auction house (basically buy low, sell high), which is how i aquired most of my fortune, one down fall to the economy is like all other online games, Gil farmers and sellers, basically make the prices inflate to the point that most newcomers to the game actually give up playing or resort to buying gil themselves in rather then struggle for a long time.
But it really is the most dynamic game i have seen yet

Honest Review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 15
Date: January 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Allow me to be honest in reviewing this game. First of all, I have been playing since March '05 minus a 3 month break that I needed to detox off this game. I have a level 60 monk as well as other jobs that are leveled up as subs - WAR, WHM, BLM, DRK, THF, and so on. Here goes the real deal:

Character Development - The jobs in this game are PURE grind. You gain no experience for other missions or quests save for maybe 1 that I can think of that you are only allowed to do once per "real life" week. Don't expect to be able to solo anything other than simple "to and from" quests or missions if your level is high enough. There is one job that is supposed to be soloable - Beastmaster, in which you can control beasts to do your dirty for you. I haven't played it much so I won't try to support or knock it! Teamwork is forced no matter how you want to envision it. Even that solo job at some point is required to join a team effort to do certain quests and missions. Expect to be fighting the exact same monsters in almost all areas with very few variations as you get into the higher levels. There isn't much imagination here but it saves memory and disk space, I suppose.

Economy - Expect hardship and difficulty. You gain money from doin quests and missions and killing beastmen who drop money. You also gain money from selling items that you may have picked up from combat. But, expect to remain well below the poverty line for quite some time. The money you gain from these activities are minimal at best. This brings me to farming. Farming is basically fighting monsters to gain items and selling at the auction house. The problem here, which is why the economy is so bad, is the rarity of drops for items. Economics teaches us that the more rare an item, the higher the price. Therefore, if you should need to buy something, expect the price to be outrageous. If you should want to farm the item for yourself or even to sell, it may take HOURS to actually get the item/s to drop so that you can use or sell.

Armor and Weapons - For the most part this will be easy in the earlier levels. Most of the gear you need will be found at NPCs or bought for cheap at the auction house. But, as you develop, items will get more and more expensive and harder to get. For example, you may want a weapon that is only dropped by a specific monster but that monster would literally be 10-20+ levels higher than the item you need and you will have to be at least 10-15 levels higher than that monster to fight it. As you've guessed, you probably aren't going to need that weapon by the time you are 20-40 levels beyond the level at which you needed that item in the first place.

So, let's couple everything that I've written about so far and discuss the NOTORIOUS MONSTER. These are monsters that don't normally appear throughout the world. They will only show up under certain condititions. These NMs drop rare items that you may need to continue a quest, mission, or equip. It can take HOURS for an NM to show up. There are NMs that will only show up 21-24 hours after it has been killed. Think about that! There is a 3 hour grace period there. That means that at least for 3 hours you will have to sit around and wait for this monster to show up. And, there is no specific schedule so you don't know when to go or come back. Many people will wait all of those hours as well. I have done it myself. Now how about some insult to injury. What if you popped some ritalin and successfully waited out and claimed one of these monsters... IT'S A RARE DROP. You actually may not even get the item. You would have to do it again. Having fun yet?

Community - It is the same across all MMORPGs. 70% lonely boys and men who haven't grown up yet but are looking for hot chicks or other "hot males". 15% women who are pretty much doing the same thing. 15% regular people who just want to enjoy the game without the hassle. This isn't scientific but if you've played or do start to play an MMORPG, you will think I did serious research here. Don't expect to find many good people right away. You will find a good crop of everyone!

Travel - Expect long walks or runs or even chocobo rides. Chocobo's are giant chicken/ostriches that you can ride like a horse to get you around faster as well as safely because you can't be attacked on a chocobo. Keep in mind that even with a chocobo it will take at least 3 minutes to cross a map including turns and such. It doesn't seem like a lot but factor when you start doing those "to and from" quests and missions across numerous maps. Spending 20-30 minutes just to finish up one simple quest gets ridiculous. There are small shortcuts here and there.

So, with all the stress and frustration, why do I continue to play?

I asked myself that same question. Then I quit for 3 months. I ended up getting bored with my free time and decided to come back. But, I realized that the game isn't going to get any better and neither are other MMORPGs for that matter. Other decisions factored in here but we dont need to go into everything. I just realized that I have to change my attitude with how I regard the game and the people. Now, I just enjoy the game for what it is and what I can do like help others get through those tough situations. I don't wait for any monsters to show up and if someone wants to grind for experience, just enjoy the beatings you can give to the monster. Overall, I just want to finish what I have started! I want to complete the missions and end the game. But, I had to realize that in an MMORPG, the definition of "ending a game" is different for everyone. For me, it's simply finishing the missions and getting my character to level cap. I don't need all those fantastic weapons and armor and so on. I bought the game to enjoy it. I didn't buy the game to prove to someone else how much IMAGINARY items and money I could amass! These games have an end date for everyone. It's either when you end it or when the provider ends it. Either way, you can't take those things with you after the game is over! So, there's no sense trying to build fake wealth!

Nice Bundle

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: September 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For people new to the game: This game is very involved and has a greater degree of depth than most online role playing games. Don't buy this game expecting to "beat it" in a few months. The depth (and difficulty) of this game requires that you spend a good deal of time on it to reach many of it's rewards. The time invested in the game, though, truly adds to the sense of satisfaction when you do accomplish something.

For people who already have a version: Having all the expansion packs on 1 DVD reduces a good deal of hassle when you have to reinstall. Each installation is seperate so you don't have to uninstall the game if you just wanted to install CoP for example. The flipside is if you wanted to do a fresh install, you would have to click to install each part (POL, original game, RotZ and CoP. It's a small inconvinience though when compared to swapping out all those CDs.

Greatest Game Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have played many MMORPGs City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Everquest, Everquest 2 and, Final Fantasy XI. What Mr. A. Skinner said about this game isnt true. Ever MMORPG is time consuming. Also the death marches he said is also a lie. The mounts you get at 20 not 25 like he said. The monthly price is $15.00 a month and yes you only get 1 character BUT what he didnt tell you is that you can change jobs Warrior White mage and so on are Jobs not classes and you only get 1 character per account unless you want to pay 1 dollar more for another character which is fine. Also the comment he made about the server problems isnt true Square doesnt have any problems with there servers unlike what he says about blizzard who has more problems with there games then anyone else. If you want a true MMORPG that is fun go with FFXI over WoW. WoW is so boring it isnt even funny.

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