Some reviews are tougher to write than others.
Usually they’re the weaker end of the NES spectrum, where there’s so little actual
content to the game that I have to resort to flowery language just to fill four minutes’
time.
And then there are the games that are so unspeakably massive that I know that anything I say, even
if I did the whole talking-fast thing, would merely scratch the surface.
As far as MMOs go, Final Fantasy XI is an odd bird.
Perhaps due to the international success of the Final Fantasy brand, Square Enix decided
at the outset to integrate their servers, racially speaking.
You could be fighting alongside a Japanese PLD, a French BLM, a Canadian COR, all in
the same party and working toward the same ends: More EXP, more gil, more things to obtain.
Some concepts are universally understood.
For everything else, there’s an autotranslate system that replaces simple phrases, place
names, and items with text objects that resolve dependent on the client seeing it.
It’s not exactly the United Nations, but it’s been working fairly well since...
really, it’s been that long?
October of ‘03.
Over eight years now in the US, and closer to 10 in Japan.
And you don’t have a game running for eight years without change.
Time used to be that, unless you were a Black Mage or Ranger, you didn’t get invited to
EXP parties, and you didn’t get EXP outside of parties because the mobs you’d have to
kill were unspeakably vicious to a lone player.
That was then.
These days, there are so many bonuses, buffs, and new features that you can play the game
more myopically if you wish, but where’s the fun in that?
It seems these achievements are no longer considered the hardest in the whole of XBoxdom.
But wait, the 360 didn’t even exist in October ‘03.
But the PC did, and those players were playing right along with the already-released Japanese
PS2 version, the flagship software for the short-lived PS2 hard drive.
The good news is that the world finally had its first truly cross-platform MMORPG.
The bad news is that, even today, the XBox 360 and PC versions are hamstrung by continuing
to support the PS2.
See?
It’s been how many minutes and I’ve only barely touched on the game itself, as opposed
WHY the game works the way it does.
There is actual gameplay!
It doesn’t just play itself...
well, kinda.
You don’t actually attack your foes directly, rather you lock onto them with an attack command
and from that point out, your basic weapon swings are rigorously timed by the delay value
of your weapon, and augmented by various factors on your other 15 pieces of gear.
And then there’s an update, and a new shiny object, and the great wheels of progress and
power creep spin up again.
Because fashion is smashin’, the true meaning of it.
I could easily do a five-minute analysis of each of the game’s 20 jobs, and even that
would be barely enough to do some of the more eclectic classes justice.
The quick and dirty version follows: Warrior, Monk, Thief, and Red, Black, and White Mage
are available from the outset, and if that list sounds familiar, you’ve probably played
Final Fantasy 1.
Everything else requires completing a quest to unlock: Paladins tank things and cure themselves,
Ninja were supposed to be a ranged-attack and debuff class until it was found that they
tank better than Paladins, Rangers shoot things with bows, Beastmasters and Summoners subcontract
their beatdowns, Dragoons enlist the service of a baby dragon as a damage sidecar, Bards
buff the party by singing, Corsairs buff the party by... playing blackjack...
Dark Knights and Samurai hit things really hard, Puppetmasters get to build their teammate
from scratch (with a whole lot of money), Dancers inflict all sorts of weird debuffs
in melee range, Scholars are schizophrenic mages, able to choose the Light Side or the
Dark Side as the situation calls, and...
… well, let’s just say that Final Fantasy V, their point of origin, afforded Blue Mages
30 spells. 11’s blue mages?
150ish.
Somewhere around there.
Honestly, I lost count.
I blame the bagpipes.
And catgirls.
Final Fantasy XI is the true black sheep, sequestered in its place as the MMO no one
played, except the thousands who did, and unable to gather the attention of its woefully
defective little brother 14.
And then Shantotto shows up in Dissidia and people are interested again.
Funny how that works.