The final fantasy franchise had many incredible entries. Not the least of which is 11, which
brought the series into a new era. Becoming the series first online game, as well as introducing
the franchise to an entirely new gaming console. This game cemented final fantasy's future,
laying the groundwork for future online games, and paying homage to the games that paved
the way.
This.
Is the final fantasy 11 iceberg.
An intimate relationship with PS2
FF 11 is a very important game for the PS 2 for numerous reasons. First of all, it's
one of the most successful MMORPGs on the console. It came as a bundle for the console,
with a hard-disk in the package, since the game required one to run. This also makes
it one of the few games that did not work on a Slim PlayStation 2 as well. Secondly,
FF11 is the first MMORPG on the PS2 that had cross-platform multiplayer. And this was a
big deal at the time it was released. And lastly, it was the last active server on the
PS2 Online Service, shutting down in March 31st, 2016. On a side note, the game also
happens to be the first-ever MMORPG released on the Xbox 3 60.
The first of many
FF 11 is the first MMORPG that Square Enix created. It was pitched as an idea by Hearonohbu
Sakagoochi, who is seen as a representative for the series due to his contribution to
it. He was impressed by MMORPGs like EverQuest and Square eventually agreed to make an online
Final Fantasy game. It was developed by the team responsible for Chrono Cross, and was
generally influenced most by FF III in terms of gameplay. Except square included content
that was left out of previous games, due to technical representations. This made it the
most complete and expansive FF game at the time. Eventually, the series saw more MMORPGs,
especially the prominent FF14. But 11 still remains a crucial part of the history which
started it all.
One monster, many names
Since localization caused the monsters within FF games to have different names between the
English and Japanese releases - the development team decided to use both of the names instead
of sticking to just one. They did this by giving the Japanese and English names to different
variations of the same enemy type, which both allowed them to feel a bit more distinctive
and also honored the differences that FF games have across different regions.
Altered character designs
The five races in FF 11 were originally going to look quite different when compared to the
final result. The Galka race for example, looked similar to the Ronso from FF 10, appearing
more like a leonine. Whereas, Tarutaru had a darker face which was more like a Black
Mage, which can be compared to Vee vee from FF 9. Eventually, they were altered to the
more original-looking designs that we have today.
Japanese spin-off
FF 11 had a mobile spin-off that was released exclusively in Japan. It was called Final
Fantasy Grandmasters. It was free-to-play and was developed for the iOS and Android
platforms. It was launched both as a closed-beta and officially in October 2015. The game saw
success with over 1 million downloads throughout its release. Unfortuntely, it was shut down
on April 25, 2019, before it ever saw a release outside of Japan. Ironically, the FF 11 game
was meant to have an international mobile client. It would have served as a ree boot
of the game, but it was ultimately cancelled in development in late 2020. This would obviously
be disappointing fans, who were excited to know that it was going to use the Unreal Engine
4.
Lucky Number 11
Final Fantasy tends to have a habit of referencing the number of the game within the games themselves,
and 11 is not an exception. When the game was originally released, there were a total
of 11 jobs available for the players, and only 11 conquest areas. Eventually, one of
the jobs that was added later called Corsair. Within this job, the best roll of the dice
you could get was 11. Certain sub families of the Gigas beastmen, also have an ability
called the 'Mercurial strike', which deals a random damage number with the same digits
in attacks. The best possibility for this is 1111. And last but not least, in the Wings
of the Goddess expansion, there were 11 Cait Sith entities. And joining them formed the
eleventh Cait Sith, which was the most important form.
The mystery of Galkan babies
The Galka is one of the only five races in FF 11. But unlike the other races in the game,
you cannot create female Galkan characters. You were forced to create only males. Although
the reason behind this was originally unknown, due to a mistranslation in the game's English
manual, the fans theorized that the Galka are eh sexual. Surprisingly, the developers
responded to this fan theory and confirmed that they are not asexual. Eventually, fans
theorized once more, and believe that the reason there are no Galkan females in the
world of Vana'diel, is that they died when the race was mostly wiped out approximately
600 years ago in the game's lore. So, they are unable to reproduce, and when an elderly
Galkan dies, they go into seclusion to die. They are eventually reborn as a child, who
does not remember their past life. The only exception is the Talekeeper, who can remember
every dead member of the Galka race all the way back to 200 years in the past.
The mystery of Mithra babies
Being the complete opposite of the Galka race, the Mithra race only allows players to have
a female character. Unlike the Galka race though, male Mithra do exist, but they are
such a rarity that they are kept sheltered for the purpose of contributing to reproduction.
They are then tasked with raising the babies. The females on the other hand are the soldiers.
They can handle the losses, since more will be born. The only exception to this rule is
Lehko Habhoka, who is a Black Mage and tactical adviser to many officers of his race - rather
than being someone sheltered and used for reproduction. As usual, fans started making
theories for this. The most prominent one is that the Roegadyn and Mihqo tay races of
FF 14, are ancestors to the Galka and Mithra races respectively, and genocide is what caused
their numbers to be lessened. Despite being two separate games entirely, the two sets
of races do appear similar.
The beginning of stardom
Shantotto, who is a character that belongs to the Tarutaru race in FF 11, unexpectedly
became the most popular NPC of the game. This caused the character to be involved in several
of the game's expansions and the fame did not stop there. She became so popular that
she ended up showing up as a cameo character in other video games too. In a quest related
to her, the Shantotto Ascension, she manages to create a spell for interdimensional travel.
This sends her to an alternate reality - and this opened the door for her to show up in
other places. She is summoned by Cosmos in the Dissidia games. And she is able to go
back to her world by using a spell that creates a portal. Interestingly, she also ended up
in Astoltia, which belongs to Dragon Quest 10.
Lastly, she was also in FF 14 and comes across eh or zee ah. (eorzea) which is an encounter
that hilariously ends with her leaving the place. Followed quickly by threatening the
denizens that she will return and conquer them if they don't better themselves.
Throwback to the past
No FF game would be complete without referencing other games in the series. The previously
mentioned Cait Sith is actually a character from FF 7, Diablos from FF 8 makes an appearance,
FF favorite, Cid, is in love with a woman named Hilda - who is actually from FF 9. The
six starter jobs in 11 are the same as the first FF game. A sword weapon skill is called
Spirits Within, which is named after the animated film. And the Shikaree sisters are a reference
to the Magus sisters from FF 4. There are many other references to the games from the
entire franchise that came before FF11 too, but it would take a day to name them all here!
Refusal to die
FF 11 was first released in Japan on May 16, 2002. It saw a release on the PlayStation
2 first, then it was released to the PC and the xbox 3 60. The game saw a peak player-base
of over 500,000 players. Although that might not appear to be a large amount today, it
was a big deal for its time. Especially since the other most popular MMORPGs like Ever Quest,
only had a peak of 550,000 players. Eventually, FF 11 outlived both the PlayStation 2 and
the Xbox 3 60. Fortunately It's still playable on the PC even in 2021, which makes it almost
2 decades old. What's further surprising is that it even receives new content and patches
to this day, with the most recent addition being an episodic story series called 'The
Voracious Resurgence. Aside from the main game, it almost had an international mobile
ree boot, saw a now-discontinued Japan-only spin-off, and served as an inspiration for
FF 14, which is currently a massively successful MMORPG.
Welcome to NHK!
This anime has two episodes that reference FF 11. In these episodes, you can see a character
addicted to a game called 'Ultimate Fantasy', which has many visual references to FF11.
The logo is very similar to the FF series, and the races seen within the show resemble
the 5 races that we see in 11. Lastly, the avatar of the main character in the anime
is dressed like a Red Mage, which has a similarity in visuals to the FF11 version of the character.
One-sided
In the video game 'Dissidia 0 1 2 Final Fantasy', there are several representatives of FF 11
available. Something that makes this appearance further notable, is that the FF11 representatives
are the only cast of characters in the game that come from a single title, but are all
allied on Cosmos' side. Although this almost coincides with Lightning from FF XIII, who
is the only representative from her game, thus only making her on a single side.
The logo
Although the illustrator Yoshitaka Amano has worked on many logos from the franchise, he
considers the logo of FF11 the most challenging illustration that he has worked on as a logo.
He said this was because of how many characters had to be included in it, just so that it
can properly represent the variety that the MMORPG offers. He used a large piece of paper
to create it, and called it a 'tedious' process due to how much effort it took. Fans theorize
that the drawing of an army in the log of the game, is most likely one of the Allied
regimes that fought in the Crystal War - and the center features a bright logo which has
five warriors that represent each race from the game.
References to other media
It's normal for an FF game to reference its previous titles, but FF 11 has references
to non-Square Enix media too. The quest 'Dormant Powers Dislodged', is a reference to Puella
Magi Madoka Magica. The Tarutaru featured in this quest says 'Are you ready to sign
a contractaru with me and become a magical g-er, a mighter, more majestic adventurer?'
- which is a direct reference to a character called Kyubey.
The NM Black Triple Stars in FF11, is a reference to the Black Tri-Stars in Mobile Suit Gundam.
The Black Tri-Stars are known for their special 'Jet Stream Attack', and this too gets referenced
by FF11, since the triple bats have a move called Jet Stream. The 'Vampire Hunter D Minus'
title, is a reference to the anime and novel called Vampire Hunter D.
The references extend past anime, as the mission 'Saving Private Ryaaf' is a direct reference
to the movie 'Saving Private Ryan'. The quest 'Snakes on the Plains' is a reference to the
popular movie 'Snakes on a Plane'. The quest 'I'm on a Boat' is a reference to a song by
The Lonely Island, the 'Geomancer AF' quest 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is a reference to
the song of the same name by Metallica. One of the Adventuring Fellows can sing 'She floats
like a butterfly and sings like a bee', which is a reference to the real-world heavyweight
boxing champion Muhammad Ah lee.
Lastly, the mission 'Bloody Rondo' is a reference to the video game Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
and an NPC Professor in the Wings of the Goddess is called Layton, who is a reference to the
Professor Layton series of video games that were released on the Nintendo DS and 3DS.
And there are even references to TV shows, as the mission 'The Price is Right' is a reference
to the iconic TV game show of the same name. There are many other references in FF 11 to
non-Square Enix related media, but these are the notable ones.
Trolled by the developers
An infamous boss from the Chains of Promathia expansion called Absolute Virtue, was believed
to be a Super Boss in the game. Fans simply thought they just weren't powerful enough
to defeat it yet. It was later revealed by the developers that the boss was never meant
to be defeated, and was placed in the game as a way to troll the players. To be a death
hazard which would cause a fatal inconvenience for the players. What makes this even funnier
is that the developers once released a fake video that showed a secret method to killing
the boss. But that was not something that players could do themselves, and was simply
meant to trick the players into thinking that they could defeat this boss. As they say,
when there's a will - there's a way. So, players were able to figure out exploits that allowed
them to kill the boss. Eventually, due to fan uproar and some less-than-favourable press
coverage - the developers nerfed the boss and now he is killable without any special
conditions.
The truth behind the game's major events
An interesting thing that not many people know about the lore of FF 11, is that the
events of the game are manipulated as part of a tactical game played by supernatural
beings. It all started when Gunther Schultz, a human painter who served in the Bastokan
Army as a military tactician, unfortunately fell ill during his service and was about
to die. On his death bed, he considered the thought of dying without getting to use his
strategies within his life-span. To his surprise, he was visited by the demon Count Bifrons,
who was impressed by how intelligent Gunther was, and offered him an immortal body. This
allowed the two to eternally play tactical games against each other. This game uses FF
11's game-world as a complex chess board. This causes most of the game's events to be
manipulated as part of their game, which even includes the great Crystal War itself.
Scrapped content
As with any other video game, FF 11 accumulated a lot of scrapped ideas throughout the years
of its existence. Examples of such content include the fact that the first heroine of
the game, Lion, was originally meant to be the last boss of the game. The Galka race
was meant to have the ability to eat two different types of food to gain bonuses, the Relic Weapons
were meant to break after some use. There were more eras to travel to, wings for Shantotto,
and the Excalibur was going to be a rare item that was only meant to be found by fishing
on the Japanese servers of the game. The reason behind most of these ideas being thrown away,
is the developers either feeling that the content is not suitable for the game, or simply
too imbalanced.
Although FF 11 resides in the shadow of 14, it still holds strong as a tremendous addition
to the franchise. And although it may be on its decline, it's had nearly 2 decades of
improvements and new content. No other game is quite like it, and it still has no clear
end in sight. I hope you've enjoyed the video.