or, Why I Never Wanted to Play this Fucking Game in the First Place."
Final Fantasy XI is stealing my soul. Im sure youve all noticed my posting has slowed lately, Im sure youve noticed the magic that I usually bring to the board has slowly been fading; blame FFXI. In the last week or so, Ive put in close to 72 hours of play, with no signs of slowing down. This is while working, going to school and playing FFX-2, so Id hate to see what happens when Im on vacation.
Im calling this an Almost Review" because I dont think Im really qualified to review an MMORPG. Honestly, FFXI is the only MMORPG Ive ever played seriously. I toyed around with Ragnarok Online here and there, and I played Earth and Beyond for an hour or so, but nothing beyond that. That having been said, Im going to give my opinion on things as they relate to regular console RPGs, and walk through my own play experiences.
So let me segway by saying that I wish Id never started playing FFXI; one of the reasons Ive never been into the MMORPG seen is the time investment. I find it extremely hard to justify putting over a hundred hours into a game I like when there are so many others around me, and yet Im sure there are people playing MMORPGs and putting thousands of hours in. A friend of mine has been playing Asherons Call for over a year now, and the only reason hes stopping is because hes getting into FFXI. When I say hes been playing for over a year, I dont mean that he started strong and tapered off into rarely playing, I mean that he probably averages 20-24 hours of playtime a week, on a slow week.
The idea of spending that much time with ANY game horrified me, and yet I can see myself doing so with FFXI. FFX-2 came out recently, and Ive only put in about eight hours. Thats not because its a subpar game, its an incredible game; its mainly because I can do other things while playing FFXI. I think thats one of the biggest draws for me.
I hate leveling in RPGs.
Wait, scratch the above. I hate leveling for hours upon hours upon hours in RPGs; however, of the 72 hours Ive put into FFXI so far, a good 65 of them were most judiciously spent leveling. Whats breaking the monotony of leveling continuously for me is the fact that I do other things while leveling. For instance, Im leveling now, while typing this. Ive got my laptop on my knees with my controller in my lap; Im glancing at the screen every few seconds to make sure my warriors in a good way with the enemy. Yesterday I was watching the final episodes of "Full Metal Panic Fumoffu?" on my laptop while leveling, and earlier in the day I had been reading case studies while partied up with 4 Japanese speakers and an intermediary.
Thats not to say that the core gameplay of FFXI isnt fun; its incredibly fun. Leveling by myself, however, gets tedious very quickly, which is why I do other things while playing. Leveling with a party, however, is fresh and exciting. The aforementioned primarily Japanese party had me stand with two other attackers to absorb and deal out damage, while the white and red mages healed us. We were gaining skill chains like they were going out of style, and getting exp bonuses like mad. Like mad.
So the core gameplay of FFXI is fancy and sexy and out there and serviceable, what about the visuals? The only games I have to compare FFXI to, visually, are EQ, AC or RO. I dont want to compare this aspect to a console one, simply because theyre going to vary here and there depending on your computers set up. On my own set up, the graphics surpass those found in FFX, due mainly to a difference in resolution. Now, nothing against EQ or AC, but they look like ass. People will whine and decry the last line, saying I shouldnt knock their graphics as theyre so aged, and I half-heartedly agree.
I was never really into PC gaming before UT, and thats because, honestly, all of the games looked like ass. Even high-end games on high-end systems had drab, muddy textures with blocky characters in high resolution, which made it all look worse. UT was the first game Id played that could actually make good on the promises of graphical splendor. Thats not to say that I think old games are ugly; games like Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario World are all beautiful. The problem, graphically, with early PC games, in my opinion, is that the hardware wasnt wholly up to it.
All of that having been said however, FFXI is a beautiful game. Again, how much of this you experience will be directly proportional to how powerful your system is(none of this will matter if you have a PS2). However, in my own case, the lighting effects are beautiful. You know when its morning because youll see the light break and reflect over the ground as youre fighting something. Youll know when theres a storm on a mountain pass because youll see grass blowing everywhere and rain coming down all around you. Its nice; its good. Water has a neat blurring effect when youre standing in a river, youre character leaves footprints in the sand; its all fantastic.
The sound is another fantastic experience. The sound effects are all spot on. When wearing leather armor, I run without making a huge amount of sound; however, as soon as I equip scale or some sort of metallic armor, you can hear it clinking while running. The music is fantastic too, however, its not as memorable as some of the stuff from the other Final Fantasys.
My overall verdict for FFXI is that its the best game I wish I'd never started playing. I left out talking about any number of specifics in this almost review, and again, thats because I dont have anything to compare them to. The job system, for example, allows instant switching without any penalty. You can go back to your old job at any time you want, again, incurring no penalty. Me, I like this, however Im sure any number of people will gleefully say that it cheapens the whole of the MMORPG.
I need wrap this up; my Moogle says Ive some incoming deliveries, and these quests arent going to finish themselves.not allowed
Final Fantasy XI is stealing my soul. Im sure youve all noticed my posting has slowed lately, Im sure youve noticed the magic that I usually bring to the board has slowly been fading; blame FFXI. In the last week or so, Ive put in close to 72 hours of play, with no signs of slowing down. This is while working, going to school and playing FFX-2, so Id hate to see what happens when Im on vacation.
Im calling this an Almost Review" because I dont think Im really qualified to review an MMORPG. Honestly, FFXI is the only MMORPG Ive ever played seriously. I toyed around with Ragnarok Online here and there, and I played Earth and Beyond for an hour or so, but nothing beyond that. That having been said, Im going to give my opinion on things as they relate to regular console RPGs, and walk through my own play experiences.
So let me segway by saying that I wish Id never started playing FFXI; one of the reasons Ive never been into the MMORPG seen is the time investment. I find it extremely hard to justify putting over a hundred hours into a game I like when there are so many others around me, and yet Im sure there are people playing MMORPGs and putting thousands of hours in. A friend of mine has been playing Asherons Call for over a year now, and the only reason hes stopping is because hes getting into FFXI. When I say hes been playing for over a year, I dont mean that he started strong and tapered off into rarely playing, I mean that he probably averages 20-24 hours of playtime a week, on a slow week.
The idea of spending that much time with ANY game horrified me, and yet I can see myself doing so with FFXI. FFX-2 came out recently, and Ive only put in about eight hours. Thats not because its a subpar game, its an incredible game; its mainly because I can do other things while playing FFXI. I think thats one of the biggest draws for me.
I hate leveling in RPGs.
Wait, scratch the above. I hate leveling for hours upon hours upon hours in RPGs; however, of the 72 hours Ive put into FFXI so far, a good 65 of them were most judiciously spent leveling. Whats breaking the monotony of leveling continuously for me is the fact that I do other things while leveling. For instance, Im leveling now, while typing this. Ive got my laptop on my knees with my controller in my lap; Im glancing at the screen every few seconds to make sure my warriors in a good way with the enemy. Yesterday I was watching the final episodes of "Full Metal Panic Fumoffu?" on my laptop while leveling, and earlier in the day I had been reading case studies while partied up with 4 Japanese speakers and an intermediary.
Thats not to say that the core gameplay of FFXI isnt fun; its incredibly fun. Leveling by myself, however, gets tedious very quickly, which is why I do other things while playing. Leveling with a party, however, is fresh and exciting. The aforementioned primarily Japanese party had me stand with two other attackers to absorb and deal out damage, while the white and red mages healed us. We were gaining skill chains like they were going out of style, and getting exp bonuses like mad. Like mad.
So the core gameplay of FFXI is fancy and sexy and out there and serviceable, what about the visuals? The only games I have to compare FFXI to, visually, are EQ, AC or RO. I dont want to compare this aspect to a console one, simply because theyre going to vary here and there depending on your computers set up. On my own set up, the graphics surpass those found in FFX, due mainly to a difference in resolution. Now, nothing against EQ or AC, but they look like ass. People will whine and decry the last line, saying I shouldnt knock their graphics as theyre so aged, and I half-heartedly agree.
I was never really into PC gaming before UT, and thats because, honestly, all of the games looked like ass. Even high-end games on high-end systems had drab, muddy textures with blocky characters in high resolution, which made it all look worse. UT was the first game Id played that could actually make good on the promises of graphical splendor. Thats not to say that I think old games are ugly; games like Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario World are all beautiful. The problem, graphically, with early PC games, in my opinion, is that the hardware wasnt wholly up to it.
All of that having been said however, FFXI is a beautiful game. Again, how much of this you experience will be directly proportional to how powerful your system is(none of this will matter if you have a PS2). However, in my own case, the lighting effects are beautiful. You know when its morning because youll see the light break and reflect over the ground as youre fighting something. Youll know when theres a storm on a mountain pass because youll see grass blowing everywhere and rain coming down all around you. Its nice; its good. Water has a neat blurring effect when youre standing in a river, youre character leaves footprints in the sand; its all fantastic.
The sound is another fantastic experience. The sound effects are all spot on. When wearing leather armor, I run without making a huge amount of sound; however, as soon as I equip scale or some sort of metallic armor, you can hear it clinking while running. The music is fantastic too, however, its not as memorable as some of the stuff from the other Final Fantasys.
My overall verdict for FFXI is that its the best game I wish I'd never started playing. I left out talking about any number of specifics in this almost review, and again, thats because I dont have anything to compare them to. The job system, for example, allows instant switching without any penalty. You can go back to your old job at any time you want, again, incurring no penalty. Me, I like this, however Im sure any number of people will gleefully say that it cheapens the whole of the MMORPG.
I need wrap this up; my Moogle says Ive some incoming deliveries, and these quests arent going to finish themselves.not allowed
Oh well, it's not that wrong. 
not allowed
Proud to be SrC!
