Post by Iyouboushi on Aug 5, 2004 17:20:42 GMT -6
All right, I suppose I can finally review this game (and it's a long review too).
I suppose I should start with the basics. The graphics in this game are just amazing. I have the lowest graphic card you can possibly have to play it (any lower and I wouldn't be able to) and it still looks amazing. I can't even imagine how nice it must look with the latest/greatest card you can have. It's smooth. The music is nice, though it does get a little repetitive. It changes depending on what major area you're in (the fighting music in the mines is different from the worldmap, for example) which is nice. The controls are really confusing at first but eventually you'll get the hang of it (this is the PC version, I'm sure it's different on PS2). Anyway, onwards.
With exception to Ragnarok Online, I generally didn't like online games. I had played Ultima Online (which is also pay to play) for about three months then got totally sick of it because it was so slow moving (spent those three months just trying to get money to explore stuff). Ragnarok Online wasn't so bad because you could explore pretty quick (then again, it was a smaller world) but eventually just ended up with fighting non-stop.
Final Fantasy XI is sort of a mix of both. Yes, there's a ton of fighting (I'll get to that) and yes, the world is GIGANTIC. It literally takes 10 minutes just to run from town to the edge of one border (then there's tons more after that). I mean, if you could avoid being attacked, it would probably take three or more hours (real time) just to run from one corner of the world to the next. So that's sort of good, and sort of bad. Good because you will always have new area to explore and that it doesn't become overly crowded (like RO did) and bad because, well, hey, it takes FOREVER to run from one point to the other and it's nearly impossible to get anywhere fast (without renting a chocobo or taking an airship/boat). Towns are no exceptions. The towns are so big that they actually FEEL like real towns, unlike in previous Final Fantasy games. True, I've only been to one (my starting town, Bastock) but it, again, takes more than ten minutes to run from one corner to the next.
Fighting in this game reminds me sort of Lufia 2 or Chrono Trigger. You see the enemies on the screen, then you can walk up to them (or, in some cases, attack from afar) and select your options. If you're a warrior or just to want to fight hand-to-hand, there's the attack options. If you're a spell caster, there's an option to cast a spell on the target, and of course if you're an archer there's a way to shoot your arrows. There's also different abilities (which are broken down into ranged attacks, spells, weapon skills and job skills) which can be used at different intervals. The fighting is basically automatic (meaning you don't have to keep pressing "attack" if you choose to attack) and will continue on until you or the monster is dead or you (try) to run away. One thing unique in this game, no one else can fight the monster while you're fighting it unless you're in a party (then party members can join in) or unless you select the "call for help" option (which will then make you scream for help and let other people help you if they so choose to). Once the battle ends you will receive exp and items (assuming you're not fighting something too weak for you). If you die you will have the option to lay there on the ground for an hour or just warp back to your last save point. You lose exp (30% I think) if you choose to warp back right away but if you choose to lay there and wait for a white mage to cast 'raise' on you, you will only lose 15% (again, I think). The odds of a WM casting raise on you is fairly low though.
The people in this game depend on what world(server) you're on, I suppose.. however you have to remember that EVERYONE plays on this. I mean, it's not split into "Japanese servers" or "American Servers." When you're playing, you're more than likely going to run into some Japanese players who (most likely) will not speak English (or will speak very little). Other than that, there are some immature jerks on the game, but more often than not you will run into some really nice people. A lot of white mages will cast heal on you (or protection/other spells) for no reason other than to cast them on you expecting nothing in return. Others will be more than happy to talk to you and give you hints/tips. Of course, you can also just sit around and listen to the gossip (which is more fun than it sounds).
I suppose having (90%) nice players is a good thing because the economy in FFXI is almost all-player driven. Yes, there's shops in town that sell things at outrageous prices, but not many people buy there. Most people buy things at the Auction House. There's a number of auction houses in each town and I'm pretty sure the items sold in each are different. Basically you can buy or sell, and if you choose to sell you can set what price you want to sell your item(s) for. If you buy you can bid on the item and if you win you get the item (d'uh). Sometimes you can get really good deals because people will sell their items really low just to get rid of them and if you bid the same or higher you'll get the item (meaning if you bid way too much for it, you're being ripped off but if you're lucky you can get an item cheaper than most people). It's kind of hard to explain it, but it's pretty easy once you do it a few times. That's basically the only way to get money though (selling things on auction house). If you're looking to get rich via monsters dropping gil you will be extremely disappointed as very, very few monsters actually drop gil and when they do it's a very small amount (like 50 gil is the max I've ever gotten from a monster). This is kind of sad because PRICES ON ITEMS ARE INSANE! To give an example, to buy a small earthen pot (for my Moogle house, which I'll get to in a few) it cost me a pretty penny of 2,500 gil. If you think this is isn't bad, consider that it's just a small tiny pot that can only be used when you garden. If you're trying to synth items (combine items to make new ones) you will run out of money FAST as ores and items used for that go for anywhere from 500 to 2,000 gil each (you usually need around 4 ores to do anything).
The Moogle Houses are probably one of the neatest things but done wrong. You go into your house and there's a moogle there that has a lot of options (including gardening, holding items for you and letting you change which job/class you want). The downside is, you're the only one who will ever see that house. Everyone goes into their own houses and there's no invite/visiting commands (so you'll never be able to see someone else's house). This is bad because there's a lot of furniture that you can make or buy and decorate. It makes you wonder why they even bothered if no one will ever see it besides you. Other than that, I like the house idea.
So.. let's see..what else can I talk about now? Oh, I know.
There's missions and quests that can progress the story (yes, there IS a story in FFXI!) if you can complete them. The early missions will seem like a cake walk, but the later missions will drive you crazy. For example, the first [Bastock] mission in the game is to bring a letter to a guy in the mines then take a report to a guy in the main office of the city. Not hard, right? The mission that I just finished was to go visit a different set of mines and kill monsters until I had specific items that the monsters dropped. Now, these weren't easy monsters and I wasn't able to actually complete the mission fighting the monsters--I had to go to the auction house and buy the items he wanted there. They only get harder from there. Quests, on the other hand, generally aren't that hard just time consuming. One of the quests was to go around town and collect stamps from certain guards. It took an hour to do, and that's when we knew exactly who to talk to. I don't want to think about how long it'd take if I didn't know where to go.
In order to do some of these missions it is necessary to group up with friends. However, the party system is a little wrong, in my opinion. The person (people) with the highest level(s) will receive the most exp from monsters and the person (people) with the lowest level(s) will receive the least. That may not be bad within itsself, but if you're partying up with someone who's more than two levels higher than you you're not going to get any exp at all and might as well not bother with it. I can understand why they do this (so really high level players don't take a level 1 and kill super strong monsters to power level) but it really gets in the way when you're trying to play with friends (you all have to either level together or make sure you never go too far ahead). Wish it was a little higher (like 5 levels higher).
(continued in next message)
I suppose I should start with the basics. The graphics in this game are just amazing. I have the lowest graphic card you can possibly have to play it (any lower and I wouldn't be able to) and it still looks amazing. I can't even imagine how nice it must look with the latest/greatest card you can have. It's smooth. The music is nice, though it does get a little repetitive. It changes depending on what major area you're in (the fighting music in the mines is different from the worldmap, for example) which is nice. The controls are really confusing at first but eventually you'll get the hang of it (this is the PC version, I'm sure it's different on PS2). Anyway, onwards.
With exception to Ragnarok Online, I generally didn't like online games. I had played Ultima Online (which is also pay to play) for about three months then got totally sick of it because it was so slow moving (spent those three months just trying to get money to explore stuff). Ragnarok Online wasn't so bad because you could explore pretty quick (then again, it was a smaller world) but eventually just ended up with fighting non-stop.
Final Fantasy XI is sort of a mix of both. Yes, there's a ton of fighting (I'll get to that) and yes, the world is GIGANTIC. It literally takes 10 minutes just to run from town to the edge of one border (then there's tons more after that). I mean, if you could avoid being attacked, it would probably take three or more hours (real time) just to run from one corner of the world to the next. So that's sort of good, and sort of bad. Good because you will always have new area to explore and that it doesn't become overly crowded (like RO did) and bad because, well, hey, it takes FOREVER to run from one point to the other and it's nearly impossible to get anywhere fast (without renting a chocobo or taking an airship/boat). Towns are no exceptions. The towns are so big that they actually FEEL like real towns, unlike in previous Final Fantasy games. True, I've only been to one (my starting town, Bastock) but it, again, takes more than ten minutes to run from one corner to the next.
Fighting in this game reminds me sort of Lufia 2 or Chrono Trigger. You see the enemies on the screen, then you can walk up to them (or, in some cases, attack from afar) and select your options. If you're a warrior or just to want to fight hand-to-hand, there's the attack options. If you're a spell caster, there's an option to cast a spell on the target, and of course if you're an archer there's a way to shoot your arrows. There's also different abilities (which are broken down into ranged attacks, spells, weapon skills and job skills) which can be used at different intervals. The fighting is basically automatic (meaning you don't have to keep pressing "attack" if you choose to attack) and will continue on until you or the monster is dead or you (try) to run away. One thing unique in this game, no one else can fight the monster while you're fighting it unless you're in a party (then party members can join in) or unless you select the "call for help" option (which will then make you scream for help and let other people help you if they so choose to). Once the battle ends you will receive exp and items (assuming you're not fighting something too weak for you). If you die you will have the option to lay there on the ground for an hour or just warp back to your last save point. You lose exp (30% I think) if you choose to warp back right away but if you choose to lay there and wait for a white mage to cast 'raise' on you, you will only lose 15% (again, I think). The odds of a WM casting raise on you is fairly low though.
The people in this game depend on what world(server) you're on, I suppose.. however you have to remember that EVERYONE plays on this. I mean, it's not split into "Japanese servers" or "American Servers." When you're playing, you're more than likely going to run into some Japanese players who (most likely) will not speak English (or will speak very little). Other than that, there are some immature jerks on the game, but more often than not you will run into some really nice people. A lot of white mages will cast heal on you (or protection/other spells) for no reason other than to cast them on you expecting nothing in return. Others will be more than happy to talk to you and give you hints/tips. Of course, you can also just sit around and listen to the gossip (which is more fun than it sounds).
I suppose having (90%) nice players is a good thing because the economy in FFXI is almost all-player driven. Yes, there's shops in town that sell things at outrageous prices, but not many people buy there. Most people buy things at the Auction House. There's a number of auction houses in each town and I'm pretty sure the items sold in each are different. Basically you can buy or sell, and if you choose to sell you can set what price you want to sell your item(s) for. If you buy you can bid on the item and if you win you get the item (d'uh). Sometimes you can get really good deals because people will sell their items really low just to get rid of them and if you bid the same or higher you'll get the item (meaning if you bid way too much for it, you're being ripped off but if you're lucky you can get an item cheaper than most people). It's kind of hard to explain it, but it's pretty easy once you do it a few times. That's basically the only way to get money though (selling things on auction house). If you're looking to get rich via monsters dropping gil you will be extremely disappointed as very, very few monsters actually drop gil and when they do it's a very small amount (like 50 gil is the max I've ever gotten from a monster). This is kind of sad because PRICES ON ITEMS ARE INSANE! To give an example, to buy a small earthen pot (for my Moogle house, which I'll get to in a few) it cost me a pretty penny of 2,500 gil. If you think this is isn't bad, consider that it's just a small tiny pot that can only be used when you garden. If you're trying to synth items (combine items to make new ones) you will run out of money FAST as ores and items used for that go for anywhere from 500 to 2,000 gil each (you usually need around 4 ores to do anything).
The Moogle Houses are probably one of the neatest things but done wrong. You go into your house and there's a moogle there that has a lot of options (including gardening, holding items for you and letting you change which job/class you want). The downside is, you're the only one who will ever see that house. Everyone goes into their own houses and there's no invite/visiting commands (so you'll never be able to see someone else's house). This is bad because there's a lot of furniture that you can make or buy and decorate. It makes you wonder why they even bothered if no one will ever see it besides you. Other than that, I like the house idea.
So.. let's see..what else can I talk about now? Oh, I know.
There's missions and quests that can progress the story (yes, there IS a story in FFXI!) if you can complete them. The early missions will seem like a cake walk, but the later missions will drive you crazy. For example, the first [Bastock] mission in the game is to bring a letter to a guy in the mines then take a report to a guy in the main office of the city. Not hard, right? The mission that I just finished was to go visit a different set of mines and kill monsters until I had specific items that the monsters dropped. Now, these weren't easy monsters and I wasn't able to actually complete the mission fighting the monsters--I had to go to the auction house and buy the items he wanted there. They only get harder from there. Quests, on the other hand, generally aren't that hard just time consuming. One of the quests was to go around town and collect stamps from certain guards. It took an hour to do, and that's when we knew exactly who to talk to. I don't want to think about how long it'd take if I didn't know where to go.
In order to do some of these missions it is necessary to group up with friends. However, the party system is a little wrong, in my opinion. The person (people) with the highest level(s) will receive the most exp from monsters and the person (people) with the lowest level(s) will receive the least. That may not be bad within itsself, but if you're partying up with someone who's more than two levels higher than you you're not going to get any exp at all and might as well not bother with it. I can understand why they do this (so really high level players don't take a level 1 and kill super strong monsters to power level) but it really gets in the way when you're trying to play with friends (you all have to either level together or make sure you never go too far ahead). Wish it was a little higher (like 5 levels higher).
(continued in next message)