Advice needed: FFXI 360

[Nico0020]

The game is about 15 bucks at my local gamestop, 2 of my friends and myself are considering getting it. Both of them have always been Final Fantasy Freaks, ive only managed to really play 1, 4, and 9. But Im always up for some social online gaming. I understand the Final Fantasy world a bit, but just got overwhelmed a bit by item management. Ive always played PSO and PSU, but those are a lot less complicated. Anyways, does anyone here play this game? I am curious of how many active users it has on at a given time. Also i have heard both ways that the 360 version does and doesnt have voice chat, so i dont know what to believe. Is it hard to get into, or can u just pick it up and play it? With 2 friends I would assume it will be easier to get into. Im just curious of what I will be getting myself into before I buy. And of course a friend from here is always a good thing. Advice? Reviews? Pointers?

[Specially Cork]

Me and Jeeba were probably 2 of the biggest players from here back in the day. I used to really enjoy it as the scope of the game is amazing (in fact, despite me preferring WoW these days, I still find prefer the world of Vana'Diel).

For me the problem is it just got pretty dated in the world of MMORPG's. Levelling is very slow going, and once you hit the mid-teens you're gonna have to party up in a full group 100% of the time to move on. There's really no option for solo or small group play, even when you need to do a quest that only benefits you. You will be spending a lot of time just camping in a group following a well-rehearsed grinding pattern. There was still something fun about the team-work and exploration, but unlike modern MMOs there's never anything you could just finish off by yourself while you kill half an hour or wait for people to get online.

Alright, now onto your other queries:

1) I have no idea about voice chat as I played it on PC, not 360. Either way, you'll probably still need a keyboard as you're going to be speaking to people who don't have voice chat.

2) With the auction house, merchant tools and crafting jobs there are a lot of items in this game, however the system is extremely accessible, and FF11 has a system where well-behaved game veterans sign up to help noobs out, so it's always easy to find someone who can help you out with whatever you don't understand.

3) The game is nowhere near as busy as some more recent MMOs, but Square-Enix are still promoting it heavily and have just released new versions of the game in a number of countries this year, so there's probably still new people coming to the game. On top of that, you can level up your character in every different class available (and have to do that in at least 2), so there's always people re-levelling up from the beginning to play with.

4) The game overwhelmed me at first. No opening tutorial and it was my first MMO. Using the veteran help system thing I explained above really helps a lot though. They can personally guide you through the basics. After that it is very easy to get into.

5) Unless they've changed it, you can't choose what server you want to play on right off the bat. They assign you one automatically and you can invite friends to it at a later date. This doesn't mean you and your friends can't play together, but you're gonna have to keep deleting and re-creating characters until you all end up on the same server, which might be a pain.

Finally, you are aware there is a monthly fee on top of anything else you're currently paying right?

[APE]

I have the 360 version myself, just use it for the achievements my brother gets on his PC account. The framerate and graphics are trash even when compared to a low end pc.

[Nico0020]

thanks a lot for ur answers. yea i know there is a monthly fee, but like 20 bucks for the game, 30 days free. and basicly paying 3 more months equals buying a new 360 game anyways. Once my other friend picks up his 360 I might try it out. And for anyone playing the 360 version, doesnt it take up like a lot of HDD space?

[pavelbure]

i still play. it is a lot better now then it was a few years ago. i am on the gilgamesh server. you can choose your server when you make your character.

[Specially Cork]

What makes it better than it was a few years ago pavelbure? That's around the time I quit.

[Luriden]

I'd also like to try this game someday. I really wish there was a trial or something I could check out instead of buying the game first.

[Gmc]

The only thing that pisses me off about FFXI, is not being able to solo stuff from about lv13/14 onwards. I hate being forced to party with people.
I played uptil about lv25 and stopped, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

Tho now WoW is my main mmo timesink....love the fact that your not forced to group to make any progress, and theres endless amounts of stuff to do, and a lot of endgame content :p

[Specially Cork]

I rebought it new off eBay for a fiver anyway. Even if I get bored of it again, I can't complain for a fiver.

[pavelbure]

What makes it better than it was a few years ago pavelbure? That's around the time I quit.

here's a nice little read.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?f ... =27;page=1

a lot more storage space now. a heck of a lot easier to get to camps. you still need a party to xp. but they recently made changes so smaller groups could get more xp. usually more xp also with the empress band xp ring. they have taken a lot of the gil sellers out of the game. sure, some are still there, but it isnt nearly as bad as it used to be.

only problem i would say is with the game now, there are a lot of 75's in merit parties all the time. so any new people will have a tougher go at the lower levels than a few years ago when more people were lower levels. not to say it's impossible, just a tad bit harder. i recently leveled 2 jobs at lower levels and it wasn't too bad. a lot of people just get power leveled now, so that helps out.

[Specially Cork]

Well my copy off eBay turned up today. Can't complain when it cost less than a month's subscription.

Well, actually, I can complain. I completely forgot about the pathetic updating system. It took ages to check all the files, and now it wants 4-5 hours to download the updates

[Gmc]

Well my copy off eBay turned up today. Can't complain when it cost less than a month's subscription.

Well, actually, I can complain. I completely forgot about the pathetic updating system. It took ages to check all the files, and now it wants 4-5 hours to download the updates

Imagine having to do it on a 360...one it takes longer, and two your systems at risk of overheating and being a box with 3 lovely red lights because you left it on downloading patches from Playonline. Good stuff...not.

[Specially Cork]

Lost connection to server, so now it's checking all 17500 files over again.

[pavelbure]

Lost connection to server, so now it's checking all 17500 files over again.

welcome back

[Specially Cork]

I just don't understand why it has to check all those files again. Surely it can just check a download log and what version I have to know which files need updating?

[Nico0020]

I am assuming that the version u got for so cheap is the PC version? wow 4-5 hours to download updates, crazy! Though im planning on picking it up when I get another pay check this week. im also gonna need to pick up a USB keyboard for my 360. Ive never had problems with overheating, and ive played this thing long into the nights, but in the event of anything I might put a fan next to it lol.

[politoe]

If you stop playing this, how long* will Square keep your character before deleting it? I've aslo heard that Square is releasing another mmo soon, will there be any possible way to move over the character if anything?

typo*

[Specially Cork]

Yeah PC version. PS2>USB converter for the joypad and away I go!

[Specially Cork]

Well, after a couple of hours of play pretty much all my fond memories of this game have been shattered. This was my first MMO ever, from my pre-WoW days, and I really enjoyed it back then. Now post-WoW all my original complaints I recalled earlier seem even worse. The areas lack noticeable art-direction, everywhere is deserted, levelling is slow, and the early battling is beyond dull. Even in the early levels of WoW you had a good variety of attacks and equipment. This is just "press attack and wait til you win" stuff, and healing downtime seems to drag on and on.

I had all these issues before, but WoW seems to have spoiled me and it all seems so much worse. I regret coming back to it to be honest because it's pissing on the nice nostalgic bonfire I had going. At least I only paid a fiver for it. I really can't see myself stumping up the £8 monthly fee.

I'll give it another shot in the morning with a more interesting class, but I can't see this lasting too long.

[Joestar]

Yeah, I had a lot of good memories of it too. Was instantly hooked and it didn't exactly help with my A-Levels either Was considering if i should go back or not for nostalgia's sake, but i always get the feeling that once i step back in the problems would be much more noticable than when i first played it. Boney pretty much confirmed it for me!

If FFXII was an MMO, oooohhhh boy.