Final Fantasy XI
Voices of: Michael McConnohie (narrator)
Developer: Square
Directed by: Nobuaki Komoto
Rating: T
Genre: Role-Playing
System: PC
2002
Times Completed:
Tim: 1
Summary: The first Massively Multiplayer Online game in the Final Fantasy series brings players to the enormous, fantastic, perilous world of Vana'diel.
Review:
Tim: I can come right out and say that I hated Final Fantasy XI. Truly. Oh, sure, there so multiple moments when I adored the game. However, the experience of playing the first MMORPG in this franchise's history was routinely aggravating, annoying, laborious, and in general, a giant time suck. It's an interesting note that my time with this exceeded any other video game by a significant margin- I put 252 hours in Final Fantasy XI and the list of things I didn't do would astound you. I may never fully know how to review or talk about this game.
First off, I spent time in Vana'diel over two decades after its initial release. I recognize the game in 2023-2024 is a very different experience than when it first was released. I honestly can't fathom this- I played the game with myriad quality of life improvements- the ability to fast travel, lowered expectations on some of the missions, easier paths to building levels- and yet, I nearly always struggled with the immense waste of time the game required. It's stunning to consider the scope of Vana'diel- it's absolutely massive, beyond the scope of any game I've ever played. It's ridiculously easy to get lost, turned around. The game, especially with its expansions, is almost beyond belief. And, most players will spend countless hours going in the wrong direction, missing something and having to go back, or even if you're sure of where to go, having to run or ride forever, wait for Japanese midnight, zone out of an area and then come right back in, and on and on. This isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's my solemn belief that Square designed the game this way to waste players' time. The whole point of an MMO like this is that the recurring revenue comes from monthly subscription fees. So, allowing players to move through the game quickly hurts the revenue. The whole point of this game is to elongate everything to buy more months of fees. There's no urgency in this game- every Quest is designed to take up considerable amount of time, quality of life be damned. I played 252 hours and I can't even consider
how many of those hours were totally wasted, pointless time spent. I'll give you an example. At a certain stage in Rise of the Zilart, I needed to get a rare item drop from a enemy- a key. I probably killed enemies for 6-7 hours before finally getting the key. 6-7 hours!!! Then, I ran to another section, used the key to open a door. It was a 1-use key. I looked for the enemies I needed to destroy for a quest. As I was moving through rooms, a door closed behind my trusts, locked them in, and the enemy showed up and killed me. So I played another 2-3 hours and got a second key. This time, I didn't get my trusts locked in, but when I faced the enemy, they were more powerful than I expected and I was wiped out. Another 3 hours to get a third key, this time I had my sister and brother-in-law join me. All three of us were wiped. Another 2 hours to get a now-fourth freaking key. This was an extreme example, but I almost quit the game at this point. There's countless other small examples of this game absolutely wasting your time.
I honestly don't know how the best players actually navigated this world. I used a guide (ha, likely 2-3 different guides at times) to advance the game. It's all so obscure- talk to this random person that would be nearly impossible to find without help, click on a random question mark in a mostly featureless wilderness, buy these two items from a certain vendor- it's a horribly inaccessible game without major guidance. Playing this game is like what it would feel like to be on an actual quest in the real world, and you're a stupid moron. It's unbelievably frustrating.
Now, it's not all complaints. I randomly picked San d'Oria as my home location and some of those quests were fun. It's the basic, main game storyline. It took me a long time to finish, as I was learning the game while I played. The storyline with Trion and others was solid, and it was fun to fight the Shadow Lord. By the time I combated the final boss of the base game, he was relatively easy. The narrative was solid, the worldbuilding impressive. I can't say I'd enjoyed the game at this point, but I did appreciate defeating the Shadow Lord. I considered stopping- after all, I did complete the base game! However, I knew Final Fantasy XI was far larger than this, so I decided to tackle some of the expansions.
I really played the first two simultaneously- Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia. I know a lot of people love these, with Lion, Zeid, and others for RotZ, and the massive CoP featuring Prishe, Ulmia, Tenzen, and others. At this point, I still pretty much loathed much of my experience with the game. I don't get why people love these expansions- they felt just okay from a narrative perspective, and some of what you needed to do to advance were among the most B.S. quests of the entire game. I slogged through these expansions, not really enjoying much. At this point, though, I did start to get stronger as I inched closer to the endgame stages. I finished both of these expansions and their Epilogue Quests, because of course they had additional quests to complete. I admit, there were cool moments and towards the end, the final battles felt pretty epic. This is where the time investment pays off- you start to see the interconnectedness of these different expansions, storylines, and characters. Each of these two expansions is big enough to be a game in their own right. I did like the climax and it felt good to wrap up these two massive stories. At this point, I once again considered quitting- I finished the base game and the first two big expansions. However, I was intrigued by Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, the meta-expansion that tied everything else together. I decided to play through some of that.
Here's the interesting thing- at this point, I was about 168 hours in. I actually started to enjoy the game at this stage. I hit level 99, upgraded my weapons and armor. I'd unlocked most of the Crystals around the world, most of the survival guides. I knew how to navigate the game and for the first time, the fun outweighed the frustration. Yay. Except, it took about as long as I'd ever played any game ever to get to this stage. That's insanity.
My fun with the game gave a burst of wind to my sails, so I toggled between the Treasures of Aht Urhgan and Wings of the Goddess expansions. ToAU was perhaps my least favorite expansion. Naja Salaheem is one of the worst, most annoying characters I've ever seen in a video game. The back-and-forth with her inanity nearly did me in. Aphmau was cool and her storyline had some nice twists. Generally, I cared less about this narrative. Gessho was an interesting character. I did finish ToAU, but I decided not to do the Epilogue Quests. I didn't like the story and the first quest seemed absolutely absurd to try and accomplish. So, I was finished. I could have wrapped things up here, but...
Wings of the Goddess really stuck its claws in me. I know some people disliked this narrative, but it was my favorite of the game. I loved the character of Lilisette. She was one of the best constructed, most memorable characters in the game. The Cait Sith storyline was full of mystery and intriguing. I liked the idea of going back in time and Lady Lilith made a formidable adversary. Now, as much as I liked the narrative, I nearly gave up on this, trying to figure out how to travel through the Cavernous Maws. This expansion made you redo so much because it took place in the past. It felt unnecessarily redundant, even for this game. I suffered through that, though, and moved forward. I thought the Epilogue Quests here were interesting and I loved seeing the story through to completion. Narrative-wise, this was my favorite part of Final Fantasy XI. It's not without its flaws, but it had several excellent moments where you saw the power of storytelling on this scale.
At this point, fatigue set in, but I decided to continue a bit more. I started the Seekers of Adoulin expansion, but I didn't love it or the new mechanics it forced you to learn. There were some fun moments, but it mostly felt like more of the same running around doing pointless missions. The characters didn't grab me. I played it to Mission 2-7, enough to advance Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. I turned my focus to this broader expansion and decided it would be my last. I advanced in this until I got to Mission 3-33. (SPOILER ALERT). This is the battle against the final boss of the game, the Cloud of Darkness. Now, just a quick note- I mostly solo'd this entire game with Trusts. That wasn't easy- some of the Missions were designed for larger groups, and several times I almost got hopelessly stuck. My luck ran out on the Cloud of Darkness. Even with i119 gear (not even the best ever, mostly stuff from Adoulin) I was underpowered to fight this boss. My trusts weren't strong enough, nor was I. I was barely making a dent. I read up on my options (I've read more about this game online than maybe ever other game I've ever played combined). I had some avenues to get stronger, but they all looked like it would take 10-20 more hours of slogging time to accomplish those goals, just to return to RoV and try and defeat the final boss. I honestly did not have it in me. 250+ hours into this game and the fun had finally run out. I spent a lot of time considering this and I realized that I'm 42 years old and my clock is ticking. Did it matter to me to continue investing in a game that had no respect for my time? I realized that I'd done enough- far more than I originally expected to do. I was at peace with Final Fantasy XI. I was ready to finish. I'd played this game 252 hours over the course of about 11 months.
I finished the game as a Level 99 Warrior and Level 57 Monk. I used a ton of different Trusts throughout the game, but my main team was Valaineral, Zeid II, King of Hearts, Shantotto II, Selh'teus. My Combat Skills- Hand-to-Hand 189. Sword- 52. Axe- 4. Scythe- 147. Evasion- 334. Parrying- 451. Dagger- 59. Great Sword- 232. Great Axe- 373. Polearm- 49. Staff- 39. Guarding- 93. Shield- 13.Some of my stats- HP- 2198. MP- 58. Str- 94+128. Dex- 90+92. Vit- 89+134. Agi- 85+92. Int- 74+70. Mnd- 78+84. Chr- 80+95. iLV- 119. I did so much in this game, yet it's laughable how much of the game I didn't do. I was focused on driving forward, finishing narratives. I recognize 250 hours is nothing compared to what some people have poured into this game. It's so weird, to have invested so much time and energy in something, to become so strong, and yet to recognize that I'm likely average to slightly below than compared to the great players of the game. Middling, after all that time.
So, I'm finished with Final Fantasy XI. I don't even know where to begin, and this is the longest review I've ever written for anything. I haven't summed up the game, even with all these words. How can I describe the immense frustration I felt, when I was blocked, stuck, trying to figure out how to move forward in a game that was unnecessarily convoluted, that didn't respect my time? But, how can I describe the immense satisfaction of finishing a mission line, of seeing characters who I knew so well come together? How can you summarize feeling part of a fictional world, to have invested 10+ full days of my life living in this world? Final Fantasy XI offered an experience unlike anything I've ever had in the world of video games. I loved it. I hated it. It's something I'll never forget- it elicited strong emotions throughout, and separate from judgment, that's saying something. My character was Legus and he came to life for me as much as any in any game ever.
Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A
If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2