Anyone play Final Fantasy XI?

[The Grey Area]

Ever since I hit 60 WoW has bored the hell out of me. It is all Rep grinds and Battleground queues. This will all be fixed when the expansion hits and I can just pvp whenever I want but I would not mind trying another game out in the meantime. I mean being a priest kicked ass from 1-60 but during raids all I do is hit flash heal and dispel for 3 hours.

I have been thinking about FFXI. Anyone play it before? I am not new to MMO's so I am not afraid of it having a steep learning curve or anything. I just know that EQ2 sucks because it's players are too buys trying to be Uber to actually have fun and I want to avoid this game if the player base is like that.

If not FFXI anyone know any others?

[Calcal]

I play FFXI and havent really played Wow except for about 20 minutes or so I cant really describe key differences but hear is what ive heard. I have read that Wow has good PvP its not a grind to level and you dont necessarily need a party. And supposedly have a good system on pooling items together in a group. FFXI levels 1-10 you can solo but after that you kinda have to party. I mean you dont have to but exp in a party is faster. PvP is only in designated areas and you have to sign up to participate in it. This way you can hold an hour time slot and invite the people you want to join without any interference I dont know if wow has that.

Auction system in wow ive heard isnt that great. FFXI you put an item up and everyone else cant see it. But they can see the price history of all the same type that sold. Also FFXI had really bad inflation in December but Square is trying to delete accounts that they suspect of selling gil and watching for people using 3rd party software.

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1689 The GT video review explains it well I should have just posted this.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3149797#ffxi1 And this helps the game out to newcomers.

There was a FFXI thread but I think it was deleted when the server had problems 2 months ago.

[9999]

I want to pick this up soon, I might get it for PC. What kind of specs should I be running for it?

[final_cut]

I play it fairly often. I have it for all 3 platforms, actually. PC, Xbox 360 and ps2. I got it originally as a gift for the PC, and later I got the PS2 version so I could play it at my parent's house. I had about 70 dollars worth of credit at gamestop and I hadn't played in about 8 months, so I bought the 360 version with my credit. (my pc is now in a Mame-style cab)

On my PC, I ran it really well with a Geforce FX 5200 with a gig of ram, and a 1.2 ghz processor. No problems whatsoever- it looked great, and those weren't even that great of specs when the game came out.

Definitely looks much better on the 360. Don't touch the PS2 version though.

I'm on Quetzecoatl server, if you do end up getting it and want to party up.

[L1qu1d]

i use to play, it's terrible man it's pretty fuckin boring....prepare to waste countless hours gillfarming

[Disciple of Ryu]

Isn't "gillfarming" when you farm for money to sell for real cash? Anywho, while I wouldn't reccomend FFXI, I've played Wow, EQ2, & Rising Force online since I first subscribed to FFXI and I'm still playing FFXI and none of the others. I haven't played Wow in a while and I was only level 42 but here are some comparisons.

WOW PROS

In Wow you can level up fast and do it solo. In FFXI leveling up is a chore, there are no if ands or buts about it. It's not too bad at first but once you start getting up there it takes quite awhile since you'll spend hours seeking a party which you pretty much need before you can even gain xp. SE has made some changes over the years, you lose less xp when you die, xp required to level was reduced slightly, and there are items they give you bonus xp, ect.

One of FFXI's biggest problems is death. When you die you lose xp. At low levels it's no big deal but when you get high levels it can be infuriating if you aren't in a good party that's rakeing in xp. In Wow you just have to go repair your weapons and run back to your corpse.

No load times inbetween zones is also a nice plus for Wow. In FFXI when you inter a new area it has to load the zone, a short load, but a load nonetheless.

FFXI PROS

Some might dissagree but I think one of the best things about FFXI is the job system. In a game like Wow, if you are a Priest and you wanna level a Paladin, you have to make a completly different character and level him/her up. In FFXI you can simply go back to your characters house, select Paladin, and poof you're a Paladin. Granted you still have to level the PLD up but you can change your job whenever you wish and retain your levels. Also, once you've done a quest to can use two jobs (your "sub job" is half the level of your main) at once which more or less gives you a bunch of extra abilites and stat bonuses. Another benefit of this is that if you get a uber item that you can't equip because it's for a different class, you just level that class and use it.

Lotting is done much better in FFXI. In Wow you have to select the corpse of each monster and click on each item you want to pick up. In FFXI, you kill monster, item is in your inventory. One of the things I hated most about Wow's lotting was the Need or Greed thing. Because everyone will agree to select Greed and some a-hole will select Need and get the item every time.

Combat in FFXI is better IMHO. Again I was only level 42 and I hadn't managed to get a single XP party in that time so my only real experience was instence dungeons and soloing. For me Wow battles just seemed a chaotic mess, you pretty much get swarmed buy a bunch of enemies and you just swing and blast until they are dead (or fear then and run if you are Priest, lol). In FFXI your party fights one monster at a time (hopefully) and you build up "tp" when you swing and once your bar reaches 100 you can use a special weapon skill. Link your weapon skill with another members skill and you created a skill chain which does bonus damage. When a skill chain is activated a mage can cast a magic spell of the proper element and you get a magic burst for even more bonus damage, ect. Little things like that make me like the combat in that game more. When I first learned how to skillchain I was blown away, of course that was like 3 years ago...

Anywho, there are a lot of pros and cons to be mentioned but I'm tired of typing, lol. I'd say you'd be safe getting FFXI cuz' even if you don't like it, like any MMORPG you get a month free and it'd kill some time. If you do decied to play, I'm on the same server as Final_Cut, so PM for a worldpass (needed to select a specific server for your character), I'll give you some free Power Leveling.

[UBControl]

I just know that EQ2 sucks because it's players are too buys trying to be Uber to actually have fun and I want to avoid this game if the player base is like that.

If not FFXI anyone know any others?

FFXI is just like that, ive played it for a good chunk of time, I am glad I quit...
plus,m if u start now u'll have to spend most of ur time makin money, wich is hard at first (or easy if u have the will and patience) i've head prices went up up and away...:sweat:

As for other MMRPG, i heard of MU and some other games, but never really tried them, im playing good old Diablo II now :rofl:

[Septimus Prime]

Square Enix does not manage FFXI accounts in the US. Sony Online does. While that really doesn't matter to most people, it makes the US branch (and subsequently its GMs) pretty much powerless in terms of policy changes.