PS2 - NPCs lock characters in dialogue

Platform: PlayStation 2
ISP: Time Warner Cable
Type of Internet Connection: Cable/Ethernet
Internet Connection Speed: ~1.2 MB/s
Date & Time: Any day/time during past ~4 months or so.
Frequency: Roughly 85% of the time
Character Name: Hyuudo, Venna, Zodiacspear
Race: Elvaan, Hume, Hume, respectively
World: Quetzalcoatl
Main Job: Any
Support Job: Any
Area and Coordinates: Upper Jeuno, Southern San d'Oria, Northern San d'Oria, et al.
Party or Solo: Both
NPC Name: Jeanvirgaud, Renik, Amutiyaal, Secodiand, among many others.
Monster Name: N/A
Steps/Explanation:
When speaking to certain NPCs in Southern San d'Oria, Upper Jeuno, and other places, player becomes locked in dialogue with said NPC. The dialogue does not actually load. Rather, the player becomes perpetually stuck talking to the NPC (without the talking part) and cannot be acted on by party or non-party alike.

This error does not occur on PC version of Final Fantasy XI. Forcing disconnection by unplugging the ethernet cable causes the PS2 to freeze completely.

NPCs known to do this include, but are not limited to Jeanvirgaud, Secodiand in Northern San d'Oria, Amutiyaal in Southern San d'Oria, and Renik in Upper Jeuno. The issue, I would assume, occurs with many other NPCs, but there's simply too many to conduct an investigation on my own of every NPC in these zones, especially considering it means forcing a shutdown of my PS2 every time it occurs, which I'm sure isn't great for the health of the console.

I repeat, this does not occur on the PC version. This has happened in Final Fantasy XI in the past, though, when NPCs like Rytaal and Kaduru-Haiduru had the exact same issue, and was summarily fixed. This was roughly 3 years ago, when Aht'Urhgan Whitegate was still a relatively popular zone.

Please take this concern to heart. I understand the stigma attached to playing FFXI on PS2, and I won't dive into it, but it's still a serious issue with a relatively simple fix. I've been a loyal Square-Enix fan for 14 years (and FFXI for 7), and I'd like to keep it that way. Thank you.

Unfortunately, your post will be moved by the Mods to Tech Support and left there. Take a look and you will see that In-Game Bug complaints re PS2 (including mine) have been moved to Tech Support, back to In-Game Bugs and back again. SE has shown already they are not going to do anything to resolve these issues even if they could and I fully expect an announcement within a year, maybe less that PS2 will no longer be supported.

Welcome to the club.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...-Freeze-Issues

Greetings Hyuudo!

There have been multiple reports submitted about freezing/crashing problems in specific times with the PS2. We have forwarded the issue to be looked into already, but we do appreciate your report. Any updates may be posted within the forums or www.PlayOnline.com. Thank you!