Every character show up as a blonde male hume

As the title says, every character show up as a blonde male hume with a huge sword, including mine, who is supposed to be a brunette mithra (the bug occurs on my other character too).
When I restart the game, it's all fine on the character seleciton screen and sometimes after logging in, for a couple of minutes.

Is there a solution for this? I downloaded and updated the game via steam 2 days ago. Using Windows 7 and my hardware and internet connection should be sufficient for running the game.

Hello Eriphyle!

This sounds very odd, as if your files were replaced by a .dat of Cloud. What I would like for you to do is run a File Check from the PlayOnline Login Screen (the blue/white one). The Check Files option is found on the left hand side. Be warned, the default setting is to check the PlayOnline Viewer files, so you will need to change the drop down to FINAL FANTASY XI. This will scan the system for any corrupt files; you may need to reinstall the game or repatch but the system will tell you.

Also, if you use any Third Party Programs, be sure to remove them and review our Terms of Service; I am not saying you do, but this is just a disclaimer.

Once you have ran the Check Files, please let us know the results and we can progress on.

Thank you!

-SGM Jhanaka

private messages would be soo useful

This is a BlinkMeNot issue.

Thanks for the help everyone. It persisted after the first repair but I ran it again and now it seems to be fine - it appears I was also missing nameplates and about half of the NPCs in Sandoria (sorry, I purchased and installed the game about 2 or 3 days ago so not very familiar with it yet). I know you didn't suggest but I wasn't using any third party programs, only the game I got off steam.

The only problem left that while in the config tool I am able to switch my resolution to 1366x768 and confirm that my settings are saved, the game still appears vertically squished but probably I can live with that. I set it up both in the EU and US tool just in case and updated my graphics card driver but didn't help.

Hello Eriphyle,

I am glad to hear that the problem seems to be resolved and hope you manage to find a satisfying resolution to play at. I will close this thread as the matter seems to be well in hand, but if you have any future problems you believe are due to an in-game bug, please post them here and we will do our best to assist you.

Thank you,

-Verytus