Why is FFXI the best MMORPG ever created?

Since 2003 i try to get into other MMORPGs and none comes close to the immersion i have in FFXI. I care about the story, the places and the people of vanadiel. I find them believable somehow.

I only felt something similar in Everquest Online Adventures that was shutdown by Sony. I still find it awesome to go to Zilart, COP and TOAU areas. Fight goblings/orcs/yagudo.

I still think the battle system in FFXI is the best one in terms of immersion. I never managed to feel immersed in World of Warcraft type of battle system. I always imagined myself controlling a doll or a cartoon character in WoW or Rift or AoC, or DCUO or Everquest II, etc.

In FFXI i feel like the character i play is part of me or at least a believable person. Not even going to mention the soundtrack.

I feel like FFXI was made by passionate japanese devs. Thats probably the difference between FFXI and everything else that is in the market.

Sorry for grammar errors.

I feel pretty much the same way about it (at least up until abyssea and later adoulin, two points it wen't down for me but I will still to this day defend ffxi to the death). There's a lot of reasons why this could be but for me it was the total experience, not just one thing or even the sum of many things.

Because the original core game was made with love, it was created by people who were passionate about computergames / FF culture / roleplaying culture.

The game was not created with an attitude of just "make it shiny enough to pull in lots of dollars fast."

This game was created with amazing attention to detail, and a real love for the game world they were designing. It was never a rush-job, or a tacky moneyspinner. It was created to push new boundaries, and to create something that was truly a beautiful work of art. The game engine is a masterpiece, the core game really is a very beautiful thing indeed.

And it is beautiful because it was made by people who really really cared about what they were doing. Beautiful art just ages really well, you stay enthralled to it even though it becomes old in decades. You love it because you can see the love that was put into creating it. Its a love / respect thing.

One thing I really like is the line by line dialogue, and the writing style. It feels like the NPCs are actually talking to me and aware of me.

I also like that there's things like gates guarded by elite San d'Orian guards you can only go through one way or other little tricks to getting around... but I understand how it can be frustrating too. It really feels like a world I'm playing in. XIV has stuff I like but... I don't know, I feel like it's missing something here.

You all bring up great points. FFXI was actually my first MMO I ever played. I admit it took a while for me to get the hang of. I have always been a FF fan in general. I play games for their story and FF has always delivered as far as an in depth story goes.

One of the biggest things that stands out to me in XI is that you only need one character to be able to play all the jobs you want. I have tried so many other MMOs since I have played XI. But I always keep coming back to XI because as weird as it sounds, I have such an attachment to my character that I have been playing for the past 9-10 years. I could never get that kind of attachment from characters I made in other MMOs, because in order to play other jobs/classes/professions, you need to make another character.

The artistic talent, games don't have to be super high res and have 100000 polygons if truly skilled people created the visuals.
The familiarity of the world along with the immense size of it.
The wealth of things to do (across a wide range, not just raid raid raid).
Constant, fast updates.
The love and immense talent that went into this game, after playing XIV and seeing an MMO they made on an assembly line the love they poured into this game shines all the more.
Being able to run on almost any system.
Simple enough battle system where you don't have to stress, or where you have so many things to press you don't have time to chat. No rotations or cycles where you have to hit every timer.

This game is great. I've loved it for almost a decade.

Because FFXI's world and atmosphere was really the last to come out of Square before it started going downhill.

FFIX, X, and XI were all planned (and announced?) at the same time. I don't have my source for this but I remember hearing it, years ago.

I may have quit so many years ago and just came back tonight for little less than an hour (just getting basic controls back down), but I am still in love with this game's lore & atmosphere.

People often say that FFX was the last "true" Final Fantasy but for me, FFXI, although it is a MMO, is one of the best FF ever.
It is the only MMO where I feel like being at home, I care about the NPCs, I find the players being quite nice for the majority, I am truly attached to my character, Vana'diel and everything in it.
I tried playing XIV but it's just an empty game, I'd say it has no soul, at all. When the producer of XIV says he is making the best FF ever, I don't think he even knows what a FF is about and I find it quite insulting for the serie.
I gladly came back to FFXI eight months ago and this time around, I think I am staying until they close this beautiful, unique game.

People would argue that things have changed since Abyssea, but I think that they could've broke the game way more than people think they did. Indeed, things changed but the spirit of the game is still here. Adoulin storyline is still impressive quality-wise, the dialogues are well-written, the arts are beautiful.

I simply cannot find this atmosphere anywhere else and I'll stay as long as it lasts. And I must admit that I enjoy being able to play by myself a bit more than we used to be able to, it is a different experience than what I lived during the many years I played in the "old" FFXI but it is still very enjoyable and thrilling.

I love this game so much :)

Every time I come back to this game, I think how much I love it. I don't think I'll ever stop playing it for good. No other game has ever compelled me to play like FFXI. It's a beautiful rich world that's hard to explain to anyone who doesn't play it. There is such enormous variety and fun put into this game. It has heart.

FFXI is always evolving. I'm amazed at all the changes this time. I thought with FFXIV out, they'd be dropping support/enhancements, but they're still making wonderful changes that I love. FFXI changes, but it's always beautiful to me.

The thing i "used" to speak very fondly of FFXi in the past to ppl who never played was the fact that when 75 was the level cap...all end game content from all expansions were relevant unlike other MMORPGS where new expansion equaled all old content was obsolete.

You could get get good leg armor from sky, another piece from sea, another from enherjar (sp?), some from dynamis, etc etc.

collect them all and you got an awesome character put together which was genius game design for recycling old content.

the fact this game lets you gear swap mid battle really pushes people to "collect" all the pieces from all content especially for things like "enhances job ability effect" so you can marco them in for 1 sec on the use of the JA.

wish they would go back to this formula.

+ Core gameplay is still enjoyable to me
+ ToAU is my favorite expansion still, and its part of the reason I keep making mythic weapons.
+ Still has some long term goals worth doing
+ Equipment swapping, situational gear
+ Job/Subjob system is still my favorite
+ Mog House/Garden
+ I have plenty to do still solo if I have limited playtime, or my friends aren't on/busy with their own things.
+ JP players are generally very friendly so I can do things with them

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Originally Posted by Omen

The thing i "used" to speak very fondly of FFXi in the past to ppl who never played was the fact that when 75 was the level cap...all end game content from all expansions were relevant unlike other MMORPGS where new expansion equaled all old content was obsolete.

You could get get good leg armor from sky, another piece from sea, another from enherjar (sp?), some from dynamis, etc etc.

collect them all and you got an awesome character put together which was genius game design for recycling old content.

the fact this game lets you gear swap mid battle really pushes people to "collect" all the pieces from all content especially for things like "enhances job ability effect" so you can marco them in for 1 sec on the use of the JA.

wish they would go back to this formula.

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the sad part is, even with how neutered the variety is for top end gear in current XI, its still leagues beyond the variety in every other MMO

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Originally Posted by Stompa

Because the original core game was made with love, it was created by people who were passionate about computergames / FF culture / roleplaying culture.

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Huh? What ffxi were you playing? Outside of jobs, chocobos and moogles, it had next to nothing to FF. Sure it borrowed the names of enemies from old FF games, but they had nothing to do (appearance-wise) with them a good chunk of the time. For example, look at morbol, looks nothing like it did in other FF games, wasn't until Rafflessia were released in WoG that we got the proper FF morbol. The original FFXI was designed with little content so things were made extremely hard and time consuming to keep us playing. That doesn't sound like passion, that sounds like busy-work while they made more content so we wouldn't bail on the game. This game wasn't filled with love for it's fans until it's original director was fired a few years ago (yeah yeah, he "retired" - that's just how people get fired in the public eye now.)

If you want FFXI love, it's what we have now. Daily rewards, accessible content for everyone, trusts, item levels, RoE, fixed auction searching, NPCs that point out quests in the area, Mog Garden, increased movement speed, etc... We, as subscribers, are loved/respected now much more than we were ever loved/respected since this game launched. It's incredible that so many don't see that.

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Originally Posted by Spectreman

Since 2003 i try to get into other MMORPGs and none comes close to the immersion i have in FFXI. I care about the story, the places and the people of vanadiel. I find them believable somehow.

I only felt something similar in Everquest Online Adventures that was shutdown by Sony. I still find it awesome to go to Zilart, COP and TOAU areas. Fight goblings/orcs/yagudo.

I still think the battle system in FFXI is the best one in terms of immersion. I never managed to feel immersed in World of Warcraft type of battle system. I always imagined myself controlling a doll or a cartoon character in WoW or Rift or AoC, or DCUO or Everquest II, etc.

In FFXI i feel like the character i play is part of me or at least a believable person. Not even going to mention the soundtrack.

I feel like FFXI was made by passionate japanese devs. Thats probably the difference between FFXI and everything else that is in the market.

Sorry for grammar errors.

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It's almost unbelievable to me that the first MMORPG I ever played is still the best MMORPG on the market even over a decade later. And as you suggest, I believe the combat is a big part as to why that is. It actually feels like I'm engaging something, rather clicking a hot bar over and over until the sprite is dead. So immersion is definitely a factor.

This is one of the only MMORPGs out there not tainted by the influence of World of War Crap.

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Originally Posted by Apie

Huh? What ffxi were you playing? Outside of jobs, chocobos and moogles, it had next to nothing to FF. Sure it borrowed the names of enemies from old FF games, but they had nothing to do (appearance-wise) with them a good chunk of the time. For example, look at morbol, looks nothing like it did in other FF games, wasn't until Rafflessia were released in WoG that we got the proper FF morbol. The original FFXI was designed with little content so things were made extremely hard and time consuming to keep us playing. That doesn't sound like passion, that sounds like busy-work while they made more content so we wouldn't bail on the game. This game wasn't filled with love for it's fans until it's original director was fired a few years ago (yeah yeah, he "retired" - that's just how people get fired in the public eye now.)

If you want FFXI love, it's what we have now. Daily rewards, accessible content for everyone, trusts, item levels, RoE, fixed auction searching, NPCs that point out quests in the area, Mog Garden, increased movement speed, etc... We, as subscribers, are loved/respected now much more than we were ever loved/respected since this game launched. It's incredible that so many don't see that.

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I fail to see how quality of life designs are relevant to "design the game with love" discussion. Daily rewards, ilv, trusts, RoE, NPC hand holding quests are just copy and paste functions from other MMOs. It's been done for years and been done to death. In fact ilv isn't even quality of life update, it's a poorly implemented feature copied from other titles and it doesn't work very well in FFXI.

I think what Stompa means the amount of little detail in the world of FFXI. Without a doubt it's A LOT more streamlined than most other MMO titles, including current-gen MMO. There's a magic that can draw the players in and feel immersed with the world design due to the amount of the detail and atmosphere in the world of FFXI. Even compare with newer titles like TESO, SWTOR, GW2 and even SE's own FFXIV ARR, FFXI's world design is undeniably more immersive....for gods sake most current gen titles doesn't even have a proper weather system....or not as well done as FFXI's weather system. In most titles I don't care about what day/time/weather is in game, in FFXI it affects the gameplay enough that everytime I have to check current time/weather/moonphrase, it feels just like rl lol.

Despite you hate the original creator, IMO he contributes a lot more than current dev. He created a world that's more immersive than most titles on the market even today, while the current dev just copied what's done in other titles and paste them in FFXI. Current dev doesn't outperform other MMORPG developer, the original creator did. You really shouldn't downplay their accomplishment just because you hate grinding. Most of the titles at that time are a lot more slow paced and grindy than current-gen titles, it isn't until WoW that changed the nature of MMORPG.

I've tried to get into many other MMO for past 5 years so I can quit FFXI, I don't find any of them immersive enough to get me play longer than 3 months, most of the titles on the market just miss something and feels souless. Perhaps FFXI would be the last MMO I spend a long time playing lol.