So... I heard that XI was having a free period and I really wanted to do RoV, so I downloaded and powered through it.
I think it's no coincidence, and quite wonderful, that the free period coincided with the final content update. It allowed people like me, who weren't sure I was ready to pay again, a way to say goodbye.
I've been a harsh judge of this game in the past (WKR mostly), frustration led to me quitting the game at XIV's release but..
It is the stick which I measure all MMO's by.
- The job system is the best ever conceived. I don't mean the specific jobs, though many are just wonderful (Scholar, Dancer, Ninja), I mean the job/subjob system. This is the only game that I've ever played where there were more than one Best gearsets to pursue (A drg/sam geared differently than a drg/war, a war/nin different than a war/sam, etc). The only way, IMO, to improve the job system is the make crafts official jobs like FFXIV did. That aspect was really smart.
- While looking for party and not finding one sucked (at certain times of day, or on certain jobs), I loved that grouping was necessary. It created a better community per-server and overall than most games have.
- I love switching gear in combat. I really love it. I like having fast-cast, pdt, mdt, etc sets.
- While enmity was broken for a long time, I love the enmity system of this game. I love supertanking and otherwise being a super-tank . I loved compliments.
- I loved the auto-translate system. There was something special to it about being called {Impossible to Gauge} {Paladin} in a foreign party.
XI gave me some of the best friends I've ever had in games. Some I lost touch with, some I still talk to--
Lamal, Kaidaa, Auraflare, Alexos, Simonthemage, Oyasumi, Headache, Lleox, Arekkusu, Xial, Bluegirl, Inoue, Razorn, Ragmar.
And while we never became lifelong friends, thanks for the good times to the LS Bloodstone! You guys are all class acts. My gets-me-by brd doesn't get-me-by anymore though. Heck, my PLD is clinging on fear dear life ; ;.
XI gave me some of the best memories that I've ever had in a game.
I will miss this game. I'm addicted to it like a drug. That warning at the beginning about remembering other priorities? Hardly notice it. I love this game.
SE, if you ever make another game like XI (not XIV), let me know, I'll be the first to subscribe. Must have the same job system though, it was {Impossible to gauge}.
And thanks so much for re-activating forum accounts in the free trial so I could post this.
Thank you for RoV. I always said when FFXI "ends", I want it to have a CS on par with FFXIV's transitional cs to ARR. I still do, but we already got something better. RoV, and especially the Emptiness, was poetry.
RoV Spoiler: You thanked us for 14 years of service. I didn't play that long, but thank you for 14 years of a great game.
My best memory in game.. I was a total noob in sky in 2007. I was a mostly-AF pld/nin somewhere between 0 and 9% haste. Our little LS was a bunch of friendly casual people but we were gonna kill Byakko, so off we go.
My ninja co-tank pops Byakko without shadows and dies right off the bat, but I'd seen videos and I give it my all and my healers give it their all, and I tank him til the ninja becomes unweak and can catch up to my enmity.
Lamal, my inspiration to become PLD, sends me a tell after we win "Dude, you're the best d*** paladin I've ever seen." Now I know where Byakko ranked in 2007 for most LSs, but he was hard for us and we earned the kill. It was magic.