question for current ffxi players

[JonLuso]

I don't think you'd have much trouble experiencing the game. If you are brand new to XI, it may be a little rough when you first land. You literally get dropped into town, with a voucher for 50g. No real instruction, no !'s all over the place to indicate where quests are, and you may question your sanity for deciding to pick up the game at all. lol. But I do think you'd enjoy it once you start to explore and get your feet wet. Graphics are obviously outdated, but it has a great story, and there is an amazing depth to it that XIV will never have.

They've introduced a lot of NPCs in the starting cities that are standing basically where you first spawn into the game. Their names are very straight-forward: they're there to guide you and explain various things about the nature of the game. For instance, the Linkshell Concierge explains everything LS's while the starting NPC that you give the voucher to has new/replaced dialogue and options that explain how to play the game, not to mention a mini-tutorial.

The UI has seen much refinement, as well, to try and consolidate various items, such as Currencies, gear sets and macro sets, chat settings and communication settings.

They even have updated the Help Desk with information on almost everything you could possibly find in the game with screenshot guides and requirements displayed at the top (nearly everything; Limbus and other things like Fame are left out, but they're there for players to discern via quests).

SE was trying to make the game more casual-friendly and user-accessible; these small but needed touches are more than welcomed.

[Alaray]

Reading this thread does make me feel sad I was never able to play FFXI. I actually bought a copy of it during one of the expansions, but due to internet limitations and the attached fee I wasn't able to actually try it out; definitely sounds like it has its flaws (like everything) but it also sounds like one of those games where lasting friendships/memories were made over time. (And the various systems always sounded rather intriguing). I sort of feel the same with XIV 1.0, but there was no way any computer I had then would be able to run it period, lol.

Sort of sad to hear its ending, although I was expecting it because I wasn't sure if SE was going to run two MMO's side by side (Unless XI upkeep was really cost efficient, original Guild Wars is still around because it basically costs the company nothing to keep it running).

But best of luck to the OP with all of that -- I wish I had information to contribute to the main purpose of the thread itself, but yeah x.x

[Shuon]

too bad that the FFXI u will play today is a shadow of its former self....the old times are long gone :_(

Agree but disagree.

I'm loving it so much now that I don't need to wait for people to do content, and Asura is still very populated so I don't feel alone.

It's a little different from before but not having to wait means a lot to me now

[Welsper59]

It probably aged better than what FFXIV will. We're still on the second year of the game and on ilv210 gear. In 8 more years, we're probably sitting at ilv1500 with nothing to do.

What I meant by that was that it's a general practice in XI that everything is done through text commands, quickened through the creation of macros. The menus are there, but inefficient when needing to do various things spread out across different sections of the menu, not to mention gear swapping pretty much mandating macro use to do. Definitely a step up from the old input games that use text commands though..

>Get ye flask

>> You can't get ye flask!

[Magis]

Ok, time for the funniest thing ever.... a chocobo ontop of a chocobo lol. Or a Choru (Choco Taru)?.

[Iromi]

Agree but disagree.

I'm loving it so much now that I don't need to wait for people to do content, and Asura is still very populated so I don't feel alone.

It's a little different from before but not having to wait means a lot to me now

No, he means the FFXI now is practically a changed game. It does not have the same feel that it did years ago...at all. I don't know about others, but I play MMORPG to play with others and be social, if I wanted to play a solo game..I'd buy a solo game without the monthly fee.

I came back in August to try it...lasted about a week before realizing the game changed so much it is not the game I played from 2003 - 2011. Ugh.

[Zumi]

I went back to play FFXI for the free time to beat the final missions. I recorded my final mission if you want to see how the game ends. Part 1 is the cutscene before the final battle, and part 2 is final battle and ending cutscene. The first part has one of the best fight scenes in the game.

part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05awkQiSMV8
part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoY3kiuGxss

Also lets you see why Iroha is in FFXIV

[Shuon]

Thanks zumi, looks awesome!

I didn't even finish cop in my days (oops) so RoV wasn't the only reasons I'm playing it again.

It's great now though - having all the content available and not being difficult to do is fantastic for me to go through the stories and enjoy the sceneries.

[Xanikk999]

I played FFXI for one year starting when I was 16 years old. I was forced to quit during Chains of Promathya because my account was hacked and the hacker changed my secret question and all my details. My mother was on the phone with support and none of the new details added up with ours so they told her they couldn't restore the account. I cried so much that day. I never got my account back and starting playing WoW 2 years later which I still play to this day.

Now for my question. How much of the game has changed since Chains of Promathya? I remember when I played it was MANDATORY to level as a group past level 15 as the mobs because way too hard to solo unless you were a beastmaster. Is this still the case?

What else has changed since then? I might be tempted to try it.

[Talraen]

I think some of the FFXI vets here are remembering the game with extremely rose-colored glasses. Yes, FFXI is awesome, but it wasn't even a remotely accessible game, and really still isn't. Sure you can level like crazy, but good luck actually doing anything without consulting a wiki or two at every step. The game UI offers an absolute minimum of help, especially for older quests and missions. Almost every modern MMO nicety that exists is in direct reaction to games like FFXI (specifically EQ, but the two are very similar in this regard).

Similarly, no one ever talks about how impossible it was to actually get anything done back in the day. There was no reward for replaying old missions, so you could only get help if you happened to find a full party who needed it, had friends who were super nice, or (more likely) had friends who needed to get you through that mission so they could help you with the one they were stuck on. If you wiped on a boss and couldn't reraise the party, you'd have to start the whole dungeon over, so no one EVER tried to learn fights the hard way. Everyone would read and memorize the entire dungeon and boss from old strategies, and god forbid you wanted to veer at all from the established path. If you think the "go watch a video" culture of FFXIV is bad, it had nothing on FFXI.

So yeah, I highly recommend playing FFXI, but realize what you're getting into, and realize that the people evangelizing FFXI are the small few who had the resources to fully enjoy it back in the day. Games have become much friendlier in the interim because at some point someone realized "hey, we can make more money if the game is actually playable!"

/rant