The truth is we need a remastered XI or a follow up

[Vyrerus]

It's possible. But I'm mostly talking about a clean slate here.

There's definitely people who want to play the old style, but I'm not sure there's a sizable enough amount of people to support the necessary financial strain.

FFXI came off the cusp of Final Fantasy's huge success with 7, 8, 9, and 10. Along with their other games. Its development was spurred on by the creative team's vision, and it was something that was developed largely prior to Square's merger with Enix.

At the time, MMOs were nearly brand new, and in spite of Final Fantasy's popularity, FFXI was actually met with a lot of scorn by fans of the series. Its enormous price tag and unintuitive setup and systems drove a lot of people who had the balls to try it away.

Even in its golden era(for active player accounts) it never broke 3million subs iirc. And its zenith only lasted a couple of years. With its level 75 plateau lasting for 6.5 years, this came to be the game for many of its players, and when they inevitably raised the level cap to 80, that also drove many people to unsubscribe. Though it is true that its development costs were eventually outweighed completely, and it was Square Enix's lifeline for finances for the better part of the last decade.

So just like Final Fantasy as a whole, it has a largely fragmented perception of what it is, what it's about, and how it should be.

To bring it to modern graphics with better menus and less jank would require a rebuild. It would also require not letting people who've played it all this time down with regards to their decades of progress. Of course, that would immediately destroy game balance, so letting old salts have everything they have now in the new version while fair for them would be unfair for all new players and its Auction House system. So you couldn't feasibly do that. Which means the old base for XI would likely not pick up Nu XI.

FFVII remake happened because FFVII was very very popular worldwide, putting the series on everyone's radar. It holds a lot of nostalgia and a lot of childhoods and a lot of, "My first RPG" for many folks. FFXI is some people's first MMORPG, but it has a substantially smaller draw. FFVII is easy money, easy cow to milk. It has fan boys that will eat anything labeled FFVII. FFXI is pretty much its polar opposite. Fan boys that would die for XI and more XI, but only if it's, "The right kind of XI."

[Jeeqbit]

Yes, FF11 needed a revamp a very long time ago to make it into a modern MMORPG but it didn't get it, it still hasn't got it and there doesn't seem to be any plans for it either.

I tried to play it and I just couldn't. No hotbars, combat speed many times slower than FFXIV, no quest markers, it's designed for a controller and difficult to work on a keyboard/mouse, moving with the map out and opening the map was difficult for me. I couldn't exit the start city for hours because the controls were so poor that I couldn't navigate out of it. It makes you appreciate the little things in FFXIV that you don't think about like being able to press M to see where you are going with a faded map and MSQ markers.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Supposedly they're working on an offline version of FFXI they can release before taking the game's online servers offline due to it being a numerical main line title in the franchise series.

IMO I'd rather they go with making a brand new MMO keeping FFXI's original design philosophy intact with as much or more mechanical details including all the small hidden ones people don't find without experimenting.

[EliaStormblade]

I'll pass and stick with XIV, but I hope you guys get what you want.

[Vyrerus]

Supposedly they're working on an offline version of FFXI they can release before taking the game's online servers offline due to it being a numerical main line title in the franchise series.

IMO I'd rather they go with making a brand new MMO keeping FFXI's original design philosophy intact with as much or more mechanical details including all the small hidden ones people don't find without experimenting.

I don't know. A lot of the philosophies get circumvented by data miners and spreadsheet enthusiasts. Goes up on BG-Wiki or FFXIclopedia, or other sites in days of yore. You try to figure stuff out yourself? Lost for hours. Look it up from the data miners who figure it out by botting/reverse engineering the game etc. Smoothish sailing. Find something they didn't maybe, somehow? Ridiculed/told you're wrong/you're just eyeballin' it etc. All hail the sacred spreadsheet!

An offline version sounds interesting. I'd love to see how they balance it.

[Ath192]

Supposedly they're working on an offline version of FFXI they can release before taking the game's online servers offline due to it being a numerical main line title in the franchise series.

IMO I'd rather they go with making a brand new MMO keeping FFXI's original design philosophy intact with as much or more mechanical details including all the small hidden ones people don't find without experimenting.

Yeah. Something like this.

I don't know. A lot of the philosophies get circumvented by data miners and spreadsheet enthusiasts. Goes up on BG-Wiki or FFXIclopedia, or other sites in days of yore. You try to figure stuff out yourself? Lost for hours. Look it up from the data miners who figure it out by botting/reverse engineering the game etc. Smoothish sailing. Find something they didn't maybe, somehow? Ridiculed/told you're wrong/you're just eyeballin' it etc. All hail the sacred spreadsheet!

An offline version sounds interesting. I'd love to see how they balance it.

Man you really seem against it lol. Despite all this I think it'd be good.

[Hurlstone]

This remaster or new release should appeal to adventure/open world/progression enjoyers and XIV should probably stick to its pop culture theme park instanced rides.

They should share a sub. I think everyone would be much happier. They could even share assets but the style of these MMO's would appeal to different crowds and be popular in their respective fields. I'm sure of it.

Hmmm... is a remaster needed? The game is still going so must have a stable enough playerbase, so it must be doing something right as it is. I kinda feel if you want a game more akin to what you describe, it would be better just to make a new MMO. A remake has the risk of alienating those who enjoyed the game in its previous iterations, and I dunno if the name and legacy alone would be enough to get as many people back playing to justify the effort. Shared subs would be great I agree, but if it was gonna happen I think it would have by now.

As someone with fond memories of the game, I like the sound of an offline version. Perhaps a cut down, solo version could be enhanced.

[Vyrerus]

Yeah. Something like this.



Man you really seem against it lol. Despite all this I think it'd be good.

Nah, not against the idea. Just intimately familiar with XI's playerbase over the years as well as its design. As fun as it is, you're always fighting against some other person's perception of what's a good job combo, good group comp, and what's "meaningful" content. And when I say fighting against, I mean a lot of the time you can't get into groups unless you make your own, or you play a job you don't want to play.

It's been a huge problem for the game's entire lifespan. There's supremely useful jobs for buffing and support like White Mage and Bard(or Corsair and Geomancer). They're borderline required for high end fights. However, everyone wants to be a Dark Knight, Samurai, Warrior, or Monk (and in the current era a BLU or a RDM). And a lot of the battles require those support jobs to basically stand still only using their buffing moves/cures on cooldown and nothing else (though I think the most recent, recent content is only 6 man, so it has everyone have to get in on meleeing/dpsing).

As much as I love FFXI, its blessing and its curse has always been how unbalanced it is and how its players play with this imbalance. It is the most meta gaming you will ever see/read, with passionate guide makers only finally putting in transitional gearsets instead of only the pinnacle BIS goals in their guides in very recent years. Most folks who've never given up playing it have always held the mindset, "What's the absolute best gear I can get? Ok, everything below that is transitional garbage, and I shouldn't even bother with half of it."

Trust me, if a new XI comes out, and it's 99% accurate to XI whether it's current or old XI, almost every newbie who tries it will say it's too hard and cumbersome of a grind, while any old salts that pick it up will adopt the mindset of domination.

[RitsukoSonoda]

I don't know. A lot of the philosophies get circumvented by data miners and spreadsheet enthusiasts. Goes up on BG-Wiki or FFXIclopedia, or other sites in days of yore. You try to figure stuff out yourself? Lost for hours. Look it up from the data miners who figure it out by botting/reverse engineering the game etc. Smoothish sailing. Find something they didn't maybe, somehow? Ridiculed/told you're wrong/you're just eyeballin' it etc. All hail the sacred spreadsheet!

An offline version sounds interesting. I'd love to see how they balance it.

IMO an offline version of FFXI would probably have changes similar to that offline DQX they released though in the case of DQX they seem to have done that more as a gateway to players to get caught up for the online version as it has an option after completing it to basically turn your character into an online account at which point you can begin buying the later expansions as the offline version only included I think like the first 6 years of content.

As for FFXI's design philosophy. I was talking more about it's design having intentional difficulty and a lack of handholding for the purpose of actually getting people to interact with others in game as actual people as opposed to FFXIV's heavy handholding, heavy instancing, and non existent requirement of knowing how anything in the game works to progress to the point you can start jumping into people's endgame activities resulting in large amounts of players viewing everyone else as an NPC. It also didn't shoehorn players nearly as much into having to do the MSQ just to access content as much of it had alternate methods of access that admittedly were more tedious or difficult in many cases than just doing the story.

Nah, not against the idea. Just intimately familiar with XI's playerbase over the years as well as its design. As fun as it is, you're always fighting against some other person's perception of what's a good job combo, good group comp, and what's "meaningful" content. And when I say fighting against, I mean a lot of the time you can't get into groups unless you make your own, or you play a job you don't want to play.

It's been a huge problem for the game's entire lifespan. There's supremely useful jobs for buffing and support like White Mage and Bard(or Corsair and Geomancer). They're borderline required for high end fights. However, everyone wants to be a Dark Knight, Samurai, Warrior, or Monk (and in the current era a BLU or a RDM). And a lot of the battles require those support jobs to basically stand still only using their buffing moves/cures on cooldown and nothing else (though I think the most recent, recent content is only 6 man, so it has everyone have to get in on meleeing/dpsing).

As much as I love FFXI, its blessing and its curse has always been how unbalanced it is and how its players play with this imbalance. It is the most meta gaming you will ever see/read, with passionate guide makers only finally putting in transitional gearsets instead of only the pinnacle BIS goals in their guides in very recent years. Most folks who've never given up playing it have always held the mindset, "What's the absolute best gear I can get? Ok, everything below that is transitional garbage, and I shouldn't even bother with half of it."

Trust me, if a new XI comes out, and it's 99% accurate to XI whether it's current or old XI, almost every newbie who tries it will say it's too hard and cumbersome of a grind, while any old salts that pick it up will adopt the mindset of domination.

The lack of the "everyone needs to be able to do everything the same" is one of FFXI's strong points IMO. It's that kind of environment that encourages people to actually think a bit. It's fuel for the build crafters trying to optimize their playstyle. I had multiple gear sets for every job that were assembled for taking that job through different content or soloing. BLU took it further with spell sets since certain combinations or sets unlocked passive traits. However one thing I did stress to friends back in the day when were thinking about playing it is that if you plan to be stupid and lazy in the game, you're going to have a bad time.

[Final-Fantasy]

The entire appeal of Final Fantasy XI Online is that it is an MMO.

Removing the heart and soul of the game would be a total waste of time and money.

No social aspect would ruin the world completely, there would be no Auction House and thus, no economy.
As it is the NPC Bot players known as Trust have already destroyed Party play, they simply don't cut it for replacing people.

It would be no different than playing this game Offline with no community, no Market Board and only Duty Support for NPC based Battles and the Story.