XI vs XIV Lore - similarities and differences

[AspectOfWinter]

I never played XI, but I know that a lot of people in this game's community have.

How similar are the cities and races of XI to XIV's in terms of general attitude, strengths and weaknesses? For instance is Ul'dah pretty much a carbon copy of Bastok? Are the Elvaan pretty much a combination of the Wildwood Elezen and the Ishgardians?

Also, is XI's setting just as dark as, if not more so, than XIV's? Does it share the same kind of "British" feel, complete with all the slang swear words, as Eorzea?

[Enkidoh]

There are a number of similarities between FFXI's setting and storyline and FFXIV's, but there are also major differences as well (this is because both games had the same original producer, Hiromichi Tanaka). In some respects Vana'diel was a far darker and more dangerous place - the open 'wilds' of the Middle Lands were far more dangerous than Eorzea's outside areas are, even despite having regular guard posts along the way.

There's really far too much to mention here in regards to differences and similarities between the two games so I'll just suggest to read up on FFXI's backstory at the FF Wiki and draw your own conclusions.

[Anonymoose]

The similarities are mostly just thematic things that keep the game familiar and make sure everyone finds something they resonate well with - a human analogous race, a cute diminutive race, a strong animalistic race, a promiscuous feline race, and a haughty elf race. A forest city, a desert city, and an ocean city. A city based on spirituality, a city based on money, and a city based on freedom. A city that values faith and honor, a city that values merit and industry, and a city that values initiative and independence. All of these themes existed in FFXI, but most were shuffled around for FFXIV so nothing is a carbon copy, just carries traces of familiarity from many places.

I think the closest match you'll find is the match between San d'Oria and Ishgard - brick military fortresses, elves, absolute absolute devotion to religion.

[Enkidoh]

Not to mention FFXIV's Gridania is at least thematically similar to Windurst in FFXI - in some respects anyway (both revere nature, magic plays an important role in their society, their head of state is an oracle of sorts, and they're both threatened by a bird-like beast race who regard the surrounding lands as sacred to them and who reside in a location with the word 'Spine' in it's name).

And because of this, I'm wondering if this was the reason why SE had Shantotto's FFXI crossover event occur in the Black Shroud and Gridania - simply because Gridania is so similar to the FFXI nation she comes from.

But yeah, there's no direct copying of ideas between FFXIV and FFXI. They're both independent settings and storylines.

In fact, it was these similarities which made me choose Gridania as my starting city in 1.0 in the first place - although I considered Limsa simply for the awesome theme music (Navigator's Glory), and Ul'dah for being the location of the GLA's Guild, I settled with Gridania because it reminded me of my beloved Windurst in FFXI (which was Vana'diel Enki's hometown). It's a choice I don't regret (and in fact I went with Gridania again as Enki's starting city at the start of ARR too, just to keep in character. ).

[TinyRedLeaf]

I'll just copy-and-paste something I posted on another forum, way back in October 2010.

Discovery Age is probably one of the best ways to describe Eorzea's overall world theme. In that sense, it offers something different from Vana'diel, which had a heavier emphasis on nationalism and ethnic rivalries.

I've always been fascinated with how the Final Fantasy franchise adapts real-world issues into the storylines of its games. In the case of Vana'diel, it incorporated issues as diverse as capitalistic greed (Bastok's plutocratic merchants), racial tensions (the humes' disdain for the typically working-class galka), xenophobia (the infuriating ethnic chauvinism of San d'Oria's elvaan), misplaced patriotism (the over-proud elvaan aristocracy, clinging stubbornly to fading glory) and environmental degradation (the priaries around Windhurst, slowly being wrecked by an experiment gone awry).

By the time players first enter FFXI, Vana'diel had already undergone an entire generation of socio-cultural and political upheaval. The Crystal War that nearly destroyed all civilisation 20 years prior to the start of the game is comparable, in a way, to World War II in our reality: It marked the complete end of one way of life and the beginning of something entirely new. Vana'diel's Age of Adventurers was a time of unprecedented social mobility, as men and women of all races and nationalities mixed freely, fighting the remnants of beastmen tribes that still openly roamed the land.

To a certain extent, the airship was a symbol of the new era. The flying machines were introduced to Vana'diel shortly after the start of the Crystal War, revived by the Grand Duchy of Jeuno and improved upon by Cid, Bastok's engineer extraordinaire. The airships facilitated the crumbling of national borders and connected former rival cities together in a vast network with Jeuno, the leading power of the new world order, serving as the hub of all trade and travel.

As a young adventurer visiting each of the nations early in the game's storyline, you could immediately sense the differences in culture and political attitude between them. It gave the world a sense of history and reality, making Vana'diel feel plausible.

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Eorzea, to me, is a subtly different world because of the heavier emphasis on individual enterprise and endeavour. The continent, in a way, feels like the Africa of our world, a vast land of rich, untapped resources. The individual city-states embrace a frontiersmen-like work ethic. National pride does not appear to matter as much as individual advancement through dedication to one's chosen profession.

Overall, there also seems to be a stronger environmental theme, as all three main plots appear to hint at a major disturbance in the natural balance, thus awakening mythical creatures that threaten to bring apocalyptic ruin to the world.

And unlike Vana'diel, which had already sustained and survived a world war, Eorzea had not yet been actually invaded. The threat of attack by the Garlean Empire, with its superior technology such as airships and apparently advanced firearms, is always looming in the background. But, as hinted in FFXIV's opening movie, the imperial forces appear to be kept at bay, for the time being, by primal forces. What those primal forces may be, the player-adventurers will probably one day discover as they delve deeper into the game's plot.

Needless to say, my observations from 2010 about Eorzea will have to be adjusted. I'll post them a little later.

[AspectOfWinter]

What about the quests? Do the Jobs in XI have significant storylines the way XIV's do? Is the Player Character in XI an adventurer as well, or are the quests more similar to the Grand Companies, 2.1 & 2.2, etc.?

[Enkidoh]

Not really - there was no guilds for any of the Jobs (only crafting trades had Guilds), so the only quest lines for Jobs were for the AF quests or Maat's quest line to raise the level cap beyond 50, other than the 'flag' quests to unlock the advanced Jobs like SMN or DRK. They didn't really go into great detail about the Job's history either, instead preferring to concentrate on the game's actual storyline at large (for instance, the WHM AF quests involved dealing with the restless undead from the fall of Tavnazia on behalf of the San d'Orian Cathedral). They were fun, but I just didn't feel there was much connection to between what was being mentioned in the Job/AF quests and what the player actually used the Job for.

But yes, the player in FFXI is called an 'adventurer' as well, but it should be noted the occupation in FFXI is a little more generic than it is in FFXIV - an adventurer in Vana'diel is basically a jack-of-all-trades who the nations of the Alliance of Altana relied on in the aftermath of the Crystal War to fill manpower shortages in their militaries - they were basically mercenaries in every way but name (in fact, the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion actually had the player becoming a mercenary in the Empire of Aht Urhgan). There was no Adventurer's Guild or anything though - the player was pretty much left to their own devices and had to rely on little more than their wits and occasional mission assignments from their home nation to get by. But they did have a subsidized apartment called a Mog House to live in though, so it wasn't all bad.

[TinyRedLeaf]

As mentioned already, FFXIV and FFXI share many thematic similarities. In many cases, story concepts had merely been shuffled around. The key difference, however, is that nation storylines in FFXI were emphasised much more heavily than in FFXIV. Despite the surface unity that had emerged after the Crystal War, national and ethnic differences still factored greatly in the relations between Bastok, San d'Oria and Windhurst. A supranational organisation like the Scions of the Seventh Dawn quite never emerged in Vana'diel (at least, not that I was aware of by the end of Chains of Promathia expansion, which was when I stopped playing).

FFXI played up the still-existing national rivalries in various ways. The most obvious was the gameplay mechanic that allowed each nation to "take control" of various regions, depending on factors such as the number of kills made there by the citizens of each nation. Having control of a region conferred marginal benefits, such as warp points exclusive to the controlling nation's citizens. During the year and a half that I played FFXI, Bastok frequently ended up last in the overall standing, simply because it was the nation with the fewest adventurers.

[AspectOfWinter]

One of the things I really noticed about FFXIV compared to the single player FFs (that I played) is the way many NPCs have zero respect for the Player Character - in fact, entire Class storylines and sections of the Main Scenario story revolve around you being harassed, beaten, and even manipulated by questgivers and city-state governments alike. According to some other people, this was very much the case in XI as well.

But in XIV, much of it seems to be because Adventurers in general are freedom-loving, and hence they've acquired a reputation for being untrustworthy. In a game like WoW, by contrast, it's more due to the fact that they're training you military-style.

[Koga_Edge]

The city states in XIV and the ones in XI are like a mixed up bag San d'Oria was more a Scottish based castle with a lush forest surrounding it. Ul'Dah & Gridania take from San d'Oria, Bastok was a more current city built on industry, in a plateau region Ul'Dah and Limsa take from Bastok. Windurst was a land of magic and midgets lol in a plains sort of area Gridania and Limsa take from Windurst.

Male Mithras were unplayable and only one was ever seen in the story of XI

Some enemy Lore is indeed different. Mind/Soulflayers in XI we're Blue mages who lost control of the beast within, the minion of the baby mindflayer goes against XI's lore

Goblins were a mostly aggressive race of "Mercenary" beastmen, though this is due to difference in Gods with the awakened races. While Qiqirn were a race of pacifistic nomads.

Alot of the AF quests in Vanadiel shed light as to the origin of some of the many enemies faced in XI, we will have to wait and see what lore they release for XIV