How does this game compare to FFXI ?

[Justsomeguy]

I would say to just stay away, as several others have said, most of the content has been rendered useless, but hey that happens. A major gripe would be that the party system was completely changed after all its years online. If you do play, you don't have much to lose seeing as it won't be a full fee, and if you can get into a good shell, you'll be max probably by the end of next week :P I wish you luck if you do play.

[NefarioCall]

Final Fantasy XI is my favourite FF title. period.
It has a fantastic story, and IMO a great player base of fun people (or did at the time i left in 2010)
The world has excellent art design that is worthy of the franchise across a world so gigantic that it dwarfs the size of any other FF title. The drawback in the day being that progressing to the very top of the power curve takes a long time. Much longer than FFXIV anyway. But the game is epic and has that play it all night charm.
Get it before its gone.

That written, i believe FFXIV has the higher 'potential ceiling', and have from the start, but the real date of note for this game is September. Playing it before then is really just preparation for what is to come and some preview content to enjoy as 2.0 begins to land.

My suggestion is, if you really are interested in FFXI, it is a masterpiece and you'd best get it now before its gone, and before FFXIV reaches 2.0.

[AreeyaJaidee]

FFXI was an amazing MMO. Its prime time was destroyed by Abyssea, after which it became a farming clusterfuck extravaganza.

Otherwise it was amazing and memorable... A lot of good ideas and a lot of fun memorable times.

How does FFXIV compare to FFXI?
- graphics? No comparison: ffxi was designed for ps2 gfx. Ffxiv is the clear winner

- combat? Ffxi has a combat system that is robust compared to other mmos of its time. Ffxiv: we're getting there, things are def a lot better than when i started at CE launch

- map design: ffxi wins hands down

... I could go on, but then we run into the fact that ffxiv at this point can really only be judged by its potential rather than a straight comparison. Why?

Ffxi overtime has matured into a fully functional MMO even though it had a rough start as well as its own pros and cons.

Ffxiv is still in its infancy, even though it has been out for 2 years+ now. Development had to be completely restarted as the original game was inherently flawed in every aspect.

Ffxiv, in my opinion, continues to improve in huge ways ever since a new dev team was assigned to this MMO. I know because I've played ffxiv since closed beta and day 1 of collector's edition.

So far it's been a crazy journey full of many angry and happy moments.

Keep on keeping on!

[Kazimir]

Most people who compare it to FFXI are not talking about FFXI in it's current state, they are referring to when FFXI was actually a fun game to play a few years ago and beyond.

Way's it is similar:

Similar races, just different names/types

That's about it.

How they differ:

FFXI had far better environments with more detail with both the big and little things. Here's a vid with scenery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesY1XssACM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzrmwcSizIY

Combat was far more fun because it forced you to interact more and coordinate with your party members.

The story line of FFXI was better and I found it way more interesting. Not only was the original story line better, but the following 2 expansions were amazing. Obviously FFXIV can still equal as they haven't came out with expansions yet.

Traveling was more time consuming until they came out with the outpost warp, which is similar to aethryte teleporting except you paid an NPC gil rather than spent anima.

Crafting in some ways was more time consuming and tedious, but it worked differently and had additional elements that affected crafting such as moon phases.

The game was more group-oriented. In order to level beyond 20 you pretty much had to join a party, which camped and killed mobs, typically for hours. Many quests were soloable at certain levels but if you did them at the appropriate times they required you have at least 1 other person, often times 3-6. Some quests created for around level 60~ required a couple level 75 players at least, so at appropriate levels they could be somewhat difficult for players that weren't already pretty experienced.

Main scenario quests always occasionally had an instanced fight requiring you to be a part of a group. If I remember right the original story line had about 6. FFXIV's main scenario is far behind where XI's was at this stage though so it's hard to compare it properly.

Leveling was not as easily done. To get to 50 even after the cap was raised to 75 it typically took either a few months if you did not have a lvl75 and gil to support it already, or just a few weeks if you did. Being able to hit 50 in just a week wasn't possible for most people, until several years after the game came out.



All in all there is some good and bad in XI as compared to XIV. 2.0 seems very promising though and if done right could easily become a better game. I think a lot of people from XI that complain about XIV don't take the time to step back and remember they are comparing some elements of XI that weren't even out until the expansions. XI had a lot of problems itself when first released, it just wasn't quite as bad and they didn't have to take a couple years to fix the problem, they did it in stages of several months while adding good content.

[Forlorn]

All in all there is some good and bad in XI as compared to XIV. 2.0 seems very promising though and if done right could easily become a better game. I think a lot of people from XI that complain about XIV don't take the time to step back and remember they are comparing some elements of XI that weren't even out until the expansions. XI had a lot of problems itself when first released, it just wasn't quite as bad and they didn't have to take a couple years to fix the problem, they did it in stages of several months while adding good content.

I wanted to comment on this as well. Not to argue the release of FFXIV, it's features, and so on but just because FFXI had problems at release isn't a good argument for FFXIV having problems at release. FFXI having a rocky start should have been a reason why FFXIV should have has a better start. Lessons should be learned from past mistakes, not repeating the mistakes again. SE seemed to want to make FFXIV so much different than FFXI they completely ignored AMAZING features FFXI has to offer. Even as a person who loved FFXI, I didn't want a FFXI-2 but that doesn't mean you should ignore everything from FFXI, yea?

[Kazimir]

I wanted to comment on this as well. Not to argue the release of FFXIV, it's features, and so on but just because FFXI had problems at release isn't a good argument for FFXIV having problems at release. FFXI having a rocky start should have been a reason why FFXIV should have has a better start. Lessons should be learned from past mistakes, not repeating the mistakes again. SE seemed to want to make FFXIV so much different than FFXI they completely ignored AMAZING features FFXI has to offer. Even as a person who loved FFXI, I didn't want a FFXI-2 but that doesn't mean you should ignore everything from FFXI, yea?

I'm not arguing for the problems, I agree with you completely. I'm trying to explain why I think the game can still be just as good, if not better than XI when all is said and done. XI got over it's problems when first released and even though XIV's issues seem far greater, there's no reason why they can't overcome those in time as well.

I'm also commenting about how often times I see people who compare the two games use elements added in expansions. Some people seem to think the game should be as good as XI was when Zitah and/or CoP came out is all I'm saying. And yeah I agree XI had it's problems but they also had certain features that made it great that they should use in XIV. XIV is missing a lot of that teamwork feeling you get early into XI.

[Forlorn]

I'm not arguing for the problems, I agree with you completely. I'm trying to explain why I think the game can still be just as good, if not better than XI when all is said and done. XI got over it's problems when first released and even though XIV's issues seem far greater, there's no reason why they can't overcome those in time as well.

I'm also commenting about how often times I see people who compare the two games use elements added in expansions. Some people seem to think the game should be as good as XI was when Zitah and/or CoP came out is all I'm saying. And yeah I agree XI had it's problems but they also had certain features that made it great that they should use in XIV. XIV is missing a lot of that teamwork feeling you get early into XI.

Ahh, thank you for clearly up what you said for me. I can say I completely agree with pretty much everything you said this time. I actually had my first exp party in FFXIV yesterday and the team work just wasn't there. Nothing like FFXI and it really is a shame. I miss WSs, I miss making sure the healer has MP, I miss the tank actually tanking! My party was nothing but the tank pulling, the healers spamming cure, and all the DDs attacking whichever mob they felt like. I don't know if this is the "normal" in FFXIV but I much rather prefer the FFXI style of exp parties. Oh, and I miss SKILL CHAINS!!!

[Sephrick]

FFXI was an amazing MMO. Its prime time was destroyed by Abyssea, after which it became a farming clusterf**k extravaganza.

Just like Sky, and Sea, and Dynamis, and Einherjar, and Nyzul Isle, and Salvage, and ZNNs, and BCNMs, and...

... oh, pretty much all of XI was one long farming session. Why would anyone expects Abyssea to be any different?

[Kazimir]

Just like Sky, and Sea, and Dynamis, and Einherjar, and Nyzul Isle, and Salvage, and ZNNs, and BCNMs, and...

... oh, pretty much all of XI was one long farming session. Why would anyone expects Abyssea to be any different?

Idk about others but I personally found sky/sea/dynamis etc. more enjoyable for a far longer period of time than Abyssea.

[ninesunz]

I liked FFXI's nation missions - memorable and fun, esp when you do it with a group of friends. I also enjoyed the Zilart Missions, AF quests were painful and fun, the level cap quests. I have mixed feelings of CoP, I disliked Sea and ToAU made the world seem really small.