Not all has been good and shiny in Final Fantasy XI

[Gramul]

Clearly you haven't noticed that opinion of the game is pretty divided on our little board.
Also, there's no such thing as a typical Final Fantasy esque style. These games have been all over the place.

[Duelle]

Clearly you haven't noticed that opinion of the game is pretty divided on our little board.
Also, there's no such thing as a typical Final Fantasy esque style. These games have been all over the place.

The problem is that people then start saying crap like "this is FF" and "so-and-so isn't FF". I try to avoid such trains of thought, but you always have someone bring in some tedious aspect of XI, saying they want it in XIV because it's FF. At least be honest and say you like something rather than try to justify it by saying it feels FF.

Either way, I support the OP. The game had decent stories and I liked the races. Everything else...let's just say there's always a "but", just like all systems implemented in XI.

[Churchill]

**botting.

[Zezlar]

Oh how I miss XI.

[RudyFails]

Purely addressing the "Holy Grail" thing...

Okay.. Picture yourself in a big gym class and the day's activity is kickball. On one side you have a bunch of kids flipping out and high-fiving because they know they'll be able to participate in all aspects of the game and enjoy it. On the other side you have the kids who moan and groan because they've pretty much been stuck in the outfield and at the back of the line up on offense. Some just walk off to the side and don't even bother because it seems like too much to make them even want to try.

Opinions are going to be drastically different depending on what side they're coming from.

I agree 100% that it was very tough to get into. However, that what some might label a "time sink" could easily be replaced with "patience". Listening to just how passionate some people can be about XI might show how that patience paid off for them with a majority of people proclaiming the 5 or so years they invested in the game.

I also agree about the menus. I had a terrible time until I figured out all the macro settings. It's also funny you mention how it doesn't look very "Final Fantasy". I remember thinking the same thing when I first started (FFXI).

Finally, as for how they look next to each other... It was about 10 years ago. DVD players and CD's look ancient next to 3D TVs and itouches.

[Jynx]

Yet despite all of it's flaws XI was one of the best MMO's I've ever played.

Shantoto may have shared the same character model as a plain Tarutaru female, but she made up for it in raw awesome.

[neorei]

it's the friendship you made in FFXI was the most important,

[Jennestia]

Yep, since XI is as bad as you make it out to be OP, that's why everyone is falling all over themselves to play FFXIV now rather than the 2-3k people online atm on my server on XI >.>

XI is a dated game from 2001, many MMOs from 2001 and earlier has a very low customization system -- in FFXIV I see a lot of clones as well because there's a select few models that looks good to a lot of people and it happens to be the same one.

- horrible combat menu (you had to write macros on your own, otherwise combats are a mess "am i a programmer or what?!)

I don't even know what you're saying here -- XIV shares the same macro system.

slow and passive combat (BLM had to rest MP for hours, casting spells each 10 minutes. Melee jobs hit every 5 seconds and have to wait for their TP to finally get filled slowly) (now we have positioning stlyes, combos, spell combos, much faster regeneration etc)

XIV is slow paced combat as well with no form of haste and there won't be any form of haste. XIV also has a slower server check so the battle system currently is at times less accurate than XI's was.

FFXIV char design (it just seems more final fantasy alike to me. (like FFIX etc.))

Same races as XI.

[Blossoming]

Oh the memories

[Ferth]

It's not really rose colored lenses... FFXI is the only mmo I've played that held my attention for over a year. And it held it for 7 of them. Was it all sunshine and bunnies? no. But that was part of the magic. sometimes it kicked your ass. I won't really talk about the graphical changes... we may as well compare pong to virtua tennis 5. Did FFXI do everything perfectly? not even close. But the things it did right were amazing. before abyssea came out, FFXI had a greater sense of achievement tied into almost everything in the game than any other mmo I've ever played.

A lot of people want a similar experience in ffxiv... it doesn't need to be identical... but it would be nice if it had the staying power 11 did.