Is this game accessible for a first timer?`

[Jinx]

I've never played FFXI, and despite reading about it online, I'm not really sure what the story is even about.

This game's been out for a long time, and has a devoted fanbase--a lot of them having played as long as the game's been out.

If I were to buy this game, would I be able to fit in? Would I understand what's going on and pick up the gameplay? Would you recommend this to someone new, or say skip it?

[Weimar Pluto Knight VII]

I've heard on a podcast that it was really good when it came out, but I didn't like it. The game has evolved since then. That's all I know lol. If you like wandering for hours in boring wilderness you might like this game. I don't know, someone who has played it within the last 8 years might know more. Yea 8 years because I remember trying to search for 19 year old girls in MI who played FF11 on the playonline thing, and I was 19 at the time. Naturally she didn't.

[Fynn]

I played it with my fiancee when the free trial was out. Those were really good times. I remember we both loved the game immensely, neither of us found it hard at all. But that was probably because we worked together. See, I was this warrior, tanking everything, while she was the black mage killing everything from a distance. Come to think of it, if it weren't for the overlevelled guys who would often come to help us, it would have been way harder... Oh yeah, the people who play this game are all awesome and super nice - it's the first time I've seen such behavior in an MMO :)

[Evastio]

It's good to know the people playing FFXI are nice.

But from what you're saying, it sounds quite hard if you're playing the game without anyone helping you out. That must make it really hard if you choose a magic casting class (barring Red Mage).

Since Runescape is the only MMORPG I've played, how different is FFXI compared to Runescape? Going through the game solo in FFXI doesn't sound anywhere near as feasible in Runescape. Plus, with the jobs restricting your abilities in FFXI, it sounds like you'll always be at a disadvantage in one area or another, compared to Runescape where you can be as good as you want to be in all areas (eg: physical attacking, magic casting). I'm not saying that FFXI sounds bad, but I'm wondering how it balances things out since I haven't played it myself.

[Quindiana Jones]

I think it's a very accessible game. I've only played it for the duration of the one month free trial - and I wish I'd just sucked it up and paid the subscription :( - but by the end of that month I'd done a load of stuff. I hadn't moved out into the world much, but I'd done a fair few quests, including one that ended in a boss fight for which I was suicidally underlevelled but was heroically saved at the last second by a random player healing and buffing me. Also, by two weeks in, I had a pretty nice little business buying supplies, making trout out of them and selling them at a markup. It was a tidy profit with minimal effort and it helped me out with other things.

I enjoyed the game even though I didn't have contact with anyone. I didn't really meet new people there, and I didn't hang out with the EoFFers playing. My advice would be to talk to those lot and get them to show you the ropes as it will make your initiation that much easier.

[Nightsintodreams]

I have been playing Final Fantasy XI since it has come out.

This game has gotten a LOT easier and is a LOT more accessible since the early days ('03-'08). Because in no small part to the mini-expansions Abyssea, you could easily reach the level cap -playing for the first time- in two months, if you are willing to put some time into it.

There is still a strong playerbase that is really quite welcoming. Due to the fact that teamwork has been emphasized in this game to such a large degree, the community tends to know each other if not by name, then by sight. You will definitely find plenty of people who can help you out.

The gameplay isn't that bad, but you will definitely have to learn the nuances of your job. Some of the jobs are much more technical than other jobs, especially at the end game part, but its not that bad.

As for the storyline...there is a -LOT- of it. But you can easily solo a fair chunk of the expansion by yourself at 99 (the level cap). The storyline in Chains of Promathia and Wings Of The Goddess is some of the best things that Square-Enix has done in YEARS, in my honest opinion.

If you want to join, send me a PM and we'll discuss it further :)

[Ouch!]

Final Fantasy XI features a more-developed world and better story than just about any other game in the series. From a narrative standpoint, the game is phenomenal, and while I never completed the Wings of the Goddess story (I quit two years ago after playing on-and-off since NA launch), while I was playing it was shaping up to be the best yet. There's even a new expansion coming out and the game's over ten years old now; that's pretty damned impressive.

More recent expansions (specifically the Abyssea set of six mini-expansions) drastically changed gameplay. When the game's director (Tanaka) left to take the helm of the development of Final Fantasy XIV, the new team began to shift away from the type of content that had existed before. Specifically, for the first seven years of the game's existence, it was very much part of the old guard in the MMORPG genre: punishing grind, party-based to the point that soloing of almost any kind was impossible, and endgame requiring rigorous scheduling to get 32 people in the same place at the same time. Abyssea changed all that, making grinding out the levels from 30 onwards a breeze while also increasing the level cap to 99 so that a majority of the existing content could be completed in smaller groups with less (or no) difficulty.

While the game has certainly become a lot more approachable due to these changes, whether it's easy to start fresh ultimately depends on your goals in game. Do you want to play around with friends and experience the story-based content? If so, that's probably doable. That said, the reason I've never gone back is because I like pushing endgame and going after the best gear there is. Anyone who's played an MMORPG can tell you what a stat-whore I am. When I quit, I left with two jobs at level 80 (which was the cap at the time), and both were fantastically-geared for that level. Just two years out, the only thing that stopped me from going back was the thought of playing catch-up on all the existing content. In an aging MMORPG, I determined that to get caught up to everyone who I want to play with, it was simply too much work to try and catch up on trials of the magians weapons, Abyssea equipment and tier three artifact armor, and Voidwatch gear. With a new expansion out, there's going to be even more new stuff to catch up on shortly. And what's worst? Tanaka is back at the helm of FFXI after he was removed from FFXIV because of the awful launch. Voidwatch already shows a return to the older philosophy of more unforgiving content that's more difficult to just pick-up-and-do.

I will always recommend Final Fantasy XI for anyone who wants to experience a new world and story. It's certainly some of the best work that Square Enix has ever done in that regard. There's ten years worth of content, and they've tweaked a lot of the old endgame so that it's now set-up for smaller groups of higher-leveled players, which will make getting gear out of it easier than it was back when I was playing. But ultimately--for the experience of playing an MMORPG, I say pass. If you really want to experience an MMORPG with a community and fit in and be in the thick of things instead of constantly playing catch-up, join a new game. Jump in on FFXIV:ARR when that comes out. Hell, jump in on Guild Wars 2.

Maybe someone from around here who still plays (Bleys?) will contradict that, but I would have a hard time advocating that anyone join a ten-year-old game.

[Lonely Paper Star]

As someone who's never played it, I think it's accessible. I treat it like any other MMO new to me. Then again, I've played other MMOs before. And many of those games have some similar characteristics.

I think it depends if the lore and game mechanics intrigue you. Personally, I'm most intrigued by the lore and classes. And if I have friends IRL playing with me. If enough friends persuade me (and persuade me well) to join them, then I'm more likely to play. These games, IMO, are most fun if you have friends to quest/raid/instance with.

[Formalhaut]

Now that XIV is out, I'm wondering whether or not this game is now somewhat obsolete, now that it's spiritual successor is out and available. Out of all of the final fantasies, this one is definitely the most enigmatic to me.

[WildRaubtier]

If you like wandering for hours in boring wilderness you might like this game.
There is nothing boring about the wilderness in FFXI.

[Mirage]

Now that XIV is out, I'm wondering whether or not this game is now somewhat obsolete, now that it's spiritual successor is out and available. Out of all of the final fantasies, this one is definitely the most enigmatic to me.

It's more like FF11 obsoleted FF14, really.

[Edge7]

If you like wandering for hours in boring wilderness you might like this game.
Right, I never really saw the appeal of MMO's for this reason. Although from what other people are saying, this game has a rich enough Mythology and story events to be worth checking out. I'm not too sure though, I've never been too keen on subscribing to anything.

[Flaming Ice]

If you like wandering for hours in boring wilderness you might like this game.
Right, I never really saw the appeal of MMO's for this reason. Although from what other people are saying, this game has a rich enough Mythology and story events to be worth checking out. I'm not too sure though, I've never been too keen on subscribing to anything.


Yeah, subscriptions are annoying...if the game ever loses its servers than you lose the time and effort....:cry:

[Miriel]

FFXI was my first real experience with an MMORPG and I loved the trout out of this game.

I'm not a hardcore gamer so I can't really speak to a lot of the technical stuff but I never found the game to be super difficult. But it could definitely be a grind. I quit before they made a lot of the huge positive changes to make it less of a grind. But as far as pure difficulty goes, it really wasn't hard to "get". Some things took a lot of time to coordinate and plan which could be frustrating, but I think a lot of the changes fixed these issues.

I also really liked the community. I always found it super helpful. And despite what a lot of girls say about creepos in MMORPG, I very rarely got hit on, and was supported by lots of friendly guys and gals.

The story is great and the music in this game is wonderful. Some of the best in the series.

And the big thing, I always found FFXI to be so charming. A little like FFIX. It always had that homey, friendly, enchanting quality about it.

I always encouraged EoFFers to try out this game. Some of the best friends I've made on EoFF, I made through FFXI.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

A couple months ago I heard someone say something along the lines of "Given how old the game is, I wouldn't pick it up now". I'm sure this is based off the assumption that as an MMO gets older, the less people there are playing it.

From what I've read it seems there are still enough people playing to make it enjoyable. I've thought about buying this game, but I'm trying to see what the best bundle would be. I don't know if there is an "ultimate" package or not that has every expansion and all that in it. Admittedly, I haven't spent too much time looking into it. One of the things that bothers me is the subscription fee. It makes me think "I have all these other Final Fantasy games that I only had to pay for once, and now I can play them for free whenever I want".

If I were to get into FF11, it's daunting to think about how much money would be put into it over time. Though I must admit that over the years I feel like I've been missing out on something. Just thinking about the games 1 through 14 on a timeline, and realizing there's this "blank" where 11 should be. Some people might not understand what I mean by that.

But sticking with the title of the thread, I'm sure this game is accessible for a first timer. Since I haven't played, that's based on what other people have said. Though I'm assuming Square wouldn't try to make a game that is hard to get into. If they did, they would lose money due to people losing interest/not willing to put in the effort.

[jenovajunkie]

Hey is this the game where they have like mc battles for limit breakers? or was that 10......

[Futan]

I played this game off and on from '03-'11 and compared to games like WoW, it's not very accessible. WoW and MMOs since then are of a different hand-holding breed which has really killed the genre for me. However, one thing that it has compared to other MMOs is a very friendly and welcoming community. Other MMOs are essentially single-player games with the option to converse and level with other people. Hell, I just got to 50 in FFXIV with only ever really talking or doing anything with a couple friends I met in XI. In XI, grouping is more of a requirement than a possibility, which is how it should be in an MMO in my opinion.

When you start out, you'll have a small cutscene explaining details about the city you chose and from there you'll just be thrown in there with no real direction. There won't be an NPC right in front of you with an exclamation point over his head telling you what to do, etc. Even basic game mechanics, the game won't tell you about. I didn't know about Weapon Skills(equivalent of Limit Breaks/Trance/etc.) until I was level 12 I think lol.

You'll probably get a linkshell(guild) relatively quickly. Probably within the first few days, if not the first day, you'll have someone telling you asking if you want a linkshell, instead of the usual having to beg someone for one in the more modern MMOs. lol. I guess one could argue that the accessibility will be similar to modern MMOs but different. Because while the game won't straight out tell you things, you'll have someone to ask.

You'll solo to at least 8-10. Then you might(don't know if people still do it or if it's been nerfed or what) be able to go to Korroloka Tunnel and get in a "SMN Burn" party. If it's still being done, you'll probably get a trout ton of tells for them. The SMN Burn will basically make you 20ish in an hour or less. At 18, you'll be able to do the subjob quest. At this point you'll repeat what's been said above for another job. At 20, you'll run to Jeuno (the current main hub city) and you'll do a quest to get your Chocobo License. You'll have to walk everywhere until then.

From to 20-25 you *might* be able to get a party in Qufim Island. It's been a year and a half so I don't know if parties are still forming on a regular basis there or if everyone has everything 99 now. From 25, you'll need to do a quest for a Kazham Airship Pass, which you may need your LS to help you with. After that, you'll go to Kazham to level 25-30. 30 being the magic number.

After you get to 30, it's all downhill. Experience will be coming a lot faster and you'll probably hit 99 in probably the same amount of time, if not less, it took you to get to 30. Unless you're lucky and manage to get some really good parties 20-30. At 50, 55, 60, 65, 75, 80, 85, 90, and 95, you'll have "Limit Break" quests which will increase your level cap. The first 3 being the biggest pains in the ass, IIRC.

So yeah, I really don't know why I chose to give a somewhat detailed explanation of what leveling your first job to 99 will be like. But I did. So enjoy. lol.

/exhale~ :P

[WildRaubtier]

I think SMN burns and Qufim/Kazham parties are all thing of the past. More likely you'll be soloing to 30 with the help of FoV pages.

[Futan]

I think SMN burns and Qufim/Kazham parties are all thing of the past. More likely you'll be soloing to 30 with the help of FoV pages.

Yeah, I was half thinking that would be the case. I know when I last played Qufim was still somewhat packed with parties/soloers. I couldn't remember how Kazham was, but as I think of it more, I think I just solo'd in Qufim from 25-30.

[Axem Titanium]

I was never a long-term player of XI but I absolutely adored the story. Lawtechguy's FFXI videos (http://ffxicutscenes.blogspot.com/) has most of the cutscenes available, which I 100% recommend if you don't want to put hundreds of hours into XI to tackle story content on your own. As far as I can tell, most story missions are soloable at 99, depending on your job, but good luck finding a party for it at a lower level.

As far as accessibility goes, I was extremely off-put by the game's completely tutorial-less intro. Apparently, they've added a brief intro questline to make things a little easier but be prepared to do a lot of background research to understand how to play this game. Or find someone to teach you.

[Cloudane]

I only played it briefly because I just couldn't get into it, but to be fair I didn't give it much of a chance. I did my classic routine of exploring the town back to front rather than just venturing out and killing things, and got burned out.

Honestly the main barrier to entry at the time was getting it working in a usable and non-ugly condition on the PC. I don't know if this is still the case, but if so be ready to hunt around some wikis and support forums for how to get sensible key mapping, a resolution better than the default (something like 640x480!) and vertical refresh sync to get rid of the tearing.

I expect most have probably moved on to XIV.

[Citizen Bleys]

It's absolutely accessible for a first timer.

So far, only Super Christ and Freya (as far as EoFF'ers are concerned) have joined me on Shiva, and I don't know of any other EoFF'ers who play at all; Christ's come as far since coming back than he did on his first time around already, and that was as a result of my original FFXI Recruitment Drive thread last month.

There are a couple of humps to get over (subjob items, limit breaks, unlocking jobs, etc.) but my linkshell is really good about helping out with that kind of stuff, and the guides I wrote for the frontsite are current. (Only the Abyssea guide is on the front site, which you shouldn't bother looking at until level 30, but the level 50-75 guide is in a thread further down in this forum, and I can always PM the level 1-50 guide that I wrote for the CK comp to anyone who wants it.

[Big D]

I'd generally be cautious about signing up to an MMO under any circumstances, especially one that might be nearing the end of its commerical life-span. But based on Ouch!'s description, FFXI sounds like one I'd genuinely enjoy - but as a stand-alone, offline game with no other actual humans involved. I've yet to have an online gaming experience in any genre which has been fulfilling and rewarding in the long run, unfortunately.

[Cloudane]

Christ's come as far since coming back than he did on his first time around

It's been a while since Easter. :kakapo:

[Nightsintodreams]

I think SMN burns and Qufim/Kazham parties are all thing of the past. More likely you'll be soloing to 30 with the help of FoV pages.

Not true! You actually will wind up soloing until around 20~ish (sometimes not even then if you can make a worm party for Maze), and then you will end up going to Dem and doing FoV parties in Gusgen Mines :p

It sounds like it would take awhile, but it really does not to be honest. The FoV pages make the exp go by a LOT quicker than it would otherwise.

[Mirage]

GoV parties in Gusgen are lv15 and up. Even less if you have access to Cure!

[Nightsintodreams]

GoV parties in Gusgen are lv15 and up. Even less if you have access to Cure!

I don't like going to Gusgen at 15, if only because of the very real risk of death and slogging down everything. At 20, it runs so much smoother...and unless you're WHM, it is usually quicker imo to just solo 15-20 with FoV and tab bonuses.

But that's just me! And regardless...anything is better than those damn Dune parties...:mad2:

[Mirage]

Are you trying to tell me that overcamping on level 18 mobs while the highest level in the party was 11, and gaining 3k an hour was not fun?

I remember when I was a dunes noob. Once we didn't have a proper tank, so I went ahead to ask all the melees what their defence ratings were, so that whoever with the highest def could do the job. Thinking defence actually did anything... how cute.

[WildRaubtier]

I liked to solo to 20 around the mountain path in South Gustaberg. It's pretty amazing with /PUP. Even more now that you can get more than one page per hour (I guess that's FoV too and not just GoV?).

RE: Epic dunes tanking: I tanked Lizards as a taru THF in the dunes. So pro.

[Futan]

Ogawd. I just remembered my experience leveling Paladin in the Dunes. I was loving the job and loving tanking, but EVERY party I had, I was the main tank, of course, as well as the Fuckin main healer. With how MP is handled in XI, that's really not a possibility if you want decent experience. It wasn't until a party I had at 18 that I finally ragequit. The entire time the Bard and White Mage were flirting with each other and doing NOTHING else. I was literally the only person curing. We were getting 3-digit exp/hr. So after that, I never touched Paladin again... Lol.

[Citizen Bleys]

Thank whatever Gods may be that Dunes parties are a thing of the past.

[Ouch!]

The Dunes are why I started soloing to level 20 even before they introduced FoV. And then when they added FoV, I skipped Qufim, too.

[Del Murder]

I thought the Dunes were fun. :) Of course I had my personal PL there with me most of the time. ;)

FFXI was an amazing game, and from what I hear from Bleys, it still is. It was the first MMO I ever played and I managed to pick it up pretty easily.

[Miriel]

I liked the Dunes too! It felt so grown up compared to wacking bees and bunnies outside the home towns. Plus, I still remember being so proud of just making it to the Dunes all by myself.

[WildRaubtier]

Of course I had my personal PL there with me most of the time. ;)
You know, I honestly can't remember an honest full-fledged dunes party that wasn't PLed.

[Citizen Bleys]

You know, I honestly can't remember an honest full-fledged dunes party that wasn't PLed.

You are fortunate. They were quite bad. There is nothing nearly as awful left in the game anymore.

Trial of the Magians is pretty dull, but it's manageable if you break it into chunks instead of trying to do a trial from start to finish in one sitting. I typically time it via some other form of entertainment like a movie or a serial or something and stop when the show does.