What make this special?

What is it about XI do you feel it does better than any other entry in the series?

I think the world building and lore was the best of any FF game or any other game I played. It was the main thing that kept me hooked.

Also, the vast amounts of gear and gear slots you had made customization very exciting.

This was the first mmoff. That is special. I only got to play it for 6-8 months after release before I got robbed. It was my first mmo experience and it seemed as sooo deep, and the world felt quite alive.
Between tons of guilds/crafting and what I thought was an excellent job system, it made for some sweet strategic gaming. I only made it to level 20 though. :(

Del once said it has one of the best stories of the series, and I have always wanted to play it because of that. Never have longer than the trial, though. :(

There's a number of things that really made this game special for me.

I first played it when it was released in late 2003 / early 2004, and at the time I had only played Ragnarok Online. It was just crazy to me the expansive open 3D world that would take me forever to explore each zone. Combine that was an incredibly good community that I got to know over the years, and am still friends with (even playing FFXIV with now). On top of that, I was so immersed in the world, lore, side and main stories. By far the most immersive FF experience!

I think overall it was special because of the time it came out, not just for the genre but also for my age.

Pre-closing my SE account (so i could concentrate on NOT playing both MMOs at once) I even found myself growing attached to the trusts. It just feels ... nostalgic? I suppose. Also CoP/WotG campaigns kill the XIV storyline (even though the cutscenes have ... aged). Endgame also feels satisfying. Like once you go through the exhausting Maat quest anything feels possible.

Sideways Gear progression for the first 10 years

Community that is made up of PC, PS2, and XBox players which is also English, Japanese, French, German and many others all living in the same world and interacting with each other

no other MMO that i know of does both those things, includeing FFXI anymore....


R.I.P ~ sideways gear progression