Final Fantasy XI Online

Rating:
Summary: This game requires a lot of patience
Review: Let's face it. We, as americans, are fairly impatient like most rich countries. We are driven by work, efficiency, and very high standards when it comes to careers and monetary gains invested in as little time as possible. If you don't believe me, try sitting on a green light for 0.3 seconds and you'll hear a car honk behind you. Japan's culture likes to have patience. To have patience in Japan means that greater rewards are brewing, though unforseen to the naked eye at the imminent moment. This is probably why the game in America doesn't fare well due to the cultural differences. We tend to have short attention spans and limited patience when it comes to gaming/entertainment because we work so hard in our real lives...why should we "work" in a game, right?

The time you invest in this game will NOT go unnoticed. Due to the competition of searching for parties, looking for mobs to fight with, making money, etc. makes you smarter and keener. You learn how to be the cream of the crop. Most importantly, you learn how to be patient. In the end, your achievements resulting from this patience gathers respect and a sense of achievement.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the money
Review: Granted you have to pay monthly to play the game, this is the exact reason it took me so long to buy it finally my friends talked me into getting the game and I am glad I did this is a very adicting game you will spend hours playing this game trying to gain more levels for your character. defiantly worth the money and the monthly fees. killer graphics and so much to do every day I find more things to do and places to go. the world of Vana'diel is huge with so many places to visit and people to meet.

above all this is probably the best game I have ever played trust me you will not be disappointed with this game

Rating:
Summary: Clarification, MUST READ!
Review: <br /> I really feel I have to clear ALOT of false information on ffxi.<br /> <br /> 1.) YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY THE GAME AGAIN TO PLAY AFTER THE 3 MONTH PERIOD. THE ONLY THING THAT IS ERASED AFTER THIS PERIOD IS THE CHARACTERS YOU MADE. IF YOU WANT TO START AGAIN WITH NEW CHARACTERS, YOU MAY DO SO. IT IS..NOT..REQUIRED TO 'BUY THE GAME AGAIN' AS SO MANY OF YOU HAVE..FALSELY..STATED. UNDERSTAND THIS.<br /> <br /> I have been playing ffxi on and off for the last year, since the day it was released. It is a very engaging, brilliantly made MMORPG by square. I have put over 350+ hours into the game, and with no regret. I highly recommend this game to any MMORPG fan, or an Final fantasy fan looking for something different in a game.<br /> <br />

Rating:
Summary: Solid Game, great intro to the Online Gaming experience.
Review: If you have never played an online game before, this is the game for you. Also, I would recommend this for the young gamer, pre-teen/early teen if your a parent that is concerned about 'gore' or other player interaction being too 'blue.'

This is a import from Japan. the game was only sold in the U.S. after being very successful in it's home country. If you have ever played Final fantasy on the console, you'll enjoy a richer, but familar experience, when playing FFXI. With an in-game chat translator, I have played with quite a few non-english speaking players, a very cool experience.

The character growth is very FF, where you have to make certain minimum level in base classes, and finish a quest or two, before being allowed to progress to other, more advanced classes. The mission system is good but not great. Some tasks/quests being repeatable and others being once only. The graphics are solid and very rich. finding a group to hunt with is never a problem with a world-wide gaming population.

When you get this game you actually get a 2nd game, not unlike the card game War- although this game is to War, as Blackjack is to playing the Craps Table. Fun and always good for a 10 to 20 minutes of play.


Rating:
Summary: Mixed Experience
Review: If you've read all the reviews here at Amazon on this game, you're probably pretty confused. Some people claim it's the greatest MMORPG ever. Others say it's the most boring and time consuming they've played. If you're looking to buy this game, it's hard to make that decision based on the conflicting information. I doubt my review will help as it's based on my experience only. This is exactly the nature of this game, you either love it or hate it.

Unfortunately for me, this game did not live up to my expectations. However, I'd like to start on the positives. Firstly, the game's graphics are pretty good. There are three main base cities to start off in (there are other cities that you can explore to, but your ranks and missions are generally based on the three base cities). The environment changes dramatically in the different zones, it's refreshing to just take some time and explore the different scenery in the game.

This game is also huge. I've played it for a couple of months and I doubt I've seen more than 50% of the world. Add to that, the recent expansion makes the game even more mammoth. This also has a negative, I'll address it later. FFXI features all you'd expect in a MMORPG. You have your different skills, you can multi-skill when you reach a specific level. You also have "crafts" which are side skills that you can do, e.g. fishing, farming, etc. The depth in this game is mind boggling. The number of side skills (I believe there are eight or nine) all have their own levels.

Currency is also traded with something called gil. You need gil to get anywhere in this game. FFXI is heavily cooperation inclined. You cannot play this game solo and reach anywhere. Anyone who says this would either be lying or have absolutely nothing else to do in their life. This is both a positive and a negative. The positive being it encourages players to group together, share knowledge and play together. The negatives being there's always competition to find the best groups. People also tend to clique together and play separately from the whole community.

I should note that FFXI is played amongst several servers. When you create your character, you are randomly placed on a server. You cannot move from one server to the other, this is your server for life. If you want to play on the same server as your friends, you must buy (with gil, not real money) something called a "Worlpass" which your friend can enter when they're creating their account. I have no problem with this system, I understand it's necessary for the maintenance of the popularity of this game.

In the game, there's a wide range of armor and weapons that can be bought or retrieved. In your character's class, there are tons of spells and skills to be learned at periodic levels. The battle system is similar to most FF games however the speed of the battles greatly depends on your equipment. I like the battle system, personally I find it very flowing.

On to the negatives, and there are many. As I mentioned earlier, the game is huge. This brings me to my greatest grievance with FFXI. It takes far too long to reach anywhere without the help of higher level spells or items (Airship). I'm sure the drop out rate with this game is high for new players. You can spend fifteen to twenty five minutes walking from one area to the other. I personally found myself spending more time walking than fighting. That's what drove me to stop playing.

Another big negative is the variety of mobs. There's a very limited number of mob classes available. Most zones are limited to only three or four different mob classes of varying strength. This makes fighting extremely repetitive, you are fighting the same looking thing each time. Every city has "[insert name] crab", "[insert name] worm", "[insert name] fly" that ALL look the same. The developers really failed in providing variety to players, especially since this game requires hundreds of hours to achieve mighty levels. A related negative would be the fact you have to consider every mob as you have no idea of the mob's strength if they look alike, even in the same room.

Big negative number three relates to people selling gil for real money. Yes, it plagues all MMORPGs, however most companies try to do something to clamp down on it. Square has done absolutely nothing to try to control the sale of gil for money. What this has caused is the cost (in gil) of items to be sky high to due the easy availability of gil to those who are willing to spend money for it. This makes the game extremely difficult for the average player who simply gains gil from killing, quests and trading items. FFXI is centered around trading items with other players (there's a central auction house for this) that you can't get around playing without buying your equipment. I'm not sure if it's related to the gil selling, however all the rare item drops are "camped" by dozens of people. The average player will never be able to achieve a valuable item without buying it.

Finally, because you can't solo in this game, you need to find yourself some friends to play with. If you can't join a group (called linkshells), you will be spending minutes or hours waiting to join parties. The number of hours required to reach anywhere in this game is ridiculous. That's probably why so many people are either terribly addicted to this game or absolutely frustrated. Unfortunately for me, FFXI wasn't for me. It's too demanding on time and far too repetitive for me. There are some people this game appeals to, I'm certainly not one of them. If all the negatives I mentioned seemed negligible to you, perhaps you should give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Learn From My Mistake
Review: My mistake was not bying this game, it was very fun. In fact I had fun playing it for a long while. But after a while I got bored and decided to temporarily stop paying $15 a month for my one character. Apparently Square Enix didn't like that idea and after three months of not playing, permanently cancelled my account. Forever. Now this I'm sure is not the only case of this happening because when I called up the company and asked for their help they told me that was their normal policy. They told me to go and buy ANOTHER copy of the game if I wanted to play it so much. I feel that I have been ripped off. I've payed for the game at full price but now that means nothing.

WARNING: IF YOU WOULD SO CHOOSE TO STOP PLAYING FOR THREE OR MORE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS, SQUARE ENIX WILL CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT PERMANENTLY.

Square Enix's unique policy cost me a lot of money and enjoyment. Do not buy this game unless you intend on paying monthly until you decide to permanently stop playing. This policy is not even stated on the box, but is briefly mentioned in a manual you get once opened and by this time, it is too late.

Rating:
Summary: Greatest RPG fun, big drawback
Review: When I bought this game in February 2004, I had no idea I would become so addicted to it over the next few months. That is the only true problem with this game: Time consumption
If you want to get the full experience out of leveling characters past level 30 and ranks past 3, hours upon hours must be put into it. That being said, this game is not for the casual gamer that only spends an hour or two at a time playing.
Finding parties (groups that help you to level after you cannot fight alone anymore) takes anywhere from 3 minutes to 2 hours, and then many different fights must be performed to gain the required experience points.

If you want a fun game in which you can talk with new friends, kick the crap out of baddies, and enjoy the awesome graphical layout (but don't mind spending hours of your time), then this game deserves a try. If not, there is always the new release of Guildwars, which is an MMORPG that supposedly gives the same experience regardless of time put into it.

Good luck!

Rating:
Summary: terrible game
Review: i played this game for several months. ffxi is, literally, a waste of time. since there is little content story-wise, the developers have made the choice to make the game excruciatingly time-consuming. you have to run everywhere for your first 18 levels. you have to spend an hour (at least) looking for a party, because beyond level 10 or so the experience through playing solo is worthless. and finally, you can collect money, finish quests, gain levels, or run missions to raise your rank--but rarely can you do any of these simultaneously. so you spend eight hours to level up your character one to three levels (if you're lucky), then spend eight hours to get a decent set of gear for that level you just got, then try to gain a rank so one day you'll be able to finally take the airship and get places faster, and repeat, repeat, repeat.

it all comes down to CHOICE. ffxi is one of the most suffocating games i've played. you must play with a party. you must not form guilds, only "linkshells," which are loose configurations of players without the sense of community a guild would bring. you must not mod your gear. you must choose from our very limited set of character faces and styles, so you run into your clone seven times a day. square-enix wants you to play a game the way they tell you to. there is no room for player innovation.

finally, the game is currently rife with CHEATERS. and square-enix is doing nothing about it. yes, if you want to play a game where people who farm gil (in-game money) to sell in the real world for dollars, thus causing inflation in the game and injuring honest players, AND all the while square's game masters do nothing to stop obvious "botters" who create characters to automatically fish, etc., then this is your game. you'll pull your hair out as these people make money taking the limited resources in the game that would otherwise be available to you, and if you report them to square the company will. do. nothing. about. them. period.

no thanks!