Rating: 
Summary: Good at first, bad later
Review: FFXI started off as a great game; huge world to explore, beautiful graphics, nice RPG feel. Until, I met my first death. And my death wasn't later in the game, it was within the first 15 minutes! My death wasn't caused by my sucking at RPGs, but at the mobs themselves. It seems that unlike every other MMORPG out there that gives the player some kind of notice as to a mob's strength by give it a different color name (blue=weak, red=can kill you with a sneeze), FFXI decides to go a different route. I was killing wild hares when I incountered a forest hare. Since it looked just like the wild hares, I attacked it. BIG MISTAKE! This furry little ball of death killed me in 4 hits! FFXI forces you to examine every mob to see how strong it is compared to you, which I think is a huge waste of time. And of course, when you die, you lose experience points, so much so that you might actually level DOWN! You should never see the words LEVEL DOWN in a RPG, online or off. But that's not my biggest complaint. My biggest gripe is the fact that after level 18 or so, the game gets a little boring. True, you can always take up blacksmithing or cooking, but I don't playing RPGs to do stuff I can do in reality, I play them to excape reality. I play RPG's to kill stuff, which FFXI allows you to do solo, until level 18. After that, the mobs get so hard, that even an easy prey monster can kill you. Even if you are able to solo a mob, you will spend twice the amount of time healing as you did killing it, unless of course you're a white mage, who only have a problem living long enough in a solo battle to heal afterwards. After level 18, you HAVE to group, which I HATE! I don't hate playing with other people, otherwise I would not be playing a MMORPG, but I hate being forced to group when I would rather solo. Most of the level 18+ groups on Final Fantasy XI are composed of bossy little runts that just want to find the most deadlest thing around and attempt to kill it. Often what ends up happening is the whole group dies and the one moron that got everyone killed either leaves or says: "Come on guys, we can get it this time." If you didn't have to do insane missions in order to advance the storyline (what little you might find), have more stuff to kill, and if it was geared more towards solo play and less on forced groups, than FFXI would be the best MMORPG on the market. As it stands now, all it has going for it is great graphics, near god-like monsters, and the Final Fantasy name. If you like having to group with a bunch of whiners, than pick this game up, otherwise, stick with the other GOOD Final Fantasy games.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent game but BE WARNED...
Review: This game does require the NVIDIA GeFORCE graphics card, as one review previously mentioned. I assumed that my Intel Extreme Graphics card would suffice. I was WRONG. About $130.00 wrong. My system runs the game perfectly... 2.5G, 760M RAM, 80GB hard drive, with the (NOW) NVIDIA GeFORCE 5200 graphics card w/ 128 M (VRAM). Make sure your PC (if you run this on a PC) has excellent specifications. Anything less, will not work and for $12.95 per month... I'm sure you'll want to be able to play this game with minimum to no problems. However, for those of you that have an excellent, powerful, PC... you're in for the ride of your life!! Take care!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Game and all but..........
Review: Ok I go to wal-mart and buy this product. I bring it home to try it out oh yeah i payed $52 for this game having my hopes up I stick it in and go to play. I look at the screen my heart sank im a big final fantsy gamer but $12 a month thats rediculous. So i go back to wal-mart to give it back and they wont take the thing and now here im stuck with a 50$ game that cost me $12 a month..........
Rating: 
Summary: Monthly fee required
Review: No where on this website does it tell you that you can't play the game without paying a $12.95 monthly fee.
Rating:
Summary: Quit Comlaining
Review: I don't see what some peoples problems are. I have the recommeded spec on every thing except i have 56k connection and this game works perfectly. i only had a disconnect once and that was because of our telephone line going down. the graphics are great and so is the job system and music. i don't mind payin the $12.95 a month this game is worth it. its like 50 games all rolled into what is Final Fantasy XI: Online
Rating:
Summary: There are better role playing games
Review: Buyers be REAL Careful. You MUST have a NVidia GEForce card or an ATI Radeon 9000 card for the game to work at all! NO Other video configurations will work. Square Enix only programmed the PC version to run on this limited set of hardward. The game will stop and give the error that the hardware is not supported if you try to run using a different video. There is NO workaround. Note that you cannot install an NVidia or ATI card without an AGP slot which is only provided on the more expensive computers. Gameplay on any but the most expensive, fast, computer is SLOW and cumbersome. The sound breaks up and the keyboard does NOT react quickly which is what is needed when you are fighting. This was on a Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz system with and NVidia GEForce II card. The game does run OK on a 2.5 GHz machine with a GEFOrce 4 card. I wouldn't purchase the game if you own anything less. I would NOT recommend this PC version of the game.
Rating:
Summary: Square Enix's new MMO packs a punch!
Review: When everquest was released in 1999, It quickly became the gamers addiction of the year. Renamed as Evercrack by is loathers and lovers, the game stretched out far and wide and is still one of the most played MMO's on the planet. However, new members of the MMO world are quick to bite at Everquest's heels for their own bit of the cash pie. Released late last year, Final Fantasy Online (XI) is Square Enix's most recent attempt at entering this area of uncharted territory. Until now, they're RPG strategy has been completly based on the "single player". Now...all of that has changed...and for the most part...it's really good!
Unlike everquest, this game has serious graphical punch as well as a beautiful interface. However, the price for the graphic detail is none to small. Anything below a Radeon 9600 or a top of the line GeForce FX and you might as well kiss resolution and quailty images goodbye. As for sheer size, this game has no equal. At almost 6 gigs, and four discs, I am not exaggerating when I say "BIG". You can play as 5 different races. The Hume, the middle of the road character, The Elvaan, The strong, tall, ok at magic man, The Taru taru, the small low strength magic race, the Mithra, the race of fast feminine felines great for theifs and monks, or the Bulky and slow Galka's who are dripping of power and strength. But it doesn't stop there. You then choose from the six basic jobs (Warrior, Monk, Thief, White mage, Black mage, and Red mage). The nice thing here is that you can change jobs at any point without losing the stats of the job you've already worked on. In essence you could play as every job. And soon, you can add a sub job, meaning you can mix and match all of the first six jobs. AND THEN, you can get 8 more jobs...everything from a Bow and Arrow carrying ranger to a sword swinging samurai to a creature creating summoner. And you can mix and match these all as well. Of course some pairs work together better than others. Then comes the story line. There are 3 different story lines spread out across the beautiful and deadly landscapes of Vana'diel, which is the world you're in. Depending on where you start, Sand'oria, Bastok, or Windhurst, will dictate which of these storylines you take on. Once again, you can set up shop in any of these cities at any time just by going to the consulate of the town you're in. So you can play all of them at any given time. Then there are the 100's of sidequests that allow you to do everything from gain rare items to gain upgrades to your character (max lvl, sub jobs, etc). Basically, this game could take you years to complete and even then you'd still be playing it. On the flip side, it does have it's shortcomings. First - it's damn hard to make money in this game. For one thing, unless you are a theif, you're not going to get a lot of gil drops from enemies. And only certain enemies drop them. However, items can be sold in your Bazzar (on your person) and at the Auction House in most of the cities. Second - Death "Penatly" - Every time you die, you lose 10% of your current exp based on your EXP level GOAL. so if you're trying to reach 5,000 exp and you die, you lose 500. And unless you're partying, you won't see exp for kills much higher than 50 or 60 since the monsters get tough very quickly. This makes dying very very frustrating. This also means that, for the most part, there's not a lot of soloing in this game. Third - Chocobos...but not quite: While they do show up...you can't get them early on, and you have to go through hell to get them. And then, you can only use them for a limited time at a price. It's not usually very much. But as popular as the chocobos are, Square could have done a lil more to integrate them into the game (A La Final Fantasy Tactics). Fourth (and finally) - The Music: While each area has it's own distinctive musical touch...they can get old fast. Especially the fight music, which generally stays similar throughout. The nice lil touch is the chocobo music which is always fun to ride to. And one thing to note: Getting the game up and running will take you at least an hour to two hours (and don't even think of trying to run this over a phone line). This includes installing the playonline viewer (which is a port from the Playstation version which consists of web utilities meant for console players as well as a game launcher), Tetra Master (a multiplayer version of the card game from FFVIII and FFIX), and the three discs of FFXI info as well as a very long update process as well as the need to register everything and sign up for the online service (needing about four codes, one for playonline, one for Tetra master, one for FFXI, and one for your Content ID to play FFXI). Ugh...thankfully you only have to do this once! All in all...if you are an MMORPG fan, you should get a kick out of the Square take and the Final Fantasy feel. In addition, you'll be spending so much time exploring and meeting new people online and fighting and adventuring that you may never want to turn it off (which is both a wonder and curse). Just remember, it's only a game...or is it? `Revu
Rating:
Summary: Worst gaming experience of my life
Review: (NOTE: some of this review relies on if you've played a MMORPG before) This game is just horrible. Anyone who says this game is good either hasn't played any other MMORPG before, or is a zealous fanboy who is too blinded by their love for this series to realize a bad game under this title when they see one. I give my reasons why: 1. It doesn't separate people from other countries into different servers. If you're an american, and there's a guy from Japan or France near you, you'll still read what they wrote in Japanese or French, thereby creating an unnecessary language barrier between the players. I have heard that they're making american-only servers, but that won't help because of reason 2. 2. Your server is chosen at random FOR you. This is meant to "prevent server overloads and crashes" which is the lamest thing I've ever heard. If you don't have the capacity to support a MMORPG (MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER, it's in the TITLE of the GENRE for crying out loud), then DON'T RELEASE IT YET! I bet you're wondering how you're gona play with your friends if your server is chosen for you. You or your friend buys a "world pass" which allows you to get on their server. Unfortunately, the passes cost more depending on how many people have characters on that server, and their default price is 1200 gil. That's a lot of money for a beginning player, which means that your friend will be a much higher level than you when you get there. Well, you'll be able to catch up in no time, right? Wrong. 3. It takes FOREVER to level up in this game, even at low levels. You require several thousand exp, even early on, to level up. Monsters typicly give exp of about 15-50 exp per kill. 100 if you actualy managed to kill something even level and still keep your internal organs inside your body. Pair that with the 5 minute downtimes between fights, the several hundred exp you lose (even at low levels) when you die, and the frequency at which you die, and you've got a lot of wasted time. It just gets slower as you progress. 4. SOLOERS, BEWARE! KEEP OUT! DO NOT CROSS! DEATH! DANGER! This game doesn't support soloers, not at all. In fact, it's almost like it PUNISHES people who want to solo. If you solo past level 15, you're going nowhere fast. Everything can kill you. Not only that, but people on this game seem to be generaly unfriendly and cold, especialy towards new players (newbies, for those new to online gaming). It's gona take you hours of waiting to find a party, unless you're a white mage or bard. I know someone who wasn't able to play for 2 months because no one would party with her. Even if you find a party, you'll be kicked out if you chose a bad race/job or job/subjob combination. Which brings us to reason 5. 5. Square-enix made the bad, bad mistake of letting us be whatever we want. If you're a paladin, and you have anything except a warrior for your subjob, you aren't getting a party (no, that's not an exaduration). Same goes with most options. Casters should sub casters and fighters should sub fighters. This applies to races, too. Galka should never be casters, tarutaru should never be anything BUT a caster. Any exceptions would leave you without a party. 6. Most of the classes seem to overlap, instead of each one having a distinct purpose that would make them valuable over the other options. Dark knight = monk = samurai. Each one has different things they can contribute, but they all basicly do the same thing. Samurai would probably be the most hard-pressed to find a party out of those three, since they need full, complete, unargued cooporation from their team mates to be on the same level as the dark knight or monk. Warrior = paladin. The only difference between the two is warrior does a slight bit more damage, where the paladin can heal himself after fights. That's it, but just to be fair, I'm going to list the good points about this game: 1. it has good graphics 2. there is no 2nd point, good graphics is the only thing this game has going for it. 3. refer to 2. I really recommend you buy a game like EverQuest, or wait until World of Warcraft comes out. I can't write any more about this game, because it hurts me physicly to remember anything about it.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun and then none
Review: At first this game is very involving and very fun, but then you start to get into the higher levels and you realize something that is stated as "Easy Prey" can easily kill you. Also, every group camps out at the same place. So if your in a group of 6 and are lv 25, you can bet there will be like 5 other groups of six camping the same ol' spot. Also, this game is not enjoyable at all. It's not even a game, it's more like a full time job. Trying to gain levels is like trying to convince waiting for your hair to grow. Also, once you have spent 2 hours gaining 500 exp (its is 5600 exp to gain a level at higher levels), and then die and lose 700 you will be very angry. This is when you look over at the clock and realize you just spent 2 hours to lose 200 exp, wow that's fun!!! So, ignore all the other positive reviews of this game cause it truly is horrible. Also, I have been a fan off the FF seris until 10. 10 sucked, so did 10-2, and so will 12. In fact Square Enix sucks, Square needs to break away from Enix and start making quality games like FF7 again. Anyway, if you have no ambition and want nothing more than to sit in front of a computer all day then please get this game. If you would rather enjoy yourself get a normal RPG that has a plot, not an MMORPG.
Rating:
Summary: A total fanboys point of view
Review: As as huge fan of the final fantasy series ive been a massive skeptic with everything that Square has release since final fantasy 8. That game was a huge letdown for me. Ive hated every single last game since 8. I felt like all they were going for was flash since then. Big summon spell, walk around, talk, very linear storyline. This game is the polar opposite. The gameplay system is so immersive you lose HOURS of time playing this game and i love every minute of it. The game is a bit difficult to learn and is definitely not for everyone. But if your a fan of final fantasy 1 through 7 you will love the gameplay system in this game. Im a level 9 white mage right now and love accompanying partys. Its been a great experience and at least give the game its shot, the first month of play is free so youve got nothing to lose. dont like it? Send it back to amazon and get your money back.
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