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To Amazon buyers.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 26, 2005
Author: Amazon User

To Amazon Buyer,

When you purchase this game purchase it new. a used game will most likely not be playable. This game is unique in that a registration key becomes invalid after 3-4 months of play. What this means is that the game is garbage... literaly. Once a key is dead the game is defective and you have to repurchase it. Even if the game was only played 1 or 2 times, that 3-4 month rule still stands... unless the seller has been paying the monthly fee right up untill you recieve the game.

The view from a first time MMORPG player.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

FFXI is truly a different game than the other MMORPGs I have played (WoW & Lineage II). I've played this game for three years now, including the Chains of Promathia Expansion pack.

The graphics are very realistic like real life.
This game is a thinking game. A lot of strategy is involved and unless you do some research and learn the game mechanics (fighting style, mob control, etc) you will be labelled as a "noob." The positive side to that is that anyone can be "uber" depending on how well you research your job (ninja, black mage, red mage, etc.) and have good equipment. In other words, the game is versatile to fit the player's needs whether you are rich or poor. Everything is very intricate, so everyday new discoveries are made everywhere (hidden graphics, or new play strategies, etc.). This game is also very TIME-CONSUMING!

What I find commonly among FFXI is the attachment to their characters and to the community that plays FFXI. You can make real friends within the game and even marry! There are lots of community help available and group commitment (because you endure a lot of hours of hard work in the game) that keeps you attached.

If you're looking for a game where you can interact with other people and make true friendships, talk in Japanese to the Japanese players, and patient enough to play this game throughout several years, this is FOR YOU. If you are impatient, want immediate action (aka World of Warcraft), want fantasy and flashy game graphics, easy gameplay, and mindless action, this game is NOT FOR YOU.

Manditory Time Sinks

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying I've played a lot of mmporgs. Played EQ, AO, DAOC and SWG. So .... I'm use to the leveling treadmill.

I played this game for roughly 4 months before I couldn't handle it anymore. It was more like a job than a game. I didn't mind the insane amount of exp it required. In a good group you could get 100-200 exp per kill. I even didn't mind the lack of monster animations. What got me were the time sinks they placed in the game.

There are tons of time sinks designed to slow down your leveling. All 20+ missions and quests literally take hours. If you want to travel faster (Choccobo? Airship?) you have to do a very lengthy quest. You want to level past 40? Another lengthy quest. You want to get to the new expansion areas? Another lengthy quest. Even though experience points are hard to come by, leveling to 70+ wouldn't be so bad if they would just let you level rather than throw up several road blocks.

My major gripe with the game are the astronomical prices of items in the game. Equipment, spells, temporary buffs (needed if you want your group to be efficient) and travel all cost money. Items cost so much that you are forced to farm and look for monsters who drop specific items. You don't usually gain gil when you experience so farming is a necessity if you want to keep your equipment up to date. I spent just as much time killing monsters, that didn't give me experience, for gil as I did killing monsters for experience. You want that new spell? That new piece of armor? Chances are it will take you 2-10 hours of farming to afford just one item.

Not for the MMORPG-green.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'll say this out front. This should NOT be the first Massive Multiplayer Online RPG you play. If you've only played Final Fantasy or Grandia or what-have-you offline and think, "This is Final Fantasy! And it's Online! It's gonna be just like the other games!" you're going to be horribly mistaken and disappointed. Now, if you're a MMORPG veteran like myself (played Dark Ages [not Of Camelot, just Dark Ages], Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest [terrible, TERRIBLE game], Star Wars Galaxies, Ragnarok Online, and countless beta tests), you'll know that it isn't an instant-satisfaction game and takes time to play.

However, said time can be found reqarding as you experience the sheer depth this game has to offer. The world of Vana D'iel is HUGE, and even that's an understatement. There are so many places to explore it will seem overwhelming at first. When you pick a town, you're basically stuck there until level 20 when you can ride a Chocobo (takes a lot longer to achieve that than you might think), but there's still plenty to do. There are many people in the towns, both PCs and NPCs. A lot of players can be asenine and stupid, but I've had the good luck of meeting a rather nice group of people and joining a linkshell full of helpful veterans to the game.

Combat is your standard MMORPG, really. Maybe the weapon mastery system is a bit new (You gain 0.1 or so for every N-number of attacks and once it adds up to 1.0 your skill increases by one). The higher level mastery you have, the more damage you do with that type of weapon and the more weapon skills you unlock.

The game keeps pace with your leveling rather well, as if you move on a bit farther in an area that you had leveled up in before, you'll find enemies that are well-suited to your new level (and possibly equipment). However, one trait of the game that I don't particularly like is it's forcing parties down your throat. Really, I've soloed up till level 10 and I'm having serious problems trying to kill anything work any experience now, and partying really cuts down the experience each person gets. You seldom find an actual working party, and white mages are sought after more than any other class. Even then, they're only TRULY good once they get Raise at level 25 (So many parties have I had where we get to the area, our black mage dies instantly, and no one can revive him).

If you can assemble a working party that STAYS TOGETHER, the game is very enjoyable and is a blast to play. You'll find yourself spending hours in front of your computer (if you don't already) trying to become more and more powerful, wondering what you'll be able to get next.

Tired of slaying hordes of monsters? Well, FFXI has you covered for that, too. There are many different kinds of crafting skills you can develop, from Smithing to Leather Working to Fishing. While expensive in their early stages (and believe me, you'll be in the early stages for a LONG time), they can become VERY profitable once given the time and money to level up. You can make more powerful weapons and armor than what you'd normally find in shops or the Auction House and sell them for a lot more than the normal kinds, too.

FFXI's graphics are simply amazing. I'm running it on a 2.2ghz Intel Celeron with 256mb of RAM and a 128mb nVIDIA Verto card, and the visuals are smooth at most points (they chop up when there are a lot of PCs on the screen), and very lush and detailed. It takes a bit of PC power to run the game, but it shows off the fact that a PC can equal (and surpass) PS2 in graphics capabilities.

Not much to say about the music. It's not bad, but it's not a korean online RPG. Only korean online RPGs have good music. It's a fact of life. (Don't believe me? Play TalesWeaver and Ragnarok Online.)

While the game does have it's drawbacks, overall it's a good buy. I've had it since January, but only really started devoting time to it a week or so ago. It takes up a lot of time, and is very fun if you're willing to give that time.

Hope to see you on! Drop me a line!

: CaitSith server, Kythara, Mithra warrior

I went on the FFXI diet as well...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: October 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Good, it wasn't just me. I only had the beta for 2 weeks, and just like the others, I found it hard to stop playing even long enough to do the most menial tasks.

I loved Final Fantasy, or I never would have stepped into the world of online gaming, already aware that I might love it too much. But the world created by Square-Enix is simply the most beautiful place I've ever been.

The worlds/backgrounds are simply so stunning, I dream about them in my sleep. The characters are engaging and real, and for your character, you get to choose between the fanciful creatures created by Square or regular Hume creatures, all of which you can further customize by size and hair color.

All the standard jobs are represented in your initial choice of character; mages black, red, and white; warrior, thief, monk, and ninja. As you advance you can further develop your character into sub classes and then special classes...I can't remember them all, but I fought with some summoners, bards, beastmasters, paladins and rangers...there are more.

The spellcasting and summoning was excellent, but I was just blown away by the environments. The character animation for the tarutaru characters was also extremely entertaining!

Even if you don't love fantasy or online games, I still bet you won't be sorry to have this game, if only to walk around this gorgeous world. The subscription to PlayOnline will cost $12.95 per month, and $1.00 for each additional character. However, I'm willing to bet that you won't mind that either. I know I won't. See you there!

Awesome, but the bills -_-;.......

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: August 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome I'm just lukcy I have parents that are SUPER nice and pay for the bills. The charges are 13 dollars for one charcter and 1 dollar more for each additional one, the bills are monthly as well. I guess though its somewhat afre for such an awesome game. The maintenence they have to do on the servers like every week gets annoying but I've lived through it. Awesome graphics but with every online game, lag and lost connections can get frustarting. There are 6 jobs that u can start out with, that i will explain

Warrior: Powerful and use their power to protect as much as they can, no magic, flexible use in all weapons, heavy armor, solid choice for anyone. 7 out of 10 rating

Monk:Powerful as well, Balanced in Strenght and Accuracy, Fist attacks, medium armor, probably the easiest job to play 6 out of 10 rating

White Mage: Healer, needed everywhere, some of his white magic actually dmaages and weakens the enemy, yay not boring! Everyone loves a WHM unless they screw up :P, anyway light armor, hammers, wands, staves, maces 9 out of 10

Black mage: Porbably the most powerful job in the game at least in the higher lvls, exploits the enemeis elemental weaknesses, wands, staves, and they have light armor however the monsters seem to enjoy chomping on the BLm because of the enormus "hate" they produce with their spells 8 out of 10

Red Mage: Hmm Red mage? u may ask, a person with access to white and black magic and alot of unigue spells to them too, they also have heavy armor and can sue swords and stuff. Well they ahve some pretty low mp and their normal attacks are weak
8 out of 10

Theif: The most profitable job but not that useful when being in parties with other players, however they gain some of the mos powerful techs in teh game. daggers, knives, sword, medium armor

Well thsoe are the jobs u can start out with, let me explain the races of Vanadeil

Hume: Human characters balanced in pretty much every job. My charcter's race ^^ comes in male of female

Elvan: Strong phyically players as wella s accurate, I'm sure veryone knows they have the pointy ears, comes in male and female not to magically strong

Taru-Taru: Tiny magic midgits really, cute though, (if u do play request the Taru-Dance, its the cutest thing ^^) Excellent mages but weak physically. Comes in male and female

Mithra: Cat woman but without the fur (umm beware some male players choose these and I got in an akaward situation with a mithra male player, umm hehe -_-;) Basically ballanced but very agile Female only

Galka:Big Strong Bear like players, sucky mages but excellent fighters male only hehe I don't liek them much

Well there are advanced jobs too that u gain acces through in quest at lvl 30 rating inside bubbles: Palidin(6), Dark Knight(8), Summoner(9), Dragoon(5), Ninja(8), Samurai(9), Bard(10), Beastmaster(7), Ranger(6)

Well overall buy this game, I can't go too in depth but I recommend it very much!!!

It's cute, but...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: May 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I would like to warn you before purchasing this game. First of all, I will mention the good things. It has nice graphics, it took me much less time to load than everyone else is claiming, and it does have the cute moogles and chocobos^^. Bad things: the monthly fee is a bit much so be sure you are willing to pay it before your free month is up, it takes forever to get anywhere if you don't have a chocobo to ride, and if your net goes down-a monster can come and kill you while you are trying to get back on (and then you lose tons of points or even level down). If you are new to online games or are a bit shy, I highly suggest that you get friends to play with you because partying is essential to leveling up in this game. Often you will have at least one person who is just nasty in the party (and mind you, the majority of these people are adults) and you are also expected to know the rules and strategy of each party without being told (this is the part I dislike the most because not only do you risk ticking people off, but you also have to make a fool of yourself at times to find out what you can and cannot do). On the other hand, you will meet some very nice people. The one major problem I had with a person was resolved by the game master only a few hours after it happened (he was very nice and apologized for this person's behavior). If you do have any problems, you can put people on a blacklist which will keep their comments from being sent to you.
I am only temporarily playing this as a favor to a friend, so I do not mind the problems I have had since I will be quitting in a couple of months; however, if you are someone who is seriously wanting to invest time and money into this game, I suggest you find someone with the game already and try it out for a few days. If you want to avoid a monthly fee on an online game, I suggest you look into Guild Wars.

Might be fine for PS2 users, but PC users demand more...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 37
Date: May 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

On the surface, there's nothing wrong with this game. But there's nothing particularly right about it either.

The game offers the traditional massive online role playing features, classes, races, levels, abilities, etc... You go on missions and quests, all in an effort to gain experience and raise your character's level. In that there's nothing new here. The measure of any RPG is how much fun it is in the effort of improving your character.

And that's where the problem is. Truth is, this game just doesn't make it fun. For those of you who cut your online teeth on a game like Neverwinter Nights, this game seems like something out of a bad Disney movie. You spend your first 10 levels killing rabbits. Yes, rabbits. Depending which "world" you start in, rabbits, sheep and fish will be your main enemies and they just keep spawing over and over again. My average experience earned was about 1000 points per hour, meaning it takes about 20 hours of straight farming (purely killing monsters) to make 10th. My time was about twice that because I just couldn't bring myself to do only that.

Now this might not be bad if you could work with others. Unfortunately, teaming up with people actually reduces the experience you get at this level, so you end up either soloing, or having someone power level you through the first 10 levels.

Once you've gone past level 10, you are just about ready to move on to the big experience level places. For me, this was a place called the Dunes. This is where all the 10-20th level folks would hang out to pick up as much xp as possible. When I reached a point where I was powerful enough to go to the Dunes, I was very excited. Finally a place where I could team with other people and have some fun.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it worked out. The Dunes was just another form of farming. The method for earning xp is formulaic. The party forms a little camp somewhere. One of the players leaves the camp to find a monster and coax him to the waiting players. The players kill the monster and gain experience. Once dead, everyone rests and we start again. If you do it right, you move up fast. If you do it wrong, everyone dies. You do this for as many hours as you can in order to move up in level. This section is so formulaic, that even the levels of the party members must be calculated. If you are 12th level and you try to get in with a group of 10th leveler, be prepared to be turned down. Any level difference in the team impacts the experience gained, and the players know it.

Which brings me to my next problem with the game. Random death. Unlike most other RPG's where the monsters are usually hostile immediately upon seeing you, most of these creatures are not. That means that if you steer clear of the innately hostile creatures, you can run around your potential targets and choose who you want to attack and who you want to avoid. This usually means you assess your target, do some quick mental math and decide if your character is likely to survive and gain enough experience to make the battle worthwhile. That means picking creatures who will put up a good fight, but lose in the end.

Once you get the hang of it, it works quite well -- until the random death arrives. Every once in a while, one of the more hostile monsters will come upon your combat and start beating on you. Now there's two problems here. First, it's hard to target the second creature in the combat. The game mechanics make it difficult to combat them both -- through the first 15 levels, I didn't get a single ability that allowed me to target multiple opponents. So, while you are busy trying to finish off your original opponent, the other one goes untouched. Of course the second problem is that when you did the math on the first creature, you didn't take into account creature number two. So, in all likelihood if you get double teamed like this, you are dead. Of course, with death comes penalty, which in this case is a massive loss of experience.

Next problem with the game. The missions. NPC's will hand you out missions and quests -- regardless of your ability to complete them. So, you get a mission and you try to get started on it, only to have someone tell you that you need to be 20+ to do it. Very annoying. Neverwinter typically simply told you to come back and check later when you were ready. Much preferable to finding out about all these missions you can't do.

Next up, no PvP. That's right, player vs. player simply doesn't exist in this game. Now, I'm not a big fan of hunting other players, but it's a part of most RPG games and it being missing in this game really diminishes things. There's just no real conflict. This game is so tame, that you can't even accidentally hurt another player!

And finally, a complete lack of role playing. Just about everyone on the server plays in their own persona, not bothering to create a character persona. Oh there are a few exceptions, but if you try to role play, most don't bother to play back and some don't even understand what you are doing! I was very disappointed to say the least.

To sum up this game, it comes simply down to this. The game creators have put together a game where the players must jump through specific hoops and do specific things in order to advance in the game. The end goal is clearly to ensure that each player plays the game for a specific amount of time that equates to a specific profit margin for the game maker. (You pay a monthly fee to play this game.)

This game may play well for PS2 gamers, where online play is something new and amazing, but for those of us who have spent years playing them on the PC, this game fails to measure up in every important way. When you purchase the game you get a free month of gameplay. I didn't last more that two weeks before I shut it off and went back to Warcraft.

---- UPDATE (1 month later)

Still not playing this terrible game. Dove deeper into World of Warcraft and wow is it cool. If you've bought this game already, return it if you can. If you haven't, don't!

I have a buddy who is deep into this game and even he's tired of the hoops. This guy actually has to rush home from work to make sure he gets home in time to log on and feed his virtual plant! I mean really, I like video games, but that's getting outta hand!

The Trump Card of MMORPG's

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: October 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)are your cup of tea, dive in. If you are a standard RPG Gamer (i.e., Breath of Fire series, Final Fantasy series, Zelda, et al.,) don't pick this game up, you will be disappointed unless you are open-minded to the future of gaming. (I recommend those that are traditional FF gamers to get Final Fantasy X-2, Origins, Chronicles, Anthology, VII, VIII, IX, X or Tactics instead.)

I, myself, am a story-driven person who loves the solo play of standard RPG's, however, I am a writer so the aspect of delving into a vast world with endless possibilities and so many "real" people controlled characters enthralled me. Is this my first? No. EverQuest and Phantasy Star Online came before. While those two hailed in my mind, Final Fantasy XI raised the plateau.

When I elected to try it out, I was thinking of The Elder Scrolls as its style of gameplay. (Note: As much as I liked Morrowind's environment, I loathed the combat.) XI doesn't resemble The Elder Scrolls in any way, albeit the world is huge - that's an understatement simply because XI hand's ES's a Trump Card in that department.

The game is interactive, and meant to be that way. Some reviews have labored to state that you tell your character to attack, then sit back an watch. True, and not true. Keyword here is: Interactive. If you are going into this game to play it solo...well, you'll be captivated by the environment, but bored silly. Final Fantasy XI is meant to be played with other people, form alliances, and interact with other players.

I beta tested this & can't wait for release date!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: October 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've never played an online game like this before and was amazed how easy this was to learn. I've been hooked from day one. The jobs are all different and you can change to them all without any loss of what you've learned in the other jobs. You get to "party" with others and if your lucky enough to get a great group, leveling is no problem. The missions and quests give you extra stuff to do other than leveling. I just can't wait to get back to playing with everyone.

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