I had a good time playing FFXI last night. Huge thanks to Stragi for getting me started, and giving me the basics to survive. I've got a level 5 warrior who will hopefully end up as a samurai, ninja, or dragoon at some point. Sorry, but having a sword AND a PET DRAGON is clearly the win.
Having said that, I found an excellent review of the game this morning, that is relatively negative, and I think is good information to have if you're considering purchasing. The two biggest problems are the UI (which I'm getting used to) and the worldpass bullshit which basically means you might spend an hour just trying to get on the same server are your friends (you're not allowed to choose your own server).
I still think it's worth checking out for a month if you like the Final Fantasy world, and I think the gameplay is similar to EQ so far. I really haven't seen enough of the game yet to do more than comment about killing n00b yard trash and agreeing with the below review:
So, I realize that I've only played the game for a few hours, and so it's pretty fair to say "but wait, there's all this cool stuff coming down the line". If the game can't sell itself in those first few hours though, then I think there's a problem. The problem, IMO, is that this is a game designed for a console. If I had to compare FFXI to, say, EQOA and PSO, then maybe I would have a more favorable first impression of it. However, I have FFXI for the PC, and so it's going to get compared with EQ, DAoC, SB, AO, AC, AC2, M59, UO, etc... and in this arena, I think it falls flat on its face.
First off, the whole PlayOnline Viewer thing is very cumbersome. It's what I assume is the exact same shell used to launch FFXI on the PS2, because it includes things such as a full APOP/SMTP email client, a mini file manager (for managing attachments, screenshots, etc.), a chat system, online help, etc. The problem is that all that is unnecessary on the PC; having to go through figuring out what a PlayOnline ID is, what a Member Name is, what a Member Password is and how it's different from a PlayOnline password, and then once you get to FFXI, what Content IDs are, and what a Handle is and why you have to link to one when you create a character is mind boggling. To log into the game requires going through around a dozen screens, on all of which you have to navigate to some option using either keyboard or mouse.
The idiocy that is the World Pass system has already been rehashed to death, so I won't go into it here. My skill in character creation went up to around 64 by the time someone took pity on me and gave me a world pass ID.
Then you finally get into the game itself. You're presented with a chat window that's a maximum of 9 lines high (though you can view a full-screen "chat log" -- no scrolling) with a fixed font size. Keys are highly modal -- what might do one thing in one screen does something different (or often nothing at all) while any other menu is open.. except for the trusty escape key, which closes everything down just like the X key on a console game. The third-person camera view always seems to manage to not show you what's in front of you, requiring manual camera fiddling; luckily, the first-person view seems to work well.
You're locked into one of two keyboard layouts (this is one of my pet peeves -- let ME decide which keys should do what, it's up to you to only provide reasonable defaults). Nothing except some macro keys is configurable, and the menu/command system is, well, just like every other Final Fantasy menu system.
Want to trade with someone? Target them (tab key to cycle or click). Hit enter. Select Trade. Select one of the "boxes" in the trade window. Hit enter. Select one of the items from your inventory. Hit enter. Back out of box selection, hit enter to confirm the trade. Want to learn a spell? Bring up your inventory, select the spell. Hit enter. Then select who you want to use the spell on (I don't know, yourself)? Hit enter. You learn the spell. Want to fight? OK! Target something. Hit Alt-C to consider it, if you want. ("even match", "moderate difficulty", etc.) Then start casting a spell. Hit Alt-M to bring up the magic menu. Select your spell. Hit enter. Then pick a target (uh, I already had a target, thanks). Hit enter. Hit Alt-A to begin autowhacking the mob. Repeat until mob dead. Then hit H to "heal" -- you don't seem to regen HP/MP at any rate unless you're explicitly healing or you're in your mog house.
While you're going through your menu-selecting frenzy, you're getting spammed by the hits/misses of the guy fighting next to you -- there are some chat filters, but either they don't work, or they don't fully block out others' combat spam.
The character models are well done, and the spell graphics are very pretty -- which is I think all that can be said favourable about the graphics. The UI resolution and the actual "3d viewport" resolution are settable separately in the config screen. The max 3d viewport resolution is 1024x1024; the default, 512x512, looks exactly what a Final Fantasy game would look like if it was played on a TV. 1024x1024 looks a bit better, but there's no attempt at antialiasing, names above mobs are very "ragged", and the terrain and related textures look like they were done with Windows Paintbrush's airbrush tool. The character shadows look nice. I'm not really sure what the benchmark program was testing, since the in-game graphics don't seem to be nearly as configurable.
Other immediately-obvious annoyances. There seem to be a lot of spaces that you're simply barred from walking through, like a large fountain/pool thing in the city I started at -- you hit an invisible wall if you try to walk into it. You can't jump (or I couldn't find the key). There's an in-game map; you can purchase additional maps and set markers, which is very nice. But you can't be moving and have the map window open at the same time.
Note that I haven't even gotten to any of the content; all this other crap gets in the way. Fighting mobs was quite boring, and the treadmill is in full force. Level 1 - 2 takes 500 xp, each kill gives you about 50. 2 - 3 was (I believe) 750, with those same mobs now only giving 36 xp. Grouped with a level 4 character, a "challenging" mob gave me 13 xp, so there goes the grouping idea.
I didn't even really have high hopes for the game; but I expected a game that would at least have learned something from current and past crops of MMOGs.. it certainly didn't deliver that. To be fair, some things are good -- mog houses look nicely done (can arrange furniture/items and plant plants), and there are some nifty ideas such as skillchains, but is it really worth the pain of actually playing the game?
FFXI may be a great game if you're looking for a console MMOG. For a PC MMOG, I'd skip it; if you need a Final Fantasy hit, wait for FFX-2.
) what server, and I'll see if we can hook up.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
You're correct that the subjob can't be more than half of your mainjob, so perhaps you just have to go with advanced class only, and drop the subclass while you level up the advanced. Honestly not sure yet.
The game looks incredible...but i'm still working on how to play it ^^
) and i still haven't seen any EQ names. I'm wondering; is everyone using different names? Or am i just not strong enough to venture out to find everyone yet?