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Saturday 15 May 2010

Final Fanatsy XI Online

The first MMO I will start out with is my all time favorite (so far) in the MMO world.
I have been playing Final Fantasy XI for about 5 years, it was my first ever MMO, but it have a sense of uniqueness about it that I haven’t found in any other MMO.

After playing the game for 5 years I can safely say that this game is not newbie friendly.
I didn’t know this when I started playing, cause I hadn’t played any other MMOs. To me it was this magical little place with all the nice and helpful peoples.

I first found FFXI while browsing the net for info on other Final Fantasy games. It was due to launch in North America in about a months time then, I got so exited about the thought of an online game, that I decided I had to play it. My only problem was that I live in Norway, and the game wasn’t going to launch in EU until a year after NA, there where no chance of me waiting for that, so I went ahead and imported a game from the states, resulting in me starting to play one month after NA launch.


Graphic:
When I first logged into the game I of course thought the graphic of FFXI was stunningly beautiful. I play FFXI on my computer and two laptops and the graphic is widely different on all of them. Compared to other games I have played (like Guild wars, RF online and Archlord) the graphic of FFXI is a bit grainy, but what I think is most important with FFXI is that it has a Final Fantasy feel to it (as a Final Fantasy fan) and FFXI pulls that off nicely.

Story:
The storyline takes place in the world of Vana’diel. 20 years past of when the story of when we start playing, there where a war between the playable races and the beastmen. The beastmen were guided by the Shadowlord, and they laid waste to beautiful towns and land.
But the people united and seized victory from the beastmen, and the Shadowlord disappeared.

But trouble is steering in Vana’diel once again. You’ll have the chance to play as one of the 5 races that inhabits Vana’diel. Mithra, Galka, Hume, Elvaan or the Tarutaru, and chose between 1 of 3 nations to start in (It can be changed) Windurst, where the Mithra and the Tarutaru lives. San d’Oria, where the Elvaan lives. Or Bastok, where the Hume and Galka lives.

You will be fighting against the beastmen (and the other nations) over control over the different regions, and of course – over the crystals ;)


Repetitiveness:
The thing with MMOs it that they tend to be repetitive, and FFXI is no exception, but unlike most other games I have played, FFXI is not based on doing quests, and the never-ending “go there kill x amount of monsters.” The important aspect of FFXI is the community. FFXI is hard to play in the sense that you can’t really find the info about the quest or mission you do IN the game, unless you maybe shout about it in town of course. I have found that best way to find info on FFXI while you play is to have two computers (or now with the windower you only need one.) and look up the info you need on FFXI encyclopedia.

Controls:
FFXI is very easy to use. It’s based on only using the keyboard (PC) and controller for the consoles. You walk with the numpad 8,4,6,2. Inside view with 5 ,and also autorun 7.
Rest with * and open the easy to use menu with -. FFXI also have macros that is easy to learn.

Overall:
The only bad thing I have to say about FFXI is that its low on solo content and it isn’t newbie friendly. I personally like it a lot, and I hope FFXIV will be even better. ^^

I give FFXI 4 out of 5.