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FFXI in 2020

blonded

blonded

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,128
How is this game today? Is the story soloeable or do you have to find people to do story content with? Is it even worth playing through solely for the story? I enjoy FFXIV's mmo combat but not sure if I'd be able to stomach 2002-era mmo combat for long.

I've heard a lot of good things about FFXI in general so curious to see how people feel about the current state of the game.
 
rpm

rpm

Into the Woods
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
12,348
Parts Unknown
I'm also interested in this, I bought FFXI last year in a Steam sale for like 10 bucks but haven't gotten around to it yet
 
Ferrio

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,047
I've been stuck in Crawler's nest trying to level since release, send help.
 
Cenauru

Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,944
You do get partners called "trusts", but you'll probably still need to follow a guide to not get lost. I had to play with my girlfriend who had already played it for years when I started cause I was completely lost on my own.
 
Rotobit

Rotobit

Editor at Nintendo Wire
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
10,196
You can recruit NPC party members, which I believe make the game a lot easier

I played it for about 2 weeks last year and it was fun but the archaic nature of things really put me off putting any more time into it. The story dialogue being delivered via the standard chat menu, quests being confusing/useless, and the general slowness were the biggest offenders.

It's definitely worth trying though, so long as you go in with the expectation that it's nothing like FFXIV.
 
TheZynster

TheZynster

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,285
blonded said:
How is this game today? Is the story soloeable or do you have to find people to do story content with? Is it even worth playing through solely for the story? I enjoy FFXIV's mmo combat but not sure if I'd be able to stomach 2002-era mmo combat for long.

I've heard a lot of good things about FFXI in general so curious to see how people feel about the current state of the game.
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Click to shrink...


Pretty sure you can experience nearly all content solo outside of WAY end game due to trusts now.
 
Chocobo Blade

Chocobo Blade

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,848
I'm curious how long it takes to just go through all the story content and does it involve a lot of grind?
 
Atolm

Atolm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,826
I've been playing for the last six months. I left in January.

The whole game is a cesspool of drama over the general chat with Trump crap splattered all over it, and almost everything is done by bots and RMTs, including endgame activities. Want to get Capacity Points (think merits, but way more hardcore)? Pay a RMT to do it for you. Want to get an Aeonic or Empyrean weapon? Well, good luck. One is ultra expensive and the other is done by paying RMT to clear fights for you. Almost everyone I knew bought Gil at some point. There's very little "real activity" with players forming groups and doing contenago. Aside from a bunch of linkshells.

That feeling of "let's help each other and be nice to everyone, cause tomorrow maybe I'll be the one in need of help" has vanished completely.

It doesn't help either that while all classes are viable at certain content the game favours tremendously SMN, GEO and COR setups for almost everything. It's comical how OP SMN is. And they're even giving it another summon this month.

Story content is fine, it's not a bad grind and can be done at your own pace. You can do everything solo now, deleveling & level capped areas don't exist anymore, even many mechanics like dungeon doors that required 4 people have been simplified. If you want to take a last visit to Vanadiel to enjoy the story & locations, I totally recommend it, it takes a month or month and half to do everything, tops. Stay away from everything else.

Also, time has not been kind to the game's code. It works worse than it did years ago. It works poorly in W10 cause it's fully single core and the APIs haven't been updated. It still uses DX8, which in W10 works through a compatibility layer under DX9. Essentially the CPU emulates it. Stuff like the new Dynamis areas (content for 18 players) can see heavy slowdown and lag even while your CPU and GPU are taking a complete nap.

It doesn't help either that reaching 83% haste cap is extremely easy and melees now have a ton of double, triple and even quad attack gear and animations can't keep up with what's actually happening.
 
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jiggle

jiggle

Member
Dec 23, 2017
4,470
Chocobo Blade said:
I'm curious how long it takes to just go through all the story content and does it involve a lot of grind?
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Not level grind
You can reach level 99 in like days
And that's enough for majority of the story and all the expansions since they were designed for lv75
You'll probably spend more time unlocking annoying obstacles than actually grinding

The last expansion will need a lot more effort for soloing though
 

AwShucks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,943
I only had assistance at two times when I played through the entirety of the story a couple years ago. The final final boss and one other part with opening a door.

I will say, the game can be super frustrating at times but I found it to be worth it because I loved all of the main stories (base game and expansions, I have yet to finish the couple mini campaigns that exist).

Edit: The level down mechanic doesn't come in to play really. I actually can't remember it happening to me
 
Cenauru

Cenauru

Dragon Girl Supremacy
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,944
Death having real consequences and the overworld actually being difficult is what drew me to FFXI, but a combination of archaic things (janky kb+m controls and dated UI are the biggest ones) keeps me from playing it more. I really hope it gets a remaster or overhaul within the next decade.
 
Brohan

Brohan

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
2,544
Netherlands
I think the level down mechanic was pretty cool. Sure it sucked when it happened but it made travelling through dangerous area's all the more exciting. Sneak and invis pls.

Most people would grind for a buffer though so it wouldn't really happen all that often unless you somehow died multiple times in Quick succesion. I think you could also get some xp back with higher level raise spells but I'm not sure since it has been ages.
 

Deleted member 18021

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,000
What made FFXI special (The people you played the game with) is no longer there, but there's still good things about it, such as the characters and the world. Try the trial, and maybe give it a go when the free login periods come around.

The OST is criminally undervalued by the FF fandom.

Salbert said:
That level down mechanic sounds pretty cool tbqh. Gamers hate consequences.
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It was a standard thing at the time, but it absolutely helped make the overworld more threatening. Gobbieterrorism, and whatnot.

What would probably truly piss people off today would be the boats, and just how you get around the world in general.

 
Kromeo

Kromeo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,831
The amount of xp you lost at higher levels was overly punishing, and it was complete ass when it meant you couldn't equip your weapon anymore

The population was getting too low like 10 years ago when I stopped playing, the death of xp parties killed my interest in leveling any more jobs
 
Brohan

Brohan

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
2,544
Netherlands
I just remembered being able to make "trains" by aggroing a bunch of monsters and then running to other players before Losing aggro so that all the monsters would start attacking those other players.

It sucked when it was done on purpose like that (unless it was used against goldsellers) but it was hilarious watching people run for their lives with a ton of monsters in pursuit. They wouldn't stop following unless you went to another zone either.
 
Ploid 6.0

Ploid 6.0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,440
With Trials or whatever the NPC party members are called, it makes the world lose it's charm, respect, and challenge. I bet it's no where near as good these days but private servers are fun.

 
Toth

Toth

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,995
MochaKoffee said:
What made FFXI special (The people you played the game with) is no longer there, but there's still good things about it, such as the characters and the world. Try the trial, and maybe give it a go when the free login periods come around.

The OST is criminally undervalued by the FF fandom.



It was a standard thing at the time, but it absolutely helped make the overworld more threatening. Gobbieterrorism, and whatnot.

What would probably truly piss people off today would be the boats, and just how you get around the world in general.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Thankfully you can now warp between home points. Travek is so much easier and leveling a cinch. This is pre Wow though, so you need to level by killing mobs, not by quests. Most quests in the game are rather pointless.

But what is this chat nonsense you speak of? I play several times a week and I have never seen that at all.
 
katagai

katagai

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
192
I last played around 3-4 years ago and lasted 3 months. The first month was great, doing all these things I never got around to doing back in 2008. But by the 2nd month, my experience went to shit.
  • I chose to be my group's tank, since no one else wanted to
  • Found out that the PLD relic shield is REQUIRED to tank anything in endgame
  • Watched as jealously infected every single one of my friends
  • Found out I couldn't tank with this shield I spent half a month working towards due to that fact that aggro is broken on enemies level 99 and below
  • Constantly got berated by an elitist asshole we had "befriended" for not being able to tank (also constantly bragged about buying gil)
  • Despite being able to warp around everywhere and having infinite mount whistles, accomplishing anything in the game takes FOREVER
  • Since my friends were jealous of my shield, now they wanted to work on their own weapons
  • They also wanted to do endgame shit
  • Remember, doing anything in this game TAKES FOREVER
  • Since I'm the group's tank, I now found myself in a situation where I had to log in before anyone else got on if I wanted to do anything
  • Suddenly everyone is fighting over what to do, because you know, EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER
  • Watch as my close group of friends eat each other alive
I'll be honest with you, if you plan on soloing, you're going to run into a roadblock every step of the way. If you can find even one person to help you here and there, your experience in this game will improve tremendously. Otherwise, be prepared to do a lot of reading and LOTS of dying.
 

Critch

Banned
Dec 10, 2017
1,360
I'd like to play it just to be able to have completed all the mainline FF's, but I'm waiting on the mobile remake.
 
djplaeskool

djplaeskool

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,735
Charpunk said:
So FFXI mobile is never coming out right?
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Nexon keeps teasing. As of right now, it looks to still be a thing.

Lagamorph said:
Does it still have the utterly stupid level down mechanic?
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Technically it's still there for characters over level 30, but the penalty for death is now so small, and the rate of gain is so high, that the impact is negligible.
Nothing like back in the day when losing 10% of your exp was a painful event and having a bad streak in a pt would wipe out hours of progress.
 
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Toth

Toth

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,995
katagai said:
I last played around 3-4 years ago and lasted 3 months. The first month was great, doing all these things I never got around to doing back in 2008. But by the 2nd month, my experience went to shit.
  • I chose to be my group's tank, since no one else wanted to
  • Found out that the PLD relic shield is REQUIRED to tank anything in endgame
  • Watched as jealously infected every single one of my friends
  • Found out I couldn't tank with this shield I spent half a month working towards due to that fact that aggro is broken on enemies level 99 and below
  • Constantly got berated by an elitist asshole we had "befriended" for not being able to tank (also constantly bragged about buying gil)
  • Despite being able to warp around everywhere and having infinite mount whistles, accomplishing anything in the game takes FOREVER
  • Since my friends were jealous of my shield, now they wanted to work on their own weapons
  • They also wanted to do endgame shit
  • Remember, doing anything in this game TAKES FOREVER
  • Since I'm the group's tank, I now found myself in a situation where I had to log in before anyone else got on if I wanted to do anything
  • Suddenly everyone is fighting over what to do, because you know, EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER
  • Watch as my close group of friends eat each other alive
I'll be honest with you, if you plan on soloing, you're going to run into a roadblock every step of the way. If you can find even one person to help you here and there, your experience in this game will improve tremendously. Otherwise, be prepared to do a lot of reading and LOTS of dying.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sucks to hear that. On the plus side though, the revamp of the current end game content (Domain Invasion) now allows everyone to get excellent gear in just a few days.
 
Nida

Nida

Member
Aug 31, 2019
11,139
Everett, Washington
MochaKoffee said:
What made FFXI special (The people you played the game with) is no longer there, but there's still good things about it, such as the characters and the world. Try the trial, and maybe give it a go when the free login periods come around.

The OST is criminally undervalued by the FF fandom.



It was a standard thing at the time, but it absolutely helped make the overworld more threatening. Gobbieterrorism, and whatnot.

What would probably truly piss people off today would be the boats, and just how you get around the world in general.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


XI is one of my favorite games simply due to the Linkshells I was a member of, and the friendships I made playing the game. Abyssea really hurt my enjoyment of the game. Getting together a group and timing weapon skills to do a magic burst while talking about random things either in the party or in your LS is going to be boring to some, but I loved it. My main was Dragoon so I always got picked last. That is until I leveled Bard and was in high demand.

Camping and killing Vrtra, King Behemoth, Fafnir, and the various Gods was quite a thrill, as long as no one was using bots.

So many awesome memories. Getting together a group so everyone can get their Optical Hat, unlocking Sky and Sea access, killing Ose many, many, many times and never getting the Assault Jerkin.
 
Blade24070

Blade24070

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,991
Atolm said:
I've been playing for the last six months. I left in January.

The whole game is a cesspool of drama over the general chat with Trump crap splattered all over it, and almost everything is done by bots and RMTs, including endgame activities. Want to get Capacity Points (think merits, but way more hardcore)? Pay a RMT to do it for you. Want to get an Aeonic or Empyrean weapon? Well, good luck. One is ultra expensive and the other is done by paying RMT to clear fights for you. Almost everyone I knew bought Gil at some point. There's very little "real activity" with players forming groups and doing contenago. Aside from a bunch of linkshells.

That feeling of "let's help each other and be nice to everyone, cause tomorrow maybe I'll be the one in need of help" has vanished completely.

It doesn't help either that while all classes are viable at certain content the game favours tremendously SMN, GEO and COR setups for almost everything. It's comical how OP SMN is. And they're even giving it another summon this month.

Story content is fine, it's not a bad grind and can be done at your own pace. You can do everything solo now, deleveling & level capped areas don't exist anymore, even many mechanics like dungeon doors that required 4 people have been simplified. If you want to take a last visit to Vanadiel to enjoy the story & locations, I totally recommend it, it takes a month or month and half to do everything, tops. Stay away from everything else.

Also, time has not been kind to the game's code. It works worse than it did years ago. It works poorly in W10 cause it's fully single core and the APIs haven't been updated. It still uses DX8, which in W10 works through a compatibility layer under DX9. Essentially the CPU emulates it. Stuff like the new Dynamis areas (content for 18 players) can see heavy slowdown and lag even while your CPU and GPU are taking a complete nap.

It doesn't help either that reaching 83% haste cap is extremely easy and melees now have a ton of double, triple and even quad attack gear and animations can't keep up with what's actually happening.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Summoner is OP? It was considered one of the worst classes back in the day (aka when the game came out and SMN was introduced.
 
Feep

Feep

Lead Designer, Iridium Studios
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,596
Atolm said:
I've been playing for the last six months. I left in January.

The whole game is a cesspool of drama over the general chat with Trump crap splattered all over it, and almost everything is done by bots and RMTs, including endgame activities. Want to get Capacity Points (think merits, but way more hardcore)? Pay a RMT to do it for you. Want to get an Aeonic or Empyrean weapon? Well, good luck. One is ultra expensive and the other is done by paying RMT to clear fights for you. Almost everyone I knew bought Gil at some point. There's very little "real activity" with players forming groups and doing contenago. Aside from a bunch of linkshells.

That feeling of "let's help each other and be nice to everyone, cause tomorrow maybe I'll be the one in need of help" has vanished completely.

It doesn't help either that while all classes are viable at certain content the game favours tremendously SMN, GEO and COR setups for almost everything. It's comical how OP SMN is. And they're even giving it another summon this month.

Story content is fine, it's not a bad grind and can be done at your own pace. You can do everything solo now, deleveling & level capped areas don't exist anymore, even many mechanics like dungeon doors that required 4 people have been simplified. If you want to take a last visit to Vanadiel to enjoy the story & locations, I totally recommend it, it takes a month or month and half to do everything, tops. Stay away from everything else.

Also, time has not been kind to the game's code. It works worse than it did years ago. It works poorly in W10 cause it's fully single core and the APIs haven't been updated. It still uses DX8, which in W10 works through a compatibility layer under DX9. Essentially the CPU emulates it. Stuff like the new Dynamis areas (content for 18 players) can see heavy slowdown and lag even while your CPU and GPU are taking a complete nap.

It doesn't help either that reaching 83% haste cap is extremely easy and melees now have a ton of double, triple and even quad attack gear and animations can't keep up with what's actually happening.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This makes me so sad. I very much loved Vana'diel, and it was such a unique experience in my life.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,337
I have a copy of this too that I got years ago. Honestly reading some of the stuff above makes me want to look into hosting my own private server and just updating my stats as I go if I run into any roadblocks. I remember playing with that stuff before and it was cool.

I've always been curious about XI but I know I'll never get to see what it was really like. I just would like to see some of the story stuff
 
Atolm

Atolm

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,826
Blade24070 said:
Summoner is OP? It was considered one of the worst classes back in the day (aka when the game came out and SMN was introduced.
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It's so OP that there's the meme "SMN BURN EVERYTHING!!!!" in the community.

It can give Hastega II to an entire party for 8min+. It can boost all main stats at the same time to everyone. It can use a new sort of Phalanx that nullfies what would have been lethal attacks . It can give Reraise, buff magic defense and meva (both which are very important now, since Utsusemi is useless for the most part now).

On top of that it's the top DPS for any serious endgame content. Blood Pacts do crazy damage while giving almost no TP to enemies. People just skip battle strats now, there's no point in doing them as they were supposed to be done with groups of 12-18 people. Grab 3 well geared SMN, a GEO with a mythic, a RUNE (PLD is worse now due to lack of hate management tools and less defensive magic capabilities, not to mention that an expert and properly geared RUNE can deal dmg on par with regular melees) and a COR and everything is dead within seconds skipping all mechanics because Blood Pacts still give almost no TP to mobs.

People buy Gil to buy clears from a Chinese guy who multiboxes the setup I mentioned and he can take like 3-4 people at a time charging them 80-90m Gil each for the last tier of Aeonic mobs (Aeonic is a kind of ultimate weapon that requires boss clears instead of insane grind, and it's on par with older Ultimates, and in many cases like DRG, SAM or THF is the superior option). And so Gil goes back directly to RMTs, causing a permanent inflation.

Also every item is buyable from those guys, they sell every piece of content from the game.

Frankly, it was very depressing to see the state of the game. If you try to do content with people, you're expected to be on the wheel and have all the gear bought.

I shouldn't have come back. I enjoyed the story and all but the current community has tainted my vision of the game as a whole.

SE just does maintenance and little balance updates here and there, no new content, so they don't care about the community being in shambles. Bots have someone paying subs for them too, after all.
 
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