Lionheart's FFXI 7-day Review

[Lionheart_0]

Alright! Well its been about a month since I've stopped playing WoW (Not permanently) and I have just gotten into my second MMO. FFXI (Final Fantasy 11, online). After a grueling setup (I'll go over this later) I have finally got my game set up today. Since there has been no previous review of this game, i shall take the liberty of making such a review (Yes, I'm stealing you idea Nadril 8-) ). For the next 7 days, I shall edit this post and comment on my experiences and my feelings towards the game.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1-Are we there yet?.....

 

Ok this goes a bit before the first day, into the setup phase. I bought this game on Saturday June 9th. Today is Tuesday June 12th. It took me a total of 3 days, and probably 16 hours to set up this game (Or attempt to). The initial install of the games/expansions/playonline was easy. Just put in the CD, install, put in some codes, and boom, its all there on the computer.

 

 

 

Then came the hard part.... Of course there is a huge update waiting since this game has been out for probably 4 years now. I thought "Ok, ill just leave my computer on for about 2 hours, it should be fine". As iI'm about to leave the computer to play on my new Wii, I glance at the computer. THERE IS A TOTAL OF 17K FILES (not kb or mb) that needed to be downloaded! Well then, I didn't expect that, but oh well, so I left it and played my wii. About 50 minutes later I come in to check this..... But the thing is... what i had been waiting for was just a check! The play online client was just checking the server for all the files. It was at about 95% so I just sat there watching. Finally it hits 100% and goes to the downloading page (Turns out it has to 1. check 2. Download and 3. Install). I wait patiently as the first of 4k files (Umm wtf, i thought there was 17k?, no it appears I need to download 4k). The files get to about 17%. I wait a bit cause I know its just lag, and will go away soon.

 

 

 

I would just like to take a minute here to explain how the errors for playonline work. They give you a POL indicating its a playonline problem then a dash, then the four digit code that goes along with it. Generally this is used for checking up the error to help correct it. But thats not what Square Enix uses it for. They use it for absolutely nothing!

 

 

 

Back to the download. POL-1162. I was freaking out. It told me there was a network error. So I thought, ok, ill just retry it. As I do that, boom, the check starts up. I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER 50 MINUTES OR SO TO GET THIS PART DONE. Ok I let it load. An hour later POL-1162.

 

 

 

Needless to say, Ill jump ahead. I have had Square Enix people, DLink router (My router type) FAQ's, and my service provider tech support all tell me there were problems with my router. I spend Saturday morning, Sunday morning all learning about routers/ports. This was all useless information. In the end the problem was a fire wall that I have always overlooked, and found at about 11:50 pm last night.

 

 

 

Tip 1 if you're going to play.... Make sure you configure all your fire walls right....

 

 

 

Anyways, I have played for probably a total of 2 hours so far today. Besides the hard to learn controls (they don't tell you where the main menu buttons is, and you use the number pad to move) and the slightly slower the normal running speed, it looks like an excellent game. The battle system is much like FFXII which I have played before, and everything is so much as I had imagined it. (BTW, you can configure your controls if you find the main menu). The battles are hard, and sorta like WoW. You cant fight anything probably 2 lves above you (doesn't show lves of monsters here, but gives a descriptive difficulty).

 

 

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's (Assuming I'm not doing homework....)

 

 

 

Day2-Bring in the bandages doctor, we are losing EXP!

 

 

 

Ok, so My first day of the game wasn't to good. Although there was the part about me actually playing, I didn't know what the hell I was doing as the manual is not so clear.

 

 

 

In this part, I will also mention some stuff that I didn't cover from yesterday night after making day one.

 

 

 

Referring to the title of this day, I would like to start off with saying that I am very worried about the mechanics of the battles. I had died once or twice between lve's 1-3 (Note to self, use the check function to see difficulty of enemies). Well I had gotten to Lve 4, and was just sitting there, healing, when this orc fodder comes along. I was thinking, OK I can take him. so we battle, and I lose. I think no big deal, that is until I see the log window. "You have returned to lve 3.". This was difficult to grasp for me. One moment ago i was lve 4, and now I Im lve 3. It would seem i can leak EXP when I die. Great!

 

 

 

I am almost done my rant part :wink:

 

 

 

So anyways, after going and killing another creature to get back to lve 4, I return to town to see whats around again. Talking to some people, they managed to give me quests, which wasn't to bad seeing as I need money. Of course some quests are a little harder as in I need to lve a bit more or do a lot of running around, but I thought I would get to finishing them later. I then head for the guilds. I knew there was crafting skills in this game much like WoW, so I decided I would perhaps take one up. Turns out its slightly more complicated.

 

 

 

Turns out it is possible to join and use all crafting skills. The problem is, There isn't a way to keep track of what to make >.<. I have tried for probably 10 minutes to search through all my menus for a way to figure out how to see what I can make. Apparently though, NPC's just tell me and I'm spoused to remember them.

 

 

 

Crafting stuff really isn't that hard, you just mix stuff using crystals, and vowla. It can fail sometimes, resulting in the lose of your items, but thats expected I guess.

 

 

 

I would like to take a moment and go over something I would normally not care at all about, but must mention. The graphics. It has not been till today that I have realized how good of a job Square Enix has done with this game. Besides the fact that there are many choices of jobs that you can be (Which you can switch at your house), you can couple them to have a support job. This allows for many many variations. That being said, I have not seen a single two PC's (Players) that have the same outfit on (Save new PC's). This is amazing because every single item is at least different in some way shape or form. Also not to mention that the graphics flow very well and that everything looks very much in place.

 

 

 

Nothing much else to say for now except that perhaps I have gotten used to the controls, and that over time, a person can go from relying on the mouse to not even using it. It really is a poor tool in this game.

 

 

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow.

 

 

 

Day 3-I pick you Monk!

 

 

 

Onto the third day, and all my headaches of this game have gone away. Still the exp loss is kinda annoying but I'll live.

 

 

 

Anyways, after reading some posts on Gamefaqs.com, I came to the conclusion that a red mage was not a good starting job. I was recommended a monk. Now from previous games, I knew a monk was low maintenance at the start of the game, due to not needing high end weapons. What I was also worried about was the fact they might be akin to the FFI version of monks. Crappy fighters who can't do much at all.

 

 

 

But on the contrary, changing made a huge difference, and was nothing like the FFI counterpart. Starting back at lve one (My red mage lves don't transfer over), I quickly got to lve 3 again, and at probably 5 times the rate I did before. Two times the attacks, and more strength meant for faster leveling.

 

 

 

Putting that aside, I now have come to a slight problem with the game. Going into it, I had heard that it required more time and less soloing. Thus comes the great problem of learning how to party. This is still new too me, and the system looks awkward, but I'll try and learn how to get into a party on the weekend, in hopes that it will help do quests/missions faster as well as level more.

 

 

 

I may or may not do a review tomorrow.

 

 

 

Day 7- Conclusion

 

 

 

Ok, I would just like to say that i generally buy and play FF games, but never finish them. The main reason is that there is always a game out there I know I can finish sooner, therefore I go play that. I think this may become the same case.

 

 

 

The reason for now review for the past few days? Well it mostly has to do with the game play. Seriously. I know WoW people call PVE servers care bare servers. Well after playing this game, i can honestly say, all of WoW is a care bare game. So much is handed to you that isn't in FF. The friend system took me awhile to figure out a few days ago, and the partying system is just as complex.

 

 

 

The majority of the past 4 days (Minus today, I didn't play) have been spent killing rabbits, worms, orcs, and giant sheep (Seriously, these things are as big as the elvaan that I am, and My character is a damn giant!). Not to mention I have been gathering earth crystals which seem to play a huge role in crafting, and just selling them in the action house.

 

 

 

Now I should explain something here. In WoW, there is an auction house too. You place an item up, and someone bids. Unfotuantly, not often do people bid.

 

 

 

In this game, the moment I place up an item, I have about 10 bids already. Half of them are 200-500 gil bellow what I'm asking (usually 1k gil for a stack of 12 earth crystals). The huge problem besides the low bidders, is the fact that it takes 3 days (real time) for me to get my money. Oh well, not like it matters. It will take me about 5 days to gain probably the three lves i need to get a newer and better item, which it will take about 7 days to get the gil to pay for that item.

 

 

 

As you can see, time is constantly adding up, and it takes forever to do crap. Another example is running from battles. Not only must you chose and option to disengage, the monster will continue to try and fight you. Some times it takes about 5 minutes to get to the nearest area crossing or town. Thus you must run for long amounts of time and hope that the monster wont be able to attack you from the 5 meters away that it is behind you (Which it usually does). By the way, you generally pick up about 4 other monsters which try and kill you on your way to safety.

 

 

 

Sunday was the first day I got into a party. Me and some girl just randomly met, and she started helping me, which was super nice. I can honestly say that the community here is much more mature then any online community I've seen thusfar in my online times. Anyways, the girl and I team up and kill monsters. Alone, I was getting about 50-150 exp per monster. Now it was approximately 16-30 exp. Then after about 1 hour, she gains a lve. Now there is a 2 lve difference between us. Problem is, at this point, the lowest character in the party gets [cabbage] exp. Thus im not getting between 12-20 exp per monster!

 

 

 

Out of all this, I have only done one mission, the crappy beginner one. So much for the epic story line I wanted. Looks like I have to be around lve 15 to get this story line. But wait, getting that far will take me forever!

 

 

 

I've spent probably around 60$ to date on this game. No where as much as WoW, but still. I'll probably play it for 1 month or something, and then switch back to WoW. It is just to tedious to go through this much time to get next to no where.

 

 

 

In conclusion, this game is too damn long, and too damn hard for the average player. No one in high school should play this because it will eat up more them then WoW ever would. I recommend it to hard core FF fans only, maybe for someone that is just crazy to play it even.

[Nadril]

I'll keep an eye on this post lion :). FFXI is one of the few MMO's I've never played before.

[Bubsa]

I would imagine that if someone purchased a recent copy, they wouldn't have to download nearly as much as you had to. IIRC, you said you've had the game lying around for awhile now? More recent packages probably come with more recent patches bundled, like WoW has done.

 

 

 

Hoping for good things. Keep us posted Lion :)

[Nadril]

By the way nothing is as bad as reinstalling everquest II hah! Had to install 9 disks and then on top of that update for like 13 hours >_>.

[Lionheart_0]

I would imagine that if someone purchased a recent copy, they wouldn't have to download nearly as much as you had to. IIRC, you said you've had the game lying around for awhile now? More recent packages probably come with more recent patches bundled, like WoW has done.

 

 

 

Hoping for good things. Keep us posted Lion :)

 

 

 

Actually bubs, this is the 2007 edition, so the version came out just this year, and i purchased it Saturday. Square enix's downloader is so damn slow, and they don't put their updates on disk, so even a person buying a new copy has to download them all :( it really sucked.

[Lionheart_0]

By the way nothing is as bad as reinstalling everquest II hah! Had to install 9 disks and then on top of that update for like 13 hours >_>.

 

is that 9 disks of DVD roms or cds?

[Nadril]

By the way nothing is as bad as reinstalling everquest II hah! Had to install 9 disks and then on top of that update for like 13 hours >_>.

 

is that 9 disks of DVD roms or cds?

 

 

 

DVDS IIRC.

[Lionheart_0]

By the way nothing is as bad as reinstalling everquest II hah! Had to install 9 disks and then on top of that update for like 13 hours >_>.

 

is that 9 disks of DVD roms or cds?

 

 

 

DVDS IIRC.

 

 

 

That is a HUGE game then....

[Nadril]

Yeah every NPC in the game has voice acting for all the quests. :XD: .

 

 

 

But lets not get this too OT. :P

[rocketman089]

I couldn't stand that game >.>

 

 

 

I played it on the 360 though, so the controls really turned me off. If you could chat via the headset it'd be so much better, but no, you have to use a keyboard. I probably would have liked it more if i tried it on pc instead ofa console.

[Lionheart_0]

:boohoo: :ohnoes: Today's review is up!, go go go!

[Nadril]

Loosing xp is very common in korean made games. You lost it and could delevel in Lineage II as well.

[syndrome445]

Which server are you on? I could probably give you advice. I'm only 51 blm, but i have a lot of experience in game, so tell me server and char name and i will help in any way possible. BTW you probably wont get very far in a week :P. Maybe to level 12.

[Lionheart_0]

Im on Titan. Character name is Arkheart. So far lve 5 redmage, but i heard its actually a better idea to start out as a monk, so i might go and change my job so that i can lve up a little faster as well as kill things more so i can get money.

[Lionheart_0]

Today's review is up.

[syndrome445]

Start partying at level 12 in Valkurm Dunes.

[Lionheart_0]

:? conclusion is up.

[Nadril]

Conclusion is pretty much what I could tell you without even playing the game.

 

 

 

edit: and yes, WoW is very carebear.

[kido14]

It sounds a lot like Everquest, in that pretty much everything is much harder. The quests, leveling, tradeskills, some other stuff I can't think of off the top of my head are soo much harder. I remember when I went from EQ to WoW, I thought it was unbelievably easy.