Great graphics, but extremely slow pace, and unbalanced economy make this unacceptable compared to competitors.
User Rating: 5.1 | Final Fantasy XI PC
I absolutely love the massive multiplayer RPG genre, and have been an active Everquest player for 4 years, and now play Galaxies, Everquest II, and WOW. I have also been a very big Final Fantasy fan most of my life, especially since FFVI. Having said this, I am a very patient player when it comes to the slow moving pace of these games, however, Final Fantasy XI moves at an absolutely unbearable pace. Player characters move at an ungodly slow pace, with no way to speed up until level 20. The cities are too big, poorly designed and take you literally over an hour to reach your destination. You basically can't battle outside of your current starting zone without dying until at least level 11, and only then can you safely travel to an adjacent zone which looks exactly the same, and has you killing the same creatures until level 15 or so. How boring! No potions or equipment to speed you up, and it takes forever to meet up with a group, if you can find anyone that wants to. Game economy is also very unbalanced. A simple potion costs a few hundred Gil, which takes you forever to earn, when gaining only a few Gil per kill. It would take you hours upon hours to save for a simple potion. The only plus side is the great graphics and the fact that it is a Final Fantasy game, however, I still can’t find the patience for this game, which leads to the last crappy element of this game. If you get fed up with it, or bored with it, and cancel your subscription for a few months, you actually have to pay for another copy of the game and start a new character over again. This is absolutely absurd and I will not be going back to playing FFXI in this lifetime. 
