FFXI requires a lot of time to progress, but it’s just so much Fun.
User Rating: 8.6 | Final Fantasy XI (PlayOnline Entry Disc) PS2
I got FFXI the day it was released in Canada March 23 2004, It was a god send game for me because I found myself shortly afterwards have to go to the Hospital for Emergency surgery, the down side was I had to have surgery that required 3 months of laying around the house unable to stand up or even sit down. What the heck would I do! I was getting sick of early morning talk shows, when FFXI came out I rushed out to get it, Pop some Tylenol 3 for the pain and off I went to the game store lol. Popped the HD in my PS2 and began my journey into the world of Vana'Diel. ( I’m still not sure how you pronounce that? ) Any how thank god I was off work on Short Term Disability recovering to a new and better me because I never had so much free time on my hands. This game is so much like the real world in a sense that you really have to spend a lot of time fighting , doing quests and missions to get the money to buy the new armor. I sometime thing Square should be paying at the very least minimum wage for my efforts. Needless to say I was bored no more I had so much to do so much to see and the environments are so breathtaking. Man, how does the team at Square Enix come up with this stuff, and where do I get some lol. At 1st I just fought monsters to lvl up and I quickly realized you don’t get money from rabbits and crabs in this game. Go figure, I never did understand why most RGP’s always had you find gold coins after killing furry little animals. You have to fight the Intelligent monster races to get gold as they are in a sense the other races in the world who are at conflict with the rest of the Vana'Diel races. And you guessed it when you kill these guys you don’t get much in the way of money either. It’s seems even the bad guys live pay cheque to pay cheque in Vana'Diel as well. I was at a loss on how to make money in this gave since killing a goblin can be tough by yourself and you only get 10 to 35 gill per kill, and the cost of armor spells weapons and food etc… is not cheap as soon as you get to about lvl 5 lol you find you really have to start savings to get your new shiny boots! Luckily I discovered being in a party where all members have Signet ( A nice little effect that allows you to collect crystals from monsters when you fight them) you get plenty of items with each kill that stack up in groups of 12 and when you get a group of 12 items you can sell them at the AH and usually get a good bit of cash. You stuff is bought by other players in the game that require items for quests or recipes. Hence it’s still take a lot of time but fighting monsters helping people out on quests seeing new areas is just so much fun I can’t get enough of it. I haven’t gotten bored of it al all mind you I an back to my regular life working full time but I manage to get on to play for a few hours some nights and weekends. If you want my advice make sure you do quests to increase your fame it drops the price of goods and opens up more missions so you can advance better in the game get better items etc.. Join parties all the time get a couple of linkshell groups make friends help others out meet people from all over the world. I am amazed how many people in Asia can speak English as a second language, and the translator can be annoying at time but a few macros with common phrases can get you buy just fine when in a party of all Japanese players. This game has so much to offer with so much to do, if you’re not up for fighting then spend the day increasing a trade skill or even fishing. About 2 times a year major upgrades are done to improve the game and add more quests, each time for the better. The PS2 graphics are good but starting to get dated the PC has much better cleaner graphics but then I would have to play on a small computer monitor & I like playing on my 32” HDTV. Hmm Will I spend major bucks to get FFXI on the Xbox 360 when it comes out… Probably not since it wont look any better than the PC version and there are no Xbox games besides FFXI that interest me at all. However I wonder if it will expand onto the PS3 lets hope so with the games in line for the PS3 you bet I am going to get me one of those! So Square Enix if you are listening expand FFXI to the PS3 when it comes out so I can keep playing the game in a breathtaking HD experience. To everyone else get this game it rocks! 
