Story: The story varies depending on what nationality you're from, or expansion you're playing. The story revolves around the world of Vana'Diel and it's heroes, villains, and castdowns. The main story of Final Fantasy XI has sparked two expansions based soley off of the main story, there are however side storys too not based off the main one. The story changes depending on where you're from, and it only deepens the lore of this game. The three nations are Windhurst; a bustling nature town where magic is common place, and it is ruled by the Star Cybil a prophet, naturally inhabited by the short statured Tarutaru, and the cat like Mithra. The story of Windhurst revolves around an old hero who mysteriously disappeared after saving Windhurst from an invasion of Yagudo; bird like Beastmen. Beastmen are a highly intellegent unfriendly organized opposition to the main countries. Bastok is a high traffic highly technologically advanced city which uses only the latest weaponry, goldsmithing, and weapons. The story from Bastok is about the rage and enslavement of the 2nd citizens called Galka which are giant burly bear humanoid type characters who're used as "dumb muscle" most the time. Humes, obviously humans; are the main populace of Bastok. The story is actually the closest to the main story of the Shadowlord, because it's where the Shadowlord came from. This extention of the main story features Roagrimm The Taleskeeper who when reincarnated keeps memories of his past life, and Zeid The Darknight of legend. This splint explains how the rise of the Shadowlord begins, friendship, love, and genocide will spark the flames of war in this epic side of the story. The story of Sand'Oria is about the Elven knighthood of the midevil like castlry of Sand'Oria. About the destruction of the sister city of Tavnazia, ancient weapons long past, ties to the religion of Altea, and the fall from grace of Royalty. There is one more major nation called the Dutchy of Jeuno, which is neutral in all respects and allows everyone in the country, and doesn't descriminate against any races. Here is where the leaders of the three countries meet and create treaties and trade agreements. This place seems like the ideal country, devoid of corruption, however corruption is the least of Vana'Diels worries as the deadliest of enemies of the 7 races lie in secrecy, ruling the three nations behind the scenes working toward a dark objective in the Expansion of Rise of The Zilart. So back to the main story about the Shadowlord, you'll eventually learn from the cruelty the Galka face, and the suppressed anger, he was created through one of the hidden/extinct Dark Crystal fragments and turned into the very esscence of rage and hate. From there he would conduct a massive genodical war against the 5 races of Altena, Elven, Hume, Galka, Mithra, and Tarutaru. He'll shake the foundation of history's weave when he wages war against all 3 countries, and comes close to anhhilating them, when he is destroyed by 6 warriors called the Crystal Warriors. The real story picks up after this because you'll find out he's being revived by his loyal Beastmen, and he's even more deadly and powerful. You'll find out who the Crystal Warriors really are, and they're quite far from being heroes. You'll learn the truth of The Taleskeepr, the heritage of the Galka, The Shadowlord, and The Darknight of Legend; Zeid. The final boss of the main story is the Shadowlord, and he's quite large, weilds a gigantic sword, and implodes quite often to decimate you. The story of each nation will also extend past this as the last half of the story of each nation is different I will not spoil it for you. Gameplay: Gameplay. Hmmm. This is THE best part of this game. There's so much to do, and you can easily play years and not accomplish much. There's so many things to do from crafting, exploring, getting new equipment, finishing Dynamis, finishing missions, getting legendary items, or simply getting married in game. Crafting is possibly my favorite gameplay element. You take simple items and put them together with small crystal shards to synthesize a new item. Each time you do so you may go up a point, and when you gather ten points you level up in that craft. Sound easy? Wrong, dead wrong. To get them to high levels it takes hours upon hours to raise, not to mention millions of gil to do, which is not easy to comeby in this game. The economy is something that is quite unique to this game. Everything revolves around gil, the more you have the better you are. You must farm items, craft things, or defeat enemies to gain it. Each nation has it's own economy, and prices are different at each city. Items are sold through places called Auction Houses were bare minimum prices are set and players bid on items and the highest one will be the one who retains the item, whereas the player who set up the item gains the money. It's a 100 percent safe transaction, so no one gets ripped off. You thought tax in real life was bad? Well you have it in game too! There's tax on items you put in the Auction house as well, from a few gil too even a couple thousand depending on how much you want for it! There are tons of secret enemies who spawn once an hour, every few minutes, every few days, or even an hour once a day. There are battlefields you can go to fight hardcore boss battles to earn incredible booty. (Treasure kind, mind you.) You can even participate in Player Versus Player where you fight against other players which is ALWAYS fun. This game expands every few days, and there's ALWAYS new content, jobs, everything you can think of, down to Chocobo Raising. Music: The music in this game varies GREATLY. Some of it is so great it would make even the most hardcore rapid Final Fantasy adict shed a tear or two. Some of it is dull and lackluster. The main games music, without expansions is very good. There are a few pieces which add such atmosphere, some with choir, some with bells and whistles. One such piece which vastly stands out above the rest is the song called: Distant Worlds. This one is so beautiful that I instantly named it one of my top 3 favorite songs of all time easily. Of course most of the game is done by Nobuo Uematsu, there are other lesser known composers who've worked on this game as well. Some of it ranges from hard rock songs, rapid war drum beats, irish jig songs, quiet calm new age to vocal pieces. The soundtrack to this is very good, and is too expansive to cover everything-however restassured that the music ALWAYS matches the moment. When you start a battle the battle music plays, when you die you hear your own death throws and grunts, when you're in the most forboding of places you'll hear eerie sound effects which only excite you through the quiet ambiance, even when you're facing the great Avatars, or summons as most people know them, exciting battle music unique to the battles take place. Final boss battle songs are also very original, and the one for the main story sounds a lot like Red Wings only done with more drums and a guitar. Graphics: Graphics here are very well done for a MMORPG of it's age and grandiosity. I'm surprised it actually looks this great for being such a massive game. Everything looks good in this game, but there are a few repititious enemies with different names or color pallets, and a few lack luster backgrounds, however there's everything from the bright and exhuberant to the dark and forboding. Every color in the rainbow is inserted into this great Final Fantasy installment. Replay Value: The replay value of this game is so great it far surpasses that of any, and I mean ANY other game I've EVER played. There's so much to do once you restart a new character, always new friends to make, new groups to hang out with new adventures thanks to Square Enix. Replay value alone is more or equal to the first play through. This game also never ends so you'll likely never finish it, even getting the jobs to the highest levels can take years or months. Final Note: THE best Final Fantasy I've EVER played. Such a shame it's considered an exiled and forgotten Final Fantasy because of the genre of MMORPG. It's very good, and time consuming, trust me it'll eat away at your life before you know it. You do have to pay a minimum of 12.85 per month to play but money very well spent. The only thing keeping this game from getting a perfect score of 10 is that the customer service is TERRIBLE. I mean it's so horrible it was one of the reasons I quit. This as an overall game is quite well done, and one of the best I've ever played; well worth the 9.5 I'm giving it. I recommend it to any MMORPG fan, avid Square Enix fan, or the common Joe Shmo. This has been an unbiased review from a member of S.E.E. (Square Enix Experience)
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