As a long time fan of Final Fantasy series, i really looked forward to this game and it would have to offer. Well, I didn't get much. First of all, PlayOnline client which basically manages your account, games etc. is the worst that you could imagine. Moving over the interfaces is tedious, you have to go over so many screens instead of a simple game launch at the starter screen. To add to that you have you will have few names that you use across the client. Your account ID is one, then some handle, then another one that your characters will be identified by. This terrible interface was one of the things that kept me from turning on my console and playing that game. Another thing that I do not understand is the payment system. First you pay for having an account, then you pay $1 for each new character. What if you want a character to store something or just to try something out? You have to go through the hassle of buying a new "Content ID" just to create a new character. This alone drops the overall score of this game. Another huge drawback is that you cannot pick the server you will play on, but rather you have to get a special item that will allow you to transfer you character to a different server. The game graphics are nice, but for this type of a game 640X480 resolution is simply not enough. You will have trouble reading names that are far from you, and believe me, it is annoying. The environments in the game look very nice, and there is a nice variety of textures and colors. You will see much better graphics in other games though. Well, I can't say much about the sound as I'm not some kind of an audiophile. All I know is that I hear things and that is good :). The game itself seems great in theory. The job system is designed very nicely. It gives you a lot of options to play with, and should keep you playing with one exception as I mentioned later, you have to pay for each and every character you have so be prepared to pay at least $20/month if you want a variety of characters to play with. The concept of fishing also seems fun. As far as quests, all the ones I played seemed fun and I enjoyed doing them. The towns are full of people to talk to. One thing that I noticed is that finding a group with more then two people is very hard. And going solo through a game that is an MMORPG doesn't seem right. The interface of the game itself is not the best either, but not as bad as the PlayOnline one, it will take some getting used to. Overall, this game can provide you with a lot of hours of fun. But in my opinion this game lacks a true goal. I understand that moving with the story is a fascinating thing, but MMORPG games should not focused only on that. One example of a great final goal in MMORPGs is Realm VS Realm battles in Dark Age Of Camelot. Also, this is the first game ever that I felt so strongly about the user interface.
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