I've visited the main three cities, with many locations unexplored. I spent hours climbing a tower near Jeuno with cutscenes I couldn't really understand the significance of.
You probably just started the Chains of Promathia missions - I recall when I first went to Delkfutt's tower for a party, and the party had to wait for my cutscene to end. The following story scenes for that story are in Jeuno itself, so that's the simple part before the Promyvion areas, which to this days are still among the more visually interesting in the game.
There are times I miss a lot of aspects of XI that aren't in XIV. I'm hoping the upcoming mobile version is a close experience
I have very serious doubts that the mobile medium can do any justice to the intricacies of the original, and I fear that this is all that SE has in mind to give this numbered FF a future...
Walk-in dungeons are great now that the population is down, but back during the height of the game, it was filled with people and felt nothing like a dungeon, more like a town without NPC and slightly scarier deco. Instance-based dungeons are necessary for both boss-farming and maintaining the image of a hostile dungeon worth exploring.
I get your feeling of amazement though, as I've played Ragnarok Online on both official and private servers, and I loved exploring the people-less dungeons on the private server.
I love how nowadays with the raised level cap and tweaked dungeon-specific mechanics (some used to require a group to properly navigate due to switches to open some doors) it's simpler to traverse them and the appreciate the craftmanship in them.
For example, there's a wall in the Quicksand Caves dungeon with a mural about the history of the Galka, covering things like their rebirth process and the exodus from the invasion of the Antica (which now inhabit the area) - I first saw it by the end of a Bastok mission that required a group back in the day, where it is the focus of a
lore-important scene, but back then I couldn't expect to look at the mural at my own pace - now that's no longer an issue, and there's even a way to instantly transport to that location if you do the appropriate quest - although you'll still have to take down the mobs roaming in the area which will aggro you if you don't sneak up for the occasion, but now those mobs are soloable.
Exactly how I feel about FFXI. I played from PS2 US release until Wings of the goddess expansion and what a damn ride this game used to be.
I really do need to sign up for a month or two so I can bang out Chains of Promanthia and Wings of the Goddess.
The final 1/3rd of the Rhapsodies of Vana'diel story is an amazing experience worth going through if you have any fondness for the game as a whole... the closest thing I can compare it to is
the Segagaga finale for a long-time Sega fan, since it works in so much of its history while doing interesting things of its own, in a sort of defiant self-requiem sort of way.
Should someone be looking to acquire a particular group of trusts for a well-rounded squad? I stopped playing a good deal before they were introduced but did have one of those partners from another dimension whatever.
One of the starters, Kupipi, is a useful healer at any level, since she's pretty good at removing status effects. All the starter San d'Oria Trusts are tanks (a bit of a nation specialty, the place is basically Paladin Land). A bit of progress through Rhapsodies will get you access to Zeid II and Semih Lafhina, who are pretty effective damage dealers, and further progress gets you Selh'teus, who can regenerate HP, MP and TP for the whole party. And then there's Shantotto II, which can only be obtained during login campaigns (the 1st time that happened has when the final Rhapsodies chapter was released), who's pretty much the strongest (magical) damage-dealing Trust NPC in the game. Support-wise, you can get Joachim as a bard through very simple Records of Eminence quests.
CoP without the challenge it provided in its inception isn't CoP. That shit took me YEARS to complete due to how difficult it was and what it required of players to do. When you got to that ending it was fucking monumental and I haven't played a game before or since that made me feel as rewarded as I did when I got to pick my ring from completing CoP.
Same here - it used to take months to get a group to advance through level-capped areas and fights, and
the tension of those challenges is forever burned into my psyche.
But nowadays, when it's possible to review all of its story scenes online in order without spoiling myself, it's interesting to see how the story as a whole tried to encompass all of FFXI's world, from its creation mythos, to the stories of its avatars and ancient civilizations, all the ways to the family histories of a few characters it makes you follow along the way (and at least one of each of the playable races, while showing them transcending the intrinsic flaws the lore burdens them with). Which in turn makes sense when you compare its release date of 2004 with the fact that
the game was originally planned to last 5 years (it's an understated credit to XI's qualities that so far it has trippled that lifespan), apparently to match the PS2's expected lifespan - so they probably wanted to cram in all the stories they could.
I adored a lot about XI, I was there since the original US PS2 beta but I prefer to keep it in memory as deep down I know I'd start hating it if I played it again. I think about the time where I mentally checked myself out was when people had scores of macros for switching individual pieces of gear per attack. Nope.
They have made a lot of things about the game much simpler, especially if you just want to enjoy the stories - leveling is faster (especially with Rhapsodies and Records of Eminence bonuses), so is travel (lots of teleport options mean that most areas only have to be traversed the hard way once), and perfectly serviceable max-level gear can be obtained with points you can obtain through the RoE system by simply playing through common gameplay milestones.
Is there a guide out there for soloing the entire game? I'm thinking about going back and playing again if I can blow through it all.
There's a speedrunning guide on how to make it to max level, which makes a lot of the story content trivial:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/User:Korvana/Speedrun
Generally speaking if story interests you you'll want to cover that roughly in release order, with few exceptions:
* Even after you finish missions for a nation, you can change nations and start all over for a different one - while some parts will be similar, each nation has a story of its own that continues even past the parts it has in common with the others, and there are in-game bonuses for doing this; since Zilart missions can only begin after some progress in the nation missions, later nation missions and some Zilart missions can probably be done at the same time, since they after take place in the same regions
* While Rhapsodies of Vana'diel was the last released story, it can be started as early as the first nation missions, and functionally covers the story end of the game - it basically "wraps" around everything, and there are several bonuses for progressing through it, although some parts are best enjoyed if you complete some of the other missions before (which is where release order comes into play)
* Chains of Promathia was release after Rise of the Zilart, but its story can be started at earlier levels
* Between Wings of the Goddess missions, at least one branch of nation-specific missions from the past must be completed, although there are benefits to playing through all of them, much like with the present-day nation missions.
It has some pretty great moments, like
the banter between Shikaree Y, Shantotto and Prishe while retaining story relevance.
Personally, I prefer the themes and moments in
Treasures of Aht Urghan and
Wings of the Goddess.
Is it possible to solo the game now ? And how long would it take to complete the story / stories ?
There's an estimate
here by the person that bothered to
record every single cutscene in the game.
That being said, some stories are more important than others - for example, everything involving Abyssea, which was primarily designed as combat content, takes place in an alternate world with little to no consequence in the main setting, although it does provide some interesting alternate circumstances for several characters.
The music in FFXI is still so good! Hmmm you make want to check out what's changed.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana'diel
As someone who has never played this and can't with the platforms I have, can someone explain to me what was so compelling about the gameplay loop? I get it's from a long long time ago but screenshots don't really help.
FFXI often feels more like a living world than a game, but maybe that's just my story-focused approach, but one thing I like is that there are many ways to provide permanent benefits and options to your character that don't have anything to do with getting more gear, from unlocking jobs, to expanding inventory, to advance in stories to reach new areas (and vice-versa), unlocking more transportation options, etc... many of these things make it easier to accomplish others, so depending on your personal priorities, with some research and planning you can execute a plan to help you get what you want, which along the way might provide some perks later down the line.
Some jobs in particular, like summoner, blue mage and geomancer, practically make you travel the world to unlock their full potential, and since that often means going to some obscure corner of the world, you might end up researching that, and find that same place has something else to it that could be useful to help you reach some other goal, or along the way you might get an item that, upon research, can be useful for some job or task you hadn't thought of much, but which could turn out to be interesting.
I wouldn't say the process is endless, but I never felt the drive to work specifically toward getting some endgame weapon or other endgame trappings (well, I was in Dynamis and Nyzul groups for a while, both of which help unlock access to some story scenes), with everything else the game has provided over the years for me to look into or work toward - even when parties were required for levelling I just worked on lower-level quests or farming for something specific while I kept my LFG flag up.
So is it worth getting into? I've never played it.
You mostly enjoy it like a single-player FF by playing through most of its major stories for a month or two - the more recent the stories the better (I personally favor Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess, and Rhapsodies was amazing for me after all these years), since the devs really hit their storytelling stride in the MMO medium after some earlier experimentation.
Man every single time a FFXI thread pops up on GAF, I get endlessly nostalgic. What ever happened to the mobile version?
I suspect the more Nexon looks into the intricacies of the original the more they realize they're trying to bite more than they can possibly chew, especially on a limited medium like mobile.
BLU is also a really great job. It encourages you to go to some of the less used areas and see more of the world. I've been loving learning spells inbetween quests and missions.
Blue Mage's implementation in XI is one of the most interesting things about the game - not only do you learn spells, but the fact that setting some of them (can't access all of them at the same time, so you have to choose from a growing pool of them as you level) grants you additional passive skills makes it a really cool way to customize your character for just about any challenge, since it makes good use of mechanics like the game's elemental and creature affinity systems - one could probably make a game entirely based on XI's blue mage implementation.
Not to mention some of the spells can only be obtained from specific story bosses, like Mighty Guard - blue mage in XI really encourages you to do a bit of everything.
FFXIclopedia and
Bluegartr became the go-to hubs for most of the information collected over the years. Some of the forums have disappeared or gone mostly silent, but
FFXIAH.com remains active. Those are indispensable sources for "noobs" and veterans alike.
Another very useful resource is ffxidb.com, which covers drop data on just about everything in the game - for just about any given item, it'll tell you if it drops off a mob, and if it does it'll tell you where to find it, and the odds of the drop, with and without thief's Treasure Hunter skill - quite the blessing for some quests and missions.
It should be a job about either nuking with cool summons or vanishing into the aether to control a summon. Instead somehow both games decided that an awkward pet job is the way to go, two times in a row.
XI's summoner still has exceptional cases like Odin, which can only be called to perform one big powerful attack, and its defensive counterpart Alexander, which will protect a part from anything for a limited amount of time - they were introduced late in the game, but I guess that was a way to cover a more traditional use of the job, instead of XI's usual system of having avatars follow you while consuming MP, and consuming extra MP for specific actions.
I know this is never going to happen, but I have always thought it would be amazing if they converted FFXI to an offline RPG and re-released it. They have an amazing world with some of the best music of any game ever created. They would have to make some changes, probably do something like FFXII's combat system and add in a more definite story and quests, but it would allow more people to experience the wonder of Vana'diel and give it its rightful place as one of the best Final Fantasy games.
really wish they would redo FFXI and make it to todays standards. It's totally possible too.
There is no mmo that has as relaxing combat with a controller as FFXI since it was designed to be used with a controller and the PS2. The slower style of gameplay allows me to actually enjoy it instead of facerolling my keyboard every 5 seconds.
They really need to remaster/remake FFXI. ARRGH!! So much money on the table, and don't go all stupid like FF7remake. Just update resolution, touch up the textures, it already looks good. Remake gameplay mechanics to control better or something. Maybe add gambits, and stuff for AI party.
This - the other PS2-era mainline FFs already got modern-day remasters, and while XI would need a greater adaptation effort, nowadays the game already contains gameplay mechanics not present in its original form that would make the transition simpler, namely the Trust NPCs - in early game stories NPCs would only appear in cutscenes, but nowadays they have actual combat data that would enable their implementation as regular party members during relevant story sections - it's mostly stuff like the auction house and systems like Besieged that would need to be adjusted.
That being said my favorite part of ffxi isn't really a thing anymore, since leveling was pretty much my favorite part of the game. Now to be fair I did like the pace, I did like the fact you did it as a group for good result, but it doesn't mean it was perfect, LFP time was often infuriating, and if no healer or tank were up you just couldn't do anything about it, the fact that there was a limited amount of good leveling spot didn't help either. That and the elitist attitude of the community leading to some jobs never getting any invite really really pissed me off.
Nowadays the job points system (lets you acquire stat bumps and new job-specific skills only on the job you use to get those points) still enables that kind of party to exist, although pretty much all happens at max level, which is simpler to reach anyway.
I remember running through Yuhtunga and Yhoater Jungle so fucking often that I didn't need to look at the map anymore.
Then again, the jungle maps were a mess anyway, and everything on Elshimo island, which also contains them, is functionally a labyrinth - on the other hand, in-universe
the maps were hand-drawn by actual people, and had some imperfections and missing parts (like the Valkurm secret beach) accordingly.
I rather FFXI remaster over a mobile port tbh
Of course it wouldn't happen, I'm curious if SE is finished making MMO's after FFXIV
Maybe when Naoki Yoshida is no longer the head of SE's online game division - as long as the XIV director holds jurisdiction over "his" game's internal competition for company resources I'm worried for XI's future...
I like reading all the stories Gaf. Keep them coming.
Will videos do? There have been some decent ones in recent times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVuqN0RBFcY
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjQRhhUkZzdnrKd-GhyOotSRwcXgANRju
There's still not a whole lot of XI lore coverage on Youtube though, outside some remarkable efforts like Korvana's to upload all cutscenes in the game - those are great for reference, but won't do much to introduce people to characters that are actually important in XI's story, or clarify what's the deal with Shantotto (who's not that important, but got elevated to XI ambassador through Dissidia)... I may need to try and tackle that someday if nobody else does...
