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[samoscratch]

OMG the memories.
I was a beastmaster leveling up solo when it was still considered difficult.

Charming bats to fight puddings in korroloka tunnel was a really intense experience especially because the area was so dangerous.

Skeletons would "blood agro" you if your hp was in the red, all kinds of dangers in there but the xp was godly.... at the time anyways.

Running around with courrier Carrie ahhh it's all coming back to me.

Exploring zones in that game was so rewarding it really felt like a true adventure.....a very dangerous one.

Damn I almost want to sign back up but I know.it's not the same anymore.

 

[KeRaSh]

I hope you went to Zi'Tah with the music volume set at max; it's one of the best song of the franchise.

This one speaks the truth.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Downloaded the free trial version because the nostalgia was too strong lol

Is solo leveling past 20~25 still pretty much impossible?

 

[Loona]

Downloaded the free trial version because the nostalgia was too strong lol

Is solo leveling past 20~25 still pretty much impossible?

Nope - it's actually way faster now, especially if you get the Trust NPC party members now available; you can get those at level 5 from the starting cities.

 

[rsnl]

When I played you couldn't really level solo past level 10. I made it out of the Dunes so I think I got a good impression of it, the team play and community were really strong.

Great game but then WoW came out and that was the main dish.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Nope - it's actually way faster now, especially if you get the Trust NPC party members now available; you can get those at level 5 from the starting cities.

Whoa, sounds nice. Simple enough to support sporadic play

 

[Valonquar]

I really need to get back to FFXI. I have every last job at 99, and I've cleared all the storylines except for the final set of final missions that are the sort of goodbye from the devs. The game has a loooooooooot of content! Wings of the Goddess had the best cutscenes IMHO. DNC is OP as hell, especially inside Abyssea.

The game is VERY different from original release. You can solo damn near the whole game now, which is pretty fun. When they added the NPC teammates you can summon, it just made everything even more easy. You can easily solo to 99 with the NPCs.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I really need to get back to FFXI. I have every last job at 99, and I've cleared all the storylines except for the final set of final missions that are the sort of goodbye from the devs. The game has a loooooooooot of content! Wings of the Goddess had the best cutscenes IMHO. DNC is OP as hell, especially inside Abyssea.

The game is VERY different from original release. You can solo damn near the whole game now, which is pretty fun. When they added the NPC teammates you can summon, it just made everything even more easy. You can easily solo to 99 with the NPCs.

Did they add any new jobs after Scholar and Dancer?

 

[ApharmdX]

Did they add any new jobs after Scholar and Dancer?

Yes:

Rune fencer- tank job that uses self-buffs and runes for mitigation
Geomancer- support/nuker

Both excellent additions.

 

[Dreamwriter]

I'd kill for a remake+classic server or a proper sequel, but I don't know if SE is capable of recapturing that magic again.

They are doing it - the game is being remade for mobile devices, it’s supposed to launch with all content through Chains of Promathia. Been a while since we’ve heard anything, but the developer (Nexon) is still listing it in their financial reports.

Promo image from FFXI Mobile:

 

[thedan001]

They are doing it - the game is being remade for mobile devices, it's supposed to launch with all content through Chains of Promathia. Been a while since we've heard anything, but the developer (Nexon) is still listing it in their financial reports.

Promo image from FFXI Mobile:

The picture seems misleading, from what I heard... it's not traditional FFXI but more of a click on interface to do tasks type like most mobile games are doing these days?

I mean I understand that it's not likely to make everything the exact same as FFXI on PC, but if they water it down to a gatcha game with stamina, I'm out.

I mean... I already have FFRK for that.

 

[Dreamwriter]

The picture seems misleading, from what I heard... it's not traditional FFXI but more of a click on interface to do tasks type like most mobile games are doing these days?

I mean I understand that it's not likely to make everything the exact same as FFXI on PC, but if they water it down to a gatcha game with stamina, I'm out.

I mean... I already have FFRK for that.

Where did you hear that? We’ve heard almost nothing about the game at all, all we really know is it’s being made by Nexon in Unreal Engine, that it’s going to include all of the game’s content through Chains of Promathia, and this mockup of an interface:

 

[Lagamorph]

The second I saw "Level Down" I noped right out and never looked back.

 

[Ferr986]

I hope you went to Zi'Tah with the music volume set at max; it's one of the best song of the franchise.

Man everyone always talks about Zi'tah but IMO it wasn't even the best track, there's so many memorable tracks in this game.

Sky theme melody was so chill, although most people never heard it fully because of the constant fights lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMFiQvWVyUg

The track from CoP ferry had a sweet laidback melody and it's also a place almost no one took. I remember taking the boat with a friend multiple times to doing random shit around the island and farm the monsters there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEdKy91sta4

Promyvion was atmospheric as fuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD2cQZmeaFc

Everyone talks about Distant World about the ending theme but there was also this one just before, a beautiful track to finish Altana and Promathia story (although I did read they retconned them in the last add-on).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjfLFlVDsk

The first area you enter with ToAU expac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzz2kOnceA

Assault missions track always pumped me up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-JqoPIOpJw

Another short but high energy battle track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_x4FAsP30

WoTG improved the music of the main areas if you ask me, Sarutabaruta with it's kinda JP melody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwylUtqA19o

And past Windurst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD-TANsKvcw

I love how this WoTG battle track has some kind of rythm going on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzFAEbRymrM

This OST is just amazing.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Memoro de la S^tono is my favorite track in all of gaming, and the Distant Worlds version is incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5EgbPr50hY

 

[thedan001]

Where did you hear that? We've heard almost nothing about the game at all, all we really know is it's being made by Nexon in Unreal Engine, that it's going to include all of the game's content through Chains of Promathia, and this mockup of an interface:

I've played a couple games from Nexon themselves, quality in graphics is their weakness but they make it up by super fast game production, idk why SE outsourced them to do FFXI mobile, especially when Nexon usually does PC games.

Anyways, playing within the Nexon official community, first things you notice about Nexon is how they struggle with things like game glitches and end up doing alot of free gifts to make the playerbase happy. They aren't known for good quality games, just grindy cheap-made f2p games.

When you play FFXI for a long time, you know SE is pretty strict with how they do quality before they update, and how fast they fix things if people find exploits or bugs when compared to Nexon.

Put the pieces together, and it's not hard to understand why the game doesn't have any transparency even when they announced 2016 release.

An educated guess shows SE wasn't satisfied with Nexon's work on the FFXI mobile development and there's pressure on them to meet their expectations at the moment.

Of course nothing's official at this point, but I won't be surprised if people are disappointed with the final release, especially if you played Nexon's games.

EDIT: it might be a bad comparison given different contexts but Niantic's fumble with Pokemon GO and their inadequacy in their development (you can't play the game without crashing in places with many pokestops because they never optimized their game yet...) Just reminds me of good ol' Nexon back then, maybe they significantly improved recently to convince SE to take on this project, who knows?

The second I saw "Level Down" I noped right out and never looked back.

They fixed that now, it's like 1% exp loss instead of 10% or something low, people don't level down anymore these days.

I know it's past the point of even bothering to play the game at today's age, but hey, if that was the only thing stopping you from playing it, that's gone now, hah.

 

[Rad Shadow]

Downloaded the free trial version because the nostalgia was too strong lol

Is solo leveling past 20~25 still pretty much impossible?

What's the free trial cap at?

 

[ApharmdX]

All these old Fairy names in screenshots, man, that's making me nostalgic! My brother was in ThoseGuys, and we both played from NA launch... I think I still have some old screenshots where I was partied with Rykoshet while he was leveling DRG maybe?

I miss the game as it was. Hell, I miss the game even as it is now, sort of, but Sylph was so dead when I finally quit.

I felt bad for DRG. FFXI launched in NA with Zilart, but Pentathrust was nerfed almost immediately after launch, and DRG got tossed aside. Meanwhile SAM just keep getting better and better.

Dragoon has had some really great stretches. I think it's pretty good now. It's just that samurai and warrior have a better assortment of offensive job abilities and traits. Which is a shame because DRG is fun as heck!

Good lord, Poof....Yeah...that was an interesting person.

She was a real trip, that's for sure.

 

[SilverArrow20XX]

Everyone talks about Distant World about the ending theme but there was also this one just before, a beautiful track to finish Altana and Promathia story (although I did read they retconned them in the last add-on).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjfLFlVDsk

I don't remember anything being retconned or contradicting CoP in Rhapsodies.

 

[Ferr986]

I don't remember anything being retconned or contradicting CoP in Rhapsodies.

well as I said I didn't play Rapsodies so I may be wrong but

Spoiler

Rapsodies says that Altana and Promathia were two rival gods that fight each other for "balance" but CoP pretty much establishes that they were lovers in Paradise. The creation of Vanadiel and the races was Altana doing to force saving Promathia.

 

[thedan001]

What's the free trial cap at?

Lv50

All the fun stuff are at lv99 although

tbh, if you start playing FFXI without any assistance from friends and are playing solo mode, you will need 1 week of catching up before getting Lv50 anyways if you know what you are doing...

If you are jumping in blind, it should take 2 weeks to get there which works out

FFXI is much more fun if you can manage to find a friend to start with you imo

I advise not to bother with endgame stuff until you finished all the story missions (which unfortunately you need lv99 for) but you can start the nation missions to around rank 5 or 6

...so that way you have the main course to satisfy your nostalgia or exposure with this FF without burning out and if you still feel like staying in Vanadiel, then the whole grind opens up to you to explore

 

[SilverArrow20XX]

well as I said I didn't play Rapsodies so I may be wrong but

Spoiler

Rapsodies says that Altana and Promathia were two rival gods that fight each other for "balance" but CoP pretty much establishes that they were lovers in Paradise. The creation of Vanadiel and the races was Altana doing to force saving Promathia.

Spoiler

They are both rivals and lovers. They are opposite forces. Altana wills life, even (or especially) Promathia's, and Promathia wills death, even his own. Their very nature causes them to clash. Altana created the modern races as vessels for Promathia's traits to save him from permanent death, so they are essentially both the parents of the races.

 

[Chris R]

Lv50

All jobs at level 50 or just the initial starting group?

And is everything still tied to clunky Play Online>

 

[Bilix]

And is everything still tied to clunky Play Online>

Yes.

They couldn't justify killing it because of its amazing music.

https://youtu.be/oVOHaLVDiAk?list=PLZFUfVQNxfMqxTmjSHnioVqVDHxdknXUf

 

[Ferr986]

Spoiler

They are both rivals and lovers. They are opposite forces. Altana wills life, even (or especially) Promathia's, and Promathia wills death, even his own. Their very nature causes them to clash. Altana created the modern races as vessels for Promathia's traits to save him from permanent death, so they are essentially both the parents of the races.

Spoiler

Yeah rest was said in CoP already just the fighting stuff is new but I guess it works well enough.

I need to watch all of RoV scenes I guess.

 

[thedan001]

All jobs at level 50 or just the initial starting group?

From SE's FFXI free trial restrictions page...

Level 50 cap: Free trial players will be able to level their characters up to level 50. 

[B][U]NOTE: Once level 50 is reached, a character's levels will not increase even if experience points are gained. However, players will still be able to participate in events and quests.[/U][/B]

So... basically level to 50 and play another job, I don't know if you can unlock new jobs however.

 

[Pejo]

Ok, ok. You guys talked me into re-upping to finish out the WoTG story as well as whatever came after them. I already have multiple lv. 99 jobs so it shouldn't take me all that long (I hope).

Anyone play on Asura with a LS?

 

[Loona]

Man everyone always talks about Zi'tah but IMO it wasn't even the best track, there's so many memorable tracks in this game.

Amen

Spoiler

They are both rivals and lovers. They are opposite forces. Altana wills life, even (or especially) Promathia's, and Promathia wills death, even his own. Their very nature causes them to clash. Altana created the modern races as vessels for Promathia's traits to save him from permanent death, so they are essentially both the parents of the races.

I love how this can symbolize the fact that the game was originally designed to last for about 5 years, so the contradicting impulses to have it both last and end are embedded into the game world's creation legend, not to mention how the game has managed to earn its survival for over a decade past the original estimation -

Spoiler

and how Promathia's disappearance basically lead to a "flood of light", which basically subjects XI's world to the opposite peril to III's world, and by inference the looming danger of the Cloud of Darkness, according to the Rhapsodies story

.

All jobs at level 50 or just the initial starting group?

And is everything still tied to clunky Play Online>

I think the trial's only restricted to the original game release's content, so the jobs released in Zilart and later probably aren't available, as likely neither are their zones, but the rest (IIRC that paladin, dark knight, bard, ranger and beastmaster) should still be questable (the job quests open at level 30).

And yeah, PlayOnline is still a factor.

I wonder if the Nexon attempt bombs SE will finally invest into an alternative to that artifact, and enable a more streamlined path for people to enjoy the game.

 

[Cybernetic Empire]

The only way they'll get me back into this game is if they fix Monk damage output.

 

[ApharmdX]

The only way they'll get me back into this game is if they fix Monk damage output.

LOL the August patch supposedly does this.

 

[Loona]

The only way they'll get me back into this game is if they fix Monk damage output.

There's an update this week that should address that

 

[Chris R]

From SE's FFXI free trial restrictions page...

Level 50 cap: Free trial players will be able to level their characters up to level 50. 

[B][U]NOTE: Once level 50 is reached, a character's levels will not increase even if experience points are gained. However, players will still be able to participate in events and quests.[/U][/B]

So... basically level to 50 and play another job, I don't know if you can unlock new jobs however.

I guess I know what I'm downloading tonight.

edit: Oh, level 50, but only 14 days

 

[ZetaEpyon]

I guess I know what I'm downloading tonight.

edit: Oh, level 50, but only 14 days

I mean, yeah, sounds rough if you're going by old standards. You can solo level to 50 within a week now without going too nuts with it, most likely.

 

[ViciousDS]

I've played a couple games from Nexon themselves, quality in graphics is their weakness but they make it up by super fast game production, idk why SE outsourced them to do FFXI mobile, especially when Nexon usually does PC games.

Anyways, playing within the Nexon official community, first things you notice about Nexon is how they struggle with things like game glitches and end up doing alot of free gifts to make the playerbase happy. They aren't known for good quality games, just grindy cheap-made f2p games.

When you play FFXI for a long time, you know SE is pretty strict with how they do quality before they update, and how fast they fix things if people find exploits or bugs when compared to Nexon.

Put the pieces together, and it's not hard to understand why the game doesn't have any transparency even when they announced 2016 release.

An educated guess shows SE wasn't satisfied with Nexon's work on the FFXI mobile development and there's pressure on them to meet their expectations at the moment.

Of course nothing's official at this point, but I won't be surprised if people are disappointed with the final release, especially if you played Nexon's games.

EDIT: it might be a bad comparison given different contexts but Niantic's fumble with Pokemon GO and their inadequacy in their development (you can't play the game without crashing in places with many pokestops because they never optimized their game yet...) Just reminds me of good ol' Nexon back then, maybe they significantly improved recently to convince SE to take on this project, who knows?



They fixed that now, it's like 1% exp loss instead of 10% or something low, people don't level down anymore these days.

I know it's past the point of even bothering to play the game at today's age, but hey, if that was the only thing stopping you from playing it, that's gone now, hah.

The mobile version was also to be said running on UE4

you can check it out here

http://ndcreplay.nexon.com/NDC2016/sessions/NDC2016_0051.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/4iwc77/everything_we_know_about_ffxi_mobile_updated/

 

[Chris R]

I mean, yeah, sounds rough if you're going by old standards. You can solo level to 50 within a week now without going too nuts with it, most likely.

I got a trip coming up next weekend so I'll download it when I'm back from that. I'd prefer it more like XIV's trial where it's just capped at a level but whatever, just wanna dip my toes back in yet again to refresh my wonderful memories of a great game.

 

[Rising_Hei]

It was fun when you had great gear, left the game for 2 years, came back and still had great gear.

FFXIV is all about pursuing the fucking damn carrot after a while.

I fucking loved the 2004-2007 period of time where i played this, the servers were international, and if you could get into a huge, competent HNMLS with a good mindset you'd probably learn a lot of skills of as a human being which later could be translated into your life (i think the raw material had to be there tho!), since really good HNMLS had this martial artist & Bruce Lee mindset of constant improvement and trying out new things when there weren't any videos about how to do it because you were the first one trying it out, and even if there were videos we would still follow our own ways; and learning how to do shit from 0 not checking any place was fucking awesome.

I found out that this kind of mindset that games like FFXI promoted started to diminish over tims, and MMOs were gradually becoming less like virtual worlds where you could really feel part of something , and more like theme parks where the sole objetive is keep the played occupied following the carrot.

The world was persistent, the writing was awesome, and the plot were epics, we might not ever revive this kind of feeling ever again in an mmorpg and i find this to me somewhat sad. I got into it in a moment of huge depression and getting obsessed over a game didn't help in the moment, but with perspective you can see how the kind of hardcore gaming and neuronal pathways this games provided could be benefitial on the long run. I'm not ashamed to recognize it was a huge part of my life when i was much younger.

I wish it was nostalgia, but it sure is not, and the community could be pretty dramatic and toxic (i was a troll myself and i enjoyed making fun of some of the contryfellow i considered stupid because they'd bully on people for having different opinions) but that was part of the fun too, it was a huge roleplay parade xD

 

[Rncewind]

thread makes me to nostalgic and too sad

 

[TatteredHat]

Lol, Poof.

Honestly I feel like FFXI was a much more memorable experience compared to any other MMO I played afterwards. There's no way it would survive in this day and age what with the mandatory grouping, but the new amusement park MMO just doesn't let you build personal connections like the old style of MMOs did.

 

[ApharmdX]

FFXIV is all about pursuing the fucking damn carrot after a while.

Yes. All modern theme park MMOs are. I love how they even aside numerical values to item level, so you know exactly where you are at on the treadmill. Final Fantasy XI's horizontal progression is the superior model. Sadly even XI went to the vertical progression model with Seekers of Adoulin.

 

[JeffZero]

I've never played it, or almost any MMO really, but those screenshots are kind of... gorgeous?

I'm glad you're having fun, OP. Seems like a very unique experience now.

 

[Rising_Hei]

Yes. All modern theme park MMOs are. I love how they even aside numerical values to item level, so you know exactly where you are at on the treadmill. Final Fantasy XI's horizontal progression is the superior model. Sadly even XI went to the vertical progression model with Seekers of Adoulin.

I loved how you could go and tank Kirin being a PLD lvl 71 if you knew what you were doing, if you used a mindful equipment and if the linkshell was somewhat decent, all you needed was putting your brain in use and a will to always improve. The strategies weren't that comboluted and didn't rely on gimmicks so you could feel every progression you made as a player in every single area and against every single boss, it was satisfying.

In the really hard stuff of XIV is all about muscular memory and trial and error, but they started to rely too much on gimmincks after the 2.1 patch and it got too convoluted for my tastes to be actually enjoyable, you also need an static set because of the gimmicks and convoluted strategies; i always enjoyed the EX battles more or less tho because they were had more fun dynamics.

To me MMOs dies in the moment they started trying to please its player too much, even if it sounds mean, for an mmo to have personality and uniqueness, they should ignore its players 90 % of the times and just proceed with the vision they had as a team. I honestly don't know why aren't there some small group of developers trying to pull off something with FFXI's spirit but with humble visuals!

 

[Taruranto]

FFXI still has horizontal progression really, Gears stop at level 119 and you get them from various end-game activities. Accessories don't have iLevel.

Plus gear-swapping means you can't just have one set and call it a day. You'll want a FC set, a healing one, a nuking one, etc.

 

[encephalon]

I can respect the idea that FFXI didn't offer an endless climb and stats mattered, but I don't really like the idea of constantly changing gear throughout a fight.

 

[Kal_El]

This brings back so many memories; I played at the height of it's popularity...well at launch for like 6 years straight. It was my first MMO and I had the adapter thing on the back of my ps2. I had a 75 DRK highest level at the time and all my subclasses up to 37.

Galka from Bastok.....I named him ElderGalka lol.

The last things that I remember was bluemage coming out; corsair I think and the enemies would attack (I forgot what it was called) but it was like your base where all the npcs were. My connection was so shit back then and I couldn't see enemies but I was swinging at stuff. Great great times.

 

[Shouta]

Horizontal progression is no different from vertical progression, it's great in the right amounts but too much is bad. There was a lot of horizontal progression from TOAU until Abyssea happened and it wasn't really for the better. Folks that had the best had less incentive to look at side-grades and the ones that couldn't get the best still were languishing below. It also really enforced stratification among jobs as well.

I know there's a decent amount of nostalgia for pre-Abyssea FFXI but as someone that got the short-end of the stick on all fronts from the classes I played to being unable to do endgame because of that and because of player dynamics, the shift in design philosophy and the addition of new upgrades in gear was a fucking savior.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

Abyssea gave me Thief pants, and for that I really loved it, my thief thanks abyssea.

I spent most of limbus doing duo's for ancient coins (less people to split with rule resurfaces), and being unlucky on those proto parts. I only got hands. I couldn't go into assaults solo (or dungeons in ffxiv, I hear you can now), and I really hated the start of salvage so I skipped that. Getting to Ouryu, and level capped CoP missions/bcnm were all I could take of having my weapons taken away game design. Though seeing people naked on the way to Ouryu was funny.

I think all of CoP is uncapped now so that sounds good. Level cap wouldn't have been so annoying if they scaled down your gear like level sync, or Guild Wars 2.

The stones thing in Abyssea made me want to take long breaks to be able to live in Abyssea for as long as I wanted when I came back. I actually tried to do that but I just never returned. I loved it, so much to solo, so many buffs, it was like ffxi fun mode. Things were forced pop, so much exp, but leveling new jobs so fast came with downsides. Like someone said, exp came so quick but you don't learn the nuance of the class while keeping your jobs skill stats capped. The most strategy in abyssea exp alliances were tagging the enemies it seemed (oh I forgot about the light aura mechanic). My blu mage was pretty gimped at level cap. I had to skill up, which wasn't too annoying with the amazing BLU/BST!!!!!!!

/bst is like the ultimate sub for a fan of soloing. If not for some awesome jugs, released much later, it would be sad that some Beastmaster sub job combinations seem more interesting than Beastmaster/ main, and some had more CHR potential due to gear, traits, and blu skill buffs. I liked Dancer, RDM, and BLU /BST. The later aggro removing job abilities given to BST/ did help make it worth being beast main, and the 2hr. I really need SE to just make a Beastmaster game, or a game that use the classes of ffxi and allow you to mix and match them with subs. Make it a ARPG if you must (not like it would be a choice with current SE &#129345. Which reminds me, Path of Exile MEGA patch should be out by now. I gotta go check that. It doesn't have bst but it have interesting custom build potential, with pets.

 

[Loona]

The last things that I remember was bluemage coming out; corsair I think and the enemies would attack (I forgot what it was called) but it was like your base where all the npcs were. My connection was so shit back then and I couldn't see enemies but I was swinging at stuff. Great great times.

Besieged was amazing - one of the few events where everyone could attack the same target regardless of party or alliance to contribute, and even if your level was low you could still help by curing and raising.

I still remember the first time i took part in it - my level was low, so of course I was mostly in the corner either tossing cures or trying to sneak hits in mobs others were already attacking, but I still remember it was an undead invasion, and someone shouted something like "You know it's a good Besieged when they charm a general!".
One of the very few things that probably couldn't be adapted into a single-player version...

 

[Ploid 3.0]

This brings back so many memories; I played at the height of it's popularity...well at launch for like 6 years straight. It was my first MMO and I had the adapter thing on the back of my ps2. I had a 75 DRK highest level at the time and all my subclasses up to 37.

Galka from Bastok.....I named him ElderGalka lol.

The last things that I remember was bluemage coming out; corsair I think and the enemies would attack (I forgot what it was called) but it was like your base where all the npcs were. My connection was so shit back then and I couldn't see enemies but I was swinging at stuff. Great great times.

Treasures of Agh Urgent (expansion)

The event was Besiged, location Whitegate. Everyone couldn't see all of the enemies I bet. It was a mess hah. "What, why am I poisoned? Did that boss show up?" Doing that thing without a group was risky, because they can target you easier in a party, not because you needed them for strategy. Though being able to keep yourself alive with /dnc,a mage main, or sub was very useful. Invisible dudes eating you up.

 

[Taruranto]

Vertical progression is inherently inferior for me. It's just garbage that end ups pigeonholing people into one content and forces devs to come up with the same content over and over every x months. Horizontal progression means content last and it means devs can come up with different kind of content that plays differently. Sky was different from HNM, and both were different from einherjar and salvage.

FFXI's itemization and end-game content was and is even today perfect.


Though I guess my vision of it is particularly tainted by FFXIV that has like, some of the worst gear progression of all times.

 

[Ferr986]

I can respect the idea that FFXI didn't offer an endless climb and stats mattered, but I don't really like the idea of constantly changing gear throughout a fight.

You had macros for it so you didnt even notice. It was activating a skill and the macro would swap the gear for you automatically.