Final Fantasy XI

Gamers often surrender a lifetime to online RPGs - and that's without the Final Fantasy sheen. How will FFXI fare when its released next year?

	Version PS2	Developer Square Enix	Publisher Square Enix	Genre RPG

By Rico Rodriguez

With Final Fantasy XI, the popular series heads for the on-line realm, eschewing any sort of stand-alone quest and simply dropping players to fend for themselves in a world full of marauding beastmen being hunted by competing bands of adventurers. The plot is standard Final Fantasy fare, with crystals still being far more necessary to life than one would imagine, and a big bad overlord of some sort wreaking havoc throughout the land because, well, just because, really. The gameplay is more than a little like Everquest and every other fantasy-oriented massively multiplayer on-line role playing game out there. Fortunately, Square Enix is throwing a few twists into the formula, and they’re hoping that the details are enough to set FFXI apart from the competition and grab the company a piece of the MMORPG pie.

FFXI begins, as these sorts of games often do, with character creation. One of the first, and just about the only irrevocable, choices players make is to select their character’s race from among five possibilities. Here humans are called Humes, and as always they are the most balanced race. Humes are extremely popular in Japan, where FFXI is already out in both console and PC form, owing mostly to players having such great control over their character’s appearance that they can recreate their own faces on their avatars.

The other choices are the arrogant and graceful Elvaan, the hulking Galka, the lithe Mithra, and the baby-faced Tarutaru, whose small frames belie their magical prowess. Naturally, each race is tweaked to fulfill a different purpose, but no race is banned from any job class. Players are free to build a fierce Tarutaru warrior or to make a brutish Galka white mage.

FFXI incorporates the job system that is so popular in the tactics-oriented editions of Final Fantasy. At the start of the game you are limited to six basic jobs- warrior, monk, thief, white mage, black mage, and red mage. Earning experience within the jobs opens up more advanced job classes, such as bard, paladin, ranger, dark knight, and beastmaster. There are fifteen job classes in all, including the summoner class, and characters may switch between any available job classes at will without losing the skills they have already learned. In addition, once characters have achieved a certain level, they can add a secondary job class, nearly doubling the amount of skills available to them at any given time.

The game world of Vana’diel will exist on several different servers, effectively creating parallel worlds. Landing on the same world as a friend is something of a crap shoot at the beginning, although there are in-game items that will enable players to invite friends to their specific world/server. However, players do choose their allegiance among three competing nations. While each of the five races considers one of these nations home, characters of any race can choose any nation. It is even possible to switch allegiance during the game.

While it doesn’t really matter which nation a player starts in, the Conquest system makes service to your nation a rewarding endeavor. There are several regions outside of the three nations, and slaying enemies in these regions earns points for the player’s nations. Similarly, dying loses the nation points. Every week, Conquest Ratings are assessed, and each region is awarded to the nation that earned the most points there. There are several benefits to winning a region. For example, a nation’s shops can only trade with regions under its banner, so there are items that may never be seen unless a nation wins the appropriate region.

FFXI also tries to encourage camaraderie through its combat system. As in every other MMORPG, new players will have to spend a few hours mindlessly hacking at weak creatures to make their characters worth anything. Fortunately, things can get a little more complicated after that. As characters battle, they earn tactical points that can be spent on more advanced moves. When players time these advanced moves just right, they can unleash powerful combo moves. Weapon attacks are combined to form lethal skill chains, and magic users can combine their abilities to create dazzling magic bursts. These combos will be vital in destroying some of the more daunting creatures characters will face.

It is even possible to enjoy the game without taking part in too much combat. Item creation will be a complex part of the game, and Square Enix hopes that some players will take it upon themselves to be craftsmen, synthesizing crystals and other items into rare equipment and selling their work in the games auction houses and bazaars. And there’s always TetraMaster, a card game resurrected from Final Fantasy IX.

FFXI will allow players from both PC and console platforms to mingle. Graphically, and in most every other way as well, the PS2 version pales to the PC version. The only thing the PS2 version has going for it is that the controls were optimized to the DualShock controller. Unless the player wants to chat with other players, in which case they’ll need a keyboard. In the U.S., FFXI will be shipping on the as yet unreleased PS2 Hard Drive, which is required to play the game. On top of that, a subscription to Square Enix’s PlayOnline service will be required as well. With the PS2 version of Everquest being quickly relegated to the bargain bin, it remains to be seen how many PS2 owners will be willing to make the investment into this single game.

FFXI contains enough familiar components from past games in the series to retain a recognizable atmosphere, even if the bulk of game mechanics are coming from games outside the Final Fantasy canon. This MMORPG may not be different enough to draw players away from their high powered avatars in other realms, but the Final Fantasy brand should be strong enough to attract people new to MMORPGs to Vana’Diel.