Final Fantasy XI Online
The World of Vana'diel

Reviewer Chi Phan	Story	7/10
	Characters	8/10
	Graphics	8/10
	Music	7/10
	Gameplay	10/10
	Extras	10/10
	Final Score	8.3/10

It appears that every single new generation of consoles, there is one rpg that will define the next step in the revolution of rpgs. Back in the Playstation days, Final Fantasy VII was the defining rpg that would set the stage for future rpgs. Today that rpg is called Final Fantasy XI Online from Square Enix. Final Fantasy XI Online is the first true Massive Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game for a console system. Phantasy Star Online fans will dispute that and they probably have a case there but when I say first true MMORP game for a console, I mean the first game that will have an impact on the overall market in the console industry. Phantasy Star Online didn't have much of an impact other then to please some Sega fans from the Phantasy Star series. The success and impact of Final Fantasy XI Online haven't even reached its height yet until the game package is release in the European market, uniting gamers from three different continents. I can pretty much assure you that any future online rpg game will be using Final Fantasy XI Online as a guideline on what to do and what not to do. That's the kind of impact that I'm referring to you when others in the industry will be using a game as their spring board in developing their own online rpg game. We'll take a look at the overview of this rpg game but note that due to the massiveness of the rpg game, this review is really an incomplete review of the game due to the fact that we weren't able to try all of the features in this game.

I fear no Orc! Thank you for helping me. Okay lets be honest here. It is really hard to judge the story of Final Fantasy XI. There's a story in there but the problem is that MMORPG are never ending games that trying to get to the end of the story is pretty hard. This is the prologue: 20 years ago, the kingdoms of Vana'diel were facing an invasion from the Beastmen. All appears lost until the kingdoms of San D'Oria, Bastok, Windurst, and Jeuno put aside their differences to join an alliance together to fight against the Beastmen. Victory was achieved in the end for the people of Vana'diel. Peace once again flourished in the land of Vana'diel for 20 years after the war. However evil once again lurks waiting to seize the power of the crystals that harvest the land. Is a new war coming? That's the prologue to the story of Final Fantasy XI. There's a 5 minute FMV Intro to the game which shows an event similar to the prologue where the Beastmen are invading the people of Vana'diel 20 years ago. During this 5 minute FMV, we are introduced to a boy and his sister during the invasion. The boy was able to escape the invasion but his sister's fate is unknown as it appeared that she was capture by the Beastmen. At the end of the FMV, 20 years later in present time, we see the boy, grown up now, back to the place where he lost his sister, and behind him an army from Vana'diel. At this point, the Intro ends. How much of an impact or importance of the Intro has to do with the game story, I can't really tell? For all I know, the Intro is just that, an introduction FMV that really has no purpose to the game story. The game story is told through Missions. Each missions you do, you advance the story a bit. It's been nearly 3 weeks of playing this game and I only did 3 missions, which basically means I haven't done a whole lot to advance the story of Final Fantasy XI. With that in mind, I can't really grade the story as an open and shut case where I know what the entire story is about. Unlike the non online rpg games where one can finish playing the game from beginning to ending. What I can say is that story isn't the most important factor in MMORPG, true fact in most MMORPGs. So I don't think you should expect an in-depth story here as you would expect from a non MMORPG. I will give the story a 7 but keep in mind that this is an incomplete review of the story since I don't know if it's really good or bad in the end. I will update the score when or if I actually finish all the missions in the game to see the conclusion of the possible storyline.

Rpg Dreamers Alliance Linkshell Interestingly enough, there really are no characters in this game. No real story characters anyways. So who are the characters then? It's the community of players from around the world. How each character talk and react to one another is base on the individual players themselves? In sense the PC adapts the personality of the players. This makes exploring and interacting with other players a unique experience. As you explore the town that you are in, we can take a step back and look at all the different characters playing this game. You can see the loners running around that don't want to be bother with by other players, you can see the new players walking around begging for money or trying to find someone to help them out, and the more social players that are in a group or clans. It is the pure fact that each character taking on the personality of the players, themselves, that make it a treat to visit this virtual world. You have the mature players who are trying to help out. Usually these are the more grown up players. Then you have the younger ones that are the good and bad seeds of the community. The bad seeds players usually show off their age and immaturity by spamming or making an idiot of themselves by annoying everyone else. These are the players that probably won't find may other players to play with. The good players are the ones that know how to adapt to the new environment and behave accordingly to not annoy those around them. It's just a treat to see how all the other characters in this game treat one another during battles. Some players are nice and heal other players whom they don't know at all when that player needs healing in battle while other players come to rescue those that are in trouble. Downside is no real background development of the characters in this community due to no story characters. The upside is the uniqueness of each characters brought to life being played by the individual players is great. It shows that this community has full range of personalities from the idiots to the smart ones just like in real life.

We're too cute to die! The graphics in this game are pretty impressive for an online rpg game. The surrounding environment consists trees, stonewalls, birds, ect, that are render quite nicely. Looking in the distance you can see clouds and mountains as you roam the forest. Deep in a cave you can see the shadows of enemies roaming about. Another impressive feature of the graphics is the pure fact that each player pretty much look different from one another, from their facial expressions to their outfits that they have equipped on. What makes the graphics work is the pure fact that this 3-D world looks very realistic as you move around from one place to the next. The colors used in the game are also very nice. You can fully appreciate the colors during the middle of the afternoon when the weather is a nice sunny day showing off the colors of the surrounding world. Even during the dark rainy days, you can see the rain coming down in front of you as the dark rain clouds are show above you and into the horizon. I like how the creators were able to provide different type of modes in terms of light and darkness to signify the turning of the hours from day to night. The downside that I see is the fact that the monsters are a little too simple in designs as compare to the more detail look of the PCs and NPCs. Of course keep in mind that I have yet to really see many different types of monsters other than the rabbits, worms, sheeps, and some orcs so far. It's not the best FF game in terms of graphics but its still pretty impressive compare to other rpg games.

Let the war begin. If there is a weak spot in this game, I would say it's the music section of the game. The game musical selection seems to be limited to dungeons, towns, and open fields. Missing are the character themes and the story themes. Now the themes from the dungeons, towns, and fields are only okay but after awhile it gets kind of annoying once it gets recycled over and over again to the point where you want to turn down the background music so you don't have to listen to it anymore. This is base on my current observation from playing this game. I haven't played this game long enough to witness the entire musical score selection so I don't know for sure if the music will pick up in the story or if there are any character music presentation later on. I'm assuming that the same kind of music presented in San D'Oria is also presented in other cities as well. Sound effects however are great in this game. Clashes of swords and grunting sound of players fighting can be heard in the background of the battlefield. When running you can hear your footsteps imprinting on the grass or the pavement in the city. Sound of monsters can also be heard in the surrounding environment as you approach the area where they are in. Rain drops can be heard when it's raining. So the final note is great sound effects but okay music.

Kill the bird quickly! Need a RAISE for Rpgdreamers! Game Information    Genre: Mass Multi-Player Rpg    Publisher: Square Enix    Disc: 2 DVD Disc    Memory: Sony Hard Drive    Players: Multi Player Mode    Digital Control: Yes    Analog Control: Yes    Vibration Function: Yes    Rating: Teen    Release: March 2004 It's in the game. That's the catch phrase best use to describe this game. It's all about the gameplay. If you don't' enjoy the gameplay then you won't enjoy this game. The gameplay is presented to us in a way that it makes gamers have to be patience when playing this game. The game isn't really hard but yet the game is done in a way that you're not going to finish doing things in a couple of weeks like with most regular rpg games which makes it seem hard. When playing this game, you have to understand how it work first since it's different from regular rpg game. If you try to play this like a regular rpg game then you're not going to get anywhere. When first playing this game, you will immediately notice the lack of money. Money is hard to come by in this game. You don't get it as an automatic thing from fighting like with regular rpg game. You can still get it from fighting but it's more like a rare drop item than anything else. And the money you get from fighting is like an average of 20 Gil which doesn't buy you squat. So trying to rush in to get money to buy all the cool armors and weapons isn't going to happen. You will never get the best armors or weapons in this game. They are there to tease you and that's it. If you have enough money to buy your equipment then you have to check whether or not you fit the requirements to equip them. Each equipment comes with a level requirement and can only be worn by a particular race or job. Chances are that you will have to be equipped with level 1 stuff until you reach level 7. This again prevents you from power leveling yourself up to a certain high level in a just a matter of time. The last thing you will notice is that there are really no healing items like phoenix down or potion for you to use. Unless you are a White Mage, you're going to be short of healing supplies. So charging into battle isn't really a good idea. With no healing items or revival items available, money to buy better equipment, and not being the right level to equip the equipment that you want to equip, it's not a good idea to even fight monsters that are even in level as you. Square Enix put every single safe guard in for any potential cheaters or people that don't have a life to spend numerous hours just leveling up. In regular rpg game, you could probably get to level 10 in a couple of hours. In this game, level 10 will take you a few days. To punish you even further for being a gung ho player who don't care and still charges into battle against whatever enemies, if you die you will lose a certain percentage of experience you gain. In fact if you keep on dying and keep losing experience, you can even go down a level. This game is all about taking your time when playing this game. This game isn't meant to be finish in a few weeks. Heck after a few months you still probably won't even finish. Let's look at the key features in the game. Chat modes: There are various numerous different chat modes available in the game that will allow you to communicate with friends and other players in the game. Understand how each chat mode work is a key in the early stages of the game. Jobs: When you create your character, there are about 6 different job classes to choose from. These are the basic job classes. Once you reach a high enough level, you can advance to a higher level job. Understanding the importance of each job and what they do it the key to knowing your role in this game. There are no good or bad jobs. Each job serves a function in the game and within the party. Choosing the job that fit your need or even your personality is important. Allegiance: There are four countries to choose from. Choose or pick the country that you want your character to be from. Allegiance to a country is important because each country will compete against one another in terms of dominance in the world. Dominance is done through conquest points. Before you fight you will cast your country's signet on you. With signet cast on you, each time you kill monsters, you are contributing conquest points to your country. The more dominance your country is, the greater chance of you being able to gain items and crystals from monsters after defeating them. So allegiance is pretty important. Trade:One of the main component of this game is the trade feature. Trading serves two purpose. It allows you to give an item to another PC or a non NPC. The second purpose is that you can use trade to exchange items with other players for stuff that you don't need but they need and vice versa. The game encourages players to trade more with other players then to actually sell the items that they don't need anymore. Auctions:Without a doubt the auction house is the ends to all means of making money and getting items that you may have problems getting else where. The best place to get money is by auctioning stuff that you don't need. These can be crystals or used older equipment. All you need to do is set a reserve price and watch money coming in. The auction house is a better place to get money then selling stuff to shops. The auction is also a great place for you to get rare items or equipment that you can't normally get elsewhere. If you're having problems finding something from a monster then try checking it out at the auction to see if other players have too much of that stuff and have decided to dump it there. The auction is like a giant size waste dump slash flea market. It's great. Guilds:If you can't buy or find the good weapons or other items in this game, you can make them yourself. One way to do this is by joining various guilds within the world of Vana'diel. Examples of these guilds are blacksmith, goldsmith, and carpentry. There are up to 10 different guilds in total. All you need to do to get started is to join a guild that you like. From there you need to get the required materials to start synthesizing to get the items you want. As your rank in the guild goes up, the more success you will have on synthesizing the harder items. Moogle House:Your moogle house is where you can keep storage of all items that you can no longer carry in your inventory. It's also a place to change job class, plant different follows, and pick up items or money won from the auction house. You can also decorate your moogle house with furnitures. Missions:The story is pretty much told through Missions. Each city will have 3 different ranks of missions for you to do. Missions are base from Rank 1 to Rank 3. Each rank will contain 3 missions. You can only accept one mission at a time. Not all missions will be available for you to do right away. Whether or not you can accept a mission depends on your fame in the city you are in. The higher your fame is, the higher your chances of accepting a high ranking mission. You can raise your fame by doing quests. Quests:Each city will provide numerous quests for you to do. Most of the time, these quests are pretty much optional. These quests are a great way of getting extra money or items that you can't normally get in the game. So it's a good idea to do quests. Besides, doing quests raises your fame in the city which in turns will allow you to do more Missions. You don't have to do all the quests but enough to raise your fame to be able to do Missions. That's the basic overview of the key features inside the game. Now let's turn our attention to the battle system which is unique in itself. And sometimes even very hard depending on the job class you play. Once out in the open fields, dungeons, or caves, you will notice monsters spawning at a certain rate. These monsters will then roam around in the area. If you wish to fight a monster then just target them and move in and switch to attack mode. Fighting is done in real time as your fighter will auto attack the monster. You can move around but it really makes no difference at all. The problem with this battle system is positioning during battle has no advantage at all. You can attack a monster from behind but there's no advantage in terms of damage. There's no advantage from attacking at a height as well. Now this game uses a check system. For the most part during the early stage of the game, you will be playing solo. This means lack of healing items or healing magic unless you are a white mage. So before deciding to attack, scan the monster out to see the challenge settings. It will give you an indication on whether or not you have a good chance of winning. Understanding the use of checking out your opponents is the key to providing a good steady level up strategy. Let's look at the key elements of the battle system. Party: This game was made to play in a party. Early on you can play solo but once you reach the mid teens in terms of level, this is where it's time to start to form a party or find a party to join. As you go deeper into each area in the game, it becomes more and more clear that these areas will be difficult to play by going solo. Finding a good party is the key to having a success in the game. The maximum members in a party is six. Weapon Skills: Each weapon comes with their own fighting skills. These skills are known as combat stats. As you equip a particular weapon and use your weapon in battle, you are gaining a small percentage of decimal stat points. As you continue to battle, these small combats stats start to build up over time. Eventually once your combat stat points are built up properly, you will then unlock a weapon skill. Now using your weapon skill is base on your TP gauge going to 100%. Once 100% TP gauge is achieve, you can unleash your weapon skill attack upon your opponent. Skill Chains: Skill chains is a special attack that you and your party members can unleash against strong opponents. It's basically a chain effect where each party member unleashes a weapon skill one after another in a timely precise turn to give an effect of a chaining attack. Mastering this is essential to surviving against strong opponents. Aggro: Aggros in this game is basically the monsters hate level toward players or surrounding players. Each monster has a different aggro level. Some have a lot while others hardly have any at all. Aggros affect the monsters behavior out in the open fields and their behavior in battle. Aggros in a sense make the monsters smarter then the usual monsters that appear in regular rpg game. These monsters depending on their aggro level will home in on you and start attacking you if you even look them the wrong way when moving across the fields, so one can't simply move across the fields in hopes of not having any monsters come after you. Nothing gets the blood flowing when trekking across the field minding your own business when all of a sudden from far away; some big tough level Orc sees you and start chasing you across the world just so he can kill you. Aggros is also a major factor in battle. What makes aggros interesting in battle is that the monsters don't just randomly attack any player in a party. Their hatred will allow them to zoom in on the weakest of the party and the most troublesome of the party, namely the mages. Try casting a spell and watch as these monsters turn around gunning after the person that cast a spell. This is especially deadly for mages as they are weak in defense and low on HP. The key to winning combat is to understand the effect of aggros on monsters. Disengage/Help: In this game, you run away from enemies during a fight by disengaging them first. However just because you disengage the enemy doesn't mean it won't stop attacking you. This game uses the aggro system as mention above. Which translate to the fact that once you attack a monster, it will develop a hate against you. And when that occurs, disengaging doesn't do anything as the monster will continue to attack you even if you disengage. Heck even disengage and run doesn't do anything as the monster will follow you all the way to the next planet just so it can kill you. You're only hope of disengaging and running successfully lies on the fact that you are near a zone to the next area. But fear not. Though the chances of running away successfully are very low, you can use the option to call for help instead. In fact calling for help is the prefer method if you are in trouble. By calling for help, you are asking any nearby players to come to your aid. And if you are lucky then some nearby players will come to your aid. There's one thing about calling for help that you should be aware of first. You won't get any experience from the battle if other players step in to help you out. You won't die but you won't gain experience points. I really enjoy playing this game. However I think you can only enjoy it if you understand how to play this game properly. I think a lot of new players including yours truly tend to make a mistake of understanding how to play this game. When playing this game, understand your job class role and be content with it. If you want to be a damage melee fighter who enjoys killing monsters all the time then be a melee fighter. Don't be a black mage that goes charging into battle. Know your role and shut up about it. If you don't like your role that your job class is created for then choose a job class whose roles suite your needs. There are too many new players that make a mistake of not understand the role of their job class. Each job class is great in their perspective way. You just need to understand their roles in a party and work with a party in that dimension. Each job class in the end is important to a party. Understanding and working with other party members in a party is another key that gamers should be aware of. You can be a solo player for the first 15 levels maybe but eventually once this get harder and harder, you're going to have to work in a party with other members. This game is all about functioning in a team environment and understanding the role of your character. It's a slow game but a game that is really enjoyable to play in a community.

Score: 10/10

I'm bored, Cangeman... The extras in this game are provided through side quests. Each city provides dozens of these side quests for you to do. However you won't be able to achieve all of the side quests unless you meet certain requirements. There are other bonus dungeons and game modes that Square Enix will be introducing in the game during its many update or expansion pack of the game. As for the replay value, this game doesn't really have a replay value simply because the game never really ends. I doubt it very much if anyone can finish this game. I guess it's possible to finish the Missions available in each city after a few months. Even then I'm not sure what happens when you finish all the Missions in terms of the story. I know that the game doesn't end for sure. The only way you may want to try and replay this game again is that you cancel your subscription of the game and decided to try playing the game again later on. The bonus in replaying the game later on after a few months since you last cancelled your subscription is the pure fact that you will know that there will be something new added into the game since you last played it. Square Enix provides updates to the game every few months. These updates help improve the gameplay with added new features such as new quests, new items, new player modes, and new dungeons that weren't available before. This is why the game will never end cause there will always be something new added on it that gamers can try out. It's highly unlikely that anyone can finish all the quests and explore all the dungeons and areas.

It's hard to be judging this game simply because I wasn't able to go deeper into this game. This is due to the fact that the game pretty much never ends. I've spent nearly 3 weeks playing this game, day and night, and all I've manage to do was scratch the surface of what this game offers. But from what I've seen so far, this game is very addictive which mean you can easily get hook into playing this game day and night leaving the real world behind. Unfortunately I don't have months to play this game as there are other games that are coming out soon that this reviewer has to try out. But I won't be unsubscribing my monthly fee anytime soon. If you're looking to enter a virtual world away from the real world with a community of massive online players then this game is for you. I highly recommend this game. Final Score: 8.3/10 Time to complete: Never ending Difficulty: Medium to Hard Most useful spell: Heal Favorite race: Hume Favorite job: Paladin/Warrior Favorite weapon: Axe Favorite city: Sand D'Oria Favorite server: Carbuncle Favorite Linkshell group: Rpg Dreamers Alliance Best advice: Power Level Best Skill: Provoke Also try: Everquest Online Up next: La Pucelle: Tactics