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Its biggest flaw was probably its reliance on party play.īack in its heyday, very few jobs could effectively solo, and you were essentially forced to wait for a group to form to get anything meaningful done. This is because even super situational gear can be swapped in for a split second during certain macros to gain their effect – which is an aspect of the game that some do not like – and then swapped back out for your normal gear.Įither way, because there’s a lot of worthwhile gear spread out across years worth of content, such as currency for relic weapons and upgradable artifact armor, there’s a wide variety of events to choose from to break up the monotony.įinal Fantasy XI was a huge success, don’t get us wrong, but it had a few glaring issues which prevented it from ever beating out a game like World of Warcraft. Unlike modern MMORPGs that opt for rapid vertical progression of gear that quickly abandons older dungeons/raids in favor of new ones, a surprisingly high amount of Final Fantasy XI’s older content is still very relevant today. This culminated into a final story expansion released last year, Rhapsodies of Vanadiel, which ties all of the major expansions together, and actually delivers a feeling of “beating the game” at least from a story perspective, which is pretty cool for a MMORPG.īeyond story, there’s also years worth of end game to pour through. While MMOs today have higher standards for their in-game story, back in 2003 when FFXI first launched worldwide, that wasn’t necessarily the case.įFXI was notable in its effort to up the quality of MMORPG story telling, and continued to improve on that with each passing expansion. So how exactly is Square Enix doing it? Let’s break it down.įinal Fantasy XI is an old, old game that has hundreds of areas to explore, and five expansions worth of content and story to run through (plus more smaller DLC-like add-ons). It’s still able to earn its monthly subscription from the thousands of players still logging in daily across its 15 active servers. You might be asking yourself how on earth does Square Enix still manage to sustain a player base charging that much for a game that is years past its prime and has ceased major content updates?ĭespite those problems, FFXI still has a few aces in the hole that gives it an advantage over modern MMORPGs, such as its younger brother FFXIV. To an outsider, this might seem outrageous and shocking.
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Some of the problems that turned people off to the game years ago such as gear swapping still exists, and no new expansions are in the cards. In addition, although it looks pretty good still for a game that debuted on the PlayStation 2, Final Fantasy XI is outdated mechanically by most MMORPG standards. It’s $12.95 a month and it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. While many MMOs that either fail to meet expectations or are over the hill go for a free-to-play model that includes some form of micro-transactions or an optional subscription with perks, Final Fantasy XI hasn’t budged, not even once.
![final fantasy xi final fantasy xi](https://www.gamingdose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final-Fantasy-XI.jpg)
What is perhaps more impressive is that even though much of the MMORPG world has passed Final Fantasy XI by (even Square Enix has mostly moved on with Final Fantasy XIV), FFXI still charges the same exact subscription that it had on day one: $12.95 per month. In an era where many MMOs are dead on arrival, the fact that FFXI is still physically with us is an incredibly impressive feat. Today marks Final Fantasy XI’s thirteenth anniversary since its North American release way back on Octo(it released in Japan initially on May 16, 2002).