Final Fantasy XI - Long overview to make you drool

I've read a lot about the game in the past few days and i've come to the conclusion that anyone looking for a future MMORPG to replace EQ or to put in addition to EQ should be looking closely at FFXI.

Im trying to be as close to the facts as i can about the FFXI system, based on reports/impressions i've read and FAQs, but some things might be slightly different than the real thing, afterall its a beta, cant ask players to know the system 100% correctly.

Where to start where to start... hmm.

Lets begin with the basics.

--There's 4 nations in the world of Vana'diel, in constant conflicts of course.

--5 playable races: Elvaan, Hume, Galka, Mithra, Tarutaru.

Galka
http://ffo.warcry.com/content/races/galka.jpg

Mithra
http://ffo.warcry.com/content/races/mithra.jpg

Tarutaru
http://ffo.warcry.com/content/races/tarutaru.jpg

Hume
http://ffo.warcry.com/content/races/hume.jpg

Elvaan
http://ffo.warcry.com/content/races/elvaan.jpg

-- You do not have a specific level for your character, it works by the FF2 system, jobs. The job system is like this.
At the beginning you choose a main job from these, Warrior (WAR), Monk (MNK), White mage (WHM), Black mage (BLM), Red mage (RDM) and Thief (THF)

At level 18 you can choose a sub job to complement your main one, from the same jobs as above. Only hick is that the sub job will have half the levels of your main one, meaning that you also limit your magic/abilities that are acquired by levels. The good thing is that, you can EASILY switch between main job and sub job at a Mog house and you'll never lose the levels or abilities you gained from both of them. Lets say you have a level 18 WAR and choose a monk for sub job, you'll only be able to use your monk's abilities up to level 9. If you switch jobs, and your monk is level 9, your warrior abilities will be limited to level 4.5, even though in reality he's much further. Another good thing, by switching main and sub job, you can max both of their levels, so when you'll switch your jobs you wont see a drastic decrease like the warrior got by switching to a lvl 9 monk, it will be 1/2 the level of your main one.

At level 30 you can do a quest to acquire an advanced job which are different from the basic ones, they are: Paladin (PAL), Dark knight (DRK), Ranger (RNG), Samurai (SAM), Summoner (SMN), Beast tamer (BST), Ninja (NIN), Dragoon (DRG) and Bard (BRD).

If you decide to choose an advanced job, you're free to replace either your basic main or sub job, you can even have two advanced job iny our main and sub job. Thing is you lose the abilities you had with your basic jobs, advanced jobs are not ADDITIONAL to the basic one. Though, if you arent satisfied, or you want to switch role before going on an hunt, you can switch back and forth between your advanced and basic jobs in your main/sub slots.

example. I decide to pick Warrior as my main job, Monk as my sub job. Then later on i decide to pick Beast tamer for main job and Samurai for sub job. I can then play between BST/SAM, BST/MNK, WAR/SAM, WAR/MNK, without ever losing levels or abilities gained in these jobs. Not to mention that i can switch between main and sub jobs, which could create this combination. SAM/BST, MNK/BST, SAM/WAR. MNK/WAR. I could go further and add more main and sub jobs, you can switch anytime you want.

With me so far? okay.

--Job descriptions

Warrior: Warriors are the epitome of fighters, able to use most, if not all the weapons and armors in the lands, combined with the most lethal of combat skills. Also, due to their balanced strength and defense, they are very useful to have in the front line of a party

Monk: As a Monk, to find your real power, you need to find the center of your being. The balance between your physical, spiritual, and mental selves. You do this by honing your body through the art of combat and your spirituality and mental powers through meditation. Only by remaining good may a monk find the center of his/ her being. They are master of Martial Arts and unarmed combat skills. They use their fists as a weapon to attack an enemy. The monk will use claws and other types of weapons on their fist to increase the harm to their opponents.

Black mage: A Black Mage is one of the weakest classes when it comes to body, but their intelligence has no par. As a Black Mage you will begin weak, but as you grow in intelligence and mana points, you will become a powerful fighting force. Black Mages' spells are varied and sundry, but they get many more combat spells than the White Mage’s. With a Black Mage's vast repertoire of useful spells you will become a much sought after commodity... for your spells can mean victory or defeat for other players. Black Mages usually stand away from the battle so they are less likely to be attacked due to their lower HP and defense

White mage: A White Mage is a healer and protector of the weak. They have in their control many varied and sundry healing spells, as well as spells to affect one's chances in battle. White Mage’s do possess some combat spells, but combat is far from the focus of the class. The White Mage is a fountain of mind and healing that many players rely on. The White Mage remain in the back line and act as support to those on the front as well as to the party as a whole

Red mage: The Red Mage is a mixture of both classes of Mage as well as a Warrior. They are able to use both White Magic and Black Magic but they take a longer time to learn magic compared to a pure White Mage or Black Mage. They also cannot learn the high level magic that the Black and White Mage can access, but they do have access to weapon enchants and elemental defense spells. These Magicians can also equip the lower levels of armor and weapons a Warrior wears. The Red Mage can fill many rolls in a party and are great for solo. But they won't be as good in Black Magic as a Black Mage would or as skilled in White Magic as a White Mage would be. They are the most "balanced" class in Vana'diel

Thief: The thief is a shady character which makes use of many skills often deemed improper by the rest of society. The skills of the thief reflect his/ her way of life, namely sneaking around, stealing Gil, and attacking from behind with deadly backstabs. Thieves have always had a bad reputation so don't be surprised if you are always under suspicion. Thieves start off fairly weak, but as they gain skills such as Surprise Attack and Feint Attack, they soon become dangerous foes. A thief is always useful when there is an agile character needed or an item that needs to be stolen or found in a dungeon

Ranger: Going at it solo, the Ranger is not as heavily equipped as the other warriors of Vana'diel. To counter this, the Ranger has the ability to specialize in archery, which can deal out some very respectable damage before the target draws close enough to require melee. Most Rangers will probably settle on the recurred bow, as it offers an increased range compares to the other bows of the world or they might even go for the fairly inaccurate, high damage, musket. With a Ranger in the group, allowing him/ her to attack first will be a nice advantage. Not only can the party stay farther away, where it's less likely to be attacked, but the critical shot damage is very respectable, and he/ she may even be able to shoot twice. Even after the enemy is near, the Ranger can handle himself as a light tank, long enough to finish the creature off

Bard: Bards may just be mere poets or minstrels in our history, but in Vana'diel they are magical vocalists and musicians. What's great about them is that the songs they play do not require mana points (MP). Bards work very well in a party. Often you hear them playing their tranquil songs of support. Those songs range from stat boosts, status change resistance, to the always welcomed life-giving heal. While many of the songs Bards use are party support melodies, they are not always sweet with support. If needed, they can release a requiem sound of damage upon enemies

Beast tamer: A Beastmaster's special ability allows them to tame monsters as pets for their disposal. They can tame monsters equal to the level they are currently at or lower. And although the possibility exists that they tame a stronger monster then them, it is unadvisable as the pet can become wild unexpectedly and turn on it's master. When using a personal pet, if you tell it to attack, it will attack the target. It remains completely loyal to the tamer until the pet dies, the set length of time the monster is able to be controlled expires, or the beast breaks the spell. One major advantage to using a pet is while the pet begins to attack the enemy, it is now distracted and this gives the Beastmaster and their party an open door to attack.

Dark knight: A Dark Knight's only purpose is the destruction of whom they see as an enemy. This means to go as far as leeching off of foes to regain their own health. They do not fear magical foes because they also have the ability to strengthen their magic defense. Rather than using support magic to aid their comrades, they learn the destructive art of Black Magic in order to dispose of enemies quicker (MP is not their strong point). Shields? Who needs them when they can wield two handed swords and scythes. With the massive destructive attack power and abilities being a Dark Knight brings, inflicting damage is definitely their strong point.

Paladin: Paladin's are holy knights who pledge their lives to banish the land of the undead. In order to do so they must learn the way of the divine to fight the evil, which makes the Paladin naturally stronger against undead monsters. Light magic alone cannot defeat enemies so they are also skilled with one-hand swords and shield combat. Of course, their high defense and defense abilities makes them the best defensive class. Often finding them in frontlines of battle protecting fellow party members. If support is needed Paladins are quite knowledgeable in magic to aid allies with heal and protection spells (MP is not their strong point).

Ninja: The Ninja is well equipped with skills that allow him to situate himself in the most heavily guarded places to sneak around, or if the situation warrants, eliminate a threat. Walking the fine line between light and darkness, the Ninja is familiar with both the physical disciplines of the sword and throwing weapons. Their darker side gives them familiarity with Ninjutsu, making the Ninja's proficiency in the magical arts. His mastery of throwing weapons sets him apart from the rest of the classes, second only to the Ranger. The Ninja is poorly armored, but their speed more then make up for their low defensive value

Samurai: Samurai live and die by the code of Bushido--but they don't die easily. Samurai have honed their martial skills to perfection, although this does not mean his mental training has suffered, for his strategic sense is second only to the warrior. Despite marginal HP, the Samurai is virtually equal to the Monk in terms of strength. Death is not viewed as failure, but as the ultimate service which can be rendered

Dragoon: The fabled Dragoons, or Dragon Knights, are few in number but worth an army when it comes to slaying dragons. While certainly a tough opponent in combat, their specialization against dragons makes them truly devastating. While most Dragoons only seek out the lairs of evil dragons, some don't seem to care or distinguish between types and will hunt any dragon that comes across their path.The Dragoon's are courageous fighters who have mastered the art of the jumping spear attack. With the briefest of starts, they can launch themselves many feet into the air and descend again with tremendous force, piercing the hide of even the toughest foe

Summoner: There are those who can bring forth a monster to fight in their stead. There are a few who are true masters of the summoning art. Summoners dedicate themselves to the fine art of summoning monsters and learning how to use them. They are not good at hand-to-hand combat, but are able to call upon elemental gods, causing their enemies to suffer and perish in terrible ways.


Individual abilites and magic can be found at this site

http://ffo.warcry.com/index.php/content/jobs/jobs


--Renkei and magic burst. A nice touch to the fighting system and a first in the MMO world and i think will make FFXI stand out as being a lot more strategic than others. Renkeis are made by using weapons skills and with multiple peoples in the party to combo them and time them correctly to do additional damage. Depending on which combo you do you also give an elemental to the renkei attack which has to be strategic since monsters have strenght and weakness against certain type of elementals. Last thing you want is to be healing the monster by accident, so you have to know exactly what you and your party are doing. The timing for weapon skills has to be 3 seconds in between and be a weapon skill in the same vein as the elemental you want to create, bad timing or using a weapon skill not in the same chart for the elemental it was started in will break the combo chain. Small example: player 1 does a weapon skill "fast blade", player 2, 3 seconds later does "burning blade", after these a renkei is automatically added to the damage, casting a "liquefaction" spell which is fire based, immediatly after that renkei another player can continue with "flat blade" and create a 2nd renkei called "fusion" which is fire/light based. Magic burst can ADD to the renkei, but if missed doesnt break the chain. Its alot more touchy aswell since it has to be casted inbetween the 3 seconds, so you have 1 second timing and since spells can take longer to cast you have to time it very well. This will do add additional damage to the renkei, sometimes boosting by 2 or 3 times the spell damage compared than if you would cast it normally.

So strategy wise, a party that knows eachothers well and know the weapon skills and have good timing will do a lot more damage than a party who arent doing renkeis or arent bothering to do them. It can make or break a fight at later levels.

Here's a chart of the renkei, but not including the magic bursts.

http://www.mylinuxisp.com/~blkhrtll/renkei.jpg

You need 2 players minimum to do a renkei EXCEPT if you're a samurai.


--Stats: Typical stats: HP/MP/STR/DEX/VIT/AGI/INT/MND/CHR

Weapons skills: Hand2Hand, Dagger, Sword, Great sword, Katana, Great katana, Axe, Great axe, Scythe, Polearm, Club, Staff.

Ranged skills: Archery, marksmanship, throwing.

Defense skills: Guard, evade, shield, parry.

Magic skills: Holy magic, Recovery magic, Strenghten magic, Weaken magic, Elemental magic, Dark magic, Summon, Ninjutsu.

Bard skills: Singing, stringed instruments, wind instruments.

Tactical points: Or the overdrive or special attacks in your main series final fantasy games. A gauge that gives you a special attack at 100%, but you can let it go to 300% to deal more damage, etc. Gained from fighting, if you stop fighting it will slowly go down.

Note: These do not count abilities specific to each jobs, there's a difference between skills and abilities in FFXI. Each jobs have strenghts and weakness in these stats and skills, some are better at a certain weapon, magic, or have stat boosts, some cant use certain magics or weapons, some have negative stats boosts in certain stats.

-- Stuffs to do other than hunting in groups

1) Conquest. 4 nations in conflics. On the world map there's flags in each territories. Your nation can give you goals to achieve, like clearing a certain place in a certain territory. A Nation's influence depends on how many regions they have under control, it also has a great impact on its economy. As a player you will also receive points for participating in a conquest, allowing you to get special items the more you have points. When a territory comes under control of your nation, border guards are dispatched to protect that territory from another nation that could counter your attacks. The stronger the nation, also the more benefits you'll get in both economy and also in special items you get. Each weeks there's a compilation and points given to the nation who held territories. If your nation has a lot of territories under its control, there will be more stores in your cities, more items in these stores and lower prices, you'll also receive better items from the conquest. If your nation has little to no territories under its control, there will be few stores left, you pay an higher price,less items and less significant conquest items handed to you.

2) Quests. duh, does it need more explanations?

3) Missions. Your nation will hire you and give you a specific missions for you. It goes from odd jobs to secret missions. The more trust your nation has in you, the harder the missions will be and the higher the compasations will be.

4) PVP. Not much is known about it, square has only released a screenshot of it. Its rumored that you'll be able to access special PVP zones if you ask your nation to offer your services, other nations will send their warriors into that special battlefield against other nations, players will be able to kill other players in this place and it will likely offer bonuses and items you wouldnt normally have in the normal world.

--Transportation: Chocobo, ferries, airships. They cost money, you cant own one.

--Trading: Typical trade system, exchange objects between players or even with npcs. Auction houses, you put an object on auction and players bid, the one who bids the higher gets the object and you get richer. Bazaar, you set your own little commerce with you, you set prices on items you want to sell in your inventory, players can immediatly look at what you have for sell and they'll buy, you receive the cash you asked for it, no chitchat involved, no bargaining.

--Crystal synthesis: players can create a large variety of items, which arent available in shops, very flexible system from what i've heard.

--Fishing: ...

--Chocobo riding: You need to find a stable, you need a license to raise them. You need something to feed them. Chocobos also dig sometimes on the ground and find special items for you, anyone who played FFVII will be reminded of how it works :)

--Story: there's supposedly a big story in the FFXI world, its not just lore and myths of nations or races, but an actual goal in the game to complete, a "bigger" quest than your ordinary ones. What it does when you complete it, who knows, its likely a nice gift though.

--Servers: 28 to 30 servers available at launch. One thing though, when you create a character you'll be created randomly on one of these server. The ONLY way to join a friend on a specific server is for that friend to get a world pass in his server, send the pass to you and tell you the name of his server, at the character creation you put them and you'll join him. Each world pass can contain 5 friends, so with one world pass you can invite 5 of your friends. Each persons can only get one pass every weeks. Its a weird system, but it will also balance servers for the newbies who just join the server with the lowest/highest number of peoples. If friends are very important to you, with this system you can create a friend link system, you invite 5 friends, one of these friends invites another 5, etc etc etc.

Thats pretty much it about the basics.

http://www.shadow-dragons.com/index2.htm

http://ffo.warcry.com/

For more specific information, on abilities and magics for each jobs, the race advantages for specific jobs, etc.


Long post eh?

October 28th for the PC version, 49$, 12.99$ per month, 1$ per additional characters (that will be for hardcore players since a single character can have a WIDE range of skills and magic with the job system already available, you can switch jobs anytime). The PS2 version will also allow console owners to play in the same world as the PC owners, though the PS2 version is set for early next year.

A couple of little details i got from beta testers. Rangers are the BEST physical damage dealers in the game, they're the only class to have access to guns. One negative point, each arrows and bullets fired cost money. Thats why having thief as a sub job is a good thing to do with ranger since you'll replenish your pockets as you kill monsters. Dark knights are the 2nd best damage dealers, if not equal or better than rangers. One is close range the other is out of the combat range. Paladins actually will play their role like they should be, they'll be the best defense, they're the true "tanks". Warriors are good in both offense and defense, have a wider range of abilities than the hybrids, but remember that you can have 2 jobs so you can mix abilities and advantages between them. Beast masters are the best solo class, they can wear armor and are pretty good with axes, they can charm monsters to fight for them without any MP cost. Bards are very very good supports in parties, and it requires a lot of skills to pull off some complex song combos. Monks are either 2nd or 3rd in damage dealing, along with the highest ammount of HP but lower defense.

But the beauty is that some beta players said that its perfectly balanced, you'll never feel useless or underpowered compared to others if a) you picked the right race for the type of jobs you want (or else stats can hurt you bad), and dont do stupid job combinations such as a white mage and samurai. The classes above that i mentioned had bigger advantages, also have weakness over others. In the end, the job you pick is a matter of preference, you wont be underpowered at all compared to others. There's jobs that are more about party support and some that are better for solo'ing, thats about the main difference. But a job good at soloing such as beast tamer isnt useless in parties, etc. Impressions from beta testers seems to indicate that its the most balanced MMORPG ever made.

*takes a deep breath and cracks fingers*

Thats about it. Feel free to ask questions, i'll try to answer. But sites should cover a lot of things.

Soo... you really typed all that?

:)
And to stay on topic and not to be rude, have you guys seen the FFXI intro movie? It's awesome!

This could turn out to be a great game.

i own every single final fantasy game released in the US (yes, even mystic quest).... i look forward to the day i add XI to my collection... :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by Terry
Soo... you really typed all that?

:)
And to stay on topic and not to be rude, have you guys seen the FFXI intro movie? It's awesome!

This could turn out to be a great game.

---

Yes, i wrote that last night for an old EQ guild i was in. Of course, i did some copy&paste jobs for the job descriptions. But it was long typing all that.

Btw, its also the first MMORPG that will have cutscenes, missions you choose from your nation will have a real-time cutscene. I heard its very well done and helps greatly push the story further, in a genre where story never meant anything in past MMORPGs.

If you're curious on how it looks, Square has a constant live stream of their ps2 beta test that you can watch on this site http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multimedia/wind/

The camera explores the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here's some screenshots of artifact armors and a good look at how the characters look (i love the art, finally a japanese spinoff. I hated EQ's art)

Dark knight
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/s...ight/humem.jpg

Black mage
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/s...mage/galka.jpg

dragoon
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/s...agoon/elvf.jpg

Ranger
https://www.sharkyforums.com/

Samurai
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/s...urai/humem.jpg

warrior
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/s...rior/humem.jpg


more here
http://studentweb.stcloudstate.edu/smro9901/index.htm

i cant wait for this game!

i want to be a dark knight... anyone remember this guy?

https://www.sharkyforums.com/images/.../2003/10/1.gif

one of the best ff characters ever... after yuna of course :D

There's so many combinations possible that i dont know where i'll start. Maybe a DRK/SAM combo, the samurai will allow the dark knight to pull off tons of special attacks due to higher TP charges and also do renkeis without the need of being in a group. Plus they have some awesome armor, big 2 hand weapons and even a scythe :eek:

Wow, the Dark Knight looks awesome!

Great stuff!

BuggyLoop, are you a fan of FF by any chance?:p From kpxgq's pic, no prize for guessing what's he's into too!:p Anywayz, guys, the screenshot look awesome, is FF XI's a DX9 game?:confused:

the only ff game I played was 7...but I remember watching my brother play the snes ff games and naming all his characters obscene names...then whenever a character died it's say something like "The slut perished"

7 was the best ever!

It was SOOO BIG.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Terry
7 was the best ever!

It was SOOO BIG.

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the part after the motorcycle chase and you leave midgar city and see the world map for the first time is an undescribable experience

Quote:

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Originally posted by mikeysg
BuggyLoop, are you a fan of FF by any chance?:p From kpxgq's pic, no prize for guessing what's he's into too!:p Anywayz, guys, the screenshot look awesome, is FF XI's a DX9 game?:confused:

---

Not really actually, i like the FF series but not to the point of saying they're the best RPGs ever.

But FFXI is the first FF to go online into a massive world, so its very different than single player FF. Im looking at FFXI from an impartial view, i looked at nearly all upcoming MMO games, WoW, lineage2, EQ2, SWG, TFLO, midland, etc etc. And FFXI stands out the most, in my opinion it has the best battle and leveling system, its conquest and mission mode will also add a lot of diversity from past stale MMORPGs where it was only about quests and killing. Also a story! Plus the impressions from beta players are raving about this game, we might actually get the first MMORPG thats 1) perfectly balanced 2) good battle system that can involve strategy and timing to deal more damage 3) good graphic engine that wont chug your PC due to bad programmers (cough EQ). 4) Good art 5) chocobo riding! :p

Seriously, im not sure if there's someone in the thread who has read everything i wrote above, but try to do so, you'll start to understand why im getting so hyped about this game.

if this game has chocobo breeding... then oh man... im gonna fail outta college