Final Fantasy XI Online (2002)

My Journey Through Final Fantasy XI

In 2007, I bought Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360 but never played it. By 2009, I had set a goal to complete all the mainline Final Fantasy titles but skipped XI after hearing rumors of a mobile remake in 2019. Fast forward to 2024, after years of procrastination, I finally decided to dive in last summer. I'm glad I did. This is my review of a vast, challenging, and rewarding journey.

The Basics

Final Fantasy XI takes place in the expansive world of Vana’diel. Like any good MMO, character creation allows you to choose a race and one of six starting jobs. While starting as a Thief might make life easier, there’s no wrong choice since you’ll unlock and use up to 22 jobs as you progress. I played six jobs to max level throughout my adventure.

While the game offers incredible depth, the controls are clunky. Targeting enemies or interacting with objects felt cumbersome at times. Unlike modern MMOs with intuitive ability bars, FFXI relies on small HUD menus. However, macros—a system for assigning commands to hotkeys—help mitigate these frustrations. Learning and utilizing macros (I used about 18 regularly) is crucial for an enjoyable experience.

Systems and Complexity

As a 20+ year-old game with ongoing updates, FFXI features an overwhelming number of systems, expansions, and mechanics. It’s daunting at first, but comprehensive online resources and a helpful player community make navigation manageable.

Windower: Windower, a third-party tool, is a must-have. It optimizes the game’s performance and allows plugins that improve the HUD, add quality-of-life features, and streamline gameplay. Plenty of tutorials exist to help you install and configure it, and I highly recommend using it.

Fireworks over San d'Oria

Exploring Vana’diel

Vana’diel is massive, with dozens of zones and three starting cities. While each city offers a unique flavor, your starting location won’t drastically affect gameplay since you’ll visit all three frequently.

Traveling across zones can take time, but teleportation systems—like Home Points and Survival Guides—make it easier. These points need to be discovered first, so exploring thoroughly and saving up Gil to buy maps is highly recommended. Other options, like airships, mounts, and party-based teleportation, further simplify navigation.

Trust System

Introduced later in the game’s life, the Trust System allows players to summon NPC allies to aid in combat. Trusts make soloing the main story and expansions entirely feasible, as the right combination of allies can overcome nearly any challenge. I played through all expansions solo using Trusts, which let me enjoy the game’s full narrative at my own pace.

Vanilla Game Hall of the Gods

At the start, your chosen city provides a series of missions given by an NPC, typically located near the city gates. To unlock the next mission, you need to meet two criteria: complete the previous missions and earn enough reputation for that city. Reputation is gained through various activities, and without meeting the required level, the next mission won’t become available.

The core story serves as an introduction to the game's fundamental mechanics, such as combat, item drops, gear purchasing, summoning trusts, and other essential elements. It's relatively straightforward and doesn’t take long to complete. The final boss isn’t particularly challenging, making it an excellent way to ease into the game and prepare for the adventures ahead.

Rise of the Zilart Gilgamesh and Lion - Primary characters from RotZ

The first expansion for Final Fantasy XI introduces new areas, characters, and storylines. While the base game connects the three starting cities and the hub city of Jeuno via wilderness zones, Rise of the Zilart takes players to completely new regions, starting with the village of Norg. From there, players explore lush jungles, fiery volcanoes, and other exotic landscapes accessible by boat (and later teleportation).

This expansion adds three iconic jobs: Samurai, Dragoon, and Ninja (my personal favorite). The story picks up directly after the base game’s final battle, revealing the rulers of Jeuno as a new threat to Vana’diel. Players team up with new allies to thwart their sinister plans.

While the lore deepens and some characters shine, the story can feel sparse, and the locations weren’t my favorite. That said, Rise of the Zilart introduces Final Fantasy XI’s first true endgame zones, including six Dynamis areas and the Ru’Aun Gardens, where players face the Notorious Monsters known as the Gods of Sky. Despite its shortcomings, this expansion lays the groundwork for much of the game’s future content.

Chains of Promathia Prishe - A primary character in CoP

The second expansion in the series, Chains of Promathia, builds upon the foundation laid by Rise of the Zilart but on a much grander scale. It offers more locations, a far more engaging story, and a wealth of new content. This time, the player ventures to the Tavnazian Archipelago, a stunning new region filled with intrigue and danger. Along the way, the story introduces a fresh cast of characters, including the unforgettable Prishe.

The plot centers around a mysterious entity stealing the power of the world crystals, threatening to unleash a catastrophic calamity. The hero must rise to the challenge to save Vana’diel once again.

In addition to numerous new overworld zones, this expansion adds three significant end-game areas:

• Dynamis: A new nightmare realm for end-game adventurers.

• Promyvion: A surreal and haunting realm of nightmares.

• Al’Taieu: Featuring the Lumoria Notorious Monsters and the Limbus end-game zones.

While this expansion didn’t introduce new jobs, it placed heavy emphasis on expanding the lore and providing additional end-game content and gear for players. However, Chains of Promathia set the stage for future expansions by enriching the world and deepening the gameplay experience.

Treasures of Aht Urhgan Aphmau and one of her Automatons - A primary character from ToAU

Like the previous expansions, Treasures of Aht Urhgan introduces a brand-new region filled with numerous zones to explore. However, this expansion distinguishes itself by adding a fully realized city, Al Zahbi, for players to discover. Unlike the smaller towns from Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia, this bustling city serves as a major hub and is central to the expansion’s content.

Spanning the vast region of Aht Urhgan, the expansion also introduces a unique teleportation system called Staging Points. Exclusive to Aht Urhgan, this system requires a new currency, Imperial Standing, which players can earn through various activities in the region. This innovation adds convenience and encourages exploration across the expansive new zones.

A major gameplay addition is the Assault battle system. Players can sign up for instanced missions, completing specific objectives in exchange for Imperial Standing. This system also includes a ranking mechanic, allowing players to unlock better rewards and a wider variety of missions as they progress.

The story in Treasures of Aht Urhgan revolves around the distant lands of Aht Urhgan, where a secret faction within the Imperial Palace hatches a dangerous plot to harness the energy of two immensely powerful beings. Their plan, however, risks the complete destruction of the region. Players must join forces with a fresh cast of intriguing characters to uncover and stop this conspiracy before catastrophe strikes.

Wings of the Goddess Lilisette - A primary character from WotG

In Wings of the Goddess, the fourth expansion for Final Fantasy XI, players are transported to the distant past of Vana'diel during the Crystal War. This expansion introduces a new twist on exploration, transforming familiar zones into their historical counterparts. These past versions of existing areas offer a fascinating glimpse into the lore and history of the world, deepening the connection to the core story.

The narrative in Wings of the Goddess is expansive, featuring numerous cutscenes and a story filled with emotional depth. As the player navigates this turbulent era, they encounter memorable new characters, including the charming and courageous Lilisette. The plot focuses on large-scale conflicts between the nations of Vana'diel and the overwhelming Orc Incursion. Players must join the fight to ensure the survival of these nations and prevent a powerful mage's scheme to alter the future, which could lead to their very existence being erased.

This expansion also introduces a wealth of new gameplay systems, such as Voidwatch, Legion, Magian Trials, and other challenging content designed to engage players beyond the main story. Additionally, Wings of the Goddess adds two unique jobs: Scholar, a tactical mage capable of alternating between offensive and healing magic, and Dancer, a versatile support class with the ability to heal and enhance allies through graceful combat techniques.

Seekers of Adoulin Princess Arciela - A primary character from SoA

The fifth expansion of Final Fantasy XI, Seekers of Adoulin, continues the trend set by Treasures of Aht Urhgan, introducing a massive new region alongside the bustling city of Adoulin. This expansion adds a wealth of new systems, gameplay mechanics, and endgame content, establishing its significance within the game's modern era.

One of the most impactful features introduced in this expansion is the Unity Concord, which allows players to earn a new currency called Unity. This currency can be exchanged for powerful gear and the assistance of exclusive Trust companions. Another key addition is the Records of Eminence system, which enables players to complete objectives to earn Sparks. Sparks can then be used to acquire items and upgrade equipment, making it a cornerstone of progression for contemporary FFXI players. Together, these systems revolutionized the game and remain vital tools for anyone playing today.

Seekers of Adoulin also introduces the Alter-Ego Trust system, a game-changing feature that allows players to summon NPC allies to aid them in solo content. Combined with new travel systems, such as Home Point crystals and Survival Guides, the expansion enhances accessibility and mobility for players across Vana'diel.

Exploration in the wilderness of Adoulin introduces new challenges and battles, including Reives, which require players to adapt to new mechanics while overcoming obstacles in treacherous landscapes. The story itself is compelling, centering on Adoulin and the reawakening of an ancient evil seeking to consume all life and plunge the world into darkness. With a fresh cast of characters and appearances from old allies, the narrative offers a satisfying blend of danger and nostalgia.

Finally, Seekers of Adoulin brings two new jobs to the game:

• Geomancer, a versatile support job specializing in area-based buffs and debuffs.
• Rune Fencer, a tank job with the ability to enhance defenses against elemental magic and unleash devastating rune-based attacks.

With its rich content, systems crucial for modern progression, and engaging story, Seekers of Adoulin is a standout expansion that both honors the legacy of Final Fantasy XI and sets the stage for its continued evolution.

Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Iroha - A primary character from RoV

The sixth and final expansion, Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, stands out as the crowning achievement in Final Fantasy XI's expansion history. The story is by far the most engaging and fulfilling of all the expansions, but to truly appreciate it, players must have experienced the events of the previous expansions. Rhapsodies of Vana'diel weaves together the rich lore of the game’s entire history, bringing back a wide array of characters from across Vana'diel's past. This expansion serves as the epic conclusion to the stories told since the game's vanilla release, culminating in a final showdown that provides a proper, rare conclusion to an MMORPG.

Rather than introducing new regions, Rhapsodies focuses on revisiting many of the areas players have already explored in earlier expansions. The story takes the player through these familiar zones, tying together all the lore in a satisfying and cohesive way. The experience is truly rewarding for veterans who have invested time in the earlier chapters of the game's world.

One of the most significant features of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is the introduction of Rhapsody Key Items. These nine key items, each named "Rhapsody in [color]," provide players with a variety of helpful benefits that significantly enhance their gameplay experience. From massive experience point boosts to expanding the maximum number of Trusts a player can summon, these key items make life in Vana'diel much easier. Players also enjoy steep discounts on essential endgame items, as well as exclusive items available for purchase at the Curio Moogle. These key items are invaluable for managing the endgame and improving the player's efficiency.

However, the expansion does present a dilemma for those tackling the content. The key items make the game considerably more manageable, but the story content is rife with spoilers from past expansions. As a result, players must carefully consider how deeply they want to dive into Rhapsodies before fully experiencing the past stories. It’s a balancing act between reaping the rewards of the key items and possibly spoiling the plot twists of earlier chapters.

Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is a poignant conclusion to the journey, blending nostalgia, closure, and rewarding gameplay systems that help make the world of Vana'diel a bit easier to navigate for those in the post-expansion era. A fitting end to the epic saga, it's a must-play for long-time fans.

Final Thoughts

Final Fantasy XI is undeniably an old game, with its dated visuals, clunky systems, and at times frustrating gameplay. It demands a level of preparation—using tools like Windower to make the experience smoother and more enjoyable. The account creation process, tied to the cumbersome PlayOnline system, is far from ideal and can be a hurdle for new players.

That being said, FFXI boasts one of the most engaging and continuous storylines I’ve encountered in a Final Fantasy game. Despite being over 23 years old, the game still manages to thrive, and it’s clear why: the sense of community, the depth of the story, and the sheer volume of content keep players invested long after they’ve finished the main narrative.

Personally, it took me around 7 months of nearly daily gameplay to navigate the core story and dive into some of the endgame content. Even then, I had barely scratched the surface. There’s so much more to explore—FFXI has vast, rich content that feels rewarding once you push past the frustrations of its older systems.

If you're a Final Fantasy fan, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this game a chance. Yes, it has its flaws, but the effort required is well worth the payoff. Once you immerse yourself in the world of Vana’diel, it’s easy to see why this game still holds a special place in the hearts of its players. It’s an experience worth having.

Heroes Assemble

Note: All of the photos are from my playthrough of this massive game

I just finished playing through the Episode add-on, Moogle: A Kupo D'etat.

The story was moderately interesting, but the rewards did not equal the effort. Many of the quests were introductions to various mechanics in the game. Harvesting, Mining, Chocobo Digging, etc. Other quests were lengthy and extremely tedious fetch quests in zones with sprawling dungeons and enemies that aggro even high-level characters. Worse still, the fetch quests had to be completed in one sitting. Once you begin, the quest progress reset if you zone out or log out for any reason.

If you plan on playing FFXI, I would skip the Moogle story unless you're a completionist.

I've found the deeper you get into FFXI, the harder the content and the bigger the challenge to get things done solo. Switching to Ninja was kind of a big deal for this. The job adds a lot of durability to your character, even further enhanced by using trusts that focus on buffing you.

I also finally picked up a respectable set of level 119 gear for my Ninja, which has been a huge help. (For those who haven't played, character level caps at 99, but end-game gear has a level value that can push you further. Combined level gear maxes at 119) FFXI has a bunch of end-game zones not connected to any story content. I cleared the Gods of Sky and the Dynamis city zones. The next stop is the Wings of the Goddess expansion and the Ambuscade end zones for even better gear.

Despite feeling overwhelmed by 20+ years of content, I feel I've made really good progress in the last couple of months. I've used forums like ffxiah.com to ask questions because there's a lot to learn, and it's not always clear what you need to do or how things work. FFXI is terribly vague about literally everything. No handholding here, folks.

Meanwhile, I took a small break to play through FFIV: Interlude. It was a short game for the PSP, but it was a nice distraction and fun to revisit characters from the FFIV game.

I am loving this game. When I first started adventuring in Vana’diel, I found the experience to be overwhelming. So many different systems, multiple currencies that can be earned different ways. A massive landscape to explore and very little direction given. This game does not hold your hand, whatsoever.

Now I’m leveled to the mid-thirties, I’ve got plenty of spending money, a solid team of trusts and a mount or six to ride. I feel like I have a solid grasp of the gameplay and I’m finding the quests and the stories they’re wrapped in to be quite enjoyable. There are still moments of tedium, but overall this continues to be a positive experience.

(Sorry about the quality of the photos in this review. Screenshots didn't seem to work, so I had to resort to the ol' photo of a monitor method.)

I managed to finish the original "main story" of Final Fantasy XI. By that I mean that I finished the story up through the original ending of the base game back when it released. This consists of following the Nations questline (I chose Windurst) up through 5-2 and defeating the Shadow Lord boss. It took about 56 hours overall, being laser-focused on getting through the story and very little else.

There's obviously a LOT more story content in this game, being an MMO, and I'd love to play through it, but I just don't think I can bring myself to push through additional hundreds of hours, given the issues I experienced.

The Bad Stuff

My time with FFXI was plagued with many technical issues. It's an old game, and that's immediately evident from how convoluted the process for getting the game's launcher (called POL) installed and running is. I needed to use a wiki guide in order to get set up because nothing about this is intuitive. Once it's set up though, POL does have a certain charm to it. It plays fun music, and allows you to customize your profile and chat with friends in a way reminiscent of old chat websites. I think in its heyday I would've enjoyed using it a lot more simply because I would've had people to talk to.

Yes, the cute little chocobo guy is the cursor.

That experience with the launcher, the mix of convoluted game progression and charming writing and visual design, kind of extends to the game itself too. When it comes to giving the player any kind of direction, the game always fails to provide much of anything at all. It is essentially a requirement to have the wiki open alongside as you play because if you don't it's going to take a very long time to get anywhere. Talking to everyone to find out details about the world just isn't feasible in a big MMO like this in the way it might be in a smaller single player JRPG. Especially when that one guy that you need to talk to is potentially an hour's worth of traversal away from where your character is.

As an example, I wanted to complete the quest so I could unlock the ability to level up higher than the original cap of 50. First, ya gotta find the right NPC, which can be a task in and of itself. But once you do that, he says "find me these three items" and gives you a list. That's it. No guidance on where to go other than saying they're in some dungeons somewhere nearby. He doesn't tell you which ones to visit. This is an MMO. The world is positively massive and also kind of empty outside of cities. Many dungeons aren't even marked on the maps you have to purchase. Not to mention that said items he wants do not have a physical appearance. Nope, you need to interact with unmarked "???" spots (you need to click the spot to see the "???") at three random locations inside each of the three dungeons in order to get the items he wants. I applaud the people who managed this before the online guides and resources that exist now were around, because I don't think I could've played the game without them.

The game is constantly throwing quests like the one above at you. Quests that just feel like they exist to waste your time. Another example, this time from the level 60 limit break quest, has you going to four ponds in various corners of a maze-like dungeon and interacting with them one by one. The dungeon is fairly large so this takes forever, even if you sneak past the enemies. When you interact with the final pond the pond Curses you. That's fun. Because the Curse status effect cuts your HP and MP down to like a quarter of their max and also slows your movement speed. Yep, you now have to go back to the quest NPC through the entire dungeon while on the verge of death and slowed if you didn't happen to bring something to cure Curse, which of course I didn't.

Back to the aforementioned technical issues. Something about this game didn't agree with my computer. Again, it's old, so I get it's gonna be a little touch and go, but from my attempts at troubleshooting it seems like the constant disconnects I experienced have been a struggle for many players over the years. Sometimes I'd get to play for hours uninterrupted, which was when the game was most enjoyable, of course. But other times I'd get around 15-25 minutes in before being disconnected for...reasons, I guess. I tried opening ports on my router, tweaking settings, and even buying an entirely new wifi adapter for my desktop because I thought maybe my old one was the problem, but nothing seemed to really fix the problem. Thankfully, the game ran surprisingly well on my Steam Deck, so whenever the desktop wasn't cooperating I'd swap over to that and play out the rest of my session in handheld. Not ideal, but it worked well enough.

That's me disconnecting in the final dungeon. You can see the packets just not sending or receiving in the upper right. It happened twice as I was finishing the game btw. :)

The Good Stuff

Like I said before, once I had spent some time in the game, I started to notice it really oozes charm. The visuals remind me more than a little of Ocarina of Time, which in my eyes is a good thing. It hits that sweet spot between being detailed enough that you can marvel at some of the landscapes and characters and also being barren enough that you get this creepy empty feeling as you wander around the non-town areas. The game has some really great atmosphere that the era of 3D games it's from just seems to often have.

While the game doesn't feature many individual characters prominently enough to make them super memorable (at least in the nation quests), I have a lot of appreciation for the character designs and how much personality comes through in the dialogue. Each of the races in game have their own dialogue quirks and naming schemes that I suppose could be annoying if you just want to get where you're going quickly. But I liked them a lot actually! It's cute and helps distinguish the different characters, beasts, etc. from each other.

You can also clearly tell that Final Fantasy XIV pulled a lot of inspiration from the way this game's world is set up. XI has major themes dealing with the friction between the "beastmen" AKA the less humanoid looking races and the uh...humanoid races. Many beastmen are trying to integrate into society but are shunned and looked down upon by others, while the beastmen outside of the cities are seen as monsters and shun the humanoid races. If you've played XIV, you can see the similarities. I think this game takes a much more interesting approach to these themes by fleshing out some of the beastmen characters more and having them be more central to the story, whereas XIV tends to use them more as a backdrop for other major events and side quests.

I would have loved to explore the stories of the expansion packs more than I did, but between the grindy slog required between major story beats and the constant disconnecting issues, I don't think I'd be able to fully appreciate the game's content. It's showing it's age, but I am glad that I got a chance to play a chunk of it. Who knows how much longer it'll be playable online, honestly. I'll end this by saying that if you're interested in checking it out, the story of the game is basically entirely playable solo because of NPC party summons, so don't feel like you need other people to play.

If this game ever gets an offline release like Dragon Quest X did I could totally see myself picking it up to play through slowly, a little bit at a time. Maybe that way I could enjoy it a bit more.

For now, it's back to the single player Final Fantasy games for me!

Today while working on a quest to break the level cap I managed to teleport myself into an alternate timeline version of Vana'diel by accident. The thing is, the game doesn't tell you that this has happened when it does. The only real hint you get is a cutscene that was totally meaningless to me, since I'm new, and the letter 'S' listed next to the name of the area it teleports you to. This 'S' doesn't stand for anything meaningful to me by the way, so it's very not obvious what's occurred. I presume the enemy layout of areas and stuff changes too, but as I'm still relatively new to this game , I didn't notice that I was in another timeline at all. I just went about my quest, following the guide I've been using because you realistically can't play this game without a guide.

I spent roughly an hour being frustrated at how wrong the guide I was using seemed to be about the layout of the dungeon I was exploring before finally dying to a group of enemies that seemed far too strong. After angrily googling around, I discovered everything about the alternate timeline as well as the fact that you can't do the quest I was working on in said alternate timeline, so I wasted all that time wandering around for nothing. I still don't know how you're meant to leave said alternate timeline outside of dying like I did.

I know it's 20+ years late, but god damn, this game could have been a bit more explicit about the "Hey, you aren't in the same world anymore, you need to leave if you wanna do your quests n stuff." If I weren't so annoyed I would probably appreciate the subtlety with which time travel was handled here. Like theoretically it's cool that you could time travel and not realize it immediately but the timing was just not good.