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Sony Announces FFXI-Bundled PS2 Hard Drive
Thanks to Yahoo! for hosting Sony's press release announcing the PlayStation 2 hard drive add-on's March 2004 US release. According to the release, the 40gb drive requires the PS2 Network Adaptor to work, will "...come pre-installed with Square Enix's highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Final Fantasy XI", and will cost $99. Also promised are features such as "...saving CDs to create a personal jukebox, and the ability to download... levels, missions, characters, and much more", and forthcoming Sony-published titles SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain (the latter now due in February 2004) are confirmed as having downloadable content. A GameSpot report from the Sony Editor's Day confirms the subscription pricing for FFXI: "...the first 30 days will be free and a $12.95 per month fee [from then on]."
If it requires the network adapator also we are talking $99+$34. So $133 just to get the ability to play FF online. Thats quite an expensive game to only get 1 month of free play time. Isn't that almost what the PS2 is costing now just for the hardware?
I refuse to pay to play a game online that I've already paid to buy.
The menus are pretty simple (and they're the same on Windows from what I've heard, which confuses Windows users).
/magic "Cure III" <st>
On PS2, you press the square button, and a menu comes up on the right hand side of the screen with generic things like 'Status', 'Abilities', 'Quests', 'Missions', etc. Those can each bring up submenus.
For actual combat, a menu appears on the left side, with 'Switch Target', 'Magic', 'Abilities', 'Disengage', etc. The melee is handled automatically (ie, you don't press buttons to swing your sword around), but you can choose 'Magic', scroll to 'Cure III', then use the arrows to choose who to cast it on.
You can also macro things: underneath all the gui is a command line suitable for Macros. You can, for example have a macro for Cure3, that is:
You bring up the macros using the L2 and R2 buttons, then choose the macro. The <st> will give you a chance to 'select target' for who you'll cast the spell on. You can, of course, make more complex ones, and most people do. The macros are also bound to function keys on the keyboard.
The user interface should be a breeze for anyone with console experience to pick up. It's unusual for the typical Windows game, but it gets pretty simple and fast to navigate with (no moving from keyboard to controller to keyboard needed).
Quests? yes
Your character belongs to one of 3 kingdoms, and each kingdom has a chain of story quests that you can accomplish. They include cinematics, boss encounters, special items and so on. I beleive that there are about 8 or so in the story arc. There are also quests to unlock secret character classes (only 6 are selectable from start but there are another 6 that can be unlocked, more if they include the expansion with the US version) and a few other quests for items and the ability to dual-class. This is a fair number, but in comparison to the amount of time you will play the game, there are not that many. The story quests though are very cool.
Groups are from 2 to 6 characters, and then upto 3 groups can form a company, so in essence you can party up with upto 17 other people. xp sharing for groups is a bit.... how do I say it? Harsh. If your not fighting very strong enemies, the xp is bad. Loot sharing is good though, the party leader can either elect a quartermaster to hand out treasure to party members, or a lottery system can be used in which players that want a given item can cast lots for it, or skip it if they don't want it. You can certainly survive alone if you want to, but the game is a lot more fun in a group even if the level advancement rate is usally lower than you could acheive carefully soloing
The job system is very well done in my opinion. Your character can freely change jobs at his house, and each job is leveled up indivdualy. All stat bonuses are job dependent so Spending 10 levels as a fighter, will not mean that switching to a mage will give you a gimp mage. You can how ever only "equip" one class at a time. Once you reach 18th level it is possible to complete a quest, and thereafter you can equip 2 classes at once, effectively combining any two classes you have access to (though the secondary class can never count for more than half of the primary, so if you were a level 20 warrior, you could be a level 10 redmage at the same time). Characters also have craft, magic and weapon skills that are independent of their jobs, and can only rise through use. Casting "cure" enough times will allow your character to cast better versions of cure later. What you can equip as far as spells and gear are concerned is determined by your class and level. As your rank rises with a given weapon, you will learn special attacks akin to the limit breaks of the later FF games. These charge up as you hit and get hit by foes, and decline with the passage of time. When activated most of these attacks are wonderfully rendered, though their potency is significantly less than the single player FF equivalents.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
You have to remember it has been out for a year in Japan, so the bugs you might encounter might be missed translations etc. which the US beta testers are hopefully looking for. I have been playing the the JP version for a couple of months now and haven't spotted major problems. There was an issue with a big event that they had where a few hundred people were fighting a special monster at the same time but that's not a usual part of the gameplay. I do get some lag now and again, it's quite rare unless there are a lot of people in the immediate vicinity, but that could the PS2 graphics chip chugging away.
And Madden 2004 has a great online experience that I enjoy quite frequently. My friends and I play tournaments and generally have a very enjoyable time.
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