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Three Downloadable Expansions Announced For Final Fantasy XI
Square Enix has announced plans to release three expansion chapters to Final Fantasy XI. Their blog post provided some details about the new content:
"The first installment, A Crystalline Prophecy — Ode of Life Bestowing, is slated for release for all languages and platforms in Spring of next year. Subsequent installments will then follow, being released in intervals of every few months. These expansions packages will only be available through online purchase via PlayOnline. The projected cost for each installment is around $10.00. ... Up until now, expansion packs have generally been developed from a perspective of 'lateral expansion,' focusing namely on the introduction of new areas. These three new expansions, however, will deepen the storylines running through pre-existing areas by ushering in all-new plots and intrigues. While not necessarily containing as much content as traditional expansions, these episodic scenarios are designed to take anywhere from one to two months to complete."
I caught this on Joystiq and Kotaku and one of the titles really caught my eye:
A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses
Now, I don't play Final Fantasy XI and I don't even play MMOs.
But the idea of killer Moogles?
Oh your god. ...
Excuse me fellas, I have to go wash up.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Agreed. I don't subscribe to FFXI, however I have played a free demo and I would consider subscribing in the future. The main barriers for me are:
1) I've got 16 games (on the PSX, PS2 and DS) I want to finish. As such paying a monthly subscription for ANOTHER game is difficult to justify.
2) Its pretty expensive for Australians who have to pay American prices.
However anything that continues to breath new life into FFXI and keeps the servers online increases the chances I'll subscribe to it sometime in the future.
So I'm glad to hear they're doing new things with FFXI to keep it fresh.
Wow...I RTFA and more on the S-E blog and I am very excited about going to USA Fan Fest next week. They plan to announce Dancer Group 2 merits at Fan Fest and I wonder what else they will be announcing. The new Goblin Dungeon sounds cool, I hope I get to play with it.
The story (and the way that it is conveyed) is the main reason I have stuck with FFXI for the past 5 years and I do prefer to pay a little extra every few months to get a nice dose of new story.
And here I was starting to get bored with FFXI and went out and got Litch King....guess I'll have to get my Hunter and Death Knight to 80 before spring.
I for one am happy because while my PS2 still plays FFXI fine after five years, the disc reader doesn't work anymore.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Sony try this with Everquest II? I can't say whether EQ's downloadable content was just a bunch of titles and other things, but nonetheless, adding downloadable content to FFXI really makes me start to think that Square Enix is trying to resuscitate a dying game.
I mean, being an ex-fFXI player myself who has played on-and-off since six monthes after it was released in the United States, I can attest to the fact that the last expansions brought welcomed changes, like the additional classes, PvP (roughly, because I can't recall the name at the moment), and some other mission-related fun created periods of playing that I found intriguing enough to resubscribe. The amount of gold farmers dropped after S-E took measures to reduce them (which subsequently royally effed up the rate of inflation. Never buy Crawler's silk in a highly inflated economy and then try to sell it later). And while that's all and very well good, I doubt I'll be paying $30 to download three expansions, or $10 for one.
The story lines from Chains of promathia and up have been amazing, even the original story lines are great. If there is an MMO with good story is FFXI.
I just picked up this game recently after a few years away, and I have to say I'm extremely disappointed that most of the reasons I quit continue to plague the game to this day. The interface is still terrible, the config STILL requires registry hacking to up the resolution, and most of the content is heavily guild-based making solo playing difficult. In game organization is terrible, the item limits are definitely geared towards making you pay for mule characters, and the quest system is vague at best.
In fact, the one thing that HAS changed has actually made the game worse -- the areas in the early part of the game are barren, deserted, devoid of any players at all. While areas like Valkurm used to be camped to hell, now it's impossible to find a gang of more than 2-3 to play with. Because so much of the content requires you to complete group quests to access, this severely handicaps newer players who aren't playing with friends or aren't quickly sucked into large guilds.
And those that are around don't speak English.
In fact, I've only seen ONE PERSON talking since I started a few weeks ago. One person. It's a decent game and deserves a chance, and has a TON of "end gambut good luck in finding anything more than a single player experience
Actually I thought the story peaked with Chains of Promathia and has gone down hill since then. It was a major disappointment when I got to the East and I found out it was not Tenzen's East. I liked how they continued the story from Rise of Zilart to Chains of Promathia and I was hoping they would continue it with ToAU. I'v been disapointed with WotG story so far, maybe it will pickup after the December patch.
Have they fixed the bug that makes the game bring up "immersive" loading screens? In other words, does it still have zones or have they made it seamless? How is the WASD movement?
As somebody who quit FFXI after about 6 months of ToAU, but who looks back into the game intermittently, I'd second that. In fact, I'd go even further and say that FFXI as a game peaked with CoP.
In story terms, CoP was great and is about as close as you will get to the classic Final Fantasy experience. It fit in well with the story they'd built up in the original game and Zilart, while adding sigificantly to the background lore and mythos. It had well developed characters and actually drew the player-character into a significant role in the plot other than "person who does the dirty work" (although that's how it feels early on, until you get past "Three Paths" at least). Moreover the design of the CoP areas really fit in well with the plot and highlighted the "epic" nature of the storyline. Riverne was beautifully designed (and I can't help but feel that Nagrand in WoW was Blizzard's attempt to copy it). Al'Taieu was probably the most attractive area that anybody's yet put out in an MMO.
By contrast ToAU's storyline felt a bit lightweight and silly. Moreover, as you highlight, it didn't feel as though it was connected to the rest of the world. Sure, the odd character from the "old" world shows up, but I could never quite fathom what they were doing there. Moreover, the area designs were hideous. Whitegate was just a mess put together with recycled textures, and the less said about the endless tedious swamps outside it the better.
I've not really dipped into WotG much. While I bought it, it was released after I'd virtually stopped playing the game. The fact that the plot involved time-travel, however, did not seem to bode well to me.
But more than just in terms of plot and appearances, I think CoP was the high point of FFXI and the closest it ever came to having a unique selling point to set it aside from other MMOs. I liked the focus on small, level capped battles, requiring intense concentration on the part of all participants and plenty of tactical choices. I mean, make no mistake, CoP was hard, especially if you were doing it before they nerfed half the fights, and at times I was ready to throw my keyboard out the window. But it was also fun and gave an incredible sense of achievement after certain fights (Ouryu, Snoll Tzar, Airship and the final boss, in particular).
Of course, most of the player-base hated CoP, because you couldn't cheese your way through it on the basis of gear and numbers. I know plenty of end-gamers with multiple 75 jobs, who did the hardcore HNM scene, who just couldn't get past certain missions because they'd never actually worked to develop the skill at playing the game they needed. So what we got after that was an expansion with ridiculously easy missions, with some insane gear-give-aways and an end-game that became more and more biased in favour of having more and more of the "right" jobs. Sadly, because it added new jobs, which is what the crowd always clamoured for, ToAU is probably still seen as the better expansion by most players.
These days, I've switched over to WoW. I wasn't willing to tolerate the insane amounts of time it takes to get anything done in FFXI if the game isn't going to reward me with fights that challenge me and a storyline that holds my attention. I've yet to encounter anything in WoW as difficult as some of the CoP fights (and back before Wrath of the Lich King hit, we had Kil'Jaeden, the "last boss" of the previous expansion, pretty much on farm), but it does have a generally better escalation of the skill requirement in its end-game.
So does FFO actually pull off being an MMO and having a story? So far the closest thing for me has been Warhammer, as it actually has chapters you progress through, and the quests pertain to that story. However, even though I was enjoying the story, and tried my best, I still ended up not reading most of it just so I could level and become stronger in the RvR areas, and not be left behind. In single player games there is time for story, but I find MMOs not really to be the case. That is why I am surprised they said the expansions are just about new story elements. It's just like McDonalds saying they have new types of condiments. Sure, they are needed, but they are not the reason people go there.
the problem is, you may not get to the point where FFXI starts to suck in a free trial. It's a fun game from level 1 to 10 or 1 to 15, depending on your class. After that point, it start to be as fun a game of 'wait in line at the supermarket' You sit around for three hours, waiting for a group to play, and that group usually only lasts half an hour. It's a fun game if you have a good number of friends who also play it and tend to stick around well, or you find a decent guild. Sadly, most of the guilds I've found act like ADD five year olds.
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
The main problem these days, with low-level leveling, is that people are so fixated on getting a "full" party, tank, DD, healer, support, that they'll just sit around Selbina/Qufim/Kazham/wherever just waiting for all the right elements. With the bump to XP you get for lower level monsters, not to mention the bonus you get for having less than 6 people in a party, you can get just as much if not more XP with a 2-4 man group, killing stuff at your own level or lower in rapid succession. From my own experiences pre-30, a monk and a puppetmaster duo can get faster XP than a full party.
Also, if you find yourself in a shell (guild) with people like you describe, then leave. There are plenty of more mature shells out there, though it might take a little looking.
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
That argument probably woulda worked several months back, but not now. I was shocked that the level 30ish leveling area, Yhortanga Jungle or w/e it's called, was actually overcamped. For a game that's been out for what 5 years, to still have a lot of people leveling at that area I found rather suprising. They've made some amazing progress in the game recently, it'll never ever come close to WoW, but I think it's got a good hold on it's niche. Shame the North Am. market never really noticed the game.
We know the point of MMOGs is to keep us paying the $10 a month forever, but putting out expansions that don't expand the game and take 2 months to finish! Be a little more original guys.
I spent 3.5 years playing FFXI, and then moved to WoW for about two before realizing that I couldn't dedicate the amount of time that MMOs demand if I was going to keep a good GPA.
FFXI was an incredibly flawed and frustrating game. The grind was slow, and back when I played, I had to spend all my time coming up with 8.5 million gil for one piece of armor that I'd be fairly nerfed without. It took me several months, and I finally quit from burnout after I made the gil. This was before inflation, so sadly, that'd probably be worth less than a million today.
Anyways, for all its flaws and issues, FFXI was an incredible experience that I still miss a lot. I made friends in that game who I'm still close to now... you spend so much time working with all of the people in your linkshell (guild) that you form really close bonds. Also, since everyone works in parties, there's a real sense of community throughout the server, because you work with hundreds of different people. There was something really extraordinary for me to work with people who I didn't even share a language with, via the few words that you could autotranslate. You could chain your weapon skills and then finish them with a magic burst to do heavy damage in parties, so there had to be good communication. In WoW you can often get by playing really sloppily.
Because WoW was more punishing, there was more tension, and more of a fear of death (you lost sometimes large amounts of experience from dying). The boss battles were sometimes incredibly difficult... I remember finally clearing one after days of trying and feeling absolutely elated.
Lastly, the story is absolutely amazing for an MMO. While many of the quests are your usual "give me x number of items" or whatever, there were some that were really interesting and exciting. There was one that involved a ninja katana and had a creative twist during a cutscene. There were frequent cutscenes, and missions had great plots to them... they took a lot of time to complete, but watching the plot unfold was really rewarding. Another thing FFXI trumped WoW in was atmosphere - there were a lot of interesting and fleshed out characters. I loved the cute Star Onion Brigade of Windurst and all their adventures.
But God, I hated having to walk forever to get somewhere, or get slaughtered by impossible enemies if I didn't have invis and sneak, or put up with moronic party members, or spend my time making money so I could afford to buy ninja tools so I could grind in a party.
I played the first several months after FFXI's North American release. As a ranger I would sit in the main city fishing while waiting on a party invite. That could take from 15 min to an hour. After that it would sometimes sill be -literally- hours before a healer or tank was found and we could actually start playing.
I just sat there with a fishing bot running while reading books. I got a lot of reading done during my FFXI days.