A History of Final Fantasy XI: An Underrated Genre Defining Game

In May 2002, Square launched the servers to their first foray into the MMORPG genre: Final Fantasy XI. Taking some serious risks, Square decided that FFXI should be a cross-platform and multi-lingual game. Phantasy Star Online was available on multiple platforms, but each platform had their own separate servers. Previous MMOs had support in different languages, but servers were exclusive to certain languages; English speaking players could only speak on English servers, for example. Final Fantasy XI was the world's first cross-platform MMO, allowing PC, PS2, and Xbox 360 gamers to play simultaneously on the same server. It was also the first MMO that allowed players that spoke different languages to play side by side. They took some serious risks by allowing multi-lingual support, mostly due to opinions that different cultures would have different attitudes to how to play a game.

Final Fantasy XI was not without its initial hiccups. For starters, the game was Japanese exclusive for the first 16 months. When North American gamers finally got a chance to play, they encountered a game that was already fully populated and full of people who had already done most everything the game had to offer. Because of this, English speaking players were forced to play the game the way the Japanese had dictated the game should be played. There was some resistance at first, but eventually a happy(ish) medium was found.

FFXI was notorious for many years for being an almost impossible to play game. Soloing was incredibly difficult for most jobs past level 10 and totally impossible past level 15. This was a serious problem since the initial level cap was 50. Although it was a massive multiplayer online game, FFXI received criticism for essentially forcing players to seek or create parties in order to level up. Generally, MMOs give increased benefits or rewards for XP parties, but still allow significant solo content so one is not constantly looking for a party. In addition to this problem of constantly seeking for a party, once hitting level 51 the experience needed to level up drastically changed. Rather than being a constant line that would fairly need more experience every level, experience needed skyrocketed, then flattened out for 55-60, then skyrocketed again at level 61 and continued to require substantially more xp per level until 75. In 2005, 3 years after initial release, Square Enix released an update that changed how much experience it would require to reach each level beyond 50, the amount total required to reach level 75, as well as lowering the amount of experience lost upon dying.

As you can see by the chart, the amount of xp needed to reach 75 was drastically lowered to the point where the new amount of xp needed to reach 75 was the old factor for reaching level 63 or so. The curved increase in xp was welcomed, although some felt it should have continued to be a function equation like levels 1-50 since there was an experience points gained cap of 300, and only on Chains 4+. Not raising the xp gained was needed, however, it's the method Square chose to maintain customers and make sure people kept playing. Unfortunately, this particular way of controlling how fast people level up rewards people who can play non-stop and punishes people who can only play a brief period of time per day. For this reason, FFXI was seen as the hardcore gamers' MMO.

Casual gamers left FFXI, realizing that it was never intended for casual gamers. Seeking more casual friendly online games, there was simply no answer. MMORPGs had been known until 2005 to be the genre of video games reserved for people with unbelievably heavy amounts of free time. You could play an MMO for 5 months and not even begin to come close to accomplishing anything significant. I played FFXI from 2003-2009 and I never accomplished anything overwhelmingly substantial, mostly due to the amount I played and the type of people I would do quests with. I was never particularly interested in obtaining the best equipment possible, I just wanted to have fun doing the things I found fun. If I got awesome gear along the way, then it would be an added bonus. Eventually the casual gamers' MMO was released: World of Warcraft. WoW now dominates the MMO market, but is starting to suffer a decline in player population as no sweeping changes have happened since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Cataclysm was not well-received and evidence that the player base wanted an MMO that was friendly to both casual and hardcore gamers, something sorely lacking in any game console.

FFXI's first expansion pack was Rise of the Zilart, an expansion pack that would eventually rule all of FFXI so heavily that it ended up being packaged in the NA and EU versions of the game.The areas introduced were so vital to playing that one without RotZ simply could not function in Vana'Diel past level 25. Zilart also introduced Tu'Lia, or Sky, the first endgame area of FFXI, were it was highly recommended not even stepping foot inside unless you were 75 (Even though when it was first available the maximum level was 70). Gods were shortly thereafter added, which would drop some of the best gear in the game until the Abyssea add-ons and raising level caps beyond 75 were added. Because of this, it was seen until the day I stopped playing that if one did not have Sky access, they were worthless as a player because they could not take the time to gain access to an area that would take about 10 hours total to do.

Chains of Promathia was the second expansion, met to overwhelmingly mixed reviews. Although the missions and story of CoP were more in line with a traditional RPG, the expansion was seen as nearly impossible to complete unless one dedicated all their time to completing it. The missions were level capped at 30, 40, 50, and 60, with the final missions being uncapped. Because of the level caps, players were required to wear gear corresponding to the levels they would be capped at and even level jobs specifically for the completion of CoP. Basically, anyone who did not have the money or free time to complete any of this was completely shut out of one of the best storylines Square has ever crafted. The rewards for completing CoP were out of this world. Just for completing the storyline you would receive a ring that would change stats based on job level, but always be the best possible ring you could wear in the entirety of the game. Thankfully, CoP completion was never necessary for getting anywhere in the game since it didn't open very many new areas and none were vital to getting 75 or exceptional gear unless one planned on killing Hyper Notorious Monsters. Owning CoP was necessary because new leveling areas were available to levels 60+, many of which were far easier to level in than the Zilart areas.

And then came Treasures of Aht Urghan, probably the greatest expansion pack to any game ever. ToAU redefined everything we knew about FFXI. An entire new continent was added, full of new areas to level up, new equipment, new jobs, and new wonders. Job roles were redefined permanently to the point where a point of no return had been reached. Whereas before, any damage dealer could fill the slots of doing damage, now there was more incentive to get specific jobs for fighting specific monsters. People were no longer concerned about doing skillchains, preferring to use weapon skills whenever they had the opportunity to use them. Ninjas fell out of favor as the majority of monsters were far easier to kill with a Paladin tanking. But the most sweeping change was for players already at level 75. Merit parties got a new life, allowing people to gain merit points faster than ever. In the RotZ days, good experience in a merit pt was somewhere around 8,000 xp per hour. With ToAU, a good merit pt was getting 22,000 xp per hour. XP rings were added, allowing players to bypass the experience point gap, if only for a few battles, and level up faster than ever. Jobs were given far more solo capability than ever before with the introduction of fellows, a personal NPC that would fight alongside you and even cure and buff you, allowing casual players to continue leveling up even without a party. By the end, it became clear that the "treasures" the expansion title referred to were all the sweeping changes. At this point, FFXI was known as a hardcore gamers' MMO that was easy and enjoyable.

The final expansion pack for FFXI was Wings of the Goddess, an expansion that again met mixed reviews. Although no overwhelming changes were planned, more solo friendly content was added. The execution was incredibly flawed since weapon skill ups were normally gained in parties and most of the solo content did not allow skill ups. For the first time, there was a new incentive to get into a party: for the weapon and spell skill ups. Another cool feature that was poorly implemented was the ability to sync levels with another person so that a level 75 and level 10 person could be in the same party gaining levels. This was welcomed since some areas were very well known for how easy experience points could come by, especially levels where leveling against goblins was the easiest xp. The reason it was poorly implemented was because it promoted party play, but did not allow for skill ups if syncing to a lower level. WotG was such a failed expansion, Square Enix decided to release add-on scenarios originally planned for release at a much later time. Finally in December 2010, SE released the final updates for WotG, completing the story 3 years after the initial launch of the expansion. It became painfully clear that WotG was doomed when the expansion received tweaks and updates seemingly every 2 weeks to fix nothing but problems. The expansion itself was totally unnecessary and devoid of any useful content.

Today, the Abyssea add-on scenarios have completely taken over. The best gear comes from Abyssea and allows players to level far faster than ever before, removing the legendary xp cap of 300 per fight. The level cap is now 90 as of this writing, planned eventually to reach 99 before the year's end. Whatever game I used to play only 2 years ago is now completely gone and unrecognizable. If I were to go back, I would need to level 4 jobs from level 75-90 and get a completely new set of gear since my old gear would be seen as outdated despite being far above average when I last played. FFXI has changed substantially in one short year, trying to keep people playing while Square tries to tweak Final Fantasy XIV until it can become acceptable. Square Enix is even encouraging people to get FFXIV, to provide feedback and get a subscription discount on FFXI for owning FFXIV

FFXI continues to have lower and lower amounts of people playing as people turn to WoW, Guild Wars, and Lord of the Rings Online while the next great MMO is created. People would much rather play these other MMOs because GW and LotRO are free to play and WoW has such a huge player base despite stagnant growth. People initially believed Final Fantasy XIV to be that MMO, but apparently we will have to wait a bit longer...