Is FF XI a game for me?

[TezzaLarks]

Hello everyone,
I Recently got kinda bored of doing nothing ever since i quit WoW and felt like a bit of a change. I was interested in FF XI before it came out but found out it was pay to play, this doesn;t bother me anymore though so thats out of the window.

If I just want to play for say 2 or 3 months, would i just get FF XI Standalone or any expansions since there are 4 now?

And with Wow there is literally no ending, Is there an ending to FF XI with Missions and stuff? If there is how long should i think i'd be playing for?

If theres any extra info you could give me on any of these questions so that i know this is right for me?

Thanks everyone
Terry

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

There isn't an end to FFXI, either. Yeah, there's a more cinematic story and storylines that reach conclusions, but chances are you wouldn't see half of it in 2-3 months because every mission storyline scales up with levels.

You can't get FFXI standalone except for the 14-day trial, if I understand correctly. If you end up purchasing the Vana'diel 2008 Collection, its the much more practical choice since you'll get access to all four expansions.

Level 50 is the expected level to even see the end of the original storyarch and you wouldn't get very close to that without the Rise of the Zilart expansion since that's part of the path to 50 since that expansion came out.

You could make friends and leech your way through the missions and not have to reach 50, but most people aren't keen on spending time on helping people who don't want to put the effort into the game to help with the fights.

All other mission content tends to be 50+ and up. With Chains of Promathia people will prefer you have multiple jobs (2 to 3 at least) leveled for you even to have a chance at seeing its ending, even though those missions start at level 30.

[TezzaLarks]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

So how long should i expect to play for to get a decent story out of it?
Thanks for your help !

[Firewind]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

You have the original game plus four entire expansion packs worth of missions and quests to do. There are people who have been playing since the original PS2 release who haven't completed every storyline so trust me, this game will keep you occupied for a long time.

[fallenintoshadows]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

So how long should i expect to play for to get a decent story out of it?

A lifetime.

By the time you get anywhere close to "finishing the game" they'll just add more expansions/missions etc and the vicious circle will never end

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

If you are going to be playing for 2 months, you won't see much of the story. FFXI is nothing like WoW when it comes to leveling. It's a slow pace for leveling and 2 months of it won't get you that far. You need levels to advance the story, so you won't get that far in that either. While FFXI has become a bit more solo friendly, its far from what WoW is. You really rely on other people to advance in this game both in levels and in missions (storyline). Because of that, it also slows the pace of your game which again won't get you far in 2 months.

[LilithAngel]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

To be honest, I'm gonna have to say that you're probably not going to like FFXI if you're coming from WoW and expecting a similar experience. It is nowhere near the same. Leveling isn't fast, as others pointed out, you actually have to work with other people, almost from the very start, and missions/quests can be long and drawn out, without any idea of how far along on an objective you might be other than looking towards outside sources (i.e. FFXIclopedia.com, similar to WoWhead and Curse for WoW).

FFXI isn't a game that's played in a matter of weeks/months and you get anywhere. It's played in a matter of anywhere from half a year to several years and you get places. Yes, you will be playing for a lot longer to make equivalent progress, but that's not to say that it's not worth it. In a game that's more about community than WoW is (a LOT more), it will take you a lot longer than just two months to do much.

MMOs that came out after WoW had to cater to the instant gratification wants that WoW bred in a lot of gamers. FFXI will have none of that (especially since it came out before WoW), and even with the recent updates that makes the game faster and more solo friendly, it will still make you earn everything. And I do mean everything.

[TezzaLarks]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

so really to get even the slightest bit of satisfaction out of it i must play for like 6 months or so?
I wouldn't mind as long as its a good game, but its the fact that i go to college aswell so i probably wouldn't get a great amount of time to play and then have to do work as well.
Anybody else in a similar situation?

[fallenintoshadows]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

The amount of time you play obviously affects your progress but I don't think that affects your enjoyment of the game. I used to be able to play a lot but now because of uni, work and the constant upkeep of a social life I don't get to play as often but I still enjoy it when I play and I still manage to keep progressing at my own speed.

I think FFXI is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it and there's only one way to find out and that's to play it.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

so really to get even the slightest bit of satisfaction out of it i must play for like 6 months or so?
I wouldn't mind as long as its a good game, but its the fact that i go to college aswell so i probably wouldn't get a great amount of time to play and then have to do work as well.
Anybody else in a similar situation?

Well the problem is, everything takes time. So you need to invest a lot of time into the game to get anywhere. So the less time you have to play, the slower you'll advance. The slower you advance, the more possibility there is for you to become frustrated with the game.....especially after playing WoW where things are a lot different. Little example following a short time period to play per day: You'll start and spend a couple days to level a job to lets say level 10 but then you need new weapons/equips/spells/food so you need to farm. Now spend a couple of days doing that. So nearly a week goes by and you've gotten to a whopping level 10. So off you go to Valkurm Dunes. Low and behold, a few days later, you hit level 18...time for your sub job quest. You probably have the apron and the worm by now since you've been leveling in the dunes. If not, then it shouldn't take too long....hopefully. But the skull is another matter. That could take you quite a while to get. Anyways, now you could be up to 2 weeks + just to get your sub job and start all over at level 1 again. Yes, you must now level your sub job, farm for equips/spells/weapons/food again.....yadda, yadda, yadda... Top this all off with doing missions, quests, etc and you can see how in 2 months you just don't get too far. Six months will get you a lot farther but no where near the end. Hell I've been playing since shortly after JP release and I've not done everything you can in this game yet either. (I also have a life to attend to.)

Sooooooo....this game is COMMITTMENT if you want to achieve high levels of greatness or see all the different awesome storylines. It's rewarding beyond belief and gives such a great sense of accomplishment and forges great friendships. This game IS worth it if you have the time, the patience, and the drive to achieve it.

[SSJGotenx268]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

Well the problem is, everything takes time. So you need to invest a lot of time into the game to get anywhere. So the less time you have to play, the slower you'll advance. The slower you advance, the more possibility there is for you to become frustrated with the game.....especially after playing WoW where things are a lot different. Little example following a short time period to play per day: You'll start and spend a couple days to level a job to lets say level 10 but then you need new weapons/equips/spells/food so you need to farm. Now spend a couple of days doing that. So nearly a week goes by and you've gotten to a whopping level 10. So off you go to Valkurm Dunes. Low and behold, a few days later, you hit level 18...time for your sub job quest. You probably have the apron and the worm by now since you've been leveling in the dunes. If not, then it shouldn't take too long....hopefully. But the skull is another matter. That could take you quite a while to get. Anyways, now you could be up to 2 weeks + just to get your sub job and start all over at level 1 again. Yes, you must now level your sub job, farm for equips/spells/weapons/food again.....yadda, yadda, yadda... Top this all off with doing missions, quests, etc and you can see how in 2 months you just don't get too far. Six months will get you a lot farther but no where near the end. Hell I've been playing since shortly after JP release and I've not done everything you can in this game yet either. (I also have a life to attend to.)

Sooooooo....this game is COMMITTMENT if you want to achieve high levels of greatness or see all the different awesome storylines. It's rewarding beyond belief and gives such a great sense of accomplishment and forges great friendships. This game IS worth it if you have the time, the patience, and the drive to achieve it.

Its stuff like that that draws me away from games: repetition. But for some reason I want keep playing. WoW is way to easy mode and I want something challenging. Plus I can sit on my couch and play it on my TV on my 360. Now THATS what every MMO needs :D

[Ameroth]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

so really to get even the slightest bit of satisfaction out of it i must play for like 6 months or so?

Sometimes people around here tend to put on scary masks and and tell some exaggerated stories. Playing the game for even a month is enough time to get some satisfaction from it. A month is long enough for you to decide if it's going to be cost-effective to give SE $12.95+ a month.

What the others are trying to say is the game starts off slowly. You have no skills (weapon, magic, crafting, etc), 6 Lv1 jobs to choose from, next to no gil, some starter gear, probably no friends, and little to no direction of where to go (they added newbie NPCs not too long ago which help this aspect I guess). After the opening cinematic, you're seemingly alone/solo until you start meeting people, usually through parties with them for exp, quests, etc.

While a month or two is enough to get some satisfaction, it's not going to be nearly long enough to get continued and valued satisfaction. For a brand new player, it wouldn't be unusual to take 2 months just to get to level 30. Hell, my first time playing I didn't ding 30 on a job for a pretty decent chunk of time. The thing that keeps FFXI different from, and often more enjoyable than other, MMOs is the vast majority of content to keep you occupied other than leveling/grinding. Another big difference, like others pointed out is how much time (many) activities require. In the end, it's all based on how much time you're willing to spend on a game. If you are very casual, playing a few hours a week for example, I won't lie and say you'll climb the ladder fast, but I won't tell you to not bother because you will just fail.

I just happen to disagree with the approach that FFXI requires unimaginable amounts of playtime, all of the time, to achieve any success or enjoyment.

[TezzaLarks]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

I just want to try something new I played WoW for about 8 months total nearly got 3 70s and shit and meh it was tiresome and everybody was exactly the same, either swedish people with no clue or somebody with something 1up on you all the time.

I just played Fallout 3 and the roleplay and action aspect was awesome, but it was shortlived and done in 11 hours or so.
I want something that could take some time but is also achievable in that time.

I want to go out and buy it tomorrow to start testing and seeing whether it'd be good, Thanks for your help everyone, it seems people of FF XI are a lot more into it and friendly than any other game so
I think i'm guna have a good time :D!

[Ameroth]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

I just played Fallout 3 and the roleplay and action aspect was awesome, but it was shortlived and done in 11 hours or so.

If you "finished" fallout 3 in less than 50hrs (at least), you missed a lot.

ps. haev fun. FFXI can become very engrossing.

[LilithAngel]

Re: Is FF XI a game for me?

Just to put some perspective on it, having 3 70s (pre Wrath of the Lich King) for a while was equivalent to having several jobs at 75 in FFXI, however, 8 months would hardly get you to maybe 1 and a half 75 jobs if you knew what you were doing. The level grind is a lot slower (and you also don't get xp for doing quests; they're more for the storyline and sometimes decent-to-good gear). However, that's not nessesarily a bad thing...

To help start you out, look for the new player starter NPC in whatever nation you choose.

Alaune, Southern San d'Oria (G-10)
Gulldago, Bastok Markets (D-11)
Selele, Windurst Woods (K-10)

These NPCs will give you what's basically your first quests, short, simple, and easy assignments that help teach you about the game (IOW, tutorials), and will also help you get a hold of the concepts that are used throughout the game.

Next, after you get used to that, outside in the newbie zones, there's what's called Field Manuals. These items are basically an extension of the NPCs that taught you the basics of the game, and work much like quest givers in WoW: they give you an objective, and you go out and meet the objective for exp. It is part of the Fields of Valor event.

After that, you're basically on your own to go from there. By the time you're partying and meeting new people, you should have a grasp on what you can do, and what you need to do to advance. Other players can also help you learn the game as well.


All of the links I've provided direct you the the item's entry in FFXIclopedia.com, and incredibly helpful database that's been put together over the course of the past few years. It's rather comprehensive, and can teach you about a lot of the game, from everything about what abilities a job can earn, to how certain statistics work, from effects of eating foods, to the abilities of even the most obscure monster. It's not without its own errors, but that's why it's helpful to remember that it's editable by just about anybody that can prove that the information is either incorrect or correct. It's been up and running since the game came out, so the majority of the info is (mostly) accurate.

Good luck out there, and hopefully you'll do fine.