turn two entries in your mainline serise into fucking MMOs
Never understood that. Like, 20 years down the line, how the fuck will you be able to experience FFXI? Fan servers? An offline version?
Turn two entries in your mainline serise into fucking MMOs
XIVbucks will attempt to ruin this one
That's an extremely autistic thing to criticize. It literally only affects the titles of the games and nothing else.
Like, 20 years down the line, how the fuck will you be able to experience FFXI?
private servers have been a thing for a long time.
I used to play on ffEra in 2015-2017 and that server had already been up 8 years when I started playing on it.
Now you can't play the entire main series without playing mmos.
Not a big FF fan, but I've always been interested in XI.
Sadly, I don't like playing MMOs.
Hows a solo experience of the game?
entirely possible due to NPC party members.
Base EXP gain is cranked out the ass as well so it doesn't take very long to grind levels
Just keep a quest wiki on a second monitor or phone and enjoy the world and story (which is quite good)
Like I said, that's an autistic problem to have.
muh missing numbers
You're autistic.
If you think that's bad, you should see what they did to Crystal Chronicles.
NTA, but missing out on two full blown mainline entries in a serise isn't some autsitic thing. Two important games being held down to online play is awful for those who don't like MMOs but love the rest of the franchise.
Depends
75cap (Classic)
its an old MMO, so it means you're unable to solo at all beyond lvl 12 or 15 unless you're playing the 1 or 2 classes that "can kind of solo if you know what you're doing" but its still slower to lvl than grouping up.
none of the endgame is soloable unless you're a min-maxxed player with good gear on a certain 1 or 2 classes.
99cap (Retail)
you can summon NPC bots into your party to help you kill stuff solo, but it takes all of the soul out of the game.
Main series is just 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12.
and story (which is quite good)
Not gunna lie I'd play the fuck out of a singleplayer stand-alone Chains of Promathia.
Shit was fucking epic and the fights were so hard.
Like, 20 years down the line, how the fuck will you be able to experience FFXI?
By downloading the game and logging on.
FF11 is a 23 year old game. It's already "20 years down the line".
There's over 10 other titles to play. Not enough for you? The entire point of the MMOs is that they're supposed to be played with others, over a fixed period of time (at least XI)
Final Fantasy XI is pretty much the "end" of true Final Fantasy. The amount of homages to past games, including just about every monster and job that fans care about, while still having its own identity is incredible. All without degenerating into Jpop aesthetics and fucking crossover shit like pretty much every post-12 game did.
Mess with the West
Die like the rest
Final Fantasy XI is pretty much the "end" of true Final Fantasy.
Apparently it was already 90% done and zilart/cop were already planned out before the Enix merger, which I guess is why it feels like an old FF game and not a nu-FF one.
probably the main 3 blunders with the game overall were:
PlayOnline
raising lvl cap past 75 to get people to switch to FFXIV
not updating the graphics/engine like WoW or Eve Online did, and sticking with PS2 limitations.
1,2,3,4,5 and 6*
ftfy. only the amano saga is canon, im afraid.
FFXI was designed from the ground up to force players to work together to do literally anything. Only a couple classes could level up solo, and you needed to unlock them by first getting to level 30 and doing the unlock quests. Even the story was impossible to solo. I say was, because after the game started dying they added NPC bots you can add into your party and they made the game a whole lot easier with stuff like leveling up faster and giving you a lot of free gear. So yes right now you can play solo but many people would argue the game lost a lot of what made it worth playing to begin with, which is why private servers for the old version of the game are so popular.
Muh mainline series
Like I said, it literally only affects the titles of the games. The designation of them being main series games has no effect on the gameplay, characters, settings, or any other games in the series. It's an OCD autism problem only autistic people have.
what about 9? Amano did the character designs for it too
If we're getting nitpicky, Amano did art related things for every single FF.
It's outrageous how you still have to deal with PlayOnline in 2025
This. Besides VI, VII, and X, everything up to XIII is kino.
It's outrageous how you still have to deal with PlayOnline in 2025
Honestly the main thing I liked about private servers being honest.
20 years from right now.
20 years from right now
Outside of speedrunners or balding screeching youtube men, how many people do you know that play 40 year old games?
I wish I could've experienced this shit on release
I fucking hate MMOs, played every FF, and 14 is the best one. You can seethe all you want but that changes nothing
MMOs are tricky for the long term. On the one hand, I feel like many more FF fans would devote some time to XI if there was a solid, feasible option to play the game by yourself. On the other hand, XI in particular is designed around teamwork and collaboration, so ripping out a vital aspect of the game like that removes so much of what makes FFXI so special.
It's kind of a lose lose situation. Best route is to play in a private server with a couple of close friends.
how many people do you know that play 40 year old games?
Me.
Bro. They're all 100% separate games despite the X -> VII autism. No one expects anyone to play every single Final Fantasy game. This argument is stupid.
on release it was kind of awful, but the Chains of Promathia years around 2005 or so were fucking amazing.
Brutal, but amazing.
XI started going downhill in 2009-ish with Wings of the Goddess and then them raising the level cap, pushing out low effort mini DLCs with overpowered rewards and making the game soloable/cheesable ahead of 14's release killed it.
me too, DOS rpgs are the good shit
FF11 is the one MMO I regret missing in its prime. Fuck, I'll never live it down.
FFXI is kino, I feel sorry for those of you that didn't get to experience it at its peak (~2005-2009).
Eden is still fairly active but I'm sure others have better suggestions.
If I had a time machine, I'd go back just to play this game. The world and art direction looks godly. And the OST is peak kino.
If XI and XIV were instead Final Fantasy Vanadiel and Final Fantasy Eorzea and the rest of the series dropped back a number or two, would it have saved Square?
They altered XI a lot from the original to allow for easy solo play. It used to heavily favour group play. There are private servers out that capture that old school feeling by keeping it in that old era with only a couple of expansion packs.
FF14 is designed in a way that forces you through the main story through each expansion pack in order.
Both are really good games in my opinion. Worth playing as an FF fan, even though they're MMO's/ Both have great stories, especially in their expansion packs and as always, phenominal OSTs.
What do you mean would have?
ARR did save SE
Above all else it was the community at the time. The people I met and partied / EXP'd with, the linkshells that were formed and abandoned, the people that helped me kill the hardest NMs and were kind enough to /pass on the loot so that I could have a chance at getting good gear. It was a different time with different people....
RIP to my Friends Karunungan, Zul and Redfury, if you're out there and if you even remember me I miss having fun with my buddies.
Nothing would've saved Square from their own retardation and increasing technical debt + overblown budgeting for extraordinary expectations they can never meet anymore.
definitely not since 13 would still exist, but be renamed to 12
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14 is so good that it finally crowned Uematsu's true successor after a decade of SE composers taking their shot and not measuring up. Cope harder
40 years ago is exactly when games started getting good; I honestly can't stand Atarishit
I plan to finish every Final Fantasy game up to 6.
Maybe I'll do 7-10 if I feel like it, but fuck why is every game in the series so long past the 2D era?
FF 13 is well over 100 hours.
13 is 60 hours
The first in the trilogy maybe.
PlayOnline had some banger of tracks though.
True. Peak Y2K.
Hamauzu and Mizuta are both far better than Soken.
Hamauzu
Good but he can only write floaty piano music
Mizuta
Wrote all the worst boring music in 10
Hamauzu was the one who worked on X, and he also did all the good music. Mizuta did XI, the XIII sequels, and Jack's game.
X was a group project that everyone worked on. All of XI was boring as shit, Mizuta is the king of boring.
13 was planned to be a massive, huge thing for years and they did just that.... they just forgot to give US any of the information, trailers, videos, reading material, etc. for the game prerelease.
Honestly, I wish they'd just go all-in on doing 2.5D games like with Octopath. Even if you're one of the "It has too much bloom!!" people they can reduce the fucking bloom going forward.
There are some fun arcade games from the late 70's to early 80's, but that goes for the arcade version, not the Atari 2600 ports.
I don't even know how one could keep pushing for an FF17 at this point after 16 basically went baby's first DMC + Asura's Wrath. FF can't push the envelope enough for action gaming to ascend beyond that worth a damn, and they can't really justify another movie production budget gaggle of cutscenes like that after 16's sales were abysmal. but they can't really just go back to basics with a 2.5D game without pissing people off who are absolute graphics whores either.
my unrealistic dream is them re-releasing FF XI as a drop-in/out co-op game
this is an XI thread are you lost
Now I see why you think Soken is better. Because you only care about fast paced action scenes. Soken can't do memorable character themes or area music, just battle themes. And he's been slacking on that lately too. Daiki Ishikawa and Takafumi Imamura have made all the good music since ShB.
Here's some Mizuta kino.
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If they remake it as a single player game I want them to steal the pawn system from Dragon's Dogma so you can loan your character out and hire other people as trusts. I think that's a really good way to maintain the 'Distant Worlds' idea.
Abyssea was when the game reached irredeemable status for me
This guy gets it
Soken has some good taste but I wouldn't say his hit percentage has been great lately
Anatomy of Existence is probably in my top 20 I'd say
what if 17 ends up being a MMO too? that would be crazy
Most jrpgs are 60-80 hours. Not sure what other anon in complaining about.
I bought the game the day of the NA release, played it for years, and I still look back on it as such an incredible experience.
Even with the private servers and stuff, there is literally no way I could actually play it again... too much time. I do get the urge to just like make a character to just run around through the zones because holy fuck pure soul.
That chart is shockingly accurate, but I'd rate zilart missions a little higher because of my personal experience with them. I was the first NA of my job on Asura, so I got pulled around by a JP linkshell through them. I had only seen a single tiny screenshot of sky (genbu's platform) beforehand so getting there and seeing it for the first time was incredible.
soulful choices friend, they actually feel like FF music.
At the rate Square is going, 17 might be a gacha.
xiv is booked for another ten years thanks to the recent graphics update. 17 will be single player
Anatomy of Existence and Lost in the Deep are really great songs. But Anatomy of Existence was done by Shoya Sunakawa (FFRK and Rebirth), and Lost in the Deep was Daiki Ishikawa.
From Endwalker (aside from "Garlemald Express"):
- dungeon midboss theme "On Blade's Edge"
- Vanapasti theme "As the Sky Burns"
- Ktisis Hyperboreia theme "Miracle Works"
- "Answers (Piano Version)"
- Radz-at-Han day theme "Vibrant Voices"
- Aglaia boss theme "Radiance"
- Pandaemonium raid P6-7 "Scream" and P9-10 "One Amongst the Weary"
- Another Mount Rokkon (Criterion) theme "Crimson Rise"
- Zeromus phase 1 theme "FINAL FANTASY IV: The Final Battle (Endwalker)"
From Shadowbringers:
- Malikah's Well theme "Deep Down"
- Eden raid E3 "Blinding Indigo", E4 "Landslide", and E5 "Twice Stricken"
- The Bozjan Southern Front battle theme "Blood on the Wind"
- Emerald Weapon phase 2 theme "The Black Wolf Stalks Again"
- Delubrum Reginae final boss theme "The Queen Awakens"
- The Dalriada final boss theme "Wrath of the Harrier"
I'm gonna shamelessly steal this youtube comment but look at this track record, they're literally all S tier tracks. Imamura is a god.
I would like to experience the 11 and 14 worlds respectively without needing to play with trannies.
Horizon is probably the most active, would recommend. I don't like how you're expected to dualbox in Eden.
I hope he gets more recognition. Most people still act like Soken is doing XIV's OST alone.
For years I had the first image I saw in Sky as my background for my PC. It was lost to time, sadly.
Then you're in luck, cause 11 is exclusively filled with 30 year old boomer fat fuck white dudes.
FFXIV: full ot trannies
FFXI retail: straight white male boomers
FFXI private servers: trannies and cringey drama
No exceptions.
You still can't truly solo the last few story updates, even with NPC bots, at least not last time I played. Damn near, but, there have been smaller story updates to the newer meta for the game, and they match the current endgame power tiers which leave the bots behind.
who cares, like half the series is shit at the point, even if there were no mmos you wouldn't want to play them all anyway
You can solo all the way through Rhapsodies at least, which is the proper finale of the game.
I hope one day fans are able to bring the PS2 version of XI back. I know it's not as convenient as using a PC, but there's something uniquely magic about playing FFXI on console.
PlayOnline was unironically ahead of its time. Way too far ahead of its time.
I thought the very last few Rhapsodies were hard enough, and caught up enough to the current caps, that you did need a team of actual players for them? Or am I thinking about what came after? I haven't actually played in 3-4 years at this point, and stalled out again around a third of the way into ToAU.
none of them can truly measure up to uematsu kino. the final boss fight themes are what set final fantasy apart
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Birth of a God is better than One Winged Angel and more appropriate for FF
The last few fights of Adoulin can get spooky with Trusts and might take a few tries hoping for good luck, but they are doable. Rhapsodies fights are pretty simple and the final battle is almost impossible to lose because Iroha will keep rezzing you. I soloed through it all about 4 years ago I think.
Birth of a God is better than One Winged Angel
I've always thought the same.
when you notice the classic FF1 battle bass line in Birth of a God and the Extreme
Abyssea was when the game reached irredeemable status for me
Yeah I still cant believe they just went "fuck it" and added a fucking "one shot any boss" potion to the fucking game.
Mizuta
Wrote all the worst boring music in 10
Eh to be fair the battle themes were good and some stand-out ones like Promyvion and Zi'tah were pretty great.
especially the piano versions.
Is it even worth playing 11 at this point?
Similar situation to you, I actually saw it at TRU Times Square when I was a kid and was immediately entranced with the huge PS2 box, HDD and the box art and I had to have it, so my dad picked it up for me. Soon as I got home and booted it up, installed the game I was hooked until the late 00s when I finally quit playing due to college.
I've tried to play it again like you, successfully in fact several times in the 2010s with making new characters (lost my old character's info) and it was good, but not the same experience because what made FFXI so great was the friendships I had build over the years I spent playing it.... and all those people were long gone and my old server, Fairy, was merged with another one.
Yes, but, you'd have to be willing to get used to the controls, especially if you're used to modern games.
if you're a newfag, worth it just to play through Zilart and CoP
if you're an XI Veteran, no unless you just want nostalgia, in which case pick a 5x exp rates server and get a month's enjoyment out of going to empty zones and reliving old memories.
Ive done everything there is to do both on 75cap retail and two 75cap pservers and at this point the only reason I'd go back would be some retardedly punishing challenge like /bst only challenge or an ironman self-found challenge.
Yes, it's still kino. Treat it like a console FF and don't go in expecting a World of Warcraft style MMO.
Delubrum Reginae final boss theme "The Queen Awakens"
Ill agree with you on the rest being good or great but I thought HEYA HOYA was fucking terrible
You can solo something like 99% of the game now. All the older players just sit around mostly waiting to do the newer high level content with other REMA / well geared people and they all likely have 10+ jobs experted and well geared on each character.
But if you just want to play through the game's various stories, you can so almost all of it solo with the Trust system, which basically allows you to unlock summonable NPC characters that can be healers, DDs, tanks, etc. for you to basically make your own party for doing whatever content you want to do. It's actually pretty fun to play solo, but it does lack the charm and soul.
That said, if you really want to level out your characters, merit / master each job, you will still need to sit around in some zones and pull mobs with an actual party that you get together, just like old times. So part of the old charm of the old game is still buried in there, as well as the newer NM content which will definitely require you know some good people to tackle.
I give him some credit because it's just a remix you gotta work with that shit motif whether you like it or not
What's the deal with Rhapsodies of Vana'diel? Is that the official ending to XI's story?
Is that the official ending to XI's story?
Yes
XI's rendition of the Cloud of Darkness was pretty neat. Did XI make the CoD present in every game as a sort of entropic darkness?
XI's CoD is like an aspect of the Void like the FFIII version, and some other entities like Neo Exdeath. Not really darkness, but non-existence. It's one of the few connections between all the games.
WotG
For me it's when they put in some effort at the start and then outright gave up. MMM and SCNMs are fine but the Northlands [S] update is when they just gave up. Just look at Castle Zvahl [S]. It has quite literally no fucking NMs. It doesn't even have an SCNM. Throne Room [S] is also barren besides missions it has a single Campaign Op.
And that's what the Square-Enix marketing department was counting on. What are you waiting for anon, hop to it, get the games and a subscription now before it's too late to experience the grindan kino! Lmao.
what shitted me about WotG was releasing a full story expansion, but
oh sorry, the story's not actually done yet!
we'll release 1 mission/cutscene every month for a few years afterwards
each mission is time-gated to either JPmidnight or In-game week, so you cant just DO the story, you have to do 1 cutscene then wait 3-4 real life days to get the next one
is why I stopped.
Campaign was actually kind of fun.
Its just unfortunate that only the Bastokan gear set from it was worth getting, to the point where it was THE tank set to get for a PLD or WAR. Classic Squeenix not knowing how to balance their own damn game.
Once it became apparent that Abyssea had killed off ALL other content in the game I jumped ship to another MMO.
Early ToAU sucked. PUP was stuck with Mage gear and despite being the only job that could do damage with a sword it took until near the end of ToAU for them to finally give BLU a big dick sword
XI and XIV are outrageously profitable and popular. They both individually saved the entire company. Literally nobody cares that the MMOs are numbered. Honestly, them not being numbered likely would have hurt more.
Now you can't play the entire main series without playing mmos.
most of XI is kind of shit though, when people talk about how kino it was they're talking about the 1st two expansions. You can solo through those in a week or two on a 99cap private server.
A lot of XIV's story is just XI's first 2 expansions badly copy-pasted and somehow made really cringe so you can basically skip that.
PUP was stuck with Mage gear
honestly this was half SE's fault and half the playerbase's fault for trying to play them like a Monk DD.
PUP was way better as a BLM nuker or WHM healbot for Pup/nin evasion tanking memes.
Unfortunately the job also relied too heavily on AF/Relic armor sets and sinking lots of gil into PUP attachments and Salvage gear.
Job was just designed from the start to be an expensive gilsink hobby project of a job for burnt out richfags.
I agree with you on BLU, it was fucking amazing and I loved the shit out playing BLU/bst