Final Fantasy 11

[Breaker]

I just bought FF11 for the Xbox 360. It's a multiplatform MMORPG, so you can play with players from the PS2 or PC. I was a hardcore World of Warcraft player back in the day, raiding with a large guild doing 40 man dungeons and such almost every day of the week on the SilverHand realm. When you get to the end-game of any MMORPG it becomes a huge commitment to stick to that level of playing. People are depending on you and there's lots of guild drama and other bullshit. When I started going to school full time and working I had to quit playing and haven't picked up WOW since. FF11 looks pretty cool though and since it's on the 360 I can just pick up the controller and play when I get home off work or whenever I'm bored. Does anyone else here play it?

[Mak-X]

I played the PC version for about a month or so as my first MMORPG a year ago or so. I liked the art style, combat and most of the gameplay. The game was a big time sink though. The idea of parties is great, but if you don't have people or a white mage, it was hard to get anywhere depending on your class.

I reached level 16 where most players spend their time in the sand dunes leveling up until they're 20. I got bored of that real quick, most parties would rely on a high level character to watch them, so there was no challenge. I decided to run from San'd Oria to Bastock with my character while avoiding getting hit at my level. I had read about Milkman doing that in his FFXI blog http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3138287

I'd like to get into Phantasy Star Universe sometime, since that'd be more managable for me to play.

[DarkDragoonX]

I spent some time playing FFXI a couple years back. On one hand, the combination attacks are great, as is the visual style. The job system, as always, is awesome. I'm also a sucker for catgirls, so bonus points there. Oh, and the Dragoon class... JUMP! On the other hand, I hate hate hate the way you level up... stand around in one spot while somebody pulls one mob at a time over, kill it, repeat as fast a possible to get the XP bonus. It can get really tedious after a while. With the exception of a couple classes that can solo fairly well, it's impossible to get anything done by yourself. Then there the fact that many of the great items you can get are from world spawns , which everybody is always competing for... a solid week of farming Leaping Lizzy, easily 100 kills, and I *still* never got the goddamn Leaping Boots (Jumping Boots? I don't recall).

It can still be a fun game, especially if you have people you can BS with over vent. But if you don't know anybody it will rapidly become extremely boring. I haven't really been doing anything on the MMO front lately, though, so maybe I'll reactivate my account when I get paid again and give it another go.

I actually have a copy of PSU, too, though I never got into it enough to start paying for the online portion of it.

What I'm really looking forward to, though, is Warhammer Online... every bit of information I read about it just wants to make me play it that much more.

[Breaker]

Warhammer Online is going to be the next World of Warcraft.

[Brasel]

I played FFXI quite a bit before I started playing WoW. I got to about lvl 50 with my warrior and 45 with my Dark Knight. The entire game I just grinded for levels, because thats all anyone ever wanted to do. Noone would party for anything else. It sucks ass compared to WoW. WoW is a ton better, but a lot more addicting. I had to quit playing WoW for awhile so I could concentrate on other things for awhile.

[Mr. 207]

The thing about FF11 is its so unforgiving as far as difficulty goes. In WOW you at least have the ability to solo, although its hard. Soloing in FF11 is only possible really for the early levels, after that its a no no. Not to mention when you die you lose xp. Even worse, if you lose enough xp you can roll back in level. Finally, travelling from place to place was so long and tedious. Not to say you don't have to do any walking around in WOW, but in FF11 thats all you can do without a mount. (At least from what I could find) No people that could fly you from place to place.

[Aliem]

The only complaint I've ever heard about the game was the tediousness of level-grinding... But I usually do that in RPGs anyway, for hours at a time.

I've always wanted to try FFXI. It looks like a great game, and the story lines actually seem decent.

[Flash Man]

I played it about a year and one half ago. It was pretty decent. The only problems I ever had was wanting to level my character up and there was not enough people seeking a party around the same level to create a party that would work, that and making money.