FFXI - Teh thread

[Sciler]

you wont always get thanked for doing good deeds, its just how people are. And hte japanese arent necessarily stuck up, the language barrier is a big hinderance. Some try, some dont. Ive played with some, and it took a little more time to set up renkei's and stuff, but once we got that established, it was ok. As for waiting, its a part of all MMO's, so if you cant stand to do that, then yeah, you need to not play an MMO lol.

[GAAZ]

You don't haveta wait in CoH..All missions given suit your rank..They ain't tough or easy...And you can find a plethora of guys to kill...And if they're on your level and NOT a boss you'll prolly win without too much pain.

[Azurel]

But where's the pushing forward? I mean, if the enemies never get any harder (with relation to your character's strength) then why bother even playing the game? I personally haven't touched CoH so I'm not going to diss it, but I believe that FFXI sets up a difficult, yet beatable challenge in the way that it's set up. It promotes people skills, not only through trying to make a good cluster of friends that you rely upon, but also through dealing with and having patience with those people who have yet to develop people skill.

[Sciler]

the biggest hinderance Ive seen with CoH is theres really no points. You're in a town where everyone is super heroes. Sure the set up is cool, character creation is sweet....but wheres the challenge and purpose to even playing. I have so many friends who were hardcore into it, then its liek, wow...ok, what IS the point of polaying this.

FFXI may be harder and frustrating, but I enjoy the challenge, and I feel i have a purpose in the game, Im not just fighting for no reason, I have to rid the world of beastmen and the baddies (dont wanna spoil anything story wise lol)

[Ultrawolf]

[GAAZ]

And in FFXI if you get a higher level before doing a mission the mission is easy...In CoH if you're at a high level when you start the mission the mission adjusts accordingly.

Plus you can go to harder areas of the city for more challenges.

[Azurel]

Well of course every game has it's own unique style of telling the story. I mean, I absolutely loved the way that the Max Payne games told the stories, in the old movie fashion, but I hated the actual game.

As for the easy missions in FFXI, I'll half agree. It's true, you can level and the missions become a piece of cake. However, it's difficult to level up as we've discussed and the missions jump in difficulty. Take what happened to me. I got quite a few levels in, then I went to try and get my rank 2 from my gaurd so I can start getting better equipment. I beat the crap out of missions one and two, barely had to heal. But when the third came around, I got the floor whiped with my own ass. And I'm gonna keep pushing because that extra rank opens up so much more.

[GAAZ]

Is rank three the mission in the valley? That one's the easiest cause the guy yer looking for is like right at the enterance..People always screw up and actually go into the cave...hehehe

Oh wait..Yer windurst ain't ya...N/m.

[Azurel]

Well, for the third mission of mine, there are two drop off points. One is a guy at the entrance at the cave, and the other guy is somewhere else, and I don't have a map, so I'm screwed.

[Daijaga]

Well I have to say that after 5 days and three hours of play I've layed the game down, having reached a pennicle of level 18 Red Mage during my time of play. FFXI has a lot of things about it that make it fun to play, but to me, the draw backs simply don't make up for the advantages.

First off that game is pretty. I don't just mean graphically, but the way things are designed, the way the sun reflects those sun spots on your camera, the musical score is very very addicting to listen to. The game also conveys an overwhelming sense of comradere'. Its really great when you hit the right party, your killing all the right monsters, and its like level-a-rama all over the place.

Where the game falls short are where I have to leave FFXI behind. I love the game on a sentimental level, but theres so much about it that eats at me. For one, and I know these have been mentioned before, but the shear length of time it takes to get from points A to B is something like melodramatic. It so exagerated that walking everywhere seems to take soooo long. Mind that it may not be so bad if it didn't *feel* like a long way, but it can take a very large portion of your long just to get to your leveling area from your Mog House. I understand that players want a big world, but I don't want a looong world. Morrowind was an example of a world that was big, but it had interesting things to see on the walk.

The other complaint is the other major stink about FFXI, the party system. If you don't party, you don't level, complete most missions, get most anywhere or do most anything. So when you log, you have to find a party, which is a process that can take anywhere from a few minutes to well over half an hour. Next you need to team up with your party, make sure you are appropriate level to get enough xp from the battles, and on top of that you have a pretty static roll in the party. There is very little diversity, BLM nukes with the strongest spell (who decided Fire was stronger than Water in the grand scheme of things?!); WHM/RDM heals constantly, in fact this will be all a WHM or RDM/WHM will ever do in the game, and a WAR provokes, constantly. Other classes have oppurtunities to mix it up some more, but these are steadies. Leveling singlly past level 10, in fact, doing nearly anything singly past level 10, is practiaclly impossible and on a personal level makes me feel like my character can accomplish nothing by themselves, like I was level 1.

I'd have to say the last thing that really detracts me away from FFX is the lack of customization. Job hopping and race selection aside, I have very very very little bearing on how my Taru looks. He will always be wearing the best eq (which comes from quite a dull color palette) and will look like the next Taru walking around in the best eq for my level. And what is up with subligars? Thank you Squeenix. I wanted to see my little half nekkidd taru running around in bondage.

These flaws aside, the game mechanics themselves run pretty smooth, its a really great feeling when you hit a good party and have a lot of fun in a night, but I just don't have the time to dedicate to waiting around looking for a party, waiting on some party member to show up, or what have you.

Heres looking to a faster, less (but still) party influenced game in teh future,
Dai