Distant Worlds: Let's Play FF XI

Welcome to the first episode of my pseudo let's play of Final Fantasy XI.  As to why this is a "pseudo" let's play and a few other details, see my previous post.  Today is going to be mostly some background information and setting the stage, so let's get to it.

What is Final Fantasy XI?

As one might surmise from the name, FF XI is the eleventh entry in the long running Final Fantasy series.  What might not be obvious from the name alone isthat FF XI was the first online entry in the series, making it fairly different from most of the rest of the series.  It was originally released in Japan in 2002 and for PC in North America 2003.  This would later be followed by a North American PS2 release, official European releases and an XBox 360 version.  One of the unique aspects of FF XI is that all players played on the same pool of servers regardless of platform or region in which they lived.

FF XI was released whilst Everquest was basically the pre-eminent MMO of the day.  In its height, FF XI boasted around 500 000 players which made it one of the larger MMOs of its time (see the second chart here).  One could make the argument that FF XI was the last (or one of the last) successful pre-Warcraft MMOs.  But that's something that is perhaps best left to the historians.  For now, let's look at getting started...

In Character

The first thing one does in an MMO (and in many RPGs for that matter) is create a character.  But I suspect you already knew that.  Character creation in FF XI is, actually, kind of anemic compared even to other things of its time (to my knowledge, anyway.)  Whilst I can only speculate as to why, I suggest the two following reasons:  FF games, in general, don't place much emphasis on visual customization of characters, so Square-Enic (henceforth SE) was somewhat inexperienced in this matter, and PS2 limitations.  Speaking of which, this seems like a good time to comment on one of the larger monkies on FF XI's back.

PS2 Limitations.  FF XI was (perhaps still is) tethered to the PS2.  While it was a decent enough system for it's time, it has a number of limitations compared to more upgradable systems like the PC, most notably (I think) it's limited memory.  It became somewhat of a joke among the players that "PS2 Limitations" prevented any number of things from being added to the game.  Regardless, things did well enough, technical limitations aside.

Anywho...  the first part of character creation is picking a race of which FF XI provides five choices:

FF XI Races from left to righ:  Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Galka, Mithra

Humes.  These are basically your boring old humans.  They're the most balanced, in terms of stats.  Nobody invites them to parties because they're boring.

The majestic Elvaan - er, Dhalmel.

Elvaans.  These are, in theory, FF XI's version of elves, if elves were tall, awkward and gangly with long necks.  Players sometimes called them "Dhalmel necks" after giraffe-like monsters in-game.  Elvaan stats skew them towards melee fighters with high HP and low MP.

Tarutaru.  The littlefolk of FF XI.  Many of them have names that rhyme or containing repeated syllables, many also have various speech affectations, presumably because someone thought it would be cutaru.  Tarutaru are skewed towards mages, particularly the kind that blow things up, having the highest MP but lowest MP.  Fun fact:  the name Tarutaru apparently comes from the Japanese pronunciation of Tartar sauce.

Galka.  These are big, hulking meat bags.  Technically, they are genderless though they are typically referred to in-game using male pronouns.  Galka supposedly reproduce via some sort of cycle of reincarnation, but how that would actually work is a mystery.  At any rate, Galka have the highest HP and lowest MP and are skewed to wards being tanky.

Mithra.  These are a race of cat-people and are therefore the best, because cats.  Male mithra are rare and thus are kept at home as breeders so only the females go out adventuring.  This means only female mithra are actually playable.  Mithra are probably the second most balanced after humes, being skewed towards dexterity.

Job Search

After picking a race, one picks a starting job.  Being a Final Fantasy game, characters can switch jobs (and unlock new ones) later, but to start, one can pick one of six jobs.  These jobs are the six classic FF jobs that first appeared in FFI.  I won't go into much detail here, but here is a quick run down:

Warrior - wears heavy armour and can use a wide variety of weapons, but focuses on axes and great axes.  At low levels can serve as a tank in a pinch, but is mostly a melee damage dealer.

Monk - wears light armour, uses hand-to-hand weapons and likes to punch things in the face.  Or whatever the passes for the monster's face.  Monks are pretty uncomplicated.

Thief - uses daggers and stabs things in the back.  Also steals things because shinies.  A melee class that does spike damage and can help control enmity/hate/agro levels.

White Mage - the classic Final Fantasy healer.  They keep everyone alive and ticking.  They also cast Holy.  Holyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Black Mage - they cast the spells that make the people fall down.

Red Mage - supposedly a hybrid melee/mage that can cast white and black magic, but in practice ended up being mostly a support/healer.  I could go on at great length about the short comings of red mages as implemented in FF XI, but I'll spare you all the rant (for now.)

Place Mats

The world of FF XI is called Vana'diel and the last thing the player selects when creating a character is one of three starting cities.  These are:

San d'Oria

The Kingdom of San d'Oria.  A castle town at the north end of the Ronfaure forest, the kingdom is primarily inhabited by Elvaans.  San d'Orians are a somewhat xenophobic bunch and, oddly enough, have french inspired names and have a religion headed by a strangely pope-like figure.  I do not judge, I merely report.  San d'Oria is at odds with the reptile-like Orcs.

Fireworks in Bastok

The Republic of Bastok.  Affectionately refered to as "Lastok," the Republic is an industrial mining town in the Gustaberg region which is the least visually of all of the starter regions owing to basically being a blasted wasteland.  Bastok is home to predominantly Hume and Galka populations.  The local beastmen are the turtle-like Quadav.

Cherry trees in Windurst

The Federation of Windurst.  Located at the southern end of othe Sarutabaruta savannahs, Windurst is home to the Tarutaru and Mithra and is, therefor, the best (owing to the Mithra, not the easily puntable, bite-sized Tarutaru.)  The Federation has an uneasy peace with the bird-like Yagudo.






Guide Lines

And this brings us almost to the end of our inaugural episode.  Before we go, lets meet the tour guides for this Let's Play.

Mirayrl was my main character and will (I expect) serve as the primary guide for the Let's Play, but Beruthiel will likely show up from time to time.


I'm going to try to keep these generally less wordy than this post and hope to push through at a steady rate.  Next time, the plan is to cover levels 1-30 of one of the starting nation storyline.  If anyone is still reading and has a preference, should I start with Windurst, Bastok or San d'Oria?

Freak Out,
-TFitC