Final Fantasy XI

 Hey there I am a WoW player and I'd like to try a new game.  I have always been intrigued by the FF series having watched my brother play them while growing up, but they were just never my style to actually sit and play.  Anyways, I tried playing EQII and anyone that has gone from WoW to that knows how thankful you are to have an account on WoW.  I was looking at Guildwars and then I remembered that FF has a MMORPG.  My boyfriend is going to play GW and I'm not sure I like it..........wow I'm getting off topic. What I want to know is if I switch from WoW to FFXI will I be disappointed? HONESTLY! I have HIGH expectations for this game and I'd like not to be let down like I was with EQII

Hello Kirauta, All i can tell you is that WOW has a very easy grind, where as FF has a much heavier  grind. It all depends on your playstyle as well, are you a pve'er, pvper? I dont know much about FF as i never played it, i just know its got heavy grind and very hard to solo in.

You could also list your expectations so we can give you a better view of whats in these games.

You need a minimum of 4 hours or more a day to play.

You have to love PvE.

You need to love to grind.

YOU CAN NOT SOLO EVER. lvls 1-10 only.

It's a hard game, its the complete opposite of WoW.

My personal opinion after trying FF XI myself (coming from WoW and other MMOs) was that it.. quite frankly.. was horrible..

Now this is just My opinion, everyone's different, and I'm not out to trash the game.

First, to play the game, you have to install some community thingy software on your computer (can't remember it's name) and I remember it being a pain in my all too pretty behind to set it all up (don't remember why it was sucha pain though).

Well in the game I found the races looking a bit... different... some of them in a good way and some in... a not so good way.. but fair enough, I thought, and moved on.

Loggin in a friend of mine, who I were also with on Ventrilo, contacted me and tried to help me get setup... first off I didn't like the graphics but alright, I can look by that with good gameplay.

The controls however was a nightmare to me, trying to learn I sat out to grind my frist mobs. I felt it was quite boring and frankly that was the one and only time I logged in - since my personal experience was That Bad.

From what I've heard though, many think the game's really good - so I guess they have another experience and opinion. This however is mine.

Good luck in finding "your" game! ^^

   FFXI is a lot different from WoW.

  WoW is designed to "get in, get out" mentality.... meaning it is very solo freindly, but you can do groups. Solo'ing is always an option in WoW. It's focus is one the ease of use to new users... to put ot bluntly... WoW is a dumbed down MMORPG.... it leads you around by the hand, and shows you what to do.

 FFXI is the complete opposite.... You are basically forced to group to level. There is no leading you round... you have to find quests in the game... no one has a "!" above their head. The UI is the biggest negative of FFXI.... since it was designed as a PS2 game.

 Where FFXI excels is the story, and quests.... sure you got to dig for them... but they are wondeful. It is like playing an RPG on the console.. where you are just lead around to get quests you have to talk to people and discover the world.

 IMHO, WoW is a great game, it is easy to use and opens itself to a wide audience, but it lacks the real challenge factor, playing WoW can get overly boring with it's simplicity. FFXI on the other hand it more like work, you actually have to learn how to play it, and for what it lacks in simplicity it more then makes up for in subtle quality.

One last fact... My 7 year old son plays WoW and is effective.. and has gotten to 40+ ....but FFXI is to complex and requires more communication then he is able to do at this age.

Originally posted by fs23otm

 IMHO, WoW is a great game, it is easy to use and opens itself to a wide audience, but it lacks the real challenge factor, playing WoW can get overly boring with it's simplicity. FFXI on the other hand it more like work,

Ain't that the truth... Personally I prefer something in the middle.. Like Pre-CU SWG was..

As for subtle qualities, I'm not sure it's worth the time. It wasn't for me atleast. ^^ But others like it, so it must be decent if nothing else! ^^ It's all a matter of taste after all...

You can actually solo in this game, it just takes some work :)

I have played wow and, though I enjoyed it a lot, I left it because it lacked depth to me.  LoTRO has some similarites to WoW, but has a lot more depth to it.  If you're looking for something like that.  I have a lifetime on that game and enjoy it alot.

That being said, I have gone back to playing Final Fantasy as well recently because..there's just something to this game.  I missed it for a long time after I quit the first time. 

You can solo, but you will probably want to group a lot in this game in order to progress faster.  As I said in another post, it really wouldn't be final fantasy unless you were grouping often as that is what you do in the console games.  That being said, because you group a lot this game requires a lot more strategy than WoW does.  I have only recently started back so I'm working off of new limited experience and old memories so someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

The best thing to me about this game is the class system.  HANDS DOWN the best ever.  I'm one of those people that has to play every  class.  Well, in this game you can do it with one character.  You have two jobs at once even.  A job/subjob (subjob is half the level of your main job), and you can switch then through your house at any time. 

This game is a lot more grindy than most of your wow-ish games, but you do get a great feeling of satisfaction when you level.  There's also a lot of non-leveling things to do that wow doesn't have.  You have a mog-house that you can decorate.  You do quests to unlock new jobs, storage space, etc.  you have a quest to learn to ride a chocobo..and I read that now you can raise your own mount from a baby! Beat that!

The crafting skills are different, and I remember being greaty addicted to fishing back when I played before.  The quests are laid out very differently (you won't see any exclamation points or rings over any npc's heads in this game).

Others can probably tell you more about the game than me, but I've been enjoying it again so far.  You just have to have some patience with it.  Start out accepting that it will not be like the other MMO's that you have played.  That will help.  Also, I have taken note that getting starting in a good guild/community can make or break a game. 

If you don't think you'll have the patience for it, I'd highly recommend LoTRO.  If you do, good luck on your travels in Vana'diel.  Either way, hope to see ya in-game :)

Originally posted by KiraUta

 Hey there I am a WoW player and I'd like to try a new game.  I have always been intrigued by the FF series having watched my brother play them while growing up, but they were just never my style to actually sit and play.  Anyways, I tried playing EQII and anyone that has gone from WoW to that knows how thankful you are to have an account on WoW.  I was looking at Guildwars and then I remembered that FF has a MMORPG.  My boyfriend is going to play GW and I'm not sure I like it..........wow I'm getting off topic. What I want to know is if I switch from WoW to FFXI will I be disappointed? HONESTLY! I have HIGH expectations for this game and I'd like not to be let down like I was with EQII

The part in red stands out to me. Do you still feel that way? If so, then you're not going to want to play. I don't know what you're hoping this game offers. It's a totally different animal from WoW. Do you like a deep and rich story in your games? Do you not mind partying for exp? Can you stand to actually explore things and talk to the NPC's in towns to discover quests and such? Can you deal with the fact that soloing in the beginning can be somewhat frustrating? Can you stand losing exp from dying? Can you deal with the fact that it might take some time to get to the max level? Can you deal with the fact that you'll have to farm for money? These are the questions that you need to answer to see if you'd like this game or not.

I love this game to death. Despite the flaws it has, I've always had fun. I've met my wife on this game (Nerdy, I know) and I've accomplished a lot. Well, not really a lot. Just seems like a lot to me.  I haven't even gotten through all the content for this game and I've been playing since NA PC release. This game isn't very newbie friendly. But, you can always ask for help with things. People usually don't mind at all. Also, if you decide to play on PC, get a controller, that'll help a ton with the interface. Anyway, if you're expecting FFXI to be anything like WoW, you will be severly disappointed. So, just come in with an open mind and you should have fun, if you could answer yes to those questions I had asked. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

im also intersted in trying this game out and was wondering if i could get a few questions answered.

1. is the pop good? cause i dont care if i ahve to find groups all the time as long as there are a good pop.

2. im a person that chooses a lot of his games by how good graphics look and all i want to know is are the graphics decent enough were ill enjoy watching my computer screen while i play the game?

3. so its easier to play this game wit a controller on the pc, what kind of controller?

4. there any pvp in this game at all? just curious.

those are my questions i wanna know the most but if anyone can explain anything else aboutt he game thatd be awsome.

thank you!