Pros: Lots of content, innovative combat system, change your class, thriving economy, great-looking characters
Cons: Heavy focus on group-play, time-consuming, clunky user-interface
The bottom line: If you can devote a lot of time to it, you will find FFXI to be one of the best MMORPGs on the market today.
Final Fantasy XI Online has aged well despite the release of many other online games that have followed. Although considered much more difficult than most other massively-multiplayer role-playing games, FFXI is one of the best online games around. However, the game demands a lot of time in order for you to fully experience its massive world and enjoy it.

Like other online role-playing games, FFXI requires a monthly fee: $12.95. This allows you to make a single character on one of the many servers (about 30 servers). Additional characters can be made at the cost of $1 more a month. Once you choose a server for your first character however, all additional characters that you make are locked to that server. Compared to other massively multiplayer games, this is somewhat restrictive. (For instance, in World of Warcraft you pay the $14.99 for 10 characters per server, and you can switch to any server to make more characters.)

Playing FFXI is done through Sqaure-Enix's launching program called Playonline. It functions as an account manager, an email navigator, and a game launcher. It bombards you with several layers of navigation screens and legal notices - all of which are redundant, and just plain irritating. There are so many windows and dialogue boxes in Playonline, that it takes about 11 clicks to get into the actual game! (And if you're playing for the very first time, you'll probably have to download and install updates which could take 1 or 2 hours!) What's more, navigating the plethora of windows and menus can be confusing. While it does have some nice features like email (that can be linked to your in-game characters), and account management, the Playonline interface is way too complicated than it needs to be.

If you play FFXI on a console, a USB keyboard is highly recommended. That's because chatting with other players is very important. The game does provide a "virtual" on-screen keyboard but it is terrible to use if you're trying to chat with other people.

FFXI is an older game, designed for play on the Sony Playstation 2. As a result, the game uses a lot of low-resolution textures to make up the environment and the characters. Furthermore, the mipmapping seems to be underutilized so that textures seem to "flicker" in the distance - even with mipmapping turned "on." And while you could play the game on the Xbox 360 in HD, the textures look no different than on the PC. The game manages to look good still however, because of the great art direction. Character models and monsters are among the best looking in any massively multiplayer game. The environments are well done, despite the low texture quality.

The basic gameplay should be nothing new to veterans of massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Players form a small group (6 members per group) and then fight individual monsters for experience points. Once enough experience points have been accumulated, the player's character gains a new level, and thereby making the character stonger. Each new level grants either a new ability, or at the very least increases the character's existing stats (strength, dexterity, stamina, etc). Characters range from Warriors, Paladins, Ninjas, White Mages, Black Mages, Bards, and more. Whichever class you choose, it tends to fall into the typical online role-playing game conventions: tank (high defense), healer (heals party members), melee (direct close-range damagers), support classes (keeps mana filled), and nuker (deals a lot of damage from afar). The basic idea is that the "tank" classes keep each monster's attention on them since their defense is the highest. Meanwhile, the rest of the party does what they do best: melee classes inflict damage, healers keep the tank's health up, support classes keep everyone's energy (mana) up, and the nuker inflicts damage on the monster from afar. This is the core of the FFXI's gameplay. There are a few twists (like skillchains), but it's safe to say that FFXI follows a familiar system seen in other online role-playing games.

One interesting aspect of FFXI's combat system is the ability to link attacks between players. Melee attacks that are linked together form a "skillchain," and a magic attack that is linked (at the end of a skillchain) is called a "magic burst." By performing these linked attacks between players, bonus damage is inflicted on the monster/enemy. Of course to make it challenging, not all attacks can link together, and linked attacks must be performed within 1-3 seconds of each other. This makes for some exciting moments when a party performs a devestating skillchain and magic burst on a monster. Often times, a fight that would have lasted much longer ends in just a few seconds. What's more, the skillchain and magic burst are accompanied with bonus special FX, making the fight that much more dramatic. Indeed, at higher levels, the ability to perform a skillchain and magic burst is pretty much required for every member of a party. But by then, players would have had plenty of practice.

Compared to other online games, the price of death is heavy in FFXI. When your character dies, you loose about ten percent of the experience points needed to achieve the next level. For instance, if the requirement to reach the next level was 10,000 experience points, a death would mean 1,000 experience points were lost. At low levels, this is a small amount which you can get back by hunting monsters for only a few minutes. But at higher levels, the lost experience points requires anywhere from 1-2hours of monster-killing to regain. What is worse is that if you recently achieved a new level, and then died, it is possible to loose your level! Thankfully, you can have another player "Raise" you, or ressurrect you which will award you back some of your experience points (the actual amount of experience given back is random). If you can't find someone to bring you back to life, then you'll have to bite the bullet and respawn at your last homepoint. (Homepoints are manually set, and is usually best done in a City nearby your intended hunting grounds.)

FFXI's class system sets it apart from most other massively multiplayer games. In FFXI, a class is called a "job" because you can switch them around. For instance, you can choose to be a Thief one day, and then switch your job to a Warrior the next. There is no penalty for switching, and you can do it anytime you are inside your mog house (the player's personal virtual residence). The only catch is that each job must be developed seperately. Gaining levels only applies to the job that you have "equipped" as the "main" job a the time. In addition to having a main job equipped, you can choose to have a subjob equipped as well. This allows you to gain the benefits of another job's skills while still retaining all the abilities of your main job. The subjob's abilities however, are treated as half of the main job. That is to say, if you had a level 30 Thief as your main job, and then equipped your level 20 Warrior as the subjob; the Warrior job would be applied as if it were level 15. Naturally, it is in your best interest to have a subjob equipped at all times. This necessitates that a player levels up at least two jobs - alternating each as the main job to develop them. An as example, you can play your warrior job most of the week, but on certain days, you'll have to switch to your thief job in order to keep it caught up.

Like other online role-playing games, FFXI has an extensive quest system that will have you hunting monsters, searching for items, delivering goods, and even escorting NPCs. Quests are tasks that the player attempts to accomplish in order to obtain various items, money, abilities, and other things. (Although quests do not directly award experience points, players still accumulate them because monster killing is usually a part of any quest.) There are multitudes of quests that start by talking to the appropriate NPC - usually based in a city or town. Some quests are locked out until you gain "fame." In other words, you will not be able to start some quests until you've done many other quests for a particular town or faction. Most quests have an associated story, some of which are given their own cutscenes. In addition to quests, players can take on missions. The difference is that a mission often requires you to join a group of players in order to accomplish them since they are often too difficult to do alone. Missions also tie directly into the game's main story - complete with special cutscenes. Most quests and missions are optional, though some you will probably want to do anyway - especially those that give your character abilities you could not get otherwise.

FFXI's world of "Vana'diel" has roughly 30 land regions each divided into "zones." This translates to well over 200 or more zones ranging from vast wilderness, arid desert, tropical islands, dark caverns, ancient dungeons, and even magical hidden realms. Each zone requires a short loading session to occur when you travel between them. While this isn't as elegant as a "seemless" world (as in World of Warcraft), it does serve to give players a place to run should they get into trouble. (Monsters cannot pursue you beyond a zone's limit, so you can exit a zone to escape a chasing monster.) These zones are usually quite large. It takes 5-10 minutes to cross most outdoor zones on foot. Of course, in some areas you can "rent" a chocobo which allows you to travel a lot faster. (Veterans of Final Fantasy games will recognize these giant chicken-like creatures that have appeared in many of the franchise's games.) Zones are designed for specific level ranges, so that areas around major cities tend to be "newbie" zones, or zones that are filled with low-level monsters. As a player gets farther away from a major city, the zones become more dangerous with monsters of higher and higher levels. Generally speaking, for every level range there are several choices of zones to hunt monsters. Still, during peak times some zones become extremely crowded with players.

At the beginning of the game, you'll have to choose one of the three major cities to call home: Bastok, San'doria, and Windurst. Each city is actually home to one of the five playable races: Galka (Large humanoids with high hit points), Mithra (Cat-like with high dexterity), Tarutaru (cute, but strong in magic), Elvaan (tall elf-like humanoids with bonuses in strength and wisdom), and Hume (Humans - the well rounded race). While it is possible to excel at any job with any race, it is easier to do so by taking into account each race's strengths. As an example, you would probably not want to be a Galka if you intend to weild magic since their abilities are geared more for melee combat.

FFXI is definitely among the more difficult online role playing games around and part of this is due to its clunky interface. Redundant menus and confusing submenus are all over the screen. Whether you play with a mouse or controller, you'll quickly find that even casting a spell takes several clicks - which can be too long if you're in a dire situation. So to play this game effectively, you have to learn the macro command system. This allows you to assign actions to quick keys which makes playing the game much better. While it isn't rocket science, the system does require some finesse. It's disappointing that the game's default interface is so bad, but at least you can refer to one of several popular websites so you can take full advantage of the macro commands.

FFXI is a game that requires you to group with people to do almost anything: earning experience points, completing quests, accomplishing missions, etc. You won't get very far in this game without help from other players. Players who act greedy, selfish, or just play with others badly will find they will be blacklisted fast. Still, at lower levels players tend to be more forgiving since new players are trying to learn the ins and outs of the gameplay. But by level 30 or so, most players expect a certain professionalism when grouped together. Another unique aspect of the FFXI community is the diversity among the player base. Since FFXI was launched in Japan first, it has a large population of Japanese-speaking players. But that was years ago, and since then, the game has been released in both North America and Europe. The resulting population is mixed, but they tend to speak either English or Japanese. Communication between players of different languages is never really a problem in FFXI. Common sayings in English seem to be understood readily such as: "help!" "run!" "aggro" "attack," etc. FFXI also provides its own unique auto-translate feature. This translates most simple phrases into languages that other players can understand, based on their region of the world.

By default, your character will have a level cap of 50. In order for you to gain levels higher than 50, you must perform "level-break" quests. These quests initially begin at level 50. Once you complete the first level break quest, your level cap is raised by 5 to level 55. In order to gain levels higher than 55, you must again perform another level-break quest (which raises your level cap to 60). This continues every 5 levels after 50 so that by the time you hit level 75, you would have completed 5 level break quests. The quests themselves progressively get more difficult everytime, and it has been a source of concern among many new players. That is why having a group of trustworthy friends in FFXI is crucial. In a game where almost everything requires a group, your friends are your best bet to get you past level-break quests, and other difficult obstacles. By level 30 in fact, it is highly recommended that you join a "linkshell." This is FFXI's name for a guild, or a group of players who consider themselves friends. Joining a linkshell allows all members to talk to each other without having to form a party, and without having to be near each other. Level break quests are just an example of some of the required quests that you must accomplish in FFXI. Some of these quests are job specific, granting you items or abiltiies that define your class. And without help from friends, you will not accomplish these important quests.

No matter what type of character you make, you will be buying and selling in order to support your character(s). One of the most accessible ways to make money in the game is through FFXI's synthesizing system (crafting). By combining items that you frind (by killing monsters), you can create items of more value, and thereby gain a profit when you sell it to another player. So for instance, if you took up alchemy, you could gather ingredients to make invisibility potions and then sell the potions for profit. That is the theory anyway. In actuality, making money in FFXI is can be challenging especially for the new player. Since much of the economy is already dominated by well-established players, it is difficult to make money on the more popular items. This is because more experienced players can obtain ingredients at lower cost, and thereby sell the resulting item at a discount. Still, you can resort to the age-old-method of farming - where you kill the same monsters over and over again in order to sell the valueable items they award when killed. While farming is generally the last thing you want to do, at least you can resort to it should you need money badly.

Most items are bought and sold through the game's auction house system. In each of the major cities, there is an auction house. These are largely independent of one another, though some auction houses are actually linked. Seperation of these auction houses serves to promote a diverse economy. For instance items that are more expensive in one city can be found cheaper in another city. You can also directly sell items to other players by turning on the "bizaar" mode. In this mode, your character is flagged with a special icon indicating that you are selling items. Any passer-by can then examine your "bizaar" of goods and directly purchase items for the price you set. In this way, you can bypass the nominal fee that auction houses charge to put up items for sale

FFXI was notorious for having an epidemic of farmers - players who do nothing but gather valueable resources that increase their in-game wealth. In turn, they would take their in-game currency and sell it for real money through Ebay, IGE, or some other online service. Argueably, this damaged the economy to the point where inflation of items was rampant. A player who tried to make an "honest" living by selling his crafted items found that profit margins were very slim. As recently as July, 2006 Square-Enix imposed bans on 2,000 accounts for participating in the trading of real money in exchange for in-game currency, items, and characters.

A big part of any massively multiplayer role-playing game is the "end game," or the activities that are left to players once they hit the level cap. In FFXI, there is a good amount of activities for players who hit the level cap. Instead of earning XP, you can earn "merit" points which enable you to customize your character's attributes specifically. For example, you can add merit points to increase your base strength, and thereby increase the damage you inflict with melee weapons. (A single merit point however takes the same amount of time to earn a level - and at level 75, that's a quite a long time.) By level 70 or so, players can begin hunting "god monsters." These monsters reside in a zone only accessible to high level players. They are also so difficult to kill, that it takes a group of 12-24 people to take them down. Not surprisingly, player guilds are the ones who run "god hunts." The rewards from killing one of these monsters is usually several magical weapons, gems, and other rare items. The catch is the treasure that is awarded is completely random, and very few in number. So if you went on a god hunt hoping that it would reward that Sword of +25 accuracy, the chance of it appearing in the monster's treasure is slim, and even if it does, you would have to contend with other melee-based characters in your group for it. Guilds who run these god hunts often have their own rules about treasure from god hunts - usually boiling down to who has served the guild the best, and who can actually use the items for their job. Another activity popular among level 75 players is HNM (hyper/high-level notorious monster) hunting. This is similiar to god hunting, but it usually does not require as many players to accomplish (often a single party of 6 high level players is enough). Like god hunting, HNM hunting often rewards players with very valueable treasure by killing a monster that is significantly more tough than others of its kind. The hard part is you'll have to engage the monster before anyone else does so that you can claim its treasure (the first person/party to engage the monster is the one who gets any treasure from it). Finally, high level players can also finish out missions that they haven't yet completed (which is often the case even at level 75), or help out guild members with their quests.

Your experience in FFXI is largely dependent on whether or not you can make friends in the game. This is especially true at the level cap, where the most rewarding activities (god monster hunts, HNM hunts, and special missions/quests) often require that you are a member of a guild, or have several trustworthy friends to adventure with. As a veteran player of FFXI, I can say that this game is even more time-consuming than most other MMORPGs. Because earning experience points, increasing crafting skills, and just about everything else is both deceptively addictive, and painstakingly slow. FFXI will often feel more like a job than something that gives you enjoyment.