Final Fantasy XI – Great Continuation of the Hit Series

Calling all of you out there who love fantasy role playing video games: if you liked Elder Scrolls the Oblivion, then chances are that you will also dig Final Fantasy XI. While the primary notion behind Final Fantasy is playing online with other players as you complete quests and further your player’s mindset and abilities, it still makes for a greatly enthralling first person campaign as well. But it is wise to note that you will notice that the free-world of this game offers far less to do than the free-world in Elder Scrolls does. You will also note that this game is a graphically pristine beauty that offers some of the highest details and renderings that I have ever seen in any video game ever. Considering that this game had an early 2006 debut with Square Enix being the developer, it is rather surprising that it offers so much for being one of the earlier Xbox 360 games.

They decided to do away with the turn by turn battle play calling which has greatly decremented many fantasy role playing games prior, including the Final Fantasy Series. You know where you get in a fight in the game and you are asked to choose what players in your party do what, then once you select their choice of attack, they attack and then the computer attacks back. It makes for a rather boring battle experience that is far from realistic. So this time around Square Enix decided that it would be better as a first person experience, and I could not agree with them more on this decision. Which, in my opinion, would have ruined the game otherwise. They successfully implemented first person experience without straying too far from the original Final Fantasy concept.

The game play is amazing. You will be challenged left and right. And if you don’t work hard to get your player’s stats up, you will get your ass handed to you all of the time. However, take the time and do the side quests, amass an arsenal of enchanted weapons and armor, and recruit other players into your questing party, and you will not be able to be stopped or shutdown. One problem that I found with this game is that the boards are so detailed and large, that the online play rather sucks. It is constantly hanging and loading. I did notice a few minor other glitches in the game as well. Like choppy walls, or water that is noticeably polygon. However, when you undertake a game as huge as this is, you can not manage to ever find or fix all of the problems. And in my opinion, most of the glitches I saw were nominal and don’t really take away from the gaming experience in any way.

I wish the game offered a better Xbox Live experience. However, all in all, this is one hell of a great role playing game people! Definitely worth owning.

My Score: 9.5 out of 10