I played this game for many years when it first came out. I played all the way up to wings of the goddess. So when this came out, and it was on sale, I decided to give it a try again. To say things had changed was an understatement.

What was once a game you couldn't even TRY to solo before, and took hours and hours to get anything you wanted, within a week I was playing how I wanted. With the addition of Trust magic, an easily accessible magic that makes it so you can summon up to three NPCs, leveling has never been easier. Level caps on a lot of the content has been removed as well, so with any high level character you can do most of the previous content without the help of others (Not that you have to do it like that).

With the addition of the field support manuals (which help you level as well), A new sub menu to quests (That also help you level!) and the ability to teleport between home points for a small fee, the game is worth picking up again. Not a perfect MMO, but it's a classic as far as they go.

Good game, but a bit of a hassle if you're using it alongside steam. There's virtually no help getting the activation/startup underway online since SE made it absurdly complicated, so I fixed everything myself.
For anyone who downloaded this and can't get past the startup because it tells you that your PlayOnline password/ID is incorrect when it isn't, follow these steps.
Go online and register an account with Enix,
then what you'll need to do is create a unique password and ID for their webpage. WRITE THESE DOWN ON PAPER IMMEDIATELY.
Go to the place where you create your character (content/account. I know, it's weird they call it that.), it should be under their FFXI header enter in all your details, 16 digit subscription key and payment information to get your account active on their servers.
Next, find the part of the webpage near the bottom where there is a bunch of yellow tabs and choose the PLAYERONLINE password change.
You don't need to know your existing password or even have one to change it. Just make one there.
NEXT; you open the software where you couldn't get past before.
You'll see your user profile, click it.
Click SETTINGS,
okay here's what they don't tell you..
In your email they should have sent you your playonline ID which looks like ABCD1234, enter that into the PlayOnline ID tab.
underneath that it shows password as greyed out, click the black arrow and select save.
Enter the password you previously changed on their webpage, should have been near the bottom of the webpage that said change PLAYERONLINE password.
Okay, next you'll see near the bottom is a greyed out SQUARE ENIX ID ;) Click the black arrow again to input.
These are your login details for your online login. Simply enter in the ID you made for online. IT IS DIFFERENT THAN YOUR PLAYONLINE password/ID!!
Apply these two IDs and Passwords and close the settings window.
Next choose to login, it will prompt you for your SQUARE ENIX password, as it should already have your ID listed.
Use the password you created for your online/website account.

If you want to have it broadcast, you can't do so with it's default launch system polpool since it clashes with the steam launch system, you need to go to the game files, find the POL viewer startup, create a shortcut for it on the desktop, then add it as a non-steam game to your games list. Rename it so people know what you're playing.

Should you play FFXI in 2024? That really depends. I still had things I wanted to finish and I still knew how to do them. If you're a Final Fantasy nut and you want to play all of the games? You can do it. In the original release you could not level past, like, level 12 by yourself and even "easy prey" monster would absolutely destroy you or be not worth fighting and also not grant any experience. That is not the case anymore. You can easily level to 99 on your own, in a fraction of the time it would have taken to get to 75. You can form parties with NPC "trusts" of characters you unlock from the game. You can over-level and stomp missions and see most of the content. Basic high level gear is easy to get. This is the kinda game that explodes at max level. The leveling is fun because you're moving through areas quickly and seeing a bunch of different enemies and then at level 99 you can do, literally, thousands of different things.

What kind of things can you do other than level up classic Final Fantasy jobs? When it comes down to it, this game is about combat. The combat itself consists of engaging, where you will auto attack and then use spells, weaponskills, job abilities, pet abilities, items, and other stuff to alter the fight. It's definitely an older school MMORPG style of combat, but it absolutely holds up because its very strategic and requires different types of management depending on the encounter. How do you break up the combat? There are lots of little things to do including crafting, fishing, decorating your Mog House, raising animals on your island where they can provide you with buffs, farm on your little island, run around and waffle-stomp old content to feel powerful, or go see zones you haven't explored yet.

My unfinished business was that wanted to be able to craft my own high quality jug pets for Beastmaster, which is my favorite job. That means I need to get my cooking craft skill to 110, plus get gear that gets that skill above the 110 hard cap. That also means I need to get my fishing leveled to catch fish to use in cooking recipes to level my cooking skill and craft said pets. I wanted to have a full set of good, relevant, 119 gear. I also want to hit Master for the Beastmaster. Mastery is leveling your job past level 99 with Capacity points to give yourself even more ridiculous, job specific buffs. I will probably do all of that, then figure out more things I want to do because there are hundreds, if not thousands of hours of content still in this game that you can do by yourself.

The game, however, is still over 20 years old. If you download this on Steam and launch it and play it, you can do all the things I told you about previously, plus all the things I didn't mention, but its gonna be rough. The game is ugly, its a PS2 game. The UI, while I think is ahead of its time, is very dated now. The game is essentially a spreadsheet with a Final Fantasy skin over the top of it. You interact with the game by using menus and almost menus only. That isn't a necessarily a bad thing, it's just a product of its time. The game, originally, didn't explain a ♥♥♥♥♥♥' thing. That is not hyperbole, you often didn't even know if you had flagged a quest chain unless you had looked up, or someone told you. Why? Well, translation issues is what my understanding is. A lot of that is much better now, but you are still going to need use a ton of paratext to play this game. The wikis are completely necessary. When I returned to the game I was searching so much stuff, like "FFXI Frigorifish" that when I go to search anything I, out of habit, had started to type "FFXI" before my search.

So, you wanna play a full, actually, numbered, mainline Final Fantasy game that is a 20 year MMO? How do you do that in 2024? It's really not as bad as I made it out to be. The wikis have several very good guides on how to start the game, get to level 99, get some 119 gear easily, and even give some gentle suggestions on which jobs they recommend for "solo" players and, importantly, brand new players. Find the FFXI Windower, it is basically required to play this game in 2024. It allows for a bunch of add-ons that will drastically increase your quality of life in the game. There are also guides on YouTube on how to download some 4K texture packs and allow the game to use more graphical memory. I recommend you do all of these. It is not hard to do at all, there are step-by-step videos. The add-ons are, technically, against the TOS, but I don't think anyone is gonna hit you with the banhammer as long as you're not actively cheating. Make sure you look at your Records of Eminence. They serve as part tutorial, part in-game guide to content, part quest system, part reward system. The game will point you in the direction to do them, at the very least. If you're just getting into it now, play on the Asura server, that is where everyone is. I am on Quetz and its kinda depressing with how few people are online at a given time. If you are getting back into it with friends, play wherever, but if you want to experience the social stuff again, I recommend going to Asura. I am probably gonna move there when this friend group inevitably drops off and I want to keep playing. You also need to pick reasonable in game goals. There are weapons that are supposed to take literal months to get, maybe even years. Do not hyperfocus on one thing and think that is what you absolutely need to be successful. I think its perfectly reasonable to go, "I want to get a couple jobs I like to level 99, get a set of 119 gear, and complete all of the storylines." That would be a hundred hours of content and the stories/characters are excellent! So many of the plot points are revisited and expanded on, tied into, and fully explained throughout the arc of the many expansions. Especially if you were like me and really wanted to enjoy the game when it was originally released, you can go back now and absolutely destroy your old enemies. Oh Battering Ram, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who killed me so many times when I was trying to solo-level in La Theine, I get to murder you whenever I want now.

That reminds me... The game is, more or less, on life support. It hasn't received a substantial update since 2021. There was even talk about Square Enix taking the game down, but they don't want this entire experience to go away, more on that later. There are still monthly log-in campaigns, and the Ambuscade fights rotate monthly as well. Other than that, there is still a zillion hours of content. I don't think its in danger of going offline any time soon. Especially not in the amount of time it would take for you to read this review, then go and enjoy what the game has to offer.

I'll close out with what people who weren't alive when this game came out call, "Hopium." Yes the game is old and isn't getting any updates that we know of. Are they gonna take it offline? Maybe. It sounds like they might try to transfer it into some sort of single player experience then since its a huge body of work that they don't want to just...destroy. It is an excellent body of work. My hope is that they do a huge balance pass removing the sheer amount of things you need to craft Relic weapons and that like. As I said, it is basically just a giant spreadsheet, just tweak those numbers SE! There is no freakin' way I can get 40,000 Riftdross to get a Relic weapon to its final 119 form. They don't have to completely remove the multiplayer aspect, they could make it peer-to-peer so you could still link up and play with your buds.

So who should play this game? People who were always curious about trying it. People who, like me, have unfinished business from when they have played before. Final Fantasy and MMORPG nuts. People who have potato PCs but are looking for games they can really sink their teeth into. Now please come to Western Adoulin on Quetz and buy these ♥♥♥♥♥♥' jug pets I have too many of out of my bazaar.

Pumped more hours into this on PS2 than my marriage at this point. I constantly wish I could go back to 2002 and just smoke uh, stuff, and drink all day like a vagrant and kill crabs in the dunes with random people that weren't toxic and life was good. You know, like before politicians were on social media or before social media at all really. Shout out to MySpace I guess.

10/10 Would do it all over again

This game is not for everyone. Many people coming from other MMOs seem to often misunderstand that the design of FFXI is simply made with a philosophy that is quite different. Consequently, this seems to lead some to go into it expecting the game to try and accomplish a lot of the goals that are now standard in the genre. I believe this unfortunately sours the experience for many. Nevertheless, if you are willing to set aside your notions of what MMOs should be and do, there is a great experience waiting for you in FFXI.

Regarding PlayOnline:
PlayOnline is an online service and launcher that Square Enix used for many games but is now solely for FFXI. It has become a meme over the years as it is required to play and feels very convoluted and antiquated. That being said, I believe the qualms people have with registration/PlayOnline are grossly hyperbolic. It's really not that bad. Yes it is archaic, there are more steps than it feels are necessary, but if you just read carefully and follow the instructions, it really shouldn't be more than a 20 minute endeavor. Launching the game via PlayOnline only requires entering your password.

I am not old:
I was far too young to play FFXI when it came out. I didn't really get into it until I had already put several thousand hours into FFXIV. I thought this was important to point out because there seems to be a perception that the game is only seen in a positive light by older people with rose tinted glasses. While this may be partially true, myself and others I have met who are not in that demographic are testament to the fact that you can enjoy this game regardless of any kind of nostalgic convictions.

Compared to FFXIV:
I believe being 2 numbered entries in a franchise that are both MMOs begets a comparison. This is difficult as, as stated earlier, what FFXI seeks to accomplish with its design is very different. I've seen often many fans of both games saying the other falls flat in comparison, but I don't think that's necessarily fair. Regardless I think this will also serve as a good way to highlight certain aspects of XI.

The main difference is that XI revolves around primarily open world content while XIV focuses on instanced content. XIV feels much faster paced, and is based around vertical progression by way of item level. XI feels much slower paced and, while certainly having some vertical progression in the end game, is much more focused on horizontal progression. The problem with this analysis though is that the pace of the gameplay is relative to the systems and mechanics in the games, so depending on your perspective, parts of XIV could feel slower than XI in some ways.

In terms of progression, you can get quite far very quickly in both games depending on what your goals are. However, the experience is far more guided in XIV; as you are geared and shown where to go all the way until endgame. Progressing in XI, although fairly straight forward most of the time, does more or less require you to look up a lot of information when necessary, as there are no quest markers and you are rarely given gear as rewards. Possibly one of the more important points is that XI is largely a solo experience until endgame, as you can do most of the main game with NPC party members. XIV is very much the opposite; requiring you to party manually or randomly with players to do dungeons and boss fights that are necessary to progress the story.

The last point I will make is more subjective, but is something I find important. Every mainline Final Fantasy tends to have a bit of a gimmick in its design that sets it apart from the others. To me, FFXI feels like a mainline FF game, its gimmick being that it is online. XIV however, seems to lack a lot of this identity. The way XI handles its leveling, jobs, and gear among other things, is very reminiscent of other mainline FF games, especially ones like FFV and FFTactics(I know it's not mainline technically.) There are pure support jobs, as well as the ability to equip any job as a subjob. Leveling is done by killing monsters rather than questing, and there are interesting gear pieces that do things like; proc flee(FFV Chicken Knife), have a chance for multi-hit, drain HP upon skill-up, etc. XIV on the other hand, while thematically and aesthetically fairly satisfyingly inline with the rest of the franchise in terms of writing and visuals, really drops the ball here IMO. In favor of adhering to industry MMO standards, they've had to drop a lot of the uniqueness of these things. e.g. exp is gained almost exclusively through quests and as rewards for completing instances, weapons and gear are simply minor stat increases with no interesting effects, and the job system really leaves a lot to be desired. Most XIV jobs are fun to play in their own way, but are extremely homogeneous in function for the sake of balance; thus, there are no subjobs, or pure support jobs. Now, I should make it clear this isn't intended to be a value judgement based on that. I understand why XIV doesn't have those things. it simply wouldn't work given how the rest of the game is designed. But nevertheless, I value these things while playing Final Fantasy games, I enjoy seeing them in XI, and am upset by their absence in XIV.

Overall this section isn't meant to be saying one is better than the other, but rather hopefully elucidate some reasons why they are different, and why XI may be worth checking out. And while XIV fails to deliver on a lot of the things I personally value in Final Fantasy, what it does set out to be it tends to succeed in fairly well, so I by no means would claim it's a bad game.

People who would maybe enjoy it:
enjoys atmospheric and slow burns
enjoys lengthy grind sessions
enjoys experiences where you can get utterly lost/must keep wikipedia open while playing
loves FF

People who maybe wouldn't enjoy it:
haven't played any FF games
have only played FFXIV/other modern MMOs
dislikes grinding
prefers clear direction
dislikes ps2 era graphics (although there are HD texture packs, highly recommended)
Of course these are just generalizations, if you see some gameplay or something and decide it looks cool, check it out!

Conclusion:
FFXI is a great game with incredible music and atmosphere, as well as fun and addicting gameplay. The learning curve to get used to the UI is somewhat steep, but otherwise I think with the right mindset the game is fairly approachable!

Edit:
In response to comments it's true it's not technically solo since you are more or less required to summon AI party members, it's essentially like FF12 gambits but they're predetermined. As long as you summon a healer, buffer, tank, or whatever you're not playing as, in my experience, real people in your party really makes no difference for leveling 1-99 or lower end farming, the trusts are smart/powerful enough. Also, trusts actually can do skillchains and magic bursts, so the damage can get crazy if you have the right ones (shout out Shantotto II.) The only real reason to have people in your party for that is if you were already friends and just wanted to play together, otherwise I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find anyone to join exp parties, but there are certain things random people would probably be willing to help with if you shouted for it.That being said, real people as party members are definitely required for high end content.

i remember being a wee lass and having a mental breakdown over CoP missions and now im 29 year old mother of 3 children emotionally numb to the world because of this game
10/10 builds character

FFXI is an MMO that was made around 2002 and even 20 years later, it will still feel like an MMORPG made in 2002, take that for what you will. It also still costs 12.99/month subscription to play, but as a result, does not have any of that F2P/P2W garbage other MMOs fall into.

its got a deceptively simplistic Auto-Attack system augmented with the ability to cast Spells, Weaponskills, and Job Abilities as well as combine Weaponskills into Skillchains which then allows specific elements of spells to magic burst for added damage/accuracy. The complexity of the combat comes mostly from its gear system, which allows you to swap gear instantly in combat to optimize every action you take, form casting speed, to ability bonuses, to Weaponskill damage boosting, or simple auto-attack gear augmented with Haste or Accuracy.

PVP is crap, don't even bother. It was never intended to be in the game and when they decided to toss it in it was really poorly implemented and they literally just left it to die thereafter.

They did this as well with a very potentially AMAZING system called "Monstrocity" in which you can play as enemies. You can literally play as a Rabbit or Malboro, to HNM level enemies like a HYDRA and BEHEMOTH, and you level them up, learn their abilities and spells and skills, unlock new species by leveling up certain species, all which themselves also unlock "Instincts" you equip like gear to power yourself up with the ultimate goal of being fully realized PVP system where you as a Monster fight other players and become your own HNM/NM!

Literally one of the most unique systems in any MMO i've played and they launched it too late in the games life (Around the time XIV was dying in 1.0 and needed the 2.0 overhaul) and it lost most of its developers to rescue FFXIV from failing, and they just never gave them back because FFXIV 2.0 became a huge success and they dumped FFXI like a dumpster baby. Still salty about this to this day.

Anyway, enough negativity, Despite the Steam pages low-hours shown, I played this game for about 14-15 years and had probably spent more hours of my life in FFXI than I have in any other activity in my life, including all of school or any one job I've ever held, and while you can't play my memories of the game, I can certainly recommend if you're a fan of old school RPGs, and the more simplistic styles of combat that old RPGs/MMOs had, along with a very very deep itemization system, its worth giving it a run through.

The game still has a decent population, though you will likely struggle to find anyone to help in early-level missions, which is why they've introduced "Trusts", a kind of summonable NPC to help you. Trusts take up a party slot and act as AI companions, its a 20 year old game, there arent exactly hundreds of low level players running around to party up like there used to be, and this is one of those systems added to alleviate early game grind.

There are 6 Starting classes, being Warrior/Thief/Monk/White Mage/Black Mage/Red Mage. Later on, you can do quests to unlock several more Jobs included Ninja, Scholar, Geomancer, Rune Fencer, Paladin, and a lot of other Final Fantasy series staples. Each job starts at level 1, and needs to be leveled individually. The game also employs a sub-job system letting you multi-class abilities and spells from your Sub job, but at functionally half of your main jobs level.

I fell in love with FFXI in the early days because of its interesting loot, fantastic music, the random "Notorious Monsters" you could find sprinkled across the world lending to the feeling of rewarding exploration, and really quite interesting story (COP Onward mostly, ROTZ/Launch Story is quite bland), those things don't exist as they did for me, so your playthrough will be wildly different. Back when Chains of Promathia first launched, the content was level capped, dragging you down to specific level ranges when you entered a zone or did a quest. As low as 30 for Promyvions, and up to 60 for later areas, which added a lot of challenge to the missions, making them both frustrating and very rewarding. Now its all uncapped and you can pretty much sleep through them, but they've still got a nice story attached.

FFXI is working with pretty much a skeleton crew these days, but still releasing content and even a new story arc started recently. While the game hasn't had a big expansion since Seekers of Adoulin some years ago, its had two story releases in the form of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, a very lovely send-off for the series and tying up the story nicely as it was originally intended as the final story arc for the game (Legitimately cried when I beat the final mission for that btw, it was a beautiful send off that wont quite have the same impact to a new player as it did to a veteran of the game), and more recently The Voracious Resurgence which I can tell you nothing about because I haven't played XI since its releases (But its still ongoing as of writing this).

One thing to note, FFXI has not really retired any of its old content. While the value of the content may not be what it once was, all the content is there for you to try if you wanted. There are still silly NMs wandering around that may just destroy you, and who drop weird or useless loot (Or if you're leveling up, can still drop some nice useable stuff for your early game journey). Rather you experience that or not is up to you.

Either way, if you're willing to jump into a time capsule and play an MMO from 2002, I think this is one of the best you'll find thats still relatively the same game it was in 2002. For better or worse.

You'll never be able to play my memory of the game, if you did you'd fall in love with FFXI I assure you, but even as it stands today, its a Final Fantasy game, with great music, a wonderful story, and solid combat for its time.

TL;DR: If you played this years ago and wanted to "finish the game", i.e. the story and all the missions, and you manage to get this on sale for approximately 10 bucks it's totally worth it.

You'll be 99 on your first job within a week and within a month you could finish all the storyline stuff / missions that are soloable, which is most of them, and then you can either continue subbing or cancel and moonwalk into that FFXI sunset with your craving sated and no need to farm mastery levels, job points, or finish your +3 gearset.

The game is playable right now and there's still people running around farming merits / job points / mastery / upgrading gear, etc. The old basic game-play loop is still around, just in a modified form.

Definitely a big hit of nostalgia returning to Vanadiel for the first time in almost 20 years, and I mostly enjoyed my time back with some notable exceptions.


Now, for those of you that want something more in-depth:

Pros:

The game is more accessible than it's ever been. There's NPC's for holding your crystals and seals to free up inventory space, a linkshell concierge that hands out linkpearls so new players can find people to talk to, npc party members that can tank / heal / dps for you as you level and complete most content.

An NPC will trade you leveling gear for "Sparks", which are accumulated by completing repeatable quests in every zone. Usually it's things like "kill x number of xp granting mobs" while in the zone, so it's pretty simple.

Waypoints. There are now telepoints spread around so once you've been somewhere once you can teleport back to a nearby spot as long as you touched the book / crystal while you were there. No more teleporting to one of the Crags and running to Shakhrami or Fei'Yin, or wherever. It made the world feel smaller, but now the game feels more like it respects your time.

Completing the Rhapsodies questline, which is mostly soloable, will unlock additional permanent xp and capacity point boosts, as well as give you access to a moogle that has food / consumables for ninja skills / ammo, and reduce or eliminate the cooldown on entering endgame content like Dynamis and Abyssea.


Cons:

I had to watch a YouTube video to figure out how to setup my account just to start playing. The game is old, the UI is old, and because of the way Square coded everything it's just one big mess and nothing is explained well.

Going with the above, you'll probably need to watch a tutorial video on YouTube just to figure out how to pan your camera, access your map, search for other players, etc. Like I said, it's an old game and the UI is about as awful as ever.

The player count is extremely low, unless you play on the Asura server, and even on Asura there's not a ton of people. Seriously, I didn't talk to a single other player for almost the first 2 weeks. There's still a decent number of Japanese players on during the time zones they're normally active, but the non-JP player count is around 300 people during US prime time on a weeknight.

Going with the above, the Auction House might as well not even exist. You'll probably be able to find mats for things like the gobbiebag quests at prices that will make your eyes water, but good luck finding gear to outfit your ring, earring, belt, or thrown weapon slots once you hit 99.

Most of the players you run into have mastered their class, which means they've dropped a thousand hours or more into it and done a ton of farming. Seriously, besides the hardcore holdouts I can count on one hand the number of newer players I ran into during my 30 days in-game.

Love it or hate it, the game isn't being updated any more so what you get is what you see.

I won't say the game is dying, but it's definitely in the weird twilight phase really old MMO's go through where you've distilled the playerbase down to the nostalgia tourists and the hardcore, long term enjoyers. Unfortunately, this is usually right before everything shuts down.

11/10

Love the game and played it for over 9 years.... want to play now but can't due to internet limitations. Wish they would rescale the game for solo or LAN offline play because I know a good few people who would buy that in a heartbeat. Myself included.