Final Fantasy XI Story Overview (All Expansions Explained)
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2024
- #FinalFantasy #FinalFantasyXI #FinalFantasyVIIRebirth #SquareEnix #MMORPG #FinalFantasyXIV #dawntrail
The first video on UA-cam to discuss the story of ALL Final Fantasy XI expansions. If you liked this video, please smash that like button, comment, and subscribe!
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Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
7:59 - Final Fantasy XI Base Game (2002)
16:27 - The Limit Break Quests
22:51 - Rise of the Zilart (2003)
29:41 - Chains of Promathia (2004)
38:19 - Treasures of Aht Urghan (2006)
48:24 - Wings of the Goddess (2007)
59:17 - A Crystalline Prophecy (2009)
1:05:46 - A Shantotto Ascension (2009)
1:09:19 - A Moogle Kupo d'Etat (2009)
1:12:41 - Abyssea (2010)
1:23:38 - Seekers of Adoulin (2013)
1:36:48 - Rhapsodies of Vana'diel (2015)
1:45:45 - The Voracious Resurgence (2020)
1:57:35 - Bonus Jonas
Quick Adoulin Fame:
ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/...
Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Guide:
www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Category...
Vicenarian:
/ @vicenarian340
Korvana:
/ @ffxithemovie
Account Setup Guide:
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Thrifty032781:
/ @thrifty032781
Ideasthete:
/ @ideasthete
Leveling Spots:
Level 1-15: Ronfaure/Sarutabaruta/Gustaberg, just fight whatever's outside of town.
Level 15-25: Valkurm Dunes at either west (E-9/F-9) or east (H-9-I-9) beach. Fight crabs until level 18, then add in Pugils.
Level 25-32: Qufim Island, here you'll fight some worms and crabs. H-7 is a good place to camp, just be wary of ghosts at night.
Level 32-46: Garlaige Citadel, here you'll fight Bats and Beetles These are all on the first map, just make a loop around the first area, between G/H/I-8 and I/H/G-9 and you'll be good.
Level 46-55: Bostaniuex Oubliette, here you'll fight Bats. Drop down into the sewer (Map 1, E-8) and stay in the first L-shaped hallway. Be careful of the Hecatomb Hound in the middle at H-7, and don't go past the 4 Werebats at G-7.
Level 55-65: Wajaom Woodlands, fight the Lesser Colibri at the leypoint in the middle of the map (G-8). This will require you unlocking Treasures of Aht Urghan.
Level 65-70: Boyahda Tree, you will want to fight Processionaires on Map 3 at H-9/I-9/H-10/I-10. The fastest way here is from the Home Point crystal near Cloister of Storms, after which you'll make a left along the southwest wall from map 2.
Level 70-82 #1: Bhaflau Thickets, Mamool Ja Staging Point, you can fight basically whatever is hanging out around here. Various Sea Puk, Mamool Ja, Skoffin. You will need to trek through Mamook to unlock this area.
Level 82-87: Mount Zhayolm, here you'll fight some Orichalcumshell. To unlock, go to the Nyzul Staging point exit, take F-5 to Halvung, which is a straight tunnel to Mount Zhayolm. The crabs are just outside, and there's an Home Point at D-8.
Level 87-99: Ceizak Battlegrounds, Blanched Mandragora - J-7, J-8, J-9, just outside town.
Additional Game Footage:
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Hi! I do read ALL my comments, BUT I'm done responding to comments about private servers UNLESS you bring up a good point I haven't heard before! If you make a good case, I'll actually respond. If you don't get a response to specific points you made, it's because I've heard those points before and don't think said points are very good. Private servers are piracy, and I support the devs. #SorryNotSorry
Chrono Series Ranking Video: ua-cam.com/video/duREyMpy4Zk/v-deo.html
Final Fantasy Ranking Playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLXjn34wFCMP-6Kl56Fn2Ig3msOHqZAVhv.html
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
7:59 - Final Fantasy XI Base Game (2002)
16:27 - The Limit Break Quests
22:51 - Rise of the Zilart (2003)
29:41 - Chains of Promathia (2004)
38:19 - Treasures of Aht Urghan (2006)
48:24 - Wings of the Goddess (2007)
59:17 - A Crystalline Prophecy (2009)
1:05:46 - A Shantotto Ascension (2009)
1:09:19 - A Moogle Kupo d'Etat (2009)
1:12:41 - Abyssea (2010)
1:23:38 - Seekers of Adoulin (2013)
1:36:48 - Rhapsodies of Vana'diel (2015)
1:45:45 - The Voracious Resurgence (2020)
1:57:35 - Bonus Jonas
Quick Adoulin Fame:
ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Adoulin_Quests
Rhapsodies of Vana'diel Guide:
www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Category:Rhapsodies_of_Vanadiel_Missions
Vicenarian:
www.youtube.com/@vicenarian340
Korvana:
www.youtube.com/@FFXITheMovie
Account Setup Guide:
ua-cam.com/video/Qldwt7F3VAA/v-deo.htmlsi=_EtChyjdrmbb906W
Thrifty032781:
www.youtube.com/@Thrifty032781
Ideasthete:
www.youtube.com/@Ideasthete
Leveling Spots:
Level 1-15: Ronfaure/Sarutabaruta/Gustaberg, just fight whatever's outside of town.
Level 15-25: Valkurm Dunes at either west (E-9/F-9) or east (H-9-I-9) beach. Fight crabs until level 18, then add in Pugils.
Level 25-32: Qufim Island, here you'll fight some worms and crabs. H-7 is a good place to camp, just be wary of ghosts at night.
Level 32-46: Garlaige Citadel, here you'll fight Bats and Beetles These are all on the first map, just make a loop around the first area, between G/H/I-8 and I/H/G-9 and you'll be good.
Level 46-55: Bostaniuex Oubliette, here you'll fight Bats. Drop down into the sewer (Map 1, E-8) and stay in the first L-shaped hallway. Be careful of the Hecatomb Hound in the middle at H-7, and don't go past the 4 Werebats at G-7.
Level 55-65: Wajaom Woodlands, fight the Lesser Colibri at the leypoint in the middle of the map (G-8). This will require you unlocking Treasures of Aht Urghan.
Level 65-70: Boyahda Tree, you will want to fight Processionaires on Map 3 at H-9/I-9/H-10/I-10. The fastest way here is from the Home Point crystal near Cloister of Storms, after which you'll make a left along the southwest wall from map 2.
Level 70-82 #1: Bhaflau Thickets, Mamool Ja Staging Point, you can fight basically whatever is hanging out around here. Various Sea Puk, Mamool Ja, Skoffin. You will need to trek through Mamook to unlock this area.
Level 82-87: Mount Zhayolm, here you'll fight some Orichalcumshell. To unlock, go to the Nyzul Staging point exit, take F-5 to Halvung, which is a straight tunnel to Mount Zhayolm. The crabs are just outside, and there's an Home Point at D-8.
Level 87-99: Ceizak Battlegrounds, Blanched Mandragora - J-7, J-8, J-9, just outside town.
Wow, it's extremely rare to see people talk about XI story. Before I made my video, I only found Geraru Taru and Korvana talking about it. And before I forget it, screw that mountain climbing mission in Seekers of Adoulin, I fell a lot of times trying to get to the top. For newer players I also reccomend watching cloudchief guides for leveling and general setup of the game.
Dat mountain
Great video, Greg.
I’m one of those vets that played the game since 2005 when we got the game in Europe. I’ve played more or less daily with a couple year break due to life.
I play both versions of the game for nostalgia and retail, it’s vastly different game but I’m not here to bark down your throat that I see some comments.
I’m hopeful for whatever the devs will come up with in the future and after XIV collaborations.
Thanks mate! I appreciate ya! I'm hopeful for the Dawntrail stuff too. I've got a long way to go in XIV before I play it myself but I'm incredibly excited for it.
I really hope we get more main story XI content someday. Fingers crossed!
I am extremely excited about this video! I don't think FFXI ever had a story recap. All I have seen are complete storylines (which are very long).
I hope this video lives up to your expectations! I will say that this is an overview, not a recap. Basically, I'm not going into major spoilers in case anybody wants to check out FFXI and hasn't played a particular expansion, but I will talk about the general outline of each expansion, major characters, etc.
Granted, me just doing a "brief overview" means this video is longer than 2 hours, hahaha.
Amazing video! Loved hearing a FFXI retrospective from an ofline FF fan's perspective.
One quick note about FFXI's gamplay content. It is true that most of the rewards from older battle content like OG Dynamis is no longer relevant. But almost every piece of battle content has some rewards that still keep them highly relevant in today's endgame. Most pieces of battle content is relevant to getting an ultimate weapon or armor peice. Some content still rewards *BiS* accessories.
For me, this just makes the battle content feel less like an MMO (where so much becomes obsolete) and more like a Final Fantasy. Just like most FFs, almost all of the content is rewarding. And it will forever be mind-blowing to me that the game has somehow kept the VAST majority of it's content relevant, despite some of it being 20 years old or older!
Thank you so much for this story summary. Easily the best UA-cam video on FFXI!
That is true, I did neglect to mention that, but it is cool how they found a way to make all of that battle content relevant in someway towards modern endgame. The devs put a lot of care into crafting this game and I love how they found a way to make every piece of content worthwhile in someway. Vicenarian does acknowledge that in his videos, which I appreciate, as he's also a story-first player like myself.
Thank you so much for these kind words. They mean a lot and put a big smile on my face. : )
The biggest reason for WotG distaste was actually due to the fact that the expansion was the absolute longest drawn-out release schedule as a lot of their crew was already being shifted over to FFXIV 1.0 for development. Each of the nation mission stories and the main story were released in 3 major segments and your rank within campaign was required to remain in tact (which would dwindle if you didn't log in and participate) to be able to progress when the next section finally released.
XI fans I've noticed aren't the best at adjusting opinions after first impressions. Zilart is amazing because it came out in 2003, WOTG is trash because it was incomplete at launch. I understand the frustration to a degree playing through the tiny updates in Voracious, but the quality of WOTG makes it absolutely worth the wait, IMO.
To elucidate the Abyssea controversy for you, the real issue was:
Abyssea came out the year after the infamous Salvage bans. The Salvage bans were bans done to players, mainly NA players, after Square Enix collected data on an item duplication exploit only possible Salvage due to the nature of how alliances and the drop table worked inside of the event. In short, you could turn 1 drop into 3. The bans affected mostly endgame players, who were largely the leaders of most linkshells and social groups and community testers. It did also catch anyone who just so happened to be in their groups, even if they gained nothing from the exploit and did not know it was being employed.
This altered the face of the endgame scene in mid-late 2009, right around the time A Crystalline Prophecy came out. Following that was the level cap raise to 80, which saw new EXP camps added for high level players as well as new weaponskills gained from heightened combat skills.
The level cap raise was a big ask for a lot of players, because the grind to level 75 back then could take months by itself, sometimes even more than year, if you played a pariah job like DRG, BST, PUP, or SMN.
The systems introduced in Abyssea rearranged the face of EXP parties in addition to adding gear comparable to the level 75 endgame gear. Not all of it was actually better right off the bat. The main issue became that you can farm time extensions and stay in Abyssea forever, if you don't log out or leave. You can also spawn chests that yield 1250 exp per chest to anyone in the same ALLIANCE that opens the chest, regardless of character level. So the procedure for leveling jobs turned from the known method of Valkurm Dunes (10 to 20) > Qufim Island (20 to 25)> Yuhtunga Jungle + Yhoator (25 to 32)> East Altepa (32 to 36ish)> Crawler's Nest + Quicksand Caves (36 to 42ish) > West Altepa (43ish to 50ish) > Quicksand Caves (50~54is) Kuftal Tunnel + Wajaom Woodlands (55 to 61ish) > Bibiki Bay + Caedarva Mire (64ish to 72ish) > Lufaise Meadows + Bhaflau Thickets (72 to 75 and meripos). To basically becoming, get to level 30 by any means you could, and then do something called, "Key Whoring" for an alliance of level 75+ players, allowing you to go from level 30 to level 80 in a single day on any job.
Prior to this, there was an exploit with SMN's Astral Flow and the newly introduced Level Sync system that allowed anyone willing to pay the SMN mercs to do a Level Sync Korroloka Tunnel Astral Flow burn to level any job to 75 without ever leaving the tunnel. Abyssea basically allowed anyone willing to put together an alliance to do this for free, and people basically didn't stop doing this until Trusts took over individual leveling in the later Seekers of Adoulin years.
Keep in mind, the level 75 cap and all of its associated content had been the norm and the progression for about 6.5 years, and since the game was a struggle and endgame linkshells were run by people abusing assholes, getting the gear was always a major endeavor of luck and dedication and putting up with assholes / navigating a social sphere (FOR YEARS). So you get Abyssea in this way, and it dramatically alters the game progression from the top down, destroying asshole's hold on the game overnight, destroying the value of level 75 crafting recipes overnight, destroying the value of low level EXP camps over night, and the game became so Abyssea centric for a while that the devs had to correct their own pendulum swing by continually rolling out updates that added things like Fields of Valor and Grounds of Valor to make outside EXP comparable.
Mileage may vary, but basically this destabilized a lot of linkshells and a lot of social groups immediately after they'd been destabilized after the Salvage bans. With the add-on storylines being seen as a means to an end for their gear rewards, the first augmented gear available in the game, a lot of players were starting to feel like they were being farmed like cash cows in a game that could fail at any moment. $10 USD for every add-on, adds up.
I personally really enjoyed this shake up, because I always felt ill at ease with the social situation with linkshell leaders actively disparaging their lesser skilled LS members while lording control of drops and loot over them. My brother actually joined an endgame linkshell during the level 75 era that did things like trade drops from HNMs for sex with members. I'm forever glad that Abyssea largely put a stop to all of that.
I did grossly simplify my explanation for the video, but I appreciate you giving this fuller context. The bottom paragraph is terrifying and makes me like Abyssea more for disrupting the social order of the game. It seems like Abyssea was a good infusion of populism into the game.
Abyssea key holder {do you need it?} {Can I have it?}
Basically, you want to get 1-cap in multiple jobs in one day. I'd be lying if I said it was good for the game. The whole speal bout FFXI was the friends you made along the way, the months it took you to get to cap with them, then job quests, and ultimately {sky} {sea} Dynamis, HNMs and other end-game stuff. Now you can skip any sort of interaction which made FFXI interesting in favor of a casual play style and just be there in a few hours. People skipped what made FFXI, FFXI, but then again perhaps it was their way of getting interest back into the game.
Now you get to end-game, bonded with no one and the game becomes soulless.
@@Xeyvian Nah. You can still bond with other players, it's just that early game content can be soloed. The content that required playing with other players is no longer the content that requires playing with other players, but there is NEW content that requires that same level of teamwork and friendship. The only difference is which content it is. You don't need help getting to Jeuno, but you'll need help with a lot of stuff in modern XI.
The level cap raise was the main reason for me to quit
@@hayalmatnu9919 You should come back and play the amazing new content.
I bought FF11 on a whim during lockdowns and played for a couple of months.
I found the story impossible to follow so I spent some time looking for a video just like this with no luck.
So thanks for your service!
The reason you weren't able to find a video like this is because, up until this video, nobody had bothered to do it, hahaha. Somebody had to do it! I'm glad to provide the service to the FF community and glad you appreciated the video. If you want deeper dives into any particular expansion, Vicenarian's channel is great, and of course Korvana has the cutscenes if you want to marathon the stories. Cheers mate!
Omg this is great! I just started playing like...2 months ago and I kept thinking HOW is there no a story recap video for each expansion in a single, summary based video yet. Its wonderful, I'll be sure to send people your way when they ask for advice (and the mentioned Vicenarian, really nice to see some new people making content for this game).
As someone who also played a ton of FFs and is only interested in story here, but has been so confused at times as to what counts as story, what to play, what to skip.... this has been super helpful, thank you
I'm really glad to help! Your commentary is basically the entire reason I made this video. I wanted to help guide new players who are interested in what the story is but aren't sure how to approach it, explain the game to outsiders who might be curious, and serve as a recap for veterans, all while going very light on spoilers so that newcomers who wanna dive all-in will still be able to enjoy all of the surprises in store, but at the same time offering them a roadmap of what to expect.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this video, because again, folks like you are the reason I made this. A video like this really needed to exist for XI, and I'm glad to offer it to everybody. Thank you so much for the kind words and offer to share the video. It means a lot and this comment made my day. Thank you! : )
Thank you so much for this phenomenal video! It's obvious to tell that a lot of effort went in. That effort will not go unappreciated!
Thank you for the kind words! They're incredibly appreciated coming from you! Perhaps someday, when you get the time, we could do a loose, unscripted XI video where we chat about the game. I feel like the discourse would be pretty fun. Cheers and wishing you the best in your life! : )
Hi there! I really appreciate the effort you put into creating this video; it was clearly a massive undertaking. I came here hoping to get a summary of the FFXI story, but I found that the video included a lot of personal reviews of expansions, opinions about game content, and discussions on non-plot-related subjects. As a result, the actual plot of the story was only briefly touched upon, which left me a bit disappointed. Thank you for your hard work nonetheless!
Thank you. I decided to go with a story overview rather than a plot synopsis because I wanted a "spoiler light" version so that folks who never checked out XI would be able to play the game. I didn't quite want to call it a review either because the primary focus wasn't on mechanics, so I felt overview was the best way to describe the video. It's focused on the general plot of each expansion, discussion of thematic elements and how they tie into the narrative, important character highlights and a bit of context in terms of gameplay, reception by the community, and my thoughts. I felt that the context of each expansion in terms of general gameplay and community was response was important, but I also felt it was important to counteract the meta narrative at certain points. It was a balancing act that didn't succeed in all ways for all viewers.
I do very much see the value in summarizing each storyline (a lot of the expansions would be over 2 hours just summarizing the stories) and hope to see more videos like that in the future. I felt overview was the best word to use rather than summary or review, but I also felt if I did an overview context would be important. I'm sorry it wasn't what you were looking for but I appreciate you checking it out. The good news is that if you're wanting to see expansion storylines without playing the game, the video does provide resources to channels with cutscenes, and if you want to play XI you now have a roadmap of what to expect. Again, thank you for the commentary.
As someone who never comments on UA-cam videos: thank you for this. I'm one of the players mentioned who had to step out of the game more for personal life than any other notable reason, and there's no way for me to really go back and reinvest like I did for so many years, so getting to watch this video helped put me back into it in a way that I could get a good feel for what I've missed over the years. Great write-up and great content! Thanks again, Greg!
I'm glad! I tried to make this video enjoyable to all kinds of players, like those who never played XI, those who played all of XI, and players like you who played some of XI and want to know what they missed out on. I'm so glad this video was able to offer something of value to you. 😊
Cheers mate!
As a player who played from the beginning it’s epically more rewarding doing the shadow lord fight at level not at 99. The struggle was real and very rewarding
I'm an FFVIII fan so I like becoming OP and demolishing my foes with ease.
Wow!! Amazing video, thank you so much! I was an FFXI player from 2005 - 2010. I was originally on Seraph but got so into PVP (ballista, specifically) that I made a new char on the most popular PVP server, Fenrir, because you couldn’t transfer characters between servers yet. I wonder if there’s still a PVP community.. in those days there were rival linkshell groups just for PVP and we would hold private tournaments and you could join public ballista matches any time of day! It was very competitive! Miss those times..
Anyway, thank you so much for making this video! It made me so nostalgic and I hadn’t known about the later expansions. Learning about Rhapsodies of Vana’diel made me tear up 😭 Long Live FFXI!! 💗
- Saroa (Fenrir)
I haven't engaged in any of the PvP mechanics, but from what I've heard from other players, there is still an active PvP scene in XI. I'm glad I was able to offer up some good nostalgia for you and help inform you about later expansions. Cheers mate and best regards!
-Lighto (Bahamut)
My favorite expansion to "experience" was Wings of the Goddess. Prior to this expansion, I had spent YEARS leveling up jobs the Crawler's Nest and Garlaige Citadel. These are scary places. The ability to travel back in time 25 years and experience these zones when they were teeming with life and before they became run-down or infested was... harrowing.
Absolutely. The "it's the same zones" argument falls apart when you're able to experience them that way. Wings is such a great expansion.
Favourite Expansion - Chains of Promathia
Peak FFXI for me. The level fo teamwork needed was very high. Difficult content, great story/music/zones.
Also worth noting unlike many other MMOs, expansion content in FFXI tend to bleed into the next expansion, so for example CoP endgame was still very much 'current' even when Aht Urghan was out, same with endgame from Zilart (Sky) and Dynamis. I mention this because even a year after CoP's release, most of the community was still working through finish the story and complete the gear through the gear treadmill.
CoP's endgame was the Sea (Al'tieu) and Limbus. Both very fun content that last well until the level caps were lifted with Abyssea.
I won't second guess anyone who ranks CoP as their favorite XI expansion. It's incredible and lives up to the hype. I wish later expansions got more love, but I won't knock CoP to do so. It's an incredible masterpiece and deserves all of its praise.
Great overview. It is nice hearing all about the game.
Thanks Gohan! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
"Hating an expansion because it increased the level cap and added new gear in a freaking MMO just strikes me as really, really silly."
I liked Abyssea. It was new and fun and challenging. In defense of the haters though, it fundamentally changed the game.
Gear used to be you'd work as a group for it for months to make incremental gains in efficiency, and always horizontally. The moment Abyssea was released the base level gear you got practically for free at level 78 blew away nearly all of the 75 era gear. And this was the start of a mostly vertical gear progression that ran until modern FFXI. It just felt a lot different. Also atmas and what have you in Abyssea made you significantly stronger, so it felt like a different game.
This just didn't work for everyone. A lot of people quit over it, and those that stayed lost a lot of people they had played games with for years.
I sub on and off now. It's still a great game. But I can't get my friends to come back to it, even during the free times. It's too different from what they grew up on, and the memories for them are better left as memories.
I respect your nuanced take here and I'm more sympathetic to those missing that their friends quit the game because of Abyssea than those who quit because of the content itself. For me, grinding for gear is a barrier to actually playing the game, but for folks in the old days, grinding for gear was literally the game. I think Abyssea was a necessary shake up to keep the game alive, otherwise the barrier to entry for new players would continue to become more and more impossible, and I do appreciate that modern XI has returned to horizontal progression for those seeking endgame. In my opinion, modern XI is the best of both worlds: offering vertical progression for those who just want to experience the story and zones and horizontal progression for those who want the grind and endgame challenge.
I'm not a constant subscriber to XI either (mainly due to work and other projects), but for me, the good of Abyssea vastly outweighed the bad, and if the big complaint is that the game is less grindy and thus easier to play the actual content...I'm not losing sleep over it. I guess a lot of people did, and it sucks they left the game, but I still generally find it petty. And I'll repeat it again: if XI actually removed the option to play the game as in the old days, I would be more sympathetic. But the fact that the level cap quests exist allows for players to limit themselves to the same systems as the old days, and in general, I think piracy of a live service game (for those who do play on private servers) is bad form, ESPECIALLY when I discovered that those private servers left in some QOL features from later day XI like teleports. If one wants a pure old school experience, don't include modern QOL. That seems extra insulting to the devs, at least from my perspective.
I acknowledge I'm a very different player than the old school players. I'm not an MMO guy. I'm not even an average gamer. I play games that many consider to have atrocious gameplay because I tend to be a story-first player, so while some folks can't stomach games like Radical Dreamers or Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, I love those games, because of the story content. The grind is a barrier to playing the game, in my perspective, so I know that I'm coming it from a very different POV. I look at games more like books that you pick up and complete, rather than a sandbox you play in forever like Minecraft. So, I do get to a degree the frustrations with Abyssea, and I have a lot of sympathy for the folks who still play the game (like yourself) that miss the friends you used to play with, but I still have very little sympathy for those who left because certain stuff became less grindy. There's no shortage of things to do in XI and making some of it faster to get through is fine in my book, because it gives players options on how to approach things, rather than forcing them into one particular playstyle that does not benefit busy adults who can maybe only play 7 hours a week.
I do really appreciate your comment. It was very thoughtful and one of the best comments I've read on the Abyssea situation on any platform.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I totally agree on the private server bit. If you're playing someone else's game you should agree to their terms or not play. And you can keep yourself at whatever level.
I finished watching this video. It was very well put together. Thank you for all the effort. I especially enjoyed the introduction. I'll recommend it to friends I try to convince to join me.
@@Randomname1357 Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. And again, thank you very much for your commentary. Cheers mate!
Play on Horizon for something close to the classic experience.
Re: Zilart retconning the base ending and having Lion as "the expansion girl" again - my theory is that RoZ was mostly content that was intended to be part of the base FFXI release, but had to be cut for time. Summoner felt like a half-finished job on launch, and sure enough it was fleshed out and "finished" with RoZ's release. I also think much of the reverence for RoZ isn't as much from the story, but more from the lore it introduced or fleshed out, really helping expand the history of the world.
I think you're probably right to a large degree. It's possible that having Lion as the expansion girl again was maybe due to a lack of foresight knowing that expansion girls would become a thing, but your theory is solid. I think Zilart is strong in terms of lore, but weak in terms of the actual story it tells. I know some folks think The Silmarillion is the best Tolkien book, but I certainly don't hold that opinion.
That boy Maat was crushing ppl level 75 dreams.... I'm not finna to lie, I miss this tier of difficulty 😢
It's still there in modern endgame. That stuff is WILD.
@gregtroyan Nice! I stopped playing after SoA. Abyssea did change the game. Definitely pros and cons with it. But it is what it is. Great video.... man, playing this on ps2 with dial up was wild lmao
Massive undertaking to make this video, im a returning player after quitting in 2009
I'm glad you took the time to check out this video!
thank you for posting
Thank you for watching.
THANK YOU.
Finally, someone says it.
Blue Mage was the reason I adored Treasures of Aht Urghan. That storyline, that lore for it made it my favorite Job hands-down. And as much as I enjoy XIV, it comes off as a shadow of its former self in comparison.
Immortals forever.
I haven't seen any of the Blue Mage storyline in XIV, but it's pretty incredible in XI. Top tier stuff.
Thank you for this! Ffxiv player, but I’ve played a lot of mmos over the years like wow, gw2, eso, etc. The thing I find interesting about mmos in particular is the history of them. Like, why something was added in the first place or when it was added. Having those little tangents like why the limit break quests were added was really interesting!
Thanks mate! I'm glad you appreciated the tangents!
I still remember the time i got ny first level 75. Man ive never felt that existed and fulfilled about a video game before that moment
I think the dislike to Abyssea for most 75 era players is more due to the fact that it was the turning point to the game becoming easy mode where most players enjoyed the difficulty to the game. Going from lv 1-99 in a matter of hours in Abyssea killed the old leveling and made all of the great camps obsolete + this was the bigger turning point of people paying for power leveling just sitting afk where before you couldn't really do that as reliably . The struggle is what fueled the reward and that went for all expansions before that especially the first time you beat CoP(getting all the lv synced gear and finding groups) / Zilart.
Also you mentioned a few times people disliking some expansions due to the power creep and gear becoming useless but I would have to disagree. Majority of users play with GearSwap and in XI its one of the few games with obsolete gear, it all has a value and that was the biggest pain in the ass for someone who hated WoTG because the last piece is immensely valuable. Personally WoTG/Abyssea were not for me, Abyssea was the quitting point for a lot of players again due to how they felt it changed the atmosphere of the game. But now with the newer updates to TVR and Odyssey the endgame is very fun and challenging again, not like the old days its ok for things to change with time.
I wish I had gotten to level 99 in a few hours. Soloing the Limit Break Quests was hard, man!
@@gregtroyan I just remember people leveling in alliances and then you always had a few hiding in the martellos afk lol
@@gregtroyan Also try to imagine how Limit Breaks were back in 75 era lol... It was rough but this is actually I think what brough the community together, nothing in the game was easy and you could only solo lv 1-10/14ish depending what job and from that point on it was seeking party looking for people to group with. It made the game special even if it was tedious, the difficulty made the rewards feel actually worth it.
This is the biggest contrast imo to XIV is that it felt like every update gear was obsolete and you just dispose of it for the new dungeon gear where as XI using gearswap ( if you're not vanilla now days) you can make use of gear even from the 75 era to maximize your abilities.
Anyways killer video mate, even if I dont agree with everything I am super happy to see that more people appreciate XI and the community within it!
The game didn't become easier lol. Modern endgame is way harder than anything 75 era. Level grinding is not difficulty, just a time sink
I've been playing since 2004, and WotG is still my favourite story in any Final Fantasy game. Everything just works.
About Abyssea, what most story players don't know or understand is how the gearing system works in XI. You can change equipment midfight freely and build your sets for every little niche situation. Collecting gear-sometimes over 100 pieces for one job alone-is what keeps people playing.
And Abyssea gear and the influx of money made many niche sets obsolete because those pieces covered nearly every situation and made the joy of collecting gear pointless.
Of course, some pieces are still being used from 2004, like the Defending Ring or the earring from Lilisette.
I understand that part of it, I just don't resonate with it. I'm not really an MMO player and don't live for the grind. My point is that the gear and limitations still exist within the game if one really wants to play the game the same as pre-Abyssea, but those who don't want to play that way don't have to. Retail has more content and more options, private servers just remove content, and it's a lot easier to remove content than to make content. I get people like gear swapping (which is still a thing in retail endgame), but the option still remains for those wanting to do pre-Abyssea only, as does the option to keep characters at level 75. None of those mechanics were removed, it just became less optimal.
I do get the frustration with a giant timesink that I'm sure a lot of folks felt. I get that. But also, I've never been attached to the gear part of MMOs. To me, getting good gear is just something getting between me and playing the game. For other folks, it's the entire game.
@@gregtroyanEveryone their own, only wanted to put it out there so it is there if anyone cares.
To your last point: Imagine sitting with 90 other people in one area every day for 3-9 hours (spawn times) only to finally get your Ridill or Defending Ring. You get attached to that piece of gear through the hardship of obtaining it and it being Best in Slot for a specific set.
This is why gear in XI differs significantly from that in XIV and WoW, where it is rotated every 2-3 months. Some pieces people had or have for over 15-20 years and are still useful.
I do not disagree with you; as I said, everyone has their own. Just sharing a different perspective as a long-time player who prefers modern XI over classic.
@@helloarchivesI can't even imagine that because it's not my personality type. I don't really like more sandbox type games (I've played Minecraft for maybe a total of 3 minutes in my life) and play almost exclusively story centric games. I enjoy platformers, fighting games and racing games too, but for the most part, it's JRPGs. The only MMOs I've played extensively are FFXI, FFXIV (only beaten ARR) and Runescape. I don't have the time to wait 3 to 5 hours a day to wait for something to spawn, and there are things I'd rather do with my time, like play another RPG, read a book, watch a movie, write, create, etc.
The concept of that level of grind without story reward doesn't compute in my head because it's something I would never do. I started playing War of the Visions and quit after Season 1 because the gameplay was too tedious and grindy, and now I'm just watching the story on UA-cam. I'm just wired differently and focus more on narrative than gameplay, which is a minority position in the video game community, and a very small minority among XI players. I've met more players who say they skip all the XI cutscenes than players in XI who say they are story-first players.
I do appreciate you sharing that perspective for folks who don't know, as it is something I neglected to comment on my video, and I appreciate your respectful discourse.
Wow what a video! I sat and watched the whole thing! and now made me wanna go back to XI so bad. It always has a place in my heart even though i've only finished CoP. - I will come back and join Bahamut!
That's awesome to hear! I'm glad you enjoyed the video and hope that you'll be able to enjoy the post-CoP content as much as I did! Thanks for the kind words. Wishing you nothing but the best. Cheers mate! - Greg
I watched the whole video. It was fun! I appreciated that you even went into the add-on scenarios and Abyssea, as it's rare for people to talk about these stories. If I had one criticism, it would be that it personally got a little bit tiring hearing about private servers multiple times throughout the video. (To be clear, I don't play on private servers and don't care much about them.) Otherwise, good work and well put together video!
That's a fair point of criticism. I appreciate the feedback.
Here from NOKAT
I am excited
I am hoping not to disappoint. Also, the Chrono video intro begins by me explaining my criteria for that vid, so I promise it is not spam, hahaha.
Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoy this video and I definitely want to know your thoughts afterwards! Cheers mate!
I don't think I would ever wanna sub to this just to play through the story. I simply don't have the time for another MMO. This is a great video for me especially before the next raid in FFXIV that is about FFXI. So thanks for making this.
I'm glad it was helpful! I was hoping to hear from some XIV fans in the comments and am glad I was able to make an easy to consume overview! If you have any friends who are interested in the raid, please send them my way! Cheers mate! : )
It would have been better if you stuck to the story. The constant side comments about private servers, speaking negatively about any content with grind (referring to grinders as insane during Zilart as an example), and bringing up your dislike of Zilart over and over, was just exhausting.
Your review shows your newness to the game and your lack of knowledge in why older content had such division or reverence, especially your downplay of Aht Urghan's impact on the community. Do you research prior to talking about things you weren't there for.
Thanks for the comment! As far as specific points:
-I talked about private servers each time it was relevant. Maybe people should stop stealing from the devs.
-I'm not an MMO grind guy and I was acknowledging I haven't done every single piece of content in XI (every sidequest, maxing out every job) etc. It was a joke, mate.
-I'm sorry you didn't like me critiquing Zilart. The reason it sounds like I dislike Zilart is because I was reviewing each aspect of the expansion (like I did with every other expansion in the video), and it turns out there were things to criticize when commenting on said aspects.
-I did my research, I'm just a bit flippant about bad opinions. Or rather, flippant about opinions that are solely focused on optional gameplay mechanics over narrative.
-I assume you stopped watching the video before anything post-Aht Urghan (which is when I assumed you stopped playing originally).
excellent vid. Typed in "ffxi lore" and i was not dissapointed.
That's awesome! Glad you enjoyed the vid, mate! Cheers!
I like the plug for Vicenarian towards the end. I love that guy!
He's pretty great!
30:40 You did not want to play CoP on release. The initial Promyvions were hell on earth. Strays hit like a truck, Memory Receptacle portals stayed open for maybe a minute if that and had a far lower pop rate, and the bosses were almost impossible if you didn't farm the animas beforehand. If you tried it in an alliance it was almost guaranteed someone was going to get left behind before they could reach the portal, and if they got left behind, too bad. The only way you'd clear it is if you had a well-geared static with medicines who knew what they were doing. It was Lv75 content masquerading as Lv30 content.
I've heard that before. I was more talking in terms of narrative, under the assumption I was a good enough player to get through the content.
It's nice to see a overview of ffxi story. I've been meaning to go back and rewatch all the cs's. I didn't know a person had already made all those available in a nice package on UA-cam, so thank you for introducing to Karvana.
I can see things from a new players perspective that you hold but I will strongly disagree with views on private servers.
It's not about content that can't be done on retail, it's the nature and culture of the people who play it. As someone who actually lived it, I can say you have no idea what you are talking about, respectfully.
Korvana's channel is linked in the description and pinned comment. I don't doubt the culture is different on private servers. I've never contested that, but I also insist that there's nothing preventing them from doing challenge runs and using self-imposed restrictions on retail, and I stand by that point. Cheers mate! Best wishes! : )
fyi domain invasion points are capped at 80+ (depends if your server has killed mireu enough for the plus). DI is not once a day but until you hit the cap (and even then you can get more beads).
Thank you for that.
No offense, but you got it completely backwards. Start with Rhapsody then let it tell you what to do that way you’re able to experience faster and get higher level jobs and unlock more trust help earlier on!
Well, there's plenty of ways to approach it. I think the do an expansion, do Rhapsodies, go back-and-forth approach is the best middle ground between satisfying narrative and ease of gameplay, but there isn't a wrong way to approach it if one prefers to do Rhapsodies and then go back to finish the other expansions. I found that I had enough trusts to get through the content without issue just doing Rhapsodies inbetween expansions.
as a story-first player I really want to engage with the story of XI from start to finish, I did try private servers due to the ease of access but finding out they only had a couple expansions at most made me want to try retail - but the nightmare of dealing with playonline & other dated aspects makes it insurmountable for me to access without spending a considerable amount of time just troubleshooting it, getting set up & connected. It was just too much work ;-;
I recommend giving it another shot. Just watch the video from CallmeKwetch I linked in the description and download Windower and you should be good to go. It's worth it. It will take less time than you think if you get Windower and follow the video guide (5 minute video).
@@gregtroyan I am currently updating the game via Playonline - it's so slow, but it's progress I suppose, thanks for the little extra motivation to give it another try
@@IggyMaid I'm really glad you're giving it another shot. Getting the game set up can be a bit annoying of trial and error, but it's a single day process. Once it's good to go, it's smooth sailing from then out, and for 1 day of setup you've got a game that will easily last you at least 6 months. It's worth it, or at least it was to me, and I hope it ends up being worth it for you as well. : )
I would love to see your take on a Final Fantasy Cinematic Universe of sorts.
That is an incredibly high compliment! Thank you!
I'd love for you to elaborate more, as there are a lot of different ways to interpret that statement. Are we talking film/tv adaptions like the MCU, remaking the games to be part of shared universe, remixing different components of different games and mashing them together?
Whatever it is, the fact that you're interested in my take is a huge compliment, but in case I end up doing a video on the subject down the line I want to ensure I approach it the right way. Thank you again!
@@gregtroyan I was thinking alternate universe FFCU where Final Fantasy was not a series of video games but rather movies/TV shows akin to the Star Wars media universe but drawing inspiration from the MCU/DCU.
@@CaveatZealot Gotcha! That's a meaty prospect to consider. I'll really have to do some thinking about how I would approach such a subject. I know I wouldn't just want to do the Dissidia/Record Keeper route where there's just a flimsy excuse teleporting people from different worlds together, but it would definitely be tricky with the differing technologies of the different FF games. The twist at the end of the FFIV: TAY would likely be my crutch for linking the worlds together, along with the ending of Lightning Returns, but I'd probably significantly rework the stories to work in the shared universe cinematic medium. But I do think that core TAY twist would likely be foundational to my approach.
@@gregtroyan Yeah I made a whole spreadsheet of the IP’s and their prospective release dates in the alternate timeline but I would utilize Crisis Core and Dissidia as an in-universe alternate continuity (a la X-Men: First Class and Days of Future Past) plus a few “new” IP’s that would facilitate the alternate continuities.
@@CaveatZealot Wow! That's really awesome! I'd love to hear more about that sometime. I've got a very busy July coming up, but definitely hit me up in August with an email (it should be under the contact section of my YT channel). Maybe we could do a livestream together on the channel talking about your ideas. Just remind me about it when August rolls around and maybe we can put something together, if you're interested!
Came in hoping to get a summary of the vibes of wotg-onward for FFXIV's upcoming release, but came out with motivation to really go in and finish this game. I completely agree about private servers. Great for archival, but very disrespectful and actively destructive to FF11's continued existence.
Through the comments section, I learned that most private servers include post-WOTG quality of life features like teleports, despite claiming they are trying to provide an "old school" experience. Keeping teleports but removing other content shows their general disrespect for the devs, in my opinion, and makes me have zero interest in supporting private servers unless they are truly acting as something archival. The versions of the game that exists on private servers never existed, and thus they are not archival in my book. Someday, when XI goes down, and I'll gladly play a private server that includes TVR and Trusts and the whole thing, but the picking and choosing of what they think is the "correct" XI is something that never actually existed and is a bunch of disrespectful elitism.
I'm so so so glad that you are deciding to continue your XI journey based on this video. I couldn't be happier to hear that. Best of luck with your journey, mate! : )
For a small group of new players (about 2 to 4), what would be the best way to get through the story content as quickly as possible to minimize subscription fees? I'm also curious how the game handles synchronizing cutscenes and story progression for groups of players.
The last section of the video is full of gameplay tips. As far as synchronizing cutscenes, if you have a party for a boss battle, all of you will get a cutscene after that battle, but each individual player controls the pacing of the cutscene they are viewing. Your party members won't appear in cutscenes with you.
Advice for powering through:
Get everyone to 99 ASAP
Do Domain Invasion once a day once you unlock it to get high end gear
Follow guides
Follow the tips at the end of the video
If you're doing it with 4 people, have a consistent play schedule. I was able to beat XI solo in about 6 months in-between working two jobs.
Great video, it was a really nice referesher. The private server take is wild, but it's yours, it's an entirely different game even if you put optional limitations on yourself in retail due to how some things are unavoidable and aren't applied to other players as well. Most players still have active subs and still play retail (there's always exceptions), they really do play dramatically different even with the same core. But as a story player, yeah not worth it for you it sounds like, same reason I still go back and play through retail when I just want the story. But if you like seeing how things evolved, or the gameplay side, and even to an extent the community side (though in the modern age that's irreversibly different to some degree no matter what) give it a shot, just be sure to buy your game and support the devs. The official retail game was officially announced to be having the team moved to new projects and being moved into 'maintenance mode' it's still being supported, and I really hope there is more new content, but it's good to know that if SE does ever decide to pull the plug, there's versions that will live on.
Thanks mate. I hope that if XI does ever officially go offline there are private servers that include all of the game's content as it is in whatever the final version of retail is. I'm less interested in the gameplay evolution side of things (there's another video I made where one of the comments was "This man hates gameplay" and my response was "Honestly this is fair") and have made enough friends playing retail where I don't see much of a need for private servers, at least for me.
I do appreciate that, with the level cap quests, there is at least an option within retail to self-limit and play the game closer to 75 era if one so chooses. I view it like buying the FFIX remaster where there's an option for infinite gil and boosting all characters to 99. You can choose to use them if you want, but it's not forced, just an option, in the same way I can choose not eat the cookies in my cupboard. But I do get why even the option of those QOL being there changes the meta, I get that, but I still just kinda shrug it off. That's the perk of being a story-first player and not really caring about gameplay all that much, hahaha.
I really appreciate your comment. It was very intelligent, nuanced, insightful, courteous and respectful. I hope you have a great day and wish you nothing but the best. Cheers mate!
@@gregtroyan Absolutely, and same to you!
Most people who complain about Wings of The Goddess in the modern day are old salts who are running through it repeatedly with multiple characters, and they complain because they've had to run through it so many times for the Moonshade Earring. Their wounds and distaste for it are self inflicted.
Almost everyone who only does it on one character loves its story.
The private server people don't tend to include it, because the private servers are based on one team's reverse engineering of the game, and it only goes up to that era of updates, but couldn't get the content right, so they can't enable Campaign Battles or Besieged or stuff like that. They also get almost all damage formulas wrong, and do quirky things like alter job trait acquisition levels for their favorite jobs and stuff. Don't play private servers.
I see you haven't gotten to some of my other rants about private servers yet! 😁
The jaw i drop when you say " months "
Is it
A. Wow, I can't believe it took you so long.
or
B. Wow, I can't believe you did it so quickly.
Normal FF fans think it's crazy one game would take you 6 months to play through main story. Old school XI fans think it's crazy to beat content that took them multiple years to complete could be done in half a year.
Always good to see XI videos. Game was easily the best overall MMO of all time. Anyone looking to start the game with spare time should, any player can get movement speed boots from simurgh within a day or two of starting to play that will last them through till they get item level boots.
Truly a great game.
That's so sad. That was an HNM that was highly fought over. Speed increases were some of the most rare and sought after gear. This game got wrecked over the years. Then Horizon had to offer something close to a classic server to fulfil the itch.
@@bustaballs Yeah, game is ruined because people can walk slightly faster instead of grinding for years for a speed boost. 0/10.
@@gregtroyan You're completely clueless. This is ignorance on steroids.
@@bustaballs Sorry, I meant to say 0/11.
Love this video, we definitely need a FFXI single player game/story experience. Too many FF fans never experienced this wonderful world.
I'm hopeful Naoshi Mizuta gets a chance to do FFXIV soundtrack for the FFXI raid they're bringing out.
I do wish more fans of the series knew about all the great stuff contained within this game. Hopefully this video gets popular enough where it convinces some newcomers to check it out.
I love ur videos and i love XI story all of it. But i also love 75 era of XI and while i know u can play retail abd not break all the caps and play at 75. There just a diffrent feel and enjoyment u get playing in Era yes nostalgia but more then that. Its community and friendships that last longer then any game can last. Ive made friends in other countries and states that ive eventually met in RL. And had continued relationships with these friends far after 75 era. So now i dont agree with all private servers i do agree with Horizon XI and i wish SE would of made a Classic server.
I still don't see the point of a private server since the only difference is optional QOL. If there was a significant graphical and visual difference (like older versions of WoW and Runescape) I could see the desire for a classic server more, but it's literally just the level cap (which can be avoided -- just don't do the level 80 Limit Break quest) and the quality of life options (which can just not be used). Mechanically, musically, and visually one can play modern retail XI the same way they play on a classic private server, and there are a number of players who chose to do challenge runs like that.
All of that said, I'm glad you've made friends playing the game and can appreciate lifelong friendships you've made through your experiences. I no longer really do music professionally, but I've made a ton of friends through traveling and playing shows, so I understand and respect the value of your journey. : )
@@gregtroyan thank you for responding and appreciate u doing videos on FF games i grew up loving em and glad to have come accross ur videos
@@albertplouffe5146 I'm glad you've enjoyed the videos. Cheers mate!
Funny to hear you say you don't like Zilart. For people who played the original game when it was relevant everything about it was a massive leap from what we had in gaming. It was so new and fresh that I'll always have a lot of nostalgia. But my best times in xiv where working through the CoP missions with a real static group.
Zilart is fine gameplay wise, it's mainly the story that's lacking for me. As far as an MMO is concerned, I can see the gameplay and graphics being a massive leap for the genre, but as a narrative, it's a significant step-down for the FF series when you compare it to X, IX, Tactics, VII, VI, and IV. I like Zilart, but it's still significantly weaker than most of the main story content in XI.
Man it’s so wild hearing how much ffxi has changed. I really miss the game, I was one of the original players and played it in 2004 back when only the first expansion was out.
Back then it was literally IMPOSSIBLE to solo anything. It was such a tough game.. but so dang rewarding. Glad they balanced it out. Can you still de-level if you die too much? Or did they take that punishing game mechanic out?
You can de-level if you die too much, but a lot of bosses in the late game don't have that mechanic. Random enemies and earlier expansion bosses still reduce your EXP if you die, though.
@@gregtroyan ah cool, thanks for letting me know. Yeah ok, at least they changed that a little so it’s not quite as bad.
@@gdi1093With teleports and the like, it's pretty easy to make up the experience lost, even if you end up leveling down. Whenever I die I just level up for like 10 minutes to make it up.
@@gregtroyan haha definitely wasn’t like that back in ‘04! Had to get a solid party going and grind for a while to make up the lost exp. It was impossible back then to solo anything to gain experience. The only monsters you could solo were ones that were so much lower in level than you that you’d just kill them for farming items.the exp earned was negligible
i 100% the story in FF11 also. I started in 06 and unsubbed this year. since about just before wings release I was at a point where I did missions as they got released. and did that for wings and anything after wings
Nice! You were in it for the long haul!
Before they raised the level cap ToAU areas were just plain hard. Getting anywhere within Lamia or Mamool Ja areas was just plain hard and so it was rarely done.
Sounds unpleasant.
I almost subscribed to your channel because this video is fantastic until you started trashing the private servers; I watched your video thanks to the private servers; I started playing FF11 ( new new player) thanks to the private servers; There's no way a new player based person is going to play FF11 Live, and learn 15 years worth of mechanics and content with no one to talk to ; New private servers bring a lot of nostalgia for those players; but also brings new fresh blood ; Its way easier to start with everyone as level 1, than start on an economy and dynamics stablished for 15 years ---I would start on an official FF11 server from scratch to learn the game with and pay $ without any problem as long as everyone was on the same even field; Think about it ; Everquest Classic TLP servers were created, World of Warcraft Classic servers were created and so on.. they just need to catch on and admit that people enjoy the beginning 3 expansions more than their remaining end-game expansions.
Hi! Sorry that you won't be subbing, but thanks for taking the time to comment. Sorry, but I was able to learn how to play XI on retail and made friends with players through playing a retail. I'm in a Discord group with Retail players I met in the game and have had a wonderful time playing retail. Retail still has tons of players on it all the time. There are plenty of people to interact with in retail if you so choose.
Private servers are just pirated versions of retail with less content. I'm glad private servers allowed you to enjoy the game, but I humbly suggest supporting the devs by playing retail as opposed to stealing their work.
I didn't read Teodor as Flamboyant, but Mayakov yes.
The in-game text described Teodor as a libertine, so while I probably wouldn't have read his character in such a way based on the cutscene direction, the text I think warrants such a read as tone of dialog can be difficult to convey in solely the written word.
there is a ff11 project atm working on importing the entire game into unity and upscaling graphics
There's a lot of game they would need to import. I personally like FFXI's graphics, but I respect that project.
@gregtroyan I do agree the graphics are fine but the problem stems from the limitations of unity in low poly assets as they would look blocky and worse unless they were generally upscaled also this project was started by a private server dev after looking into it a bit more that did leave the private server team after i do like the idea of a unity version of the game cause of the better tools and easier fixing of problems cause more people understand the engine better than the old ff11 engine
as a clear person I do actively play retail daily but I also play private server at the same time for 75 content cause there is a lot of balancing I enjoy more about them but I also like the new content of 11 I pay for 5 active ff11 retail accounts currently
If i can offer some feedback the sound quality needs a bit of work, it's very tinny. Otherwise , i enjoyed this video.
Oh, I'm aware. Bro, if you saw the microphone this was recorded with, you'd be impressed this video sounds as good as it does. It's more of an issue of me being broke and not being able to afford a better mic, hahaha.
Basically, imagine a cheap call-center headset (from a previous job) and then applying a bunch of filters to make it sound as good as possible.
@@gregtroyan No worries, the enthusiam you have for ffxi is amazing. As someone whose been palying for 20 years (yes im old) since the PS2 release, i just want to say thank you for the video as well. :) Also, appreciate your comments about private severs. I sort of feel the same. I don't bebrudge folks who want the lvl 75 experience, but most private servers use the modern retail executable so all the QOL are strangely in those severs, like homepoints and level syncs lol. I'm still on retail on my 20 year old character, no interest in starting a new chr in a private server.
@@deku812Wait, private servers have those QOL features?
Okay, nevermind, I was too nice to private servers in this video. Hahaha.
@@gregtroyan the core game from 2005~2007 'golden age' is mostly gone since people didn't bother archiving the builds from that era; so most private servers just use to free retail download on the ffxi website and then fiddle with the parameters to recreate the lvl75 experience, usually just disabling the expansions they don't want and only restricting to expansion appropriate gear; a lot of times, modern QOL that were applied game-wide were left in.
The issue you brought up with Kam'lanaut is the issue I have with Shantotto. Though I think you glossed over or maybe didn't care that he was Jeuno's leader and you cause his downfall and death, since his brother kills him in typical anime villain trope fashion (after you beat him like a red headed step child). Every expansion after RoTZ even reminds you of this in a subtle way, since only the Armathrwn Society deals with you, stepping into his place in the Archduke throne room.
I'll leave you more comments as I get through this, but I'm kinda disappointed that there's so much reused footage from Korvana's cutscene channel. This is about the third or so review/overview/summary video I've seen for XI that makes heavy use of the footage Korvana collected, and while I'm sure it made things easier, it would have been cooler to see more of it with your character Lighto, there. ( I mean, I assume he's your character... I HOPE he is your character...)
Lighto is my character. I didn't capture much footage when playing XI because I was just playing the game normally with no intention of making a video. My laptop has 200 GB of storage, so using Korvana footage was a necessity in order to cover the whole story. This is a broke boi video (as evidenced by the audio quality). I do link to all the video source channels in the description and give end credits.
You do make a good point about Jeuno politics, though later expansions are written in a very subtle way where it works even if you didn't play Zilart and just makes the archduke seem like a recluse.
I'll also say this about the Korvana footage. This video took about 4 months to make (I made it alongside a Chrono series video). I could have spent like a year gathering all the footage, but I would rather get it done in 4 months and just offer a giant commercial for the Korvana channel. Multiple times in the video I shout out how great the channel is and even mention how it inspired me to play the game, so I feel it is ethical usage. But yeah, I hear ya.
I played Aht Urhgan expansion when it first came out. The community was dwindling because new MMORPG's coming out at the time that were not hamstrung by the PS2 graphics/platform. Aht Urhgan should have been the update that re-architected and divorced FFXI from the PS2 platform making it a 100% PC platform - bringing in new looks, capacity and graphics. That along with the removal of PlayOnline and other QoL updates would have brought everyone back.
A fair assessment! Personally, I like that XI's graphical style has remained consistent all these years, giving the game a certain sense of continuity, but I know that hurts it in terms of longevity with new players.
*Unique comment about private servers*
Lol
Honestly, I feel FFXI has NO bad stories. They're all amazing and imho they're significantly stronger than FFXIV's up to Shadowbringers/Endwalker.. which are likely roughly tied.
I'm looking forward to playing through the rest of XIV (currently playing Another Eden ahead of it) to see how it stacks up to XI. I'll say that it's got some stiff competition because I'm a big fan of XI's story content.
@@gregtroyan I've yet to find a supporting character on the level of Prishe or Lillisette in XIV tbh. Sadly I've only completed ToAU/CoP myself... WotG I got stuck on the Cait Sith chase in the glacier because I hate the whole cat and mouse game they have you play. :p That said, I like retail but I can't have it up while I keep XIV up as well. 1 MMO at a time.
And while the argument that being able to solo everything kinda reduced the need for group content is a thing. I found that it's quite hard for me to get anything done because most people can't be bothered to do it. (Playing on Siren anyway) Recently started up on a Jack Sparrow Server to see what it's like, jury's out on that one.
@@tirandeshibaraki743 I've heard what server you're on makes a lot of difference. Asura is really popular but a lot of folks there are mercenary. Bahamut is popular with a really good culture (I'm able to get free help with basically anything within 10 to 15 minutes). And I totally get the doing only one MMO at a time thing. I'm playing Another Eden, which is as massive as an MMO, and thus is why I'm not trying to do XIV at the same time.
Great video but I have to disagree with the sentiment about private servers. You say it's easy to experience the game the way you want but it's really not possible to recapture the game the way it used to be on current retail servers.
I loved abyssea and still pay for a retail account but your take here shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the games mechanics to see why sunsetting all the gear everyone worked for years on was such a big deal
@@Jameslikeflagella That gear still exists in retail. One can just choose not to get the newer, better gear.
Retail didn't remove the gear. They just offered superior options that were less grindy. If you wanted to play like the old days, you still can. Just don't level past 75 or go to post-Abyssea areas, don't use Trusts, or teleports, and grind away to get that pre-Abyssea gear. None of that was removed from the code of the game and all the quality of life features are optional, the same way there are optional quality of life features in the pixel remasters. I know people loved grinding for years, I understand gear swapping mechanics and chain attacks, and I understand they are still an option in retail. They were not removed, they just became less optimal.
@@gregtroyan I don't think you can ever truly understand since you didn't play the game as it was. There seems to be changes you don't know about either like increased experience points and lowered difficulty. Bottom line is that XI CANNOT be experienced as it was and even the private servers don't do it justice
If retail out and out removed that gear from the game's code, or got rid of chain attacks as an option, I would concede your point. But all of that is still there in retail. If you want to stay at level 75, use chain attacks, gear swapping, and avoid post-Abyssea zones and monsters, you can. All of that exists in retail. Private servers just remove content and eliminate the temptation to use better gear and quality of life features. They don't add anything, other than making it easier to ignore content fans don't like by removing the code. In my opinion, it's a lot easier to remove content than to add it, and far less artistically satisfying.
I never understood why player disliked Aht Urghan and Wings of the Godess. I am an old player and I always found Wings of the Godess the best story and Lilisette the best Mission Girl. Future Fabulouse forever..... Adoulin was when FFXI Story lost me a bit because at the end there was to much story cut to still make sense.
I thought the end of Adoulin made sense, but it did feel a little rushed and awkward, I concede. But yeah, Future Fabulous is incredible. The only folks who don't like the story of WOTG are the cutscene skippers.
@@gregtroyan yeah ok. It made sense. But there just were a few story strings they startet and never really got back to and finished. You could clearly see that they wanted to do more but were not given the time and resources to do so. That was clearly not the finale they wanted to tell and that’s really sad because they nailed Rapsodies and I have faith in the developers that they would have nailed Adoulin too with a little more time.
@@Mighto Agreed. It really is a shame. But I really respect that team. Incredible devs.
Honestly bg-wiki is a great source of information and has most of it, however for pre-Abyssea era there are some better information in ffxiclopedia. Also recommend the ffxiah forums.
FFXIclopedia is good too, I actually started with that one and switched the BG Wiki. Both offer a lot but I agree there is some good stuff only found on FFXIclopedia, but I recommend BG wiki mainly for quest guides (far more coherent and cleaned up).
I'm in Asura server if anyone needs any advice or help... I love FFXI, I have played all except 16 (also played 14), but by far my favorite Final Fantasy
Thank you, zaydraco! If anybody plays on Asura and needs help I hope they reach out to you! : )
@@gregtroyan yeah, my character's name is iehudiel (with i of igloo... People has issues reaching because they use L instead of i). I play normally at night of CST. This game has been fascinating to me. As an adult with family I would not play FFXI without quality of life features...
@@zaydraco The QOL is a lifesaver for those of us with busy schedules. Glad you've been enjoying the game!
I always just got lost in the leveling and forget what I'm doing in the story and where to go so I give up on it and just focus on leveling all the jobs up to at least 50. Hard to follow and keep up with what to do and the wiki's are only so helpful as well as the players who explain things as if you know what they are saying lol.
I found the wikis very helpful personally. No real issues with them.
There is just a lot of info on it and a bit hard to navigate for me at least. They are helpful when finding things if you know what you're looking for.
Am I the only one who would've loved to see an expansion where the player travels to the Mithra's homeland (the Matriarchate of Gha Naboh)? I would have loved to see more of what their gender roles are like, and see more of what Mithra men are normally like.
I'm 100% down for that! I would love to see expansions that explore Olzhirya (the southern continent and Mithran homeland), Rhazowa (the northern continent and Orcish homeland), more of the Far East, and more of Valhalla. There's still so much left to explore in Vana'diel and I hope that someday we'll see expansions explore those regions, and if the game's live service ends, I hope an ambitious fan will make that content for us to enjoy.
@@gregtroyan Or maybe there could be a sequel to FF11 (you know, an 11-2)? It could be either official or fan-made.
@@gregtroyan There's also further west of Ulbuka to consider.
@@generaltechnomage306 There's a fan game called Final Fantasy XI Braver that I downloaded a while back but haven't had time to play, but from what I can tell, it's an original story set in known XI locations. It does look like fun, but yeah, I really wish we could explore those other regions in either an official game or a fan-made project!
@@generaltechnomage306 Indeed there's so much left to explore in that world.
And that's not even getting into the idea of exploring different planets (something like Gaia and Terra in IX).
Tons of possibilities left in XI.
I don't get the hate we get for not liking to increase the level cap; but you clearly haven't played back when 75 was the max level. Bit of a shame really, I really liked this video until that point.
Have you played the post-Abyssea content (Adoulin, Rhapsodies, Voracious)?
@@gregtroyan I tried, I returned retail recently, but I just prefer the group content. My problem is that post-aby feels like a completely different game; it's a good game and I get why you enjoy it (I could see myself enjoy it, too) but I prefer the pre-aby version because I love the group content (for the entirety of the game), and I love how the main game + the first 4 expansions added content that didn't straight up made any of the previous expansion-zones irrelevant. Both are great versions, but they are different games imo (mostly due to gameplay). I'll probably return to retail 11 one day and finally finish the story, but until then I'll play the 75-cap servers :). Your video is still great, thank you for your hard work!
@@hayalmatnu9919 I will say this: endgame XI definitely still has all the horizontal progression and group content you desire, the only difference with retail is that the main story can be soloed (up until the end of Adoulin). The devs did a good job making the early battlefield content relevant to late game (Vicenarian goes into detail on that in his videos). I'm glad you enjoyed the video despite some disagreements. Cheers mate! : )
@@gregtroyan I'll check it out, thank you for the recommendation! But I also wanted to add that the great thing about pre-aby was the fact that everything was group content (for better or worse), so you didn't have to wait until endgame to play with others! You could perceive this as a negative, but it's the reason why we're all so nostalgic for the game. You already spent a lot of time on ff11 so I can't blame you if you're burnt out, but I'd suggest trying out some of the 75-era servers, just to see what we are talking about.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a die-hard fan and I can see the perks of retail 11 (and 14 for that matter), but I also suggest trying out the old version, just so you understand what I mean by those two (retail and 75-era) being different games.
@@hayalmatnu9919 I had some friends who played through XI the old fashioned way on retail a couple years back and partied up the entire game. There's also a group on Asura intentionally playing at level 75.
Truthfully, I'm not burnt out on XI, but I've got too much stuff going on to play the same game again, from the beginning, but harder and longer. If I wanted to party up early game, the option was always there, and any time I wanted to party up it was never an issue. XI in its current state allows a guy like me (who has a wife, weekly UA-cam show, monthly podcast, two jobs, and am currently under contract to write 4 screenplays in addition to those two jobs) time to play through the story content. Old school XI involves a lot more time commitment, and scheduling around other people's play schedules, which I don't really have the luxury of. I can handle scheduling to do some stuff in modern endgame here and there, but to schedule basically every single aspect of play is not feasible based on how jam-packed my schedule is.
I do understand the core difference between retail and private: retail gives you the option to solo main story content, private does not, and the forced play makes the game a more communal experience for the entirety of the game, not just the endgame sections. I get that, but I can just imagine the dunes being way harder to grind through and don't need to experience that myself for weeks on end. I'm sure it's fun, but I simply don't have the time to engage in that.
In the past two weeks, I've maybe been able to squeeze in 4 hours of gaming total (keeping up with the screenplay writing is truthfully kinda killing me atm). I still haven't played through the rest of Another Eden and FFXIV, and I want to get around to playing those. XI I've already watched all of the cutscenes for the game twice (once through Korvana's channel and once through playing the game myself), so I'm good on re-experiencing the main story for a while, though I will say out of every FF game it's the one I most want to just plop down and play, and it's still one of my favorite games of all time. It's less that I'm burnt out on it, but more than I want to experience other great stories.
Also, I just in general don't want to support private servers because I think removing content is throwing the work the devs did on latter day XI in the trash. If a private server makes a new expansion (new zones, new story, new music), I'll play it immediately and support it, but otherwise, I'm uninterested. But again, if I see some creativity from private servers, I'll fully support it. Challenge runs have never been my thing, but fan mods with original stories definitely are (check out my Chrono video for plenty of examples).
Still, I appreciate your engagement with me on the subject. Cheers mate! : )
Ok so. One thing about this video REALLY annoys me. The coverage of the game itself is fine. But the bone you have to pick with people criticizing the game is quite tone deaf and that dismissive attitude to fair criticism is pretty callous. I havent played 11 but i did follow its history. You know that some of the private server were made out of spite because they went ban happy during abyssea due to mechanics the devs badly implemented that lead to people being able to exploit it without really knowing its an exploit. So in reality, those people CANNOT play the retail version because theyre banned. Thats when the private servers were created in the first place. So as far as im concerned the devs contributed to this happening by going scorched earth on their paying customers. So that little moralistic argument you make.... this aint it. Theres a reason why mmo people hate expansions. Its easy for a noob to come in for the story, sub 2 months and act like he knows better than people who have paid for years only to get shafted by the devs. Its the same if you played 14 and I'd try to explain to you that despite the lackluster story, in terms of content Stormblood was top notch. And the reason why Stormblood was so maligned is because it made a terrible impression because the launch was kind of a shit show. But you have no idea that Raubahn savage was a roadblock that prevented people to play for days while paying a sub because the instance was bricked and it left a bad taste in peoples mouth. Or i could tell you that despite having a great story arc, Shadowbringers was a horrible expansion for healers because the role was completely gutted and made incredibly boring to play. Or that Endwalker was epic, but there was virtually no side content during the expansion while the sub stayed the same price while giving less content because they were too busy on 16 and the entire content of endwalker felt completely phoned in. This is criticism. Its not being a hater. But someone who only gets a shallow story experience wont see that, and in your case will dismiss it entirely because YOU didnt suffer through it but that also means that when its time to criticize the community, one like that should learn to stay in their lane if youre not willing to learning about the history as to why people feel a certain way. Opting for an antagonistic approach the way youre doing isnt the way and it makes you come off as incredibly smug and unsufferable.
Hi! I'm done responding to comments about private servers UNLESS you bring up a good point I haven't heard before! If you make a good case, I'll actually respond. If you don't get a response to specific points you made, it's because I've heard those points before and don't think said points are very good. Private servers are piracy, and I support the devs. #SorryNotSorry
I'll add one thing. It's kinda funny your criticism of me is that I haven't played enough of the game to critique it (about 2 years) but you also admit to never having played the game once.
Paragraphs do you have it
I like this video, but FFXI isn't like the other mainline FF games, it's an MMO, and you can't judge the quality of it's content based on your experience as a player playing for the first time 20 years after release, not just because it's literally a COMPLETELY different game that has basically changed every single thing about it at least half a dozen times, but because MMO's are about the players playing at the time the content was actually designed and released for. I mean, you can have your opinion as a player playing it now sure, but it's not a fair judgement of the game and what it was like during the time it was designed for
Also, this may sound blasphemous to FF fans, but the in game storyline of FFXI was really kind of the least important thing about it. XI was about the experience of your OWN storyline as it pertained to levelling up and becoming more powerful, making allies and joining groups to conquer challenges together and obtain powerful equipment, and in the end finding formulas to dominate the economy and attempting to dominate the entire server to basically make yourself feel like the king living among the rest of peasants. And being someone who was deep, DEEP into XI over its ENTIRE lifespan, I think my perspective on this is probably the most valid of anyones
@@justinmusicandskateboardin9282 Nah, my opinion is just as valid, and I can judge the game based on the metrics I choose to (as a mainline Final Fantasy first and an MMO second).
" it's literally a COMPLETELY different game" - No, it's the same game with quality of life features added. The core code hasn't changed, there's just more options to help with the fact that the population of a 20 year old MMO isn't as high and thus there needs to be options for people in order to keep the game alive. Again, if anything was removed mechanically it would be one thing, but it's literally all just QOL features added because they realize the population is aging and not everybody can commit 40 hours a week to an MMO.
"Also, this may sound blasphemous to FF fans, but the in game storyline of FFXI was really kind of the least important thing about it. XI was about the experience of your OWN storyline" - Yes, that's literally every MMO, but if I'm judging the unique story content of XI, that's not really relevant. That's literally the selling point of every MMO. I'm looking at this from a FF fan perspective.
"in the end finding formulas to dominate the economy and attempting to dominate the entire server to basically make yourself feel like the king living among the rest of peasants. " - Yeah, that's honestly the part of XI I like the least and am glad has died to a large degree. I think that kinda stuff is gross. If anything that makes me love post-Abyssea even more.
I'm glad you liked the video, and while I do appreciate that the difficulty balancing forced a level of community in the early days of the game, some of the more toxic elements that died off due to the Abyssea changes are things that I'm glad were implemented, because they are barriers to entry that would kill the game's overall longevity due to a high degree of gatekeeping. While you have played more years of XI than myself, I am technically the first person to do a video essay on the entirety of XI's main story content, and I've beaten all of the other mainline games (minus XVI and XIV's expansions) so that is worth something. Your opinion isn't irrelevant, but it's not automatically superior due to having played the game longer.
I was really enjoying your video until your private server rant. Please leave that kind of content out of future videos because you really can't speak on that topic since you never experienced the game before the changes that you say are just QoL.
The game is an entirely different experience now and some of the supposed QoL changes are not optional at all, many things were changed down to minute details like how many levels lower than you an enemy can be and still give experience points or even how many experience points they give or skill up rates or availability of crafting materials or even the relevance of said crafting materials... meaning that the economy itself is entirely different, etc. So much of what is different compared to in the past and now has little to do with optional content or QoL.
EDIT: Oh yeah, also, the community part and you saying "just get some friends to play with you"
C'mon man. How many people do you think can just bring a whole group and get them to commit to a 20+ year old MMO? Besides, that's not the same at all. Do you have any idea how many of us MADE lifelong friends from that era of FFXI? Some of us even met our current husbands and wives there because of the strong bonds you could build often starting from things as simple as meeting someone in EXP parties several times in a week and striking up conversations while grinding away and finding out they have similar taste in music or what have you. That's just not modern FFXI at all.
I don't support pirating a live service game and taking support away from the devs.
@@gregtroyan Regardless of what you do or don't support, your critique was just plain inaccurate and takes the focus of your video away from the well-thought out portions of the content. Look at the fact that so many of your comments are about this point, even mine... when the vast majority of the video doesn't focus on this. It's so inaccurate that it's hard to ignore. I will say this though, I agree with many of your other hot takes such as the quality of some of the stories and expansions being quite nice past the older ones as well as your definitions of what a FFXI expansion even is. But even so, even after watching an over 2 hour video the part that stuck the most was the private server rant. I don't think that should be how the video comes off.
@@TenchiHawkwing I don't encourage stealing from creatives and throwing their work in the trash just to adjust some EXP ratios. I find that more disrespectful than me saying I find it disrespectful.
I knew the private server comments would upset folks, but I stand by everything I said and have yet to hear a convincing argument otherwise. It's unethical to pirate a live service game as resources are continually being stripped away from it due to population decline. If the people who only played private subbed, the game could have more resources afforded to the developers. Stealing a live service game is unethical. Anybody who wants to pirate the game should send Matsui an email, tell him they don't respect his work, want to throw it in the trash, and then say they are gonna go ahead and steal the game. Tell the creatives to their face you want to steal what they are continuing to work on.
@@gregtroyan If you are going to intentionally misconstrue the argument and be reductive to avoid having an actual conversation I will oblige you and stop here. Just say the word.
@@TenchiHawkwing Do you think it's ethical to pirate a live service game and would you be willing to tell the people that created the art you plan to pirate it?
Two observations/thoughts:
1. We all know the pirate server people weren't going to watch past the Aht Urghan segment anyway.
2. This is the only video on the internet going over the entirety of XI. Are you really surprised a video that even bothers covering The Voracious Resurgence takes a pro-retail stance?
You don't understand the difference between horizontal and vertical progression do you? You can add new content and gear with new content that does not negate the existing gear and content it just adds to it. It's a concept called horizontal progression where there might be multiple paths to similar gear or situational gear. You don't have much of respect for people with the opinion that horizontal progression is better than vertical progression especially when the game had been horizontal progression since its launch. And you cannot ignore it the game was 100% based around group content after a Boucher and trust and everything that came along with them not only did all the content beforehand become useless but now you can do everything by yourself a completely changed the game and you could not ignore it your argument that people who don't like a busy is opinion is ridiculous is ridiculous
I'm aware of the difference between horizontal and vertical progression. I'm also aware that all of the pre-Abyssea content wasn't removed and that private servers are pirated copies of retail. : D
@@gregtroyan I don't think you are aware of the difference between horizontal and vertical progression. You cannot ignore the level cap increases because the game functioned different fundamentally. Everything about it including how you approached content changed you cannot simply refused to participate in a complete ground-up fundamental shift of the of how the game operated and it's stupid of you to say that it can
@@disappearing0ne360I'm aware of the difference between horizontal and vertical progression, but I also don't care. Nothing is stopping you from playing the game capped at level 75 and spending years doing vertical progression, and I don't encourage pirating a live service game when the devs are adding new content.
You cannot play the game right now and remain at level 75 cap do anything. You cannot complete any of the old content at all designed around group usually of 18 plus players. You can't clear dynamis, you cannot kill any sky gods, or ground Kings, etc. you don't know the difference between vertical and horizontal progression it's as simple as that. If you did then you would understand why it's not necessary to add a level increase with the new gear and new areas. Square enix had been doing it for years. And if you care to look you'll find that what square enix was trying to do was get people to go to 14 which had just launched. I will die on the hill that they torpedo'd their own game. But I'm not sitting here going to argue with somebody who doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
@@disappearing0ne360You know modern endgame is all horizontal progression, right?
Fuck yea!
Nice video
Thanks fella!
Game was ruined when they broke l lvl 75 cap. Because it made all gears everyone worked for throughout the years worthless. I liked the xp books. And all the jobs. Its 75 cap breaking that ruined the entire theory of the games horizontal progression
Unless you play retail and realize that the endgame is all horizontal progression.
@@gregtroyan but there was a decade between before they got back to that. And players like me who put hundred hours into 1 piece of 75 gear to have it worthless was too much of a burn to support
@@lee1130fromtwitter Man, I'm glad they made it so you can get good gear way faster. That's a definite improvement on the game. I don't want to grind for 100 hours for 1 piece of gear and it's nice I can play through the content without needing to do that, but it's also nice that folks who want to do that can still do that.
This hurt most of all for the ones who decked out 75 gear who played from the start.
@@miked9594 By giving them better gear.
Hahaha! I do hate crafting!!
For some reason I had trouble finding a crafting clip on your channel, but I knew if I wanted to find footage of you angry that I was guaranteed to find it in the Fragrant Story review. Still one of my favorite UA-cam reviews of all time, hahaha. Cheers mate!
Hahaha i love ur videos didn’t expect your also a 11 playwr
The CoP Mission back when they were level capped were absolute HELL!! In reality, it was TOO hard IMO. CoP was very frustrating to get thru. However, I agree about the story, new zones and the gear. It was a great expansion overall. Not my favorite expansion, but still great. ToAU was my absolute favorite main line expansion! I absolutely loved everything about it. Abyssea was also equally amazing. I really think Abyssea in the 90 cap days brought the best balance between the old school grind of FFXI and the faster paced game .
Nice! I respect all of those takes! It's cool to see someone who played the game back in the day who also likes Abyssea!
The design for CoP was perfect. The level caps prevented people from stream rolling through the content and forced people to try many times and come up with strategies to make it to the fights and win the battles. It didn't matter how high level you were or how good your gear was. You still had to put in effort and thought. You had to work together as a team. There was real consequence back then.
Video feels more like a troll video aimed at the community then a person liking the game... I am sorry its funny cuz most 11 players fav thing about the game is community which at many points in the video and the comments you have basically called toxic annoying and various other things. I am sorry if the community offended you. and wish you well on future videos.
Yeah, I made a 2 hour video just to troll the community and not because I like the game but think that there are legitimate critiques of people choosing to pirate the game and hurting the overall longevity of it.
There's actually a bit of sleight of hand with Prishe. She only looks short because she comes package with Ulmia who is rather tall. If you play a small Hume male or any combo that's shorter than that, Prishe will be taller than your character. It confused me for years that people thought Prishe was a teeny bopper, even though I know now that she was locked in her teen years and is actually around 40 or so, and is short for an Elvaan. I still don't see her design as your typical loli.
She always looked young to me. Maybe it's the outfit and youthful face.
This guy going out of his way to attack most ffxi fans for not liking changes late game.
There is a reason why xi has less than 10 percent of players than it used to have on its glory days.
"Most XI fans"
Also, the reason there are less players now is because it's a 20 year old MMO. That's why it has less people than during the glory days. It's a 20 year old MMO.
@@gregtroyan i'm a bit surprised to get a reply a month later.
Nothing personal against you with my original comment. It just felt very bad to keep hearing how players like me were being unreasonable for not enjoying the changes to the game that changed its identity so much.
It is an old game, and I appreciate you putting a video about it in this day and age. It ain't exactly popular, one way or another.
@@Lightsaga I'm bad at responding to comments sometimes. I was going through the comments on all my FF videos today and realized I needed to reply to a few more.
I'm sorry that my commentary in regards to the gameplay changes felt hurtful personally. From my POV, the fact that all of the old content is still in the game, and that Abyssea is optional, made me think that everybody needed to take a chill pill about the game being "ruined". FFXIV got rid of maps, gameplay systems, graphics and storylines. FFXI still has everything from base XI, in the game, just with options (keyword options) for those who want to fast-track the experience.
I never was a big MMO guy, and instead, I spent a good chunk of my teenage years and 20s as a professional musician. Some of my favorite hangout places ended up closing down or the culture changed completely, so I get the feeling of loss when a place you called home suddenly changes. From my POV, the difference between that and FFXI is that all of the options for experiencing the game pre-Abyssea is still contained within retail, there's just more options. The old places I used to hand literally don't exist, you can't order those old food items off the menu, but in XI, you can still order off the old menu any time you want. If the old menu was removed entirely, I would have more sympathy, but the fact that it's still there is why my opinion is so harsh.
When a music venue gets closed down it's just gone forever, nothing more than a memory. In XI, even in retail, you can play with old school mechanics. The only thing stopping you from doing that is societal pressure, but as a guy who did classic rock in the 2010s, I never felt that, or cared, so that's probably why I lack sympathy for the Abyssea complaints in regards to making it too easy to get high end gear. For me, the grind gets in the way of playing FFXI, but for many players, the grind IS FFXI. The difference being is that, in retail, there's options for both kinds of players. In private, there's only options for one kind of player.
Perhaps my tone could have come off as more conciliatory or gentle in the video. Regardless, I appreciate your kind words and wish you the best.
yeah as soon as you started bashing on people who play private servers because they enjoy only the lvl 75 cap I stopped watching. I would gladly pay SE $20 a month for a 75 cap server. I don't play current retail because I don't like the content beyond 75 and No there is no real community for that outside of private servers. You can go enjoy the game how ever you want but don't think that you can tell me how I should play my gaming experience.
1. Stealing a live service game is unethical.
2. You were going to stop watching the video after the level 75 content anyway. 😜
I love you for this
Thank you!
Seriously great video! Would love a video like this but with spoilers to recap the stories and refresh my memories as I did the quests 15 to 20 years ago and can't remember much about it
Thank you for the kind words! I wish I had the time to do recaps of every expansion, but I heard that OniBlackMage is thinking about diving in to do recaps of XI, so hopefully he does those sooner rather than later. I am grateful for Korvana's channel offering all the cutscenes so that if one wants a refresher on the stories, that option is at least there (there are playlists for different expansions) so one can at least skim the storyline there.
@@gregtroyan oh yeah korvana is great, but an audio recap would be so nice to listen to while watching the toddler for example. Anyway this video already brings back memories of characters and locations, thank you for that!
@@meriredetripsandclicks3153I totally get ya (and selfishly I want those kind of videos to exist too). I listen to podcasts and such while working, so I would LOVE a story recap of the XI expansions. A plot-beat by plot-beat summary is desperately needed for XI and it's expansions.
@@gregtroyan hey about the story recap, I found this, it may interest you ua-cam.com/video/NiJeDiLbuQI/v-deo.html
@@meriredetripsandclicks3153 I saw that. I started watching some of the videos on that channel and subscribed. Another great resource for the community. I wished there was a bit more context given like in OniBlackMage's videos but I'm glad somebody out there is doing it! I hope between those videos, Vicenarian's videos and my video we'll start to see more story focused XI content on UA-cam.
Great video! I started with it back in the day and left when my friends all moved to WoW. I came back to FFXI last year and started a new character for this fresh start to the game.
I LOVE FFXI SO MUCH!! ❤️
It has a great story, unique combat loop, and charming art style… it is the basis for FFXIV after all. 😉
My one tip that I would suggest different from what you have is this: start as a Thief and take that all the way up. As soon as you can level a sub job, level Dancer to 50. This gives you sneak/invis and Treasure Hunter helps sooooo much for annoying drops with some quests. Mages are VERY expensive to level imo, so save those for later. When you get comfortable leveling alt jobs, wait for exp campaigns… it helps speed this up a TON!!
Have fun and see you in Vana’diel! 🫡
Fair point on starting with Thief! Everyone has their own preferences/tips, so for me, using Sparks points to get some Acheon Shields made money mostly a non-issue for buying things like maps and spells, and I liked having the black magic and healing options early game. But honestly, your tip on starting as Thief and then adding Dancer sub is a good one! Thanks for sharing and thanks for commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed the vid and hope you have a great one! Cheers!
2004 CoP FFXI was the peak of MMOs. Everything after that was downhill.
I've never heard this opinion before! Wow! :D
I strongly disagree with all of your counter-criticisms of classic players. They are blatantly wrong and your arguments don't hold water at all.
Hi! I'm done responding to comments about private servers UNLESS you bring up a good point I haven't heard before! If you make a good case, I'll actually respond. If you don't get a response to specific points you made, it's because I've heard those points before and don't think said points are very good. Private servers are piracy, and I support the devs. #SorryNotSorry
@@gregtroyan I poured many hundreds of dollars into the game over the years. I supported the game more than I supported any other game, financially speaking.
Cool!