New video about Private Servers (I've updated my opinion...kinda): ruclips.net/video/hhOJQUbkqpQ/видео.htmlsi=fzXTW3MgGGQn3yOe Chrono Series Ranking Video: ruclips.net/video/duREyMpy4Zk/видео.html Final Fantasy Ranking Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLXjn34wFCMP-6Kl56Fn2Ig3msOHqZAVhv 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: ruclips.net/video/Qldwt7F3VAA/видео.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.
Eh, as far as supporting ffxi retail paying for the content is a non-starter the "devs" have said they only work on ffxi when they have free time that isn't spent on ff14. The only thing the fee for 11 does is pay for the servers. Long story short 11 doesn't have a dev team according to the "dev team"
At what point did XI stop having a dev team? Was it when they made Wings of the Goddess? Was it when they made A Crystalline Prophecy? Was it when they made A Shantotto Ascension? Was it when they made A Moogle Kupo d'Etat? Was it when they made Vision of Abyssea? Was it when they made Scars of Abyssea? Was it when they made Heroes of Abyssea? Was it when they made Seekers of Adoulin? Was it when they made Rhapsodies of Vana'diel? Was it when they made The Voracious Resurgence? Weird how "nobody" made this content, it just magically appeared, so it's okay to throw it in the trash and/or steal it via private servers. The content doesn't exist just like the devs don't exist. 🙄
If the argument is, "Well, they made that in their spare time," imagine what they could do if people stopped stealing the game and actually had enough budget and resources to put back into XI. And it definitely wasn't "in their spare time" off the clock or anything like that. They are getting paid by Square Enix and doing it while on the clock. Just because they have multiple duties at their job still doesn't mean it isn't their job. Again, another bad argument in favor of private servers. The dev team doesn't exist so it's okay to steal from them. Weird how these people who don't exist have made a lot of content over the past decade. You did get me respond, I'll give you that.
@@gregtroyan The Voracious Resurgence was the last bit of new content before the torch was passed from former Producer Matsui to the current Producer Fujito. The expansion was made with a skeleton crew, but after it's completion and the change in producers, Fujito elected to let most of the remaining dev team of XI go to work on other projects both within Square Enix or elsewhere if they chose to do so. There is, arguably, fewer than 10 people remaining to work on FFXI and have said future FFXI content will be in the form of "community activities" such as Vana'bout, which focuses on players accomplishing tasks across all servers. The reasons for this direction are twofold: firstly, Fujito-P believes it is in the best interests of the developers' careers to move on from FFXI and develop new, relevant skills instead of maintaining decades old code. Additionally, it is unreasonable to bring in new developers to teach them skills that won't be relevant in the future work. Secondly, the hope for any new expansion content in FFXI is bound to the remaining PS2 dev kits, as the development team has stated multiple times that all their development and testing tools require that hardware and they simply cannot dedicate resources to eliminate that dependency. It was said by the steam that Seekers of Adoulin would be the final expansion for FFXI as well yet we got The Voracious Resurgence from the passion of the team, but it is unlikely we will see more given the current situation. Furthermore, private servers are NOT piracy in any form. Private servers do not use code owned by Square Enix and thus do not violate any copyright law. They also do not use any assets owned by Square Enix, as the server code is independent from the client software, which is provided free of charge. The private server software is reverse engineered from the "black box" that is the retail servers by analyzing packet data and client behavior to re-implement the functionality of the official servers. You can argue that private servers may harm Square Enix and FFXI and it's developers by depriving them of potential subscribers, but this is not piracy as generally defined. Also, please consider that most private servers for FFXI seek to recreate the 75 level cap era (from the base game up until Wings of the Goddess) but only differ on which expansion they cut content off at. This is an experience that cannot be had in retail FFXI and many people play both or would otherwise not subscribe play retail as the content of the game has shifted too far from that era now in it's twilight years. As a final point, private servers are absolutely crucial to software preservation and especially so for live service games. They are best developed while official servers still exist to verify the implementations are correct while the "black box" still exists. More people playing on these pservers helps to verify the behavior of these implementations are in fact correct. I don't expect to change your stance on how the potential loss of subscribers may hurt Square Enix and the FF11 development team, but I hope this will soften your opinion of private servers at least a bit. Keep heart, though, as Noaki Yoshida has taken up the position of advocate of FFXI within SE's MMORPG division and has promised that the game will remain online for everyone to experience an important numbered FF game as long as it remains profitable. It is the job of the developers to keep that up! I wouldn't worry too much, as SE invested in brand new server hardware for FF11 in the past year, so I expect the game to be online for the forseeable future.
This comes off more as a compilation of hot takes for every expansion more than a story overview, which is what I've been looking for since I'm a 14 player and they're adding 11-related content there soon.
First, saying "Chains of Promathia good" is like saying "Shadowbringers good". It's hardly a hot take. There are some opinions of mine that are contrary to a certain segment of XI players (folks who say everything after 2006 is hot garbage and should be ignored), but me saying, "Hey, this content is actually good and worthwhile" is as hot of a take as saying, "Hey, there are some good Final Fantasy games after Final Fantasy X". Boomers disagree, they're loud, but they aren't the be-all end-all of discourse. Second, the idea behind this overview is for it to give people a general idea of what each expansion contains (general plot synopsis, major characters, villains, key locations, thematic content, vibes), without major spoilers in case they sound interesting enough for people to want to give them a try, but also giving enough info about them where people can get a general idea of what the story is like. It's a tricky tightrope to walk and I acknowledge not everyone will be satisfied. Overall, the response has incredibly positive and I've had a bunch of people message me saying that this video inspired them to play FFXI, and I've had a bunch of XIV players specifically thank me for the video and they told me they were satisfied with it. Thanks for taking the time to watch the whole video and taking the time to comment.
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.
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.
I played XI from 03 to 07. It was far more life consuming than i have time to fully express right now. A game you could play every minute of every day and have very little in game to show for your efforts. It was so brutal. Those were great times.
"A game you could play every minute of every day and have very little in game to show for your efforts. It was so brutal. Those were great times." To me, that sounds like a terrible time, hahaha! But I know old school players love the grind.
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
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! : )
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 RUclips 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. : )
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.
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! : )
This should really be called "Lore Overview or just game overview" since the video is pretty light on what the actual story is, and you even say in the beginning that there would be no spoilers, which defeats a story video, imo. However, it's still a great video, I loved ff11 and am happy to see others enjoy it. Keep up the hard work.
I think the title works. It's not an overview of the whole game (I gloss over a lot of gameplay stuff --- most gameplay stuff I flat out skip). I don't get into enough lore to call it a lore overview. I didn't call it a summary or recap. I called it an overview, which I think describes what this is. I describe the general structure, vibe, major characters, themes, and provide a synopsis for all of the main story, along with describing what the experience is like. I think overview is a fair descriptor, as it is not a summary or recap. And, again, I don't get into enough gameplay to call it an overview of the game or enough lore to call it a lore overview. In general, lore videos are focused more on world history, wheras I talk about characterization and theme. Thank you for the kind words. Cheers mate!
I would love to see an actual story recap or whatever you want to call it, since I've only played the first 2 expansions and barely remember the story. That's what I was hoping for when clicking on this video, I guess
@@sumcoolguy I totally get that, hence why I chose the word overview instead of summary or recap. I think there's a need for those kind of videos on RUclips, especially in regards to FFXI. The goal for this video wasn't to summarize the story, but rather paint a general picture of what the story for each expansion is, and was to serve as a fun nostalgia trip for XI fans while also giving an idea of what the story is for people who might be curious about the game but haven't jumped in. The choice not to dive into spoilers was out of respect for people who might want to play the game for themselves, and I've had a bunch of people reach out to me saying that they plan on playing XI because of this video (which is the highest compliment I could receive on such a video). If you want to dive into the story, I do recommend Korvana's channel (linked in the description and pinned comment). All of the cutscenes for the game (minus The Voracious Resurgence) are there. If you want to blast through the base game and Rise of the Zilart you could do those both in an evening.
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!
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.
I am a big XIV player. Over 3k hours all jobs at lvl 90 and a few at 100 already. Tried XI a couple of times but havent progressed beyond level 75 and beginning of Zillart. Your mini guide at the beginning of the video gave me motivation to start again. XI always looked like better game than XIV to me but it's much harder to get into. The cutscenes are much more lively and more interestingly shot than XIV.
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.
As someone who never comments on RUclips 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!
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!
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)
Thank you for making such a comprehensive video on XI. It truly is the biggest, most complex, most difficult FF. It shows its age now, but the story, world, setting, mechanics, music, and are all amazing. My long shot hope for the future is an offline remake of XI so more people can enjoy Vana’Diel.
An offline remake that includes all of the content but rebalances the game with a couple more quality of life features (mini-map and quest markers)...man. That game would absolutely rock!
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).
@@gregtroyan Abysea was not optional content. That is not what happened. It is where everyone went to level through very afk methods or mass grouping for hours with very little thinking. But if you didn't play before, you don't really know what FFXI was. I am assuming you didn't really play this game before, but are commenting on others opinions without any context outside of - reading some stuff somewhere. Kinda yikes.
@@Snickerv12 So other people leveling up in a way you don't like ruined the game? You know you could still level up the way you wanted to you yourself, right? : D
Abyssea is an optional zone. I know guys who played XI and never went into Abyssea once, and they beat all of the other expansions. I'm pretty sure that means it's optional. : P
"Problem" with the story back then was that actually doing some parts of the story was very difficult due to level caps, needing multiple people to do stuff and getting to the places since traveling was not easy either. Trusts and the removal of level caps made the story way more acessible.
Regarding private servers, it's pretty simple: You aren't someone who enjoys MMOs, so the gameplay differences between old and modern FFXI don't register as important to you. "It's just QoL, what's so bad about that?" I don't often just bash someone without substance, but that's a pretty brainless take if I've ever seen one. It doesn't take much to see why people may not like something being made easier or less complex, but it takes more than you're willing to give, apparently.
You know you can limit your level cap in retail and not use the QOL, right? You know there are people playing retail who literally do that, right? You know the graphics and music and locations in retail are literally identical to private servers, right? You know you can use all of the old mechanics in retail, right? I can see why someone might prefer the old style of gameplay. I get that. If there was like, a single thing in private that you couldn't do in retail, I might concede the argument. But mechanically, all the options are still in retail so...nah. It's still dumb and petty, and the fact that there are people in retail playing level 75 cap is proof there is no reason for pirate servers to exist. #SorryNotSorry Thanks for the kind words! 😀
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.
I started up FFXI again after a long time away. FFXI got so carried away with HP absorbing shields with the bosses, especially in Abyssea and the Cloud of Darkness. I got all the way to CoD but just gave up and looked up the final cutscenes. I was happy finishing RotZ and CoP and got about 50% finished with the rest. FFXI's Blue Mage is probably the most interesting job in the entire series. Also a huge shoutout of SMN and BST as very interesting and complex jobs about threat sharing/pulling and mob positioning. I always have my Wind-up Elvaan out with me on my FFXIV adventure and almost always wear my Scorpion Harness. I'll always love this game.
Cloud of Darkness in XI is an insane boss. I'm glad to you got to see the story through the cutscenes but also played enough to appreciate it mechanically. Cheers mate!
Thanks for the video and explaining everything this actually got me more interested to try than when my friends left XIV to play it during the off times for XIV. Might have to make this my other mmo in the long run I can always come back to. Looking forward to try it out on official servers.
Awesome! I'm so glad this video helped give you more motivation to try out the game, and I'm glad you're going to try it out on the official retail version to support the devs. It's comments like these that really make me smile. There's so much incredible stuff in XI and I'm glad to help shine a light on it so that you can dive into the game. : )
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 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!
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.
@@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!
My god, 1.0 and 2.0 FF14 is basically a re-imagining of ff11... Same playable races, borrowed assets, even the story resolves around beastmen fucking around and finding out...
Yeah, the similarities are pretty glaring. It's clear that when they made XIV they were hoping it would just be an easy replacement for XI. I'm glad the differences allowed them to branch off into other directions.
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.
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! : )
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.
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!
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! : )
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!
15:40 "Neat" - it's the little things like that, all the starting jobs were the same as FF1 starting jobs, everything in FF11 feels like it makes sense and is harmonious. Hundreds of little things like this that go mostly unnoticed. That's what makes FF11 better than FF14.
I definitely prefer FFXI to FFXIV (based on beating all of XI and only beating ARR). I'm curious to see how I'll feel after beating XIV's other expansions, but XI's harmonious nature is absolutely incredible and masterful. I adore FFXI and think it's construction is top-notch.
Man, this is easily in my top 3 games of all time. My first real online gaming experience when it released, and definitely my most memorable. I only really did the expansions upto the end of aht urhgan, so i look forward to seeing the stories past that! Every 3/4 years i sub back up again just to have a run around the old zones, listen to the music, just remebering the good times 😊 i tried to install it on my ROG ally recently to try get back on, but it doesn’t work on there 😢 lol
Oh man, I'm sorry it's not working for you right now. Hopefully you can figure out the install process. It wouldn't work on my old laptop but runs great on my current one, so I feel the pain. I hope this video gives you a nice sampling of the stuff that came out after Treasures!
@@gregtroyan Thanks man! I do still have it installed on one of my older laptops, i just don't have it out much anymore lol. I just thought having it on a handheld would be super useful, for when i'm out an about, or just binging some TV while playing it on the sofa lol. My PC is always filled up with games and video/images from content i make, so can't really get it on here. I'm honestly just tempted to get the laptop out for a bit again though! And thanks man :) just upto CoP chapter at the minute. As you said, such a classic expansion. Doing the promyvions was possibly the first time i felt a real challenge in the game, trying to get people together who could play with real strategy. Such a great expansion. I'm tempted to level up my mule and go through the story again if i sub back up lol. When was you last subbed up?
Getting from nation rank 5-10 was so damn fun. We managed to get an alliance together to just grind it out. That was the first time i’d ran an alliance group, as i was only like level 65 at the time, but man, it was so awesome! This video is making me wanna sub back up lol
@@gregtroyan All good man! :) This game just holds a crazy special place in my heart, the memories just come flooding back whenever i watch a video online lol. I like how you've giving an overview, but a review too, definitely adds more to the video :)
@@EubyGamingRES Thanks! My goal was to help give context to each expansion so that somebody who never played XI (or maybe missed out on certain expansions) could get a feel for them outside of a just a story overview so they could get the "vibe" of what the experience is like without major spoilers, but also to serve as a refresher to longtime fans and dash in a little of my thoughts as if you were in the room chatting with me and I was explaining the game to you. I'm really glad you are appreciating the video! : )
@@gregtroyan It has definitely helped a lot! :) i loved the story as i played through the base game and first few expansions, it's just been so long since i played through them, and only doing them once as well, there are some parts i don't remember, so this is great! Just up to the adoulin chapter now. Watching past Treasures, i definitely remember following the wings of the goddess story now lol. All the content between that and adoulin i kinda just skipped by. I did start following the adoulin story, but i never finished it. I honestly think i will just start a fresh story playthrough, while also trying to remember what i was grinding on my main lol. do you still play, or have you retired after going through all the content making this video? lol
@@EubyGamingRES I play during the free login campaigns. I did a livestream of me playing through some Voidwatch content during the last free campaign. Right now I'm currently playing Another Eden as my main game, and that game is easily as massive as an MMO in terms of content even though it's a single player game. So that's my main gaming focus right now. After I finish that up I plan on beating all of XIV the way I beat XI. Because those two games are such massive undertakings I'm not really active in XI right now, but again, whenever there's a free login campaign I definitely hop in and have some fun for a bit. : )
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.
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 remember leavng 11 around 52lvl shortly after cop released. I could not find groups to do content. And solo anything was impossible. I tried returning years later. But was completely lost on where to go of what to do. 14 truly made thismuch easier and streamlined with msq. Maybe ill return again.
I hope you'll give XI another shot. Try playing along with a guide. It helps a lot and modern XI is very soloable aside from some stuff towards the end of Adoulin, Rhapsodies and TVR.
Played this game from 3rd grade to freshman year, never got to 75, couldnt beat matt, bc my main job was rdm and i was forced throughout my entire leveling experience to only heal(and occasional cast bio) so my weapon skill and other things never leveled with me and so was stuck at 70 trying to beat Matt, i did end up getting alot of jobs to the 50-60 area tho, WHM, DRG, NIN, SMN, BLM, PLD, and WAR, and just kinda forgot about matt. I was the guy in Jeuno constantly /Sh "COP/Rank missions help? Do you need it? I Can Help!" I absolutely loved those story lines and would constantly help anyone i could and put together parties to help other people progress thru the story. As a lil young kid tho it was sooo hard to truly grasp the mechanics of the game, alot of the time i had to rely on my dad and his buddies(they were the best LS on Fenrir) to get gear/spells they would so kindly donate😂 My dad would also have me craft/farm mobs for HOURS during the summer on his character while he was at work and he'll pay me in Gil😂😂😂 ill be doing cop missions on one screen and crafting or farming demons on the other😂 I did quit playing throughout my 7th-9th grade years, for sports/social reasons came. Came back to Abbysea, noticed how much the community has changed and the way people would progress and ended up just quiting for good. There was no longer a true sense of a community, just souless beings in abyssea playing follow the leader(basically fates in XIV) Also thank you so much for this video 🧡💜 it was nice to see this game i grew up with again
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.
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 RUclips. 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.
This is the most excellent FF11 video i have seen yet. I played for 20 years and my character still lives! My first MMO and will always be my favorite.
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.
As a die hard FF fan, I have played every main line entry multiple times. I put a lot of time in to 14, but am now 2 expansions behind. 11 tho i have put very little time in to and have always been intrigued by it. I got it when it was still fairly new and started playing, but then I got a Xbox 360 and couldnt convince my parents to pay for both an FF11 sub and Xbox Live. So 11 is the one that got away. Which is a shame because nowadays im very interested in these more old school MMOs that I feel as tho I missed out on entirely. Maybe I should finally dive in to 11 soon....
I was surprised new content happened in 2020. ToAU was one of my favorite expansions because my job BLU finally got in the game. Unlike most, my jobs in Vana'diel floundered from level 50 or below until then and was not happy on ammo and tool consumption and costs in FFXI for NIN and RNG. Abyssea was actually my 2nd favorite, because BLU finally was not crapped on and got relic equivalent gear. No, Karen and Kevin. BLU cannot equip Excalibur or any other relic weapon. Also, Atma in Abyssea finally got magical BLU spells to work as they should have been intended. I remember a LS that we knew how to get all lights to proc so we can just keep adding time while farming in Abyssea. I almost got every atma and other key items except one in Konstchat. Sadly, I'm getting issues when trying to relog in the game if I want to at all, so my 99 BLU is just sitting in his private island in his Mog Garden to this day. Also, if it were not for FFXI, I never would have met my wife. Got married the same year ToAU came out. People since try to get me to play a private server since, trying to sell the "It's only level 75 cap and only has up to CoP in it!" Then I'm like old Captain America: "No. I don't think I will." Pre-Abyssea crapped all-over BLU with the exception of the story IMO.
I hear that RDM Maat was a pain, I had to farm the BLU testimony around Mamook twice. I loathe XI's Raubhan so much. But I made my first level 75 and beyond job as BLU as intended. Eating tacos and wearing DEF gear on BLU/THF for cannonball was so fun. Instead of SATA, it was CASATA with Chain Affinity. In Abyssea, since Atmas corrected the stat bug or glitch with BLU magical spells, I was able to /RDM there. Used to go crazy in Promyvion since you had to unlock CoP areas to not be a nerfed BLU and access to spells you can only learn from certain monsters there. Ended up calling myself "Promyvion - Jack", and pretended I learned BLU spells from the Empty until you really could learn from them. Boy, I made sure I set those spells. I even named my chocobo in XIV Promyvion. Sadly, I've yet to complete SoA and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel.
It's awesome that you were able to meet your wife because of FFXI. Also, I love your Captain America analogy there. Sucks that your character is stuck on the Mog Garden, but I'm glad you got to experience a ton of great FFXI adventures and I'm glad your Blue Mage got to experience the game post-Abyssea. Cheers mate!
@@elraton01 Man, I really hope you can get back into XI to finish SoA and Rhapsodies. They're both a great time. I love the stories about Blue Mage you're sharing. That's awesome stuff. RDM Maat wasn't that bad of a fight if I remember correctly. One of the harder fights in the game but not unreasonably so, at least from what I can remember.
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.
@@gregtroyanReception for a live service game is inherently tied to its content release schedule and developer responsiveness. It's absolutely fair to review the expansions on their own merit, but if you're going to make statements judging the player base, then you also need the context in which that content was released. You are awfully harsh for someone without that frame of reference.
@@Py687 I understand the context behind the different frame of references. I can have an opinion on the presidency of Ronald Reagan without being alive during his presidency by gathering enough information and context, and I can disagree with the majority. Reagan was massively popular when he was President, I understand why, and I can still think he was a terrible President. I can understand the historical context behind the release of content in a live service game, I can understand people have nostalgia for certain eras, and I can still judge the content based on the quality of the content rather than solely the historical context. In general, a lot of old school XI fans judge content not by the quality of the release but by the context the content was released, and they are far harsher in their criticisms of post-Abyssea content than I am of pre-Abyssea content. Yeah, I'm gonna judge people for pirating a live service game when all of the options to experience the game "the old school way" is still contained within the game. The graphics are the same. The music is the same. The locations are the same. The mechanics are the same, the only difference is that there are additional OPTIONS that make the game easier, if you choose. People can do mental gymnastics to justify why removing pirating the game and removing optional features is ethical, but cutting straight to the point, it's stealing, it's disrespectful, and I think it's stupid. It's artistically bankrupt. If a private server did something creative and interesting, like writing a new storyline or creating new locations, I would immediately respect them and I would immediately sign up to play on private servers. But just stealing the game and cutting out content is something I have zero respect for, as an artist and as a fan of artists. Once private servers actually do something artistic and creative, let me know. Otherwise, I have no interest in playing a pirated mod of retail and killing support for the creators. I may sound harsh, but I'm tired of people pretending that private servers are anything other than pirated versions of retail that just remove content and modify some stats. If you're looking at FFXI from purely a mechanical perspective, with no respect to the artistry of the creatives, with no concept of how the economic livelihoods of the devs and funding for the game is concerned, with no respect for the storytelling involved in the game, then I can see how someone would support private servers. But, as someone who has been involved in media from the creative side (worked on a video game dev staff, worked on a feature film, been a member of an orchestra, worked in radio, worked as a touring musician etc.), I have complete disgust with private servers stealing the game and throwing the work of the devs in the trash all because they don't like that you can equip an EXP ring and summon some trusts. Nope. Sorry. Zero respect for that perspective, and I'm going to be harsh on it. If you pirate the game because of poverty, I can respect that. If you pirate the game and create something artistic and unique with it, I can respect that. If you pirate the game just to remove content you don't like, I have zero respect for that.
I think when people refer to "the best expansion" they're not looking at it like you are. They're remembering how fun and challenging the fights were. Even the difficult journeys to the fight itself is something I fondly reminisce about. When you do the content as a level 99 with OP out of era gear, you trivialize all of that.
This translates to "whatever expansion I have the most nostalgia for is the best one because it's the one I played with my friends". It has more to do with a personal experience than an objective analysis of the quality of any particular expansion, in the same way that a lot of fans of a band will only like whatever stuff of that band they heard when they were a teenager and won't give the rest of the catalog a chance. If someone says, "Rise of the Zilart is my favorite expansion because I have the best memories of partying up and hanging with friends", I get that, and that's different than saying "Rise of the Zilart is objectively better than Seekers of Adoulin because Seekers is trash". I see no issue with folks claiming nostalgia for personal preference, but I do see issue with acting like said nostalgia leads to it being an objective statement on the lack of quality in regards to latter day XI content. When you do all of the content as a level 99, you're forced to look at the content objectively for what it is in terms of map design, quest structure and narrative pacing. Without nostalgia goggles, latter day XI holds up extremely well, as does a bunch of classic XI. There's a ton of great content in the game from all eras is where I land.
So, I fully get people having their biases and favorites. But I think favorite and best aren't always the same thing. I think any objective look at Rise of the Zilart vs Seekers of Adoulin, for example, wouldn't lead to people saying, "Oh, Zilart crushes Seekers and Seekers is nothing but hot garbage". But, among classic XI players, anything that came out after 2006 is considered garbage, less for the quality of the content and more for the era it came out (which happened to be when they stopped playing the game). That's where my issue comes from. But folks like you who say, "Man, I had fun playing these old expansions and I have great memories playing with friends", I have zero complaints about that. Pretty Boy Floyd might not be my favorite band (or the band I think is the GOAT), but some of my favorite memories are of driving around with friends listening to that first album. So I get it.
@@gregtroyan I respectfully disagree with your conclusion. Mechanics are an extremely important part of any game. If you could just coast carelessly through any Final Fantasy game from one cutscene to the next, ignoring environmental and mob dangers, and one shotting every boss, that would not be a fun game. I'd rather just watch a movie. How can you objectively look at map design and pacing when you're blowing past all of it and not feeling the dangers that were there back in the day? And I don't think you looked at even 50% of the content. I've only watched up to the add-on scenarios but you've barely mentioned any of the end game content. That is another area where people based their rankings of expansions off of and makes up a majority of the content from each expansion. If the end game sucked, the expansion sucked. I have no problem with how you're ranking them, but I think it'd be more fair to say you're ranking the expansions off just their story lines. I can admit my nostalgia bias, but you should admit that what you experienced is miles different than how the content was originally designed to be experienced. And comparing the old content to the newer content that way seems extremely unfair and biased in my opinion.
@@gregtroyan And after listening to your Abyssea and Seekers section I resent your flippant attitude towards others opinions who were actually playing the game when these expansions came out. Especially from a self proclaimed non-mmo gamer. There's a reason they shutdown 8 servers in 2010 and another 8 servers in 2011, and it's not because half the player base just had different life events or whatever excuse you made up. You should look up the difference between horizontal and vertical progression. We'd been playing a game dedicated to horizontal progression for 6 years. Yes, new and amazing gear would be released, some of it relatively easy to get, but it wasn't until Abyssea where we had almost every piece of gear prior to that expansion rendered obsolete with some stupidly easy to obtain gear. If you can't acknowledge the amount of effort that went into obtaining that gear, then I understand why people were getting heated with you in forums and comment sections. People saw their gear as a visible trophy that they were proud of having earned. And rightfully so, the best gear was very hard to earn. Abyssea was bascially a reset, everyone back to a level field. And even worse, a game that built itself on difficulty and teamwork just became a mindless grind in Abyssea. The devs lost sight of what made their game special. It's fine to have a different opinion, especially from your perspective of playing a game 20 years after release, but acting like a jack@ss to people who played it on release and disagree with you is crossing the line. Don't try to pass it off like they're the toxic ones when I can tell very easily where the toxicity is coming from in your videos.
@@Gooseys11First off, calling out toxicity isn't the same as toxicity. I think it's fine if folks prefer the way the game used to function mechanically back in the early days of the game. That's a personal preference. However, if their solution to that is to steal the game AND throw away the hard work the devs did on latter day in XI in the trash, while insulting the devs and claiming EVERYTHING that came out after a certain era is trash, yes, I'll call that out as toxic. It's illegal, it's disrespectful to the artists and creatives working on the game, it shows a lack of nuance and willingness to engage in new art, it shows closed-mindedness and it's petty. Me calling that out for what it is isn't toxicity. My point, if you paid attention, is that ALL (I repeat, ALL) mechanical options from early XI are contained within retail alongside OPTIONAL (I repeat, OPTIONAL) quality of life features and OPTIONAL (I repeat, OPTIONAL) zones. The devs left the option to play XI as it was originally within the game. Don't go to Abyssea, don't use Trusts, don't use Teleports. Nobody is forcing anybody to engage in mechanics they don't like, and again, if the idea behind private servers is to play with people who want to play the same way...there is literally nothing stopping you from doing that in retail. Just find like 4 other people who want to play that way. There are people on retail, right now, doing challenge runs of playing XI the old school way without quality of life features. There is literally nothing stopping anybody from doing this. People prefer different kinds of video game mechanics, but to act like the ONLY solution is to pirate the game and remove content is childish, petty, and insulting, and I have no problem calling that out for what it is. Other players are able to play old school on retail, it just involves you talking with 4 other people. As someone with a bunch of friends, I don't think it's unreasonable to say, "Hey, just socialize." You know. The point of the game. There are multiple ways one can enjoy FFXI, in the same where there are multiple ways one can enjoy FFVIII. I enjoy breaking the junction system, becoming an overpowered God, and using Diabolos to turn off random battles. Am I not able to enjoy the game mechanics because of this? No. I still love the mechanics. Am I not able to enjoy the dungeon design with battles turned off? No, I'm still able to enjoy the dungeon design, and for me, I feel I can soak it in even more. Do I need to beat every superboss in an FF game to decide whether or not I enjoyed it? No. Do I need to do all of the endgame content in each XI expansion to decide how I feel about each expansion? No. I don't need to do every single piece of content in every single expansion to draft my opinions on them. I may like some endgame more than others (I liked Dynamis more than Voidwatch), but that's not enough for me to move the needle on ranking Zilart above Wings. The difference between a lot of older XI players and a lot of newer players is that older players argue that you HAVE to experience the game a certain way, otherwise it doesn't count and your opinion does not matter. What I argue is that the way I play is just as valid as the way older players play, BUT (here's the rub) just because an older player prefers different mechanics doesn't give them the right to pirate the game when all the mechanical options for playing old school are contained within retail. You don't HAVE to break the junction system in VIII, and you DON'T have to use Trusts in XI, but if somebody wants to, let them have their fun. If your solution to people having fun in a way you don't like is stealing the game, well, I kinda don't respect that and will call it out. I freely admit my experience playing XI is different than folks playing 20 years ago. I'm not hiding that fact. But I'm also not going to pretend my analysis is one thing just because a bunch of folks who played Zilart 20 years ago say it's so much better than Wings of the Goddess when it isn't. In the same way a lot of Kiss fans are 70s purists and insist that the band was only good between 1974-1978, neglecting that some of their best material came after that era, is how I look at XI. I won't deny the greatness of early XI content like Chains of Promathia and think it is worthy of praise, but I also won't pretend that just because something came out later means it is absolute trash. Modern XI is still very much a horizontal progression game for most content beyond the main story, so acting like the game is mindless shows a lack of knowledge of the current state of modern XI. In my opinion, modern XI offers the best of both worlds in that the game still has plenty of horizontal progression but also offers vertical progression for more casual fans who want to experience the main story. I acknowledge it is different, and some may have a preference that all main story is blocked by horizontal progression. That is an area where we can respectfully agree to disagree. We can also respectfully disagree on which era of XI one feels is the best. If someone said, "2006 was the best year for FFXI" that's different than saying "Treasures of Aht Urghan is the best XI expansion". Those are two different things. I'm looking at the content not in the context of how it was when it came out, but how it stacks up side-by-side. You can argue that's not objective, but it's certainly more objective than purely looking at the game through a lens of nostalgia. I can say, "A bunch of guys who never played Seekers of Adoulin say it's bad", but that's not very helpful and doesn't reflect my opinion. I'm not going to be charitable to that take because it's stupid, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't stupid. I'm also not going to pretend I like Zilart more just because folks love it. I played FFVI back in the 90s, and while I like it, I find it to be overrated. It's still great, I just think it isn't as good as it's reputation. So, with Zilart, I still like it, but I don't think it's as good as it's reputation. That's just called me being honest. And, remember, I gave Chains of Promathia and Treasures TONS of praise in the video, so it's not like I hate old XI content. It's that I'm viewing them on an equal playing field and not giving out extra credit just because of the era it came out, which is the opposite of many old school fans who shun everything after a certain era. You are correct in that I am flippant to a certain viewpoint, but it's a very narrow viewpoint. The viewpoint I am flippant to is: "Everything that came out after 2006 is trash and my solution is to pirate the game". If you want to play the game with old mechanics, do that, and do that in retail. You can, it's easy to do, and anything else is just an excuse to justify piracy and disrespecting the devs. Period.
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 RUclips, 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! : )
Hey. man, just gotta add: naoshi mizuta worked on the strangers of paradise: final fantasy game too. His music is honestly a masterpiece in it! I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t listened to it before 😊 i used to make montage videos from that game of the boss fights, and he liked one of the videos i posted on twitter. I got to thank him for his music in that game and especially all the music he made in FFXI. It was a good day! I still listen to that whole soundtrack regularly. I got it upto aht urhgan as i was playing regularly upto that point, so the most nostalgia for the music upto then lol
@@gregtroyan 100% agreed. When i heard “the chimera” track on the SOPFFO soundtrack, it just took me right back to FFXI lol. Yeah man, that album was a love letter to FF. I hope we see him come back for more in the future, i’d love to see him compose FFXVII
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
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).
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.
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.
I remember players wanting more solo content because the base got older is why FoV and DNC was made and later trusts (we were given a "fellow" we could customize but it wasnt that great)
Actually dynamis is still relevant to get the gear that u need for most of end game content. You get the gear which you end up upgrading to become the most powerful set for end game. (For most jobs)
I would put Aht Urghan exactly on the same bracket as Heavensward. Both are smaller in scales and feel more like a side quest to the main overarching story, and focus on one region (Ishgard and Aht Urghan). Both have that particular vibe that you can only find in those expansions through the characters, the lusic, the politics and stakes. Very similar in my opinion. Stormblood had more to do with the main story as it focuses directly on the Empire which was kinda the main antagonist for a while and it introduces Zenos who for some reason would become important in the later expansions like Endwalker
Alyssa adding lvl cap raise and new gear was never the issue. It was being able to stand inside abyssea afk to plvl. Older players that wanted to party and lvl outside of it found it much much harder to get ppl to do so after that expansion. This was one of the more heavy point that the mmo lost its mmo part. You barely met ppl after that since half would just be "afk" in an alliance. The content and fighting itself was fun but it really did split up the server base a bit more as newer players that didn't have connections to long term links hello found it harder to get into the game and felt the game was even dying even half the server sat inside abyssea most of the day.
I've heard A LOT of players complain about the level cap and the new gear. I think that the alliance thing is also something that upset players, but even in the comments section of this video, there are tons of people who complain about level cap and gear.
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?
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.
So before abysse there was Nyzul Isle that had the best gear in the game at 75 a lot of people didnt like they grinded for years for gear for it to be out classed by a buyable weapon
Hey my FFXIV sub is almost up (halfway through Stormblood) and I want to take a break to play some FFXI. I want to play Corsair/Red Mage in FFXI as a Tarutaru because RDM and little people/child race go against everything I like in FF games but in XI I like the design of both. I hate RDM in early FF games because they’re versatile in early levels but low ceiling in later levels. But since XI is solo-able I want to be able to dish out damage and heal and RDM looks cool in this game. And Lalafells are chunky and awkward in FFXIV but Tarutaru are not as stocky and ugly. Any advice you can give for me? I don’t know anything about the combat besides how it plays on a surface level. I’ve watched plenty of videos but I’m going to go into Vana’diel for the first time with this setup in mind. 😁
I'm really not an expert on mechanics, so I'm probably the wrong person to ask, hahaha. The trick with Red Mage is that it'll basically be like a hour glass. It'll start off pretty useful and then you will reach what feels like that "low ceiling" you hit in other FF games, BUT..... 1. The low ceiling is mostly in regards to physical attacks, which are still good, just definitely inferior to jobs like Warrior and Monk. 2. You won't really need to go past that ceiling if you ask for help for a couple of endgame bosses, which is only a handful of fights. Most of the game can be soloed with zero issue. 3. You can break past the ceiling with the right equipment and the post level 99 grind (Merit Points, Job Points, Master Levels) etc. Corsair you need to unlock via Treasures of Aht Urghan, so you can't start with that job, and you'll likely need to have a job in the 50s or 60s just to survive in the expansion's areas long enough to unlock Corsair. I watched the cutscenes on YT for the Corsair questline but never actually unlocked the job or messed with it mechanically, so I can't judge it from that perspective. The storyline for it pretty cool, though! Red Mage worked well for me in my playthrough. I was pretty satisfied with my healing capabilities but desired a little bit more from physical damage output when dealing with some of the endgame bosses. However, I didn't do the grind to get past the ceiling, and the physical damage output wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything near what it would be like if I partied up with another player maining Monk. However, subbing Black Mage gave me some pretty decent magic damage as an option when my physical damage wasn't doing it for me. Again, I only struggled for a handful of bosses at the very end of my journey (1 boss in Abyssea, maybe like 2 or 3 in Adoulin and Rhapsodies, and then a good chunk of Voracious bosses) but most of the game was pretty comfortable to solo. My playstyle was basically alternating between physical attacks, buffs, black magic and healing while utilizing a good combo of Trusts to balance out physical attacks, buffs, black magic and healing. Red Mage in party settings is often focused on buffing and healing the party and then moving onto attacks if buffs and health are satisfactory. But again, it's pretty comfortable to solo the game as Red Mage, even without breaking too far into the post-99 ceiling. Paladin also offers more offense and some healing options, as does Blue Mage. Blue Mage is supposedly super grindy but also super OP if you do the grind. So, there's plenty of options. I don't know how well the Corsair/Red Mage combo would pair because I'm not super familiar with Corsair mechanics. If you aren't subbing Black Mage you'll want to get a Warp Ring for teleportation purposes. I like the Tarutaru proportions. They look like Nes/Snes style characters and they add charm to XI's world (I think they look better than the human characters -- at least the player created ones). I hope my comment was somewhat helpful (along with the tips at the end of the video).
@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
I've been playing FFXI since PS2 release. Whoever said this game doesn't have a story? lmao literally no one has said that. CoP is one of the best stories told in the series.
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
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 think they imply that the explosion at the start of CoP is caused by our battle with the final boss of RoZ but they left it open enough that players don't have to complete base + RoZ for the narrative to make sense. I treat base+RoZ+CoP+epilogue as one continous narrartive. My ratings are: base = 6/10, RoZ = 7/10, CoP = 10/10, ToAU = 9/10, WotG = 8/10, SoA = 7/10. Bastok 7/10, Sandoria 9/10, Windurst 9/10.
I have trouble getting past the "What? You don't remember what happened?" followed by a cutscene that retcons events. I get the explosion thing, but that part was a bit oof for me. Wow! Sandoria higher than WOTG?
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!
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. : )
Abysea was going to sleep while sitting in an alliance and waking up to be lvl cap. It ruined going out to the world and interacting with players.. You just don't get it. You must not have played back then and have no idea what you're talking about..
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.
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.
@@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 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.
All seriousness, I've dabbled in some private servers and wanted to experience all the story content xi has to offer. What I found was that even when expansions were included, other features were dropped. As of yesterday I beat the infamous Playonline Non optional superboss and started playing on retail, after ignoring this game since launch. Looking forward to these amazing stories! TLDR: your video made me buy/play retail, and for that, I thank you
While I personally loved abyssea, I'd say refusing to participate in abyssea and just ignoring it would have gotten you laughed. You couldn't just ignore it, if you wanted to live in a dream world and just do 75 salvage forever and didn't have lb unlocked past 75 you would have been the butt of every joke in port jeuno shout.
You are missing the point of why people don't like modern final fantasy 11, and you are the audience that it was trying to attract with these changes. The fact that you can make it to level 99 and complete all the content completely alone is what people don't like about the game and is the complete opposite of what final fantasy 11 was. I was someone who played back in the day to chains and I quit basically because Dragoon was my main job and it was considered bad and I could never find a party. I also quit because I started to get into high school and had other interests. I came back maybe 5 years ago and played retail and it felt completely not what made ffxi great, ran around leveling making it level 30 in less than 5 hours and never saw another player. Ffxi and other older MMOs was about challenge and social interactions that were enhanced because of the challenge, that's what people are missing. From my understanding wings was the first hated because scholar and dancer made the game very soloable as subjobs. Trusts were the things that put the final nail in the coffin in capturing the old feel of final fantasy 11. I don't think any old players that don't like modern final fantasy have a problem with the zones and story of the later expansions, but they have a problem with how the game went from a very rugged, social, and team based game into a completely soloable experience. Myself I played modern retail for about 5 hours and went to a private server after and never looked back.
XI made it easy to solo the main story. There's also an insane amount of content that is very rugged, social, and team based. There is a ton of content that is impossible to solo. Modern XI offers both options to players without needing to steal from the creators.
@@gregtroyan it's not the same. You needed a group to get to max level starting at level 10. All of the content you breezed through on your playthrough was difficult and required a group. Everything required a group. I would suggest playing on a private server to feel what the magic of ffxi was, even though it's still not completely the same because of the wide spread knowledge, but it's the closest thing you'll get to the original ffxi experience.
@@gregtroyan I'm good. You're still not understanding the complete philosophical difference of ffxi olden days and what it is today. Square Enix cannot even do a classic server because they have said they don't have all the old data from how the game was before. They literally cannot offer a the service private servers do. I have bought the game twice, once for PS2 and once for PC while subscribing for years.
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. : )
I think way more people would play ffxi if the game sub was lumped in with ffxiv. I don’t want to pay for two subs, especially one of them on an end of lifecycle type of game, but I do want to play the story someday. I agree that private servers seem scummy, which is why I just haven’t played the game period.
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.
Literally the most absurd take on private servers I've ever seen. You're argument for retail is "Oh you don't like that no one wants to play this shitty retail experience? Force your friends to play!" and other garbage takes. Go back to single player FF games, dude. FFXI clearly ain't for you.
I like FFXI. It's one of my favorite games. If you can't enjoy the game without pirating it, maybe it isn't for you and you should try playing other games. Clearly FFXI isn't for you. 🤷♂️
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!
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.
@@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?
New video about Private Servers (I've updated my opinion...kinda): ruclips.net/video/hhOJQUbkqpQ/видео.htmlsi=fzXTW3MgGGQn3yOe
Chrono Series Ranking Video: ruclips.net/video/duREyMpy4Zk/видео.html
Final Fantasy Ranking Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLXjn34wFCMP-6Kl56Fn2Ig3msOHqZAVhv
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:
ruclips.net/video/Qldwt7F3VAA/видео.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.
Eh, as far as supporting ffxi retail paying for the content is a non-starter the "devs" have said they only work on ffxi when they have free time that isn't spent on ff14. The only thing the fee for 11 does is pay for the servers.
Long story short 11 doesn't have a dev team according to the "dev team"
@@mr.johnson7424 Explain The Voracious Resurgence then.
At what point did XI stop having a dev team? Was it when they made Wings of the Goddess? Was it when they made A Crystalline Prophecy? Was it when they made A Shantotto Ascension? Was it when they made A Moogle Kupo d'Etat? Was it when they made Vision of Abyssea? Was it when they made Scars of Abyssea? Was it when they made Heroes of Abyssea? Was it when they made Seekers of Adoulin? Was it when they made Rhapsodies of Vana'diel? Was it when they made The Voracious Resurgence?
Weird how "nobody" made this content, it just magically appeared, so it's okay to throw it in the trash and/or steal it via private servers. The content doesn't exist just like the devs don't exist.
🙄
If the argument is, "Well, they made that in their spare time," imagine what they could do if people stopped stealing the game and actually had enough budget and resources to put back into XI. And it definitely wasn't "in their spare time" off the clock or anything like that. They are getting paid by Square Enix and doing it while on the clock. Just because they have multiple duties at their job still doesn't mean it isn't their job. Again, another bad argument in favor of private servers.
The dev team doesn't exist so it's okay to steal from them. Weird how these people who don't exist have made a lot of content over the past decade.
You did get me respond, I'll give you that.
@@gregtroyan The Voracious Resurgence was the last bit of new content before the torch was passed from former Producer Matsui to the current Producer Fujito. The expansion was made with a skeleton crew, but after it's completion and the change in producers, Fujito elected to let most of the remaining dev team of XI go to work on other projects both within Square Enix or elsewhere if they chose to do so. There is, arguably, fewer than 10 people remaining to work on FFXI and have said future FFXI content will be in the form of "community activities" such as Vana'bout, which focuses on players accomplishing tasks across all servers. The reasons for this direction are twofold: firstly, Fujito-P believes it is in the best interests of the developers' careers to move on from FFXI and develop new, relevant skills instead of maintaining decades old code. Additionally, it is unreasonable to bring in new developers to teach them skills that won't be relevant in the future work. Secondly, the hope for any new expansion content in FFXI is bound to the remaining PS2 dev kits, as the development team has stated multiple times that all their development and testing tools require that hardware and they simply cannot dedicate resources to eliminate that dependency.
It was said by the steam that Seekers of Adoulin would be the final expansion for FFXI as well yet we got The Voracious Resurgence from the passion of the team, but it is unlikely we will see more given the current situation.
Furthermore, private servers are NOT piracy in any form. Private servers do not use code owned by Square Enix and thus do not violate any copyright law. They also do not use any assets owned by Square Enix, as the server code is independent from the client software, which is provided free of charge. The private server software is reverse engineered from the "black box" that is the retail servers by analyzing packet data and client behavior to re-implement the functionality of the official servers. You can argue that private servers may harm Square Enix and FFXI and it's developers by depriving them of potential subscribers, but this is not piracy as generally defined.
Also, please consider that most private servers for FFXI seek to recreate the 75 level cap era (from the base game up until Wings of the Goddess) but only differ on which expansion they cut content off at. This is an experience that cannot be had in retail FFXI and many people play both or would otherwise not subscribe play retail as the content of the game has shifted too far from that era now in it's twilight years.
As a final point, private servers are absolutely crucial to software preservation and especially so for live service games. They are best developed while official servers still exist to verify the implementations are correct while the "black box" still exists. More people playing on these pservers helps to verify the behavior of these implementations are in fact correct.
I don't expect to change your stance on how the potential loss of subscribers may hurt Square Enix and the FF11 development team, but I hope this will soften your opinion of private servers at least a bit. Keep heart, though, as Noaki Yoshida has taken up the position of advocate of FFXI within SE's MMORPG division and has promised that the game will remain online for everyone to experience an important numbered FF game as long as it remains profitable. It is the job of the developers to keep that up! I wouldn't worry too much, as SE invested in brand new server hardware for FF11 in the past year, so I expect the game to be online for the forseeable future.
This comes off more as a compilation of hot takes for every expansion more than a story overview, which is what I've been looking for since I'm a 14 player and they're adding 11-related content there soon.
First, saying "Chains of Promathia good" is like saying "Shadowbringers good". It's hardly a hot take. There are some opinions of mine that are contrary to a certain segment of XI players (folks who say everything after 2006 is hot garbage and should be ignored), but me saying, "Hey, this content is actually good and worthwhile" is as hot of a take as saying, "Hey, there are some good Final Fantasy games after Final Fantasy X". Boomers disagree, they're loud, but they aren't the be-all end-all of discourse.
Second, the idea behind this overview is for it to give people a general idea of what each expansion contains (general plot synopsis, major characters, villains, key locations, thematic content, vibes), without major spoilers in case they sound interesting enough for people to want to give them a try, but also giving enough info about them where people can get a general idea of what the story is like. It's a tricky tightrope to walk and I acknowledge not everyone will be satisfied. Overall, the response has incredibly positive and I've had a bunch of people message me saying that this video inspired them to play FFXI, and I've had a bunch of XIV players specifically thank me for the video and they told me they were satisfied with it. Thanks for taking the time to watch the whole video and taking the time to comment.
Boomers? Shit Genx and Millennials too. But what FF games are good after 10, aside from FF14?
@@KonEl17 XI, XII, XIII, and XV. Haven't played XVI so I can't judge the gameplay, but I quite liked the story cutscenes.
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
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 played XI from 03 to 07. It was far more life consuming than i have time to fully express right now. A game you could play every minute of every day and have very little in game to show for your efforts. It was so brutal. Those were great times.
"A game you could play every minute of every day and have very little in game to show for your efforts. It was so brutal. Those were great times."
To me, that sounds like a terrible time, hahaha! But I know old school players love the grind.
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.
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! : )
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 RUclips 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. : )
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.
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! : )
That little reference to "don't look at the timecode" from the some more news show gave me a chuckle
You're the first person in the comments to acknowledge that! : D
This should really be called "Lore Overview or just game overview" since the video is pretty light on what the actual story is, and you even say in the beginning that there would be no spoilers, which defeats a story video, imo. However, it's still a great video, I loved ff11 and am happy to see others enjoy it. Keep up the hard work.
I think the title works. It's not an overview of the whole game (I gloss over a lot of gameplay stuff --- most gameplay stuff I flat out skip). I don't get into enough lore to call it a lore overview. I didn't call it a summary or recap. I called it an overview, which I think describes what this is. I describe the general structure, vibe, major characters, themes, and provide a synopsis for all of the main story, along with describing what the experience is like. I think overview is a fair descriptor, as it is not a summary or recap.
And, again, I don't get into enough gameplay to call it an overview of the game or enough lore to call it a lore overview. In general, lore videos are focused more on world history, wheras I talk about characterization and theme.
Thank you for the kind words. Cheers mate!
I would love to see an actual story recap or whatever you want to call it, since I've only played the first 2 expansions and barely remember the story. That's what I was hoping for when clicking on this video, I guess
@@sumcoolguy I totally get that, hence why I chose the word overview instead of summary or recap. I think there's a need for those kind of videos on RUclips, especially in regards to FFXI. The goal for this video wasn't to summarize the story, but rather paint a general picture of what the story for each expansion is, and was to serve as a fun nostalgia trip for XI fans while also giving an idea of what the story is for people who might be curious about the game but haven't jumped in. The choice not to dive into spoilers was out of respect for people who might want to play the game for themselves, and I've had a bunch of people reach out to me saying that they plan on playing XI because of this video (which is the highest compliment I could receive on such a video).
If you want to dive into the story, I do recommend Korvana's channel (linked in the description and pinned comment). All of the cutscenes for the game (minus The Voracious Resurgence) are there. If you want to blast through the base game and Rise of the Zilart you could do those both in an evening.
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!
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.
I am a big XIV player. Over 3k hours all jobs at lvl 90 and a few at 100 already. Tried XI a couple of times but havent progressed beyond level 75 and beginning of Zillart. Your mini guide at the beginning of the video gave me motivation to start again. XI always looked like better game than XIV to me but it's much harder to get into. The cutscenes are much more lively and more interestingly shot than XIV.
Awesome! I'm so happy that this video made you decide to give the game another shot! It's a great time and I know you'll end up loving it.
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.
As someone who never comments on RUclips 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!
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!
Great overview. It is nice hearing all about the game.
Thanks Gohan! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
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)
Thank you for making such a comprehensive video on XI. It truly is the biggest, most complex, most difficult FF. It shows its age now, but the story, world, setting, mechanics, music, and are all amazing. My long shot hope for the future is an offline remake of XI so more people can enjoy Vana’Diel.
An offline remake that includes all of the content but rebalances the game with a couple more quality of life features (mini-map and quest markers)...man. That game would absolutely rock!
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
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).
@@gregtroyan Abysea was not optional content. That is not what happened. It is where everyone went to level through very afk methods or mass grouping for hours with very little thinking. But if you didn't play before, you don't really know what FFXI was. I am assuming you didn't really play this game before, but are commenting on others opinions without any context outside of - reading some stuff somewhere. Kinda yikes.
@@Snickerv12 So other people leveling up in a way you don't like ruined the game? You know you could still level up the way you wanted to you yourself, right? : D
Abyssea is an optional zone. I know guys who played XI and never went into Abyssea once, and they beat all of the other expansions.
I'm pretty sure that means it's optional. : P
Optional. Adj. "Available to be chosen but not obligatory."
"Problem" with the story back then was that actually doing some parts of the story was very difficult due to level caps, needing multiple people to do stuff and getting to the places since traveling was not easy either.
Trusts and the removal of level caps made the story way more acessible.
Agreed. Glad the story is more accessible nowadays.
Regarding private servers, it's pretty simple:
You aren't someone who enjoys MMOs, so the gameplay differences between old and modern FFXI don't register as important to you.
"It's just QoL, what's so bad about that?"
I don't often just bash someone without substance, but that's a pretty brainless take if I've ever seen one. It doesn't take much to see why people may not like something being made easier or less complex, but it takes more than you're willing to give, apparently.
You know you can limit your level cap in retail and not use the QOL, right? You know there are people playing retail who literally do that, right? You know the graphics and music and locations in retail are literally identical to private servers, right? You know you can use all of the old mechanics in retail, right?
I can see why someone might prefer the old style of gameplay. I get that.
If there was like, a single thing in private that you couldn't do in retail, I might concede the argument. But mechanically, all the options are still in retail so...nah. It's still dumb and petty, and the fact that there are people in retail playing level 75 cap is proof there is no reason for pirate servers to exist. #SorryNotSorry
Thanks for the kind words! 😀
@@gregtroyan i'm sorry but that's just a ridiculous take man. have fun on retail though :P
@@HoopleBogart Yeah, it's ridiculous not to steal a live service game and support the people who actually made the game. :P
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.
I started up FFXI again after a long time away. FFXI got so carried away with HP absorbing shields with the bosses, especially in Abyssea and the Cloud of Darkness. I got all the way to CoD but just gave up and looked up the final cutscenes. I was happy finishing RotZ and CoP and got about 50% finished with the rest. FFXI's Blue Mage is probably the most interesting job in the entire series. Also a huge shoutout of SMN and BST as very interesting and complex jobs about threat sharing/pulling and mob positioning. I always have my Wind-up Elvaan out with me on my FFXIV adventure and almost always wear my Scorpion Harness. I'll always love this game.
Cloud of Darkness in XI is an insane boss. I'm glad to you got to see the story through the cutscenes but also played enough to appreciate it mechanically. Cheers mate!
Thanks for the video and explaining everything this actually got me more interested to try than when my friends left XIV to play it during the off times for XIV. Might have to make this my other mmo in the long run I can always come back to. Looking forward to try it out on official servers.
Awesome! I'm so glad this video helped give you more motivation to try out the game, and I'm glad you're going to try it out on the official retail version to support the devs. It's comments like these that really make me smile. There's so much incredible stuff in XI and I'm glad to help shine a light on it so that you can dive into the game. : )
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.
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.
Glad to see another WotG stan! It was the last expansion I played before quitting and it was easily my most favorite.
Glad to see another stan of that expansion! It's really great!
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
My god, 1.0 and 2.0 FF14 is basically a re-imagining of ff11... Same playable races, borrowed assets, even the story resolves around beastmen fucking around and finding out...
Yeah, the similarities are pretty glaring. It's clear that when they made XIV they were hoping it would just be an easy replacement for XI. I'm glad the differences allowed them to branch off into other directions.
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.
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! : )
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.
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!
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! : )
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!
15:40 "Neat" - it's the little things like that, all the starting jobs were the same as FF1 starting jobs, everything in FF11 feels like it makes sense and is harmonious. Hundreds of little things like this that go mostly unnoticed. That's what makes FF11 better than FF14.
I definitely prefer FFXI to FFXIV (based on beating all of XI and only beating ARR). I'm curious to see how I'll feel after beating XIV's other expansions, but XI's harmonious nature is absolutely incredible and masterful. I adore FFXI and think it's construction is top-notch.
Wings of the Goddess was my favorite!
Nice!!!
Man, this is easily in my top 3 games of all time. My first real online gaming experience when it released, and definitely my most memorable. I only really did the expansions upto the end of aht urhgan, so i look forward to seeing the stories past that! Every 3/4 years i sub back up again just to have a run around the old zones, listen to the music, just remebering the good times 😊 i tried to install it on my ROG ally recently to try get back on, but it doesn’t work on there 😢 lol
Oh man, I'm sorry it's not working for you right now. Hopefully you can figure out the install process. It wouldn't work on my old laptop but runs great on my current one, so I feel the pain. I hope this video gives you a nice sampling of the stuff that came out after Treasures!
@@gregtroyan Thanks man! I do still have it installed on one of my older laptops, i just don't have it out much anymore lol. I just thought having it on a handheld would be super useful, for when i'm out an about, or just binging some TV while playing it on the sofa lol. My PC is always filled up with games and video/images from content i make, so can't really get it on here. I'm honestly just tempted to get the laptop out for a bit again though! And thanks man :) just upto CoP chapter at the minute. As you said, such a classic expansion. Doing the promyvions was possibly the first time i felt a real challenge in the game, trying to get people together who could play with real strategy. Such a great expansion. I'm tempted to level up my mule and go through the story again if i sub back up lol. When was you last subbed up?
excellent vid. Typed in "ffxi lore" and i was not dissapointed.
That's awesome! Glad you enjoyed the vid, mate! Cheers!
Getting from nation rank 5-10 was so damn fun. We managed to get an alliance together to just grind it out. That was the first time i’d ran an alliance group, as i was only like level 65 at the time, but man, it was so awesome! This video is making me wanna sub back up lol
Any time somebody tells me that this video makes them want to play XI, it makes me happy! : )
@@gregtroyan All good man! :) This game just holds a crazy special place in my heart, the memories just come flooding back whenever i watch a video online lol. I like how you've giving an overview, but a review too, definitely adds more to the video :)
@@EubyGamingRES Thanks! My goal was to help give context to each expansion so that somebody who never played XI (or maybe missed out on certain expansions) could get a feel for them outside of a just a story overview so they could get the "vibe" of what the experience is like without major spoilers, but also to serve as a refresher to longtime fans and dash in a little of my thoughts as if you were in the room chatting with me and I was explaining the game to you. I'm really glad you are appreciating the video! : )
@@gregtroyan It has definitely helped a lot! :) i loved the story as i played through the base game and first few expansions, it's just been so long since i played through them, and only doing them once as well, there are some parts i don't remember, so this is great! Just up to the adoulin chapter now. Watching past Treasures, i definitely remember following the wings of the goddess story now lol. All the content between that and adoulin i kinda just skipped by. I did start following the adoulin story, but i never finished it. I honestly think i will just start a fresh story playthrough, while also trying to remember what i was grinding on my main lol. do you still play, or have you retired after going through all the content making this video? lol
@@EubyGamingRES I play during the free login campaigns. I did a livestream of me playing through some Voidwatch content during the last free campaign. Right now I'm currently playing Another Eden as my main game, and that game is easily as massive as an MMO in terms of content even though it's a single player game. So that's my main gaming focus right now. After I finish that up I plan on beating all of XIV the way I beat XI. Because those two games are such massive undertakings I'm not really active in XI right now, but again, whenever there's a free login campaign I definitely hop in and have some fun for a bit. : )
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.
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 remember leavng 11 around 52lvl shortly after cop released. I could not find groups to do content.
And solo anything was impossible.
I tried returning years later. But was completely lost on where to go of what to do.
14 truly made thismuch easier and streamlined with msq.
Maybe ill return again.
I hope you'll give XI another shot. Try playing along with a guide. It helps a lot and modern XI is very soloable aside from some stuff towards the end of Adoulin, Rhapsodies and TVR.
Played this game from 3rd grade to freshman year, never got to 75, couldnt beat matt, bc my main job was rdm and i was forced throughout my entire leveling experience to only heal(and occasional cast bio) so my weapon skill and other things never leveled with me and so was stuck at 70 trying to beat Matt, i did end up getting alot of jobs to the 50-60 area tho, WHM, DRG, NIN, SMN, BLM, PLD, and WAR, and just kinda forgot about matt. I was the guy in Jeuno constantly /Sh "COP/Rank missions help? Do you need it? I Can Help!" I absolutely loved those story lines and would constantly help anyone i could and put together parties to help other people progress thru the story. As a lil young kid tho it was sooo hard to truly grasp the mechanics of the game, alot of the time i had to rely on my dad and his buddies(they were the best LS on Fenrir) to get gear/spells they would so kindly donate😂 My dad would also have me craft/farm mobs for HOURS during the summer on his character while he was at work and he'll pay me in Gil😂😂😂 ill be doing cop missions on one screen and crafting or farming demons on the other😂 I did quit playing throughout my 7th-9th grade years, for sports/social reasons came. Came back to Abbysea, noticed how much the community has changed and the way people would progress and ended up just quiting for good. There was no longer a true sense of a community, just souless beings in abyssea playing follow the leader(basically fates in XIV)
Also thank you so much for this video 🧡💜 it was nice to see this game i grew up with again
I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I was able to help bring back some nostalgiac memories for ya! Cheers mate!
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.
Your video is way too many opinions and not enough story overview.
Thanks.
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 RUclips. 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.
I like the plug for Vicenarian towards the end. I love that guy!
He's pretty great!
This is the most excellent FF11 video i have seen yet. I played for 20 years and my character still lives! My first MMO and will always be my favorite.
Each sentence of your comment is incredibly awesome! Cheers mate!!!
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!
Expansion girls is such a funny and accurate term I love it
Let's all simp for Gloom Phantom.
thank you for posting
Thank you for watching.
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.
As a die hard FF fan, I have played every main line entry multiple times. I put a lot of time in to 14, but am now 2 expansions behind. 11 tho i have put very little time in to and have always been intrigued by it. I got it when it was still fairly new and started playing, but then I got a Xbox 360 and couldnt convince my parents to pay for both an FF11 sub and Xbox Live. So 11 is the one that got away. Which is a shame because nowadays im very interested in these more old school MMOs that I feel as tho I missed out on entirely. Maybe I should finally dive in to 11 soon....
Hopefully this video is enough to hold you over until you jump back into XI.
I was surprised new content happened in 2020. ToAU was one of my favorite expansions because my job BLU finally got in the game. Unlike most, my jobs in Vana'diel floundered from level 50 or below until then and was not happy on ammo and tool consumption and costs in FFXI for NIN and RNG. Abyssea was actually my 2nd favorite, because BLU finally was not crapped on and got relic equivalent gear. No, Karen and Kevin. BLU cannot equip Excalibur or any other relic weapon. Also, Atma in Abyssea finally got magical BLU spells to work as they should have been intended. I remember a LS that we knew how to get all lights to proc so we can just keep adding time while farming in Abyssea. I almost got every atma and other key items except one in Konstchat. Sadly, I'm getting issues when trying to relog in the game if I want to at all, so my 99 BLU is just sitting in his private island in his Mog Garden to this day. Also, if it were not for FFXI, I never would have met my wife. Got married the same year ToAU came out. People since try to get me to play a private server since, trying to sell the "It's only level 75 cap and only has up to CoP in it!" Then I'm like old Captain America: "No. I don't think I will." Pre-Abyssea crapped all-over BLU with the exception of the story IMO.
I hear that RDM Maat was a pain, I had to farm the BLU testimony around Mamook twice. I loathe XI's Raubhan so much. But I made my first level 75 and beyond job as BLU as intended. Eating tacos and wearing DEF gear on BLU/THF for cannonball was so fun. Instead of SATA, it was CASATA with Chain Affinity. In Abyssea, since Atmas corrected the stat bug or glitch with BLU magical spells, I was able to /RDM there. Used to go crazy in Promyvion since you had to unlock CoP areas to not be a nerfed BLU and access to spells you can only learn from certain monsters there. Ended up calling myself "Promyvion - Jack", and pretended I learned BLU spells from the Empty until you really could learn from them. Boy, I made sure I set those spells. I even named my chocobo in XIV Promyvion. Sadly, I've yet to complete SoA and Rhapsodies of Vana'diel.
It's awesome that you were able to meet your wife because of FFXI. Also, I love your Captain America analogy there. Sucks that your character is stuck on the Mog Garden, but I'm glad you got to experience a ton of great FFXI adventures and I'm glad your Blue Mage got to experience the game post-Abyssea. Cheers mate!
@@elraton01 Man, I really hope you can get back into XI to finish SoA and Rhapsodies. They're both a great time. I love the stories about Blue Mage you're sharing. That's awesome stuff. RDM Maat wasn't that bad of a fight if I remember correctly. One of the harder fights in the game but not unreasonably so, at least from what I can remember.
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.
@@gregtroyanReception for a live service game is inherently tied to its content release schedule and developer responsiveness. It's absolutely fair to review the expansions on their own merit, but if you're going to make statements judging the player base, then you also need the context in which that content was released. You are awfully harsh for someone without that frame of reference.
@@Py687 I understand the context behind the different frame of references. I can have an opinion on the presidency of Ronald Reagan without being alive during his presidency by gathering enough information and context, and I can disagree with the majority. Reagan was massively popular when he was President, I understand why, and I can still think he was a terrible President. I can understand the historical context behind the release of content in a live service game, I can understand people have nostalgia for certain eras, and I can still judge the content based on the quality of the content rather than solely the historical context. In general, a lot of old school XI fans judge content not by the quality of the release but by the context the content was released, and they are far harsher in their criticisms of post-Abyssea content than I am of pre-Abyssea content.
Yeah, I'm gonna judge people for pirating a live service game when all of the options to experience the game "the old school way" is still contained within the game. The graphics are the same. The music is the same. The locations are the same. The mechanics are the same, the only difference is that there are additional OPTIONS that make the game easier, if you choose.
People can do mental gymnastics to justify why removing pirating the game and removing optional features is ethical, but cutting straight to the point, it's stealing, it's disrespectful, and I think it's stupid. It's artistically bankrupt. If a private server did something creative and interesting, like writing a new storyline or creating new locations, I would immediately respect them and I would immediately sign up to play on private servers. But just stealing the game and cutting out content is something I have zero respect for, as an artist and as a fan of artists.
Once private servers actually do something artistic and creative, let me know. Otherwise, I have no interest in playing a pirated mod of retail and killing support for the creators. I may sound harsh, but I'm tired of people pretending that private servers are anything other than pirated versions of retail that just remove content and modify some stats.
If you're looking at FFXI from purely a mechanical perspective, with no respect to the artistry of the creatives, with no concept of how the economic livelihoods of the devs and funding for the game is concerned, with no respect for the storytelling involved in the game, then I can see how someone would support private servers. But, as someone who has been involved in media from the creative side (worked on a video game dev staff, worked on a feature film, been a member of an orchestra, worked in radio, worked as a touring musician etc.), I have complete disgust with private servers stealing the game and throwing the work of the devs in the trash all because they don't like that you can equip an EXP ring and summon some trusts. Nope. Sorry. Zero respect for that perspective, and I'm going to be harsh on it.
If you pirate the game because of poverty, I can respect that. If you pirate the game and create something artistic and unique with it, I can respect that. If you pirate the game just to remove content you don't like, I have zero respect for that.
I think when people refer to "the best expansion" they're not looking at it like you are. They're remembering how fun and challenging the fights were. Even the difficult journeys to the fight itself is something I fondly reminisce about.
When you do the content as a level 99 with OP out of era gear, you trivialize all of that.
This translates to "whatever expansion I have the most nostalgia for is the best one because it's the one I played with my friends". It has more to do with a personal experience than an objective analysis of the quality of any particular expansion, in the same way that a lot of fans of a band will only like whatever stuff of that band they heard when they were a teenager and won't give the rest of the catalog a chance.
If someone says, "Rise of the Zilart is my favorite expansion because I have the best memories of partying up and hanging with friends", I get that, and that's different than saying "Rise of the Zilart is objectively better than Seekers of Adoulin because Seekers is trash". I see no issue with folks claiming nostalgia for personal preference, but I do see issue with acting like said nostalgia leads to it being an objective statement on the lack of quality in regards to latter day XI content.
When you do all of the content as a level 99, you're forced to look at the content objectively for what it is in terms of map design, quest structure and narrative pacing. Without nostalgia goggles, latter day XI holds up extremely well, as does a bunch of classic XI. There's a ton of great content in the game from all eras is where I land.
So, I fully get people having their biases and favorites. But I think favorite and best aren't always the same thing. I think any objective look at Rise of the Zilart vs Seekers of Adoulin, for example, wouldn't lead to people saying, "Oh, Zilart crushes Seekers and Seekers is nothing but hot garbage". But, among classic XI players, anything that came out after 2006 is considered garbage, less for the quality of the content and more for the era it came out (which happened to be when they stopped playing the game). That's where my issue comes from. But folks like you who say, "Man, I had fun playing these old expansions and I have great memories playing with friends", I have zero complaints about that. Pretty Boy Floyd might not be my favorite band (or the band I think is the GOAT), but some of my favorite memories are of driving around with friends listening to that first album. So I get it.
@@gregtroyan I respectfully disagree with your conclusion. Mechanics are an extremely important part of any game. If you could just coast carelessly through any Final Fantasy game from one cutscene to the next, ignoring environmental and mob dangers, and one shotting every boss, that would not be a fun game. I'd rather just watch a movie. How can you objectively look at map design and pacing when you're blowing past all of it and not feeling the dangers that were there back in the day?
And I don't think you looked at even 50% of the content. I've only watched up to the add-on scenarios but you've barely mentioned any of the end game content. That is another area where people based their rankings of expansions off of and makes up a majority of the content from each expansion. If the end game sucked, the expansion sucked.
I have no problem with how you're ranking them, but I think it'd be more fair to say you're ranking the expansions off just their story lines. I can admit my nostalgia bias, but you should admit that what you experienced is miles different than how the content was originally designed to be experienced. And comparing the old content to the newer content that way seems extremely unfair and biased in my opinion.
@@gregtroyan And after listening to your Abyssea and Seekers section I resent your flippant attitude towards others opinions who were actually playing the game when these expansions came out. Especially from a self proclaimed non-mmo gamer. There's a reason they shutdown 8 servers in 2010 and another 8 servers in 2011, and it's not because half the player base just had different life events or whatever excuse you made up. You should look up the difference between horizontal and vertical progression. We'd been playing a game dedicated to horizontal progression for 6 years. Yes, new and amazing gear would be released, some of it relatively easy to get, but it wasn't until Abyssea where we had almost every piece of gear prior to that expansion rendered obsolete with some stupidly easy to obtain gear. If you can't acknowledge the amount of effort that went into obtaining that gear, then I understand why people were getting heated with you in forums and comment sections. People saw their gear as a visible trophy that they were proud of having earned. And rightfully so, the best gear was very hard to earn. Abyssea was bascially a reset, everyone back to a level field. And even worse, a game that built itself on difficulty and teamwork just became a mindless grind in Abyssea. The devs lost sight of what made their game special. It's fine to have a different opinion, especially from your perspective of playing a game 20 years after release, but acting like a jack@ss to people who played it on release and disagree with you is crossing the line. Don't try to pass it off like they're the toxic ones when I can tell very easily where the toxicity is coming from in your videos.
@@Gooseys11First off, calling out toxicity isn't the same as toxicity. I think it's fine if folks prefer the way the game used to function mechanically back in the early days of the game. That's a personal preference. However, if their solution to that is to steal the game AND throw away the hard work the devs did on latter day in XI in the trash, while insulting the devs and claiming EVERYTHING that came out after a certain era is trash, yes, I'll call that out as toxic. It's illegal, it's disrespectful to the artists and creatives working on the game, it shows a lack of nuance and willingness to engage in new art, it shows closed-mindedness and it's petty. Me calling that out for what it is isn't toxicity.
My point, if you paid attention, is that ALL (I repeat, ALL) mechanical options from early XI are contained within retail alongside OPTIONAL (I repeat, OPTIONAL) quality of life features and OPTIONAL (I repeat, OPTIONAL) zones. The devs left the option to play XI as it was originally within the game. Don't go to Abyssea, don't use Trusts, don't use Teleports. Nobody is forcing anybody to engage in mechanics they don't like, and again, if the idea behind private servers is to play with people who want to play the same way...there is literally nothing stopping you from doing that in retail. Just find like 4 other people who want to play that way. There are people on retail, right now, doing challenge runs of playing XI the old school way without quality of life features. There is literally nothing stopping anybody from doing this. People prefer different kinds of video game mechanics, but to act like the ONLY solution is to pirate the game and remove content is childish, petty, and insulting, and I have no problem calling that out for what it is. Other players are able to play old school on retail, it just involves you talking with 4 other people. As someone with a bunch of friends, I don't think it's unreasonable to say, "Hey, just socialize." You know. The point of the game.
There are multiple ways one can enjoy FFXI, in the same where there are multiple ways one can enjoy FFVIII. I enjoy breaking the junction system, becoming an overpowered God, and using Diabolos to turn off random battles. Am I not able to enjoy the game mechanics because of this? No. I still love the mechanics. Am I not able to enjoy the dungeon design with battles turned off? No, I'm still able to enjoy the dungeon design, and for me, I feel I can soak it in even more. Do I need to beat every superboss in an FF game to decide whether or not I enjoyed it? No. Do I need to do all of the endgame content in each XI expansion to decide how I feel about each expansion? No. I don't need to do every single piece of content in every single expansion to draft my opinions on them. I may like some endgame more than others (I liked Dynamis more than Voidwatch), but that's not enough for me to move the needle on ranking Zilart above Wings.
The difference between a lot of older XI players and a lot of newer players is that older players argue that you HAVE to experience the game a certain way, otherwise it doesn't count and your opinion does not matter. What I argue is that the way I play is just as valid as the way older players play, BUT (here's the rub) just because an older player prefers different mechanics doesn't give them the right to pirate the game when all the mechanical options for playing old school are contained within retail. You don't HAVE to break the junction system in VIII, and you DON'T have to use Trusts in XI, but if somebody wants to, let them have their fun. If your solution to people having fun in a way you don't like is stealing the game, well, I kinda don't respect that and will call it out.
I freely admit my experience playing XI is different than folks playing 20 years ago. I'm not hiding that fact. But I'm also not going to pretend my analysis is one thing just because a bunch of folks who played Zilart 20 years ago say it's so much better than Wings of the Goddess when it isn't. In the same way a lot of Kiss fans are 70s purists and insist that the band was only good between 1974-1978, neglecting that some of their best material came after that era, is how I look at XI. I won't deny the greatness of early XI content like Chains of Promathia and think it is worthy of praise, but I also won't pretend that just because something came out later means it is absolute trash.
Modern XI is still very much a horizontal progression game for most content beyond the main story, so acting like the game is mindless shows a lack of knowledge of the current state of modern XI. In my opinion, modern XI offers the best of both worlds in that the game still has plenty of horizontal progression but also offers vertical progression for more casual fans who want to experience the main story. I acknowledge it is different, and some may have a preference that all main story is blocked by horizontal progression. That is an area where we can respectfully agree to disagree. We can also respectfully disagree on which era of XI one feels is the best. If someone said, "2006 was the best year for FFXI" that's different than saying "Treasures of Aht Urghan is the best XI expansion". Those are two different things.
I'm looking at the content not in the context of how it was when it came out, but how it stacks up side-by-side. You can argue that's not objective, but it's certainly more objective than purely looking at the game through a lens of nostalgia. I can say, "A bunch of guys who never played Seekers of Adoulin say it's bad", but that's not very helpful and doesn't reflect my opinion. I'm not going to be charitable to that take because it's stupid, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't stupid. I'm also not going to pretend I like Zilart more just because folks love it. I played FFVI back in the 90s, and while I like it, I find it to be overrated. It's still great, I just think it isn't as good as it's reputation. So, with Zilart, I still like it, but I don't think it's as good as it's reputation. That's just called me being honest.
And, remember, I gave Chains of Promathia and Treasures TONS of praise in the video, so it's not like I hate old XI content. It's that I'm viewing them on an equal playing field and not giving out extra credit just because of the era it came out, which is the opposite of many old school fans who shun everything after a certain era.
You are correct in that I am flippant to a certain viewpoint, but it's a very narrow viewpoint.
The viewpoint I am flippant to is:
"Everything that came out after 2006 is trash and my solution is to pirate the game".
If you want to play the game with old mechanics, do that, and do that in retail. You can, it's easy to do, and anything else is just an excuse to justify piracy and disrespecting the devs. Period.
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 RUclips, 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! : )
Hey. man, just gotta add: naoshi mizuta worked on the strangers of paradise: final fantasy game too. His music is honestly a masterpiece in it! I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t listened to it before 😊 i used to make montage videos from that game of the boss fights, and he liked one of the videos i posted on twitter. I got to thank him for his music in that game and especially all the music he made in FFXI. It was a good day! I still listen to that whole soundtrack regularly. I got it upto aht urhgan as i was playing regularly upto that point, so the most nostalgia for the music upto then lol
Mizuta is so underrated. I absolutely adore his contributions to the series. I have listened to the Stranger of Paradise score and it's a fun time.
@@gregtroyan 100% agreed. When i heard “the chimera” track on the SOPFFO soundtrack, it just took me right back to FFXI lol. Yeah man, that album was a love letter to FF. I hope we see him come back for more in the future, i’d love to see him compose FFXVII
@@EubyGamingRES That would be amazing!!
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!
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.
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.
I remember players wanting more solo content because the base got older is why FoV and DNC was made and later trusts (we were given a "fellow" we could customize but it wasnt that great)
Allowing players to solo early content to catch up to endgame was a good call.
It was mostly letting more jobs be able to solo instead of DRG/mage lolPUP and BST; thf and mnk did ok but only at higher levels
Actually dynamis is still relevant to get the gear that u need for most of end game content. You get the gear which you end up upgrading to become the most powerful set for end game. (For most jobs)
Thank you!
@@gregtroyan no bro, thank you for the video! It’s awesome!
I would put Aht Urghan exactly on the same bracket as Heavensward. Both are smaller in scales and feel more like a side quest to the main overarching story, and focus on one region (Ishgard and Aht Urghan). Both have that particular vibe that you can only find in those expansions through the characters, the lusic, the politics and stakes. Very similar in my opinion. Stormblood had more to do with the main story as it focuses directly on the Empire which was kinda the main antagonist for a while and it introduces Zenos who for some reason would become important in the later expansions like Endwalker
That's a fair assessment.
Alyssa adding lvl cap raise and new gear was never the issue. It was being able to stand inside abyssea afk to plvl. Older players that wanted to party and lvl outside of it found it much much harder to get ppl to do so after that expansion. This was one of the more heavy point that the mmo lost its mmo part. You barely met ppl after that since half would just be "afk" in an alliance. The content and fighting itself was fun but it really did split up the server base a bit more as newer players that didn't have connections to long term links hello found it harder to get into the game and felt the game was even dying even half the server sat inside abyssea most of the day.
I've heard A LOT of players complain about the level cap and the new gear. I think that the alliance thing is also something that upset players, but even in the comments section of this video, there are tons of people who complain about level cap and gear.
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?
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! 😁
2024 is when I finally land in Vana’diel ❤️
Cheers mate!
So before abysse there was Nyzul Isle that had the best gear in the game at 75 a lot of people didnt like they grinded for years for gear for it to be out classed by a buyable weapon
I understand this. I also wouldn't be upset about it and would just be happy to have better gear.
Hey my FFXIV sub is almost up (halfway through Stormblood) and I want to take a break to play some FFXI.
I want to play Corsair/Red Mage in FFXI as a Tarutaru because RDM and little people/child race go against everything I like in FF games but in XI I like the design of both. I hate RDM in early FF games because they’re versatile in early levels but low ceiling in later levels. But since XI is solo-able I want to be able to dish out damage and heal and RDM looks cool in this game. And Lalafells are chunky and awkward in FFXIV but Tarutaru are not as stocky and ugly.
Any advice you can give for me? I don’t know anything about the combat besides how it plays on a surface level. I’ve watched plenty of videos but I’m going to go into Vana’diel for the first time with this setup in mind. 😁
I'm really not an expert on mechanics, so I'm probably the wrong person to ask, hahaha. The trick with Red Mage is that it'll basically be like a hour glass. It'll start off pretty useful and then you will reach what feels like that "low ceiling" you hit in other FF games, BUT.....
1. The low ceiling is mostly in regards to physical attacks, which are still good, just definitely inferior to jobs like Warrior and Monk.
2. You won't really need to go past that ceiling if you ask for help for a couple of endgame bosses, which is only a handful of fights. Most of the game can be soloed with zero issue.
3. You can break past the ceiling with the right equipment and the post level 99 grind (Merit Points, Job Points, Master Levels) etc.
Corsair you need to unlock via Treasures of Aht Urghan, so you can't start with that job, and you'll likely need to have a job in the 50s or 60s just to survive in the expansion's areas long enough to unlock Corsair. I watched the cutscenes on YT for the Corsair questline but never actually unlocked the job or messed with it mechanically, so I can't judge it from that perspective. The storyline for it pretty cool, though!
Red Mage worked well for me in my playthrough. I was pretty satisfied with my healing capabilities but desired a little bit more from physical damage output when dealing with some of the endgame bosses. However, I didn't do the grind to get past the ceiling, and the physical damage output wasn't bad, it just wasn't anything near what it would be like if I partied up with another player maining Monk. However, subbing Black Mage gave me some pretty decent magic damage as an option when my physical damage wasn't doing it for me. Again, I only struggled for a handful of bosses at the very end of my journey (1 boss in Abyssea, maybe like 2 or 3 in Adoulin and Rhapsodies, and then a good chunk of Voracious bosses) but most of the game was pretty comfortable to solo.
My playstyle was basically alternating between physical attacks, buffs, black magic and healing while utilizing a good combo of Trusts to balance out physical attacks, buffs, black magic and healing. Red Mage in party settings is often focused on buffing and healing the party and then moving onto attacks if buffs and health are satisfactory. But again, it's pretty comfortable to solo the game as Red Mage, even without breaking too far into the post-99 ceiling.
Paladin also offers more offense and some healing options, as does Blue Mage. Blue Mage is supposedly super grindy but also super OP if you do the grind.
So, there's plenty of options. I don't know how well the Corsair/Red Mage combo would pair because I'm not super familiar with Corsair mechanics. If you aren't subbing Black Mage you'll want to get a Warp Ring for teleportation purposes.
I like the Tarutaru proportions. They look like Nes/Snes style characters and they add charm to XI's world (I think they look better than the human characters -- at least the player created ones).
I hope my comment was somewhat helpful (along with the tips at the end of the video).
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
I've been playing FFXI since PS2 release. Whoever said this game doesn't have a story? lmao literally no one has said that. CoP is one of the best stories told in the series.
I've met tons of people who argue XI doesn't have a story. It's a wild and bad take, but I've seen it many, many times.
I agree with you. Chains of Promathia has an excellent story. Top tier FF.
@@gregtroyan they nuts
@@despain8726 I know, right?
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 think they imply that the explosion at the start of CoP is caused by our battle with the final boss of RoZ but they left it open enough that players don't have to complete base + RoZ for the narrative to make sense. I treat base+RoZ+CoP+epilogue as one continous narrartive.
My ratings are: base = 6/10, RoZ = 7/10, CoP = 10/10, ToAU = 9/10, WotG = 8/10, SoA = 7/10. Bastok 7/10, Sandoria 9/10, Windurst 9/10.
I have trouble getting past the "What? You don't remember what happened?" followed by a cutscene that retcons events. I get the explosion thing, but that part was a bit oof for me.
Wow! Sandoria higher than WOTG?
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!
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. : )
Abysea was going to sleep while sitting in an alliance and waking up to be lvl cap. It ruined going out to the world and interacting with players.. You just don't get it. You must not have played back then and have no idea what you're talking about..
I'm the Jon Snow of FFXI video essayists.
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.
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 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.
*Unique comment about private servers*
Lol
All seriousness, I've dabbled in some private servers and wanted to experience all the story content xi has to offer. What I found was that even when expansions were included, other features were dropped. As of yesterday I beat the infamous Playonline Non optional superboss and started playing on retail, after ignoring this game since launch. Looking forward to these amazing stories!
TLDR: your video made me buy/play retail, and for that, I thank you
@@LeatherStraps-fm8dt Your comment is basically the highest compliment you could give me on this video, so for that, I thank you! : )
nice video
Thanks mate!
FFXI is still my favorite MMORPG. I played for about 15 years! I still log in every once in awhile. I wish they would remaster it! 😂
It would be a massive undertaking remastering the entire game. I can understand why its been put off for such a long time. Maybe they will someday. 😊
While I personally loved abyssea, I'd say refusing to participate in abyssea and just ignoring it would have gotten you laughed. You couldn't just ignore it, if you wanted to live in a dream world and just do 75 salvage forever and didn't have lb unlocked past 75 you would have been the butt of every joke in port jeuno shout.
That's literally what private servers do, and yes, I think they're a joke.
Chains of Promathia ;-; what a time....Idk if I will ever have an experience like I did in that era.
Lots of folks love that era.
Yea, same here.
You are missing the point of why people don't like modern final fantasy 11, and you are the audience that it was trying to attract with these changes.
The fact that you can make it to level 99 and complete all the content completely alone is what people don't like about the game and is the complete opposite of what final fantasy 11 was.
I was someone who played back in the day to chains and I quit basically because Dragoon was my main job and it was considered bad and I could never find a party. I also quit because I started to get into high school and had other interests.
I came back maybe 5 years ago and played retail and it felt completely not what made ffxi great, ran around leveling making it level 30 in less than 5 hours and never saw another player.
Ffxi and other older MMOs was about challenge and social interactions that were enhanced because of the challenge, that's what people are missing. From my understanding wings was the first hated because scholar and dancer made the game very soloable as subjobs. Trusts were the things that put the final nail in the coffin in capturing the old feel of final fantasy 11.
I don't think any old players that don't like modern final fantasy have a problem with the zones and story of the later expansions, but they have a problem with how the game went from a very rugged, social, and team based game into a completely soloable experience.
Myself I played modern retail for about 5 hours and went to a private server after and never looked back.
XI made it easy to solo the main story. There's also an insane amount of content that is very rugged, social, and team based. There is a ton of content that is impossible to solo. Modern XI offers both options to players without needing to steal from the creators.
@@gregtroyan it's not the same. You needed a group to get to max level starting at level 10. All of the content you breezed through on your playthrough was difficult and required a group. Everything required a group. I would suggest playing on a private server to feel what the magic of ffxi was, even though it's still not completely the same because of the wide spread knowledge, but it's the closest thing you'll get to the original ffxi experience.
@@ALex659 Nah, I don't want to steal the game.
You should play retail and try out the ridiculously hard endgame group content.
@@gregtroyan I'm good. You're still not understanding the complete philosophical difference of ffxi olden days and what it is today.
Square Enix cannot even do a classic server because they have said they don't have all the old data from how the game was before. They literally cannot offer a the service private servers do. I have bought the game twice, once for PS2 and once for PC while subscribing for years.
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!
Extremely wild takes, but other than that, decent video.
I only speak the truth. 😜
Idk about allat but I live in a free country so hit it up
I think way more people would play ffxi if the game sub was lumped in with ffxiv. I don’t want to pay for two subs, especially one of them on an end of lifecycle type of game, but I do want to play the story someday. I agree that private servers seem scummy, which is why I just haven’t played the game period.
Maybe when the new raid series comes out they will offer a sub combo pack! That would be amazing!
I'm also glad you're with me on private servers. I'm not a fan.
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.
Literally the most absurd take on private servers I've ever seen. You're argument for retail is "Oh you don't like that no one wants to play this shitty retail experience? Force your friends to play!" and other garbage takes. Go back to single player FF games, dude. FFXI clearly ain't for you.
I like FFXI. It's one of my favorite games. If you can't enjoy the game without pirating it, maybe it isn't for you and you should try playing other games. Clearly FFXI isn't for you. 🤷♂️
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!
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?