Hi, my name is Aphonic and I used to have an addiction. Final Fantasy XI. It was a dark time in my life. I lost friends, sleep, weight, my addiction spiraled out of control. But in the end, I managed to free myself of the allure of epic battles, notorious monsters, exploring a fantastic new world, and lets not forget magic. But now, now the newfound peace I’ve found for the past few years is being threatened by a new entity…
Sometime in 2010, Square Enix will be releasing the fourteenth installment of the Final Fantasy series. With a brand new world, wealth of nations, monsters, magic, and fantastically in depth story line, I’m seriously going to have to fight and tame my addiction to this series. Their previous outing in the MMO world with Final Fantasy XI, was amazing. Extremely detailed in all aspects of character development, story line, and the world and it’s history. It was not without it’s flaws, rampant RMT activities, sparse and sporadic updates to flaws, very very dismal response to user suggestions. But when it’s all boiled down, it was fun as all hell and beat any other MMO out there, and in my opinion, still does.
Read on after the break.
Beta testing applications have just gone live for this and I’ve already submitted mine. If Square Enix has taken all it’s learned from it’s previous installment and listened to the voices of gamers around the world, then this could possibly be THE BEST MMORPG to come out, ever.
The character base looks the same, Human, Elven, Mithra, Tarutaru, and Galka. They’ve all been given different names and it seems that the Galka will have more magical abilities in this version. No word on base jobs yet. The world looks breathtaking and just as expansive as the last. More and more details are being released on an almost weekly basis and I can feel my little nerdy heart beating faster and faster.
I’ve never been a fan or a player of World of Warcraft and after weening myself off of Final Fantasy XI when the player base dropped, I found myself with somewhat of a hole in my life. I loved leveling my character, exploring, partying, adjusting my armour, questing. It was honestly like having a child. So to sum it all up, hopefully this game doesn’t take over my life like the last one, but it will definitely be a major part of 2010 for me and I can’t wait to see where this new world goes.
“I loved leveling my character, exploring, partying, adjusting my armour, questing”
So do I, that is why I play the game that allows me do it all the time. No stagant LFG hours(Questing is a great way to get levels without being hitched on other players), There is simply no way to experience everything on your first run to 80, the new cross realm LFG system assures that there is never a problem running the instances you need, and it even rewards you for using the system, There is no end to the gearing options you have, with multiple talent trees for every class and different rarities of the gear you obtain through quests and dungeons. And the quests. Don’t get me started on the quests.
Also, the lore is probably one of the best fantasy backbones in modern writing, and it’s been that way even before the MMO. Simply playing WCII and III+FT is a staple in my childhood memories.
Unless it’s not FFXI in almost every respect, don’t expect to have many english speaking friends in game, dude.
Well if it’s an entire failure I’m not without ability to give it up. I just have high hopes and am willing to give it grace. Maybe they listened?
Also, fucking VOICE ACTING! GOOD VOICE ACTING!
Arthas’ tyrades never cease to send chills down my spine.
I sincerely hope they do, but FFXI almost completely ruined MMOs for me by being my first. There really was an endless list of problems with that game, but it wasn’t without it’s fun moments. The problem was the reliance on other players at every single point. Also, the best class also being the gayest(Dancer, which I was happy to see was nothing but a nerfed version of WoW’s Rogue, which is a sexy little slice of awesome in itself)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5N0pPaDyic I mean, really, this is the Cinematic for the latest patch. Tell me that doesn’t at least pique your interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5N0pPaDyic
Honestly it looks like Spyro the fucking Dragon. Which is such a turn off.
Right, well, seems you are gonna just ignore any merit on a game based on superficiality. Enjoy your rape, at least it’s pretty.
Ugly and fun beats pretty and awful any day. Evil Dead II doesn’t look nearly as good as Avatar, but there is no contest to which is a better movie.
Out of curiosity, what was the highest level you got in XI?
Haha, well I like to enjoy what I’m looking at, I know it isn’t always the best motto but it’s me and I don’t really care.
68 if I remember right. Dark Knight.
Eh, I like to enjoy what i’m doing regardless of looks.
n64 games and psx games are both still very fun to me, despite looking like garbage compared to modern graphics. Now, modern games look great but play like garbage.
I’m not an MMO fan, though FFXI was one I missed out on, back then Internet was sparcely capable of online gaming for me, let alone the ability to buy the HDD necessary to play the game at all.
FFVII, VIII, and IX are my top three though I did enjoy FFX. I will probably be into FFXIII, which I look forward to, especially in light of the fact that FFXII was terrible.
See , I think that is where is occurs. You are either a fan of western RPGS or JRPGs, and that kinda determines your alliance. I have fond memories of Planescape Torment and Fallout, others the FF series. I don’t think there is a surprising trend in either of those facts.
” I think that is where is occurs. ”
Where the split occurs.
I don’t have a split! I’ve been head over heels in love with both JRPGs and Western RPGs. Almost every genre and sub-genre has something phenomenal to offer, and those to subs of the RP genre have both given me endless hours of joy.
As far as FFXIV specifically goes, I intend to sign up for beta, but I don’t know how it’s going to compete with SW:TOR, which is looking better and better by the fucking day. Here’s hoping I’ll have the time/money/internet to play both.
uber-multi-tasking, ftw.
Oh, there is no question that I’ll be trying out TOR right away.
At least we can all agree on that.