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Final Fantasy XI Online: First Day Jitters

 

My heart raced and dinosaurs danced the Hula in my stomach as I tore off the packaging of what I hoped to be my newest MMORPG fix. After devouring my dinner (yes, yes, I was stuck with one of those bodies that require food to survive) so that I could devote a few full uninterrupted hours to FFXI, I popped in the disc marked FFXI Disc One... So I inserted the wrong disc, stop laughing. After inserting the correct CD, the PlayOnline installer was doing its thing to my delight. An hour or so had passed by the time all five discs were finished installing.

Play time!... Er, or not. I forgot about the registration process. No big deal, though, I was used to it after two years on Dark Age of Camelot and Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. Name, address, credit card number, and agree to the dozen EULAs and Privacy Policies that sell my soul to the Dev-gods... I'd be done in three minutes... So why did such an easy task take three hours?

By the time I had finished typing in my information and all four registration codes (One code for the PlayOnline Viewer which is nothing more than a glorified account login screen for FFXI and Tetra Master, one for FFXI, one for the expansion pack to FFXI and one more for Tetra Master), it was 11 pm. Next came the hard part... The infamous patch! Now I do understand that I'm on a measly 56k but a twelve hour patch on the very first day is not a good sign.

I awoke today and logged in to see a cinematic so beautiful that the sixteen hour delay seemed worth it. The effects were stunning and the voice actors were perfect. Kudos! In fact, I think the cinematic was better than the film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within... although, most fans of the game series would state that my toe crud would make a better film. But was the game as great as the cinematic?

With a few taps of the mouse to navigate the character select screen, I was settled into Bastok with a Mithra thief sure to make my girlfriend jealous. But alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to backtrack a bit to the creation of Genesys, my thief. After being spoiled by the creative designs of the Dark Age of Camelot avatars and the plethora of detail available during the creation of my Star Wars Galaxies characters, my bliss wavered at the lack of depth put into the characters FFXI offered. We are given five races to choose from: Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra and the Galka. Only three of the races, however, have male and female options. They all have movies attached to them that show a bit of each race's personality, and I must admit that a few of the animations left me wondering if I should seek psychiatric help for finding computer generated women attractive. Each character has eight hair styles with two colors attached to each style which vastly limits any diversity the Devs may have hoped for.

After choosing one of the six starting professions (Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Thief), I created something called a handle. I'm still a bit clueless as to what the handle does as I had already chosen my character name but nevertheless, it needed to be done to complete the login process. Now, before I continue any further, raise your hand if it seems something was forgotten before game play begins. You guessed it! There are no servers to choose from. Apparently, thwarting evil behemoths with a buddy is frowned upon because in order to be on the same server as your friend, one of you must buy an in-game World Pass, which is simply a password that you enter during character creation.

The screen went dark as the Loading bar filled and processed my request to begin game play. Now, I was a bit boggled at the lack of a splash screen, but Dark Age of Camelot did lack a splash screen until two years ago. I understand it's still the first week but come on! Are you expecting me to believe they thought black was an acceptable splash screen in this day and age? Make it a screenshot of a naked Tarutaru for all I care but make it at least look like you tried!

Once loaded, Genesys (my sexy feline thief) was given her very own cinematic showing her grace Bastok with her presence. Straight out of the gate, we're tossed into the tail end of a seemingly useless (and random) storyline involving a few villagers. The two I encountered consisted of some brats whining about being too young to fight and a woman who wanted to leave the city but the guards denied her the simple request. After finding the NPC who passes out the newbie money (which isn't enough to buy dirt), I ventured out into the rocky wastelands to lay the smackdown on some ne'er-do-wells.

I must say that the combat system is a rather refreshing change from the average turn based attacks. Not only do you not carry your weapon while in a non-combatant state (such as wandering town) but, unlike many other games, a very smooth animatic was inserted before and after each fight which allows us to see our weapons of choice being drawn and placed back into their respective sheath. Now maybe the average gamer won't care if they see their dagger ripped from its scabbard with zeal but it does add a bit of realism which is rather important in an RPG.

The choice of creatures to squash did leave a bit to be desired and I found myself sitting around awaiting the spawns. It seemed I was running around the map more in search of monsters rather than killing them. Normally, I'd blame it on the crowds stealing my kills but throughout the course of my night, I ran past maybe twenty other gamers. For the first week of a new game, that I believed had a huge following, it felt very barren.

I think I am a rather forgiving person but alas, now we must move on to my real grievances... and there are a few.

First things first... I have problem with the bill. As of late, many gamers have been griping about the fact that the box and registration number costs upward of $50 plus we pay the $12.95 per month, per account (save for Star Wars Galaxies that charges an insanely high $14.95). Final Fantasy XI, however, makes even me protest. Not only are we covering the bill for the game discs and the monthly service but on top of that, Square Enix has the audacity to implement a billing system that charges us per character! That's just a new low in my book.

Secondly, the HUD gets my goat. The HUD... Or should I say lack thereof? Every online game I have ever played has a very distinct layout on the screen that usually allows access to such things as the inventory window, options and exit. But no, not this game. To access any additional features, such as those mentioned above, you had better either read the manual or just start pounding keys. If you do eventually access the HUD, don't count on the keyboard configuration to fully work since it only accepts alphanumeric keystrokes (excluding the NumPad).

As a disabled man who has found it possible to fully run all online games using nothing but a standard trackball, I found it impossible to access 95% of Final Fantasy XI. It almost seems as if the Devs are placing a sign up notifying us hardcore gamers that the physically challenged are unwanted in the lands of Vana'diel. For those who use some form of onscreen keyboard to communicate, the lack of a Windowed Mode confirms the unwelcome atmosphere.

Perhaps next time, Square Enix should try making a Final Fantasy title that truly lives up to the mythos of its predecessors instead of trying to pass off a cinematic as a video game. To be honest, I can't even say the music was well-done as it was the same old score lifted from all of the console versions. Keep in mind that this is all merely one reviewer's opinion.

 

 

As an avid television fanatic and a very harsh movie critic (you know screenwriters, we always think we could have done it better), I had to check out Extras. The promo for it first aired after my favorite series, Entourage, so I was already in a good mood and instantly TiVo'd it. I will admit that the first episode left me only mildly amused (we'll call the pilot a 2 out of 5) but every episode since blew me away (37 out of 5). Brittish sitcoms rarely satisfy my ignorant American funnybone but, after two episodes, I did something I swore I'd never do... Watch some show called "The Office" with Extras star Ricky Gervais. You can imagine my disgust when I tuned in to see Steve Carell. Thankfully, a friend had Ricky Gervais' "The Office" DVD set nearby and I must say, after viewing season one, Extras feels even more brilliant. As soon as this hits DVD, I'll be the first customer to pick it up. And I have to recommend the REAL version of The Office... and Entourage. It's not a Britcom but, while Ricky shows you the life of Extras, the boys of Entourage show you the life of a rising star... and a few fallen ones.