My first MMO experience was with Final Fantasy XI, Square-Enix’s first entry into the genre. For whatever else it was – forced grouping, unneeded time sinks, brutal deaths – they did one thing exceedingly well: telling the story. Here’s hoping they change some things about the game mechanics here and there so it can be more enjoyable to go adventuring in the land of Eorzea in their next foray into the MMO realm.
What do we know so far? Quite a lot, actually. Its infinitely more than Blizzard would have revealed about a new WoW expansion only two months after it was announced, that’s for sure.
Familiar to players of FFXI are the races. They may hold different names, but they’re very similar in design to the races in their previous MMO. What’s more interesting to me is the jobs (classes) that have recently been revealed. I’m expecting more in the future, but for now four jobs and two sub-classes for each job have been shown. Two of the classes are Crafter (with sub-classes of Blacksmith and Cook) and Gatherer (with sub-classes of Gardener and Fisher). Why are these interesting? First off, they seem like professions. It would be a pleasant surprise if they include non-combat classes in this game, perhaps even forgoing a separate profession system altogether in favor of integrating crafting into the job/class system.
I’ve always found the concept of playing a non-combat class in an MMO fascinating, if there was one that even attempted to pull it off. The closest we have in recent memory is EVE Online, where you can focus on manufacturing or industry and keep combat to a minimum if you play your cards right.
Also of interest is that there will no longer be experience points or levels, another trait FFXIV will borrow from EVE. Apparently weapons and other equipment will have a huge role in determining the power of your character, even more than is typical for a fantasy-style MMO.
Much more remains to be revealed from Square-Enix – they’re so stingy with their high-profile information these days. Rumor has it the beta for FFXIV will kick into high gear this fall, as they aim for a 2010 release. I’ll definitely give this game a shot because, as it stands right now, it looks to include some unique tweaks to infuse new life into the genre. The official site has been updated recently with quite a bit more information than I can cover here, so head on over and check it out!
I was a Level 37PLD/18WAR before I quit. It was a damn fun game though.
That would be cool to include non-combat classes. I think it adds a new opportunity for other types of people to be themselves in a game world; because not everyone is confrontational by nature in real life. So it makes sense you would want to have more working class roles in your MMO.
Agreed 100%. There’s this mentality with MMOs that everything has to be about combat. I really hope this is the direction SE is going with those “profession” classes, but unfortunately the way those classes work and their function in the game is all speculation at this point.
Unfortunately there were a few reasons I left FFXI.
1. Everything was party based. You had to have your own spot when you partied and unless you had a full party (with the right classes) leveling went slowly.
2. Getting to some of the areas to party we’re extremely difficult. It became annoying when you kept dying just trying to get to your party spot.
3. The cross server playing. At 3am I would find myself with Japanese people who would say (No Japanese)(Sorry) when I tried to party.
I could write a whole editorial about why I left FFXI but no one really cares about FFXI since it’s pretty damn old now.
Yeah, I agree with point 1 & 2…they were a couple reasons I left, as well. Point 3, however, is one reason I liked FFXI. You don’t see many games these days that attempt to cross cultural and language barriers.
I also forgot about the rare creatures that people would camp day and night. There was something about the Japanese connection that would let them get to it a ms earlier.
It was a neat idea crossing barriers but I found myself excluded from a lot of parties because of it. Communication was so critical in the parties that unless you had the (translation)(translation) up no one understood what spell you were casting / how much aggro you would attract.
Btw: Manaburn parties ftw
(5 BLM’s and ME!)
my buddies and I did the FFXI thing for about 3 weeks and as a group decided it was about the poorest excuse for an mmo we had played. no room for creativity, a ridiculously strict social atmosphere, and just plain boring gameplay. WoW made it look just absurd when it came out, that and everything else, and I don’t even like or play WoW anymore.
I still miss this game to this day
I hope to pick it up an play soon again 
Hope it’s not a bad port to the PC like The Last Remnant was.
And hope there’s no 60 second loading screen every 10 seconds
The professions as character classes has been done before, in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Not saying it’s not a good idea, but it has been done. Unfortunately it was done by a team of devs who had no idea how to manage their money properly to make sure the product was complete before they ran out of money. From what I can tell Square really has the right idea for FFXIV. I’m incredibly excited for it. I’ve honestly never been this excited about a game before. My only concern is the combat pacing, since I have heard some people talk about that before. It certainly looks faster, but fast enough? I don’t know. Even still, I’ll be playing come release. (Hopefully I’ll be playing the beta.)