Qouted From: Final Fantasy XI Software Review > TECK Reviews
"Introduction
Square Enix's first MMORPG is, quite frankly, a remarkable piece of work. Final Fantasy XI, as the name says, it's the eleventh instalment of the rather popular Final Fantasy series. How is FFXI different from previous Final Fantasy's though? The answer is simple - online capabilities. This is of course a major step forward for Square Enix. But how well have they done FFXI? Since FFXI is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) which means the possibilities are endless. From story, to character building, to making new friends and killing enemies - every single element to FFXI is endless which is going to keep you interested at all times, no matter what.
Installation
The first task was unfortunately a tedious and unwieldy one. Installation should be an easy and problem-free experience for anyone. However, this is not the case for this monster of a game. The box contents include 2 manuals (1 English, 1 French), some advertisements and 5 discs. Unfortunately, you are going to spend around 3 or 4 hours installing FFXI. It takes about 10 minutes to install the PlayOnline Viewer (1 disc), 1 hour installing the actually game (4 discs), and depending on your Internet connection, between 3-4 hours downloading updates (And how new your game is. If it's relatively new you don't have to download as many updates. But if you bought it and left it for a while, you are going to spend a long time downloading the updates)
However after that, entering your payment details and creating your personal information for a PlayOnline account is relatively simple. The 2 problems that you can encounter are entering your credit card details (It isn't stated anywhere what credit cards are accepted. So far only Visa and Mastercard) and writing down the insanely confusing PlayOnline ID and mail address.
Game Overview
Thankfully, it gets even easier after that as you will now be into FFXI creating your own character. This part is so much simpler and you'll have a fun time determining which character would be best for you. The world of FFXI is inhabited by 5 races of people. The Hume - humans who are described to have "balanced abilities, moderate intelligence and high level of skill in numerous areas. Elvaan - Elves that are proud warriors with their unshakable pride and faith in their beliefs". TaruTaru - TaruTarus (Taru for short) are a race of skilled magic users. The main characteristic of Tarus is their height, where they stand not 2ft from the ground. Mithra, are a race of predominantly female cat-like creatures who live along side TaruTarus. And finally the last race, Galka - a hulking race of powerful male warriors who reproduce a-sexually.
When you first play the game, you are going to be overwhelmed by the amount of keyboard shortcuts, controls and macros you are going to have to learn. There are at least 30 shortcuts to make your life easier, or do they? After playing FFXI for a few weeks you still find yourself getting confused on what you're pressing and doing. It certainly takes some time getting use to the controls. Another disappointing aspect, apart from the confusing controls, is the fact that you cannot change them. You are stuck using the numeric pad on your keyboard to move your character, which becomes slightly irritating. In conclusion the controls are very difficult to master but one would assume they are much easier on the PlayStation 2 version.
Building your character is an everlasting job in FFXI. It is one of the main things you'll be doing, and spending at least 45% of you time doing. It's a very exhausting task. To advance levels in the game, you need to gain enough 'Experience Points (EXP)' to ascend to the next level. However, this is tricky as if you were to die, you lose 10% of the total EXP you need to level. So if you level up and in the next battle you die, you are going to become de-levelled and will have to work your way up again. This annoyance will aggravate a lot of people, but if you are a smart fighter, you won't die to often. Unlike previous Final Fantasy's, the battle system is real-time. This means unlike (Final Fantasy VII for example), you don't have to wait until the enemy has hit you so you can return the favour. You are free to hit when you like and how you like. The battle system is very straight forward, you simply target your enemy, choose how you want to attack him and press enter.
If you have ever played previous Final Fantasy's, you'll know most of them have a 'world map'. The world where you play, where all the characters live and work etc. In FFXI there is a world map yet it is absolutely massive. This is the biggest world you'll ever encounter. As said earlier, 45% of your time will be levelling up. Another 45% of time will be walking. That's right, you are going to spend hours walking from one place to another. For example it took exactly 55 minutes to walk from Bastok to San o'Doria (2 major kingdoms in FFXI), which doesn't the time stopped to battle a few monsters. Each area is huge and you'll spend a long time in each one. This adds more realism to the game and if you're with friends, walking for an hour doesn't seem too bad. Having said that, there are other modes of transport in FFXI such as riding Chocobo's, Ships and Airships. However some of these require you to do quests at a certain level.
Graphics
The graphics in Final Fantasy XI, depending on the specs of your system, are fantastic. The textures are smooth, the backgrounds / scenery are unbelievably realistic and the characters, magic effects, monsters are great. However, depending on your computer specifications - the graphics are going to be hit or miss. The recommended graphics card on the box is NVIDIA GeForceFX series graphics processing unit (AGP) with 64MB of VRAM. This review was written based on the game running on a Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT Ultimate and that seems to work fine. So whether you're a NVIDIA or ATI fan, you are still going to be able to see the beauty of FFXI.
Required specifications
As for computer specifications, you are going to need a fairly new or upgraded computer. The minimum and recommended system requirements found on the box are outdated (as of September, 2003). To run the game efficiently, one would suggest:
- OS - Windows XP
- CPU - Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz
- RAM - 512MB
- GFX Card - NVIDIA: Any 6800 Series, ATI: Any X800 Series
- Sound Card - DirectX 8.1 Compatible
- HDD Space - 6GB free space
- CD-ROM Speed - 48x (Only used at installation)
- Internet Connection - 1MBit connection
- Other - Keyboard with numeric pad
With those computer specs you are going to be able to run FFXI fine, however even with slightly lower components, you are still going to experience the game perfectly. However lower end systems are known to experience terrible graphics so for the most realistic experience it's recommended to stick to the above.
Conclusion
After covering some aspects of Final Fantasy XI, what we have described is only starting to scratch the surface of an extremely huge and daunting, yet incredibly wonderful game such as this. In short, any fan on MMORPG's is going to love this game as it adds a whole new dimension to the genre of online role playing games, but unfortunately negative reactions from previous Final Fantasy fans have been quite common. This game is certainly nothing like its predecessors and it is safe to say, that this game shouldn't have been part of the Final Fantasy series, and just be merely known as "Final Fantasy Online". The game has been out for a couple years now, and is constantly being updated with new features, which is worth every penny to its players.
Editors Rating: 7.1/10" 
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