Console MMORPG Review: Final Fantasy XI

A look back at the Final Fantasy XI console MMORPG

I had, unfortunately, very high expectations of this game. I mean, Final Fantasy... MMORPG? Whoa! The best of two worlds collide!

Unfortunately, they collide in a horrible way. Square smashed this game out of the park graphically, and the sounds effects and music are decent too. Unfortunately as well, that's where the positives stop.

- The UI is awful and unintuitive.
- Play control is cumbersome at best.
- Players are (mostly) unhelpful to new players.
- Race/Class combination is pretty boring. Each race has a "best" class and most people go that route.
- Did I mention play control is horrible?
- The combat system is, also, unintuitive. I *highly* recommend playing a melee character as a first. Any casting class will be killed over, and over, and over. And apparently this is just blindly accepted.
- The chat system is pesky.
- Oh yeah... the play control? Don't even get me started on it.

Now, the reason I weighed Play Control so heavily is because, in ANY MMORPG, you're going to spend a LOT of time traveling around. A *lot*. That, mixed with the horrible UI and combat system just make for a very frustrating experience. If you want a game with any sort of substance? Do yourself a favor and check out World of Warcraft. Or even Dark Age of Camelot.
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Source / Author / Credit: Zif