FINAL FANTASY® XI: Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition

a way for my sons and i spend time together since we are so far away from each other

I've been playing this on and off since 2004, and to this day it's still my favorite game. The modern "retail" experience is vastly different from the old days, and I love both experiences in their own right. When I was younger, I had time to walk everywhere and wait hours for parties, etc. Now that I'm almost 40 as of posting this, being able to solo all of the story content with the assistance of trusts was necessary. There's still a lot of endgame stuff that requires parties as well, if that's your jam. This game still doesn't hold your hand, however. You will absolutely have to make use of the BGWiki that's been crafted through years. Crafted by players for players. - Top tier Job system (Best Blue Mage gameplay from any Final Fantasy, and my favorite job to play.) - Top tier stories for all expansions (That often gets overlooked because "It's an MMO...") - Helpful community welcoming of new comers, veterans and returnees alike. - An almost infinite amount of content to play through at your own pace - Still updating in 2026 (Which blows my mind, honestly lol)

Have to look up a guide to create account. Have to download the other half of the game after finally getting login to work because Steam doesn't download the whole thing for some reason. Controls are ass and won't let me rebind to arrow keys for movement. Left handed. Try using controller, game refuses to acknowledge controller when wireless so I plug it in. I have to bind everything myself which is annoying when everything is "Button 1-36". I can't bind menu buttons to the D-pad. I think it wants to bind it to the analog but that's extremely stupid. I tried giving this game a shot because I was lead to believe the many expansion packs helped smoothed things out but holy hell I'm just getting pissed setting up the game and I know I haven't even dealt with the menu hell, the obtuse gameplay, or figuring out macros. It is amazing this only came out 2 years before WoW. Maybe down the road I might try to figure it out but right now it feels like a waste of $10 for how rough the intro is then you have the $13 monthly fee. Edit: For the D-Pad, you have to enable "Hat switches". I just want to fight the game itself and not the monsters inside at this point.

Final Fantasy XIV (in its current state; we don't talk about 1.0) is definitely the better [i]MMO[/i], but XI remains the better [i]Final Fantasy[/i] in some intangible and hard-to-define way. I only played it very little before this year, so I don't have any particular nostalgia for the game itself, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the PS2 era of Final Fantasy it came from, and it sits very comfortably in amongst that.

A unique MMORG (and one of the first). Combat is actually slowed down which allows a more complex and coordinated combat system.

Near impossible to play without outside guides. The process to log in, access the launcher, was almost enough to make me stop. The actualy gameplay did not help. Not worth playing in 2026.

The only MMO that's ever been able to keep my attention and it has for nearly 23 years. A true classic by any metric. It's old and obtuse, and has a steep learning curve; but has one of the greatest loot and gear swap systems ever conceived for an MMO. Equipment swapping and the loot grind just doesn't exist in modern MMOs the way FFXI has done it. This game heavily scratches the loot grind itch, with every new piece you acquire providing meaningful upgrades; sometimes changing the entire way you approach your job. Originally developed for the PS2, the graphics are indeed dated but they hold up incredibly well. The stylized design of the world helps it's old engine not look like an eyesore. Modern HD texture packs make the game look fantastic for modern hardware. You will need to do some tweaking to make the game take advantage of more RAM, as it is limited to only using 2GB without patching it. Runs great on modern hardware after the DgVoodoo fix; but this is to be taken with the understanding that the game still has limitations due to it being a PS2 title. Multiple jobs available on a single character; jobs based on the system introduced in Final Fantasy V. Geomancer, Samarui, Ninja, Beastmaster, Summoner, and the classics like Monk, White Mage, Thief, Red Mage, etc. all make an appearance. Blue Mage in FFXI is the absolute best representation of the job in any Final Fantasy game. Support jobs take the "Abilities" system from FFV and expand upon that by allowing you to use a second job at half of the level of your current job. I.E. 99Geomancer/49Red Mage. These support levels are able to be pushed beyond the lv49 limit with job mastery, another element of FFV expanded upon here. The stories in XI are some of the best ever written for a Final Fantasy game. These stories have had an influence on later titles, with FFXVI seemingly heavily influenced by the Chains of Promathia expansion pack. Numerous enemy designs that were updated for XI have since become the standard design for those enemies within subsequent Final Fantasy releases. FFXI set a new standard for the Final Fantasy series and paved the way for the behemoth that is FFXIV. I highly recommend everyone give this game a try and, at the very least, play through the stories and explore the vast, deep world that is Vana'Diel. It's influence on the series is palpable to this day. **A wealth of third-party tools exist to make the lack of in-game interfaces a little more tolerable for modern players.

An all time classic, in spite of all the hurdles to play properly (and to even launch the game in the first place) it is well worth the effort to experience something so unique and 1 of a kind that still has such a strong beating heart 24 years later.

the kind of ♥♥♥♥ that lingers in the back of your mind in perpetuity, because nothing in life has ever felt like home quite the way this game did

If you're willing to roll up your sleeves and grab a wrench to work on some of the technical issues of the game using tools like dgVooDoo, Special K, and Windower/Ashita, there is an incredible game waiting here for you. Pick the Phoenix server (at the time of this review) and open up the new player guide on bg-wiki. PS, you can use a steam controller on Windows IF you use dgvoodoo as d3d8.dll, Special K as dinput8.dll, check load steam client dll early, and load steam overlay early. A bonus side effect is that this also tracks playtime, enjoy!