When Final Fantasy is mentioned minds will automatically wander across to the series’ more beloved titles such as VI, VII and X or even to its more controversial ones such as VIII and XIII. But there is one Final Fantasy title in particular that has been completely forgotten even amongst its own fanatical fanbase. (No, it isn’t Dirge of Cerberus … that game did not happen … it did not…! )
Released in 2002 to critical acclaim and playing host to a number of innovations that still resonate to this day, it is the most profitable Final Fantasy title of all time. This Final Fantasy title was conceived by series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, directed by Koichi Ishii (director of Legend and Secret of Mana) produced by Chrono Cross and Xenogears producer Hiromichi Tanaka and comes complete with a musical score by Nobuo Uematsu. It contains a diverse class system, deep character customisation, meaningful decisions, extremely challenging content, Â a fully 3d world map, towns, airships … sounds like an RPG Â fans heaven right? But what is it?
… Final Fantasy XI
Wait … what?
Final Fantasy XI has been forgotten because it was the series first MMO. It was released in 2002/2003 on the PlayStation 2 and PC. It was the first in the Final Fantasy series to use a fully 3d landscape and thus remove the need for random battles. Â A departure that was too much for a lot of the series fans. It was also released at a time where the internet was still a relative novelty, especially in terms of online gaming (and especially on consoles.) In addition to this, the MMO genre at the time was still a relatively niche genre with Final Fantasy XI’s record setting (at the time) subscriber base of 500,000 players now looking a little on the slim side in modern terms.
But what was the game like?
This a relatively broad question. Â The game in essence, despite being an MMO and thus removing some of the more traditional elements of Final Fantasy series, still had Final Fantasy-esque gameplay and retained classic Final Fantasy staples such as the job system, the classic setting and mythos and the fully explorable world map for example.
The basic gameplay will now appear archaic in modern MMO terms with its Final Fantasy-meets-EverQuest slower paced style of gameplay. Stats (yours and the enemies), correct party composition and strategy execution being the key to success in *instanced* and open world content with parties of player characters being essential to basic progression. Even basic quests and sidequests generally required parties of players to complete and death would result in the loss of a level.
With difficult content and heavy punishment for death being integral to the games design it led to a real sense of community/camaraderie much like in a series we are all familiar with.
This thought leads nicely into my next focus: what was attractive about the game?
Personally the biggest draws of the game included the innovation of the classic Final Fantasy job system and the classic Final Fantasy  art design (with a gritty touch) of the game which just oozed atmosphere. Especially when coupled with the wonder soundtrack, it enhanced the exploration design of the game to all new heights which I’ve rarely seen matched in the MMO genre.
But what of its legacy?
In that regard, Final Fantasy XI not only brought change to the Final Fantasy series but to the MMO genre as a whole. It was the first cross platform MMO ever created with players on PlayStation 2 and PC (and later Xbox 360) playing together on the same servers. Â Without the game having region recommended servers, it led to players from Japan, North America, Europe and other regions of the globe all being together. Â This created a unique sense of community with a huge range of cultures and language often within the same server.
Final Fantasy XI also brought about the highly innovative level-synch feature which refined low-level party play to the extreme as well as an innovative class system which was further refined in Final Fantasy XIV to create the new class system staple for MMO’s.
Now over 12 years since it launched, having had five expansion packs, the game is still ticking over with new content still being made (by an incredibly small development team). It remains to be seen what kind of future awaits Final Fantasy XI, especially with it being one of the oldest subscription MMO’s still in service. Â Regardless of its future it will remain a cult classic in the series and will be fondly remembered by MMO veterans and a small minority of Final Fantasy fans alike.
This doesn’t have to be Final, if your Fantasy is more quality gaming articles, look no further!
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7 responses to “The Forgotten Final Fantasy”
Damn I bought that game for the 360 back then, but had to go through so many hoops to actually play it(lack of credit card, billing, awful menus that ask so much information that I was unable to provide etc.)
It’s still sitting on my games shelf, never used….I stare at it from time to time and think: “oh what could have been….”
I would hardly say FFXI is a forgotten FF it’s still widely known because of most of the systems used in it are now in FFXIV:ARR.It still has a load of fond memories for myself and many many others who played it.To see it as a forgetten FF just seems a discredit to it.
Yeah. I’m probably never going to be able to play XIV for that very reason.
I’m happy to pay for extra, quality content…but not to merely have permission to play the game as it was meant to be played.
That was my other consideration but personally I believe that V isn’t ignored to the same extent. It gets lumped in with the ”classic” Final Fantasy’s and is pretty much positively talked about by the fanbase whenever its mentioned.
I do remember the story wasn’t particularly good especially compared to those that came after and before it and probably dampened the impact that it had upon players.
XI still has a subscription because … Japan basically. F2P isn’t a popular model there to put it lightly and the majority of their XI subscribers are Japanese. Also the cost involved changing the model of such an old game probably isn’t worth their time, its too late for it as far as I can see.
Honestly I don’t seem them porting it. Its simply ticking over right now at around 50,000 subs and as soon as it goes into the red in terms of cost I see it getting the axe, which is a shame but fans have been emulating and hosting private servers for years so it will continue to ”exist” as it were.
Just like XIV I wanted soooo much to play it but can’t afford the subscription. I don’t think the game is forgotten really, since it’s the first FF MMO and I’m sure many fans wanted to play it but couldn’t afford it or didn’t had access to internet as you said. Add to the fact that FF is a console game series and consoles at that time didn’t have WiFi. So access was pretty limited indeed.
At first I thought you were going to talk about FFV. Everybody talks about how great four and six are, but I’ve never heard opinions nor seen any articles about five.
Eleven still having subscription is ridiculous imo. They should experiment with F2P and port the game to PS4 and see how it goes.
It certainly was a time sink. But it was during a time when I had time to sink into it. I’m personally glad they made XIV more casual as it allows me to progress even if I’m time poor.
Despite my attempt at reasoning in the article it is odd that it still gets ignored. It even avoids the predictable ‘everything after X sucked’ brigade. Probably doesn’t fit into the narrative I guess?
Excellent post! I can’t believe it’s been so long since this came out… I never jumped in to play this game and have been telling myself for literally years that I’ll get around to it. Maybe it’s time to admit I won’t have time and instead enjoy your wonderful articles on these series!
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