FFXI: The Noob levels

Final Fantasy XI was the first MMO I played seriously. Before that I had played Legend of Mir and compared to FFXI it was nothing. If I'm being honest I probably would have never picked up the game if it didn't have the Final Fantasy logo on it. I had no real interest in MMO's because I had to pay monthly for them but this was Final Fantasy and a numbered edition, I had to play it!

I remember how much fun I'd had with the game and the friends I'd made. Unfortunately I had forgotten some of the gameplay issues which have come to the surface tonight. After all the trouble of installing and updating the game we finally managed to play. I decided I'd go back to my old server in a slight hope that some of the people I used to know could still be there.

I made an Elvaan Warrior, dashing black medium/long hair, just like my old character. My friend decided that he wanted to go Black Mage which eventually we found was a bad choice for an Elvaan due to low MP but we pushed on. We both ended up having problems with the controls, it took a good 3-4 minutes to figure out how to move. WASD wasn't working so it all came down to the mouse.

Eventually I tweaked the controls to make WASD work and we were set. I equipped my sword, watched a few cut scenes before they'd let me out the door and then we ran into a new problem. We couldn't figure out how to group together. Another 2-3 minutes were spent messing around with the interface and we were on the road again. We left San d'Oria and into East Ronfaure to battle with some worms and bunnies. It was all very easy, it didn't feel like FFXI because I remember it being hard but soon it was going to change.

I'd forgotten how big the learning curve for the game really was, you were basically plopped down into the city of your choice and left to figure out everything for yourself. I was very lucky on my first time around playing the game to come across some very nice people who helped me, no such luck this time. I'd completely forgotten everything.

It took me a good 30 minutes to get comfortable with the controls before I was able to get into a rhythm of fighting, looting, healing, moving. Which reminded me of another sad thing about the game. How much of a grind fest it really is. I had a look around San d'Oria trying to find some quests but I couldn't find anything so it was all down to grinding.

Our next problem soon arrived. My friend couldn't find any black magic in his abilities. At first we thought maybe he wasn't looking in the right place, so I changed class to look and oddly enough I had no black magic either. A quick search of Google told me that by his level he should have had Stone 1 and Poison. At level 1 you have Stone 1, I had nada. After a few minutes of searching in-game and online we found nothing so he decided to change class to a Warrior.

He didn't have a melee weapon except for his staff. So we went on the journey to find the weapon shop which took us a good 15 minutes, it would have taken longer except I was lucky to get help from another player and she pointed me in the right direction. We had to pool our money together to pay for a dagger which cost 262 gil.

Eventually we got back out onto the battlefield and started murdering some worms and bunnies again until we got bored with them and tried for some bigger game. We spotted some Orcs a bit further away from where we were camping and decided to go for it. It was only after we started the fight that I remembered to /check it.

"This enemy is tough"

We were obliterated. After a few more defeats I managed to get to level 4 before we were defeated for the final time and decided to call it a night. We had only really intended on playing to remember the good times. When I first got online I really wanted to turn it off, gameplay and control problems were very annoying but eventually I came around and remembered why I had fun with the game. While my friend who was enjoying it from the get go was put off by having to change class and finish the game at the same level as he started.

It reinforced my plan on following FFXIV right up till launch and onward because it brought back so many memories but at the same time it reminded me how old the game really is. Square-Enix have a lot of work on their hands to bring this game up to date and I wish them the very best with it.

The last screenshot here shows our two heroes logging out for the first and last time. Maybe we'll see them in Final Fantasy XIV for some more epic adventures.