One amazing game world.
I wish SE did a better job of making people aware of it (all they ever show is the opening animation, which is nice but does a questionable job of showing off
the game's actual stories and characters), but at least nowadays it's getting more of a presence in the likes of FF Record Keeper.
I hope they bite the bullet and convert it into a single player game. Or an MMO Lite, idk. I don't want a numbered Final Fantasy to disappear from history.
This is already a problem with XIV 1.x too, but I hope eventually SE set aside the time and budget to adapt XI to single player - the other PS2-era FFs are already remastered on Steam.
The gameplay would need some revisions, but at least the assets are all already there, and they could tweak a few things into a more coherent package, like treating the whole game as a whole instead of having to worry about players lacking specific expansions and having to design around that, which would let them connect some stories better, like
starting the Rise of the Zilart story as you beat the Shadow Lord fight, and while at it apply the voice work they used on those clips they used to have on the Famitsu Youtube channel.
A single-player version would also enable tweaking things to have NPC party members a more natural part of the story, like having Lion and Zeid join your party during the critical parts of nature missions and join you in the relevant battles where they actually appear in the cutscenes but don't fight - probably because they lacked the battle data when the battles themselves were released, although that's no longer an issue thanks to the Trust system.
I love this game so much. I occasionally return, but it usually doesn't take me long to realize that I am literally a decade behind everyone else and I get overwhelmed at the idea of catching up, so I fizzle out. They may have made things way easier, but there's still a metric ton of individual things to do to catch up.
A decent rule of thumb for that IMO is to focus on the major mission stories in release order - and if you focus on the very worthwhile Rhapsodies story, that pretty much encourages progress in that manner, although it doesn't require the completion of each story to advance.
I started last night as a new player and ohhhhh man have those controls and UI aged poorly. I'm excited to see the stories but even just figuring out how to start them is confusing.
Nowadays the Records of Eminence system helps, so do wikis when in doubt, and there are even some nice official resources, like how
the Seekers of Adoulin site has a relationship chart for every major chapter of its story with hint on whom to talk to to progress.
As much as I'd like to, I can't make myself return to the game. It's changed too much and everyone I knew is probably gone. I rather keep my image of it in tact rather than see an emotionally empty version of it where leveling parties don't even exist. Do want to do that final expansion's storyline one day though.
Rhapsodies is very much worth experiencing to the end if you have any sort of fondness for the game and its stories - chapter 3 alone is amazing and the end was a tearjerker.
I wonder if they'd bother to update that one line in the ending every year to keep matching the number with the game's age... it'd be neat, if unlikely...
exploration in XI was so great/infuriating. throwing on some sneak and invisible to get to your exp camp only to have an NM with true sight (fuck you guivre) aggro someone and then cause havoc in the area.
In dungeons sneak and invisible are still relevant, but in practically all outdoors areas nowadays you can use mounts to make that a non-issue. Parituclarly neat if you've beaten Fenrir and earned the right to ride him all over the place.
Now i wonder if they'll even do something of the sort with Odin's horse...
chains of promathia is one of the best gaming experiences i've ever had, and sky/sea are some of the best areas i've ever explored. sea's music is really good too
The game is filled with beautiful areas packed with details one might never even notice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzrmwcSizIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesY1XssACM
So if I buy this I get the full game + expansion and a free month?
Pretty much, assuming you buy the Ultimate collection, IIRC - the names changes as expansions were added, but if it's got Seekers of Adoulin if likely contains everything that preceded it too.
At that price it costs you less than a modern single-player FF, and the time in subscription fees it take for the cost to match the others you can probably complete all the major stories.
