Eleven going on fourteen

Although many of Sony's E3 Press Conference announcements were spoiled in the weeks leading up to the event, there was one that still managed to shock the world. As RPG fans eagerly await the next installment of the Final Fantasy series, Square Enix revealed that 2010 will see not one, but two games from the classic franchise released. And no, the second one won't just be a re-release or remake of an old 8-bit title, but an entirely new adventure for PS3 and PC players alike.

The trailer for Final Fantasy XIV looks like it could be for just about any JRPG: Spiky-haired characters with large weapons battle mythical beasts while an orchestral score plays over the top. It's only at the end that the most important piece of info is revealed - The word "online" tells us that this won't be just another chapter in the Final Fantasy story, but rather Square Enix's second attempt at busting into the MMORPG market. While many of you may know of FFXI, I'll bet there aren't many who actually played it. Indeed, this title seems to be the one that people skip over when discussing their love of the series. I, however, did play it for a number of months, and managed to build some strong opinions that will most likely carry over to FFXIV. Therefore, I'm going to spend just a few minutes reminiscing about my adventures in Vana'diel.

March 2004 was when it all began. Although the game had seen previous release in Japan, and on PC in America, this was when the PS2 version hit stores, along with the 40 GB hard drive necessary to run it. Yes, FFXI was the title that finally put to use the PS2's expansion bay. I bought the game on the morning of release and ran straight home to play, little knowing that it would actually be another four days before my adventures would begin. Apparently, there was some kind of compatibility issue between the FF servers and AOL, and I simply couldn't connect, much to my disappointment. I spent hours on the phone with customer support, but no-one could help me out. Eventually, after screwing around with some of the settings and temporarily changing my dial-up location to another part of the State, it connected, after which I could set everything back to the way it was. Now my quest could begin.

I don't know if you've ever played an MMO before, but I wasn't sure quite what to expect. Sure, I'd spent a little time playing Everquest, so knew roughly how the genre worked, but still entered that world like a young child out on his own for the first time. I'm telling you now - once the size of the game hits you, and you begin to realize the number of different things you can do within it, it can be a little overwhelming, especially for MMO virgins. Thankfully, I quickly met another noob who seemed just as overwhelmed as I was, and we set about exploring together.

The idea of communicating with other people in games was brand new to me, and this was certainly before the days of voice-chat (on PS2, anyway), but even typing to others seemed novel and fun. It was also necessary, as FFXI is not designed for solo players. Once you leave the comfort of your starting city, you soon discover that the creatures around are pretty tough. While fighting alone may be okay for a little while, I quickly reached the point where it just wasn't worth it, and I had to find a party to join.

This is where the problems began, though. It seemed that half my time was spent just standing around, waiting for the rest of a group to arrive, only to have an important member (like the White Mage) leave five minutes into the battle. In fact, getting groups together was always a bit of a chore, and if you couldn't find a decent Tank or Healer, you were going to find yourself dead fairly often. Oh yeah, and when party members started dying, this only added more waiting time, as you couldn't continue until your resurrected teammates found their way back to the group again.

Of course, those who didn't want to spent a lot of time battling had other options. There were plenty of places to explore, characters to talk to, side quests to attempt, and skills to master. Crafting was one of these skills, and involved taking objects and combining them into new objects. At first, you'd only be able to make weak items this way, but the more you did it, the better the items became. Unfortunately, getting good at any of the crafting skills required a lot of time and money, and I simply couldn't be bothered. Since Gil wasn't nearly as easy to some by as other FF games, I wanted to spend the little I had on tangible objects - spells, armor, weapons, and so on. The idea of spending hours slowly building up one of my stats just didn't sound like fun to me.

In fact, it was the issue of money that finally made me give up on FFXI. I realize that I haven't spent much time discussing my adventures, but that could take hours. Lets just say that I spent a few months exploring the world, meeting friends, battling enemies, riding chocobos, sharing hints and tips, and generally having a good time. There's really far too much to discuss in a format such as this, so lets just skip straight to the end, shall we?

Okay, so I'm the type of player who wants the best of everything in a game. The most powerful spells, the sharpest weapons, and the coolest clothes. Unfortunately, this is a bad attitude to have in an MMO, as these things aren't always easy to come by. There was a certain staff that I wanted for my character (a bard) that was the very best I could use at my current level. It cost 300,000 Gil, a sum far higher than any I'd seen in the game, and I set about saving up for it. Since I'd spent little time building up my money-making skills, such as crafting, I had only one option - looting. This is where you kill the same type of enemy over and over again and save up the items they drop. You then take the items to the Auction House and put them up for sale, hoping that another player will need the items and buy them from you.

So this is what I did for about a month. Whenever I played, the majority of my time was spent running around the mountains, killing bees and collecting beehive chips. That's it - just running in circles killing the same enemies over and over again. If this sounds less like a video game and more like work, well, I suppose it was. While it may not have been fun, I loved the comments I got on my new staff, once I finally had enough to pay for it. I hoped that this would be the only time I would have to go to such ridiculous lengths to acquire an item.

It wasn't long, though, before I went to my local Auction House and spotted two more items that I really wanted for my character. Unfortunately, these items cost 400,000 Gil each! Having just spent an entire month saving up for a 300,000 Gil staff, the idea of having to acquire another 800,000 was just too much for me. This was coupled with the fact that once my character gained a few more levels, there would be even more items available to me, and I'd probably have to start saving all over again. No thank you! That was the last time I played Final Fantasy XI, six months and 700 hours in.

So that's a brief recap of my time in Vana'diel. I know that , if I wanted, I could spend far longer discussing every aspect of gameplay, and detailing my adventures, but I don't think that's necessary. Don't get me wrong - I really did enjoy FFXI, but it seemed that every aspect required serious amounts of work before it became fun. This is the reason why I didn't jump for joy at the announcement of FFXIV - I just can't imagine ever wanting to put that much time into a single game again (except Rock Band......).

But maybe this one will be different. In the time since FFXI was released, we've seen the huge success of a little game called World of Warcraft. From what I've heard, this title approaches the whole MMO genre from a much more casual direction. Leveling up is faster, and there are far more things you can enjoy without having to spend half your waking life playing. But I have a feeling that Square Enix will be going after the hardcore players of their previous MMO, leaving more casual gamers out of the equation. That's not to say that FFXIV will be bad, but I think only a select few will ever get the most out of this title. I'm interested to hear more details about the gameplay, so I can get an idea about which direction the franchise is going.

But before I go, there's just one more thing I want to mention; One more reason why I don't want to support a new MMO on a Sony console. For you see, the decision to stop playing FFXI was entirely mine. I can accept that. However, the decision to never go back was taken out of my hands. What do I mean? Let me explain: Shortly after I gave up on the game, my PS2 died on me. This wasn't the first PS2 that had crapped out, so I was familiar with the replacement procedure. Unfortunately, it was exactly around this time that Sony revealed their new, slim PS2, which was to replace the current model. For a few months there were no systems in stores at all, and when they were finally back in stock they were all the slim model. Oh, and did I mention that with a smaller form factor, there was no room for the hard drive?

So that was it. My hard drive, along with FFXI, went into a closet and have never been taken out since. I always felt a little resentment towards Sony for their decision to drop support of their new peripheral in the same year that it launched, effectively destroying any chance that I had to re-visit the world of Vana'diel. Of course, this was a long time ago, and I'm sure the company wouldn't repeat the same mistake twice, but before I would even consider buying Final Fantasy XIV for the PS3, there's just one thing I want from Sony: Give me back my hundred dollars, you bastards! Maybe then we'll talk.....