Final Fantasy XI

The biggest RPG in video games is taking the plunge into online play. Square has its act together, but how successful will it be?

It would be no exaggeration to say that Square?s future lies in the hands of Final Fantasy XI. The company took a financial hit after the Final Fantasy movie tanked, but now it is trying to regroup by taking its monstrous RPG series (30 million games sold and counting) into the bold world of online play. Will Square succeed? That depends on a thousand different factors: whether Sony can get its PlayStation 2 online service running soon enough, whether gamers will shell out $40 for the PS2 network adapter, and so on. Still, if the FFXI public beta test taking place in Japan right now is any indication, Square could have the makings of a great online game in its hands.

Making Your Debut
Final Fantasy XI differs from its predecessors in one very obvious aspect?you won?t be able to do a thing with it unless you have net access. At the very least, you?ll need the PS2 broadband adapter (going on sale this August) and an Internet service provider subscription. A USB keyboard and mouse would also help. Chances are you?ll have to pay a fee to access the game; Square has yet to announce anything official, but there will likely be some kind of monthly rate.

Once you?re set up online, the first order of business will be naming and building a character. You?ll have five races, six jobs, and three home countries to pick from. The homeland you choose will be extremely important as it will dictate your starting point, and you?ll be too weak in the beginning to venture very far away from home. After you make your selections, you?ll be unceremoniously propped into your country?s capital city and the game will begin. What happens next will be completely up to you.

Monsters, Parties, and Missions
So how would a typical player pass an evening in the virtual world of Vana?diel? You could start with a little monster hacking. Fighting in FFXI will be turn-based, using an active time system that should be familiar to Final Fantasy fans. Instead of randomly encountering monsters, though, you?ll be able to see them roaming the countryside and attack or evade them at will.

But what?s the point of playing an online RPG if you don?t play with your friends? You?ll be able to have up to six players form a party and rampage the countryside. If this isn?t enough, you?ll also be able to combine parties to form an 18-man alliance for bosses and anything else that?s too tough for a single group.

Of course, with this being part of the Final Fantasy series, you?ll eventually want a little story to go with all the slashing and bashing. You?ll be able to elicit one-shot quests from the computer-controlled characters you run into in town, but most of the story will revolve around the missions granted by your homeland?s government. These will run the gamut from exterminating a hive of orcs to retrieving a lizardman?s egg for a government minister with exotic tastes in food to protecting a group of young sorcerers as they test their spells on real monsters.

The missions you receive will start out simple and without much reward, but as you gain levels and build your name, you?ll start getting more glamorous assignments and become privy to the inner sanctums of the government. The three countries in FFXI?the Republic of Bastok, the Kingdom of San D?Oria, and the Federation of Windurst?will seem to share friendly relations, but nasty border conflicts will break out in the wilderness almost constantly. You?ll even be able to conquest new lands for your home country if you?re the adventurous sort. What lies beneath the surface of these tensions? The more you play, the more you?ll discover.

Your Chance To Shine
There is no doubt that Final Fantasy XI will require a large chunk of time to fully get into. Japanese beta testers have had nothing but praise for the game, but some worry about how players need to level-up for a while before anything really cool happens?a common problem with online RPGs like this. However, most gamers will probably be too busy building characters, chatting with fellow explorers, and going on monster-hunting excursions to notice. The philosophy of previous Final Fantasies was to build a story for the player to follow; now, it will be the players? turn to weave their own tales.

Prepare to wait a while for your chance at online stardom, though: This game is coming out in May in Japan, but probably won?t hit American shores until 2003.

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