Note on all expansions: Every part of FFXI takes an enormous hit in my ratings for existing within the god awful, unconscionable interface, code base, and general design philosophies of FFXI. These things are the foundations of the whole game, and thus no expansion can fully escape these sins. Despite this I have chosen to log them all separately because they are each different beasts.
All of these expansions take a while to get moving, but not like Seekers of Adoulin does. FFXI's final full, paid expansion came after several years of largely unsuccessful mini expansions. A Crystalline Prophecy's story feels like a waste of time and aside from one somewhat interesting mission where the player has their level cap drastically lowered, it doesn't deliver outside of that story either. A Moogle Kupo d'Etat is an agonizing series of fetch quests even more laborious than most of what the earliest eras of the game ask of you, and the comic relief moogle storyline definitely does not have enough punch to carry things. A Shantotto Ascension thankfully does, if players can clear the vicious, hateful crafting hurdles necessary to even start the mission line. The three-part Abyssea scenario is quite transparently just there to give players something to do as it revolves around farming key items with low drop rates from specially spawned monsters which require OTHER low drop rate items from OTHER specially spawned monsters which requi-
So the point is that SE were clearly shifting away from heavy investments in the FFXI content pipeline by this point but weren't willing to give up the subscription model, and that's basically the only excuse I can think of for why Seekers of Adoulin is time-gated all the way to hell and back.
For some reason (slowing you down so you'll stay subscribed longer despite the new development pace) Seekers of Adoulin features three massive walls to halt your progress, all near the start of the story. You can either do what I did and turn the game off for a week in between each of these gates, or you can go through a complicated and gil-intensive song and dance to raise your reputation and reduce the raw time requirement, but farming the gil or materials to do that is going to take its own hefty chunk of time, now isn't it? Even amidst those huge walls are countless smaller ones that demand the player wait until the next in-game day. These were hardly unheard of in FFXI prior to this, but were never half as ubiquitous as they are here.
When the game actually lets you play it, Seekers of Adoulin is good! for FFXI, anyway. It has a lovely story with good characters that is overwritten but emotionally engaging. Its villain is weak, particularly in the wake of Wings of the Goddess, but it hits all of the mythologically and politically intriguing highs that one would hope for in a fantasy tale.
Is it worth wading through hundreds of hours of FFXI to experience? I'm afraid I can't say that it is. It's simply embedded too deeply into a game experience that repulses the sanest parts of humanity, and that's before considering its own more personal issues.
I have asked that same question for each of these FFXI expansions, and the best I have come away with is a "maybe", so can I say that FFXI is worth playing AT ALL? It may come as a surprise, but... yes. While no one part of FFXI makes FFXI worth playing, I cannot say the same of the sum.
I'd rather not try to log them separately and they're not full or paid expansions, so I'll just mention them here. I have not finished the Voracious Resurgence, but Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is what finally pushes me over the line and into the position that yes, if you are an intensely curious Final Fantasy obsessor like myself who is willing to have extremely rough experiences with historically interesting video games, Final Fantasy XI is worth playing. Once.
While this grand expedition has incurred a towering cost in hours, in no way do I consider it to have been a waste of my time. I have come away with SOMETHING new to like about each installment of this game, and I regret nothing.
I will keep any thoughts on Voracious Resurgence to myself. Even if I'm unable to finish it for lack of gear and effort, I imagine that only 2 or 3% of FF players (and likely less in the west) will have played this content which is tacked on after an already immensely satisfying ending half a decade too late, hidden behind 700 hours of a game that's a nightmare even to begin. Allow me this bit of greed with which to keep these secrets safe. Let me keep the illusion that players of this content are essentially Freemasons.
All of these expansions take a while to get moving, but not like Seekers of Adoulin does. FFXI's final full, paid expansion came after several years of largely unsuccessful mini expansions. A Crystalline Prophecy's story feels like a waste of time and aside from one somewhat interesting mission where the player has their level cap drastically lowered, it doesn't deliver outside of that story either. A Moogle Kupo d'Etat is an agonizing series of fetch quests even more laborious than most of what the earliest eras of the game ask of you, and the comic relief moogle storyline definitely does not have enough punch to carry things. A Shantotto Ascension thankfully does, if players can clear the vicious, hateful crafting hurdles necessary to even start the mission line. The three-part Abyssea scenario is quite transparently just there to give players something to do as it revolves around farming key items with low drop rates from specially spawned monsters which require OTHER low drop rate items from OTHER specially spawned monsters which requi-
So the point is that SE were clearly shifting away from heavy investments in the FFXI content pipeline by this point but weren't willing to give up the subscription model, and that's basically the only excuse I can think of for why Seekers of Adoulin is time-gated all the way to hell and back.
For some reason (slowing you down so you'll stay subscribed longer despite the new development pace) Seekers of Adoulin features three massive walls to halt your progress, all near the start of the story. You can either do what I did and turn the game off for a week in between each of these gates, or you can go through a complicated and gil-intensive song and dance to raise your reputation and reduce the raw time requirement, but farming the gil or materials to do that is going to take its own hefty chunk of time, now isn't it? Even amidst those huge walls are countless smaller ones that demand the player wait until the next in-game day. These were hardly unheard of in FFXI prior to this, but were never half as ubiquitous as they are here.
When the game actually lets you play it, Seekers of Adoulin is good! for FFXI, anyway. It has a lovely story with good characters that is overwritten but emotionally engaging. Its villain is weak, particularly in the wake of Wings of the Goddess, but it hits all of the mythologically and politically intriguing highs that one would hope for in a fantasy tale.
Is it worth wading through hundreds of hours of FFXI to experience? I'm afraid I can't say that it is. It's simply embedded too deeply into a game experience that repulses the sanest parts of humanity, and that's before considering its own more personal issues.
I have asked that same question for each of these FFXI expansions, and the best I have come away with is a "maybe", so can I say that FFXI is worth playing AT ALL? It may come as a surprise, but... yes. While no one part of FFXI makes FFXI worth playing, I cannot say the same of the sum.
I'd rather not try to log them separately and they're not full or paid expansions, so I'll just mention them here. I have not finished the Voracious Resurgence, but Rhapsodies of Vana'diel is what finally pushes me over the line and into the position that yes, if you are an intensely curious Final Fantasy obsessor like myself who is willing to have extremely rough experiences with historically interesting video games, Final Fantasy XI is worth playing. Once.
While this grand expedition has incurred a towering cost in hours, in no way do I consider it to have been a waste of my time. I have come away with SOMETHING new to like about each installment of this game, and I regret nothing.
I will keep any thoughts on Voracious Resurgence to myself. Even if I'm unable to finish it for lack of gear and effort, I imagine that only 2 or 3% of FF players (and likely less in the west) will have played this content which is tacked on after an already immensely satisfying ending half a decade too late, hidden behind 700 hours of a game that's a nightmare even to begin. Allow me this bit of greed with which to keep these secrets safe. Let me keep the illusion that players of this content are essentially Freemasons.