Why Every FF Fan Should Play FF11

OG Final Fantasy 11 (2003-2005) was the best time I have ever had in my life. I was brand new to the MMO community and I was only 15 yrs old. Once I started playing 11, I lost track of time and was engulfed into that world 24/7. I use to skip going to school just to play. Man it was such an experience I will never forget, for the rest of my life. All the friendships I made and lost. You really had to be there from the start to fully understand how special Final Fantasy 11 was to people and how it forced you to play with other people, making you create bonds and friendships.

I still play XI today, and now that I'm older I appreciate the more solo-friendly version of the game because I can play at my own place and still accomplish stuff. But XI back in the day was a totally unique experience that I'm glad I got to be a part of. Doing CoP missions when they had the level caps was incredibly intense, and I think the huge difficulty of trying to clear those missions is part of the reason why that story is so special to a lot of players. I still remember beating the airship fight almost 20 years later.

I’m not sure you noticed but FF11 has THE best implementation of the Job System of any FF, including 14 and Tactics. You say you found FF11 to be quite tactical compared to other FFs… man… you have no idea what it was like in the golden era; it was much more back then… the amount of tactics and organisation it was required to do stuff like dynamis, HNMs of sky and sea, Wyrm-fights… it was there, in those epic large-scale battles with dozens of players where you could see people pushing their jobs to the limit. Although I love FF14’s story, I find its battle system extremely frustrating, because those job rotations are exhaustively repetitive, whereas in FF11 you can achieve your goals by adopting an impressive amount of different strategies. There’s no such thing as a “fixed rotation” of spells and abilities, unless you are going for a zerg-strategy (kill as quickly as you can) with a full party or alliance of (real) players. Also, this game was SO PUNISHING back in the days that, when someone brags about how difficult Souls-games are, I cant help but think to myself: “you wouldn’t last a month in 2005’s Vana’Diel”

The poor souls who never experienced FFXI from 2003-2012 will never know just what they missed out on. It wasn't a game, or even the best FF title, it was a way of life.

I played FFXI for maybe a month back in 2003 or 2004, definitely wasn't for me back when I was younger. Even more recently, as someone who enjoys most MMOs to a reasonable degree for both thed gameplay and the social aspects, I didn't think FFXI was for me despite a nagging desire to go back and try it again. I could not have been more wrong. The past three days I've spent playing it have been some of the most fun I've had in not just an MMO, but in RPGs as a whole, in years. This video is what inspired me to try it and I can't thank you enough.

Fribaud from Quetzalcoatl circa 2004 This game is the most addictive experience of my life, and I still love it to this day. MNK/WAR forever

I have been preaching this to people every since I started it at North American release. It is my favorite game of all time for damned good reason.

I will echo what you said - yes, 20 years ago, I'd say nearly all my friends skipped the story. All of us valued the social interactions of this game (even the story readers). People may forget, this game did come out before YouTube. We couldn't just YouTube what to do - you asked people. I admit, I was just a teenager back then, but yeah - I skipped story, but you make me want to resub and try the story for the first time. Thanks a lot for the video.

Thank you for mentioning Naoshi Mizuta. Love his work. He really took into account the lore of the zones, the style and location to compose his work.

This motivated me to return home to San d'Oria and finish the story. Left off in Abyssea era. Made a lot of amazing friends in this world and still close to some to this day. This game really felt like being in a real and different world, and no other game has done that for me. Vanargand from Valefore, Dragoon Extraordinaire will be Super Jumping back soon!

Me and my FF14 friends are big fans of the series as a whole, I have been considering checking out FF11 for a while, now with the new Alliance Raid in Dawntrail being announced to be based on FF11 me and my friends have decided to take the dive and give it a proper try! Great video, I am very excited to dive into this world soon! :) Funnily enough, listening to Distant Worlds and hearing "Answers" and "Dragonsong" was a big motivator for me to check out FF14. Since then I have also been listening to "Memoro De La Stono" for years and I can't wait to get a new context to this song!

Singing praise where its due! Thanks for all these videos. As an old school player who returned after a number of years away, I'm always hopeful more people will get to experience the wonderful world of Vana'diel.

Best music of the entire franchise

FF11 might be the only mmorpg where the world felt dangerous and meeting people and creating an adventuring party was required.

Great video. I'm one of those long lost FFXI players from the golden era, but it's a game that has been on my mind since the day I last logged off. Every year I always think I should come back and just replay the story at least, and videos like this is a huge push in that direction. Maybe not right now as time is tight, but one day I'd love to come back and play this game once more.

Cool video, thanks for making it! I'll be too busy these coming months to start playing this game now, but I definitely want to give it a try when things slow down a bit! :)

Good to see the love of my life still getting attention. Thanks for the video! Sincerely, Jakuta Sylph Server (2002-2021)

Di discovered you yesterday (well about 20 hours ago) and watched all your videos and now you have a new one up :D. Thank you so much for the great entertainement.

I’m so happy I took the time to sit down during the summer of 2022 and go through all the main expansion stories (haven’t really done Abyssea, Shantotto, or Moogle Coup d’etat, but I have started chapter three of The Voracious Resurgence recently) Definitely has become one of my fave FF titles, and I can’t wait for the Echoes of Vana’diel (like deal, not dee-ehl btw 😉) raid in FFXIV.

Keep up the XI videos! More people need to play and videos like yours are bringing them in. Thank you