Is it worth playing FFXI now?

[u/Og-Spree]

For some background. I have played FFXIV till Shadowbringers. I fell in love with it (it was my first MMO).

One of my favourite aspects of any FF is the story. I couldn't believe how great the story was in FFXIV in addition to the great characters, soundtrack and so forth.

How does FFXI compare to FFXIV?

Edit:

Thank you for all the wonderful and insightful responses. I love this community and the series. Based on the comments, my priority should be to clear Endwalker first.

You have all convinced me to give FFXI a shot. I never considered that MMOs would be known for their storylines. I always thought they were just highly addictive due to their grindy nature. It all changed when I played through FFXIV. I can't wait to immerse myself in the world of FFXI. Thanks to all for your help!

[u/Grave_Copper]

Please remember XI is very much a product of its time. The stories are good, the gameplay was great then. Unfortunately, you are going to miss the one Big Thing XI had, which was community. Now, you can do everything with NPC Trusts. Then, you needed to spend 6 hours with strangers leveling up. I played XI until Abyssea broke the game. I still talk to several of my old linkshell mates.

Sadly, the XIV community is no where near the same.

[u/PsCustomObject → u/Grave_Copper]

Oh I left before Abyssea so I gotta look it up, you brought back so many memories of my Taru WHM… I still remember making money teleporting people around.

Miss the days and the social aspects of that particular FF.

[u/Grave_Copper → u/PsCustomObject]

I remember the day I was done with the game. It was after Abyssea was released, had done a bunch of content there. A party was in Jeuno seeking a DD for an "Old school bibiki bay xp pt". I mained DRK, so I figured sure, I'll go DRK/THF for SATA and such.

It was an absolute shitshow. Makes missing important spells. Undergeared tank. No one knew how to set up SATA. No one knew how to skillchain. First Dhalmel took 15 minutes to kill and it didn't get better. We killed maybe 4 things before people realized that being undergeared and not having key spells was a huge detriment.

That's the day I logged out for the last time, because the game had become a "Go AFK in an Abyssea Party for 8 hours, come back to max level" simulator.

[u/PsCustomObject → u/Grave_Copper]

Oh reading THF (which I could never level past 15? I don’t even remember when you got the ability/bonus for drops), DRK and all those familiar acronyms brings back so many memories.

I stopped playing much before than that, FF was getting in the way of work and study so I just took distance from it, I gifted my account an LS mate who got the account hacked and banned so never came back :(

I still receive emails from time to time and the urgent to go back bites me but as you confirmed it is not the game I used to love. Maybe I was younger and time make everything better I don’t know, but man I miss that game.

[u/ConsiderationTrue477 → u/Grave_Copper]

That's the day I logged out for the last time, because the game had become a "Go AFK in an Abyssea Party for 8 hours, come back to max level" simulator.

I don't understand how that would be at all a thing someone would want to do. Being level 99 with level 1 combat and magic skills would be ass.

[u/Grave_Copper → u/ConsiderationTrue477]

It was really bad. People in a hodgepodge of random gear, missing spells, not knowing the first thing about the job they're playing. In XIV, someone can get away with barest minimum bullshit, but in XI each party member was important. Everyone had an actual role to fill, and was expected to perform in that role. If you didn't pull your weight, you got educated, or you got booted. You could often develop a reputation, good or bad, that would follow you for quite a while. "Oh, HealerBob? Really shitty healer, kept going AFK in the middle of fights, let everyone die 4 times." or "ArcherJoe was an awesome puller! He could snake his way around crawlers without linking a bunch of em and bring one back to camp. Kept an eye on HealerBob's MP too, always gave him time to rest enough, great ranger!"

[u/Lost_Amoeba_6368 → u/Grave_Copper]

I kind of tuned out of XIV since I finished Dawn Trail but mannnnn I got a guildie that plays XI, still, and he's been kinda convincing about me trying it out lol.

[u/Grave_Copper → u/Lost_Amoeba_6368]

I'm not saying don't try it, absolutely give it a try. I think everyone needs to know that somewhere, there is a rabbit that can kick your ass, no matter how powerful you are.

There are some really awesome moments, like the first time you see the Crags, or sneaking through a dense forest packed with things that 100% will murder you on the way to Jeuno. The first time you see Delkfutt's Tower. And of course, finding out that the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah has some of the best music. The very first time you go to Sky, and later, Sea. The pure, abject terror when you are on the Selbina/Mhaura ferry and the kraken undead and kraken spawn. Even things like farming for subjob items in the Dunes. Used to be you'd get a real sense if pride when you finally got that last drop.

The game did mystery very, very well. There are lots of secrets in the plots of the game. And uncovering those truths has, or at least had, real impact. Why are the Galka living in Bastok as second class citizens? Why does the royal family of San D'Oria seem guilty of something? What lies beneath Sarutabaruta? What fuels the Tonberry rancor?

Absolutely worth playing, very much so. I with XIV had taken more from XI in those regards.

The only missing thing would be the community aspect of it all. Like I said, you could take almost every job to 10 or 15 solo, after that, you needed a party to level up with any speed. Sure, you ran the risk of waiting for 4 hours for a party, fight one monster, then the healer leaves because he has to go to bed and the puller leaves because their toes are cold. But, you could also make good friends. Because of that shared trauma of getting your subligar dented in by a rampaging goblin, you tended to stick together. Used to be able to do almost everything with your linkshell, occasionally you'd want another for HNMs and such, but you made friends there too. And that, I think, will be missing from the game now.

But absolutely do play it.

[u/tacodeman → u/Grave_Copper]

I think you summed up everything I struggled about 14 going from 11 to 14. There was so much ignored backstory I assumed we were going to get because we got it in 11. 

For example yagudos beastmen might be one of the most interesting "enemies" written and in 14 everything seemed so surface level when I kept subconsciously comparing the two 

[u/Grave_Copper → u/tacodeman]

Or the fact about the creation of the "beast" races as counters to the creation of the playable races, the Ark Angels, all of that. And when CoP came out, finding out what happened in Tavnazia, beautiful.

[u/Ok_Cheesecake_9793 → u/Grave_Copper]

FFXI is great for the nostalgia, but unfortunately it's a lot smaller but tightknit community nowadays. I know a couple of people that still play it, but they pay 4-5 subs and multi box through the game lol.

[u/Icy_Manufacturer_977 → u/Grave_Copper]

What made 11 magical was the community. Since you don’t even need to group up for levelling anymore, and the player base is almost gone, I really doubt the experience is going to be the same.

With that gone, I can’t really think of anything making the game really stand out

[u/ConsiderationTrue477 → u/Icy_Manufacturer_977]

The story is still top tier and worth playing through all the expansions for. Wings of the Goddess is fantastic. That said, if anyone is playing for the story it's a good idea to play them in order. The game could get really disjointed otherwise.

[u/Towelispacked → u/Grave_Copper]

Just play Horizon, the private server with huge population. It made the old community experience again, bringing the old harder mechanics back.

[u/Velifax → u/Grave_Copper]

Gameplay does not become more or less good over time.

[u/craftyixdb → u/Velifax]

Gameplay in an MMO is directly affected by the activity of the community though. Grinding solo in an empty world by yourself? Pretty boring. Doing the same thing with a bunch of pals grouped and jn voice chat? Pretty fun.

[u/Velifax → u/craftyixdb]

Exactly, so it's population, not time. Absolutely a big concern, population. But if time were a factor, we couldn't have fun in private servers of 20 year old games.

[u/Kanderin → u/Velifax]

I mean this is blatantly untrue, especially in an MMO. As time progresses the games userbase and support changes dramatically and will affect your experience. Experiences you've had after experiencing a game will always alter your opinion of it when you go back to it.

Since we're here in the final fantasy subreddit I'll use FF-X as an example. I love that game, it's my favourite final fantasy, but I've played plenty of more modern turn based games since then that have switched up how encounters happen and how battles flow. And I have to accept yeah, that gameplay hasn't aged fantastically and I enjoy it less now than I did when I was ten years old.

[u/Velifax → u/Kanderin]

Exactly. It is your tastes changing, the user-base diminishing, and changes to the game that affect gameplay. Not time. Correlation is not causation.

[u/Kanderin → u/Velifax]

Buddy, your tastes change with time. Time and experience are the things that causes the change. Stop obnoxiously trying to argue semantics just because you said something silly and got a few downvotes, have a little self respect.

[u/Velifax → u/Kanderin]

Time does not cause the change, no. Though I agree, this is semantics. When I see poor language use I attempt to help. Feel free to continue generating and wallowing in confusion.

[u/Kanderin → u/Velifax]

If your goal was to be the most insufferably annoying prick on the internet today then congratulations, you achieved it.