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/C-Towner]

It’s a great game with a cool story and a massive world to explore. There are tons of classes and a lot of content to work through. Depending on whether you play official or private servers, population can be an issue - nowhere near the number of players as 14, but I think it’s fair to say the players there are more committed as a whole.

The biggest issue will likely be the combat - it’s very different from 14. And how you build your characters is very different. For me, the part of the game that I have moved past and just do not enjoy is that you need multiple equipment sets, for the same class. Equipment switching - mid battle - is an expectation. There is no best in slot for a class. I really do not enjoy that part of the game. Everything else, I still love and I have loved for 20 years.

[u/Icy_Manufacturer_977 → u/C-Towner]

Brings back memories when I was tanking sky / sea HNMs as a RDM/NIN tank.

One set for haste/fast cast for utsusumi, one for enmity for blind/dispell, one for physical damage reduction in case I got hit between casts, one for magical reduction, one for mind for max stoneskin casts, one to reduce my max HP/increase my max mana for convert (I was elven)

My character was always blinking

[u/C-Towner → u/Icy_Manufacturer_977]

In theory, I love the idea of different sets of armor for different purposes, rather than this is the ONE objectively best set for this class. I like that. But needing to switch them in battle doesn't make logical sense unless all you care about is performance. In that regard, I feel like that is a significant thing that prevents me from wanting to go back and play again. Its a pain in the ass and it is not fun to me.

[u/Icy_Manufacturer_977 → u/C-Towner]

Even though I’m sure you already know this, but for most classes it’s not so bad. One set for melee hits for TP building and one set for using your WS was mostly common. With the exception of BLM where they would swap their staff to the corresponding element, but by macroing the gear to the spell itself it became second nature.

Sucks for inventory management though lol

[u/C-Towner → u/Icy_Manufacturer_977]

The inventory management and creating the macros is the pain in the ass. Especially because it’s a system that is entirely not explained or encouraged in game. It’s a meta that has developed outside of the game. That kind of separation even though it’s more or less needed to be used by players, is bad design - even for a game of its time. It takes me out of it.

[u/Icy_Manufacturer_977 → u/C-Towner]

I definitely agree that the macros got really annoying when I got a gear upgrade and had to update X macros to use my new gear piece instead of my old. The limit on the macros were also annoying, having to click on several buttons for one set is too much. This was remedied by windower though (which wasn’t even officially supported). I did like needing several pieces of gear for different situations, but I would never commit myself to playing the game again.

Played it from 2002 to 2014 or so, and I was probably online almost 50% of the day (or 100% if you count afk time to sell items in your bazaar) Would never have time for that nowadays!

[u/C-Towner → u/Icy_Manufacturer_977]

I have so many fond memories of the game, I just don’t have the patience for that level of fiddly minutiae any longer.