History of Final Fantasy Retrospective Part 8. FF heads into new territory, online on multiple platforms!
Final Fantasy Retrospective: Part 8 - Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (2002) for the PC, Playstation 2, and Xbox 360, with it’s expansion pack Rise of the Zilart (2003) included with the game (in America and Europe) was the first FF title to be released on multiple platforms, initially for the PC and PS2, then later on the Xbox 360. The new innovation? The first ever online Final Fantasy title! The MMO also employed an all-new real-time battle system and featured character creation for the first-time in the series.
FFXI featured 32 worlds (a cluster of servers named after Summons from the series) and there are five playable races: Elvaan, strong melee fighters, reasonable healers but weak in black magic; Hume, a race resembling humans, with no notable strengths or weaknesses; Galka, a gender-neutral but physically masculine race, strong and tough, but weak with magic; Mithra, agile and dexterous, but physically weak, cat-like humanoids of which only the females of the race are playable characters and Tarutaru, tiny humanoids with incredible power over black magic, but physically weak.
A number of expansions have been released for the game as well. The first was Chains of Promathia (2004), followed by Treasures of Aht Urhgan (2006). At the end of 2006 The Vana’diel Collection 2007 was released for PC that included the original game and all expansions in one package. By that time in 2006 the MMORPG had gone from 500,000 users in 2004 to 300,000 users, but somehow the following retrospective claims there are 4 million players. Whatever the real number of players is, Square-Enix is reporting a growth in users and it’s expected they will release a fourth expansion pack called Wings of the Goddess in the winter of 2007.
Take a look at this huge and growing world of Vana’diel in the 8th Final Fantasy Retrospective (and watch the Final Fantasy Retrospectives 6 and 7 if you missed them).
