History Videogame / FinalFantasyXI

While allowing the game to be as open-ended as possible, being a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game, an incredible emphasis on story remains, which is rarely done well in [[{{MMORPG}} MMOs]]. There are 10(!) different main storylines (Missions), one for each of the starting nations (Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst), as well as one for each expansion (''Rise of the Zilart'', ''Chains of Promathia'', ''Treasures of Aht Urhgan'', and ''Wings of the Goddess''), plus multiple "Mini Expansions". There are also countless side stories that come from smaller quests.

Describe ''FinalFantasyXI'' here.

The eleventh entry in the [[RunningGag pinky-pullingly]] popular ''FinalFantasy'' series, ''FinalFantasyXI'' is the first {{MMORPG}} created by SquareEnix, and the first MMO in the ''FinalFantasy'' franchise, released in Japan in May of 2002, with a North American release in October of 2003, followed by a European release in September of 2004. It is also the first MMORPG to be released both for home consoles (Playstation 2 and Xbox 360) and the PC. The game even mixes all these players together, as no world is region or console specific.

While allowing the game to be as open-ended as possible, being a ''FinalFantasy'' game, an incredible emphasis on story remains, which is rarely done well in [[{{MMORPG}} MMOs]]. There are 10(!) different main storylines (Missions), one for each of the starting nations (Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst), as well as one for each expansion (''Rise of the Zilart'', ''Chains of Promathia'', ''Treasures of Aht Urhgan'', and ''Wings of the Goddess''), plus multiple "Mini Expansions". There are also countless side stories that come from smaller quests.

This does not mean, however, that the game does not enjoy success. ''FinalFantasyXI'' has over [[http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/3045/detail.html 500,000 subscribers, with nearly 2 million characters playing.]] It should go without saying that making millions a month makes this a sort of [[CashCowFranchise Cash Cow.]]

* {{Expy}}: Lady Lilith is a horned sorceress wearing a dress with a very deep V-cut who manipulates the flow of time. [[FinalFantasyVIII Sound familiar?]]

** To give an idea, for a long time, Dark Knights (who specialize in two-handed Scythes and Greatswords) did more damage with ninja as a subjob while wielding two one-handed weapons.

* HugeGuyTinyGirl : With regards to fanart, a subsect of artists have taken a fondness to pairing up Elvaan and Mithra ( or [[{{Lolicon}} Tarutaru]]) on opposite ends of their size spectrum. It's very dramatic looking.

* BadassBlink: Opening a door is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome far too awesome]] for an Invisible spell.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Lion]], at the end of ''Rise of Zilart''.
** In a very touching manner, [[spoiler:Lilisette]] at the end of ''Wings of the Goddess''. The [=NPCs=] weren't the only ones to cry during [[spoiler:the wedding]]...

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Lion]], at the end of ''Rise of Zilart''. [[spoiler: [[IGotBetter I heard she got better]]]]

*** Even worse, the frog Beastman race,the Poroggos, saw themselves as kin to the Taru and learned their language and magic arts, the end result? The Taru tried to genocide them.

** The beastmen races are not all evil. Originally, the Quadav were allies of the Elvaan, and the Yagudo were peaceful people who were invaded by the tarutaru, with no real opinion on the other races. The Quadav only become enemies because the Bastokans destroyed the Quadav nesting grounds to mine ore.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Confirmed at [[http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/index.html VanaFest 2010]], from the Developers themselves. [[{{Woolseyism}} Level cap is increasing]] from 75, to '''99'''! Hold onto your Greatswords, and [[LevelGrinding BRACE FOR GRIND]]
** Before the level cap 25,000 exp/hr was a great party, now if you're not getting 75,000 exp/hr in Abyssea you're doing something wrong (level 75, for the record, requires about 45,000 exp, meaning you can gain almost two levels an hour ''at the endgame'').

** Some Red Mage strategies for soloing much harder [=NMs=] revolve around using a weapon that specifically does 0 damage to avoiding giving it TP to use its special attacks. This makes the fights much longer, but lets Red Mage kill some [=NMs=] that would otherwise be impossible.
*** ...By doing ''0'' damage? [[FlatWhat What the...]]
*** What he fails to mention is that Red Mages have access to a series of enhancing spells that cause additional elemental damage every time your weapon hits. So you hit for 0 damage -- and do 30 additional damage because of your Enfire II. But because the base weapon hit was for 0, the monster gets no TP.

** Consider the fact that out of 75 levels, you reach the halfway point (in terms of total exp) at level 66.
** Though the new Abyssea mini-expansion seems to be working on averting this for higher level characters (Which is a good thing considering the increased cap with each upcoming Abyssea addon), as one can earn massive amounts of experience in a relatively short amount of time.

** Scholar got a nasty one. When it was discovered [[CreatorsPet Absolute Virtue]] could be epically owned by a party of Scholars stacking Modus Veritas, they nerfed it to the point normal mobs could resist it, let alone NMs.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: During ''Wings of the Goddess'', turns out [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Atomos]] couldn't swallow both futures without suffering one. It seems it bit off more than he could chew.]]]]

* ClockRoaches: The Cavernous Maws, which are how you get to the Crystal War era and back. [[spoiler:These are actually manifestations of the
EldritchAbomination Atomos, whose job is to eat impossible futures out of existence and deposit them in the [[EldritchLocation Walk of Echoes]].]]
* CriticalExistenceFailure: During ''Wings of the Goddess'', turns out [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Atomos]] couldn't swallow both futures without suffering one. It seems it bit off more than he could chew.]]

* JokeCharacter: [[InternetBackdraft According]] [[YourMileageMayVary to some,]] the Puppetmaster job is either this, a LethalJokeCharacter, or an example of EliteTweak. They're getting buffed in the next updates -- giving them hand to hand abilities on par with Monks (the hand to hand ''specialists'').

** That said, there haven't been any real job-related nerfs for a while, and dragoon specifically has gotten quite some buffs in its own right. Lately, the nerfs seem more towards easy ways to make money to discourage [=RMTs=], but which often just makes things harder for more casual players, and may actually drive business for [=RMTs=]. Of course, YourMileageMayVary on whether the nerfs are good or not.

* NiceHat: As the Artifact Armor is the iconic look of each job class, many of them have a Nice Hat. Black Mage and Red Mage in particular have iconic hats, Beyond that YourMileageMayVary.

* FrothyMugsOfWater: "Grape juice" made by ''decaying'' grapes. [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more]].

* InterspeciesRomance: Humes and Elvaan can canonically cross-breed; Mithra crossbreeding is less likely, but it is heavily implied (especially in {{Fanon}}... go figure) that members of any of the playable races can become [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean involved]] with any other races. Yes, even Tarutaru.

* ClockRoaches: The Cavernous Maws, which are how you get to the Crystal War era and back. [[spoiler:These are actually manifestations of the TrueNeutral EldritchAbomination Atomos, whose job is to eat impossible futures out of existence and deposit them in the [[EldritchLocation Walk of Echoes]].]]

* RetGone: [[spoiler:Lilisette, since only you remember her at the end of ''Wings of the Goddess'']]

* DisContinuity: Fans of the Final Fantasy series tend to skip this game when talking about the numbered series, due to it being an MMO.