History Videogame / FinalFantasyXI

* TheEmpire: Shantotto claims to have one of her own in her expansion. Also, the Orcish Empire is a state to the north that invaded the [[TheKingdom San d'Oria]] region, so all the orcs in the game are just the expeditionary force of a larger empire.
** Not to mention the Empire of Aht Urhgan, although this has some aspects of TheKingdom as well from a trope perspective.

* TheKingdom: All three of the joinable nations fall under this trope to some extent, although the Kingdom of San d'Oria is probably the straightest example because it's a monarchy as well. The Marquisate of Tavnazia and the Grand Duchy of Jeuno may also fall under this, but have certain mitigating factors [[spoiler:what with the former being destroyed except for a hole in the ground and the latter being ruled by a secretly evil Archduke.]] The sacred city of Adoulin used to be this, as it often mentions its founder kind, but has long transitioned to a system of government mediated by multiple factions.

** In the Voidwatch quests, Kieran [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail spits in your general direction]].

Having gained a reputation for being intensely-unfriendly to beginners, ''Final Fantasy XI'' has softened in recent years by introducing a multitude of tutorials, stat-boosters and experience bonuses designed to help new players get off to a running start. There is even [[http://finalfantasyxi.com/freetrial/ a 14-day trial for new players to try the game without devoting to it.]] With that said, the game is still less "casual" than market leaders like ''WorldOfWarcraft''.

* FantasticRacism: Fairly light in the game itself, and light in the player base compared to WorldOfWarcraft, but it exists. Some think Tarutaru are evil little demons hiding behind their cuteness, Elvaan are total jerks, etc. It should be noted that these are mainly restricted to their home cities, for instance, Galka in [[TheEmpire Aht Urhgan]] act and are treated pretty much the same as anyone else there.

** Many of the names you can give to a Puppetmaster's automaton are references to military equipment (E100, X-32, [=A7V=]) and sci-fi ([[ForbiddenPlanet Robby]], [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Marvin]], [[StarTrek Data]]).

* BreastPlate: While actual breastplates seem to avoid this, it is almost uncommon for a Mithra to wear actual ''pants''. More to the point, Female characters in general will occasionally find themselves wearing a bikini bottom when the same piece of equipment yields pants for males. However, [[{{Squick}} this is not always the case.]]

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Lightning-spewing raptors.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Moogles, Goblins, and Qiqirn are allowed to live with "people" and even start their own business or host a large-scale event. Everyone else? Killed on sight.
** Sort of. When you consider how many allied Yagudo there are, it comes off like the Altana races are merely collectively racist. Also supporting this, the reason Galkas and Mithras have a lower charisma score than the other player races is that they look more like beastmen than the other races.
** The beastmen races are not all evil. Originally, the Orcs 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.
*** Though, the Aht Urghan beastmen are just evil. "Hey guys, they have a shiny thing! Let's kill them and take it!"
*** Actually, it's more like "Hey guys, they have the shiny thing [[spoiler:that powered a massive doomsday machine that was used to subjugate almost an entire continent. Let's take it so they don't do that shit again. Give 'em some of their own medicine while we're at it." If Lamia/Merrow, add revenge for being created beings. If Trolls, add being mercs.]]
** Tarutaru [[strike:used to be]] ''are'' evil little bastards. In the game's backstory, they invaded and occupied what would become San d'Oria, subjugating the Elvaan for a very long time. [[MoralMyopia They see themselves as having done nothing wrong]], despite being clear aggressors and conquerors no different from the beastmen.
*** 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.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: It's certainly seems the beastmen are like this in the game, but then you find out what motivates them, and the world becomes a lot more gray... except the Orcs. They're pretty much just [[ProudWarriorRace a nasty warrior race.]]

-->[[StarWarsANewHope This is our most desperate hour. Help me, <player>. You're my only hope.]]

* HopelessBossFight: The infamous Absolute Virtue was ''intended'' to be this, and originally had no loot drops. However, this was only revealed in an interview many years after its introduction to the game. In the meantime, the devs had strung along the player base with implications that it was supposed to be beatable, including releasing an incomprehensible video that supposedly gave hints to beating it.

* LostForever: If you see a Paladin ranting about Bibiki Seashells, this is why.

** The Walk of Echoes is a [[TheMultiverse dimension in-between possible timelines]]. The god Atomos consumes unfavored timelines stored here, along with the memories that go with them.

** [[spoiler:Lion]], at the end of ''Rise of Zilart''. [[spoiler:It doesn't stick.]]
** [[spoiler:Lilisette]] at the end of ''Wings of the Goddess''.
** [[spoiler:Iroha]] also leans toward this in ''Rhapsodies of Vana'diel'', seeing it as preferable to her future where her and her island are all that's left.

* ''Treasures of Aht Urhgan'': The adventurers travel to the exotic continent of Adrijah ruled by the Empire of Aht Urghan, which is dealing with multiple simultaneous threats in its present, but perhaps none as serious as some related to the Empire's past.

* AnotherDimension: Several exist.
** Dynamis is an alternate world where the Shadow Lord's armies won the Crystal War, which explains the cities being full of beastmen.
** The Astral Realm is the place where avatars, powerful elemental beings that can be enslaved for labor by summoners, reside.
** The capital of the Zilart, Al'Taieu, was displaced into a pocket dimension, where the laws of physics don't fully apply. (Water is solid, although native species still move through it like water.)
** Promyvion is a realm of memories, in the process of degrading and eaten away by Emptiness, small patches of eroded land and buildings haunted by the physical remains of thoughts.
** The Wings of the Goddess expansion deals with a past [[spoiler:(actually the original)]] version of Vana'diel, and attempts are made by different factions to change it.
** The Abyssea mini-expansions take place in an Alternate Dimension version of Vana'diel, where alien beings invaded, slaughtered more sentient beings, and turned the skies blood red.
** Both this past world and the alternate world can be reached through Cavernous Maws, which are fragments of the trans-dimensional and trans-time being Atomos. Walk of Echos is the garbage dump of Atomos, a pocket dimension between dimensions.

The game takes place in the fantasy world of Vana'diel, which is split into three great nations: San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst. Twenty years prior, the three nations united (with the aid of the neutral city-state of Jeuno) to fight an army led by the mysterious [[BigBad Shadow Lord]]. The Shadow Lord was eventually defeated, and the three nations entered into a peace treaty in which they would compete for territory not through armed conflict but a system of benefaction called "Conquest".

* BlondGuysAreEvil: [[spoiler:Archduke Kam'lanaut and his [[strike:younger]] older brother Eald'narche]]. Shantotto, too, in A Shantotto Ascension.

The game takes place in the fantasy world of Vana'diel, which is split into three great nations: San d'Oria, Bastok and Windurst. Twenty years previously, the three nations united (with the aid of the neutral city-state of Jeuno) to fight an army of Beastmen led by the mysterious [[BigBad Shadow Lord]]. The Shadow Lord was eventually defeated, and the three nations entered into a peace treaty in which they would compete for territory not through armed conflict but a system of benefaction called "Conquest".

* ''San d'Oria'': Trouble stirs within the royal court of the Elvaan nation as two royal princes wage a war of intrigue for control of the throne.
* ''Bastok'': Racial tensions between the Humes and Galka are at an all-time high, with the latter growing discontent with their role as brute labour within the nation.
* ''Windurst'': A prominent researcher has disappeared while investigating the slow decline of the earth, which may be linked to the mysterious monoliths placed around Windurst and the "Cardian" golems acting as servants within the capital.
* ''Final Fantasy XI'': Rumours continue to persist that the Beastmen are plotting to use a dark ritual to resurrect the Shadow Lord. With the help of a party of heroes assembled from each nation, the adventurers must rise to the challenge if they hope to prevent a repeat of the Crystal War.

* ''Rise of the Zilart'': The architects of the Shadow Lord plot are revealed to be survivors of the extinct Zilart race. The ambitions of the Zilart once led Vana'diel to destruction, and now the survivors intend to resume their centuries-long mission at the cost of the world's future.

* ''Treasures of Aht Urhgan'': The adventurers travel to the exotic continent of Aht Urhgan, where various guilds vie for power over the land and each other.

* ''Seekers of Adoulin'': The adventurers travel to the continent of Ulbuka to aid in its colonization efforts, and meet up with a young royal heir named Arciela.

* ''A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses'': An add-on story which starts with a Moogle attempting to fix a leaking Mog House and ends with an evil scheme of real-estate domination.

* ''Vision of Abyssea'' (also ''Scars of'' and ''Heroes of''): A number of sinister portals have appeared around Vana'diel, opening the gates to a parallel world called Abyssea: a dark version of Vana'diel where the failure of heroes has pushed the world to the brink of destruction. Now the adventurers of Vana'diel must stop the influence of Abyssea from leaking through the portals and corrupting their world.

The game also allows a player to change their job class at any time without having to make a new character, potentially allowing a single character to experience all twenty-two[[labelnote:*]]of this writing, August 2013[[/labelnote]] unique classes in the game. This mixing and matching of classes is crucial to character build, as a character can designate a "Support Job" that grants stat bonuses and abilities to their main class.

Having gained a reputation for being intensely-unfriendly to beginners, ''Final Fantasy XI'' has softened in recent years by introducing a multitude of tutorials and stat-boosters designed to help new players get off to a running start. There is even [[http://finalfantasyxi.com/freetrial/ a 14-day trial for new players to try the game without devoting to it.]] With that said, the game is still notably less "casual" than market leaders like ''WorldOfWarcraft'': for example, parties are practically required after Lv.10, forcing players to learn the skills necessary to survive in high-level play from an early stage. Most worthwhile activities require a time investment of at least two hours, and LevelGrinding is a staple of gameplay.

This does not mean, however, that the game has not enjoyed success. ''Final Fantasy XI'' had over [[http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/3045/detail.html 500,000 subscribers, with nearly 2 million characters playing]] at its peak, and while there are a number of indications those figures have declined significantly since then, it's still [[CashCowFranchise the single most profitable Final Fantasy title ever made]]. The game still has support on the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 until March of 2016.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: One in San d'Oria, one in Tavnazia, and one in Windurst; although the first is actually a dungeon and the other two are aqueducts.

* AfterTheEnd: Abyssea [[spoiler:is an alternate version of the events following the Chains of Promathia story. In Abyssea, your character, Prishe, and Selh'teus challenged Promathia and failed. After absorbing your Abyssea alternate and Selh'teus, Promathia grows stronger, turns the skies of Abyssea blood red, and sends endless hordes of fiends to extinguish all life on the planet]].

* ArcWords: ''Memoria de la S^tona''.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The nation storyline missions will have you fighting alongside Captain Volker, Prince Trion, and Minister Ajido-Marujido. Also, generals in Campaign are much more powerful than entire groups of players, and generals in Besieged would easily reach GameBreaker status if they fought normal enemies. A well-geared player getting charmed hits General Rughadjeen for insignificant damage and gets hit for 1/3 to 1/2 of their max HP in return.
** Averted somewhat by the fact that the ''actual'' leaders of those countries (President Karst, King Destin, Star Sybil) are generally pacifist weaklings.
*** Although it was played straight with Bastok's President Prion in the ''Wings of the Goddess'' expansion. He personally leads the Bastokan troops during the Battle of Xarcabard.

* BareFistedMonk: Sort of averted by the Monk job. They fight with cesti, claws, hooks, katars, and other weapons which attach directly to the hands.
** Well, you can fight as a Monk without weapons -- and you will, if you start as one; Monk is the only one of the six starting classes to get no weapon as part of his starting outfit (you get a White Belt instead: +1 Strength). Unless you're getting help, you won't be able to afford a weapon for a few levels.

* BrawlerLock: Two [[AttackOfThe50FtWhatever Gigantic]] [[MirrorMatch Shantottos]] do this in ''A Shantotto Ascension''.

* BreastPlate: While actual breastplates seem to avoid this, it is almost scientifically impossible for a Mithra to wear actual ''pants''. More to the point, Female characters in general will occasionally find themselves wearing a bikini bottom when the same piece of equipment yields pants for males. However, [[{{Squick}} this is not always the case.]]

* CatFolk: One of the playable races are Mithra, a CatGirl style LittleBitBeastly feline race; the playable portion is entirely made of females. [[spoiler:There is precisely one male Mithra shown in the new expansion. There's a hilarious cutscene of whole units of the Mithran Mercenaries swooning over him.]]
* CharacterBlog: [[http://bannable-offenses.blogspot.com/ [GM]Dave.]] Read it. NOW.

* ClassChangeLevelReset: Played with, each class is leveled independently. So if you have a level 40 Warrior and never level any other class, then changing that class later would drop back to one.

* CompilationRerelease: Three, each collecting everything published up to Aht Urhgan, Wings, and A Shantotto Ascension, respectively.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Bosses like Maat, mammets, Diabolos, [[LordBritishPostulate Absolute Virtue]], [[MarathonBoss Pandemonium Warden]] have these.

* CounterAttack: Used by Monks (completely avoiding a physical attack sometimes), Warriors (retaliating after being attacked), and Blue Mages (like monks, if they set a couple of specific high-level spells). Colibri will parrot magic cast on them, as well.

* CuteMonsterGirl: Again, Mithra, overlapping with CatGirl.
* DarkWorld: Four areas fit this trope: The [[TimeTravel Crystal War era]], Dynamis, Promyvion, and Abyssea. Is the devteam obsessed with this trope, or just lazy?

* DealWithTheDevil: This is part of the ritual in becoming a Blue Mage. Fortunately, the order also takes precautions so that your soul is not lost to the beast, including special armor and trying to assassinate you when they believe you have become too powerful.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In order for a Summoner to be able to summon one of the [[PhysicalGod Celestial Avatars]], they have to beat the crap out of that avatar. Usually with the help of other players, but you can even choose to do a version of the battle that makes you face said Avatar solo, with only a [[FanNickname radioactive squirrel]] for help.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: ''Rhapsodies of Vana'diel'', the Grand Finale for ''Final Fantasy XI''. With the Cloud of Darkness defeated, Vana'diel has returned to its proper course in the timeline. Iroha, having completed her mission, returns to her time. Despite her departure, the Hero of Vanadiel will meet his pupil once again in the future.

* TheEmpire: Shantotto is set to have one of her own in a new expansion. Also, the Orcish Empire is a state to the north that invaded the [[TheKingdom San d'Oria]] region, so all the orcs in the game are just the expeditionary force of a larger empire.

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

* FlamingSword: Red Mages and Summoners can both imbue weapons with magic, while some weapons have a lesser effect on their own.

** Mandragoras? They're only the 1st mob if you start in Windurst. Black mandragoras (called korrigans) are death on legs.

* {{Hammerspace}}: Players either pull ranged weapons from their leg, like Franchise/{{Robocop}}... or their ass. Not to mention that somehow a bowl of soup and a ''bed'' take up the same inventory space.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Subverted by the fact that any challenge you beat is really done by a group of yourself and other players, and horribly averted by the NPC generals in Besieged and Campaign.

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

** Relic weapons and Mythic weapons.

* 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 involved with any other races. Yes, even Tarutaru.

* InvulnerableCivilians: Many, ''many'' [=NPCs=] are somehow undetectable by monsters... and don't get hurt by area attacks, to the point that the adventurers seem to be the weakest folks in the world. Unarmed children and the elderly often get to places by themselves that we need a dozen other players, and many brutal fights against deadly opponents, to reach. [[TookAShortcut And they're always there FIRST!]]

* JokeItem: A bunch of crafted clothing and fireworks.

* TheKingdom: All three of the joinable nations fall under this trope to some extent, although the Kingdom of San d'Oria is probably the straightest example because it's a monarchy as well. The Marquisate of Tavnazia and the Grand Duchy of Jeuno may also fall under this, but have certain mitigating factors [[spoiler:what with the former being destroyed except for a hole in the ground and the latter being ruled by a secretly evil Archduke.]]

* LevelGrinding: Quite a lot... a while back, though, it was ''worse''.

** The 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 Abyssea addon), as one can earn massive amounts of experience in a relatively short amount of time.

* LongRunner: The game first launched in 2002, and is still up and running over ten years later.
* LordBritishPostulate: Absolute Virtue. Square used to intentionally try to make the boss even ''more'' unbeatable if someone actually ''does'' beat it[[labelnote:*]]Specifically, the developers designed Absolute Virtue to be defeated in a very specific way. If players found a different way to defeat it, which happened somewhat frequently, the developers did not negate their victory, but did patch the boss to make it impossible for that method to work again[[/labelnote]], then sometimes banned the players for exploiting glitches to do so[[labelnote:*]]Though that was not because the players won, but rather because they were exploiting glitches, which is against the Terms of Service[[/labelnote]].
* LostForever: If you see a Paladin ranting about Bibiki Seashells, this is why.
* TheLostWoods: Jugner Forest, though there is a clear if winding path through it in the present. For very old growth style forest, there is The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah, filled with trees that reach beyond the draw distance, numerous roaving plantoids, bugs, walking mushrooms, and tree-tending creatures. There is also a dungeon within that zone called the Boyhada Tree.
** For getting lost, The Great War era version of Jugner Forest has barricades blocking the usual routes, leading to new detours. Yhoator and Yuhtunga Jungle are better applications, as the map only shows the aboveground paths, and it's up to the player to figure out which undergound paths link them. Caederva Mire can also apply, as the player doesn't even get a map to this place before jumping through a few hoops.

* LootDrama: The trope was originally called "The Ridill" over the infamous drama Ridill would cause when it dropped. The Ridill was a sword that was usable by multiple classes and had an extremely useful effect, but was a 5% drop off a boss that only appeared once every day.
** Other items that have similar effects on the player-base but at a reduced rate due to being more specialized, even rarer, etc include Defending Ring, Hauteclaire, and anything from Absolute Virtue.

* MagicKnight: Four job classes fit this trope: Paladins, Red Mages, Blue Mages, and Dark Knights, although Dark Knights [[UselessUsefulSpell normally forget they qualify for this.]]

* TheMedic: Many job classes fit this, primarily White Mages, but Red Mages get preferred a lot more at higher levels, much to the dismay of quite a few of them (And ''all'' of the other jobs that normally heal.)

* MythologyGag: References to characters and events from earlier games in the series; for example an escaping thief in San d'Oria calls a town guard a SpoonyBard.

** 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=].

* NinjaLooting: Being an MMORPG, there's always a chance for this. Linkshells normally deal with this quickly, however.

** There are classic summon and kill everything demons, though only 3 of them exist of the Dvergr class.

* PraetorianGuard: Several of them. The most visible ones are in San d'Oria (the Royal Guard for the d'Oraguilles and the Temple Knights under the Church), Jueno's Ducal Guard, and Aht Urhgan's Immortals. Windurst also has two divisions: The Patriarch Protectors guard the Parliament of Patriarchs while the Sibyl Guards were formed from war orphans and protect the Star Sibyl. Bastok's Gold Musketeers may qualify as well, and all of these squads can be seen in actual combat except for the Sibyl and Ducal Guards, and they tend to kick butt compared to other units.

* RepeatableQuest: There are numerous repeatable quests, ranging from the simple FetchQuest for fame grinding to redoing major battles in Missions for a different end reward.

*** She also only rhymes in the North American localization.

* RuleThirtyFour: If you combine the loads of this that Final Fantasy titles tend to spawn with the longevity of an MMO, you end up with a disturbingly large amount of it floating around.

** Averted while a particular Treasures of Aht Urghan is active. Until the mission is cleared the player is not allowed to visit the location where a NPC is located due to the forementioned NPC's involvement in the mission.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Courtesy of ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' and similar spin-offs featuring characters from past games, ask a casual ''Final Fantasy'' fan to name a character from this game. The number one answer will be Shantotto, followed by Prishe, and ''maybe'' a few will say Lilisette, Eald'narche, or Kam'lanaut. Beyond those five the cast of the game is a mystery unless you've played it.

* TomatoSurprise: Let's just say there's more to Promathia than meets the eye. And no, he's not [[{{Transformers}} Unicron.]]

-->'''Our journey of hope continue'''
-->'''Far forever'''