History Videogame / FinalFantasyXI

* AIRoulette

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The nation storyline missions will have you fighting alongside Captain Volker, Prince Trion, and Minister Ajido-Marujido. Also, generals in Campaign were much more powerful than entire groups of players, and generals in Besieged would easily reach GameBreaker status if they fought normal enemies.
** Averted somewhat by the fact that the ''actual'' leaders of those countries (President Karst, King Destin, Star Sybil) are generally pacifist non-combattants.
*** 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 and is seen wearing a suit of armor at all times.
** Averted in Volker's case by his defense being comparable to that of a wet paper bag when you actually fight alongside him. Of course, he was up against [[spoiler:Zeid]], who ''would'' have Volker's position if he hadn't left Bastok to wander Vana'diel.
*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since Volker is a Warrior. Unless a Warrior wears very specialized damage reduction gear, they generally don't have much more defense than your average paper bag, wet or dry.
** Furthermore, while Ajido-Marujido hits very hard with his magic, he has less survivability than most mages his level.

* EleventhHourSuperpower: SP abilities are ''always'' saved for boss fights, as they could only be used every two hours. This was reduced to one hour after 2014, and can be reduced to 45 minutes with maximum job points.

* NintendoHard: Let's just say that this game isn't as "casual-friendly" as other [=MMORPGs=] like ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. And while the game has gotten easier somewhat, for some it doesn't feel as if it had.

** 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). You may not be able to afford a weapon for a few levels, but the Records of Eminence system allows you to acquire with the Sparks of Eminence currency you can accumulate by setting objectives aligned with how you're playing the game.

* VerbalTic: In the English localization, Tarutaru tend to replace any word ending T with "taru" and tend to rhyme words as well in a childlike, "cutesy wutesy" kind of way, which is somewhat similar in the Japanese version. [[CatGirl Mithra]] tend to have TrrrillingRrrs instead in English, while in Japanese they usually end their sentences with -nya.

* BonusBoss: Notorious Monsters are this, if they aren't related to a storyline.

* ''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, while the succession of the Galkan Talekeeper is in question since the disappearance of the previous one.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The normal level cap, after finishing all the Limit Break quests, is 99, and is pretty much requiered to undergo most endgame activities, but the game is structured in a way so you pretty much never stop accumulating some form of EXP to boost your character, such as gaining Merit Points and Job Points. If you manage to completely cap out a Job with Job Points, which can take a ''long'' time, you can even begin accumulating ''Master'' Levels that boost your character's stats beyond their level 99 max, and allow your subjob to go further than it normally would. This isn't even counting Item Level gear, which can boost the effective level of a character up to ''119''. To elaborate on this, to Master a single job you need to get 2100 Job Points, and each Job Point requires 30,000 Capacity Points, which means exactly 63 ''MILLION'' Capacity Points.

* ''The Voracious Resurgence'': The *real* grand finale. The gates to the afterlife, Valhalla, have been sealed off by an unknown force, and mysterious eggs capable of granting great power but also corrupting the target have been spotted in various places in the real world.

The game places an incredible emphasis on story while remaining as open-ended as possible, featuring (as of this writing) ten complete storylines for players to experience: one of each of the three starting nations, and one for each expansion pack to the game.

Despite ''Rhapsodies of Vana'diel'' being announced as the games final major story content and released during 2015, another free storyline, ''The Voracious Resurgence'' was announced in 2020 which will start in August 2020. It will be added over many different expansions, presumably leading up to the game's 20th anniversary.

* BladeOnAStick: Polearms are used by Dragoons, obviously. Sometimes also used by Samurai and Warriors.

* ArtificialStupidity: Trusts, NPC party members that the players can summon in place of real players, are not the brightest bunch: the most evident part is that they ''will not'' attack enemies by themselves...even if, say, an aggro'd monster is currently bashing the player, or even they themselves. The ''only'' way to get them to attack enemies is to target an enemy and initiate an autoattack, even casting spells or using weaponskills won't do it. While this is likely intentional to avoid AFK farming in which the Trusts go on to slaughter any enemy around the player by themselves, it can make fights with multiple enemies frustrating since they will only attack the enemy the player is targetting, and any other surrounding enemy will only get hit by incidental AoE spells and weaponskills.

** There's also "Extremely Bad Breath", which is used by 3 specific Morbol [=NMs=]. It instantly kills anyone within a certain radius. Odin's Zantetsuken is the best example of this; it is an AOE death effect.

** Blood Weapon, one of Dark Knight's SP abilities, and a few other [=SPs=] to a lesser degree. When combined with certain equipment and other abilities, it results in flatly obscene amounts of damage... but only once every hour.
** Red Mages are known for being able to solo a ridiculous number of difficult fights, but only if they have top-notch gear, and a whole evening to kill. Some of the ''novice'' Red Mage solos are on the order of 2-3 hours long.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Blood Weapon, a Dark Knight's SP ability, and a few other SPs, to a lesser degree. When combined with certain equipment and other abilities, it results in flatly obscene amounts of damage... but only once every hour.

* BandagedFace: Robel-Akbel

* FiveManBand: The Serpent Generals of Aht Urghan.

* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Apkallu are penguins... ''from the Middle East.''
** Not that this is so unusual. There are 20 separate species of penguins, most of which do not live in cold climates. One species lives near the equator.

* PeninsulaOfPowerLevelling: The game lives and breathes this trope. 'EXP Camping' (or Merit Camping, or Job Point camping, or Master Level camping...) is a core part of the game, finding spots in which particular mobs spawn to camp them one by one to get as much XP as you can, usually by grouping up and killing enemies of significantly higher level than yours due to the extra EXP. The earliest and most popular example of a zone that was dedicated to EXP camping is Valkurm Dunes.

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 second most profitable Final Fantasy title ever made]], and the third most profitable game overall in Square Enix's portfolio, behind Space Invaders and Final Fantasy XIV.

See also ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the online successor to ''XI''.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: [[ShockAndAwe Lightning-spewing]] raptors.

** Each job has one or two weapons that [[strike:they are best at]] [[StopHavingFunGuys YOU MUST USE AT ALL TIMES, OR NOBODY WILL EVER EVER PARTY WITH YOU, EVER.]]
** This also doesn't preclude nonstandard weapons for specialized purposes, such as Samurai using daggers for the Saving Private Ryaaf assault.

* WeaponOfChoice:
** Each job has one or two weapons that [[strike:they are best at]] [[StopHavingFunGuys YOU MUST USE AT ALL TIMES, OR NOBODY WILL EVER EVER PARTY WITH YOU, EVER.]]
** This also doesn't preclude nonstandard weapons for specialized purposes, such as Samurai using daggers for the Saving Private Ryaaf assault.

* PickUpGroup: Normally, these work out... [[SturgeonsLaw On the other hand...]]

* OneGenderRace: The Mithra are a playable race of catgirls. WordOfGod says that male Mithra do exist, but [[http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Lehko_Habhoka only one]] has been seen in the game, so far.[[note]][[UnfortunateImplications Lehko was apparently only brought to Windurst because the Tarutaru thought the all-female Mithra Mercenaries would follow orders better if the orders came from a man.]][[/note]] The Galka fully play this straight, being an all male race that reproduce through a form of reincarnation.[[note]]A mistranslation in the US instruction booklet said that Galka are asexual, but this was later corrected in interviews.[[/note]]

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

** ''Rise of the Zilart'' has Tu'Lia, a floating island created by the Zilart to act as the 'gate to Paradise'. In total contrast with the dark and dreary Castle Zvahl, Tu'Lia is mostly serene, with Ru'Aun Gardens in particular bringing to mind the concept of the garden of Eden.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: Courtesy of ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' and similar spin-offs featuring characters from past games, Shantotto is the ''Final Fantasy XI'' every fan will immediately recognize and associate with the game. After her you'll hear Prishe and Kam'lanaut as the other ''Dissidia'' representatives for the game besides Shantotto, and thanks to ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyRecordKeeper Record Keeper]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasyOperaOmnia Opera Omnia]]'', a few players might be able to name Lilisette, Lion, and the Shadow Lord.

* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The normal level cap, after finishing all the Limit Break quests, is 99, and is pretty much requiered to undergo most endgame activities, but the game is structured in a way so you pretty much never stop accumulating some form of EXP to boost your character, such as gaining Merit Points and Job Points. If you manage to completely cap out a Job with Job Points, which can take a ''long'' time, you can even begin accumulating ''Master'' Levels that boost your character's stats beyond their level 99 max, and allow your subjob to go further than it normally would. This isn't even counting Item Level gear, which can boost the effective level of a character up to ''119''.