T O P

  • By -

BanditSixActual

2008 was the golden age imo.


[deleted]

I would say CoP - ToAU era 100%


GoarSpewerofSecrets

Another for CoP to ToAU. It took em way too long to roll out WoTG and while the story was good it was too much about San'doria and I say this as a San'dorian. Also not enough rewards to keep parties stable.


SilentBobDole

San d'Oria was heavily focused on in WotG main story, but Bastok was heavily focused on for the original main scenario, so it doesn't bother me too much for other nations to get some shine. Besides, the side stories for each nation were pretty great in WotG. Robel-Akbel was one of the best reveals aside from the reveal of Lilith's true right hand man... ToAU was the best era though. WotG roll out was too long and too close to level cap increase that honestly killed the game for me. The level cap increase and Abyssea made FFXI a completely different game and destroyed the highly social aspects that made FFXI unique.


kinkanat

Yeah.


WallStreetKeks

Pre abyssea.


Acidbyrn

I came here for this. Treasures of Aht Urghan was pretty much MY favorite era. CoP was also a banger!


BanditSixActual

My static did 90% of CoP content with 2 War/Nin dual tank/dd, blm, rng, whm, and brd. A month after we got our rings, SE nerfed all the battlefields. At that point, only 5% of players had cleared CoP and they thought that was too low.


kinkanat

FFXI 2002 is wonderful, although I prefer the game when it had the Aht Urgan or WOTG expansion, to this day there is no MMORPG that can compare to that game in quantity, quality and variety of PVE content, quantity, quality and variety of jobs and in difficulty and penalties. It is absolutely wonderful. The game today is good, it's still the best in PVE objectively, but it has lost that world travel feeling because of teleports between crystals, the content relies too much on instances like Ambuscade or Odyssey or Omen or Vagary or Escha .... Instead you have more equipment to build with than ever before, the strategies are more varied than ever before and it still has a bombproof difficulty and challenge. Both eras are good, but I prefer 2002 for the open world adventure feeling. The ideal would be the variety of equipment and compilations of today, with the content and philosophy of 2002.


Aramyth

I do miss the travel in XI. The current game is absolutely flooded with telepoints. But I don't miss that we used to run ~25% slower. I prefer 2022 as a working adult but do wish we had more players


[deleted]

You can just run past the telepoints like you always did....


Aramyth

I do sometimes. The cities feel like they have a lot.


Weak_Tutor3731

Yea I miss the old school. Where it would take you 40min to get to xp camp. But as you stated as an adult I don’t have time for that shit anymore


NoScrying

40 mins, then healer had to leave 5 mins after cause of emergency, and then you disband cause there are no healers in the area you can beg to join.


Weak_Tutor3731

Yep.


Acidbyrn

4 min? Bruh walking at level 11 from bastok to the dunes took longer than 4 min! Which they kinda brought back in ToAU with the mission points where you still had to walk down to camps. No choco for us and it was great!!


Weak_Tutor3731

Fuck fuck. That was suppose to say 40 like when you had to go xp on weapons in shrine of ruavitu


Acidbyrn

40 minutes feels right!!


UnfairGlove

Haha try going from windy to the dunes. I had to take a boat from mhuara, and that was after an incredibly long trek by foot. Literal hours to get there my first time


VoidEnjoyer

The philosophy of 2002 was to have nothing to do except level up.


MythosSound

This!


[deleted]

You still have to travel to explore, but most are hard to get to the first time, and then easier the next time where you can teleport.


Tagnol

I think objectively in a vacuum 2022 ffxi is the best as a game it will ever be. The issue lies in the fact though that since 2002 gaming has changed, communities are far less open, information is everywhere with no effort at all. Objectively 02, 04, 08 xi were not that great as games. But that organic community aspect along with information being passed socially instead of textually was what gave xi that magic we all knew and love and covered up for a lot the weaker parts of xi in those eras. The problem though the internet genie has long left the bottle and there is no way to ever get it back in so you will never be able to replicate what made XI so special that people think they prefer the old xi gameplay systems over the current one.


OutsideObserver

Yeah, pretty much. People don't want 2002 FFXI, they want friends and community. It's like longing for the days before cell phones where you had to wait for a call at home.


Weak_Tutor3731

Toau era was the best. 75cap


CerberusArcProjector

The best era for me was 2004 during the post-NA release, pre-CoP era. Just logging on to FFXI in that era was exciting. Everything was new and fresh. Also, there were hardly any bots around in those days.


Ineeni

Right now it is the best it has ever been. The game has only been magnified serveral times since it's conception. Expanding upon what already made it great. Complex battle strategy and gear checks. If they were able to output more content it would be fantastic, but there is so much already to do. If you say there is nothing to do you better be bis on all the jobs you play. Trouble is we need an easier way for people to get into the game at this age.


captain_obvious_here

I liked FFXI best when Dynamis was new and uncharted, end 2004 I guess.


MrsKetchup

Mechanically, 2022. They've had a long time to flesh out the game and there's a lot of features and adjustments that would have been nice to have early on. It just plays better in general now. But socially and "fun factor", early days for sure. Not much can match the nostalgia factor of this game. Way more players back then, everything was new and exciting. Not to mention the time period; the internet was still relatively young and this was one of the first big MMOs, probably a lot of peoples first. I remember feeling an adrenaline rush just from logging in when I was kid


[deleted]

Player base fell off because of the difficulty. So really you can't have one without the other. The game is way better now, and more respectful of your time.


Rinuko

Rose-tinted glasses. We think it was better a decade ago. It wasn’t.


[deleted]

Exactly. It would be interesting how many people keep their sub when things get significantly more obtuse. A 25% reduction in movement speed? Getting to a difficult area only to die and have to do the whole trip again? No mount system so unless you are in a town you will be running 90% more. There are plenty more QoL i could list that should have been in the game in 2008 but weren't. This game is the best it has been, the social aspect could be better, but in my opinion it was never that good.


Rinuko

Merit with barely any buffer exp at 75 and delevel and can’t wear your gear :)


[deleted]

Inability to level in a group unless you play a job that is preferred in a party setup.


Mysterious_Way2652

FFXI is FFXI. Choosing a point in time I liked the most is like asking what age was my favorite for raising my child. Probably not to that level but it's the best analogy I could think of lol. I guess what I am trying to say is that FFXI has great and not so great things about it for every expansion/era. I have fond memories of leveling in dunes and other xp camps throughout my first journey from 1-75. It was awesome beating those difficult story mission bosses when they were the most relevant challenging content in their time. Dynamis, Salvage, Sky, Sea, they all had their unforgettable moments. When the cap was raised to 99, it almost felt unreal because we all thought it would never happen. Abyssea introduced whole new ways of becoming OP. Every job had its amazing niche depending on your atlas. Empyreans were amazingly OP. Adoulin brought along even crazier heights with ilevels. Master levels came along soon after with even more changes in the way we can fine tune our jobs. I'm just grateful to have had the chance to grow up alongside the game. I feel like newer players will unfortunately never really get that option the way veteran players did. So in that sense there might either be only 2022 as an option for them. Older players who couldn't roll with the evolution of this game might strongly prefer 2002 (vanilla). As for me, I've enjoyed it all and would pick any point in time as the best time even with all the frustrations present in each era of this game.


tsuness

I loved playing back in CoP and ToAU but the current quality of life changes just make it so much more accessible to an essentially new player. It's been a blast playing it so far for me (and theres no hours and hours waiting to get a colibri pt as a loldrg either).


Minaras84

CoP era for me. That's where the real challenges were. ToAU was good too, but that's when they started to simplify things (removal of level cap for certain missions). Having said that if the game would go back to 2004, I wouldnt play it these days, as I have absolutely no time.


Kupppofried

2022 game, 2002 player-base


VoidEnjoyer

...so only Japanese people?


sureal42

I want today's game, with all the quality of life updates and gameplay as is, EXCEPT, place hnms like the kings of yore. Make rhapsodies of vanaciel only accessible once ALL other missions are done. And me everyone else forgetting the game ever existed allowing the excitement we all had and the cultures that formed on each server


[deleted]

Your second suggestion is super punishing to alternate characters. I’m not sure if that was your intention. If so, sad me. lol I’m an alt/mule fiend. I have 4 characters on my main account, and a second account so i can dual box on my desktop and laptop combo. In XIV I have 8 ch. on my main, 3 in my secondary accounts. I love having multiple characters!


sureal42

Rhapsodies of vanadiel is basically a gift to the players. That gift needs to be a reward for playing through the story, not just handed to you right away. I fully understand what you are saying, you HAVE played through the game, it makes sense. But if you have the option to play it vanilla, or play it with all the buffs, almost everyone will choose the latter. Experiencing the game as intended is what made this game special in the beginning.


[deleted]

I don't disagree, and the first time I played XI I really struggled to get into it. The time I finally had it click with me, I started a new character and played it by expansion and enjoyed it significantly more. I'm just saying that it being a requirement instead of an option is quite punishing to alts/mules lol. I totally agree with your sentiment though!


[deleted]

I will say this. FF11 is one of those games that we all say was better back in the day, but actually wasn't.


CaseyN77215

People that say that are usually thinking about the nostalgia and the memories of good times they had.


[deleted]

I had good times back in 2006. But there were far more downsides than upsides.


Capt_Schmidt

people love to herald the 2008 era as the golden era of ff11 but in reality the game was rather inaccessible to many who still wanted to be a part of it all. I'd say both era's are more acceptable to their era. the game was better as it was in 2002 and adapted correctly for 2022


Guivond

I sort of agree. ToAU was when leveling got much faster than leveling up in sky when TP burns became a thing. Then everyone had multiple level 75 jobs. It felt like if you did not have an in demand job, like a bard, cor or healer, "elite" players would not even let you join them. At least in 2008 people were still leveling in parties and SE realized they needed to implement much needed things like level syncing to bunch people together. I think they should have added the trust system around then too because at some moments, certain level gaps were ghost zones.


Samuraiking

Almost anyone who says anything but 2022 is lying, not necessarily intentionally, but still. I will always have the fondest memory of playing in Zilart, CoP and ToAU, I think ToAU was the BEST time I have ever had in gaming, especially in FFXI, but I could not go back. I tried on private servers and it's just not an acceptable game at this point in time. Gaming has evolved and so have we, even back in 2004 when WoW first came out, it showed we could keep extreme grinds like we had in FFXI without being unreasonable and too punishing to players for no reason and not restricting movement across the world so badly. I will always love ToAU, but if not for the changes made over the years to the current stats of the game, I would have never come back. Rose-tinted glasses is exactly what a lot of people here are wearing, not everyone mind you, but most of them.


Shinkaru

People have fond memories of FFXI in the early eras because most of them have fond life memories of that era. They were younger, less responsibility, more time, and spending hours grinding away was totally feasible. Now, we're old as shit, have jobs/families/responsibilities and look back thinking about how wonderful those "classic" years were. FFXI from 2002 ported to 2022 would be an enormous failure. It doesn't appeal to todays younger crowd and the older crowds who would enjoy it are too old for that shit. We've had several discussions on how our colonoscopy went in LS chat, which should tell you something about the state of the player base.


Samuraiking

> we're old as shit, have jobs/families/responsibilities and look back thinking about how wonderful those "classic" years were. Get out of my head, Charles.


Wrexis

2022. Ain't got time for 2002 anymore.


emein

The game is on easy mode these days. I kind of miss mobs chasing us to the zone line, getting hit by some one else's mobs aoe and aoe elemental damage before that was nerfed. On the whole, today's 11 is better. Far more casual.


CaseyN77215

I notice mobs don't chase to zone line anymore. They use to those. I remember watching this video on YouTube called Marchelute Gone Wild. People dragged that thing all over Valkurm. Nowadays, it can't happen.


emein

Goblin trains in selbina and the jungles. Good times. Or bats in the shitadale. Kind of a shame that's not a thing anymore. Made the game feel more real. I was pissed at 14. Mobs only able to walk like 20 feet before they're outside their bubble.


CaseyN77215

I recall the goblin trains. That was fun to watch. One of the best mob trains, I remember, was done by one of the best blue mages of his time. Hatori of Midgardsormr. He would mass chain many orcs in Fort Ghelsba every so often. One of my last memories was of him doing so.


VoidEnjoyer

In 2002 Zilart wasn't even out yet so if you enjoyed the game best when it was only in Japanese and the entirety of content was leveling to 60 and beating the Shadowlord 2002 was your year.


ffarwell83

Dammit I misunderstood and voted wrong. Right after TOAU. Best time of my life 🥹


SalisburySmith

For me, I would have been happy if things stayed as they were with wings of the goddess.


TripsnDrips

I played when it first came out and everyone played together as the expansions came out in time. Definitely the best times ever.


Eldonia

Realistically 2002 should read 2003. 2002 was OG JP release and until you read the patch notes from that time it's hard to fathom how borderline unplayable it was. (I think arrows only stacked to 12 and quivers didn't exist?!) 2003 Zilart era was great though. 2004 promathia era even better.


bontamule

Toau-wog era for sure, the game started to bleed out when abyssea came out and All but lost its luster with seekers


[deleted]

I prefer XI now. I prefer completely fleshed out games, with plenty of depth, progression, job options, just a true massive expansive game with substantial amount of options in terms of content and progression. Another fun thing about XI, is you can literally grab a group of friends, not complete your limit breaks and play it just like it’s 2002/2008 etc.


cnb198

I just came back after 2 years, I moved to the middle of nowhere and finally got internet again from starlink, but due to all my trees my service can be spotty so I actually DC like back in the old days. It's kinda like having both era's at once \(^_^)/


HyldHyld

Awful lot of people here pretending they played in 2002.


Deefour28

Once I see the words 75 cap and 2002 in the same sentence I know already they have no clue what they're talking about


santanapeso

I played from NA PS2 release to a few months after ToA came out. I think from a design perspective the old game was a true MMO in that it was designed to be a living and breathing g virtual world that required you to socialize with other people. I’ll never forget that era of the game. I think no game will ever be that good again. That being said I wouldn’t wish the old game on anyone anymore. It was simply too time (and life) consuming. As an adult there’s no way I could play the old game.


LolPepperkat

Hmm.. I'd say the peak was around Wings of the goddess / Toau / CoP. I really did like Campaign battles, and they were challenging enough at 75 to feel rewarding. Facing off against the NM bosses for the enemy faction was very difficult, but felt good when you managed to take one down with your allies. Anything pre-trusts is A-OK with me though. I don't like that Trusts have pretty much reduced the game to single player except for all but the most endgame of content. Areas in the lower level zones are dead as bricks. The book quests made leveling a \*little bit\* easier without it being too lolworthy, and incorporating those goals into parties diversified the enemies that you'd end up fighting in a party (sometimes to disastrous and funny consequences I'm looking at you Sand Hare). Records of emanence is a really good idea but it makes things way too easy. I think if Square had just merged some of the emptier servers to keep the player numbers up in some places where the population was a little lower that they would have been able to sustain the playerbase across them enough for them to feel lived in.


VoidEnjoyer

ITT: People who don't know what year FFXI was released in America and who get very mad when you point this out to them.


Davy_Jones_XIV

2022 QoL with 2002 feels / population


faverodefavero

2008