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| The two new professions are fairly interesting |
Both form supporting roles on the battlefield |
Lets back up a little though. 'Final Fantasy XI: online' was originally developed back in 2002 as a premiere console RPG. Making it's debut on the Playstation 2 to somewhat mixed reviews, the series quickly gained a popular following in Japan, and was eventually localised and released in Western markets in 2003, also coming to the PC in the same calendar year. The Xbox 360 version was released in 2006 as part of Microsoft's drive to make sure all gaming bases were covered on it's flagship console, and sank into relative obscurity. Square-Enix currently estimates between 200-300,000 people still regularly log on to the FFXI servers, with the 360 version thought to make up an extremely small percentage of the overall users.
That isn't to say the game doesn't command a loyal following however. As with most MMO franchises, Xbox FFXI fans are generally a focussed and determined group, and as such, The Wings of the Goddess has a lot to live up to.
The largest new addition to the formula comes with the setting. Square-Enix has decided to take an unusual development route with the new content, and set the game world back by approximately 20 years; imagine Guild Wars but in reverse, if you will. This has a couple of advantages however, giving the entrenched players some much-needed background information and context to the modern setting of Vana'diel, and also providing a fresh look at the almost 6-year-old game engine. Major characters have been ported backwards into the storyline, and the land takes on a war-torn hue, with large-scale battles a prominent new feature.
Indeed the skirmishes make up a large part of value here. The campaign mode almost revolves around these battles in Wings of the Goddess, and joining existing fights is a swift and easy process, something that cannot be said of many other MMO's that tout a similar type of feature. Each battle brings its own set of rewards in the form of XP and some interesting drops, with the level of quality directly proportional to the amount of participation in the battle.
The other major draw for long-term players, or indeed newcomers, is the addition of two new professions into the mix. Both the 'Dancer' and 'Scholar' play out as ranged support classes, heavy on the back-of-the-pack offensive and defensive capabilities. Both seem to be well-developed and interesting additions, but seemingly impossible to solo with. As such, a lot of progression will depend on finding a suitable party, and in an almost 6-year-old game, this can be nigh on impossible in the practically empty newbie zones. It's a problem with no obvious solution at this stage, and tends to be endemic within MMO franchises that depend heavily on group participation.
Outside of this, there really isn't a lot of new content here to make The Wings of The Goddess an interesting proposition. The amount of quests and story content in the new land is almost laughably thin on the ground at present, and it'll have to be seen whether Square-Enix manages to fill this up to a suitable level with any subsequent updates and patches.
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| Graphically, FFXI is starting to heavily show it's age |
It's sort of like a Final Fantasy version of Harry Potter |
TOP GAME MOMENT
Participating in any of the new skirmishes throughout Vana’diel.
