Customer Reviews

Final Fantasy XI Online Official Strategy Guide (Fall 2003 Version)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm new to MMORPG's, but chose to take the plunge with FFXI, and I've not been disappointed. It's a wonderful game, and quite frankly addicting, if you can afford the time it takes to invest in playing.

Being completely new to the genre, this guide was a must for me. It has good details on early quests and missions, and though the maps could be larger, for many places you can get or buy maps as well in-game. As every monster is somewhat different, I found the monster guide fine, as it gives me an idea of what areas I can go to and which ones I can't, before I spend 30-40 minutes walking there in game.

The reality is that all of this information can be found online. Often it is better info, such as maps of NM spawn areas, etc. However, I find the guide invaluable, and it is always by my side for a few reasons.

1)I do not want to run back to the auction house to see if it's time to upgrade my gear. I check the book, and go back when I reach the appropriate level. The guide also details the gear itself, saving me considerable time looking when I do get to the auction house.

2)If you don't have another computer right next to the one you play on, it's mighty hard to check quest and monster information while you play. Having a printed out book to flip through is wonderful. The book is quite clear on what you need, and what you get, so you can easily do the quests with the biggest rewards and skip others.

3)It's true the synthesis guides are short, but they are intended to get you started. At low levels they are wonderful to have at quick reference. Once you get higher level in your crafting you will be relying on other player formulas more extensively.

4)The job information is extensive, including the abilities and levels they are gained per job. This has been an invaluable resource as I plot my main job and sub job path within the game.

In summation, this book is a great reference for some things, and nice to have handy. For higher level players you might be better served by forums and websites, but even then there are some things such as gear lists that are nice to have at hand during the game, unless you want to print out page after page of often poorly formatted websites.

And then you're on your own. This is not the worst thing ever. Naturally it would be a mistake if the strategy guide gave away ALL of the secrets of the game. But that is only the first mistake with this book. First, though, let's talk about the good things this strategy guide has to offer.

First off, the book is chaptered off like an instruction manual with the early chapters dealing with "entering" the world of Vanadiel and getting around and along with the other players in the game. The subsequent chapters talk a lot about the jobs, the weapons, the armor, the scrolls, and all of the accessories you can acquire during your playing time. Toward the back end of the book, you get the starting missions for all of the cities and "some" of the quests for the major cities in Vanadiel (note that I say "some"). Finally you get a list of all the regions of Vanadiel and a list of all the monsters and guilds and such.

Most of this information will serve you for the first 15-30 levels of the game, and then you can set it aside for a reference when need be. However, you're going to have a hard time using it as a "guide" for anything too complex because of the chaptered layout. If you need to find information linking weapon skills to skill chains to monster strength, you have to do a lot of flipping of pages to get the information you need.

Also, if you want to check on weapons for certain jobs, they are not listed with the jobs, they are listed seperatly in the weapons section. Meaning you have to flip back and forth between the two sections to figure out if that's going to work for your character or job.

Mr. Lummis, who has not really done strategy guides for RPG's before, can be forgiven (up to a point) for these small mistakes due to the fact that the guide is generally well written and does have some good advice. However, a section pertaining to ALL the job combos rather than a section of emoticons clearly listed in the much smaller (and free with the game) manual would have been a nice touch...or more detailed weapon/armor -> Job charts -> Magic charts (with strength/weakness indicators).

Basically, hard core RPG'ers and DND'ers will feel had by this guide due to its simple "booklike" and not "guidelike" feel. However, if you are an rpg newbie looking for a rather well made life preserver to keep you afloat in the "make believe" world of Vanadiel...this is a good place to start.

`Revu

Many people dismiss guides to online games outright. The information is too out of date and they are often shoddy jobs, cranked out in a hurry for release day with only a tiny bit of information.

This is not one of those guides. This is a full featured, up to date, and comprehensive guide to the game. Tables include stats on creatures, weapons, armor, recipes and effects of crafted items, mob lists including levels and vulnerability information by zone, all quests in each zone, all spells, and virtually all aspects of gameplay.

It is truly a comprehensive guide to every aspect of playing Final Fantasy Online and is the model of what a guide to a MMPORPG should be like. It's a fabulous job.

This book is not even in print anymore. There are three expansion packs out now. This book only covers the first one (Rise of the Zilart) and does not cover Chains of Promathia or Treasures of Aht Urghan at all. It is useful to newbs who are trying to find their way around the game, but there is nothing in this book that cannot be found on the internet if you just search for it. There are numerous sites that contain much more useful information (Such as allakhazam) but the problem with them is that the way this game is written, you cannot Alt-tab out of it to view another web page. Once you are in the game, you have to exit it to access any other programs on your pc (I play pc version exclusively....this doesn't apply to PS2 or X-Box players).

because online games such as these change on a regular basis, this particular book is out of date as a newer version has been issued. also since there is another expansion for teh final fantasy 11 game called Chains of Permathia, another version, probably called fall 2004 will probably be released soon.

This guide is an excellent tool for starting out, especially if you are not familiar with the MMORPG genre. Final Fantasy XI is my first MMORPG, so I was completely lost when I was first dropped, clueless, in to the world of Vana'diel. This guide does an excellent job of educating you on the basics of the MMORPG world, and for more experienced MMORPG gamers, the unique attributes of FFXI. It gives an excellent overview of the jobs, races, and guilds.

That said, this guide leaves much to be desired. The beastiary is incomplete, and there are parts that are inaccurate. Given the large number of quests present in the game, remarkably few of them are represent in the guide. The guild recipe list is next to worthless, and the fishing guide really provides very little info. The skillchain chart fails to include any higher-level skillchains.

To sum it up, the guide provides good information, especially for those unfamiliar with the genre. That said, it is virtually worthless once you are familiar with the game, and provides absolutely no information of useful to a character above the level of 30 (except a little information about spells and abilities).

This book is great for the beginner, whether it's your first mmorpg, or just first time in FFXI, this book will help you through your tedious learning of the game. You dont have to worry about NM when you start off, or for quite some time. by the time you want to find one, you already know where it is, the book is there to give you a general diffuculty level of that monster. Other than that, the fishing guide is a great help, and everything you 'need' to know to get started is right there for you. Definately a must have for the first timer.

This guide is nothing more than a decent instruction manual for FFXI. The idea was good and if you started playing the game, let's say, back when it was first released in Japan, this so-called guide may have been helpful. But times change and so do MMORPG's. Don't get this guide unless you have a time machine so you can go back to when it would have been useful.

I think anyone that plays this game should have this book around, especially if you are new to RPGs. It's a good guide to have on hand for quick references and basic information. I gave it 4 stars because it tends to be a little too basic here and there, and some of the missions could use a little more detail. You will find out when you start playing the game that there are lots of key details missing in the book. But, there are tons of sites on the internet out there to give you all of those extra details... and other players in the game will help you out as well.

Save yourself money and AVOID this "guide" at all costs. Its nothing more than a larger version of the instruction manual. Its pretentious on top of that; in the way that it makes you believe only the most cookie cutter character choices will be successful. The writer's idea of a walk through is a 3 line paragraph with a vague general description of what to do, if that. There are no maps that are of any use, the ones that are there, are postage stamp sized. Its full of useless filler information, and at times, reads like a huge advertisement for the game. Reading this guide and following its "Teachings" will result in severe idiocy. For instance, they believe Galka's should be restricted to melee fighters.. when in reality, once a Galka obtains his special equipment, he becomes one of the best mages in the game. Avoid this guide at all costs.