Final Fantasy XI with HDD

by Sony

Product Features

• Holds up to 40 GB and comes with Final Fantasy XI pre-loaded
• Simply connect your Internal Hard Drive to any PS2 and you'll be playing FFXI in no time at all
• Explore a brand new gaming universe and access it from our PS2 or your computer
• Connects to the same magical story whether you're playing on a PS2 or a PC -- just connect to a Network Adaptor and get online
• About Final Fantasy XI - It's an amazing new online fantasy role-player, with a huge game world to explore and master. In the aftermath of a great war, you'll fight for the survival of your world. It's the first ever cross-platform massive multiplayer online game -- you'll unite with other warriors as they save their world from utter destruction.

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00012TIWS
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 9 x 5 inches ; 3.5 pounds
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,805 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #46 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Role-Playing

Product Description

Game Informer Review

Seeing as how this title marks the debut of the PS2's hard drive and Final Fantasy's first venture into the realm of the console MMORPG market, there has been a lot of commotion and anticipation surrounding it. Now that it has hit the shelves, the world of Vana'diel will need to brace itself for the fresh surge of PS2-playing inhabitants, providing enough people shell out the dough.

This is essentially the same game that came out for the PC in October, though it runs at a significantly lower resolution. It offers the same impressive persistent world, storyline, and content. It still has beautiful visuals and a gripping score, along with an unfortunately awkward menu interface. Overall, this is a solid game that does a wonderful job of unifying Square Enix's vision of the Final Fantasy world under a multi-platform roof.

This is unquestionably the best MMORPG available for the console, with a high potential to eat away at your free time, and possibly be responsible for some "sick" days at work. Sure, you'll have to pay a hefty sum for the game and peripherals, but if you're the type of person who even considers a purchase like this, you won't be disappointed.

Concept:
Use Vana'diel in a pernicious ploy to push the PS2's hard drive

Graphics:
The characters and environments have surprising detail, but the animation is choppy

Sound:
A soundtrack on par with some of the best in the series

Playability:
The interface, designed for both PS2 and PC, doesn't really feel at home on either

Entertainment:
Easy to get sucked in, though things do roll along pretty slowly, even for an MMORPG

Replay:
High

Rated: 7.75 out of 10
Editor: Joe Juba
Issue: May 2004

2nd Opinion:
Putting an MMORPG on a console is an ambitious undertaking, one that's almost doomed out of the gates. To be fair, the content in FF XI is great – the character system is engaging, the concepts based on allegiance are cool, and graphically it's certainly acceptable. However, until you take the time to program the macros to your liking, the interface ranges from utterly unusable to merely horribly frustrating – even with a USB keyboard.

Rated: 7 out of 10
Editor: Adam Biessener


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Product Description

Experience a brand-new gaming universe that contains the same award-winning visual content, innovative gameplay, and deep storylines but connect to the same world regardless of whether you are playing on a PS2 or a PC by using the the internal Hard Disk Drive and the Network Adaptor to get online.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Buyers on Amazon, July 10, 2005

By 

Paul M. Walsh "Roadog43" (Santa Fe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Final Fantasy XI with HDD (Video Game)

I want to clarify a few points for Amazon buyers who wish to purchase this game used. FFXI is a unique game in the fact that once the account expires you cannot play it ever again. The game Key will be broken and will not work ever again. This will require you to purchase the game again. So be carefull. Even if the game was only installed for the 30 day trial and they didn't play it after that. The game key will last for 3-4 months of inactivity after that you will need to repurchase the game. to get around this you can go inactive and pay once every 3 months to keep the account going.

[...]

Hope this helps for potential buyers of this product. ;)

47 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average at Best, June 2, 2004

By 

drqshadow (Bradenton, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Final Fantasy XI with HDD (Video Game)

Now that I've swallowed the price tag, ventured my way around the fabled world of Vana'diel, paid my first monthly fee and had a couple of months to really sink my teeth into the famed series' first expedition into internet gaming, I feel I'm justified in saying my first impressions were ultimately correct; there's something missing. Taking nothing away from the game itself, the mechanics, the graphics, the diversity or the community, this is as much Final Fantasy as it is Everquest. Somewhere in the transition from Tidus, Yuna and Auron to the millions of participants in the story of FFXI, Square-Enix's trademarked personality was lost.

Seeing this massive world hustling around you, encountering all these varied player-controlled and CPU-controlled characters and just trying to find your way from one end of a small city to the other is INCREDIBLY overwhelming. There's so much initial information to absorb, so much going on at any one time that even the most capable of minds will spin within moments of their first connection to the FFXI servers. Now that's a flaw I've noticed with several MMORPGs in the past, so I'd be lying if I said I was surprised to see it in full effect here, but I was hoping the bigwigs and creative geniuses behind the legendary FF series could devise a solution. Instead, you meet half a dozen non-playable characters with a penchant for lengthy monologues and strikingly similar names, gain a brief quest or two and are immediately thrust into the fray. I was stuck in a corner, confused, infuriated and utterly lost within five minutes, and I've been playing digital role playing games for most of my life.

Another thing this title shares with its online-genre competition is the notable de-emphasis on any real, compelling, interwoven storyline. There's always this sense hanging over your head that something big might just be about to happen, but it never does. You'll catch little bits and pieces of information from NPCs in various parts of the globe, but it's mostly inconsequential and not all that interesting. There's a very loosely-illustrated theme of competition between the planet's three dominant countries that surfaces from time to time, yet there's no drama. These three nations seem to be on the brink of war with one another, but they're all afraid of the risk involved with making that first move. It's like they built an entire game around the non-playable characters who didn't matter in previous Final Fantasies.

Gameplay is actually very quick and easy to learn, but seems to rely much more heavily on luck than previous titles. If you're in combat with an enemy, it's not uncommon to miss one another for upwards of three or four turns in a row. Random encounters have been done away with entirely, and you can see (and, if the situation calls for it, avoid) every hostile creature in the field. The endless mashing of the "Attack" option has been removed from play, as once you've drawn your weapon and begun a fight, your character will continue chopping away until you tell him to do something else or either he or the monster is dead. Both dealing out and receiving damage builds up your "TP" meter, which has taken the place of the traditional "Limit Breaks," and can be used to fire off a special attack once it's filled sufficiently. Using magic is a much more strategic factor in this title, since it's possible to have your chant interrupted by a well-timed attack. Thus, you won't want to hold off on casting that life-saving Cure spell until a second or two before the enemy strikes. That hypothetical sword is double-edged, though, and if you're lucky you can halt an enemy's spell in precisely the same fashion.

Online play through Square-Enix's servers is an absolute triumph. The sheer number of players in the world at any one time is amazing, and I can only recall one or two instances where I experienced any lag whatsoever. Additionally, they're always throwing in little bonuses, events and surprises to keep the world fresh, exciting and unpredictable. I signed on one evening to find three moogles floating in the middle of town square, surrounded by literally hundreds of players. When I spoke to the moogles, they gave me an egg with a letter printed on the shell. I was dumbfounded until I realized it was the week before Easter. They were simultaneously distributing and hiding little easter eggs throughout the city, and if you gave them the lettered eggs that matched up with the first three letters of your character's name, they gave you a prize. It's a really nice side effect of putting the whole game online; you can customize the experience for any reason imaginable.

As a whole, though, I was disappointed. The magic of the entire line of Final Fantasy games is missing from this title, and even attempting to associate it with its brethren was a mistake. Don't let that fact mislead you, however. As a standalone title with no ties whatsoever to the FF universe, this still wouldn't have knocked my socks off. It's full of unrealized potential, moments that stopped just short of being spectacular and long, dull periods of nothingness. The vast majority of your game time is spent running along an empty path, healing in a corner or participating in a boring, pointless conversation with one of the million useless non playable characters. Its successes are few; the successful transition from full-blown fantasy to a more reality-based setting, the tremendous capabilities of the Square-Enix servers and the gorgeous visuals, and its failures are many; the lack of story, the stale taste of almost everything in the world and the unnecessarily difficult battle system. I've got no problem calling this is an above average game, but claiming it's much more than that would be something of a stretch.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This game is awesome!!, January 25, 2006

By 

Naiara C. Bryant (Anchorage, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Final Fantasy XI with HDD (Video Game)

I read the reviews about Final Fantasy XI for PS2 and I was worried whether or not it was worth the money. After purchasing the game, installing it, and then playing it I must say this game is awesome!!! I would definitely recommend you have a cable modem and not dial-up! And buy a simple USB keyboard for the PS2 it makes a huge difference in playing. They graphics are great and its fun playing with many different people from different parts of the world. If your considering finding a game to play I would recommend this one hands down!