FFXI Starter Pack revealed

By Robert Purchese Published 19 July, 2007

New cheap way in.

Square Enix is offering you a cheaper way in to its MMORPG through the introduction of its Final Fantasy XI Starter Pack for PC.

It should cost around GBP 4.99 and will let you play the original game free of subscription for an entire month. Also bundled with the package are the PlayOnline viewer - Square Enix's online hub - and Tetra Master Internet card game.

Final Fantasy XI is the first persistent world adventure in the highly acclaimed RPG series. It launched on PS2 and PC in Japan back in 2002, but took a further two years to make it to Europe on PC - followed two years later by the worldwide launch of the Xbox 360 version.

It is the world's first cross-platform MMORPG, and boasts a current subscriber base of 500,000 people.

Fans of the series might want to give it a whirl for such a cheap price, but we'd suggest other pastures like Lord of the Rings Online for those of you looking to get into a massively-multiplayer online game.

Head over to our Final Fantasy XI gamepage for our thoughts on it.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (29) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hunam #1 5 years ago

    LOTRO has also just started a European trial too...

  • ZuluHero #2 5 years ago

    No it hasn't. link?
    Edited by 1 at 19/07/07 @ 14:09

  • Darren #3 5 years ago

    Eurgh, the Xbox 360 beta of FFXI was dreadful, I just couldn't get into it at all whereas I was hooked on World of Warcraft within 10 minutes of playing it. FFXI might be the best MMORPG ever but it did absolutely nothing to entice me at all.

  • Xiaokiraa #4 5 years ago

    I played FFXI for 2 and a half years. I enjoyed it for most of that time, but there comes a point when you wonder why you've just spent 3 hours doing something with a bunch of mouthy bastards and not get anything out of it except for grief and abuse... Never again!

  • a8a #5 5 years ago

    Well, Final Fantasy XI shares the same problem as every other MMO - you play it with other people, many of whom are asshats. This isn't a problem which can really be fixed, since it's also kind of the point - it may be compounded slightly in FFXI by the necessity to do most activities in groups. In terms of design, style, story and longevity though, I have found it the most rewarding MMO I have played.

  • Hunam #6 5 years ago

    @ZuluHero

    My mistake, they have just released a downloadable client for people with buddy keys (as obviously people give them to folks over the internet, not just people they know and can lend the disks too).

    :(

  • Kami #7 5 years ago

    @ a8a, the thing is the likes of Warcraft and LOTR have quests which you can solo, you can pootle about on your own if people are being asshats. FFXI suffers from far too little solo content.

    I played it for 18 months. Got a high-level white mage. 100 bonecrafting. But sadly, too much hassle, too many twats, content that I couldn't do because it was so restrictive and being unable to make money on what was at the time arguably the most expensive item in the game...

    I've been tempted to go back once or twice. However, I remember why I left. The erratic economy and long days of no progress... and I realise that it's not worth it until they radically alter the game.

  • Hunam #8 5 years ago

    The economy isn't so bad these days.

  • Kami #9 5 years ago

    So I hear Hunam. When I left though, it was awful. Truly awful.

    I do miss the game, it's not a BAD game. It's just that I think after trying some others short-term, there are better ways of doing an MMO. I might wait to see if Squenix learn from the genre as it is today with the next online FF, a few years away maybe, but I'd love to see them have a go.

  • Agent_Llama #10 5 years ago

    FFXI is actually extremely absorbing, once it manages to get its hooks into you. Takes a while for it to happen though, but it does have charm.

  • Entity #11 5 years ago

    anyone know if this comes with any of the expansions?

  • zoidberg #12 5 years ago

    what's with the LOTRO advert?

  • zoidberg #13 5 years ago

    what's with the LOTRO advert?

  • The12thMonkey #14 5 years ago

    To the best of my understanding, the DVD includes all the expansion content, but you have to purchase the registration codes through the PlayOnline Viewer.

    Like they've said, it's supposed to be a starter pack, and as Arbiter said, Square have gone a long way to polishing the early experience. But the point still remains, FFXI is a group game. The resourceful, inquisitive player can do many things on their own in the early stages, but progress is bound to partying. And the endgame environment is all the richer for it, since everybody (almost without exception) knows how to do their job in a group when they get there.

  • CitizenGeek #15 5 years ago

    £5! That's anout €8 in my money! Count me in!

    I generally don't have any interest AT ALL in online gaming, but this is both cheap and Final Fantasy so I'm definately picking this up!

  • ZuluHero #16 5 years ago

    Regardless of how they've improved this and how many fond memories i have of it, i'm in the same camp as kami and others.

    I did hear some time ago that Square are doing another MMO, but its been very quiet on that front for some time...

  • Kafeen #17 5 years ago

    This version doesn't contain any of the expansions, just the original game. Its a cheap way of getting people to see if they like it. If they do the full version with all expansions can be picked up for around £18. There's plenty of content in the original game to get someone started though.

  • FunkyRenegade #18 5 years ago

    I agree with Darren that the 360 Beta was terrible, I recently bought the PC version because it was in one of GAME's 2 for £15 or £9.99 each, so I thought FFXI and 2 expansions for £5 wasn't bad, and I must say after playing it for about 2 hours I was enticed, it's really worth giving the PC version a go even if you've tried the 360 version and didn't like it.

  • Entity #19 5 years ago

    @Kafeen
    Thankyou, was wondering since i've already got FFXI on both p.c and 360, but the p.c version only cost £7 with 2 of the expansions and while my 360 is in for repair I can't load my main as it crashed while in whitegate XD

  • SleepyMagpie #20 5 years ago

    What Arbiter and the others are saying about the revamp of FFXI is interesting.

    I played until the middle of 2005 when an invasion of chinese gilsellers made the already tight economy go haywire and people started behaving nastily. I had a WHM near 60 then, well into the game and it's workings, and as Arbiter said, FFXI has that indefinable something, that x factor that draws you to it. Very few other MMORPGs have that - I've been searching, believe me. LotRO is very smooth and has a well defined and functioning system, but it DOES NOT have the x factor.

    Does anyone know if a character left for 2 years would be deleted? I remember there was a threat of that earlier by Squenix (after 3 months of inactivity?), but other companies and games keep your characters indefinitely..

  • smelly #21 5 years ago

    "wonder why you've just spent 3 hours doing something with a bunch of mouthy bastards and not get anything out of it except for grief and abuse"


    Thus the reason i dont play mmorpgs

  • smelly #22 5 years ago

    .. Well that and the thought that i could start enjoying one, get really into it..

    .. then the publisher decides to shut down the server, etc.

    And the thought of playing a monthly subscription to a game i already own (shouldnt it be free in that case?).

    And the realisation that i actually have a life and cant devote that much time for something which i doubt will be much fun in the first place (obviously never played one so i dont know this for a fact)

  • Ultimaboi #23 5 years ago

    why oh why bother writing good news about FF11 and just suggest at the end to not even bother with it and try lotro instead? this is like the first publicity FF11 has gotten in months >(

  • The12thMonkey #24 5 years ago

    Yeah, it's not exactly an un-biased article.

    Also, at the time FF11 came out in the US, I recall EG saying they wouldn't review MMOs, only discuss them. So, based off the glowing first writeups EG gave it, what would it's review score have been?

  • Kami #25 5 years ago

    ZuluHero, I think it was Squenix themselves that mentioned FF14 (or was it 15?) would be "online". As you say however, we've heard nothing on that front.

    I hope if they do another FF Online, it's set back in a later version of Vana'diel. Or perhaps, just maybe, take the races of FFXI and throw them into the rest of the Ivalice mix. Now THAT I'd play! Viera on Mithra action? Where do I sign?

  • a8a #26 5 years ago

    lol @ kami

    @sleepymagpie: You can try them and see if they return your character, Ive heard conflicting reports of whether they will or not.

    From time to time they run 'Return to Vana'diel' campaigns however, which lets you get your character back and even gets you a free month. The last one they ran was when Aht Urhgan was released, which is when I came back after a 1.5 year break. Logically speaking, the next one will probably be when the new expansion (Wings of the Goddess) is released, later this year.

  • InternetRed #27 5 years ago

    Wow, now i can ignore this game for the cheaper price of £4.99.

    I didn't enjoy the free beta on the 360, didn't enjoy the trial on the PC when it first came out, and now for a mere 5 squid, i can not enjoy the game for a month ;P

    Hm. Do people still play the 360 version?

  • davisorle #28 5 years ago

    FFXI i've never tried to play even though ive wanted too.. Its stupid cause ive played hundrends if not thousands of games over the years on both consoles and pcs and never FFXI that ive been wanting too.. The point is that once Lotro came out I droped WoW cause Lotro was more.. "aranged" as a game and liked the various content during the game prosses.

  • Kami #29 5 years ago

    Think what turned me off of MMO's overall was that end-game, there is always an excessive reliance on teamwork. Which inevitably ends up being more hassle than it's worth - you either choose a class that barely gets noticed for dungeons and raiding, or you pick a class that means you're going to be asked to bend over and take all the raiding and grouping they can shaft you with. There is no compromise, no middle ground. I tried in WoW four classes. Hunter, which absolutely no-one wanted in any way at all. Rogue, which got some love with lockpicking and crowd control, but not enough since druids and hunters tended to roll on anything I wanted - and that having gone combat for the damage, the stuff that made most use of it bordered impossible to get. Then I tried priest and paladin - and at end-game, even though I loved my rogue and hunter - no-one would do anything with me unless I was their healer. This reason alone puts me off of MMO's almost entirely right now - teamwork is fine, but I'm not playing it as a second fucking job!

    When I played FFXI, which is a fair while ago now, I was white mage and a ninja. Exactly the same problem - I had eyes for being all ninja, since it was a class that actually required skill to play assnd while pricey, was actually... well. Fun. But no, people want the healer, not interested unless you do it the way they want it. In the end, linkshell told me they would kick me if I didn't stop levelling my ninja. I dinged an hour later and they kicked me.

    MMO's really do need to change. WoW has the hunter, FFXI has the beastmaster - outcast classes. And so many decent DPS classes and specs that if you want to delve into it, you're on your own for the most - and again, end-game there never is enough solo content. It's a remarkably vicious circle that these companies try to correct... but never seem to get it right. Why spend up to (and in some cases, more than) a tenner a month for something that quite simply stops being fun the minute you think the game's begun?

    From a disgruntled former MMO player.