Growing up there were a lot of games that I’d see my older brother play. Some have escaped my memory, but some have stood out: Steel Battalion: Line of Contact, Shadowrun, and Final Fantasy XI (FFXI).
The first two will get their own article eventually, but today I want to talk about FFXI.
It’s an old, archaic massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Live since 2002, FFXI has received many updates and expansions to modernize the game. But in its initial release, Square Enix captured something special. A wonderful blend of traditional RPG classes, new & interesting mechanics, and the pacing of a game of its time.
I remember playing many different RPGs in my youth, and everything in the early ‘00s seemed to be cut from the same cloth in terms of progression. If you wanted to level up, you were going to have to relinquish hours, then days, and then weeks.
Fellow grinders may reminisce on killing endless Zombie Mushrooms around Sleepywood in Maplestory just to eke out another percentage. Or clicking the same few trees for hours at a time in between bank runs in RuneScape.
You can’t get the same experience these days, for better or worse. That is, unless you try an “old-school” or “vanilla” server for the game. Like MapleLegends, or Old School RuneScape.
For FFXI, there’s Horizon XI (HXI).
About a week ago, I downloaded HXI after a friend told me they play sometimes. I had never played FFXI myself because I didn’t want to pay for a subscription, but I was always interested.
HXI is free, and it captures exactly how FFXI was in its early days. From the HXI website: “HorizonXI provides its adventurers with a 75-era experience that maintains the spirit of Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) as if SquareEnix had continued to develop the game without ever having raised the level cap above 75.”
As a complete beginner, I’ve been enjoying my time in HXI, despite my concerning amount of deaths.
It’s not an easy game, and it doesn’t hold your hand at any point.
However, once you understand how to navigate the world, it turns into something beautiful.
In an age where we’re bombarded with constant stimulation, flashing lights, and dopamine hits, HXI slows down time and gives you a taste of what online RPGs were like in the original Xbox era.
Before a battle, you’ve got to “Check” an enemy to gauge its strength. There’s no level above its head, or colored name to present its difficulty. If it’s an “easy prey,” you’ve got a good chance of defeating it. A “decent challenge” will usually mean death if you don’t play the fight properly. When you see a monster that’s an “even match” or anything other than the previous two, you better give it a wide berth and be on your merry little way.
If you start out as a Black Mage (BLM) like me, then you’ve got to quickly learn when it’s a good time to cast a spell. When you cast a spell in HXI, you start channeling, and if you’re attacked, your spell gets cancelled. Thankfully, you don’t lose MP for cancelled spells, but you lose extremely valuable tempo and HP.
You’ve got to start casting immediately after you get hit or dodge an enemy attack when fighting a decent challenge enemy, or you’re gonna die before they do.
Dying isn’t great, but it’s not the end of the world! You don’t lose anything but a small amount of EXP in the beginning. You keep all your items and equipment.
If you learned how to set up a home point (interact with one of the floating blue crystals around the town you spawned in), then you’ll warp back to that crystal after death. If you were fighting right outside of the city, then walking bad won’t be an issue for you.
As I grinded through the early levels, I died a lot. I learned the hard way that each individual monster needs to be checked. A White Rabbit could be anything from easy prey to incredibly tough, even though they all appear in the exact same way.
It’s endearing going through minute struggles like that. I don’t want everything I play to be easy.
Don’t get me wrong when I say that—sometimes I just want to veg on the couch and play something you can’t fail in, like Pokopia. And I’m not afraid to ask for help when I think I need it. My brother, and my friend Toko, were important resources as I started out in HXI. In fact, Toko has a great starter guide for HXI for those interested.
Toko and me in Selbina.
But more often than not, I want to overcome a challenge and be proud of what I’ve accomplished.
HXI gives you the space to do that.
I’m level 15 now, and I feel like I’ve got a handle on things. In a party it’s my job to cast spells until I run out of mana, and then take a knee to rest and recoup my mana/health. With someone tanking monsters, I don’t have to worry about getting my spells interrupted.
I’m sure things will get chaotic in higher levels, but right now, the game is very relaxing. Every combat isn’t an action per minute (APM) test, like most modern games. I don’t have to sequence a combination of moves or abilities to do damage.
I target an enemy, go to my magic bar, and then cast one of the few spells I have. It takes a second or two to cast, and then I do it again.
It’s nice to slow down sometimes.
It’s also nice to have goals that take some time to complete.
Right now I’m on the path towards level 18, where I’ll be able to learn a second job. I’ll likely choose White Mage as my second job, so I can get access to some healing spells.
After that, I’ll get my Chocobo license at level 20, giving me a faster mode of transportation than just walking everywhere.
My main goal is to hit level 30, where I’ll unlock many new job options, one of which I’ve been wanting to play since I started the game: Summoner.
Growing up I’d watch my older brother play the Summoner, and it was awe-inspiring. It’s unlike the Summoner class in any other game I’ve ever seen.
You don’t get access to the best summons by simply leveling up.
After a host of prerequisite quests, you have to find the summons in the wild, and defeat them. They won’t always be available, and have a long cooldown after death before they spawn again, sometimes taking a full day. Typically, it’ll take a full party (six players) or more to take one down.
But once you go through all that, you’ll have a new, powerful summon. Something you can use in battle to give you a much-needed edge. Or something to show off in the nearest town to random passersby.
I hope I can get to that point eventually.
For now I’ll be searching for a party in the Valkurm Dunes. A place where I’ve heard can make or break the early game. I’ll either find the right party and level up quickly, or sit outside of the nearby town, Selbina, and fraternize with the multiple players who’ve set up personal shops like lemonade stands.
Get your cheap, low-level gear from “Walmartt!”
And if you see a Galka named “Mooen” in-game, send a “/wave” my way!
