The 5 playable races are comprised of 16 character models for each race and applicable gender for a total of 128 Character Models. If that’s not enough, each model can be also be assigned the size of small, medium, or large for a total of 384 unique looks. Furthermore, with 3 different nations, 20 different jobs and 75 different levels, the odds of meeting someone who is your virtual twin would be 1 in 1,728,000.

There’s quite a bit of freedom to choose whatever race best suits your personal tastes. While, the base stats will vary for each race, most of the impact will be on what type of equipment you wear versus what job you decide to play. It is also common for players to play several jobs, so picking a race that’s “perfect” for all of them isn’t practical or necessary. There are some exceptions, though. If you want to be the strongest possible melee and plan to stack Strength gear you’d choose Elvaan. If you want the most intelligence and largest MP pool for your black mage, choose Tarutaru. Finally, if you want the most rounded stats because you plan on leveling several different types jobs, Hume is a good choice. With exceptions of strength and MP because of their value in the game, there is little reason to consider a race you wouldn’t enjoy as much over a race that best suits your tastes simply because of base stats; even the strength and MP argument becomes moot unless you plan to only play one job type on that character and that’s an advantage that you feel you need. Good equipment and player skill can overcome any racial shortcomings.

• PlayOnline – Official website for Final Fantasy XI
• FinalFantasyXI.com – New promotional website for Final Fantasy XI from Square Enix.

• FFXIclopedia - Official Final Fantasy XI wiki

Final Fantasy XI was awarded the grand prize from the Japan’s Consumer Entertainment Software Association (CESA) for 2002–2003 along with Taiko no Tatsujin. It has also received GameSpy’s 2003 PC MMORPG Game of the Year Award and IGN’s Game of the Month for March 2004, citing the game’s huge customization and its successful cross-platform and cross-language game world. Final Fantasy XI was referenced in the online game Minna no Golf Online in the form of a Final Fantasy XI-themed lobby. A direct sequel of Final Fantasy XI was thought to be in development, but Square Enix denied this report. They did however confirm that the creators of Final Fantasy XI were working on a new MMORPG, although it is not necessarily Final Fantasy-related.

The game has spawned several written adaptations and related merchandise. Starting in 2003, a series of Final Fantasy XI novels was written by Miyabi Hasegawa and released in Japanese, German, and French. In 2004, a Japan-exclusive manhwa titled Final Fantasy XI ~The Out of Orders~ was created by artist Kim Byung Jin and story writer Kim Sungjae. Additionally, Adventure Log, a webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair, was commissioned by Square Enix starting in 2007. Final Fantasy XI PlayOnline Visa and MasterCard credit cards were available in Japan, with features including no annual fees as long as cardholders remain PlayOnline subscribers and various other rewards. There have also been posters with limited edition phone cards and keychains released, also exclusively in Japan. Several T-shirts have been made available for order in North America, and various stuffed animals have also been made available to order of different races from the series. A Vana’diel clock was also marketed, as well as CDs of the game’s music.

Famitsu rated Final Fantasy XI 38 out of 40. Computer and Video Games Magazine noted that it was one of the most welcoming MMORPG’s despite the cumbersome initial registration and setup. IGN called it a well done but unoriginal game and also noted that North American players were forced to play with already much more experienced Japanese players who had already completed the game’s various quests. GameSpot criticized it at release for having an unconventional control system, a lengthy installation, and having no player versus player (PvP) aspects. Other elements receiving criticism include the EXP grind, which involves constant battles to access different parts of the game, and overcrowded camp sites. The Xbox 360 release was criticized for only working if accompanied by a hard drive. The expansions have been mostly positively received, with praise for the amount of content added, but increasing signs that the graphics of the game are becoming outdated.

The user base for the PlayStation 2 version was truncated initially because of limited sales of the PlayStation 2s hard drive and network adapters that were needed for the game. The Japanese release of Rise of the Zilart was the number one selling game when it debuted with 90,000 copies sold in the first week. The Final Fantasy XI All-in-One Pack was number 36 and Wings of the Goddess was number 40 on the top 50 best-selling Xbox 360 games in Japan as of December 2007.

For the April–September 2004 financial period, Square Enix saw online gaming, particularly Final Fantasy XI, sales increase by 101 percent and operating profit increase by 230.9 percent. Revenues held steady from subscription services in the summer of 2006; in the fall however, Square acknowledged that online subscription revenues were “unsatisfactory”.

In December of 2002, Square president Yoichi Wada announced that there were over 200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to break even and start making a profit. In January 2004, Square Enix announced that over 500,000 users utilizing over one million characters were playing the game. Before the release of World of Warcraft, it had the most active players of any MMORPG. There are also currently between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily. Since its Xbox 360 release, it has become the sixth most played game at Xbox Live, as of August 14, 2006.

The music of Final Fantasy XI was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, Naoshi Mizuta, and Kumi Tanioka. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda was also asked to contribute, but he was busy scoring Xenosaga. The expansion packs were scored by Mizuta alone after Tanioka left to pursue other projects and Uematsu left Square Enix. The opening of the game features choral music with lyrics in Esperanto. According to Uematsu, the choice of language was meant to symbolize the developers’ hope that their online game could contribute to cross-cultural communication and cooperation. He also noted the increased difficulty of scoring a game for which there was no linear plotline, a major change from the previous Final Fantasy games. It was the first game in the series for which he composed while he was no longer a Square employee. New music has been employed for special events, such as a holiday score titled Jeuno -Starlight Celebration- which can be heard in the city of Jeuno each mid to late December since 2004. Unlike its immediate predecessor, Final Fantasy XI features almost no voice acting. Vocalizations are portrayed by battle cries and related sounds. Text descriptions are instead utilized to express player communication.

The game’s music has been released in CD form several times and has been featured in Final Fantasy concerts. Some of the game’s music has been released on iTunes for download, such as the vocal “Distant Worlds”, which was released on the Japanese iTunes Music Store on September 13, 2005, having been put in the game in a July 2005 patch. A compilation CD box was released on March 28, 2007, titled Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack Premium Box, which included the four original soundtracks from Final Fantasy XI and its three expansion sets, as well as the previously unreleased tracks from the game and the unreleased Final Fantasy XI Piano Collections. Dear Friends -Music from Final Fantasy-, a 2004–2005 concert series, featured “Ronfaure” from Final Fantasy XI. A ten-track album of music inspired by Final Fantasy XI entitled Music from the Other Side of Vana’diel was released by The Star Onions on August 24, 2005.

The idea to develop Final Fantasy XI as an online game was conceived by Hironobu Sakaguchi when establishing Square Pictures headquarters in Hawaii. Impressed by western MMORPGs that he discovered there, such as EverQuest, Sakaguchi convinced Square to begin the development of their own MMORPG and suggested that it be based on the Final Fantasy series. The team responsible for Chrono Cross was assigned to the development of Final Fantasy XI after the English localization of the former title. The game was the first developed under Square’s new philosophy to develop for “all platforms and media”. Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of the game, has stated Final Fantasy XI is heavily influenced by Final Fantasy III, especially in its battle and magic systems. According to Tanaka, Square put in Final Fantasy XI what they could not put in the first Final Fantasy titles due to technical limitations, thus making Final Fantasy XI the “most [representative] Final Fantasy of all the installments”. The game was developed and ran on the Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti GPU, which the President of Square Y?ichi Wada described as the most powerful graphics processor available at the time. The game cost two to three billion yen (~$17–25 million) to create along with the PlayOnline Network Service and was assumed to become profitable over a five year timespan. By creating a unified game world instead of different ones balkanized by language, development costs were cut 66%. Since recurring monsters of the series are known by different names in the Japanese and English versions of the other installments, it was decided for Final Fantasy XI to use both Japanese and English names for different varieties of the same monsters.

It was originally announced that there would be a simultaneous release on the PlayStation 2 and PC as well as concurrent Japanese and American release, but this was later changed. There was also discussion of an Xbox release, but it was abandoned mainly because of its small 2 GB hard drive. Originally announced in January 2000 at the Yokohama Millennium Conference, there was a great deal of negative press. There were questions raised about naming the game the eleventh in the series, since it was not clear whether the game would have a structured story, which it ended up having, and the title of Final Fantasy Online was suggested. Following an August 2001 beta test in Japan, a public Japanese beta test was done in December 2001.

Following its PC release, Final Fantasy XI was listed as one of IGN’s most anticipated PlayStation 2 games of 2004. Sony launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign to promote Final Fantasy XI along with the PlayStation 2 hard drive add-on which the game required. Having been released on the PlayStation 2 as well as the personal computer, it became the first cross-platform MMORPG ever created. On June 14, 2002, the game server was down for four hours for maintenance to the database servers, bug fixes on the text interface, and a new patch for the game client. This is thought to be the first patch ever released for a console game. Other early issues included complaints by American players that experienced Japanese players had already completed all the quests. Square Enix responded by adding new servers in order to have game worlds with fewer expert players.

Final Fantasy XI is one of the first cross-console video games, and has continued to update its software to allow the game to run on new consoles. Square Enix noted that Nintendo’s use of “friend codes” was the primary reason Final Fantasy XI was not brought to the Wii. In December 2006, the PlayStation 2 versions of PlayOnline and Final Fantasy XI were able to install and run on the PlayStation 3. The Vana’diel Collection 2008 discs for the PlayStation 2 had installation issues on the PlayStation 3, causing them to be unusable. This problem was fixed on December 18, 2007 when firmware update 2.10 was released. After working with Microsoft to resolve Final Fantasy XI’s incompatibility issues with Windows Vista, Square Enix released a downloadable version of the PlayOnline client which is compatible with the operating system, although small bugs have appeared.

Players begin the game as residents of one of these three main countries, San d’Oria, Bastok and Windurst, and must help band the nations together against the resurrected Shadow Lord.

The expansion Rise of the Zilart reveals that the Crystal War and the resurrection of the Shadow Lord had been masterminded by the Zilart princes Eald’Narche and Kam’lanaut, who survived the extinction of their race. The two Zilarts plan to become Gods by opening the path to paradise, and the player is charged with thwarting their plans.

Chains of Promathia revolves around the dead Twilight God Promathia, who had originally cursed the Zilart race, and the attempts of various factions to either complete or stop his resurrection. The wyrmking Bahamut is involved in these events, and intends to destroy Vana’diel to prevent Promathia from absorbing the life of the world.

Treasures of Aht Urhgan concerns the Empire of Aht Urhgan which opens up to the nations of Vana’diel. As a new and powerful nation, it is of concern to the nation of the player, who is sent as a representative. The player then becomes embroiled in the intrigues of the Empresses court, and the growing fears of war and darkness coming to Aht Urhgan.

Wings of the Goddess primarily occurs in the era of the Crystal War, 20 years in the past from the main Final Fantasy XI setting. Players discover and cross mysterious time portals, and are led to help the Regal Feline Cait Sith reduce the suffering of the era. The Wings of the Goddess storyline is still ongoing as of 2008.

The five playable races in Final Fantasy XI are Elvaan, strong melee fighters, reasonable healers but weak in black magic; Hume, a race resembling humans, with no notable strengths or weaknesses; Galka, a race consisting of only males (they reproduce through reincarnation), strong and tough, but weak with magic; Mithra, cat-like humanoids of which only the females of the race are playable characters which are agile and dexterous but lacking in charisma, and Tarutaru, tiny humanoids with incredible power over magic, but physically weak. In addition to the player races, there are two primary non-playable races known as the Zilart, an ancient race which is the focus of the first two game expansions, and the Kuluu, a race of beings similar to the Zilart and thought to be inferior to it. There is also a huge supporting cast of NPCs who give quests and missions and appear in the game’s storylines. The game features several typical Final Fantasy monsters, including races such as the Goblin, Orc, Yagudo, and Quadav. Some of these creatures follow the Shadow Lord, a source of the game’s conflict.