#FINAL FANTASY XI PC#
#FINAL FANTASY XI SERIES#

They may have thought, “How does this character go on to achieve greatness?” or “How do these other players that I’ve formed parties with come into play in the storyline?” It seems players felt the game was quite different from past titles in this regard, and they were also faced with some anxiety arising from the fact that there were a large number of other people with them in the same world. On the other hand, in FFXI, players controlled an “ordinary” character for the first time in the series. In the FINAL FANTASY series, most of the installments follow a story in which you control a character with special powers to save the world. “What exactly is an MMORPG?” - that’s a question that I repeatedly asked myself, over and over. What was going through your head at the time while developing the series’ first MMO?

XI would take that further by bringing the experience online. Final Fantasy X’s 3D environments, voice acting and realistic character models forever changed the way players perceive a traditional Final Fantasy game. Looking back, I wish we had communicated a little better amongst the staff, including talking about personal matters, too.įinal Fantasy, at the time, was entering a brand-new era with the release of PS2.

#FINAL FANTASY XI SERIES#

Ultimately, most of the members from the Mana series team - which I was a part of - left the FFXI team for other projects, and most of the new designers ended up coming from the Chrono Cross team. Having so many people on the team was one of the reasons why the development was challenging, and I also remember it was difficult to exchange and align our views since each team had its unique development culture. Even when we transitioned from creating Super Nintendo games to PlayStation games, the number of staff on each team grew drastically but with the FFXI team we had three times that number. It was actually three teams that were originally developing titles for the PlayStation who were brought together to develop FFXI. First and foremost, let me explain how the development team was originally formed. On the contrary, I want to pat myself on the back for getting through it. Looking back today, there isn’t anything I completely regret, or anything I think on and wonder if I could have done it. On top of that, we had FFXI making its entrance as a game with its own story, world and themes - all of this combined felt like an important event, even for me on a personal level. It was already interesting that we had this new internet infrastructure with which people could exchange information on. Back then, everyone - including developers and players - were not as familiar with the internet as we are now.

#FINAL FANTASY XI PC#

What was it like launching an MMO on PC and PS2 in that time period? Looking back, was there anything you would have changed about the process? We got a chance to speak with Director Yoji Fijito and Producer Akihiko Matsui about Final Fantasy XI’s history and the legacy it leaves behind. All these years later, the game still commands a loyal player base despite a successor (Final Fantasy XIV) available on the market.

At the time, Final Fantasy XI received widespread praise thanks to its graphical capabilities, in-depth story and wide breadth of content.

Originally released in 2002, Square Enix’s first MMORPG hit the ground running on PC and PS2 with a 2006 release on Xbox 360. Final Fantasy XI today marks its eighteenth anniversary.

Final fantasy xi