#oneaday Day 141: Fantastic

I think I'm going to do it: I'm going to "run" a Final Fantasy marathon. And unlike most marathons, I'm going to include the MMOs. I already have experience of XIV and know that the main storyline for that is beatable in about the same amount of time as a "normal" RPG, but XI is a bit of a dark spot for me. I've played it several times over the years but never really got very far; I do know that its incarnation today is considerably easier and quicker than it was back when I played semi-actively, so it shouldn't be nearly as much of a timesink as it used to be.

I've actually wanted to see XI's story through for the longest time, because it's apparently really very good, especially once you get into Rise of the Zilart and beyond. It seemed a bit impractical for the longest time, however, what with how party-centric the game used to be. It was built after the Everquest rather than World of Warcraft mould, after all, so there was a strong focus on parties fighting things that would absolutely flatten a solo player.

Now, however, probably the biggest benefit to solo players is the addition of the "Trust" system. Using this, you can cast spells to summon "alter egos" — effectively copies of NPCs from throughout the main story — and they can be your party members. Most people seem to think that you can solo 99% of FFXI as it exists today using only Trusts, with only the "grand finale" to the storyline — the final battle of the Rhapsodies of Vana'Diel storyline — proving difficult for some.

As such, this means you can effectively now play FFXI like a "normal" RPG, with the fact that the Trust characters are all characters you meet and interact with in the game world only adding to this feeling. With this in mind, it's my intention to include a playthrough of FFXI's storyline up to at the very least the conclusion of the Chains of Promathia storyline, which seems to be pretty widely regarded as a particular high point. I'm not going to get involved in endgame stuff or heavily grind-heavy content — though the nature of the game means that there'll be a certain amount of grinding along the way anyhow — but I would like to see why people say the story is so good.

The reason I'm mentioning this now is that I'm conscious how old FFXI is. I know it's still enjoying a surprisingly healthy player base for a game of its age, but one day it won't exist any more. And if I haven't seen it through by then, I know I will regret it. So I'm going to make a start on recording this sooner rather than later; I won't publish it until the appropriate point in my complete marathon, however long that takes, but I'm going to get started now so there's no chance of Vana'Diel going up in smoke while I'm still pootling around Final Fantasy V or so.

If you lovely Patrons are interested, I can always put the videos up as Unlisted so you can watch them well ahead of when they'll actually be released; let me know if you're curious to see FFXI in 2019 in action! Otherwise, I'll simply start "banking" episodes and put them out at the appropriate point in the complete marathon.

I'm excited! This is an endeavour I've been meaning to undertake for many years now, and with the game in its current state, it feels like it might finally be practical. Watch this space for updates… and in the meantime I'm thinking about kicking off the marathon proper with Final Fantasy I (likely the PSP version) very soon.