My favorite memory was meeting this cute elvaan warrior girl outside of Sandoria and helping her out. We became friends. Then really good friends. Then 17 years later we've been married for 15 years and have 3 tarutarus running around our house.

Remember how frightening run to Jeuno for the first time? That feeling when safely zoning into Jeuno, that satisfaction cant find it in any other game.

No video game will ever give me the same feeling that FFXI did. So many memories after playing the game for way too many years.

Ffxi summoner class is the epitome of how that class should be. You had to go on EXTREMELY HARD personal quests to get your summons like an actual summoner. Then when you achieved that they were majorly powerful but cost a lot of mp which makes sense. And the fact that you had you had to command them as their master, along with their amazing designs will forever be imprinted in my mind as the best game play for a summoner period. Love this game! 💝💕💝💕💝💕

XI stole my heart and I'll never get it back. All of my memories from that game are still so vivid. I wish SE would make a game like this again.

My favorite memory playing FFXI is a... bloody one. I was lvl 43ish ninja lvling up just inside a cave, Gustav's Tunnel I think? It's been so long I can barely remember. We had a DPS heavy party and were able to take on the creatures just inside the cave. Suddenly someone shouted: "RUN! TRAIN!" At this point I've seen the crawler's nest so I'm thinking, "Oh, that sucks. Let's hope he doesn't come this way." Well sure enough a lvl 70ish RNG comes sprinting at us with a NM goblin named "Goblin Savior Heronox" (I'll NEVER forget his name) running behind him! Mind you, there are two other parties near the tunnel entrance and we're all fighting monsters when this RNG zones with the NM there. So our party kills our target and are wondering as to what just happened... and that's when it saw us! Goblin Savior Heronox aggros and hits our tank, 1/3-1/2 his life gone! WHM starts spamming as he tries to run, aggroes the gobby... WHAM... WHM is down. I use high tail it out of there to then see a few of the tunnel's other parties all zone outside the tunnel. "Where's everyone else?" "Go take a look, I ain't goin' back there" I zone back to the tunnel to find CLUSTERS OF BODIES scattered all about and goblin savior heronox (and his godly long agro range) growling as he aggroes me! I zone out and find about 3 parties worth of people quaking with fear outside. Several times over the course of 20 minutes people try to peek in, or stealth past only to either flee and zone out or join the increasing mountain of corpses just inside. Just hen I get an idea. I start shouting that everyone here is about lvl 41-45. He's about lvl 70ish. If we make an alliance and cycle hate through our tanks and rotate our mages for healing... we could take him! I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO TALK EVERYONE TO FORM AN ALLIANCE TO ASSAULT GOBLINSAVIOR HERONOX as we're lvl 45ish! We all zone in, find the bastard walking down the tunnel. The 1st tank musters the nerve to use VOKE and it's on! Once we realize we're able to actually damage the thing... for single digits... we actually get our spirits rallied and begin to form skillchains and magic bursts often! We had a few white mages and a red mage who would cast refresh on the MP drained mages so they could enter the rotation quicker. Two thieves were using sneak attack and trick attack to get hate back on the tank if he lost it. We managed to get the NM down to 75% and thought: "WE CAN DO THIS! LETS GOOOOO" ... ...and then he used Bomb Toss. This was the beginning of the end. You see so many people all hitting the NM fed it TP rather quickly. None of us were veterans and we didn't expect this so when the gobbie started hurling bomb toss, mages overcasting, hate getting stripped off tanks to the mages... it all went to hell. We tried to salvage the situation a couple times and even managed to use some 2 hour abilities to keep it going but we managed to get him down to about 62% health before retreating out the cave. We raised everyone and got them out the cave all proud of ourselves for the valiant attempt and talking and adding each other to our friendslist, as shedding blood against a common enemy that was "Impossible to gauge" for over an hour had forged strong bonds. No one gained EXP to level up that night but we gained something more valuable... worthy allies to call "friends". That's my favorite memory playing FFXI.

FF11 holds a special place in my heart. I met my wife playing this game over 15 years ago. Every time i hear the san d'oria music i'm flooded with memories. Thanks for making this video bud , you put a smile on my face today.

I remember dinging level 20 for the first time, my party immediately disbanding, then making the heart stopping trek to Jeuno knowing I'd level down if I died. After an extremely slow and stressful journey I finally made it, then proceeded to stay up all night doing the chocobo license quest because I was too much of a noob to realize you didn't have to do the whole thing at once. Taking that first chocobo ride back to Windurst was one of the most amazing feelings I had in the 9 years I played that game.

Climing the mountain, if you know...you know. For a part of getting hagun. Or camping for joyeuse. Ill never forget a packed vulkurn dunes shouting for a party for hours while all camps were full

Every time I log into any MMo, I am ultimately searching for a way to relive the ff11 75 cap era. Futile, but shows how much I loved 11 and its community. Svirus of Bismarck.

I can still hear the Bastok theme today. I used to love hanging out in the Dunes and Qufim as a 75 White Mage and just providing heals and revives to random teams trying to level up, when I had free time.

Best mmo there was. Really had to earn what you had and didn’t hold your hand. You felt accomplished more in this game than any other mmo

I played this game with a buddy in 2019, and the first impressions were over how grueling everything was as he tractored me everywhere. I got stories about how good I had it with the additions... I since came back this summer on my own because of my love of final fantasy, and some nagging thoughts about how I had never truly experienced the game for myself. I have to say something about ffxi is incredible and unmatched in all my experience in fantasy games. Reading notes from internet ages past to figure things out felt like an archealogical dig. This game has do many secrets still unanswered. I've got a way to go but man do I love this game.

as soon as the final story got added I went back created new character just to replay the game as story mode .. which made me tear up at the end .. over 18years of story building felt epic

The community made the game. I played in Siren and was lucky to meet a lot of different people, some that I am still very good friends with today. When I wanted to unlock my first advanced class DRK, I met a Japanese couple who knew just enough English that ended up helping me. We were leveling in the dunes as low level classes and they said they could help me. They came back as 75WHM and a 75DRK. The kindness they showed me really left a mark. Back when I played there was a bit of tension with the language barrier and "NA" players were looked down on by a lot of the "JP" players. Little things like examining a player without asking permission or just courtesy in general. That act of kindness led me to helping new players whenever I could, helping them through missions and unlocking classes. There will never be another gaming experience that comes close. The time in my life that I played it and the sense of wonder it created will forever be a cherished memory. Cidain from Siren!

This is a game that's hard for me to even think about. Finishing CoP was so hard. I was one of the leaders on my server that helped hundreds of people complete Promyvions. It was one of the happiest memories I'll carry until my death. There's no appreciation I can show to the creators of this game to extend my thanks for the sheer joy and fulfillment this game gave me.

I was 4 when it released in the US. I've had my account active on and off for those 20 years. I have 2 characters where every single class is 99 maxed with a lot of the best gear for each. I have about 3.8k hours in the game in those 20 years. I still play. I love it so much. Though it's more on and off now I go back because of how much love passion and effort I put into the game throughout the years. It's what got me into final fantasy.

FFXI is one of the games I have wanted to play the most in my life. Although I've never played it, it fills me with extreme nostalgia whenever I see gameplay or hear the music. I bought a copy of the game when it was on sale recently, but life has been too busy for me to sit down and start. When you mentioned there is still an active player base it gave me hope for when I play. When the day comes, I hope to find a place in this wonderful community, and finally be able to say that I've played 11. Thank you for the wonderful video

75 era FFXI is the best time I have ever had playing a video game. Shoutout to Odin server. Distant worlds together.

I think my favorite moments of FFXI is whenever we had a "non standard" party and made it work. One time we couldnt find a RDM or BRD for an xp party so we brought 2 WHM (+1 tank and 3 melee) and had one of us (aka me) sub BRD for ballad 1. It worked pretty well.

Hades 2003-2007 ish. Fribaud mnk/war/nin. I miss this game all the time. There was something utterly epic about every fight, sometimes even just leveling parties where you accidentally get adds and the tank goes down but you land a timely provoke and a sleep and somehow someway survive. I remember dynamis as possibly the best end game dungeon crawl. The music, oh good god the music still brings me back. Sky was so beautiful. The friendships, the story. Ugh. To go back in time. May Altana watch over you adventurer. Long live Vana'diel

I miss 75-era FFXI. I was absolutely addicted and loved that game more than any others I have ever played. I am still in touch with people I met playing the game. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. ❤

I tell everyone XI is my all-time favorite MMO. If I could go back and experience it all again for the first time I would do it in a heartbeat. No other MMO has quite captured the love I had for that game. Post-Abyssea the game just never felt the same. I recently started playing on a private server, HorizonXI, and it has come really close to capturing the magic of launch. It's a 75 Era server and I'm loving it. I was so happy when I booted it up, it was like I finally returned home.

There will never be a game that replaces FFXI in my heart 😭❤️

True fact : mastering PlayOnline is indeed the first notorious monster (NM) of the game🙃

Thanks for the nostalgia video! it makes me so happy that people love this game so much! i loved this game man! i played on ragnorak server, started as an elvaan in sandoria, 75 and lower levels were sooooo much fun and challenging, it made it so people group together more often for quests and fights, then level sync became a thing and it made parting so much easier because you didnt need to find people who were your level. Also there wasnt godly gear like there is now where you can solo probably everything in the game lol, i played since 2004 with my 2 brothers and tons of our friends but since 2010 most of our friends quit same with most of our linkshell we had full, so we were able to do less and less, but yeah there was only 10 of us left in 2010, so we recruited more people to our linkshell and kept helping each other, the expansions were hell or atleast some of them were. the limit breaks were fun and hard too, same with getting the higher spells like tier 3/4 single elemental spells, 2/3 ga spells and ancient spells such as quake, i started out as a damage dealer (warrior) and then moved to monk, but when abyssea came out i switched to healer (white mage) because my linkshell wanted to be the damage :P then i picked up black mage for spell procing, i remember doing dynamis at 75 and geez we got destroyed trying to do the zone boss for the clears lol, when i picked up beast master there wasn't all these alter ego's so it was so much fun, charming even matches and taking down incredibly tough with 2 EM lol and actually needing to worry about the charm ability landing, so had to focus artifact gear for more charm, always needing to get reraise earrings off auction house, i remember astral flow parties in korroloka tunnel lol, i remember fighting over valkrum emperor for the earring, farming slime jelly for gil, doing burning circles for spells and gp, i remember the shadow lord for rank 6 in nations was a pain depending on job for 75's. the sad thing is now a days alot of people only do end game type content, and with alter ego's dont really need others to play with in order to do anything anymore, which made it bad to try to play socially wise, i tried getting back into it a few times since 2020, but it's not the game i fell in love with all those years ago, (yes technically it is but the challenge is gone), i wish they'd make it so you could play on a 75 cap server for the old versions of it, but that'd be more work for the devs, i dont think they'd do it tbh. campaign battles used to be extremely challenging even with an alliance of 75 players, (with 2 or 3+ groups of enemies coming to attack the base). last time i tried playing it was start of this year, played for about a month and canceled subscription again, but kept my accounts to not lose all the stuff i did incase i want to play those again, sometimes i would just sit in nyzul isle and listen to the music, that music was so awesome, even today i listen to it all the time through youtube (the forbidden seal), as far as 2018 i had completed everything i could, capped all my skills (combat, magic) got my cooking to cap think it's 100 lol kind of dont pay attention to the level since i didnt get skill ups for a while, did all the missions (all nations, expansions) all non repeatable quests i could do, got all spells, the only thing i never did was chocobo circuit (think that was all i never did lol) i had 2 friends i played with on there since 2006 but they stopped playing in 2016 when one of my friends (of the 2) passed away due to cancer, and her husband quit playing because he played mostly with her and they finished everything same as i did, so he didnt have an urge to play anymore, i had amazing fun times with this game! i was born in 91 so this was my childhood growing up :P this and runescape. but yeah. i think if i could find people to play this with again who were friendly and helpful to each other than i think i'd come back and play is a ton more, but til that day comes i'll probably come back to it like once a year til i lose the excitement of nostalgia. thank you very very much for making this video :P makes me relaize i'm not the only one who loves the older days of this legendary game!

HorizonXI is a new private server that pretty much recreates FFXI when NA first got access. Very fun and nostalgic!

There will never be a game like ffxi in it's early days; the ambiance, the magic and mystery could be felt form the get go. My friends were my teachers and eventually I became one. Countless unique experiences especially hunting nms for their bountiful booty. The enigmas and strategies were endless. This game is pure nostalgia that it almost hurts that I cannot go back and relive those days ...great video now I'm crying 😭 haha shout out to those who were on Lakshmi!

ffxi / cop was my first MMO, i still remember to this day the moment when i completed COP missions and got my ring, it was so satisfying i just sat back in my chair completely happy haha. i'm going down memory lane lately, and planning on trying the horizon private server in a few weeks. got a static to progress with and do all the missions, can't wait

Immersion, teamwork, sense of dread, the feeling that every step was a challenge overcome.

The 75-era of XI was the best example of proper horizontal mmo design I've ever found including up to today. I'm still waiting for another game to understand how important loops like that are to the more extreme gamers of the mmo community.

This game was the only good times I can remember having with my abusive workaholic dad lol. He would use the controller while I handled the keyboard (Xbox 360). Eventually when I got my first character he handed me a million gil and said I had to roll a whm and sell teleports to make back the money. A week later he runs by me trying to sneak past mobs in yutungha jungle to get to where I can unlock samurai and he stops and he's like wtf are you doing out here! I'm tryna unlock my samurai! You're supposed to be leveling your whm! I don't wanna be a white mage DAD I wanna be a SAM/RNG!!!! I can only imagine chat was laughing pretty hard.

Favorite memory? It comes from the difficulty and trauma of CoP. A buddy of mine and myself had struggled being the second best options for our job slots in the LS, and before the first adjustment, Promy-Holla was brutal. He was 0 for 45 in the fight, I was 0 for 30, both of us were unmoored in life, in our early 20s and suffering depression. Getting that win, then having the cutscene and zoning into Lafuse Meadows at dawn, seeing that vista from the opening... Man. I think we spent half an hour just crying. Rydiah, if you are out there, I hope everything turned out as well for you as it did for me. And in that emotional state, all the quests in the Safehold just hit so hard. That one with the married couple processing the death of their daughter? Man, few movies have stuck with me like that. I think it was for access to a map. Damn ffxi, it dug deep into the heart.

Cerberus from the beginning here. I'm still trucking after all these years. The moogle is back, and he told me I have died 4416 times since I been playing, haha.

One of my favorite activities was a linkshell level 1 run to Jeuno race. That was terrifying and fun as hell. I also remember camping Leaping Lizzy for two years, killing it over and over again as /THF and getting nothing, only to finally get the drop when I went BRD/WHM. So much for Treasure Hunter.

My best moments were 2 lv 75's helping us to get key's for our AF's. It was a scary time cause un-dead were everywhere. We hand to constantly sneak and invis ourselves looking for AF chest! Feeling super useless and scared was a common thing! Played since 2003 and been on and off, still playing today!

FFXI was truly my favorite game of all time. I played Runescape Classic on PC & Everquest Onlne Adventures on my PS2 using the network adapter. But, once I installed that HDD on my PS2 & jumped into Vanadiel, that was a truly revolutionary experience. Nothing compares. I had left FFXI for World of Warcraft at its release and did enjoy my time there, but now do regret leaving FFXI. I have played on private classic servers a few months at a time & enjoyed it, but it doesn't compare to it being a truly new experience with thousands of people around. Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, though akin to Everquest moreso than FFXI, is the only MMO that I really am excited for since they seem to be bringing back that old school difficutly.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for 75 era FFXI. It trumped FF14 so hard

“Father of three little Moogles.” Such an adorable mental image. I want to start playing FFXIV once I get a PC. But I’m interested in learning more about FFXI as well. It’s cool that the game has been going for twenty years. It must be something real special.

Pandemonium here. My second home that i'll always remember, and miss.

Ffxi was and is the only mmorpg where I made actual friends in game as well as client base for the tradeskills I leveled. As well the multiple linkpearls idea was amazing. Having one for friends, story quests, raids, lfg. So much better than one guild limitations. The system I miss most was the skill chain and MB system. No other mmo has class interaction like ffxi did. Having to learm and understand your role while coordinating a plan really had benefits. Landing a good SC with a solid MB to close was such a.good feeling.

I remember being 10 years old I was a level 7 Elvaan WAR in West Ronfare when this Hume male comes running past me screaming "HELP!". He was a level 3 Red Mage getting chased by 3 Orcs so I took the aggro of all 3 and he cured me through the fight. 75 Era was no joke cause I was lucky my sword skill was capped from my previous time as a red mage as well or else I woulda whiffed the fight. We beat the three orcs with very low hp (and a speed lesson in the /help command for the last orc he aggroed cause he was out of mp to heal me). We got to talking at one of the campfires and he said he was probably gonna log off and quit but thanks for the help and I said "Hang on a minute, You're only level 3 and have a bronze dagger, you need a better weapon follow me" so we went into south sandy to the weapon shop. When we got there he found out he was about 200 Gil short to get himself a bronze sword so I just bought it for him. We spent the next 6 hours grinding in west/east Ronfare til we both hit level 10. He thanked me for helping him understand the mechanics better and he was absolutely in love with the games party mechanics. Fast forward 6 months later and we are sitting in Khazam. I'm a level 33 WAR. He was a 75 SMN/WHM. I was only able to play on weekends at my moms and my buddy (Nickimo) was way older and had more free time. I told him I might not ever get my favorite class in the game (summoner) cause of how often I got to play like he did, but what he did I'll never forget. He took the staff off his back and gave it to me (a 3 million Gil staff mind you) "I believe in you Letherion, just like you believed in me all the time ago in Ronfare." I still have the staff. I'm a 99 summoner with almost all of the Aeons. Life came up and we both quit the game after 4 years (I eventually came back for the 99 Era) but we never got each other's contact info. Nickimo, wherever you are, I hope you are in good health my friend. Thank you for being the first friend to make me feel like I'm capable of achieving anything I want. Gilgamesh server forever!

2:20 I did what you'd do in any other RPG. I systematically went and talked to EVERY SINGLE NPC in Bastok... Yeah... I had a lot of quests I was no where near ready to do. You need a GPU with hardware TnL. I rented a PC from rentacenter to install XI. Had to save up and buy a $40 GPU to drop into it. :D The risk vs reward in XI was amazing. Satisfying things are difficult to attain. The horizontal progression, the story, the characters, the pure amount of things to do at any given time, the community... For so many reasons, XI will always be the gold standard for MMOs to me and forever hold a place in my heart.

I was on Ramuh server back from 2002-2007. Was a red haired Elf called Xcaliber. This game was the first game that REALLY sucked me in. I didn't even want to play the game because Socom was so huge at the time (and also the reason i actually got XI - it came pre-installed on the PS2 HDD, which I specifically ordered for something Socom related). I, like many others, figured i'd try the 30 day free trial and never looked back. My best Videogame memories are from playing XI back then. The community, the way if you were a jerk the entire server knew and wouldn't invite you to parties, the teaming up with other LS's to get peoples AF gear, first time going to Sky and watching the epic teleport cutscene (or the 2nd best thing, getting your Moon pass), Going from the guy who looked up to other players to becoming the player other's looked up to... It was the best time to be a gamer.

This is the best game I ever played, and I find it very hard to pick up again. Playing FFXI might well be the happiest days of my life and to pick it up now in my 30s when I have responsibilities is not something I'm interested in. That being said, I will take these days with a mixture of joy and that undeniable sadness knowing that it will be hard to recapture the happiness of my youth.

This game dominated my life from 04-06. Was in a LS that was one of the first on the server to get to Sea. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

hey man i used to play on hades as well. had a good community on there. one of my favorite parties i ever had, and still to this day i talk to these guys about it, i was a taru BLM in crawlers nest. our puller left and we couldnt find one to replace him. so i said "F it il pull" we were getting good exp. altho i was getting my face beat in XD. then i pulled the whole zone and wiped us all. 15+ years later i still talk to the same people that were there with me that fateful night. FFXI will never be replaced in the hearts of everyone that got to experience it durning its golden era. Thank you for everything

this game was something special

I still remember navigating my way to Juno as a level 10. I look up maps online and planned a route, asking people on my linkshell for any advice. It was very magical seeing all the high level geared players running around. I couldn't stay of course, but it inspired me to level up and get artifact gear. Really was another life

This game had the best summons of any mmo. Though the class went through a long rough patch and sometimes it took longer to get a party than the party even lasted, I will never forget those summons.

First trip running to the dunes with no map, no sub jobs, no chocobo, 20 years ago- ABSOLUTELY a rite of passage

I played on Alexander when FF 11 was at its peak in 2007. The danger aspect was brilliant, and traversing the map was definitely an adventure. I miss my BLM/WHM. I played until the level 80 cap.

Incredible experience, no MMORPG I've played has come even close.

If you're interested there is a private server called HorizonXI coming out 12/17/22 it will be set in the 75 Era.

This is what I loved about XI. I was invited to a LS before I even had a subjob, and I pretty much stayed with them until the day i finally stopped playing. We did a lot of stuff together, they helped me with my AF coffer keys, limit break quests, rank missions, you name it, and every time someone needed a hand, I was happy to help because people would go out of their way to spend hours helping me. Hell, one night I was camping Charybdis just trying to get a rough time of when his window would be open so I could ask for help, didn't even need to, the moment I said he was up, every single person who was online dropped everything, and came over to help me kill him.

honest to god my favorite thing about this game are the character bazaars. as a new player back when I ran my dad mule account, to even now playing current retail, I still find it awesome to sift through what people are selling, or even checking out their gear. and I’ve never had this feeling playing other MMOs like XIV, WoW or Albion. Another aspect is the sound effects, no other game has SFX like FFXI and I will go as far as saying that there isn’t another SFX in VG history that compares to casting Utsesmi, or casting white magic. hell, BRDs songs breeze through triple A title OSTs God, don’t even get me started on PlayOnline. Love or hate it, it was amazing idc. From having tracks like Dolphin and Space play as soon as you open the viewer and log in, to exploring the other content it had to offer with other AMAZING tracks like Filter Branch. I mean shit, before I owned XI on steam I had (and still do) all the discs, and downloading FFXI would take days. not that I really cared because we had the aforementioned tracks constantly playing. To me, FFXI is the epitome of MMOs. in fact, I think it’s the only game to have done MMOs right. despite retail being a grind fest to 99 so you can “start playing the game”, it still has a good chunk of its charm, the story, even early expansions like Zilart, CoP, ToAU and WoTG hold up to this day as great stories. Also FFXI has the hardest fight in the history of games with Absolute Virtue, even after it’s nerfs lmao. (Irrelevant but to think no other MMO has attempted an Absolute Virtue fight is funny) There’s a lot of bias that went into this post but I’ll be damned if I compromise my feelings for XI. there’s a reason I cry when I hear any of the Vana’Diel Marches, Bustle of the Capitol (whitegate), Grand Dutchy of Jeuno and etc

75-era FFXI was peak video gaming for anyone lucky enough to have been there with adequate free time and patience to enjoy this MMO. I can't get hyped about new games anymore. FFXI was a once-in-a-lifetime event. I still listen to the excellent soundtrack often.

Started playing in 2004 and never played a mmo before ,The closest i come to multi play was quake 3 arena on the dreamcast and PC. I played previous FF games and decided to try this and went from 1-10 and i remember forcing my brother to play it and deleting my level 10 char to remake a new one with him. We went through every part of the proccess from camping hnm to sea/sky farming to doing vrtra and kimmy and forged a social friendship with the server and all the players in it. Was a unforgetable time and me and my brother will treasure it forever. Hello Kupo LS from pandemonium/asura.

I played WHM because I died so many times at lower levels and I felt terrible so I would go around raising random people so they didn't need to start at a homepoint. Sometimes I would impromptu power level people because I would see them struggling to kill mobs. It was an epic time.

I remember getting the game a few days after NA release with a buddy of mine. We started Hume characters in Bastok and were both melee characters, after leveling up to around LVL 12 as a duo in North Gustaberg, we discovered Palborough Mines and were killing our way through its lower levels. We came across a large section with no monsters so we just kept on exploring, not knowing that someone had killed all the mobs there that would have been too much for us, by the time it caught up to us we were on the third floor surrounded by monsters that were all Incredibly Tough and didn't know what to do. After sitting there for like 15 minutes, afraid to move for fear of aggroing the IT mobs and dying, a LVL 50 Redmage named Isengard came through and freed us, showing us the way out safely. At the time, it was so impressive and we were in awe of his abilities, and the fact that he was so helpful made a huge difference. He invited us to his linkshell and we both stayed in that linkshell for 5 years and became pillars of a decently large LS that went on to do lots of fun group activities. I have so many fond memories of organizing fun events like LVL 1 races from Windy to Bastok for prize money, or various other silly challenges that were a blast. The game changed a lot over the years, but the difficulty and comradery created because of that difficulty are unmatched. FFXI was the game that made me realize that the harder the journey to achieve something, the sweeter the reward feels, which I think led me to playing and enjoying Dark Souls games.

Can't believe this video received so many views - i've really enjoyed reading all of your stories in the comments, thank you all so much for writing them out. Due to the amount of people mentioning Horizon XI, I'm going to try and find time to give it a go :) Character name will be: Aether

This brought back soooo many memories. FFXI is and always will be the GOAT for me.

That Hakutaku clip gave me crazy memories. My LS was doing runs for a bunch of people and I was way down the que to pop mine. Since it took so long (the fight, waiting for respawn ???, preping) people were getting tired and started to die more and more often as the night went on. I started to panic cuz my pop was coming up soon and the last 1 or 2 fights were dicey and almost wiped. My turn finally came and my heart was pounding cuz I really wanted that damn hat. We ended up killing it and when I finally got the O hat, man it was such a good feeling.

I spent so many hours/days camping Leaping Lizzy and Jaggedy Eared Jack. Oh man the good ol days.

The game is still alive purely because SE wants to keep it alive. The subscriptions no longer make any profit but at this point keeping the current servers running costs SE very little as to the age and data usage of the game. They are even considering moving it to cloud so keeping the servers running will cost nothing. This is the unquie situation for games with netcode designed for dialup, they use so little bandwidth with small populations, they drop below the minimum rent price for ISPs and server providers.

Excellent vidéo! Haven’t played the game in over 8 years but still listen to soundtrack to slip back into Vanadiel every now and then. Always amazing how soothing this game can still make me feel.

Goodness where do I even begin… I have to say 75 cap sky days. Leveling in Ro’Maeve. I’ll never forget my first party in Ru’Avitau…. And the endless sky farming (before the RMT’s showed up in mass hordes) Anyone else remember the endless battle for Ullikummi claiming?

My fondest memory was being in lower jueno one morning with a few LS members and we'd all just done one of the seasonal events where you got a mochi that turned you into a tarutaru child. We all popped our sweets and proceeded a slow march through lower jueno until we had about 50 of us all in a line just doing laps, i was laughing so hard i nearly wet myself but it was little things like that that made xi such an amazing experience.

Fondest memory - Getting the thief knife drop a few days after getting 75thf (first lv 75). I went 1/7. I told my linkshell and within minutes people from all over the server and various linkshells(lots i didn't even know), were whispering to me, even though i hadn't broadcast the drop in the open. It was that moment that i realized how special the FFXI community was. Nothing else is/was/nor will ever be the same. At the time, the knife was going for about 250M gil... - Zeratul (Odin).

Servers like eden and wings provide as close to era as you can get right now that have solid populations. I play on eden myself and have been for a year and a half now. The biggest thing is that ffxi had was that it was a horizontal MMORPG, where you had a ton of gear that was used for different things, like weaponskilling, casting black magic against certain enemies etc.

It's been so long when I was 14, I was a rdm/blk mage being a warrior was dope Im gonna start it up again one day 😇😇

Great video! You really captured my experience with the game so perfectly. You could probably (if you haven't already) make "The dark side of FFXI" things like boosting, gold buying, HNM spawns windows and competition, selling teleports, AH manipulation, LS drama etc.

Wow...the memories and feels this little video bought back. Far too many to list, so just a simple thank you for this video!

Bismarck server... 41 rdm and Invitega before bard was around. leaving my PS2 on for YEARS always AFK in Juno. Friends I made in game who no longer play but who I still talk to. The 75 cap days of this game had a world that felt so big. Most modern MMO's feel small despite all the zones because at cap level you can fly and explore with minimal risk in most areas of the game. 11 could an would kill you even at cap level and the cost of exp made it feel like a loss so the world still felt daunting. I miss this game and the people that made it what it was. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, and for the knowledge I'm not alone in how i feel about it.

Ochiudos kote...hagun...haubergeon...soboro...black belt...kirins osode...byakkos haidate...ridill...kraken club...amanomurakumo....capping parrying...skillchains...magic burst...elementals meaning something... I dont miss the waiting of FFXI, I do miss the depth and complexity with each and everything in the game having its own quest and struggle. It's own HNM or pyramid NM in sky and sea. Everything took effort to achieve and everything had a story...these days are long past though. We are in the era of handouts and hollow rewards. The word grind is synonymous with 5 minutes of candy crush level story content. Nostalgia has become a poison I wish I could clean from my soul. I do hope before I log out in real life, the cycle comes back around to our era and we get to enjoy one last sip of ambrosia.

you might love the Horizon XI version. its a remade version replicating the 75 cap old days. i cant wait to try it when its released

We may be from different servers, Bismarck here, but our time in the trenches was very similar I am sure. But those people we met and the relationships we created are something you cannot simulate in a video game. It was a moment in time.

Making friends with a random japanese player who didn't speak english, because I played in the middle of the night. But the auto translate was good enough to let you play pretty damn well across a language barrier. On a PS2 game. He was constantly astounded at how much of the game I could solo for him. Or duo with him just putting buffs on me.

I miss eleven, but it's so old and dated now. And I've been spoiled by newer games UI, and quality of life features. If they remade 11 with all new controls, UI, and features, but kept the same content, game, and playstyle, I'd come back immediately.

From Hades "Nemezar" Still playing on Cerby. I feel 11 was not just difficult in the early days, it was realistic, traveling to one place to another took ages, earning money took ages, looking to do something always took many of your resources. Always found myself broke in game and in life, I think it seemed so natural to me.

I went to Hades after the Fenrir merge. Going through CoP was still the most satisfying entertainment arc I have ever been through. Text and alarms on the phone are still from FFXI and I don't plan on changing them.

I camped leaping lizzy haha never did succeed until when they switched the drop to bounding boots. Lots of excellent memories. My favorite being up early before school to play with a high level Japanese player who befriended me and helped me with sooooo many quests and was so generous and kind. We communicated almost entirely with the auto translate which was such a blessing. Shout out to Liot from Titan server.

I really want officially supported 75 era FFXI. I was on Cerberus and will never forget the good years.

The trail of tears (trail of dead bodies) outside of Selbina when first journeying there to get the hp… That was my first significant memory of ffxi.

I played this game back at the end of abyssea era, wich was a kind of experience closer to the classic era than now, I supose. We had a small brazilian community there on Bahamut, with our own blog, podcasts, skype calls, etc etc. It was very lively and we felt really connected with each other. We needed each other after all, since it was a very social mandatory game. Oh, yeah, about the lore, I could easily say this game has the most complete world mythology I've ever seen on a FF game. I mean, FFXIV has a lot of narratives and storylines, but not the same level of world build as FFXI, that's for sure. I miss those times, I mean, it's possible to replicate with a bunch of friends and a private server, but I don't have the time anymore, at least for now, maybe someday.

I remember my brother playing this game back on the PS2 and I used to watch since I wasn't allowed to play. It seems like I missed out on a great Era of mmo that I would love to experience with others.

Hades! YES! My name was Andrev. About the only people I remember went by the names Meian and Vece. Everything you said, I've said too. I've been trying to replicate the experience but nothing compares. Especially to the Dunes. Everyone's favorite AND most hated memories. Level 13 The Dunes is where we made our first true friendships and alliances.

Plenty of really good private server options with strong populations. If you feel strongly about 11 and don't want to play the retail version of the game, get in here! The classic experience is alive and well on Eden and some others. You don't need to be hardcore to enjoy the game as it was either. Take the dive and try it out, it's just as good as you remember.

Played on Hades as Ozrox before the Cerberus merger. 75 SAM, WAR, MNK & PLD. Colibri camps were the go to in the era when I first quit. Still playing on and off to this day. Good video, what a throwback :D

Never got beyond Lv 14. The grind was just too heavy for me back then who hated leveling. But me and a friend did journey to Jeuno. It was a treacherous and amazing journey and we saw lot of amazing things.

Xi is one of a kind of mmo at lvl 75

I’ve relived it on private servers and had a blast, but my most memorable memory will always be my first run out into west ronf taking 20 minutes to kill a bunny. My name was Soulclaimer and some guy messaged me and said are you here to claim my soul? I can’t remember his name now but we were good friends on the game for a while!

Man some of my best memories from the 75 days we like getting Argus and x's knife. Floor 100 nyzul. Soloing blm to 75 on beastmen pets was good too. To many to mention. Like everytime I got examined and a msg. I still go back to ffxiah to look at my character. Sludge kujata.

Cheers from someone (Fzz) who started out on Hades :D ! The merger with Cerberus was quite something at the time.. still play FFXI on and off now and then, especially during free access weeks like now :) although it is finished today, I resubbed with my main char.

was in a legit top level endgame LS in the 75 era. best experience, unreplicatable. the things we saw...

I played on Ramuh during CoP, ToAU, and WotG. I was a 75whm. My favorite memory was dressing in low level gear, going /anon with the LFG flag up (it made your name white instead of blue for anon), then running around the dunes pretending to be a noob, then out of nowhere cast a Cure V or Protect IV on someone after they’ve been thinking I was their level the whole time. Then the flood of PL? /tells would come rushing in.

Ahh When SE captured lightning in a bottle. The game that ignited my love for MMO's and haven't been able to find a MMO that measures up since... that includes WOW and 14.

Lvl 55 limit break quest. Had two alliances, ran through beaucedine glacier killing everything. Felt so good after being stomped on for so long.

Just started a 2nd FFXI character recently because I skipped too much story the first time and wanted to experience the game fully this time. FFXI has some of the best stories in MMO history. I competitively raided in FFXIV and WoW but XI has real story telling and rewarding, complicated combat. I love this game.

So many memories.. I'll never forget how I botched the mission 5-2 Shadow Lord fight the first time. After successfully sneaking through the castle and getting to the throne room, everyone else in the party enters and I.. can't. Turns out I forgot to talk to an NPC. I felt so terrible like I'd just wasted everyone's time, but the rest of the party decided to give it a go anyway. Some of the party died during the fight, but they still were victorious, and I was at least able to raise the fallen once the battle was over. Much later (and much higher level), I was helping a friend through the Zilart missions. We went in to The Celestial Nexus mission with the expectation that I would tank as RDM/NIN. I could solo the Shadow Lord at that point and thought I could do Eald'narche too. Spoiler, I couldn't. I was not as skilled as I thought I was. But before things got too dire we managed to turn things around. My friend became the tank as a THF/??? (I forget what he subbed, probably NIN too) while I just stood back and kept him alive. But they aren't all memories of screw ups. I remember getting the Eco-Warrior quests down to a science such that all you needed was 4-5 people. 2-3 SMN, a THF, and someone to just clear the path to the spawn point. That person of course had to remain uncapped, but we discovered that if they go back to the entrance and get capped and just wait, they'll still be able to get credit for the win. Then the THF pops Perfect Dodge, spawns the mob(s), and the SMN use Astral Flow at the exact same time. After everyone at the spawn point tagged it to get credit, someone would then escort the first escorter down so they could get credit. We most often did Windurst which could be done with 2 SMN, but either Bastok and/or San d'Oria required 3. I also remember in one of the level 30 Promyvions how I ended up saving the day. We've almost defeated the boss when suddenly the tides turn and it looks like we're going to lose after getting so close. So I do the only thing I could do at that point. I run right into the middle of the fight, use Benediction, and then just stand there. Because at that point, my life is already forfeit. Running would only cause the boss to chase me, which then my party members would have to chase it. 1-2 hits later I fall, but my sacrifice plus the full heal it provided gave us enough time that we managed to win. And while I'm grateful they eventually got rid of the caps, at the time it was released the capped zones was one of the things I loved about Chains of Promathia. It allowed it to be a challenge while not restricting it to only high level characters.