20th Anniversary Expectations...

showing us 2 pieces of Empy gear and maybe 1 weapon instead of... PLEASE WAIT AGAIN

we already had this


One order of large curly fries coming soon from the squareenix store for $299.99.

Play Arts Fry

So just so we're clear, it's officially the anni, and there is no new ring. (not exemplar, just a new CP ring)

The one thing I expected, they didn't even *** do.

Its fake love. XIV gets the Curly Fry promo, we got stuck with the damn Crinkle Cut Fries.

The Uniqlo FF shirts are out today (in the US). Online they still have S M L for the FFXI one: https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/products/E449084-000/00?colorDisplayCode=56&sizeDisplayCode=005&pldDisplayCode=000. Should also be available in-store.

Price is $19.90 USD + $7.99 standard shipping or free in-store pickup on online orders. I ordered one and had it shipped (despite having a couple large Uniqlo stores near me), said it would arrive in about a week.

The anniversary just killed the game for me, i have no more hope for a new expansion or new zones, i think this is it for me, il prolly log in each VR mission update and i will finally uninstall and never look back, it was real fun for a long time until 2018.

Sad state square for killing the game that healed 14's failure.

Calm down buddy

I'm disappointed but I mean we all knew SE started sucking on customer appreciating like 8 years ago. Just enjoy the mild content throw up and struggle with V25 when it comes out

I do want to say one thing to SE

Damn looks like they only ship to USA else I’d be all over that

Comes to Europe on the 27th

Its pretty depressing tbh. I think this marked a very important and sad turning point for this game.

Nothing changed, you just finally noticed


It's not dead!
It's 14's fault!
If we buy more mog wardrobes!

You're now in the sadboi phase.

Most of us saw the writing on the wall but the company kept saying to wait for this announcement and we would be surprised. I really wanted an expansion or maybe a bigger road map or something substantial to make the game more accessible to more players like ease of login or bundling the subs again for 14 and 11. I can only see more sub bleeding given how abysmally slow they are in releasing content. They dont even address the many problems facing the game... it just doesnt have a good outlook atm. I can see why people would consider quitting after this in all honesty, most of what they announced was 100% expected and probably keep things going for a year or two depending on how grindy the new wpns are but most wont stick around. If what we have now wasnt enough for an expansion, those hopes probably gone.

I can only imagine the JP players are content with how the game is and they just play 14 or something during the huge 6 to 8 month content droughts.


Def is 14s fault and SE.

The FFXI team has made very clear this entire celebration has been about looking back, not looking forward. I fear XI doesn't have the brightest of futures ahead with the current leadership of Square-Enix.

I actually do think they wanted to tell us more about the game's future, but the people in charge of the money are straight up not interested in the idea of video games anymore.

Final NFT XI, where you can get your cryptobro license at level 20

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I seriously wouldn't doubt if they do give give FFXI the "remake" treatment as a means to test the idea of a Blockchain-centric MMORPG.

The game's already halfway there: one person using 6 computers to commit work for a 1-in-1000 chance to earn a non-fungible purple jacket for their video game character.

Play to earn models already sort of exist. (I know jack ***about it, I just keep seeing mentions)

But the concept of blockchain verification would be neat (but I think impossible) it would completely halt dupes, but how would you confirm drops.

https://playtoearn.net/blockchaingames/All-Blockchain/MMORPG/All-Status/All-Device/All-NFT/All-PlayToEarn/All-FreeToPlay

I unsubscribed last month, and leading up to that I was asked about the 20th Anniversary. Would I not feel like I’m missing out? I said no. I could come back in a year and maybe we’ll have some content which may be interesting for a few months, but am holding my breath on that.

I have no interest in grinding out Odyssey. No interest in grinding out master levels. Prime weapons? We have enough weapons. Half of them won’t beat what we already have, or if they’re all stronger than what we have? It will cause a shitstorm. There’s just too many weapons to think about introducing more. They should have refined the choices we already have, to dare I say... bring some balance? Empyrean ARMOR reforged is long overdue! But I bet it won’t be fun.

What this game needs is more content, new areas, new enemies, story content which doesn’t take 1-2 years to complete, alliance fights, having a point to visit old areas, quality of life updates, and dare I say it? Competence from the higher ups. As Ruaumoko said:


They introduce content like Odyssey, which encourages players having many jobs geared, then they bring out all those wardrobes to double the subscription fee. Then it talks about the past at length, while learning no lessons from it. RMT and bots still roam free and show how little care/resources the staff of the game has to police it.

I talked to a GM on my last day (took me to Mordion Gaol) and he was in high spirits. After putting my Royal Chocobo Beret in my inventory (SE had neglected to send it and only noticed because I spammed the forum), we talked about a few things, and one thing which struck me was how the bots keep the GMs “very busy”. I kept my cool, because the guy had been accommodating and I didn’t want to be rude, but yeah sure... very busy indeed.

And then you have the 20th year anniversary merchandise. Stupidly overpriced. So they charge us extra for space, and then they charge excessively for merch to celebrate a game which has lined their pockets so well for 20 years. But don’t get me wrong, I love this damn game. FFXI has been a wonderful experience. The players have made it special. We’ve done so much together and had many laughs.

But there has always been that one thing lurking in the background. A very disappointing corporate structure, which if it cared even slightly? Would be lethal. The Final Fantasy series could be way more lucrative if the guys at the top actually cared and knew what they were doing. Those who work further down? Sure. There is clearly love from those who develop and look after the games, but the guys in suits running the show couldn’t give twenty flying Chocobo’s.

If anyone anywhere thought for a second that this anniversary was going to be worthwhile, you were kidding yourselves. I love this game to death, but no way was it ever getting the same love that we, the players, have shown it for 20 years. We are the only people in this world who really do this game justice. Together, we took a game which was clunky, annoying, faulty, and many other things, but we made it ours. It became a huge part of our lives. Celebrate it in your own way, with the friends you have made, and expect nothing else from SE. Not now, or ever. You’ll be less disappointed.

Page 24 was better than this nonsense.

it's a 20 year old ps2 mmo. i don't know what some of you expected.

It really does feel like the publisher is wringing us out for a bit more short-term profit. None of this money ever goes back to the game. It's very disappointing.

I honestly do think that the devs care. They've spent the last couple of months looking back in a genuine way. They probably couldn't look forward because they don't know what to expect. Maybe (though likely not) they even did have something cool to announce today, but it was pulled out from under them to make way for whatever the publisher has in the pipeline.

I dunno. I just really don't trust Square-Enix at all.

XI one sold out... didn't think i had to camp the site, jeeze. See, expansion would have sold out too. Guess have to get it on ebay

I think people hyped themselves up and expected everything on a certain date. I recall a time when we were worried they couldn't even make a cutscene because of old dev kits. Haven't heard much about that since TVR came out.

I said this back in March after seeing a common trend in their comments about the anniversary.



Sometimes you have to read between the lines of what they AREN’T saying. They never promised anything or even advertised anything like new zones or monsters. That was all the red flags I needed to see.

I've been playing off and on since 2005 and lost faith in corporate SE a long long time ago. I keep looking for a better game for me out there because this one is definitely dying but I haven't found one yet.

Words that describe SE treatment of FFXI over the years:

Masochistic
Greedy
Disinterested
Out of touch
Cheap
Clueless

THEY WERE ABLE TO MAKE NEW MISSIONS WITH ACTUAL CUT SCENES IN THE VR QUESTS AND BATTLE *** FIELDS THAT PHASES YOU OFF PLAYERS LIKE JESUS STOP WITH SAYING PS2 LIMITATIONS JUST STOP.

They could have given us ALL Mog Tablets effect for the Anniversary. And the fact Campaigns aren't even a full month is ridiculous. Just saying.

They do it the stupid way, when they wear off and are found again, THEN we get all the kupowers, until they wear again and go back to normal.

Expectations vs. reality