Final Fantasy XI Final Fantasy XI , also known as Final Fantasy XI Online , is the franchise ' s first MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role - Playing Game ) . " Final Fantasy XI " was the world ' s first cross - console MMORPG , available for Windows , PlayStation 2 , Xbox 360 and Steam . Since its release in 2002 , it has become the most financially successful title in the " Final Fantasy " series . Due to the nature of online RPGs , " Final Fantasy XI " differs from previous installments of the series , in that you are not the only hero . Instead , each player creates a customizable character and adventures through the world of Vana ' diel with other players ; leveling up , exploring , completing missions , quests , and much more . Like most of the gameplay , leveling up requires a group of people working together in what is called a Party , with each participant contributing their own skills to help take down a foe and gain Experience points . Battles occur in real - time , taking the ATB system to a new level , which was emulated again to a certain extent in " Final Fantasy XII " . At the game ' s peak , there were some five hundred thousand people playing " Final Fantasy XI " , utilizing over two million characters . With constant updates and Expansions added to the game , Vana ' diel is not a static world ; instead , it changes and evolves with the passage of time . Service for the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of " Final Fantasy XI " ended on March 31 , 2016 , and the game can now only be played on the PC version . Square Enix has partnered with Nexon to develop a full - fledged mobile version of " Final Fantasy XI " . Unlike previous launches on other platforms , this version will not share servers or characters with the existing database . A free - to - play smartphone spin - off based on the world of " Final Fantasy XI " , " Final Fantasy Grandmasters " , is also currently available in Japan . Gameplay . Basic gameplay . Players start by creating a character which may be customized . Unlike previous games in the series , " Final Fantasy XI " allows a player to choose race , gender , facial features , hair color , and height . Players must select one of three starter cities , the Republic of Bastok , the Kingdom of San d ' Oria , or the Federation of Windurst , to pledge allegiance to and begin their journey . The main plot lines are advanced through Missions , which are offered from city - states and several NPCs . Each expansion also comes with a new plot line to undertake . In addition to advancing the story , Missions also offer various rewards , such as items , Rank , and access to new areas . Players may also take on various Quests , which are activities that are typically separate from the main plot line and flesh out the game ' s world . Quests also offer various rewards , and enhance a player ' s Fame , an invisible status which affects NPC reactions to the player ' s character . All Missions and Quests are optional and can be undertaken at the players own pace . Battles take place within the game world ; no separate screen is loaded , as is common in previous " Final Fantasy " games . Instead , monsters can be found roaming the land , and can be freely attacked . Some monsters may also attack the player , retaining some " random battle " elements from previous games . Enemies that are rare or tied to missions or quests are known as Notorious Monster s or NMs for short . Many such enemies can be fought in the open world , but are often found exclusively in battlefields which are not as easily accessed . " Final Fantasy XI " uses a " Claim " and " Enmity " system with regard to monsters . Once an aggressive action is taken against a foe , it becomes " claimed " as part of the record of the character performing the action ; this prevents any passersby from interfering . Others may help with the battle if a Party is formed . Partying allows selected players to group together and take down foes . The battle mechanics can also vary according to different gameplay systems . Job system . " Final Fantasy XI " uses the concept of changing jobs in a similar fashion to " Final Fantasy III " , and currently has twenty - two jobs . Unlike most other MMORPGs , players are not restricted to one class per character and can switch jobs whenever they like at designated areas , such as inside their Mog House . Players have to choose from six basic jobs available at the start of the game , but are able to unlock advanced jobs through quests once a standard job has reached level thirty . Each job has abilities and traits , which are typically gained automatically as the player levels up a particular job . Magic is treated differently , in that players can only learn spells through magic scrolls once they have reached the required level . Job abilities must be activated by the player in order to come into effect . They last a limited time and have separate cool - down periods before they can be used again . Additionally , each job has a special ability that performs some extraordinary function to help in a dire situation . Players must use these special powers wisely because they can only be used once every hour under normal circumstances . Magic spells are like job abilities , except that they have casting time and typically require MP in exchange for shorter recast timers . Many magic spells are not exclusive to one particular job , but their effectiveness often vary according to the other abilities available to that class . Only about half of all the jobs available are able to cast some form of magic . Job traits are passive abilities that are always in effect . Many job traits come in tiers , with a higher tier providing a stronger effect being unlocked as the level increases . Many common jobs traits are shared by different job classes . However , their degree of effectiveness may vary depending on which tier the trait caps at for that particular job . The most unique part of the job system is the " support job " . This system allows a player to augment their character with abilities , Traits , and spells from another chosen job at up to half the level of their current job . For instance , a level 20 Warrior could set Ninja as their support job . This allows them to use all Ninja abilities , traits , and spells up to that of a level 10 Ninja , while still primarily being a level 20 Warrior . The support job system allows for job - merges never before seen in the " Final Fantasy " series . However , there are some exceptions to the support job system . special job ability and other abilities deemed signature to a particular job ( such as Call Wyvern for Dragoons ) are restricted to being used only when set on main job . Also , some adjustments have been made to lower the effectiveness of certain abilities when used on support jobs . Leveling and partying . As in most previous " Final Fantasy " games , leveling up is based upon experience points . Experience points can be gained by several means , including defeating foes , completing Quests or Missions , Campaign Battles , and various other activities . Experience points gained from killing enemies is relative to the player ' s level ; defeating monsters that are higher level than the player net more EXP , whereas monsters that are deemed " too weak " will not give EXP at all . Generally , the most efficient way to gain Experience points with the intention to level up is to join an EXP Party . An EXP Party is a group of up to six people working together in order to bring down foes for EXP . The original level cap was 50 . This was raised through version updates in increments of 5 to level 75 around the time of the English release in 2003 . In 2010 , seven years after the level was capped at 75 , the level cap was slowly raised again , culminating in level 99 in December 2011 . Players who have reached level 75 and above can begin converting experience into Limit Points . These , in turn , grant Merit Points which may be spent to gain additional stats , abilities , and traits . Partying is common to almost all gameplay systems as it allows each job to excel at their role , and subsequently kill harder monsters more efficiently than solo play . For instance , White Mages are not very powerful physically , but are capable of healing . Paired with a Warrior whose specialty lies in damage output , they can work together using each others ' strengths — the White Mage can cure the Warrior while he brings down a foe , relieving the need to worry about his health — to defeat enemies faster . Killing hard monsters quickly in succession also grants a bonus to experience , known as a Chain . When in a party , monsters ' aggressive actions are determined by an Enmity system . Almost every action taken during a battle generates Enmity ( commonly referred to as " Hate " ) and whoever possesses the most Enmity will have the monster ' s attention , and subsequently be attacked . A key to succeeding in party battle is managing Enmity in order to protect vulnerable party members such as mages who typically have low defense . Players must pick and choose actions while thinking about how it will affect their Enmity , and therefore the entire group . Because of this , certain jobs are tasked with trying to create the most Enmity possible , in order to hold the monster ' s attention . A full party is 6 members , and up to 3 parties may come together to form an alliance , which can consist of a maximum of 18 players . Although open world battle content is limited to a full alliance at any time , many gameplay systems involving battlefields are designed to challenge even larger groups of players at one go . Depending on whether they are playing solo or in smaller groups , players may choose to summon Adventuring Fellow s or Trust alter egos to aid in combat . Adventuring Fellows are AI - controlled NPCs that can be customized and even leveled up to suit the player ' s styles , whereas Trust alter egos are magical copies of various famous heroes in Vana ' diel with specific moves and unique AI . Weapon Skills and Magic Bursts . Weapon Skill s are a prominent feature in battle . Players gain Tactical Points , also known as TP , by dealing physical damage . When the TP gauge reaches above 1000 , players are able to unleash Weapon Skills to attack the enemy and in some instances receive beneficial effects . Although TP can be charged to a maximum of 3000 , all TP is spent whenever a Weapon Skill is used , and are factored in to determine how effective that Weapon Skill is . When the appropriate weapon skills are used in succession , it results in a Skillchain . Skillchains come in different power levels and result in additional damage on the enemy . Lower level skillchains can be chained upon further to result in stronger skillchain effects . Building on this , players can deal additional damage by timing Magic spells immediately after a Skillchain occurs — this is called a Magic Burst . Skillchains and Magic Bursts add an element of teamwork to battles and are often required to take down the most challenging of enemies . Setting . " Final Fantasy XI " takes place in the world of Vana ' diel , a diverse planet with regions ranging from blinding - hot deserts to ice - cold glaciers . Vana ' diel ' s inhabitants range from the Enlightened Races and Beastmen to simple fiends . Ancient lore states that Vana ' diel was created as a playground for the Gods , who themselves were spawned from an enormous and sentient Crystal . For eons , the Gods joyfully played until eventually falling into a deep slumber . It was during this slumber that the children of the Gods rose and flourished in Vana ' diel , extracting gold from stones , traveling through the sky , building mighty cities , and giving birth to grasslands across the world . Eventually , the children longed to join their parents , and constructed a pathway to the Divine Entrance of Paradise . Enraged by such an insolent act , the Holy Gatekeeper smote the children , and cast their cities to the bottom of the sea . Shortly thereafter , the Goddess Altana awoke , and saw the ruin that had once been Vana ' diel . Filled with an emotion that the likes of a God had never felt before , sadness , Altana wept five divine tears . When the five tears fell upon the earth , they gave life to the five races of Vana ' diel . However , the God of Twilight , Promathia , observed this act from his place in the shadows . Promathia saw fit to condemn her weakness and the life that arose from it . Promathia cursed the five races with eternal conflict among themselves by bringing forth their darkest attributes : the apathy of the Humes , the arrogance of the Elvaan , the rage of the Galka , the cowardice of the Tarutaru , and the envy of the Mithra . He created terrible beasts and spread them across the world , commanding them to forever fight the people of Vana ' diel and occupy their minds . Never again would anyone think to open the Gate of the Gods . Characters . The Adventurer . The player can create a character to play as through the use of the Character Creation system . Playable races . The five Enlightened Races of Vana ' diel are available to play as : Story . Final Fantasy XI is set in the Age of Adventurers . It is the 884th year of the Crystal Era , twenty years after the end of the Crystal War that ravaged Vana ' diel . The three main nations of Vana ' diel , San d ' Oria , Bastok and Windurst continue their struggle against the Beastmen who , although less organized , have regrouped and still terrorize the land . Rather than dispatching their own forces to deal with this threat , the nations of Vana ' diel begin to employ adventurers to handle them as well as other minor tasks . The player is one such adventurer . Reports of the beastmen rising again lead the adventurer to journey on behalf of his nation to the other 2 nations to investigate the matter . In a beastmen stronghold , the adventurer encounters the Spotter , a servant of the Shadow Lord , and it attacks by summoning a Dread Dragon to aid it . After being defeated by the adventurer , it announces that the Shadow Lord will soon rise again . The adventurer also meets Lion , a female who had been sent to investigate the beastmen , for the first time . On a later mission , the adventurer is made to report at the nation ' s embassy in the Grand Duchy of Jeuno and ends up rescuing the ambassador who had been kidnapped and held hostage in Delkfutt ' s Tower . The ambassador , impressed by the adventurer ' s bravery , later recommends him as a diplomatic attaché to the Archduke of Jeuno for a special mission . Kam ' lanaut , the Archduke of Jeuno , tasks the adventurer with retrieving magicite from deep within the beastmen strongholds of Davoi , Beadeaux and Castle Oztroja to prevent the beastmen from harnessing its power to resurrect the Shadow Lord . At this point , the adventurer meets Aldo of the Tenshodo , his sister Verena and the peace - loving Goblin Fickblix for the first time . Aldo helps out with the mission , whereas Fickblix dies while trying to reason with the Yagudo beastmen . When the adventurer retrieves all three pieces of magicite , the Archduke rewards him by issuing him an airship pass . Upon returning to his home nation , the adventurer discovers that the nation ' s talisman had been stolen . The talisman , used to seal Castle Zvahl after the war 20 years ago , had been broken into three parts for safekeeping by the three nations . The adventurer is sent to the ruins of Fei ' Yin , situated in the Beaucedine Glacier , to examine the seal placed there and to replace it with a new one if it is not intact . Over at Fei ' Yin , the adventurer meets with Lion and Zeid , one of the two legendary warriors who defeated the Shadow Lord during the Crystal War . Zeid shares details of the Northlands Expedition that took place 30 years ago , suggesting that they might have awakened the ancient curse buried in that land . Lion agrees , saying that the image of the Shadow Lord claimed that their kind had brought him back . Zeid recites the " Warriors of the Crystal " , a song foretelling the Warriors of the Crystal delivering Vana ' diel from a time of darkness when an ancient seal is broken . The adventurer encounters and defeats the Archlich Taber ' quoan in the Qu ' Bia Arena before returning to his home nation with the burnt remains of the old seal that had been placed there . The adventurer reports to his home nation with the findings , and the nation ultimately decides to send him to Castle Zvahl to deal with the threat of a returning Shadow Lord ( the reason for this varies depending on which nation one is aligned to ) . In the Throne Room of Castle Zvahl , Zeid and the adventurer encounter the Shadow Lord and find out that he is actually Raogrimm , a Galkan member of the Northlands Expedition . Raogrimm had been wounded , betrayed and left behind by a fellow Expedition member Ulrich , who had also accidentally killed Raogrimm ' s Hume girlfriend , Cornelia , in the scuffle . It is revealed that in his final moments , Raogrimm ' s rage attracted the attention of the Dark Divinity , who granted him a new form and gave him control over nether beasts . Reincarnated as the Shadow Lord , he swore to purge the world with his newfound power , starting with hunting down and brutally killing Ulrich for his crimes , along with all the other members of the Expedition , Francmage M Mistalle , Iru - Kuiru , and Yow Rabntah , who had just left Raogrimm and Cornelia to die in the Northlands . The Shadow Lord forces Zeid to stand and watch as he attacks the adventurer , but is subdued thanks to the adventurer ' s selfless courage and sacrifice . As he is defeated , Raogrimm manages to regain control of himself and explains that much of the rage that he was consumed in came from being the Talekeeper of the Galka . He also explains that he will forever be lost to the darkness . Lion appears to help Zeid and the adventurer escape from Castle Zvahl . She beckons the adventurer to visit her in Norg when possible . The adventurer returns to his nation and is celebrated as a hero . Story missions . As " Final Fantasy XI " is an MMORPG , players are not required to play through the main story , but are instead rewarded through having areas , items , equipment and even gameplay systems unlocked upon progressing through them . In the original " Final Fantasy XI " , the main story is presented in the form of missions which are issued by gate guards in the three main nations . Progress in these missions are marked by a player ' s nation rank which runs upwards from 1 ( being the starting rank ) . Although each nation initially has a distinctly different story , the stories gradually converge up till the battle with the final boss of " Final Fantasy XI " and the attainment of Rank 6 . The three nation ' s stories are subsequently expanded upon in separate directions in the " Rise of the Zilart " expansion . Updates and expansions . Version updates . Being an online game , " Final Fantasy XI " undergoes regular patching to add new content and fix existing bugs . Known officially as Version updates , these online updates occur approximately once every 3 months and are accompanied by scheduled maintenance of all servers . All new content in the game , including those from expansion packs , are unlocked or downloaded during these updates . In the early history of " Final Fantasy XI " , version updates occurred more frequently . The interval was approximately one month in between each update before the release of the first expansion , two months thereafter and it slowly lengthened to three months over the years . Since February 2011 , the development team has introduced minor patches to complement major version updates . Besides scheduled version updates , the game also goes through emergency maintenance updates to fix major glitches . Expansion packs . " Final Fantasy XI " currently has five expansion packs available . Each pack adds its own new story to the game for players to complete . New areas are also available to explore where the player may find new weapons , armor , equipment , creatures , and even gameplay systems . Add - ons . In addition to the Expansion Packs , there are add - on chapters . Unlike full expansion packs , each add - on is delivered completely within a single version update . The first three are " add - on scenarios " that introduce side stories in existing areas while the last three are " battle area add - ons " that focus on high level battles in the alternate reality of Abyssea . Music . " Final Fantasy XI " holds the most extensive soundtrack out of the " Final Fantasy " series , with album releases consisting of nearly 200 tracks totaling over 11 hours in listening time . The game is updated with new music throughout the year . The largest spike appears with each expansion pack , adding approximately 25 tracks each time . The release version of " Final Fantasy XI " featured music scored by Nobuo Uematsu , Kumi Tanioka , and Naoshi Mizuta . The game ' s central theme , Distant Worlds , appears in several forms throughout the game and occasionally with vocals , most notably at the end of the games second expansion pack . Memoro de la Ŝtono was the secondary theme of " Final Fantasy XI " , it features a choral arrangement with lyrics sung in Esperanto . According to Uematsu , the Esperanto lyrics symbolize the developers ' hope that the game could contribute to cross - cultural communication and cooperation . Music after the initial release of " Final Fantasy XI " has been almost solely scored by Naoshi Mizuta . The exceptions to this include Chocobo Theme variants , for which Nobuo returns to the scene . The " Final Fantasy XI " soundtrack repertoire also features albums containing music not present in - game . Several piano collections have been realized and The Star Onions , a band with composers including Naoshi Mizuta , Kumi Tanioka , and Hidenori Iwasaki , have released two albums of arranged " Final Fantasy XI " tracks . Development . " Final Fantasy XI " was first announced at the Japanese Square Millennium Event in 2000 , along with the announcement for " Final Fantasy X " . The first teaser trailer can be seen here : . The idea for a massively multiplayer " Final Fantasy " was conceived by Hironobu Sakaguchi after being impressed by the western MMORPG EverQuest . Hiromichi Tanaka , producer of the original " Final Fantasy XI " game and its expansions , states " XI " is the " most Final Fantasy of all the installments " stating it includes many things the team were unable to place into earlier titles due to technical limitations . Tanaka also recalled " Final Fantasy III " as a major influence on the original game , which can be seen in the job system of " FFXI " . In early development there was debate over whether the game should be called " Final Fantasy Online " , as there was uncertainty surrounding if storytelling in an MMORPG could be of a standard expected from previous titles . However once the core storyline was written and reviewed it was decided to be worthy of the main series , and the game became " Final Fantasy XI " . A closed Japanese beta test of " Final Fantasy XI " took place in August 2001 , with a public version in the following December . The game was officially released in Japan on May 16 2002 for the Play Station 2 . Although initially announced to have a simultaneous world wide release date it took until 2004 before " Final Fantasy XI " launched in America and Europe . The PS2 version ended up not being released in Europe at all due to the hard disk drive peripheral for the console not being available in the region . On March 19 , 2015 , Square Enix announced that it will end the service for the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions in March 2016 . During the same press conference , it was announced that the game will be released for smartphones . A free - to - play online RPG spin - off named " Final Fantasy Grandmasters " was also announced for smartphones . Allusions . " Final Fantasy XI " makes references to other " Final Fantasy " games , the number 11 and popular culture .