Hey all,

FFXI has been out for a little while now, and I was curious as to what everyone's thoughts were thus far. Specifically, what does everyone think of:

The Interface
The Environment
The Graphics (including those who are running it on older/lower end systems)
Quests
Character Advancement

Thanks!

The interface is fucking confusing. Eventually got used to it, but it is still pretty sub-par. And I cannot find a way to remap it... the only other option is a 'compact' scheme, which aint really all that different. I want to remap the keys to something more traditional.

The environment is great. At first it seemed... different. But you quickly get used to it, and it really is a great change from the 'blah'-ness of other games zones and stuff. Lots of varied terrain, interesting doodads, etc.

Graphics are uber. Nuff said.

Quests are spiffy! More than just 'go here, kill that'. Lots of story, and even actual cutscenes. There are boss monsters too, but I have not run into any of those.

Character advancement is a lot slower than I thought it would be. I played for like... 16 hours yesterday and only went up four levels (five to nine). But then again, I am a n00b, and spend a lot of time dicking around, getting lost, and searching for the ever elusive one good exp camp. Hell, I like it even if it REALLY is this slow. It feels... challenging. EQ is way too fast and easy, SWG was a clusterfuck, and so on and so on. Time and again easy fast leveling has been proven to just not work.

Rawr!

The interface will probably frustrate you to hell for the first few hours of playing. More so if you have played any other MMOG. Once you figure out the macro system, it makes things tons easier. Although you have to make new macros, or edit old ones pretty much every time you get a skill or a spell.

Square is supposidly working on a key remap system, which would rule.

Led pretty much covered the rest of your questions. If you played eq, don't expect to be level 20 in like 4 days, like eq. Unless you are some godly powergamer, heh.

Cutscenes rule, they add so much to the game.

Use a gamepad if you have one. If you don't have one, get one.