You are currently viewing Dabbling in FFXI Nasomi

Dabbling in FFXI Nasomi

  • Post author:
  • Post category:MMORPG

Like a year ago (maybe more? Edit: 2 years ago hah) I was dragged into FFXI to play on the Nasomi server with a friend, but I think for some reason or another I quit after just a couple of days. Well, I’ve been sucked into trying it again. This time what won me over was how easy the installation was compared to old FFXI. Now it’s just a single download and exe you run without having to worry about any of the PlayOnline stuff.

I remember the 1-6 experience being like pulling teeth, so not too unlike the EverQuest vanilla experience curve. Thankfully, I was somehow able to use the same account I used in the past and I was able to log right into my level 10 Red Mage! 😀

The biggest hurdle for FFXI is still the presentation. The UI is absolutely atrocious and requires a controller in order to even be usable (still very bad). If you can somehow manage to get past the frustrating controls, there’s an old school game in here somewhere for the masochists like me.

FFXI is one of those games where you meet people, form groups, kill monsters until you get some levels or get bored, then move on to the next area. The ‘camping an area to exp’ is so weirdly satisfying to me.

Nasomi has been around for a while, so most people on the server have reached that ‘let’s help the newbies so they’ll keep playing with us’ stage. According to my friend, there are still plenty of new people coming to play (like me) which is why the server in the past few months bumped from 400-600 to 600-800’ish players.

I spent 1.5 hours figuring out the controls and finding out where to go. Tomorrow, I think I’ll get some experience and actually play the game.

  • The UI is fine.. if you played any Playstation 2 RPGs its basically the same UI as that. They based it off Final Fantasy 9 and 10 in fact.

    • Also that number of players is Online, pretty much constant 800 online (equivalent to Project 19999).. there’s a few thousand total players though.

    • Yeah, it’s pulling some good numbers. 800 online at a time is pretty solid for a private server like this. FFXI was never the most popular game of its time, but to pull 800 people is pretty darn good.

  • If you don’t want to use a controller, switch the keyboard mode to compact to get WASD for movement and arrow keys for camera. Don’t even try to use the mouse. Then get used to the shortcuts to open the different ability menus and you’re probably set.

    When I originally played I had a bunch of palettes full of macros for black maging but the game isn’t fast enough to need a modern UI. Most recently in retail I’ve had a few macros for things like the map but otherwise I just scroll through menus. You’ll be surprised at how fast you get used to it.

    Repeat: don’t try to use a mouse. Don’t.

    • I made that mistake last night. After mashing every key on my keyboard trying to figure out how to escape out of a menu I figured out I had to… right click…

      The controller will probably work for me. I made some macros so that when I right trigger my offensive macros up up, and left trigger brings up my defensive macros.

  • Hah, I actually have been playing FFXI private server too, though definitely not Nasomi. I cannot for the life of me imagine getting anyone who never played FFXI back in the day into the game though, it truly is the oldest of the old school, even under private server lenient rules. It’s hard to even explain the game to my friends who only started MMOs newschool post-wow.

    And I am someone who doesn’t put much stock into old school being better in any way. It just scratches an itch I have had for a long time.