When you think of a Final Fantasy MMORPG, it's undoubtedly Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn that comes to mind, Square Enix's latest and greatest entry into the genre. However, Final Fantasy 11 was the franchise's first foray into the world of MMORPGs, releasing in 2003 for PC and 2004 for PlayStation 2, after releasing in Japan in 2002.
Set in the world of Vana'diel, players choose one of three nations to affiliate with and can quest to their heart's content across a vast digital world. The game was very successful and ultimately had five expansions released for it, as well as six add-on scenarios. The game is still playable today, though the development team has wound down additional content for it. Check out these 10 interesting facts that you might know about this title below.
10 Inspired By EverQuest
EverQuest was an MMORPG released by Sony Online Entertainment for PC in 1999, and it was heralded as the first 3D MMORPG to be a commercial success. Many players of Final Fantasy 11 don't realize that without EverQuest, Square Enix may never have created its own MMORPG title.
Game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi was so impressed by the western release of EverQuest that he developed the idea for Final Fantasy 11 and went on to become the Executive Producer for the game.
9 Final Fantasy Online
When the game was still in early development, there was a lot of talk about whether it should be a main numbered title or not, with the name "Final Fantasy Online" being pitched instead. There were concerns that the plot of the MMORPG would not live up to the standard of storytelling from the franchise's previous titles, and therefore would not deserve a numbered title.
However, once the plot was in place, the team felt confident enough that it was worthy of being a main game in the series and, as a result, it received the title of Final Fantasy 11.
8 Most Difficult Logo
Famed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano has designed the logo for every main Final Fantasy game in the series, as well as for some of the sequels and spin-off titles. As such, Amano was the man behind designing the logo for Final Fantasy 11 and has stated that it was the most challenging logo he had to design for a Final Fantasy game so far.
This is because of the number of characters and details within the logo, with Amano having to use one large sheet of paper to design the logo. Amano has referred to the design process for this logo as "tedious."
7 Final Fantasy 3 Was a Major Influence
Final Fantasy 11's Producer, Hiromichi Tanaka, has stated that Final Fantasy 3 was a major influence on the development of Final Fantasy 11, with many traits of the older title present in the MMORPG. Most notably, the class system of Final Fantasy 11 is similar, with players able to change their jobs at any time via a Moogle, along with being able to unlock more jobs as well.
Tanaka has said that Final Fantasy 11 is the "most Final Fantasy of all the installments", citing that this is because the game managed to include many elements that had been planned for earlier Final Fantasy titles but were ultimately not used due to technical limitations.
6 Early Race Design
There are five races in Final Fantasy 11– Elvaan, Mithra, Hume, Tarutaru, & Galka– with Galka being gender-locked to male and Mithra being gender-locked to female. The early concept designs of some of these races (left) are quite different from the final result (right).
The Galka race originally looked more leonine, closely resembling the Ronso from Final Fantasy 10, while Tarutarus had darkened faces more commonly associated with Black Mages, such as Vivi from Final Fantasy 9.
5 The Number 11
As the eleventh numbered title in the franchise, Final Fantasy 11 often alludes to the number "11" in the game itself, a trait that has been seen in other Final Fantasy titles. On release, before the addition of any expansions, there were initially 11 jobs available to players and there were only 11 conquest areas.
When the Corsair job was added, players were able to obtain status benefits by rolling dice and the best roll you could get was "11." Furthermore, in the Wings of the Goddess expansion, there were a total of 10 Cait Sith entities born from the tears of the Goddess Altana, and when they joined together they formed the eleventh Cait Sith.
4 References To Past Final Fantasy Titles
Like many other Final Fantasy titles before it, Final Fantasy 11 references many of the other games in the franchise. As well as referencing Cait Sith, the character from Final Fantasy 7, there are numerous other allusions. Once more, a character named Cid is featured and he is in love with a woman named Hilda, the same as in Final Fantasy 9.
Diabolos from Final Fantasy 8 makes an appearance, and the Shikaree sisters from the Chains of Promathia content are a reference to the Magus sisters of Final Fantasy 4, with each of them utilizing the same weapons as well.
3 Playerbase Heights
At Final Fantasy 11's peak, it had a player base of 500,000 players with over two-million characters. While this might not seem a lot by today's standards, as Final Fantasy 14 has already reached numbers of over 20 million players,these numbers were still pretty impressive at the time of Final Fantasy 11's height.
For comparison, EverQuest, the game that inspired Final Fantasy 11, had a peak of 550,000 active subscribers by 2004. Final Fantasy 11 is still playable today, though its numbers have greatly diminished, prompting the merger of many servers.
2 Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy 14 is Final Fantasy's second MMORPG, but it took many elements from Final Fantasy 11. There are multiple features that have either carried over or inspired facets of Final Fantasy 14.
Most notably, the original base races for Final Fantasy 14 were the same as Final Fantasy 11, though they were all re-named and the previous gender-locked races are now available as both male and female. Additionally, Final Fantasy 14 also features three nations for players to choose from as their starting point.
1 Final Fantasy 11 Reboot
In March 2015, it was announced that a mobile version of Final Fantasy 11 was in development by Nexon, tentatively referred to as Final Fantasy 11 Reboot. It was originally planned to release in 2016, but it's now 2020 and there's no sign of it releasing any time soon– though it's also not officially been canceled and, as of 2019, it was still confirmed to be in development.
There was another mobile title that was based on the world of Vana'diel, Final Fantasy Grandmasters, which released in 2015. However, this title was terminated in April of 2019.