Do You Play This Game Without A Guide?

I play on Xbox360 and have my laptop open near me at all times to check information on mobs, find out how much an item is worth, and to look at information about completing quests.

But, it occurs to me that I'm missing a large part of this game by pushing all the buttons so easily. I remember playing a game on Nintendo called "Chrysalis" when I was in high school... and I remember getting so completely excited when I'd discover something new. Zelda was the same way for me.

I feel like a lot of that feeling is gone in my experience with final fantasy. The game is just so overwhelming and the NPC's so vaguely uninformative that you absolutely need some sort of help to finish things before dying of old age. For example, I recently got the Warp II scroll from the guy in Fei'Yin. How in the WORLD would I have found that guy without looking online or talking to a LS mate for the information on where to find him?

Does anybody else feel like they're missing some of that romantic quality of discovery that is inherent to these types of games? I would easily forgoe the guides for quests if I felt like I could actually muscle it out from the information I get from NPC's...

The FFXI Wiki is indeed what I was referring to. That is said guide.

And I don't know if I'm trying to say the game is incomplete without being guideless because it is welcome to be anything that it intends itself to be, but I feel like my experience with it is incomplete in a way. I would prefer figuring out what to do instead of being told. This would make it feel more like a game than work. :)

Couldnt agree more with you. The new content is not only way too easy but.. well WotG missions 1-15 is like 3 hours of C/S and 10 minutes of fighting. There is nothing for the middle class to do anymore other than the usual stuff. Everything is geared to recruiting more players and keeping nublets in the game long enough to achieve their first lvl 75 or for the Elite players like Worms <Everbloom Hollow> area. Nothing for the average players anymore.

I know its a little off topic but... I thought it may add more to the above quote.

well wiki has guides and is one big guide, forums are used as guides too. I like the use of guides for quests, missions, finding npc's etc. Those guides give info on strategies from other players and can help out how to defeat something that you shouldn't even wipe from.

I never used guides in nintendo, snes, xbox, every console made, only used a guide on this game because its more than just a game you beat in a day.

I remember trying to figure out how to defeat the COP dem, mea, holla bosses after oh so many wipes until you find a guide that gives you some idea of how to do it.

I have dual monitors on my desktop, and you better believe I have the wiki open on the second monitor at all times while playing ffxi. I use it, not only for quests and such, but to check prices and uses of unfamiliar drops, check jeuno pricing and availability on items BEFORE I go through the hassle of logging out and back in, etc...

At any rate, if someone actually COULD play this game without a guide, then I give them mad props. The quests and such, a lot of the time, are not obvious AT ALL. As much as I dislike WoW for it's simplicity and "immaturity", I DO think their quest system is pretty well done...you trigger the quest, and ALL the information you need to complete it is right there, what to kill, how many, who gave you the quest, where to turn it in...if ffxi was a little more straightforward I think it'd go a long way.

Of course, some people like the mystery of it all, and that's cool. Me, I just wanna know the answer like immediately ^^

As for other games, I only used a guide if was just completely stuck.
I couldn't play this game without wiki or some other site.
NPCs are generally useless when it comes to info.

I agree that you can't do a whole lot in this game without checking wiki all the time, and theres nothing wrong with that, god knows none of us would have gotten as far as we have without it.

However, when WotG first came out I absolutly refused to look on wiki for anything until I made it to all 3 nations and got all (or at least most of) my maws.I can honestly say that was one of the best times I've had on here, thinking oh yay I get to go back to the Crystal War and fight, then landing outside a barracaded Jeuno, havig to run back through hell in only somewhat familiar areas just to make it back to a town for safety. Good times.

My first trip through the past getting the maws was literally some of the SCARIEST ***I've ever done in FFXI. A friend and I did it together, I was like 50, he was like 40, so of course almost everything is IT++++++++, then you throw in some True Sight mobs to dodge for good measure...let's just say my heart was pounding while running through all that insanity.

And you did without a guide? There's no freakin' way I would have even tried lol :)

Using wiki or alternative for this game I find is very important. I always make a point of looking up a mission/bcnm/NM and all the strategies for it so I know what to expect and what I'll be doing.

The thing I hate most is going into something for the first time with other more experianced people and not knowing anything about what we're doing... nothing worse than having to ask a load of questions making yourself sound like a noob and risk messing things up for others or wasting peoples time by getting help with things that I could have easily soloed.

Unlike most MMO's FF doesn't lead you by the hand, they just kick you out and go "go get it, oh and there is probably a nm to fight when you get there"

I am amazed when i read the wiki's how anyone get the info in the first place, cause the NPC can go;

"I need some food." and it turns out you have to go to a ??? in Khazam and trade it a red stone that you get from a mob in Xarcabard. Then when you trade the red stone an NM pops that requires 2 75's to take down. After you kill it it drops a key item like "Pie" and you talk to the npc he says thanks, you wait untill japanese midnight and he gives you 500 gil and bat wing.

1. Talk to npc
2. ???
3. profit!

I often wonder the same thing myself. For instance, I helped a friend kill Chandelier in Garlaige Citadel last night for his THF AF feet. If you're not familiar with the quest, you need to check all these ???'s in Garlaige, IN THE CORRECT ORDER, before he'll spawn. The when he does finally spawn, you can't let him see you before you claim him or he just self destructs and you get nothing. If anyone in the party is casting any magic at all when he spawns he'll aggro the caster, self destruct and you get nothing. Basically, if you BREATHE WRONG, he self destructs and you get nothing.

I seriously CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE what that was like for the first THF to do that without a guide. How many hours did they spend in Garlaige trying to check those ???'s in the correct order, and then not knowing how fickle his aggro was when they finally DID it correctly? I seriously would have lost my freaking mind lol...



Been spending some time on 4chan, have we? Or ED, perhaps? ^^

I agree lol I'm guessing the first Thf for that would have spent 2 months working out how to pop the mob just for his mage friend to aggro it and have it self destruct, he promptly went insane, killed his friend, wiped his hard drive of any trace of ffxi before submitting his notes he made to wiki to prevent such agony for future players... O.o

Some quests you really do have to wonder how the hell people figgured out lol

There are people that pride themselves on being the first to achieve something in the game (and they should be proud). It isn't easy figuring out the game without the help of a guide. If you like the challenge, it can be really fun and rewarding figuring it out on your own. The down side is you can end up wasting a great deal of resources (time and gil) trying to work something out. One example that comes to mind: a blue mage that was trying to be the first to get his mythic weapon. During the final BCNM fight with the mob at 1% he suddenly couldn't damage the mob. He lost and now has to re-farm the pop items for the fight, which I'm told is a huge pain. Even if he does the fight again there is no guarantee he'll win.

It becomes immune at 1% hp??? Yeah... i'm definitly not cut out for his job figguring that out lol

Me either...wiki ftw!!!!! ^^