Final Fantasy XI has been available on the PC in North America nearly six months now, and gotten off to an excellent start in that time. The long-awaited PS2 version has finally arrived courtesy of Sony, PS2 hard drive in tow, and offers a similarly excellent experience, with a few caveats.

While you've probably read plenty about the fictitious world of Vana'diel, here's a quick refresher. Twenty years after the great war with the Shadow Lord, the world of Vana'diel is returning to a tenuous normality. However, the beastmen once commanded by the Shadow Lord are stirring, and the recovering nations of Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst send out a call for help to adventurers like yourself. Joining one of these nations, you'll start out small, build fame, and eventually take the fight to the Shadow Lord, his minions, and beyond -- all with the help of your friends! There's a lot more to the story than just killing Foozle, and Square has taken an approach similar to that taken with Final Fantasy X's Spira, and given Vana'diel a history, politics, racial strife, and other real-world situations to help flesh out the standard high-fantasy epic.

A high level group of players poses in their Artifact Armor.
The fact that Final Fantasy XI is a MMORPG doesn't change the fact that it is an actual Final Fantasy game, beyond the usual character and creature trappings. While you control only a single character, battles play out surprisingly similarly to how they would in a more traditional Final Fantasy, with each of six players focused on a single role. Sure, people don't line up and take turns in battle, but auto-battle has a lot in common with "Active Time Battle," and the rest of the gameplay has a lot of elements that will instantly feel familiar to series fans. Most notably (and wonderfully) is the "Job" system from Final Fantasy V -- starting out your character will have a choice of six jobs, which will swell to fifteen once you get further into the game. Another notable character milestone is the acquisition of a subjob -- as in Final Fantasy Tactics, a subjob is a secondary job used to enhance your existing profession or give extra flexibility. Once all jobs have been unlocked, there are 225 possible job combinations, and while some are certainly more viable than others, there are plenty of ways to play and enjoy the game.

Another great feature is the skill chain system -- like in Square's Chrono Trigger, weapon skills can be combined for extra damage, and then followed up with compatible spells for even more damage. While it may sound like a small wrinkle in the combat system, this truly takes advantage of the online medium and is a thoroughly satisfying and valuable tactic to master.

And, of course, the game has plenty of familiar content for MMORPG players, as well as some innovative new features beyond the above. Final Fantasy XI features a competitive "Conquest" system, in which the three nations compete for regions by killing the most monsters for teleport access and better item sales. Crystals of elemental energy are the fruits of conquest, allowing the system to dovetail nicely into the game's extensive "Synthesis" system. Synthesis is like other MMORPG crafting systems, letting players combine components found around the world into more useful items, however, this game's system is exceptionally well designed, and the designers obviously put a lot of thought into preventing MMORPG-flation, the economic down-pricing caused by thousands of people making the same items over and over again.