Memorable Gaming Moment 2004: Final Fantasy XI

In 2004, the game I remember more than any other game is Final Fantasy XI on the PS2. FFXI was originally released for PC and PS2 [in Japan] in 2002, but it took much longer for it to make its way to the States, especially the PS2 version. The game came bundled with the 40GB hard drive, which was required to play the game, and it was $100 when released. We bought two copies on day one as my wife [at the time] had been thinking of playing it since and several coworkers were getting it as well.

I was immediately met with annoyance upon booting up the game. This annoyance came from the fact that you could not pick your server; the only way to get a server you wanted was to keep making the character over and over again until you got the correct server. After about twenty minutes, I finally got us in the same server (Cait Sith if anyone cares to know).

Sarah was not convinced at first, but after we started making friends and had a steady group, we really felt that FFXI had everything we wanted out of an MMO. We bought new USB keyboards for our PS2s and immediately became hooked on the game. I loved exploring the new world with her; we would send little love notes to each other and I would send her avatar roses. We even found other things to do once we were able to get Chocobos (It was a five hour quest where you had to feed the chocobo every hour for five hours).

After about six months, we simply quit playing. It got harder and harder to find a party and we just drifted away from FFXI. There was a site called finalfantasyxiplayers.com and you can still find pictures of us if you know where to look (Editor’s Note: I don’t believe him). FFXI would end up being the last game I ever played with my ex-wife. It would be our final full year of marriage, but despite that sad memory, I will always remember all the good times I had in FFXI.

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