Is there an End?

[Nikanoru]

I was just wondering if there is an actual ending in Final Fantasy XI and what the level requirement is? Thanks alot. = )

[neighbortaru]

no, not really. there are ends to the nation missions, zilart missions, promathia missions and, eventually, aht urhgan missions, but the game does not ever end as they continually add content for it.

as for the missions, they all vary level-wise.

[Gobo]

As Neighorhood said, there is really no "end" to the game and the misson sets have their own ending. However many of the missions are linked together to tell a larger story.

Nation missions rank 1-6's Story leads into Rize of Zilarts story, and are required to be able to start RoZ missions. RoZ's story loosy leads to Chains of Promathia's Story, however none of RoZ needs to be completed to be able to start CoP missions. After clearing certain requirements, bonus missions/quests open up that lead you to the true end for RoZ and CoP.
The nation missions after rank 6 are completely seperate and have not much to do with each other.
Treasure of Aht Urghan missions also have nothing to do with the other missions and can be started at any time.

[tazirai]

yup I can't disagree with that pic ^^

[Feenicks]

He also asked for a level requirement, and I would have to say that:

Nation Missions (Rank 1-6) can be completed at Lv 50 (although Lv60+ makes it so much easier)
Nation Missions (Rank 6-10) require Lv65 at least, Lv70+ ideal
Rise of the Zilart requires Lv70 at least, with Lv75 ideal
Chains of Promathia require Lv75, although it can be completed with a job at Lv72ish. Anything lower is asking for failure in my opinion.
Last Verse is Lv75, no doubt.
Treasures of Aht Urhgan (so far) requires about Lv70ish to get through what there is available.

Generally, if you want to see the end of storylines/expansions then having a job at Lv75 ideal. Some job can scrape by at lower levels but obviously it's not the best option.

[Legal Fish]

CoP can be started by level 30. It does not require level 70+ until far later in the mission line. It also does not require any RoZ progress.

[Feenicks]

CoP can be started by level 30. It does not require level 70+ until far later in the mission line. It also does not require any RoZ progress.

True, but the requirements for completion are 70+.

[eticket109]

Initially when the game was released, the Shadowlord fight was the last mission based fight. There is a certain endgame cs quality to the CS'es and story surrounding that mission. Since then, the expansions have been added and the Rank missions increased. Though there is a resolution in the Rank 10 missions it isn't quite as epic. ZM17 produces an ending but it doesn't have the same feeling. The CoP CS'es are a different story. The Blueblade Fell CS after beating CoP ties up the story line and goes back to the opening cgi movie that was included with the original FFXI. Along with that, the Last Verse CS'es tie up CoP and ZM quite nicely. If there are endings to the game, those three: Shadowlord, post-CoP Blueblade Fell and the Last Verse, would be it.

[Kitalrez]

Yeah, the nice thing about FFXI is that the story keeps adding and developing on itself. There's not really a "true" ending but there are parts that allow you to look back and feel like you've really accomplished something. It's a refreshing change from the first generation of MMORPGs like EQ where the story was pushed so far into the background that any message of: "Congratulations, you've just advanced the plot line!" was greeted with a good 30-40 players standing around, scratching our heads and asking: "Whoa, there was a plot?"

eticket109 identified what I would consider natural "ending" points, places you can hop off the mission train and go do something else or quit altogether. What he didn't mention is that if you naturally are a perfectionist type, (which a lot of Final Fantasy players are), there's a lot of other missions and quests that flesh out the previous storylines, the Crystal War, the Zilart Apocalypse, etc. If you were the type of player who did FF6's every quest and level just on the off chance that rumor about raising General Leo panned out, or spent entirely too much time at the Golden Saucer in FF7, you're gonna be here awhile.

For instance, just taking Bastok:

1. Ranks 1-6 complete the opening CS premise of a return to war.
2. Ranks 6-10 give a backstory on the racial history of the Galka, as well as providing a background on what triggered the Crystal War in the first place.
3. Then when you get into CoP, you get more background into the place you see in the opening CS. Followed by background into why the triggering events for the Crystal War occurred. As well as tie-ins to every other storyline.
4. If you finish RoZ's normal plotline, you end on the event that triggers CoP's opening CS, giving you an explanation of that event. It also explains even more about why the Crystal War occurred, plus gives you an idea of why the Teleport Crags exist and all the ruins everywhere.

Then, on top of all this, you also have the option to switch nations, do all of their missions, (rank 1-6 largely being repeats), getting even more backstory on the main plot line. Plus, you have the Artifact quests, which give backstory on major and minor plotlines. Then, you have individual quests in town which often give backstory on single events in the mission, AF, or minor plotlines. Basically, if you want to know what's really going on with everything, you could be here all decade.

This is probably why a lot of us were excited about TAU missions, so far the only major tie in to other parts of the storyline are the NPC "Adventuring Fellow" quests. Which means that TAU probably represents an entirely new plotline to be developed in the story, with it's own inevitable expansions. It's like getting a stand-alone sequel while you're still reading the original story.

[eticket109]

yeah I always love how the story keeps adding to itself. when I finally got around to finishing the sandy missions it was cool to see how much it tied into the CoP story.

[Feenicks]

I think that ToAU's storyline will be eventually tied into Zilart and Promathia's as well - there's a NPC in Al Zahbi/Whitegate who mentions something which sounds remarkably similar to a certain city which floats in the clouds above Vana'Diel ...

[Lilani]

It depends on how you define "end" really.

I think most concider the current "end" to be completing all of the country missions (as in all three of them), all of the Zilart missions, all the Promathia missions, and all the Aht Urghan missions (which I don't think are even fully out yet). Plus Sky, Sea, Moon, Dynamis...you get the idea.

I would concider the "end" to be all of that, and then all quests which have some sort of story to them. Which is basically all of them. Just about every quest in this game have some sort of back story. I like FFXI for that. It's a purely fantasy world, but just like in reality, everyone has their own story and personality.

Also, I don't think the story will stop growing until SE stops putting out expansions and the game is shut down. And, from what I can see now, I'll play until then. Or at least until I finish the Windurst missions~

[Loial]

I found doing every nation's mission sequence to be quite worthwhile. A lot of AF quests tie in somewhere to the mission sequences. Much of Windurst ties into SMN AF quest storyline. Some of Sandy ties into DRG, PLD and the Tavnazia storyline. Bastok's story... meh... aside from the background of Galka, it wasn't anything special.

But, I did them all anyway, just because it was a nice thing to do with some spare time There were a few things in the COP storyline that didn't make sense to some of my LS members, but made sense to me because I had seen the Sandy missions.

[capitalistnihilist]

The end of FFXI is when you realized you just spent months doing COP missions to get lolSea access and a crummy ring. ^^

Just kidding, I'd say you have beat FFXI only when you beat DL, all ground kings, kirin, AV, obtained 5/5 AF2 on one job, obtained relic weapon, cleared all limbus zones, cleared all assaults, beat carebear-us and lolHydra and wiped at least one alliance of RMTbots.

[Feenicks]

obtained 5/5 AF2 on one job, obtained relic weapon

Why only one set or one relic? Gotta get em all!