The Final Fantasy series has been the bar that off-line role playing games have been measured by for about a decade now. Just about each new game in the franchise has shown huge advancements in gameplay, style, and graphics. So you must understand that our expectations for Final Fantasy XI Online for the Xbox 360 were rather high.

Final Fantasy XI was first released in 2002 for the PC and the PS2. It is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. Think Everquest or World of Warcraft except in the Final Fantasy universe with Final Fantasy music and the distinctive Final Fantasy style.

So here we are in 2006, and the newest version of FFXI is here, and for a next-gen console to boot. We were expecting upgraded graphics, and some necessary tweaks to make FFXI a little more at home on the Xbox 360. And frankly we received neither.

Final Fantasy XI Online for the Xbox 360 is a near exact port of Final Fantasy XI for the PC. They have included Final Fantasy XI and all three current expansion packs, but failed to upgrade the graphics to take advantage of the Xbox 360’s capabilities. And frankly, the game looks like it was made in 2002 with grainy textures and no advanced lighting effects. To make things worse you pretty much need a USB keyboard attached to your 360 to communicate with anybody.

In addition to the graphical and communication issues, FFXI Online may be a little difficult for a newcomer to just pick up and enjoy. First off, from the time you put it in your 360 you won’t get to play for at least three hours. The game will install the PlayOnline browser onto your Xbox. This process takes a good hour itself from updating to registering. Next it is time to install FFXI and the expansions. This will take another hour to two, so get ready to go do something else. At least Square decided to treat us with an intro trailer during this installation.

Once you finally make it into the game world you get to chose from your choice of five races. They are your standard fare ranging from Humes to Galka. Humes are your standard humans that are pretty well balanced for just about any activity. Then you have the Elvaan race which excels as swordsmanship. There are also Tarutaru who are master magicians, Mithra who are a cat-like race, and the Galka who are renowned for their physical prowess. You also have a large assortment of jobs to choose from, and you can change your job at any time. All that’s left is to choose your starting nation, and you are set.

All of this is well and good, but FFXI is a little slow paced for me. You click on an enemy, check its stats, and then fight to level up. The battles are mostly automated, but as you level up there will be more options available to you. Also advancing in your chosen profession also feels rather tedious at times, which explains why they call them jobs in this game.

For the basic newcomer, FFXI will be rather imposing. There isn’t much of a tutorial, and the world is rather large. A newcomer may have difficulty finding their way around, finding who they are looking for, and trying to figure out what they want to do. In fact just about everything in FFXI is rather time consuming, which hits even harder when you take into account the rather large monthly fee required to play. Now I’m not talking about Xbox Live fees, I’m talking about PlayOnline fees per character. At the time of this review you can expect to pay nearly thirteen dollars a month. At least they don’t require Xbox Live Gold to play; you can have full access with your Silver subscription.

When it comes down to it, FFXI Online for the Xbox 360 is not the best choice. If you want to play FFXI just go out and buy the PC version, and the expansions. As far as the Xbox 360 version goes; it is the only MMORPG on the 360 at this time, but I would just pick up one of the other great 360 titles and save my money for now.