Final Fantasy XI Online: The Treasures of Aht Urhgan

They say that business is all about the numbers; no one takes that more seriously than Square-Enix. Final Fantasy XI. Eleven! Now there’s a third expansion pack! Go ahead and call Final Fantasy XI Online: The Treasures of Aht Urhgan number one for quality.
The real treasure here is the addition of new jobs, which is a first for the game’s North American player base. The most exciting addition is Pirates—er, Corsairs—but others include Blue Mages and Puppetmasters. As with all the advanced jobs, you have to be 30 levels tall in order to ride, and unlocking the new jobs can be dangerous. Once you’re playing as your shiny Pirate—er, Corsair—though, you won’t remember the pain of getting it unlocked.
The new content includes Besieged, which lets you defend the city of Aht Urhgan and protect its Astral Candescence, which is both powerful and mysterious. During these battles, you gain experience points but don’t lose them when you die. This is a good incentive to take part in the battles, and it’s a great place to try new play styles in a consequence-free environment. If you fail, the Candescence is taken by the hordes, and important NPCs can be kidnapped.
If mass PvE combat isn’t your thing, there are also new Assault Missions involving puzzle-type 30-minute instances for parties of 3-6 players. Unlike Besieged, these are for people over level 50. Earning enough Assault Points to cash in involves performing many missions in the same area, which means repeating them a few times. The rewards are slick, and they’re worth the hassle of maintaining a static party.
Overall, this is a great package, with even more promises down the road, including Chocobo breeding. For players who are already capped in the new advanced jobs and were disappointed that Artifact Armor (AF) wasn’t available at launch, AF quests for the new jobs should be available by the time you read this. High demands, good returns? Now that’s ace.

This article originally appeared in Computer Games Magazine #189