Reviewed: July 26, 2006
Reviewed by: Roger Cox

Publisher
Square Enix

Developer
Square Enix

Released: April 18, 2006
Genre: MMORPG
Players: Online
ESRB: Teen

8
7
8
10
8.4

System Requirements

Now, after four years, Final Fantasy XI is expanding its world with more quests, items, levels, advanced jobs, and monsters. Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan is the classic add-on that everyone expects, but it’s definitely what will keep those loyal Final Fantasy fans hooked for many more months to come.

Those players who have characters level 55 and higher can enjoy the freedom to travel outside the city of Al Zahbi. Not only that, but they’ll have the new game modes available to them like assault and besieged. Things only get better with the addition of new jobs like blue mage, corsair, and puppet-master. The blue mages are fighters that employ the legendary arts of Aht Urhgan. They have blades suited for close combat and magic skills to handle enemies from afar.

Blue mages are essentially tanks who can keep the enemy’s sole attention during battle (thus saving the other players in your party from harm). Tank obviously means they are strong and are capable of inflicting a ton of damage. This is the most popular of the new advanced jobs not only because it is simple to achieve (answer a few questions), but also because of its usefulness in group combat. If you are one of those players who likes to slice and dice as well as use magic, then this is the perfect job for you.

The corsairs are descendants of the dauntless pirates. They rely on a multi-barreled revolver called the Hexagun and luck based abilities. Given the weapon, your primary job is to pull creatures for your group. They deal an acceptable amount of damage, but their primary role is to play a support role. While the gun is pretty cool and fun to use, the luck based combat wasn’t my cup of tea, and neither was playing the supporting roll in group combat. I like to take charge in battle and be the strongest which I wasn’t really able to do with this advanced job.

Puppet-masters are essentially wondering performers. They combat their enemies with a customizable puppet (automaton) and hand-to-hand fighting skills. As your puppet levels up it will gain new skills and can even mimic real player jobs. Overall this has to be the simplest of all the three jobs to obtain. Unfortunately, it’s also the least popular by far which is odd because Square made this job based solely on the fan feedback they received.

The city is where you will experience all that this expansion has to offer. It is under constant attack by trolls, undead swarms, and vicious Mamool Ja. You’ll often get quests to go kill the beasts, but at times you’ll need to team up with fellow city dwellers to save the city when these creatures join forces to fight against Al Zhabi.

Quests and missions don’t only consist of killing beasts, but also a variety of different missions that unravel the story of the Empire of Aht Urhgan. To do these quests you’ll need to see the President Naja Saleheem of the mercenary forces. She’ll give you plenty of tasks to accomplish throughout the city and beyond.

One cool feature that all Final Fantasy fans can look forward to is the ability to raise your own chocobo. This update will include a circuit in which players can race them against one another. If you’ve ever wanted to raise and race your own chocobo you’ll need to have this expansion.

At this point FFXI has low-resolution textures and frame-rate issues. It’s sad to see a game with such a great atmosphere and potential like this have an expansion that does nothing to combat these issues. Players can look forward to slightly better graphics in the expansion’s new areas, but the improvements are very minor.

My favorite new area is Mamook, which is the capital of Mamool Ja. It was built deep in a forest on a peninsula to the west of the Aht Urhgan Empire. I love all the trees and crude city look, which is so because it is burned to the ground and rebuilt every few years in order to control the parasite infestation. It’s a unique city to behold and one that’s very scenic.

This expansion adds some new music to fit the new areas, but it also adds an annoying problem: music dropout. This occurs only when playing in Aht Urhagan. Hopefully Square will fix this problem quickly with a patch.

With the additional new advanced jobs, quests, missions, and over 40 new areas to explore, this expansion has not only expanded, but lengthening the life of FFXI.

It’s also good to note that new players won’t need Treasures of Ahi Urhgan for a long time. This is strictly an expansion pack for players who have characters in the 50-75 level range.