Final Fantasy XI succeeds on so many levels. It takes about 12 to 15 hours to get your character up to a level where you won’t get killed by every low-level creature that lurks outside the city gateway, but once you do, you really start to get a sense of the depth that the game has to offer. It’s easy to fall into the fun and mystery of quests and get wrapped up in meeting people and creating parties. Advancement in any pursuit, whether it be your main job, working on sword and shield skills, or practicing synthesis as a member of the guilds, is incremental but paced such that you always see improvement. The progress is addictive as is the feeling of being totally unrestricted. There is no set path that you have to take to do anything and you never get the sense that you’re being funneled anywhere.