Previous incarnations of Final Fantasy featured turn-based combat systems that governed the battles between your band of adventurers and the mobs of monsters. To accommodate the dynamic nature of a massive online world, this time honored system had to undergo a change. FFXI uses what has been dubbed the “real-time battle system” for all hostilities. What’s new is that instead of randomly being engaged in a conflict as you travel, you now choose your target and lock on to attack. Similar to its predecessors, each weapon or spell has a certain amount of time that must pass between strikes, but instead of the action pausing when a new assault is primed, your hero immediately delivers the next blow. Another change is that you can check out your opponents before entwining yourself in a brawl. You aren’t given specifics like the number of hit points an enemy has, but you can tell from generalizations in the log window like, a target “looks tough” or is an “even match,” as to whether you should unsheathe your rapier or turn tail and run. Thus far, there does not seem to be any player vs. player capability, but popular demand may spark this feature as a later addition.