One of the most classic Final Fantasy games right now in terms of content is XI. I recommend it, as there is a new expansion coming out this March with 2 new jobs (Geomancer and Rune Fencer). Blue Mage is already in the game and it has a ton of good magic spells! Plus White Mage has a ton of spells, Black Mage does too, Red Mage is more about solo enhancing magic, Summoner has a good wealth of summon Avatars to have and obtain (even Odin, but I'd recommend Fenrir when you are able to get him).
Right now I'm hooked on XIV as I cannot wait for A Realm Reborn to come out. We will get Arcanist first and then later Summoner. The graphics are awesome
However, I've been writing a fanfiction for years and it is actually a Pokemon and Final Fantasy mix. Trainers can have jobs and they fight alongside their Pokemon in battles against other trainers. There are also classic Final Fantasy monsters in the story. I'm using a lot of elements from FFXI and FFXIV in the story. I have one Trainer who is a Dragoon and rides a Charizard, and her sister is a Monk who owns a Blaziken (they are both military leaders). The main character has my real name and he's wanting to become a Warrior, and his Pokemon is a Growlithe (lol). But meh, I haven't had time to write that story in years.
I'm sure Final Fantasy XI is very good. I work with a guy who still plays it daily to this day but I have so little time for video games that I can't justify paying a monthly fee for a game.
As much as I love FFXI, I don't think I'll go back to it. Its monthly fee is more than FFXIV right now (FFXI is $12.95 a month), and since I'm a Legacy member for FFXIV, I will only have to pay $6.99 or $7.99 for the monthly fee. Originally with FFXIV, if you had both FFXI and FFXIV accounts linked with your Square-Enix account, you'd get a discount for both games. Now that they took that away for FFXI, I'm not going back. Even though it's insanely easy to level your character now in FFXI (it can take a day or 2 to get from Lv30 to Lv75 in one of the new game scenarios), I'm not tempted to go back. FFXIV has got me more interested, and I'll be in the Phase 1 Beta next month for the game. I'm excited for that!!
Whoever said they wished Final Fantasy to have more steam-punk, one of the characters in FFXIV, Thancred, has a more steam-punk look now in A Realm Reborn. He's in the second part of this new trailer.
