I spent two hours installing a game for that?!?
One of the perks to getting an Xbox 360 in Japan was free access to the beta version of Final Fantasy XI, an online multiplayer role-playing game. Pretty cool deal, since the games are priced a bit high, and the selection is rather limited.
Well, it sounded cool at first.
That was before I tried to install it. Yes, install.
On a console….
With most console games you just pop in the disc and you’re set to play.
Not with FFXI.
First, you’ve got to register the thing online. In Japanese. That took me quite a while, but I managed to do it. Even got my address typed in in Kanji, which was no small feat.
But registration was just the beginning.
Once that was done, the game had to install onto the hard drive….
Taking up 5 of the 13 available gigs. O.o
Ouch! That was unexpected, but hey, I guess that’s the price of some things these days. But after getting through the half-hour registration and the one-hour install I was all set to game!
Wait, no I wasn’t.
You see, there was a freaking update to download. Whee.
Chalk up another half-hour gone.
But then it was all done. I got online, made a character (slogging through an all-Japanese interface) and found myself in the game world. I could see lots of other people running around town doing whatever it is they do while online. (This being my first time in an MMORPG, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.) Nothing much exciting going on in town, but I did like the look of the seasonally-festive trees in the park. They didn’t hold my attention for long, so I made my way beyond the safety of the town walls.
Where I met the bunny.
It wasn’t even a particularly big or ferocious bunny, but it was more than my character could handle.
Not really what I’d expected after waiting two hours to play.
I’m sure the game’s kinda cool, but there’s way too much Japanese for me to get a grip on what’s going on.
Now, if I can only figure out how to uninstall it….