18-Hour Final Fantasy XI Boss Induces Puking

When the top clan in an MMOG has failed to finish a final boss after 18 hours of nonstop fighting, perhaps the battle difficulty should be scaled back a bit.

Linkshells, Final Fantasy XI's versions of guilds and clans from other massively-multiplayer role-playing games, are the online families for many of the game's most dedicated players. These participants are the types of people who would be willing to sit down for 18 hours to fight some of the highest level villains in FFXI, which releases updates to entertain its audience with grueling boss challenges.

Beyond the Limitation, a Linkshell noted for being the first group to down previous baddie Absolute Virtue, attempted the latest of Square Enix's monsters, Pandemonium Warden. With over twenty different forms, Beyond the Limitation sought to topple the digital titan, only to throw its hands up after eighteen hours of gameplay as the health risks to its players began to mount.

"People were passing out and getting physically ill. We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's lives," said Beyond the Limitation member Sylphet.

The fight caused vomiting and fainting among Beyond the Limitation's ranks.

Before loading the game, Square Enix displays a health warning: "During your time here, you will be able to talk, join and adventure with many other individuals in an experience that is unique to online games.

That being said, we have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence. Don't forget your family, your friends, your school, or your work."

Square Enix's sentiment might be good, but the development of an 18-hour-plus nearly unbeatable boss would imply that the studio wants players to spend unreasonable hours playing the game.

Sylphet concluded, "We are one of very few LS who have killed AV (not using the wall trick) so we know quite well what is futile and what is not. None of us doubt that PW can be killed. We just call into question exactly what the development team thinks is reasonable from human beings."

Should Square Enix stop extending the length of gameplay to unhealthy limits or is it up to the individuals involved to stop themselves?

Source: PetFoodAlpha via Destructoid

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Hehe, I'd say it already turned into that horrible story, eww...
Still, I can understand it, there's certain visual effect in WoW, strobing colours and the like, that just cause me to get so queasy. So much so that I'm often looking away from it in-game, of course, that causes problems in instances.

But 18 hours? That's either hardcore or just plain stupid.

hehehe this is funny

Seriously? That's complete crap, it's just Square trying to make sure that people are getting their money's worth. Doctors being the people getting their money.

I'm sure that after the first 5 hours it became a matter of pride. "We've been at this 5 hours, no way I'm giving up. I'll never get that time back."

All of the sudden it was 18 hours later, and they'll never get that time back.

Playing a game until you puke is RETARDED!!!!!
Drinking until you puke is HARDCORE!!!!!

Personally anything which requires more than 8 hours straight (ie without a save point) should be considered unhealthy.

Its the standard for a work day, you need food, toilet breaks and sleep, FFS.

GothmogII:
Still, I can understand it, there's certain visual effect in WoW, strobing colours and the like, that just cause me to get so queasy. So much so that I'm often looking away from it in-game, of course, that causes problems in instances.

I had to sit down after watching a friend play through the Promyvion stages. Glaringly gray scale and nonsensical landscapes...

I still find this hilarious though.

Aha! I've discovered it! This is all a government conspiracy to eliminate the lesser peoples from the world. Have bad genetics and you have no friends. Have no friends and you play video games. Play video games all day and you never get laid. (by that one chick that isn't very good looking but she was drunk and you were desperate) And so the cleansing begins.

Damn governments.

I like this. The idea of a boss which is plausibly defeatable, yet would take over 18 hours to do so? That's how characters with [immortal] tags SHOULD be treated. Because everything can, in theory, be killed...
The players who are mad enough to go for the entire thing, well... 'grats to you, but ya still didn't take it down. This is just the MMO version of Penance or Emerald Weapon, a fine FF traditional of sheer stupidity, the pinnacle of Sisyphean tasks. I would even go so far as to say that FFXI would not deserve its mainline numbering without such an insane quest.

According to games manuals your supposed to take a break every 15 mins...

I hate to say it, but I wouldn't expect anything different in FF:XI. I played the game during retail for a year (32 White Mage / 16 Black Mage) and the level grind itself was a total pain. You would spend 5-6 hours in a zone with about 10 other groups competing for spawn locations just so you could get 1/10 of your next level for the night. After a while of that it just pours down on you that you're getting nothing done.

I'm all for unkillable baddies (you know, god like figures that seem like they can cough and take you out), but if you're going to design an encounter as this one is describing where people spend 18 hours trying to kill the baddest of baddies, that's just insane. I think the longest boss fight in WoW is 25 minutes (Illidan's berserk time) and those fights can feel epic in scale without the need of extreme time limits.

Goenitz:
Playing a game until you puke is HARDCORE!!!!!
Drinking until you puke is RETARDED!!!!!

Your liver will thank me for this later...

Yeah, it's not that FFXI isn't a great game but bosses that require you to take shifts playing the game. Okay bro, going to take a bathroom break and sleep, seeya in 6 hours. Is a bit sad when you hear about it. Great challenges are one thing, and something I think games loose these days to become accessible to everyone.

Story's like this are both funny and sad at the same time. I guess this goes to show, that if you think your bad ass with no life there is someone at square (I think his name is Ping) that is working hard to break you. ;)

They obviously weren't high enough level. They should grind for another year and try again.

Just another reason why Final Fantasy XI is a terrible MMO.

YOU WANT TO HAVE FUN IN FFXI? YOU CAN'T. YOU MUST GRIND. YOU MUST PARTY. YOU MUST GRIND AND PARTY....ALLL THEEEE TIIIIMMMEEE.

This is just retarded, why the hell would a company make an 18 hour long boss fight, that makes no sense and would probably further the down fall of the game because people would get pissed. But hey that's just my opinion.

I remember buying FFXI.. installing it.. played it for an hour. Uninstalled it. Threw it away.

I think this is just the logical conclusion of all those Final Fantasy bosses with the ridiculously long attack animations and eight hundred & six bajillion hit points. Sephiroth wouldn't take this long to kill if he used Supernova every single round. Plain old bad game design.

fix-the-spade:

Goenitz:
Playing a game until you puke is HARDCORE!!!!!
Drinking until you puke is RETARDED!!!!!

Your liver will thank me for this later...

WHAT!?!?! Ive been mis-quoted!!!! I feel so violated....

Ha, I think this is fantastic. I'm sure there are plenty of lesser bosses in the game for people who don't want such a time drain. I personally would never spend 18 hours fighting a boss, but I'm glad Square included an option to do so. If nothing else, I'd never have gotten a chuckle from reading this article.

This reminds me of that boss from FF12, yahzmat? Yeah...boss that takes what, 6 hours to kill, if your lucky? Godly bosses are cool and all that, but seriously, they should only take an hour tops.

A WoW raid instance such at Temple Keep can be done is 2-3 hours, Black Temple would probably take 4-6. SSC would take 3-5. Basically, you could do 3 out of the top 4 raid instances in WoW, and that boss STILL wouldn't be dead.

They should have been suspicious when they heard this.

"Final Boss...MMO"

This is just the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. I am lucky if I find 4 hours worth of time a day to play CoH, let alone 18 straight. I just cant imagine it.

This goes back to the question of what an MMO should be from a design standpoint. Is an MMO strictly a game, with achievable goals, defeatable enemies, and purely design for gameplay? Or should it be designed to reflect a somewhat believable world, one that may include such situations, immortals that could be theoretically challenged but nigh impossible to beat. While not the best gameplay mechanic it falls under the design of the fiction and environment.

It's really scary to think that people would've considered that sort of thing 'fun'. I'll stick to games that at least have /reasonable/ goals.

You know somewhere a developer is sitting smugly knowing that their creature is such a success, even at the expense of members of its playerbase.

This whole story screams EPIC FAIL on Square's side. They need to hypernerf that boss down to a 15-minute fight AT WORST.

runtheplacered:
I remember buying FFXI.. installing it.. played it for an hour. Uninstalled it. Threw it away.

Mine's still sitting on a shelf, but other than that, our experiences were fairly identical.

OK guys, remember, this is totally reasonable.......if every registered user fights this guy at the same time!

Seriously it sounds like the only way to do it.

To me, as a WOW player (lolnubcasualloletc, that's got that out of the way, I really dont think it's good to have any kinda of game have areas more than a couple of hours long without being able to save.

It's bad enough with quite casual friendly content in WOW like Karazhan, the first 10 man end game dungeon, where you need 10 people to stay 2-4 hours, and that place allows you to save your progress after certain bosses, there's 21 bosses in that dungeon, if I remember rightly.

For a single fight to last more than an hour is ridiculous to me tho, you're asking a whole group of people to not lose concentration for a moment, after all.

And really, 18 hour fight? That's the kind of tales the mass media will love...
'Killer pervert video game encourages YOUR children to play for days on end without any breaks, yes, all video games will stop your child doing school work, and make them take up drugs and murder.'

I'm just running the fact that one game has a long boss fight thru the handy 'FOX NEWS' headline generator.

SenseOfTumour:
To me, as a WOW player (lolnubcasualloletc, that's got that out of the way, I really dont think it's good to have any kinda of game have areas more than a couple of hours long without being able to save.

It's bad enough with quite casual friendly content in WOW like Karazhan, the first 10 man end game dungeon, where you need 10 people to stay 2-4 hours, and that place allows you to save your progress after certain bosses, there's 21 bosses in that dungeon, if I remember rightly.

For a single fight to last more than an hour is ridiculous to me tho, you're asking a whole group of people to not lose concentration for a moment, after all.

And really, 18 hour fight? That's the kind of tales the mass media will love...
'Killer pervert video game encourages YOUR children to play for days on end without any breaks, yes, all video games will stop your child doing school work, and make them take up drugs and murder.'

I'm just running the fact that one game has a long boss fight thru the handy 'FOX NEWS' headline generator.

And what a glorious generator that is :D

Ah but the prestige among the community of nerds.

This sort of boss is a fantastic thing in my opinion. I'd be happier to spend 18 hours fighting a single boss than 18 hours grinding for levels. Sadly the order is non negotiable. Very, very few people will ever accomplish this which is what makes it gold in a world of MMO's where everyone is 'special'. Reaching a point where your players physically have to suffer and endure to win is sort of a new benchmark. Much like chess, you can be the greatest genius but if your opponent can stall you may lose your concentration, and then he can beat you with his superior stamina reserves. Like i said before, it's pure gold to pit people against AI in this sort of fight, which will never tire.

i got rid of it after an hour of play

You'd think an 18 hour long boss would have a cooler name than "Pandemonium Warden" ...

Piemaster:
You'd think an 18 hour long boss would have a cooler name than "Pandemonium Warden" ...

Yeah, something like "Piemaster" would've been more fitting.

Or... VOICE MAN. (If you get this, you deserve a cookie)

At any rate: 18 hours? Oh wow. Even if they knew they'd have a long fight, this is just ridiculous.