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Announced earlier in May of this year, the expanded free trial for Final Fantasy XI is finally rolling out in September.

The current version of the free trial has a level cap of 50 and allows just a 14 days of playtime. The new, expanded trial bumps the level cap up to 75, with no restriction on playtime, allowing players to really immerse themselves in the base game and explore all it has to offer. At character creation, players can choose one of the following jobs:

Warrior, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, Red Mage, Thief

Additional jobs will be available at level 30 by doing a side quest: Paladin, Beastmaster, Dark Knight, Bard, Ranger, Summoner*

* Summoners will not be able to get all the summons available in game during the free trial, and their Artifact Gear is not available in the free trial as well.

There are other restrictions as well, detailed in the post. For those familiar with the FFXIV Free Trial, the restrictions are much the same: limits on communication, gil caps, etc.

So what DO you get?

The three Starter Nation mission lines, up through Rank 5, with a self-contained story that concludes by setting up the Rise of the Zilart expansion (RotZ is not part of the Free Trial)

Access to the 12 jobs listed above

Access to at least 12 regions, with each region having 4-8 zones

Access to plenty of side-quests to keep you busy

Access to HELM: Harvesting, Excavation, Logging and Mining

Access to Crafting with 8 crafts to explore.

Access to Fishing, though you'll be limited to how many fish you can catch per day.

Access to base Artifact gear for your jobs (excluding Summoner)

Probably access to the original zones for Dynamis, the games' first "end game" activity. This would allow access to SOME Relic Armor, and would likely allow creation of the first one or two steps of Relic Weapons

Seasonal Events and cross-overs.

I know for many of my friends, FFXI is the only Final Fantasy game in the main series that they haven't played. Therefore, I'm excited about this free trial possibly attracting more players and giving them a chance to experience its story.

One thing of note for those familiar with its sister MMO: unlike FFXIV which has a World Travel System, FFXI does not. You can transfer your character to another world for a fee, but you cannot visit other worlds. So choose your world wisely!

I'm on the Valefor, and would be happy to guide any new players around the game. I'm usually playing on one of four characters these days:

* Siofra (streaming story on her sometimes)
* Altheav (my former main; I dabble on her occassionally)
* Amalberga (going through story again for documentation purposes
* Valara (she's doing Windurst missions, again for documentation purposes