Ok, things have taken a turn for the better in the realm of FFXI. When the MMORP game first launched it was widely considered a bonafide hit; the online experience was quality, the gameplay was exciting and the development by Square Enix was as expected. Well, as is the norm, the additional add-ons started coming down the pipe and again the norm provided us with an average add on, Chains of Promathia with decidedly unfair and unfun quests that involved waaayyy-to-tough missions. But fortunately the kids at Square Enix learned from their past mistakes and instead of giving us another frustrating expansion, they got back to basics and gave us a really solid expansion add on that does the Final Fantasy moniker justice.

The first thing that I noticed about this expansion is that it has a pretty wide variance for players in regards to their character's levels. In most expansions, you can tell right away that you will need to have a character(s) that is at least at 'XX' level. With Treasures of Aht Urhgan, it seemed to me that even if you came into the game with a character that was really beefed up and powerful you would still find challenges with the different quests rather then blowing through them like a hurricane. Other games in the genre have had some disappointment for players who really had strong groups only to find themselves leaving a wake of destruction on the expansion, not the case here.

 
"Perfect, I was in the mood for calamari."

Now the big thing in Treasures is the ease of transcending the new areas, almost immediately players are thrust into a quest that will allow access to the more important areas of the newly discovered by way of Whitegate. There new houses can be accessed and if you so desire, maps of the new areas can be acquired for a price. All of which makes getting going that much more seamless, more the way it might be if you had walked into a new town and wanted to get a lay of the land; in other words, players will feel more inclined to want to get out there and start exploring.

Of course the expansion features the standard fare of new maps, new characters, new classes and the new monsters. More importantly though is the introduction of several new jobs that have only just become available; Blue Mages, Puppetmasters and Corsairs. These bring about some interesting possibilities in the overall game schematic since Corsairs appear to be the new Ranger and Blue Mages with their magical abilities could put other magic users out of a job should a party want to upgrade to one of the new job types. My favorite was the Corsair as I worked with building him up it almost seemed unfair to the other members of my party, I was getting powerful, fast.

 
"Let this meeting of carnivores anonymous start."

I feel that it should be noted that Treasures seemed to have received a boost in the graphics dept. To me, it was easy to see an increased detail in depth, character shading, architecture design and a certain gloss that the developers seemed to breathe into the visuals that quite frankly I wasn't expecting for expansion on a three-year-old game. When you first walk into a new open area you can expect to have a certain amount of awe wash over you. Little details in the environment are apparent and I could tell that the folks at Square Enix were making up for any misgivings they may have felt with their last expansion. And I can't say enough about how good the monsters look and move. Large powerful-looking creatures stride across the landscape as sneaky evil one slink around looking for their next victims. These creatures look and act the part, my biggest beef in RPGs is silly looking creatures, this is not the case here.

But what FF game would be complete without Chocobo's? Probably the one constant in all of the game's the loyal and mascot-ish Chocobo. Here, Chocobos can now be used for breeding and racing, an interesting concept that has yet to reach it's fullest potential once the majority of players get into it, which also reminds me that the game is ripe for some updates to help smooth out some of the game possibilities that aren't firing on all cylinders quite yet. Nothing big mind you, but some rather ambitious ideas have been placed into the game that just aren't there yet.

The game itself features quite a lot of things to do, and since this is a cross-platform game I thought it should be mentioned that there is an influx in new blood playing on the Xbox 360, most of which you will find in the areas of the original game but it does have the Treasures expansion with the core game so I thought since they are out there, I'd send them a shout out.

"Call me cute again and I'll turn your face into an ashtray." 

Treasures is an expansion that will require a great deal of effort to completely embrace, most gaming sessions should involve several hours of play since oftentimes it takes some real tenacity to get anything big done. But with that comes an additional gaming experiences namely a new one featured in this title called assault. The big draw for me on assault is that it doesn't really suck up as much time as the other group activities in the game; sometimes I only have an hour to play, so it's nice to be able to hop on and join up. Basically you and your group make war on a specific area in order to gain items, experience, etc. but rather than it being a mindless mode, the game can be advanced from doing these assaults and most importantly it's a way for your character to collect armor sets. Collecting a full set of the same style armor gives the player a stronger character by rewarding you with additional skill sets for having the complete collection. I.E. if you have all the pieces to the Gucci armor collection then your character can gain back health points at the completion of a battle, or whatever. Having full sets of different armor gives you different rewards.

There is an absolute ton of stuff to be found in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion including the Aht Urghan themselves. New character classes, new and frightening looking monsters and more importantly new experiences in a world that needed a shot in the arm. 

Gameplay: 9.0
It's really the first large-scale multi-platform game going; the controls are solid, gone is the overly complicated feel of the last expansion, now players are rewarded with a game that is as much a joy to control as it is to play.

Graphics: 8.8
Again with the kick-butt looking monsters, environments look great and the game only has slowdown in the rough "besieged" mode, which is only a problem because when the monster comes a calling and everyone is called to defend the city, everyone wants to play so the processing becomes so bogged down with the hundreds of people joining in the battle.

Sound: 8.0
I almost would have preferred this on my 360 just because I can only imagine how it sounds being pumped out of a seven-speaker system. But I must say it does sound pretty good coming out of my computer's speakers. Monster noises, in-game sound effects are sound clear and strong.

Difficulty: Medium/hard
It is what you put into it, but the developers also made a game that is a challenge to all. For some that may mean a moderate challenge, for others a very difficult one, the point is when you are dealing with these massive online adventures you need to err on the side of the more difficult so as to create a challenge for all players.

Concept: 8.9
It's great, one of the best "comeback" expansions out there. It has completely reinvigorated FFXI and is drawing entirely new players to the fold.

Multiplayer: 9.1
A great game to keep up your online time. With the addition of the new modes for combat, players will constantly be challenged. I have a buddy who is probably going to be getting a divorce because of this game and all the time he spends playing it (joking).

Overall: 8.8
A great experience for those who want to really walk the mile. It a solid expansion that not only refreshes the original title, but is good enough to pull gamers into it that never even played FFXI.