While the genre is certainly far from its peak, one of the more successful MMORPGs in today’s day and age is Final Fantasy XIV. That said, Square Enix’s first take on the formula – FFXI – remains just as popular in many regards. Following in the footsteps of its successor, the original Final Fantasy XI is now receiving a new Unlimited free trial.

Making the official announcement as part of their latest livestream (translated by Reddit user ‘hikiri’), Square Enix / the Final Fantasy team revealed that FFXI’s free trial is being vastly expanded.

Set to go live sometime next month, the update will come in two phases. First, free trial users will now have their level caps raised from 50 to 75. More excitingly however, Square will then follow this up with a backend server change which will allow for unlimited playtime – as opposed to the previous 14 day trial.

Of course, being a ‘free trial’ there are plenty of restrictions, including but not limited to:

• Fewer available jobs
• A maximum of 3 characters on your account
• 100,000 gil currency cap
• You cannot trade with other players
• Smaller max party size
• More limited communication
• Can only access zones from the Vanilla game

The full list of limitations is pretty exhaustive and can be found HERE. That said, Square’s Final Fantasy free trials remain some of the best in the MMO space. If you’ve not checked out FFXI before, next month is as good a time as any.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the Final Fantasy MMOs? Between FFXI and XIV, which do you prefer? Let us know down below.

Final Fantasy 14 is now available on all three major console platforms. Today, the game officially launches on Switch 2, meaning the MMO can now be accessed on any current-gen platform. 

For a long while, MMOs were considered a PC-only genre, but that perception began to change over the 2010s. Final Fantasy 14 helped lead that charge with console-friendly controls and content-parity with the PC version of the game. Final Fantasy 14 was an early supporter of the PS5 during this console generation, and just recently expanded to the Xbox platform for the first time in 2025. As of today, Final Fantasy 14 is now available on Switch 2 aswell.

As part of the Switch 2 launch, newcomers to the game can buy the Complete Edition for 30% off, instantly granting you 30 days of playtime and access to all expansion content. However, if you opt for this version of the game, you will also lock yourself out of the Final Fantasy 14 free trial.

You are better off trying the free trial version of Final Fantasy 14 first, before signing up for a subscription at all. During the free trial, new accounts can play the entire base game, as well as the first three expansions. Completing all of this will keep you busy for a good while, and you won't have to worry about paying for a subscription until you are ready to move on to newer expansion content.

KitGuru Says: At 117GB, Final Fantasy 14 will use up the majority of your Switch 2's internal storage.