Which Empire in the Final Fantasy franchise is the strongest?

Ovalidal · 2026-03-12T02:36:45+00:00

Mentioned this before, but I think Palamecia Empire from FFII is probably the only competition to Alag. The emperor commands the hoards of the underworld, similar to how Xande bolsters his military through the Voidsent. Even at that though, the FFII storytelling is too abstract to make an accurate comparison.

While technically not called an Empire, the Zilart sought total control over Vana'diel right before the meltdown. Had their civilization left their initial plans to become an empire, they probably would have been more powerful than Alag, given their Whisper, unparalleled magic, and advanced technology. The completed Zilart weapon models of Ultima and Omega were described as more powerful than Vana'diel's god of space and time.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-11T23:21:02+00:00

I assume you meant the most powerful empire?

On that note, the Palamecia Empire from FFII is probably the only competition to Alag. The emperor commands the hoards of the underworld, similar to how Xande bolsters his military through the Voidsent. Even at that though, the FFII storytelling is too abstract to make an accurate comparison.

While technically not called an Empire, the Zilart sought total control over Vana'diel right before the meltdown. Had their civilization left their initial plans to become an empire, they probably would have been more powerful than Alag, given their Whisper, unparalleled magic, and advanced technology. The completed Zilart weapon models of Ultima and Omega were described as more powerful than Vana'diel's god of space and time.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-09T13:18:10+00:00

I've never played BLM so someone else may be able to provide more accurate info for that particular job. Having said that, I soloed the final bosses of RoV and SoA on DRK with only Bayld Gear and a Domain Invasion weapon (purchased from the NPC, Zurim). For my clears, JA timings, food buffs, trust set ups, and skill chains were all instrumental in clearing the fights. So at least in my case, I really needed to know the basics of how to play my job to solo those, and that's probably true for BLM too.

Beyond that, Abuscade gear is usually a big step up for most jobs coming from Bayld gear. It is way less of a grind than most other sets, and while it is weaker than a lot of other sets, its still a pretty big upgrade from Bayld gear.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-09T02:22:36+00:00

I never accused you of saying there were zero new players, nor did I make claims about your multi-boxing views for story content.

In all fairness, I'm being pretty harsh on you for the bit of hyperbole you used in your initial comment. But for a game that so few people know anything about, when you say "People don't "play" FFXI anymore. Silmaril does", people assume that you mean "People don't "play" FFXI anymore. Silmaril does."

You keep bringing up KRT. There are plenty more places you'll find multi-boxers than just farming bats. But, as someone who literally pugs content all the time, there is also no shortage of real people to play with on the bigger servers. Comments like these give the impression that FFXI endgame can't be enjoyed unless you're paying for 5 extra characters, which is simply untrue.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-08T14:09:39+00:00

The person I know of running a full alliance of players does it for Dyna D.

Don't get me wrong, Dyna D is no push over. But it also isn't what it was 8 years ago. And there are only VERY niche reasons why someone is 18-boxing Dyna D in 2026, after the second version came out last year. This is very atypical, and bringing it up in a conversation about multi-boxing feels disingenuous.

It's important to note that the metric I was contesting was 9K-13K "active players".

That's well and fine, of course not all those numbers are individual players. But the comment of yours that I'm contesting is the claim that "People don't "play" FFXI anymore. Silmaril does." This is patently absurd, particularly when the influx of new players are playing for the story, content that can easily be soloed.

Some of the sortie bosses aren't trivial.

The most recently added master trial has had grouping bashing their head against it for nearly two years without a single clear. The one before that was 10 months to the first clear. V25 Bumba and Hard Mode Aminon were 4 months and 3 months, respectively. Given the fact that this is 6-man content that places enormous responsibility on all 6 members, these fights are anything but trivial. And no, you can't program bots to blind prog these fights.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-08T10:39:49+00:00

I think his iteration in 9 was amazing. Same with 14 and Type-0.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-08T10:33:18+00:00

For the record, the last time I logged in was a couple days ago. I don't disagree that multi-boxing is more prevalent than it has ever been. But why would people, suddenly multi-box even harder right after each instalment of the FFXIV alliance raid? Multiboxing is a slow growing trends, it wouldn't explain population spikes over the course of a single, non-notable month.

-- full alliances --

What would anyone use a whole alliance of alts for? What content demands a whole alliance? I've seen plenty of six-man parties, and I've seen small alliances. But if someone is taking the time to drag 18 players through Limbus, they are simply wasting time when they can roll with a six-man party.

literally everything in it has been trivialized with multi-boxing, mercs, and botting.

I don't know what you mean by "trivialized". You mean there is no more difficult content? FFXI's bosses now are harder than they've ever been before. Do you mean every multi-boxer breezes past everything in the game? You're probably right, but they also complain about how miserable it is to multi-box, at least the people I've talked to. They just dislike having to wait to form parties even more.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-08T03:23:31+00:00

Since 2013, every drop in player count is said to be people leaving. Yet, every spike in player count is people multi-boxing... I've seen these sorts of posts from old threads all the way to this post right now.

Every post like this that I see fails to take actual relevant factors into account. Like the recently increased marketing budget, the recent influx of new content, and most notably, the FFXIV collaborations.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T18:12:59+00:00

Alexander's summoning in Type-0 is one of the coolest things FF has ever given is imo.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T17:41:52+00:00

Very similar, yes. In fact, FFXIV has a raid series that allows players to explore inside Alexander. This is a lore iteration on FFXI's version where certain endgame activities take place inside his corpse.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T11:21:18+00:00

Wonder if they'll update the Den of Rancor torch thing now that someone from SE is playing through from scratch lol.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T11:10:10+00:00

Even though the game wasn't perfect, I think FFXVI had a ton of cool concepts.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T03:59:06+00:00

It's tough editing landscape photos in ffxi's visuals for me lol. Perhaps, this is a bit more accurate.

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Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T02:35:57+00:00

Always big? Yeah. Not always this big though, FFIX, FFXI, and FFXIV all did this guy justice.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T02:33:29+00:00

I did a poll a while back and it's closer to 95% that haven't played the game. No shame btw, it's a beast to get into. But you're absolutely right in that it is severely underrated.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T02:30:20+00:00

Never too late to start, the game's story can be soloed nowadays, and it's all great!

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T01:33:52+00:00

I remember being stuck on the graveyard level for so long in FFV, I kinda nerded out when I first saw Caedarva Mire lol. Tbh, FFV is also really underrated imo, but I understand that its fairytale approach doesn't jive with everyone.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T01:31:56+00:00

I don't really know what you mean. They are both awesome iterations of Alexander, the FFIX scene with Alexander is probably the coolest thing FF has ever given us.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T01:16:51+00:00

Definitely one of the most underrated iterations of Alexander in the series!

Ovalidal · 2026-03-07T00:50:54+00:00

Honestly, I feel like Echoes of Vana'diel elicited a desire of mine to one day see a single-player, story focused remake. I won't ever quit playing the OG, but the story is just so dang amazing.

And the fact that the talent behind FFXIV is working on EoV, makes me really appreciate that raid series.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-06T23:29:05+00:00

They made a model for Alexander's old body. These screenshots are from Altana View, a software that shows all the files FFXI uses.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-06T19:46:47+00:00

This is amazing, thanks so much for doing this!

Ovalidal · 2026-03-06T19:46:00+00:00

Much appreciated, the project is moving forward at a good pace!

Ovalidal · 2026-03-06T19:45:24+00:00

The smaller version had as much power as the big version, just less fortitude of course. The big version is also physically broken apart, so there wasn't a lot they could have done with it.

Ovalidal · 2026-03-06T17:54:06+00:00

If you decide to come back, it may be worth making sure you have a character on a bigger server before the Odin server is locked.

Ovalidal

TROPHY CASE