New FFXI Fishing System

Now, instead of just plopping your line in some water and hoping you'll catch something, you actually have to "work" to catch fish. It's a much better system. You plop your line in and you see a determination on whether or not you can catch this fish - it's like your "fishing instinct". Your fishing instinct gives you an approximate estimate of whether or not your skill is high enough to catch this particular fish. The instinct is not always accurate but if you find your skill is not high enough for a particular fish, you cancel and not waste time on something you'll lose anyway.

You also see a a fish "stamina meter" (which is much like the standard monster hit point display). The general idea is that you can only reel in a fish that has been weakened by the fight. To run the fishes strength down, you have to work against it. This is achieved by the analog controller on PS2 (or num-pad on PC). If the rod moves to the right, you move the controller to the left. If the rod moves to the left, you move the controller to the right. Properly doing this causes the fish to lose stamina. If the rod is straight in front of you, you do nothing with the controller. Moving the controller in the wrong direction causes the fish to regain stamina.

This system is really cool because fishing is more engaging, you catch more fish, and best of all... no more fishing bots to ruin the economy! I'm glad Square-Enix decided to work to this end. MMORPG are riddled with "cheaters" that affect the game-play of everyone else. Seeing that Square-Enix is committed to stopping this "cheating" makes me happier about continuing my membership.

Have a look at what Latcarf, my FFXI character thinks about the new fishing system.