True Fantasy Live Online

True Fantasy Live Online is a cancelled Xbox MMORPG from Level-5. It was Microsoft's ambitious answer to Final Fantasy XI.

Plot
The game takes place in the The Kingdom of Clelia, one of many countries of the realm. There are tall walls protecting it from hordes of monsters. From here you can train to be anything, like a warrior or a treasure hunter or a blacksmith and so on.

Gameplay
Up to 3,000 people can play at once with their custom-made avatars. There would be various body parts and skills to select, from humans to elves to dwarves. There was to be many items, quests, monsters, and realms to explore, obtain, and conquer.

Players would have been able to talk to each other via speech bubbles. Talk into the Voice Commander headset and what you say appears in the speech bubbles. It was a rudimentary speech-to-text function.

Development
Level-5 and Microsoft butted heads often. Akihiro Hino, CEO of Level-5, blames Microsoft for their inexperience with Japanese games. Microsoft blames Level-5 for their inexperience with online games.

As a result, the game's development kept getting pushed further away from completion. After an underwhelming stint at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show, the game went silent. The game was basically finished but a loss in faith meant the game never saw a release.

Cancellation
True Fantasy Live Online was cancelled in June of 2004. The bad experience has left a bitter taste with both companies.

Video
Gameplay trailer.