No dont worry about opening ports, that's something you only need to do if you are the server (or certain peer-to-peer games, which ffxi isn't).

The bootloader closing after "Sending Key..." is due to its inability to launch the actual game client. This is usually because of being out-of-version (i.e. "version unknown"), incorrect registry keys (FFXI doesnt show up under Check Files), or Direct Play not being enabled.

I dont have Win7 installed on any machines so I can't investigate further... but I still suspect a Direct Play or general Directx issue.

That's odd, it's the most current version I think, (V.30170601_0) and I believe that DirectPlay is only on windows 8 and 10 from what I've seen

Direct Play is a component of directx going back to windows XP or so, but is disabled by default on Win 8/10. I don't know how Win 7 handles it, whether a contemporary directx needs to be installed (e.g. directx 8 or 9.0c) or whether Direct Play has some other way of being enabled in Win 7 I don't know.

Any luck being able to get in?