Hey all, I'd like to voice my experience with Adoulin so far.
I'm having a really fun time with it, and there are some particular points I'm really enjoying:
- The cutscenes seem to be more lively than usual with the PC interacting more.
- The idea of the coalitions visually upgrading as they grow is really neat.
- There is an actual tutorial going through the coalitions system.
- Despite the lack of a boat or actual travel to Adoulin, I thought the introduction with the PC rocketing into the jungle like a meteor was fun. (Makes me think of the secret of mana cannon travel)
- The city is actually a lot more unique then I first thought when seeing the screenshots. At first glace I was like "Meh, looks like a bunch of reused assets." but Adoulin actually has a lot of nice locations and feels like a tropical resort town. My favorite places are the docks and the statue of the goddess.
- The coalitions missions ADD to the rewards gained from participating in Rieves, they are not the sole reward. I feel like I can just explore the hunting grounds and still be rewarded to some degree for these activities.
- The quest NPCs give -much- better hints then they have in the past to find quest items. Often pointing out a specific position or what monsters the item can be found by. For the first time in a long time of playing FFXI I felt like I could figure it out without referring to a wiki.
- The chest guessing mini-game. I actually always enjoyed this guessing game, and it's a lot of fun. (Although it could use some better prizes)
- The new mobs are very nice looking and are well animated. In particular I like the new gator beastmen and the butterfly swarm.
- The way that the jungle starts off with mobs that don't aggro, but get more aggressive and dangerous as you get deeper in really reinforces that pioneering feeling, and I think is a nice touch.
- The rent-a-room looks very nice, and I can't wait until they add Mog Gardens.
- The fact you can jump into a Rieve just by moving near one is great.
- I was worried that the waypoint system would trivialize travel, but the size of the city has been scaled up, which makes it feel convenient without devaluing the need to travel.
There do seem to be a lot of areas or features that are locked off for now (such as the mog gardens) but overall I'm really enjoying it, thanks for putting it together SE.
~Moppet