For what it's worth, I started a month after US release, pretty 'old time old school player' myself, had 6x75s by the time ToAU came out, but I loved abyssea, everyone gripes about how easy it became, but progression is on of the things I enjoy most in an MMO, when it came out, abyssea felt hard as hell, but as you progressed in it, it got easier and easier, I very much enjoyed the feeling of power building up on your character, yes, even to the point where it got to be pretty easy, it felt like you came a long ways as a character, I loved that. And the exp parties were a welcome change to me too, anything to stop the monotony and waiting ages for an appropriate party to be built. Especially the days before Level sync, I got 6x75s that way, it was kinda a nightmare, in retrospect.