also to add note as one being part of legacy player here:

It's true that 1.0 was "lacking", but I still believe way back then, if given more time to polish, today might have a different path on how original version goes. Gotta admit, despite all those failures, 1.0 actually had a deep lore, something I found similar to other FF series. For example, as me starting on Gridania, it touches it's own dilemma regarding elemental sickness & how all need to bring things into balance, sadly these were being dumbed down on 2.0 as mere affliction. Or that shady antagonist elezen figure on Limsa part of story, which ends up as being mere mention & slideshow as part on 3.x Alexander alliance raid series.


When 2.0 arrives, while some who never experience 1.0 found it much more fun playability-wise, some of legacies found that some things had to be cut down in order to met the original promise for PS3 port limitations: reduced graphic qualities (aka no "bumps") or how when we zoomed in our gears which shows how detailed the stitching on our garments which became very ugly mess on 2.0 onward, areas that were originally seamless near non-loading into smaller separated zones, contents being cut down without a mention like Hamlet (there's archived 1.0 lodestone news that actually lists achievement lists not carried over to 2.0, with Hamlet not being mentioned there). Even 2.0 itself back then felt too boring with way too much filler unnecessary mini stories, something that majority complained & SE finally caved, thus trimmed alot of those on much later date. Admittedly, the feels when I started playing 1.0 were way more magical than how 2.0 was delivered 1st time, granted that by the time I started 1.0, some of those old obnoxious features like that fatigue system already gone & makes the game much more enjoyable.



In the end, from eye-to-eye comparison, 2.0 just plain boring & didn't have that depth of lore feels found on 1.0 or other FF titles. Heck, majority of 2.0 content contains copy-pasted features found mostly from FF11 libraries with FF13 stuff thrown as part of end-game raid content back then. It was starts to get more interesting post 2.0 stories, leading to its 1st expansion & continues to improve much more leading to what we currently have, & did manage to make the title became award-winning. which should have been for part of mainline FF, despite they still carries borrowed content from other FF series.


Still... it never stops me thinking... what would the story evolves if there was never a Dalamud moon falling, what if 1.0 didn't fail. Every time I brought this topic, some did wonder as well.


When 1.0 did close down for good & waiting for 2.0, finally gave the chance to try FF11, which I should've done decade earlier, but being barred with expensive dial-up net costs compared to decade later when net became much faster with cheaper cost. Sure, by that time, graphic & content-wise felt much inferior, but somehow it does have that unique charms that every mainline FF series does, which is main reason why I also love this, even more than their offline series counterparts. And it's still fun to play all the way currently, hence every time on return home campaign always taking semi-hiatus on FF14 to focus on FF11, only briefly touch FF14 to cap weekly stuff real quick (thanks to hunt tours which easily cap my weekly tomes in under an hour). Personally wish could invest more on FF11, & would if SE would even consider making effort on their payment options like FF14 does, like discounts when subbing per 3 months or half yearly plans or that crysta gametime cards, one which still begs me to wonder as to why SE still kept sticking on just a single monthly plan which is more expensive. There's always tons of stuff to do every time coming back to FF11, just hoping that this game still lives on despite the structural changes.