You didn't ever wince in agony exploring the landscape to find that anything remotely interesting was locked behind gates?
Cerulium fields and Sylph village anyone? Not to mention a bunch of other stuff.
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The whole reason stuff was behind locked down gates was because it wasn't implemented yet. Would you have rathered there be nothing there instead? It was still fun to explore and find those places, even if they didn't have a purpose at the time. There's still tons of places in FFXI that have no purpose whatsoever.
I see Analhelm ruins topics on these forums too
It worked in XI...
Gusgen Mines had a giant rock in one of the paths up until Chains of Promathia was released. The day Japan got their patch, the rock mysteriously moved...resulting in Oldton Movalpolos having an entryway.
It can easily work in this game. Just have a cave be the main entrance to a place, and have their be rubble in the way...or have there be a boat you need to take to get to new places.
Yes, and so far, all of the secret treasure you can find in XIV (Mako reactors, temple in North Shroud, etc.) all have absolutely nothing there aside from neat polygon models and high level mobs. We want stuff LIKE the Boyhada Tree because there was so much more in that zone than just a pretty set piece. You fought Ramuh there, there were tons of quests there, it had a unique layout and graphic set that you didn't see everywhere else (I'm looking at you EVERY SINGLE DUNGEON IN XIV). Nowhere did it mention wanting to have an exact duplicate of the Boyhada Tree...just something similar to it.
The Boyahda Tree was amazing. I would hangout there for hours. There was always some reason to be there. I also loooooved the Cloister of Storms.
To me, XI was completely immersive from the first day. XIV has not been. I really can't put my finger on exactly why. XI certainly had a special magic that I hope I one day feel with XIV.