Trying to get into the game...does any of this ever change?

Let me know if I'm off base here. I'm not trying to hate, just trying to gauge the game a little better. I bought the game when 1.0 released and enjoyed it casually for a bit but then stopped playing for non game related reasons. Then ARR happened. I still didn't play for awhile. Well, I booted up again recently. Started working on quests and am only lvl 32. This is what I'm feeling:

1. The game kinda feels like a lot of random sub systems thrown together in a box now. It feels like a game that is very disjointed, had a lot of backtracking done and sort of has an identity crisis.

2. The quests are even more monotonous than most themepark MMO's, although the main story isn't half bad. That being said, it seems like the whole game is driven by the main story, and that's hard for me to swallow in an MMORPG. I get that it's Final Fantasy, but I played XI and even that wasn't quite like that.

3. It is very difficult to do anything with new friends who join the game. Whereas in most games you can just find a friend where they start in the world and go questing/grinding etc with them, so much of this game is tied to the story that you would have to keep leaving your friend over and over for instanced story events.

The game honestly feels like the typical WoW style mmo to me. Story line is fairly good for a mmo.

The game is ultra shallow in every aspect that never changes at all. It is also linear all the way to the very top that does not really change at all.

The only thing really different from 32 and endgame is you have some more types of content, more off cooldown abilities make the combat feel less sluggish, and some of the content is harder (savage... everything else is dungeon level difficulty).

4. It seems like there is little room for spontaneous, player driven things to happen in the game. It's teleport safely to one area, go in instance, complete objectives, repeat. Nothing is happening in the open world to make any one persons experience more dynamic or different.

Now, I get that some of this comes with the themepark territory, and I'm not explicitly against that style of MMORPG, but this seems even worse than others. However, I'm still drawn to the game because the world is beautifully crafted and detailed, I love Final Fantasy, it's a good casual game. I read a lot about endgame stuff and some of it seems like a lot of fun. I would like to get to a point where I can run endgame dungeons, do PVP, craft a lot, do gold saucer stuff etc. But then when a new expansion comes out it's back to the same stuff listed above.

I don't know, is there something I'm missing? Do I need to be higher level? Will I start to feel like I'm having a unique play experience later on?

Wow, the character limit is horrible.

PS you click edit to add stuff to one post. To prevent having to make multi post and such.

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Originally Posted by Ozreth

3. It is very difficult to do anything with new friends who join the game. Whereas in most games you can just find a friend where they start in the world and go questing/grinding etc with them, so much of this game is tied to the story that you would have to keep leaving your friend over and over for instanced story events.

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May I ask if you've tried joining a Free Company? I looked at your Lodestone profile and saw that you weren't in one. They can help you do different things, especially with gearing up. A lot of people are happy to help new players by crafting them gear and accessories, or by running dungeons for gear.

Hunts, special fates. And if you ever decide to do the relic questline, then you will meet alot of people doing open world stuff. You probably dont see alot of people in the open world in the old locations because mostly everyone is in the HW areas.

Strickly speaking it sounds like the gameplay in FF14 isn't they type you favour in a game. In that case it might just not be your cup of tea. Certainly I've played successful mmos in the past that just haven't clicked for me. I had a friend swear GW2 was the best game ever made but It just never clicked for me and I stoped playing it. All you can do is give it a good go and see if its got enough qualities to make you want to play more.

Going to max level will open up new content but the formula and the structure for the game will remain the same. They have commented on the fact that the questing options are rather dull. This is a system issue they are looking to adjust to allow for a broader range of quest options in the future but that will probably some time off and be only for future content.

FF14 is in the end a highly structured, story driven MMO with a heavy focus on instanced group content and an open world mainly for questing, some zerging content such as hunts and the crafting and gathering side of the game.