Be brave

[Judge_Xero]

EDITED TO HIGHLIGHT IMPORTANT POINTS
Taken straight from the top of Gamespot's text review:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/final...%3Bread-review

The Bad
-Absolutely miserable interface ???(Why)
-Does a poor job of communicating important information (Hand Holding Required? Or is it fun to discover)
-Limited questing means you're always looking for something fun to do (Story Quests Added, more on the way)
-Everything about the economy stinks (Economy still needs to be tweaked, yes. The real market structure is awesome) -Every aspect of the game is filled with dumb obstacles. (Statement doesn't make sense)-slow anima regeneration (Running within city states is easy)-lack of mounts (Running within City States is easy)-confusing account management (Crysta or Credit Card? 2 choices is confusing?)
-annoying outside game config (Double click, set graphical settings, click ok. done)
-dependence on text macros (Macros not required, Programming Macros is Easy and beneficial though)
-manual configuration of gamepads (Custom Configuration of Gamepads)
-lack of convenient UI features (Easy to navigate UI)
-game soundtrack on endless repeat (.....)
-cookie cutter environments (Looks amazing)
-lack of auto follow. (??? Auto Follow has always worked)

GameSpy:

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/square-enix...1127142p1.html

-Attacks and damage being out of sync during combat (True, although doesn't alter gameplay)
-Crafting is a chore through multiple menus (Fixed, crafting is awesome now)
-Lack of intuitive navigation of features (What is this person asking for exactly?? Auto navigation of Menus?)
-No mail system (True)
-Grinding (All MMO's have grinding, farming, Leveling)

....and all of the above has never been mentioned in detail by the dev team. (Most have already been addressed)

IGN review:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/112/1123824p1.html

Criticism:
-Storyline missions too spaced out (True, being addressed already though)
-Levequests lose their appeal after a while (How long is a while? Like 7 months?)
-Dull grind (All Grinding is dull)
-Too many submenus (Already been updated with UI patches)
-Useless map (Map is amazing now)
-Poor PC optimization (True. being addressed though. About the same as Rift)
-Lack of mounts (True)

As we can see in yet another case, Yoshi-P has effectively ignored the criticism above, and focused all of the team's effort on changing, nullifying, or ignoring the only things about the game that were praised. (Not True. All patches so far have addressed these aspects of the game)

PC Gamer:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/18/fi...sy-xiv-review/

Criticism:

-Lag issues (Yes there is lag in some areas)
-Framerate dips (Yes the FPS does dip, Anything above 30 FPS is not visibe to the eye)
-Nightmarish UI (UI is nice now, very FFish)
-No PVP (Final Fantasy title... PVP?!?!)
-No auction house (Market is very nice now)
-No sensible fast travel system that doesn't break your bank (Traveling doesn't cost GIL, what does this mean?)
-Very hard to just buy a sword in the game (You start with gear for whatever class you choose)
-High failure rate of crafting (Crafting is easy while doing a recipe within you rank. There is risk in doing otherwise)
-Long timer on guildleves (So?, leve ends when you complete the task)
-Dull grind (Again, grinding is dull)
-Fatigue (Of course Leveling needs to be limited)
RPGfan:

http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Final_...XIV/index.html

Criticism:

-Only five zones (what does this mean? for each State there is about 12 zones)
-Underutilized zones (True, not everyone is at all the R40 zones)
-Copy/pasting (Graphics are amazing)
-Long load times (No load time to enter quests cities. Other than starting the game up)
-Soundtrack wearing out its welcome (???)
-Non-user friendly UI (Amazing UI now)
-Lag between UI menu selections (Barely noticeable)
-Cumbersome sheathing/unsheathing of weapons (Active/Inactive? What's the issue?)
-Movement speed reduced while weapon unsheathed (There are skills to reduce this, what's the issue?)
-Frozen in place while sheathing weapon (Yeah, of course)
-Needless deaths from complicated sheathing mechanics (why would you put your weapon away during battle?!?!)
-Need to unsheathe weapon for casting buffs (Yeah, it's called your wand)
-UI tedium (???)
-Guildleves seem like cheap, uncompelling content (More content added and is being added)
-Fatigue system (please see above)
-Game tries to keep you away from playing it (This doesn't make sense)
-Elemental instability in crafting makes your items explode and you lose materials (Yeah, of coure it does, it's called skill)
-Market wards crashing (The market is amazing now)
-Standing still during combat (Ranged and Mages do, Melee has to avoid attacks)

Don't forget guys. That more changes are taking effect before the start of summer.
Alot has happened since initial release. The new Dev Team is doing a great job on addressing many of the issues. Alot of the previous issues have already been addressed. Cheers