Quote Originally Posted by Nichigo View Post
Felt great. But at what cost. We don't all have that kind of time.

And if by "some activities" you meant "level grinding and party building", then you're talking about MOST of the game. There were nights where I couldn't even do ANYTHING because I couldn't get a party together within the time I had to play (this is after yelling for a couple hours).
It was possible to solo on Final Fantasy 11. It was just challenging and took effort and possibly the right sub job. But that's how soloing should be... else there is no incentive to group up with others and the game turns into a single-player game. They also added campaigns you could do solo that gave pretty good experience. And soloing was also useful for training your skill levels. It wasn't always about getting the most experience on that game.

And why is it bad if a game takes a lot of time to complete? That's better than speeding through it so you can then be bored doing the same thing over and over in the "endgame"

As I have said, I don't think it was the "party grinding" that held Final Fantasy 11 back. It was their emphasis on HNM camping. That was easily one of the worst video game mechanics ever designed, and I don't blame anyone who quit over that.