Quote Originally Posted by Sotek View Post
I think you mean;

Every Final Fantasy game: Cutscene, NPC tells you what to do next, choose to do that next, go to that objective for next dungeon/cutscene/boss/whatever.

Final Fantasy XIV: Cutscene, NPC tells you what to do next, choose to do that next, go to that objective for next dungeon/cutscene/boss/whatever, queue up for that dungeon/boss/whatever (which takes no time at all if you already have a party assembled, you know, like the old games already did for you).

Seriously. Go play Final Fantasy again, or any of the other games. Then make a new character on XIV. Other than the side quests there is really very little difference.
Final Fantasy I, you're stuck wandering around outside the first town until you "decide" to enter it and continue the game.
Final Fantasy VI, sets you on the story right from the start with very little wandering around.
Final Fantasy IX, stuck in Alexandria until you progress the story, with a few side quests.
Final Fantasy XIV, stuck in your starter city, with a few NPCs to talk to, until you progress the story and unlock a bunch of side quest.

Final Fantasy IX, you're then thrown into a series of cutscenes until you end up in a linear forest. Then you get to the overworld and you can "wander" until you get to the only possible destination; the Ice Cavern. Again, pretty Linear, no less so than Sastasha. After I've played Final Fantasy IX a bit and gone through all the dungeons, gotten an airship and (for some bizarre reason) go back to the Ice Cavern, I'm no longer exploring it because I already have. The exact same is true for Final Fantasy XIV. First run of Sastasha is exploring it, after that I'm not. Complaining that "there is no exploration like the old games" is complete and utter bullshit. They are exactly the same, except for that fact that you don't ever finish a MMO.

Yes, I know exactly what I said. Guess what? Final Fantasy <whatever> had "you go to the entrance of a dungeon once, then never again" because you very rarely ever needed to go back there ever again once you've cleared it. My issue with the Duty Finder is in relation to other (older) MMOs, not single player RPGs which are a completely different entity and really shouldn't be compared to MMOs in the way most people are here.

The common complaint I see with the world is that you get around too easily. Make a new character and get to Ishgard, please. What's that? It's only easy to get around once you've explored the world and leveled up? How funny. Reload an old copy of any Final Fantasy game where you're up to the final dungeon. How easy is it to travel around with that airship of yours? Seriously, stop pretending there is a difference. It is really quite a hilarious complaint. How long does it take me to travel around the entire world in Final Fantasy IX once I have the Invisible? Matter of second. How long would it take me to do that in Final Fantasy XIV?
All this text and you still refuse to acknowledge the biggest point that separates the world of FF14 ARR from every Final Fantasy game (online or offline, including the original FF14) before it. That being that all the areas in all of those older FF games were a part of the world, and most of the areas in FF14 ARR are outside of the world in a location that you get to by queueing up as if you were playing a hub game like Phantasy Star Online. I have nothing against hub games, by the way. They're fine games in their own right. But they come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and having a large seamless world is not one of those advantages. I'm not quite sure why you continue babbling on about all of this other nonsense rather than the one point that was in the comment you actually responded to. That being that FF14 feels like a hub game where most interesting zones are outside of the world, other FF games do not. Not everyone is going to prefer the same types of games, and even if you're now suddenly big on the whole "queue up for everything and leave the world to go to isolated instances" for everything now, it doesn't mean everyone else has to be.