The armory system has been criticized up and down because it creates homogeneous, boring classes. It was one of the top complaints about this game. It's also what's holding back the game NOW, because we're going to have jobs tied to weapons, archers with no melee weapons, etc. Not a good feature at all.
Also not a good system. Leves are boring and exploited to hell because it's more rewarding to fail a leve than it is to complete one. Let's not forget the exploits with healing during leves that was present in the game's first few weeks. Don't think I've read a single review that praised the leve system.2. the leve system. yes, it is now, but should not have ever been the main way of progression in the game. quite frankly it is the only time you can get people to party at this point though. the reason is if more than one group winds up in an area trying to grind is the sp is severely affected.
You just backed out on your point with the first sentence. They're horrible, they're boring, they don't happen often enough. The little quest content that this game shipped with was awful.3. the class quests. yes, i know the quests in this game were horrible and should have been vastly improved. i did still enjoy the little lore behind each class we did. they were extremely boring and need to be mostly just be redone. the only one i have really enjoyed was the r36 blacksmith quest and that one only because of the cut scene.
That's not a redeeming feature, especially if it failed. Every game tries to appeal to a larger crowd.4. the fact that they tried to make the game to bring in a more diverse crowd. this failed dramatically though because you cannot make one game that caters to everyone. there needed to be different things for the different playstyles to enjoy.
Game didn't ship with NMs. But I'll throw Tanaka a bone, because these were implemented under his supervision.5. they went away from the 24hr-1week spawn times on nm's. it made it easier for people with less camping time to enjoy doing the higher level mobs.