Not sure how people are using "this is a Final Fantasy game!!!" as an excuse. Sure, it's an FF title, but it's an MMO. Having played FFXI I wouldn't have expected them to suddenly change their tune on content gating with XIV.


Final Fantasy XI, all content was separate.

Did not have to do base city missions to access Zilart content.
Did not have to do Zilart to access Promethia content.
Did not have to do Promethia to get to Whitegate and start the Aht Urghan arc.
...and so on until the end of time.

Since they've already created and ran a successful MMO with almost no heavily gated content, and since 99% of other MMOs also separate their lengthy "story" quest lines or, indeed, make them completely optional, I don't see why any new player wouldn't assume the same of FFXIV.

I've completed all the MSQs and I always made sure to be caught up so this issue has never really affected me but it's hard not to see the flaw in this design. I would be very hesitant to recommend XIV to someone brand new at this point in the games life unless they were looking for a traditional console style RPG game without the Massively Multiplayer Online bit because, frankly, that's basically what XIV is until the story is done.