Been playing this game for ~3 months now. My thoughts so far

[Lewtskie]

OP, as far as the story goes, you blasted through what others have taken 3 years to complete.
Taken in small bites its not so tedious and you can actually savor the cutscenes and story instead trying gorge on years of cutscenes in a few weeks. Of course you're not going to like it.

That said, for myself and many people still playing the game, we've been playing patch by patch (or a couple patches at a time) for 3 years. If you just started 3 months ago, and bum-rushed your way through it, it's like the guy that marathons some critically acclaimed TV show in a weekend then after that says "it was okay." You need down time to digest it. However, as I mentioned before, FFXIV's story isn't a critically acclaimed TV show, it's an ongoing anime storyline with arcs and such. I've been able to get invested because... I've been slowly following it over the years, but it could be SO much better.

Now, I get this may just be me, but I just find this concept rather... bad. This idea whereas the only way for it to look good is to not actually see it as a whole, where of course any faults or blemishes are much more apparent. Yeah there's an ingestion period to be had, but I've binged watched entire series before and when you do, you give yourself a day to really process everything. Not once have I felt that delaying any of them would serve to make them better. Mostly because those, much like FFXIV's story, is presented pretty much at face value. There may be little things to think about, maybe, like foreshadowing that people had to sit on, or certain cliffhangers, but that is by far a small part to the over-arching story thus far. Seeing it all together then and there just shows that they opt to drag out the storyline because up close, you see just how disconnected a lot of really is. Rather than expansive narration/storytelling to make us hate someone naturally, they drag out one very small bit suspense trying to see if any outside influence can add fuel to the fire. They keep you pulled long enough to when the next patch comes out, people are just ready to press on with events so they don't have to give any emphasis to "What's happening outside any immediate dangers", and that I feel has been one of the worst for these NPCs as it doesn't breathe any life into them. You only get to see them when there's things to be done.

You know what would have maybe made me or others care about Minfillia more? If every mission, even ones that didn't involve you meeting her, you have her in her office or somewhere else and she could have had some flavor text. Things on her mind, small conversation, anything really that could have fleshed her out, make her any bit more interesting other than what flimsy personality they showed off during missions. Same as anyone. Maybe my standards are just too damn high, but I want characters that actually look and feel alive. That's why I've said it's gotten better with HW. Because even after missions you'll find characters around in that moment where you can get some dialogue. It's certainly added much for Thancred; thus far he's the one that feels most alive. Alphinaud a bit better, but most of his still ends up focusing on the where the task leaves off.