Remember - you cannot review an MMO until 6 months after it's launch - which is today

[Abriael]

I never got to play FFXI when it first came out, i only got the US version, with the 1st expansion. Anyone know how good of a game it was before it's first expansion?

The first three months were quite the disaster. SE actually waived the fee for the second month (besides the first free one). The first 6-8 months were pretty much a rollercoaster with rules changing pretty much overnight, party play being encouraged and discouraged repeatedly and so forth.