Quote Originally Posted by EliaStormblade View Post
You're not wrong. Even as someone who likes the story, there are indeed moments of iffy pacing. The thing is that they've always been there, which a lot of people overlook. Not to say that makes that suddenly a good thing, but it's basically a staple of XIV writing. Not like I'm against a bit of downtime either. Buildup and climax are a very normal part of writing, but XIV does have a habit of reaaaally stretching it out.
I don't think a bad element being a "staple" is proper justification of it being there. A lot of things that were removed were "staples of XIV" at one point.