Non instanced dungeons. An under-looked game design method in XI

[Hachi-Roku]

And shut your trap about Batok.

never, always lastok

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Also,

Journey.
Destination.
Different things.

MoonKeeperr said the trip to Bastok was fun and I completely agree. I remember my first trip to Bastok from Windy at low levels too. Without maps I had to ask directions from pretty much everyone I saw. It was more fun than most of the quests in any FF game and kept me up all night until I finally made it to the waterfall bridge.

The trip to pretty much anywhere was amazing and especially for those who started XI late in it's lifetime like I did.

If this is what you mean to say, say it! It gets the point across better than vague bolding and italics.

That being said, I have nothing against enjoying the journey to Bastok. Or the journey to and from anywhere in XI, really. I soloed reaching the various COR unlock spots as a solo 40-ish WHM, saved only by my castings of Sneak/Invis and still got eaten by chigoes/Imps a few times. Getting the key, working around to Arrapagio Reef- it was a real pain in the butt but dangit I was determined to become a pirate. O'course, then they make the cooldown on the ??? Lamian Fang Key one day instead of a conquest week, and I became an old curmudgeon talking about how 'kids these days have it so easy.'

I told my cousin about this, of the hoops I had to jump through to clear some of this stuff solo, and he just gave me a strange look, bewildered that I would go through so much trouble.

I have felt for a while that one of the largest things that is missing from FFXIV is the "journey", by it metaphorical or literal. In a way, it has matured before it's time. In FFXI, after you had played for a few years, you could easily zip around wherever you wanted. But those few years where you could not were important; they allowed you to grow with the world. In FFXIV, there is no maturation period, any content is a mere moment's walk away.

Now, I didn't start playing FFXI until far later in its life (after most things but before WotG was finished and before Abyssea even started). And this is more or less true: I looked forward to landmarks such as beating Magicite so I could get my airship pass. That was something I could look and work forward to, and when I finally did it, I immediately got an airship to nowhere just to ride it. Then there was restricted access to some areas that was annoying, like gathering Kazham keys.

Genuine question, with no malice: if SE had tied anima usage to progress in the main story quest, maybe something alongside the Echo, would it be seen in a less negative light?

That would have never ever happened with any kind of probability though, as even under Tanaka the focus of XIV was to be able to allow solo players to (a) progress in some manner and not be as reliant on groups while (b) under time constraints, which is what guildleves are really about- bitesized bumps of XP that you can do while alone and get XP/gil out of it. To really do that, you need to get to XP camps quickly.

An example a friend of mine brings up about travel time is the Einherjar event in XI: it would never start on time due to people missing the ferry and having to wait. SE wanted to eliminate that, and they did- until we have to assault Castrum Novum in Mor Dhona. I should go find out how far away from the camp it is.