Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Dashuto]

Then you probably never done the new FFXI boss battle. Delve Version 1 was and still hard to do for most newbies.

I remember when Einherjar was brand new and people couldn't even get halfway through the fights.

FFXI managed to be hard without instant-wipe mechanics or puzzles, and thats part of what made its challenge feel better.