Quote Originally Posted by Seif View Post
Seems he wants to make this game be more like playing through levels instead of letting the players freely explore. I would have loved to see legendary players farm valuable materials in Darkhold and future areas like that but the rules and timers and directions make sure this content can only be played in one very specific way.

My favourite memory of XI was unlocking PuP with very custom tailored tactics with a very low level character. It took me days but I managed to get through a quest in a completely different way than it was intended and the feeling of reward was amazing.

Also while there is plenty of instances in XI saying that XI is "mostly instanced" is just a flat out lie. I've played XI for 3 years and I can count the instances I was in with the fingers of one hand.

Besides those few moments the rest of 3 years I was exploring a massive non-instanced world.
Instances in FFXI:
1) Dynamis
2) Limbus
3) Einherjar
4) Assualt
5) Salvage
6) BCNM
7) Walk of Echos

Non-instance end game:
1)Sky
2)Sea
3)HNM
4)Abyssea

did i leave anything out?

A lot of FFXI endgame is instanced, but are timed and have cooldowns before reentry. It's those restrictions on instanced content that makes you feel you spent more time in Sky or Sea or waiting up to 3hrs for a HNM pop.