Square Enix blew it for some of us, but I'm still here...

[Evenstar]

1) Getting a flying mount right from the start would destroy the exploration/adventure feeling of the game. By forcing us to explore the map, run around to all corners of a map, find ways to get to a certain spot on a map without a flying mount etc. really was fun and annoying at the same time. I got annoyed several times, but I understand why they did it and personally I supported it.

2) Totally agree on this. Some quests kept going on for ages and all you did was run between spot A and spot B, maybe a spot C (the quest with the small wyvern in Dravanian Forelands for example, or the one where you are looking for a husband for a NPC).

3) The story is amazing. Yes there were fillers, as there were in 2.x. This time they were not as annoying in my opinion and the story and the ending was well worth it. Last fights were not hard, but still epic, just like when ARR was released.

4) See point 3. This is a FF game, so story will always be important. You can not expect to play a FF game and skip story and still get what you want.

5) It still has those moment, maybe less than FFXI, but no MMO will get close to the epic feeling of FFXI. Those times are gone and no MMO can or will survive if they try to be FFXI.

While there are some small points I agree with you I think your complaints can be summarized as "please give me what I want now, without me having to work for it one way or another" and that is exactly what is wrong with the current MMO playing generation. You compare to FFXI, but did you ever play Chains of Promothia expansion when it was released? Hell, did you even play FFXI before they nerfed it? Now that game was a chore, from partying to doing a simple side quest, everything took ages to do and there was nothing you could do if you had limited time. So while you complain FFXIV has too many chores and fillers you also compare the game to FFXI and say FFXI was epic. Does not compute man .... does not compute.

[BreathlessTao]

Y'know, I can't help but agree with most of OP's points.

As for Aether Currents... much like NIN is a glorified MNK, these currents make a glorified Sightseeing Log. There is a reason why so few people have bothered with the Sightseeing Log: it's tedious, it's multiple RNG, it's timed, and on the long run it just ain't worth it. So SE's solution to the problem with the mechanics of it? A bit of simplification and forcing players to do them - as was already pointed out right on the first page in this thread, it's forcing you to "explore". To "enjoy" the views and the mobs. The problem with that is nobody likes to be forced to do things, especially things they don't consider fun. And with how gigantic the new maps are and how so obviously they were made for flying, looking up most of what's difficult-to-find spots is not fun. Especially when nothing whatsoever takes you there, except this arbitrary gating of the main selling point and focal feature of the whole expansion. In Mor Dhona, my character can jump up platforms as tall as he himself is. New zones? No jumping up to places smaller than him. Have to get up to a certain place? Well it's walls, walls, and more walls all the way throughout half the map just to get back to the same location, only a little bit higher. And if that ain't enough, we have places we can't jump down from, even though there is ground beneath. And the (mini)map itself? No markers for an item that works the same way as BTN/MNR skills is one thing, but it's also awful for distinction between altitude levels.
Tell you what, I've taken a lot of scenic screenshots and I haven't been to half the zones yet (Sea of Clouds I couldn't even complete, obviously). But that did not happen while I was trying to hunt down these spots. In fact, I took them after I could fly, because I could actually be bothered to notice and appreciate the sights. If a dev has to implement a way to force their players to do/notice certain things... I'd say they should think about what they created. I don't mind exploring, I actually love exploring (even now the first thing I did the first time was trying to complete my map...gave up on doing that when I figured out it's not possible). When I have to be examining every pixel on the screen though, to find that one place where I can reach a specific spot - I would not call that "exploring".

I also agree about the fetch quests errands... Most people hated them in ARR, and now they put even more in. On much larger maps that are even harder to traverse. And again, when you're trying to get through, or trying to spot a little glowing something hidden as much as possible... it's not the sights that you're paying attention to.

The story... so far so good. Errands right at the start though, not to mention the literal chores for the Moogles - yeah, I could live without those. Rowena mentions it in one of the MSQs when you're sent to her for some...flowers I think? What fine use it is of the talents of the warrior of light, playing errand boys. Wish SE actually took a page of their own book, when they are actually capable of criticising themselves...

That said, the MSQ does span out nicely. Needs a bit of time to start unfurling, but it really does. There definitely are great parts in it, and I doubt I'm even halfway through.

But yeah, on a whole, I do understand the frustration - heck, I have gotten frustrated more times already than I should have, and we're only past Early Access. Which was, all things considered, incomparably smoother than that of ARR's. Things feel slow, much slower than what we've grown used to, and in part the huge zones where we have to not only run but take constant detours to get everywhere, to actually do things, is to blame for that.

[T2teddy]

I agree with you, except their lore has a lot of fillers, like the first 2 hours of Heavensward. Running between points and A and points B is hardly story.

So do you even bother READING the cutscene/quest dialogues? Seems like you must not or else you would not be saying the first two hours are pointless. Do you not realize that every single thing you do to help others, is meant to build respect and loyalty from others towards your character?

The only point of yours which I 'sort of' agree with is the flying. They could have stuck with the usual 8 compass points instead of over 15....

[Nalfein]

Guys you need to understand, an expansion is meant to be played and you DO need to spend time in order to give them some to create new contents. What i think about flying is that they did it this way in order to avoid people to fly all at once and make your experience about flying very annoying. It was great the way they did it and thank you for that i had no traffic jam on sky!
The story is amazing, musics and areas too, for my part I'm more than satisfy and quite frankly they worked their ass off to provide you this new expansion you should be thankful for that rather than complain.

[Radacci]

5. What happened to what made the Final Fantasy franchise so great? Where is the "HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS EPIC!" part of the game? Final Fantasy 11 did a much better job with the main scenerio in that regards..

did you clear the HW story? if not, please look forward to it....it's mighty epic.

[Nadirah]

Okay and? I already know that as FFXIV forced their hand on it due to many WoW players complaining and jumping ship to FFXIV due to flying. That doesnt change the reason they removed flying in the first place. I said nothing about what they want to do now. I mentioned what they did then. So your comment, followed by the odd "Sorry." at the end made no sense. My comment still stands. That is why they removed flying. When I heard them mention putting it back in they said they'd be handling it differently this time,which I assume would be to avoid why they removed it in the first place.

And despite it supposedly being better for the game, they put it back in because they have no gonads and as has been said before, money talks, bs walks.
They lost me as a customer mainly due to their attitudes stemming from back in Cataclysm, but I digress. Cant even post my true feelings about game designers that cocky and condescending because I like posting.