I tend to lean towards agreeing as far as particularly exciting characters tied up in the main plot. On the other hand, there is Cid and he's a decent character so far.

I also have to whole-heatedly disagree on the note of Villains. FFXI had some decent villains at times, but it never had the oppressive, evil-looking-armor-wearing Empire that one basically expects of a high-fantasy era Final Fantasy.

I just hope they kick the Empire into overdrive with 2.0. In terms of content, ( I want to fight them more often. ) But more importantly, in terms of presentation. If I see one more dunce running around in an Acton claiming to be an imperial soldier I'll drop meteor on Eorzea myself.

In 2.0 I want to see all normal imperial soldiers sporting armor a la the current centurions, with variations based on their roles in battle (see imperial troops in FFXII, seeing as we have the same art director... not sure how he allowed this to happen!) Here's to hoping the morons in cloth armor are just Ala'Mihgan conscripts, and are replaced in the near future with properly armored imperials.

Also, Imperial March. We need a better one. Sorry big N try again.