Linear, linear, linear

[kpxmanifesto]

I personally think they should have stayed on the path that ARR was heading, and they could have made the QoL changes we wanted in doing so. It was their own fault for locking critical abilities behind other secondary classes, so instead of balancing things out or making that experience easier - They opted to just destroy systems and put nothing in their place. This was the start of culling player self-expression, build capabilities, and RPG systems.

We say those things were bad, but they were only bad because CBU:III didn't balance them correctly. That kinda goes along with a lot of stuff they do. And we often conflate bad systems with it actually just being bad balance, and bad engagement.

Yeah, I remember being able to pick and choose which secondary class abilities you can have on your hotbar. It gave me some sense of being able to customize my playstyle and make it unique from others even though the difference would be minuscule. I feel what FFXIV really needed was a talent system, which brings its own set of problems, but nothing that was impossible to overcome.

Also the flying everywhere is absolutely egregious. You go from walking everywhere, and sometimes it takes a long time. To flying everywhere and it literally taking LONGER than it ever did walking in ARR. Because the maps are way too large.

This I actually liked, but to each their own, of course. I thought being able to fly across the entire map was awesome, and that the huge maps were fun to explore. I vaguely remember that's why SE decided to opt for larger map sizes - because players wanted larger and more open areas to explore.