Quote Originally Posted by MonsutaMan View Post
it is vastly superior to XIV....having Yoshi at the helm will spell disaster after XVI and how XIV fell from its' peak. I wish him the best, nothing personal, but I just don't think he is good at this
I went back to XI during the return and discount campaign they just had, and I haven't really played it too much since around 2011, but XIV has been so incredibly stale lately I did it out of boredom, and holy hannah, even dangerous world aside, FFXI gets so much right that FFXIV just cannot seem to even grasp...

Jobs are so much better and there is a flavor for you no matter what your taste.
The world is established and they don't just shoehorn things in that don't make sense just to forget about them next expac, like tech that is centuries if not millenia more advanced but strangely have no reprocussions on the setting.
Combat at higher levels is so much better than the dance dance revolution that XIV has become, even if it is slower.
Stats, buffs and debuffs are meaningful and plentiful with actual support roles that can do more than enhance attack by 3% for 30 seconds.*
Gear and drops are so much more important than just placeholders until the next patch and can last literal years.
They actually know how pet jobs should work. Bst, pup, smn...they are all just fantastic. (esp pup, but I am bias since its a fav of mine)
There is such a variety of content. And I don't mean raid A vs raid B, (which are all the same with different paint) and FATEs, but actual highly varied types of content.
The story telling and lore is exceptional for an mmo without being buried under a sea of boring manga tropes, retcons and just plain ol' bad writing and self inserts.
Every expac is a self contained story, giving us a much wider view of the world from many different perspectives that we actually get to experience and not just be told about. XIV's egregious breaking the cardinal rule of "show don't tell" is tiresome and boring. Let me experience the world!
They really limited the amount of cutesy, UwU, chibi, grossness that spread across XIV like some saccharine plague.
The devs are so much more communicative with us and actually listen and take suggestions into consideration and introduce them in a thoughtful way. Like they still actually care about this world and the ppl in it.
I could go on, but you get it.

Imo it wouldn't take that many tweaks for XI to rule over XIV again. Ppl want to hate on it because its old, slow and less pretty, but it really just proves that new, fast and graphics are not the be all end all. How SE got FFXI so right in so many ways and XIV cannot do more than FATEs, hallways, square/circle arenas, bargin bin manga writing and progressively worse/out of place glams is the real mystery here.