The new player experience and how FFXIV fails as an MMO.

[Gyson]

Since we are talking about playing with friends at the endgame, a new player would have to buy the complete edition which does cost you $60.

Whoops, you are correct. So it would be $60 for the game, $25 for the story skip/character boost, and $13 for a sub once your included 30 days are over. That's a $94 total. But, again, if the story skip saves you just two months of subscription time then it's paid for itself.