I haven't read this whole thread, so I'm probably repeating things here.

As an old FFXI vet, I can't stand this raid series. The story makes zero sense, locations and enemies have no connection to each other or a larger theme, and the only nostalgia I get is a longing for better days. Frankly, my memory of most of XI is 20+ years old anyway, so even being a vet I have trouble connecting with this on anything more than a superficial level. FFXI's Vana'diel is a wonderful, well-crafted, believable world, and what we got here is a shambling Frankenstein's monster of parts sewn together for no real purpose. Requiring an NPC to give a short exposition dump about various places and bosses is not a good way to tell a story.

What this did for me is make me want a FFXI-2. I want to keep exploring Vana'diel with updated graphics and an imporved user experience (but not too improved, some complexity will filter out the tourists). Early last year I reactivated my old XI account, and while everything I loved about the game was still there, everything I had issues with also still existed. It didn't help matters that the starting zones were empty, and coming back to a dead friends-list and linkshells was... melancholic, to say the least.


Quote Originally Posted by Villa101 View Post
FFXIV has always been a theme park mmo. I do not know what to tell you.
I said this at the end of 7.0, but the attitude of "it's always been this way, deal with it" is a poor excuse for not improving. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't have made something new and original for the alliance raids. I've been around enough that I didn't expect anything more from this series, but I sure hoped for it.