Quote Originally Posted by Gamespot
All of these elements that are "new" to Final Fantasy XIV seem "old" in the grander scheme of MMOGs. I asked Yoshida which online RPGs provided him the most inspiration, and his answers weren't surprising. He name-dropped World of Warcraft for its user-friendliness and enduring popularity; Warhammer Online for its system of public quests; Dark Age of Camelot for its player-versus-player content; and Guild Wars 2 for the way it made its map part of the exploration and questing process. When I asked him what makes Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn stand on its own, his answer wasn't as clear. He mentioned graphics, he mentioned the game's three story layers, and he mentioned the focus on console players--but not much more. In fact, he suggested that the idea of uniqueness among MMOGs is a bit of a misnomer and that most such games iterate on what came before rather than redefine the genre.

In other words, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn isn't trying to be that much different from other MMOGs--it's just trying to be different from Final Fantasy XIV as it currently exists. It's hard to say at this point whether that's enough, though Square Enix certainly hopes so. Yoshida steadfastly claims that the company is "putting everything" into this project and that it will never give up on a Final Fantasy game. Unfortunately, a lot of players have already given up on Final Fantasy XIV.
Source: http://www.gamespot.com/features/sta...chF%3bReadMore

THE STORY!! Final Fantasy has always been known for it's awesome storytelling. We got an awesome story for 1.0, a game they're going to let go. That's what's making me really looking forward to what's coming in ARR.

So what's special about FFXIV that most other MMO's fail miserably to deliver? STORY!

Yoshi-p you tell them that!!