My personal review~ (^,^)

[Esthar]

Hello ffxiv-forums~!

This is my 2nd or 3rd post in here and the first time ever I'll comment on the game somewhere online. (I really never really shared my opinion on it somewhere.) I wanted to wait until I've hit the last rank with at least one job to be sure I can give a valuable comment / view on the game, that wasn't derived after 2 weeks of playing and therefore lacks of substance.
I hit Gladi last rank now (yay~ first time endgame in an online game ever for me ), so I think I'm ready for writing a post on it.

First of all, before we go there:
I've been to the point of "meh, boring" once.
I was at R20 or something back then and haven't been in a nice LS (think I had a random pearl, but nothing worth mentioning).
But (fortunately and I'm really grateful about this) I didn't quit and went on playing which turned out to be the right decision.
Sometime at R30 I've coincidentially played with the same 4 people at Cedarwood for 3 days in a row. One of us then said: "Hey guys, what do you think about a static?" and this is where the game took off for me.
Since that day, we're playing together almost every night (mo - fr) and have become friends. That is, I think, one thing you need. A good team. We have gotten to 50 together and some hang out at BW just to link their leve's for the other, but then go back to crafting - so the others can rank up quicker. I don't know. This is the most awesome thing. As many people pointed out in other threads - It's all about the friends.
And it is. Once you get rollin' with a gang, you will inevitably notice that the world we've been provided with is damn awesome in terms of atmosphere, graphics, detail and feeling. Because let's be honest. MMO = Find mob, kill mob / craft. Every MMO. It's all about what you make of it, your own creativity. On our server, there's this crazy lass named Thevedis. Don't know her personally, except a few short lines and one behest. All I ever see her doing is darn crafting. Always. Go to BW, I'll bet 10 Gil you see her crafting. She should be more bored than anyone else. But I betcha she isn't. Why? Because she has her vision. It's all about you, man.

Another thing on the players:
If you have never played any Final Fantasy game, I think it's legit to say that this game isn't what you expected and I understand that you might have had a hard time finding your way in this. However, if you have played FF before - I think this game right here is your chance as a fan and supporter to give back. Give back for all the insane moments the previous games have given us, all the awesome music we could listen to, all the places we've visited, the characters we've gotten to know (either Rikku or Selphie being my favourites ), the talks we had with friends... The whole experience.
I'm confused, but more angry to see how many people who claim to be loyal fans don't wait a second to turn their backs on SE for giving us another game and being so there for us right now.
14 is a work in progress. We get updates twice a month and have official forums where the developers post and answer to our wishes. I don't know...
If there was like ever a chance to prove loyalty, show appreciation and say thank you - this is it - and I'm devastated by how many of you failed (and the sad way you chose to fail.)

Now let's go, my 2 cents:

Anima - I think this is great and everything is right about it. Without it we would take forever to do our leve links. The refresh rate is also sufficient, because if you run out you might have to run for 2 days (in case your friends aren't around) but then are back at 12 or so and therefore can start something again.
I think the real power of Anima is, using it wisely with your party. I like it.
Only thing: It makes you practically never use the ferry.
And the ferry is cool. (^,^)

Guildleve's - The concept of linking (which is, in my opinion, the only purpose of those) is a cool way and idea to push players into the direction of partying.
The whole idea of a leve counter, one of the innovations this game has with a pretty cool concept, I think deserves that some credit. I don't know if they originally intended us to always fail our "Ranine Revenies", "Dunesfolk for Dinner" and "All Cracked Up" purposely... (^-^) ...however, it's always a lotta fun to do one full link and then shout for a second full link, if there's a fifth or sixth player with that leve. I like it too.

Sidequests - Haven't done too many of those yet. Can't really say something about it.

Crafting - I love that it's relatively easy for, for example Armorer R21, to get all the required materials. Nothing exotic yet and all cheap to buy. It takes a bit long, for my taste, but I like the various materials and the recipe trees. And as I keep on hearing endgame-crafters say: It's apparently a very well thought out system and it's worth all the hassle. Well, I know it's worth all the hassle, since the cheapest Brass Ingot +3 I was able to find so far was offered to me for 2 million gil. (Didn't buy it.)

Armory System - The system of a one class character is out-dated and THIS, exactly THIS is the only answer to this. And it was given. And I think it rocks.

Physical Rank / Job Rank - Well... This might not fit to the comment I just made on 'Armory System', but well... I'm just human.
I think while having the option to choose whatever you wanna be, you obviously should (and most likely will) have a favorite class / a semi-fixed role. Therefore the point allotment on one side binds you to a certain class, but still leaves you all the freedom you want to just "changes clothes... and go~".
I think this is pretty cool and... if you think about it... probably the most reasonable choice to bring in something like "a personal strong class" when having the freedom of having all classes.

*** spoiler alert ***

The Storyline Missions - Oh... my... god...
Yeah, yeah... We all know there's only a few, but...
(Talking from an Ul'dahn perspective...)
Have you seen Ifrit? Have you? Have you seen the altercation of Amaljaa (or whatever it's spelled like) and the Ixali? Errr... Dammit. That's Final Fantasy. I'm sorry. It just is. And it is so cool. Just wait for the first expansion. I promise - That stuff'll rock ya world.

*** spoiler end ***

Battle Regimen - I particularly like this. Even if the de-buffs might not be too effective (although I think they are). It's a cool feature to determine between a casual and a dedicated party. It's fun to train this stuff. It's great if it works out. It's a good reason to get 'Cadence'.

Battle System - Hmmm... It works. That's important, right? It could be better, no argument here. But they're at it. And I trust 'em. Let's see what they got in store in for the future.

The world - While I see in Coerthas and Gridania why someone would say "copy/paste" (I've become to hate this word due to the fact how spam-ishly it's used)... Just think about it. Have you been in a forest in RL? Have you found shrines and temples every 50 meters along the way? (^,^) I dunno. I still like Gridania for the atmosphere it casts on you, when walking through it.
I mean... As I said... It's a forest. And a forest consists of trees.
And Coerthas is just a masterpiece of design, if you ask me, due to the mountains and the way shadow falls upon them. And have you seen the windmills?
On Thanalan: This is just wonderful, man. It's sooo awesome to see Ul'dah from the far and then come back 'home'. It's great everytime. While I can't explain why exactly I love the world, I just like it. I guess you either do or don't.

The characters - Currently: Zoom in really close on the face of the helper of the egg NPC in Ul'dah. Bang. That's the stuff. The detail is hilarious.

The gear - I love that there's different colors to sets. I find it strange to see Roegadyn in pink crafters gear... (^-^) ...Besides that I feel like it is a wonderful step in the direction of personalization.

......................Think I'm done.
Now, while I was playing and found something where I thought:
"Awww, that would be something nice to add, I wrote it down."
I'm gonna put this here now, just so writing it down wasn't for nothing.
And I haven't read every single comment ever made on this game, so there might be duplicates. Sorry, rofl.

Off-hand tools: Why aren't they displayed when equipped? (^o^) I want to see my pliers! Gimme my pliers~!

Fanfare when completing a leve: The BG-music doesn't stop when completing a storyline mission, or didn't stop until recently (might have been fixed already). This ruins the moment a little bit. If you have 2 music's playing over each other.

Crafting-Repeat: Would make life so much easier when there was an option like in Local Leve's where you can just repeat the last crafting process.

Battle Camera: Would be wonderful to have an option to turn this off. When the enemy moves, the camera moves. Confusing sometimes. (If there is an option already, omg please let me know~!!!)

Sword when sitting: Now, the emote's, atmosphere, character movements are so realistic and it's wonderful. Then you sit down, and half of your sword is suddenly in the ground. (^,^) Why break the realness here?

Emotes in all situations: Some emote's work when sitting on a bench (not on the floor). When I found this out, I was so amazed and surprised. It would be insanely great if this was expanded so emote's works when being in active mode and sitting (on the ground). Emote's available for the different situations would be just... Rrrrrrr. Great.

Ok that's it, I'm out.

Thanks SE, for all this. Keep it cool and (Take care.)

[Xatsh]

Your first large paragraph hit the core point of the game on the head.

The whole part about making friends and playing together is what the game is trully all about, and I guarantee you what 95%+ of the people who played this game more then 1-2 weeks have been doing since they started. Before people rage quit because soloing sucks they should try getting into a linkshell that does events in thier time zone or like you did form a static group.

Game is horribly boring solo while you can do it square puts up barriers like crazy to push you away from it, but the game is pretty fun when you are with others chatting, talking on vent and what not while playing.

So many people come into this mmo and try to play it like a mainstream mmo (solo until endgame mentality) and you simply cannot do it, at its core it is designed to cater to a completely different play style. Basically in short this game is designed for grouping, with soloing as a last resort when you have limited playtime.

If people came into the game thinking "Ok, I have to get into an active linkshell, and I have to group up while leveling" probally a 1/3 less of the people who dropped would of... either that or they just would of never bought a group focused game.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

nice read happy you took the time you did. I gotta find a server and good Ls a few ppl from mysidi or w/e it spelt. (not feeling good) were very welcoming so might reroll there. I like this game so far. I might change up my starting character a bit and pick Ul'dah instead. And as a pug. I like desert towns the best. Well... semi desert.

[CptGrimlock]

Very nice post,well thought out. I would have to agree a great static/linkshell can make a HUGE difference in this game. I feel lucky I ended up on Mysidia with such a great group as Seraphim, I hope many of you are having the same experiences!

[Rocket]

Battle Camera: Would be wonderful to have an option to turn this off. When the enemy moves, the camera moves. Confusing sometimes. (If there is an option already, omg please let me know~!!!)

Unlock your view. It's the same thing you do when you view lock someone then autorun to autofollow them. On my 360 controller I click down on the left stick, but I'm not sure what the keyboard button is. It's probably something on the numpad or near the ijkl camera controls.

Your first large paragraph hit the core point of the game on the head.

The whole part about making friends and playing together is what the game is trully all about, and I guarantee you what 95%+ of the people who played this game more then 1-2 weeks have been doing since they started. Before people rage quit because soloing sucks they should try getting into a linkshell that does events in thier time zone or like you did form a static group.

Game is horribly boring solo while you can do it square puts up barriers like crazy to push you away from it, but the game is pretty fun when you are with others chatting, talking on vent and what not while playing.

So many people come into this mmo and try to play it like a mainstream mmo (solo until endgame mentality) and you simply cannot do it, at its core it is designed to cater to a completely different play style. Basically in short this game is designed for grouping, with soloing as a last resort when you have limited playtime.

If people came into the game thinking "Ok, I have to get into an active linkshell, and I have to group up while leveling" probally a 1/3 less of the people who dropped would of... either that or they just would of never bought a group focused game.

This.

I see so many complaints of things that aren't really broken on here. With a good LS the grind up to 50 (well 42 so far) isn't boring. I just wish more people would use the party search function that's in the game. Having parties in there would alleviate some of the pressure to find a good linkshell, and might help some new players stick around until they do. Until that happens, though, any bored newbies on Cornelia should hit up xatsh for a pearl XD.

[Cendres]

Lovely review. There's no doubt that the game needs a lot of fixes but the fundamentals are very cool, if anything I'm in the camp that's worried the game will be changed TOO much with the new battle system. I will never quit the game but personally things work alright and would just need some boosts to make it really FUN. The fun part is what is lacking in this game, it's unfortunately some people equal this problem with replacing what is there with a cloned system from those other games..

But anyway this game is about Adventure and I hope SE doesn't forget it, adventure WITH your friends. XD