Thinking back on that....
No 4* or 5* bases existed at all.
Max awakening was 5*.
You needed Barblizzara, which was only from a silver chest and keys pretty much had to be bought with lapis (which was rare in its own right -- no missions).
The only full breaker in the game was Vaan.
The best healer was Lenna.
The only tank was Cecil.
The only real mage was Exdeath.
Yeah... I remember the threads about rerolling like crazy until pulling at least 2 or 3 of those. Want to say there was one more of the "must have" group from launch, but the name is escaping me at the moment. Bartz?
WoL was released with Leanna. WoL had full break was the golden unit along side Chizzy at the time. They were also the only base 4.
Kefka was also around then, who was better than ExDeath at 5*. Solely due to Hyperdrive.
Till Leanna, the only healer was Fina.
Tanks didn't work back then since they couldn't really provoke either or absorb damage. So Cecil was useless outside of being another healer.
Buttz and CoD were the big two DPS at launch, but Chizzy came like a week after and shat from afar.
Basically locked out of Barblizzara too, where you only could get the normal version of it.
This was the first three months till Lightning was released.
I should mention, I used Clyde as my healer till I got Fina... Q_Q
Kids now will never know the struggle with their Noctis and Orlandus of having to use a Clyde.