This game reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaally needs an option to disable battle music. So much awesome music being cut by the same battle theme over and over.
Anyways, I'm quite enjoying this exp. The maps are cool, I don't think they're too big. They're like the size of the biggest XI maps, don't you think? And I'm not finding them as annoying to navigate by foot , but I guess my experience in Yhoator Jungle has helped me a lot
Although I have some dislikes with the story right now , the pacing of it and it's missions is WAY better than the ARR story. Right now I'm on a journey reminiscing of an old-school FF.
As I race towards the 3.0 content I haven't really been thinking about gear level or seeking out any gear sets.
I am at ilvl 98 now by simply buying stuff off the market and picking up weapon pieces on quests. Just about to go into the Leviathan (Main scenario) fight and decided that maybe I should be thinking about it.
Still, nothing has seemed that difficult for me so far.
Hell, I haven't even worked on being able to use Materia yet.
Don't worry with gear till HW. You'll get the equipment you need though the MSQ. You end up getting ilvl11o (or 115?) stuff doing the story missions.