I loved FFXI and was crushing on this game hardcore wanting to play it. It was my most anticipated game. I paid $75 for the collector's edition and lost interest within a week. Same thing happened with my friend who was equally excited for it.
Some people may like this game, but it's a hot mess. You can't sort your inventory, there's no AH, mail system, only 5 zones and there's no variation in the zones other than arbitrary pockets of the zones being populated with much higher level mobs that aggro. It takes about 7 seconds to sell a single item from your inventory or to transfer an item from your retainer (bank) to your inventory. Forget about any kind of drag and drop interface, and the interface is clearly designed to be used with a controller not a mouse and keyboard.
There are so many ass backwards systems at work in this game, it's a true testament to the few good parts that people still play it. It looks gorgeous, has a very impressive crafting system (even though it's incredibly difficult to obtain the materials, and even when you make your items it's hard to sell them because of a lack of auction house) and there are some neat ideas at work with the way class level / character level interact.
People can just dismiss what I say as someone who "doesn't agree with their design decisions", but I didn't agree with a lot of their decision in XI, but I still played it for years because it was a really awesome game when you got past the bullshit. FFXIV, so far, is just all bullshit.
