The gameplay is fairly run of the mill stuff but well done, it doesn't get an award for innovation but one for quality.
The asthethics and the OST are great and just get better in the more recent content.
The story of ARR was kinda boring and basic tbh but the heavensward one is genuinely interesting.
Unfortunately you're going to have to slog through quite some filler and grinding in the ARR content but in heavensward that's so pretty much eliminated.
The dungeons, raids and trials are all really, really fun, tho for the first 100 hours of playtime they won't be any challenging for you. Only in the ARR post story content they start to require skill and thought.
The entire ARR content i.e. the first 100 hours have some really big downs to the point that I can imagine a lot of people quitting on it, but afterwards it becomes an absolute blast.
If you feel threatened by the prospect of slugging through filler and grinding you can buy a starterpack for real money somewhere that boosts you straight into heavensward content, you'll always be able to watch the ARR cutscenes and replay old content.
Best thing about FFXIV is that you don't need an established party or guild to enjoy the content of the game, matchmaking and LFG-tools all are ace and the community is really friendly and welcoming of newcomers
I'd recommend it, played it for 200 hours over the last few months and am about to wrap up heavensward