Been meaning to write about this for a bit (and actually to write here more often in general) but with the NDA basically down, and it less then a month to launch, I have to say that so far FFXIV has been failing to impress.
The good news about the game is that it is very pretty, character models are well done (even if the customization is limited (though I may just be spoiled from playing Cryptic made MMOs)), the cut-scenes are well animated, and the bits of story / quest that have been unlocked / available so far in the beta have at least been interesting, and most important to me the class design is very fun and lends itself well to making and playing exactly the sort of character you want to be playing.
The bad news is that advancement is borked both via the ‘Leve systems odd reset timer (8 per 48 hours) and that you get only around 8 hours of full exp per week before your exp gain quickly throttles down to very very low levels. Along with this is the fact that the Gathering classes suffer a pretty unfun deteriorating rate of return for the time spent gathering. You get good results early on, but pretty quickly you are just mining for fishing bait instead of metal ore.
Aside from the weird design decisions with advancement (and no, this isn’t me whining about it, that is really how the lead developer described advancement as working) the UI for the game is almost brain-numbingly bad. And I don’t think it is going to get much better because the game is being designed for PS3 play as well so naturally the PC users (to not have an unfair advantage) have to jump though UI hoops that are just unnecessary and ackward to deal with. Unneeded confirm buttons, unnecessary levels of menus, lack of ability to just simply drag-and-drop items around. The UI would have felt shameful for a MMO years ago, now it simply feels unforgiveable.
That said, I still have a copy of the CE of the game on pre-order, and I do still intend to be there for the headstart and give it a solid try for at least that first month, but the chances of my subscribing and playing the game past the first month feel like they are dwindling the longer I am in the beta and testing the game.