if i wanted an MMO i would have played 11.
its not extremely difficult, it just requires a lot of time.
now here is where my problem is. the gameplay. at first it seems to be what you would expect. potions? check. thieves use daggers? right. and hey, cool, i can be lazy and set them to fight with pre-conceived strategies. so no random battles is evolutionary then, right? to me it just isn't. i can appreciate square enix trying to give the game new life, random battles are really starting to seem archaic. i'm convinced that there are better systems begging to be implemented. this may sound like a small problem to those who can understand me, but after a few hours of leveling up creates this MMORPG feeling that i just don't want to see in a 1 player rpg. if you chose to control all your characters you may be overwhelmed when facing stronger enemies, so you are almost forced to use the gambit system. when you activate gambits on all your characters, running around and talking become the highlights of the game. now, controling one character is fine and i like the feeling that my allies are helping to destroy my enemies while healing me with the AI style i chose, but the feeling that i am just leveling up before a raid feels....dirty.
in my mind this is not a failure. not even close. but it is not final fantasy. some might think i just can't deal so well with change, but i felt the need like all the other right-minded gamers. my overall thoughts are these:
MMORPGs tend to take the soul out of games. in the right setting (and with other actual players) MMOs can be classics. final fantasy has always had something special. the feeling that i was watching an MMORPG, then the fact that i wasn't getting the following payoff that MMOs provide, and then realizing it is just a mock MMO killed the FF spirit.