SE polishes a turd then takes a huge dump on it...
As for the game, it's less like a realm reborn and more like a realm miscarried. The gameplay is fun, I think the animations and visuals are superior to Guild Wars 2 (e.g. walking, running with larger characters) but has too many issues to make it great. the login stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. It's a lot of little things, like being pigeonholed into a starting zone/class/role combo. Why am I forced to play the first ten levels in a separate city from my GF who plays next to me simply because we choose certain classes?
It all just seems so old fashioned and not "that's a cool classic car" old fashioned but the "oh yeah, I remember when they used to put these contrived barriers in MMOs as a substitute for depth" annoying old fashioned. And don't get me wrong I'm not a noob who cries about difficulty and I don't want my hand held, I was a Hand of A'dal in BC and neither difficulty nor commitment were raid barriers for me. It's a matter of user experience and some things in the game feeling dated that really shouldn't.
I also see a huge red flag as I level in the name of stat points I can allocate myself. I read these can be reallocated for a large cost using seals, but it just seems stupid, contrived, old. You will either make the choice to max your role or you'll make the wrong choice. It is an example of false choice made up to look like real choice.
The game is polished and shiny but it isn't optimized for efficiency if that makes sense and some is due to the gamepad/keyboard dual nature of the controls. Lots of drop down menus and stuff like that.
Teh community is supposed to be awesome but all I see is selfish with the way they AFK and screw everyone else from playing (yes, there is no auto-logout). This is the most friend-unfriendly MMO I've ever played. Servers have been sporadically opened/closed, your friends that just got the game can't join you, you can't make another character, etc. I will be seriously disappointed if they review this game and give it a pass because they took the selfish measure of keeping their character logged in for two weeks straight while other players starved.
Targeting leaves a lot to be desired. The macro system seems less robust than the FFXI system I remember, at least in some ways. Apparently there are mouseovers but I couldn't get stpc to work in a /sea macro
The narrative structure is a bit strange, you're like the classic silent protagonist except sometimes you briefly gesture talk important stuff sometimes which I guess is supposed to be your character saying stuff? So far the story itself is okay I like how the game drips with FF nostalgia and feels like an FF game but the sporadic voice acting is bad and honestly reading some of the NPC text gets boring I find myself mashing next sometimes.
Cartoonish 24 pixel tall sprites standing there doing nothing while you read text isn't strange but quite frankly it just doesn't work with realistic 3d graphics where the characters sit there and stare at you or blabber their lips or w/e they do they just look weird. Not uncanny valley weird more like lifeless-animated-doll-staring-at-you-and-moving-its-mouth-and-staring-at-you-more-while-you-read weird. They are just freaking weird. Then there is more weird via a mix of voice acting and text, especially since characters will use your name in those cases text is necessary. I actually prefer wow's "zug zug" little phrases while you read the scroll text/quest instead of putting the FF lower screen text boxes in while being stared at by digital dolls.
I just can't get over the launch issues, there really is no excuse for this poor launch of a "vanilla" MMO in 2013, ffs it isn't 2003 anymore. Coupled with all these little things I don't know if I'll be subbing after my 30 days is up. If SE has this kind of problem with launch I have serious doubts about its ability to launch major content patches every three months without taking their data centers offline for a month due to their own hubris and lack of foresight. I mean, seriously, no working queue? 1017? Really?
Yes, the developer straight up admitted these problems were due to his lack of preparation and foresight. Now the game has been taken off the shelves like two weeks before GTAV launches.