Without all the ranting, hating and loving of the game, just the facts :)
- OMFG, the graphics are superb! Visually amazing!!!
- Character Creation is simple, sleek and all around very nicely implemented.
- The voice acting (when it exists) is done very nicely.
- The music is incredible, this is true for every single FF game i have ever played and it just keeps you engaged in the battles.
The Bad:
- Not enough voice acting and way too much reading, at the very least i though that there should have been an option for having voice acting or reading for the entire game and not just small parts.
- The entire chat system is just a mess, nuf said
- The quest system is very poorly set up imo, you start a leave with some friends but the game crashes on you (happens quite a bit, depends on the server also, Besaid so far seems to be the best one for me), so you re-log only to find out you have to wait 48 hours before you can retake the quest, it's a nuisance the way they set the quests up.
- Biggest issue is the game crashing on you.
The So So
- The battle system is 100% meant to be played with a game pad(controller), mouse and keyboard just doesn't do the game justice. Even still tho, i would have liked to see some flashier skills and not just basic attacks even for most skills.
- The towns are huge, which is good in some ways but bad in others because it takes a while to traverse a town.
- Could not see anything close or similar to an Auction House. The things available are: 1) player shops and 2) player want to buy/sell/trade status icons. I put this in the soso field because you are able to buy "some" gear from npc's but depend way too heavily on other player creations (recipes are nowhere to be found)
- Not enough hand holding for new players, takes a while to figure out what to do.
Overall
I rated the game based on the following
Video/Audio - 9/10
Story - 8/10 - Have not finished,but very interesting!
User Friendliness - 6/10 - The entire ui needs an overhaul
Battle System -5/10 - The number of classes, skills for each class and even the epicness of attack skills just doesn't feel right.
Total 7/10
Game is worth a try to see for yourself but it feels incomplete somehow, it feels as if the game's actual release date should be next year when comparing it to GW, GW2, Rappelz, or even WOW. The things that those games have in common is that everything just works well together, it all flows well together, even tho each game has it's own problems the sums of all the little things makes them worth it. I can't stress enough how much of a mess the UI in FF14 is, the game had and still has so much potential, but they need to fix or re develop some of the key components.