FFXIV:ARR is proving that you don't have to go crazy trying to innovate in the MMO genre to provide a good experience that users will enjoy and keep coming back to. While the verdict is still out on whether it will survive in it's release format, unlike most other new MMO offerings over the years, it does seem like both it and it's developers are around for the long haul to try and make this work rather than be another flash in the pan.
The game itself is refreshing but not ground breaking. Coming mostly from WoW over recent years it includes some nice quality of life improvements and a good set of features. Things like having a full inventory system with all slots from the start rather than have to deal with collecting bags to improve your completely inadequate storage from the start, having a gear set manager, instant free transport around cities, instant teleport at cost around the world, ability to set up purely social group chats (linkshells) outside of guild/free company system etc... Beyond the quality of life improvements the game sports nice graphics, sound and music including art design different from the typical fantasy fare that keeps things interesting and new compared to more traditional offerings following the norm.
Beyond the basics the game has a different take on classes and trade skills in which you can play every class and do every trade skill on a single character with no penalties (actually you get bonuses). Now there's no reason to feel forced into keep playing your 'main' character rather than try out another class with an alt due to it being a waste and not improving your main. Trade skills themselves are also treated as their own classes which are leveled up individually as well and can be played from level 1 to 50 without engaging in combat or having to rely on y our main combat class to accomplish anything (though you will be at the mercy of the auction/market system to buy any materials you need that drop from creatures). With all this it means you can now play one character to see and do everything and to add to it they have a monthly subscription at reduced price that supports only one character which is nice for those not wanting to commit to paying for months in advance to get the same price.
The game follows the holy trinity system and includes a nice implementation from the start. Roles are well designed and the game includes a system for teaching people how to work as a group and perform their roles via the guildhest system. The base game also includes interface elements for showing threat meters so both tanks and party members don't have to play a guessing game on where they're at and shows the developers were serious about giving the players the information they need to properly play. Combat is fluid if a bit slow; the game features a 2.5s cool down timer which is fairly long and can be a tough adjustment for some players more accustomed to faster paced skill execution. Having not experienced end game hard modes or raids I can't comment on those other than to say the developer has announced a lot of support for these including further difficulty modes and content releasing in very near future.
With all that's good about the game it can be frustrating the little things it gets wrong or completely misses that feel like they should be common sense in the industry at this point. Things like the ability to right click in chat to ignore a player or report them for spam are completely missing which can make any entry into the big cities a frustrating experience of having to spend time manually black listing the current slate of gold spammers shouting their wares. There also tends to be a lot of extra clicking required in confirming and navigating UI elements that add up to being frustrating nuisances; an example of this being when turning in a quest that includes a deliverable item you have to manually select the item to turn in rather than it being automatically taken from you inventory which adds three extra clicks to the process.
All in all I am so far very happy with this game and hope it manages to be a success. It's similar enough to games like WoW to be easy to pick up but has enough improvements and differences to feel new and be a refreshing change for someone who got burnt out long ago. The developer is giving the right indications of support for future including outlining the plans for next several major patches and it seems to have the player base and fan support necessary to survive without compromising itself.
About
This is my first Final Fantasy MMO, having not played XI or XIV 1.0, and as of this writing I currently have one level 30 class, a range of other classes at various lower levels including 20 miner and 20 goldsmith. I've played most MMOs to varying degrees over the years but most of my time, like many, was spent in WoW from release to Cataclysm. Time spent in other newer releases
Initial issues such as server connectivity have all but been resolved now since their major maintenance to resolve those issues and release a couple more servers for NA and EU. Since that time I have been able to connect, or get in a short queue, every time I've tried connecting. For this reason I won't take points off for those launch issues even though it was probably one of the worst launches and slowest responses. Communication from the developers about the issues was quite poor at the start possibly due to time difference and language issues but this has also improved since the release.