i think its incredibly interesting how the second most popular mmo of all time has such a disastrously unapproachable basegame. every time i have to engage with arr content ingame i cant help but think to myself "this was considered enough of an improvement from 1.0 to keep the game going??"
it does make sense, they wanted to take a much more story-focused approach to an mmo, and to make a story with that kind of longevity they needed to haul ass when it came to worldbuilding and laying down the foundation for a story, but that absolutely does not make those 100 or so hours any less of a slough. im glad i managed to stick with the game, later content is fantastic and i've met some great people, but oh my fucking god it is impossible to suggest to friends who arent immediately sold on the gameplay/systems outside of the story (good thing jobs below 50 are boring as fuck too............ god i hate summoner)

not even done yet but jesus christ this is so miserable, i am literally only able to do the droll sidequesting msq content by turning my brain off for an hour or two at a time and skipping every line of dialog because if i invest any more thought than that into this game i feel like i might never want to play another video game in my life. it is insane how dragon quest 10's first version bodies everything arr sets out to do effortlessly when it came out a year earlier and also wasn't a second draft like a realm reborn is. if ff14 ends up being something like xenoblade 2 where it doesn't even get nearly good enough to make up for how much time you waste to get to the "good" part i am so sincerely never playing a game on suggestion of my friends again.

my au ra is cute at least though