it's totally playable as is btw. i finally picked this up because of the upcoming crossover with XIV, and I'm sure other folks having been thinking about it if they haven't started playing already

for all the talk of the interface being horrendous, it's close to what you'd expect from FF up to 11 except built around its open-world combat and targeting system. fairly intuitive on a controller and alright on m + kb once you figure out some of its weird keybindings. enhance ur experience with windower or ashita and you'll acclimate quickly. wrapping your head around its many systems that've piled up since launch is the real headache inducer and that took me some hours even with a guide

playing through its content in order of release, or at least in an order that makes sense, is a harder problem to solve, but it is doable! the quickstart guide you'll rely on expects that your goal is to reach endgame asap, but it's not hard to form your own path if you treat it as giving suggestions once you've found your footing. there are two caveats to doing this, though

one is rhapsodies of vanadiel. it's the current penultimate expansion/update/whatever, and it gives several key items that provide various and basically necessary boosts. the upside is that it's intentionally written with the new player experience in mind, and it's rarely disorienting as progression is gated by your progress in the other narratives. (I've been using this to tackle it: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fnuc8u3idhfz81.png)

the second caveat is that you have to grind for a bit. rise of the zilart (the first expansion) is balanced around level 75, and the base game ends around 50. it isn't hard to reach with all the exp boosts, but it takes some time. 1 -> 50 is a few hours, and from there on every 10 levels or so seem to take another few. the "fantastic exps and where to find them" guide will be your friend throughout, or just stick to escha zi'tah once you're ~50

the only other departures you might make are instances where currencies that accumulate over real hours gate progression. afaik this is only abyssea, seekers of adoulin, and voidwatch, all of which can be started early to trigger each process. abyssea and voidwatch are treated by the community as additions that are a bit whatever, but seekers is a full-on expansion

base game bastok's storyline is a bit goofy but I've been enjoying my time with the game! i'm excited to see the later expansions as they all have their shooters except for seekers, seemingly