A great introduction to FFXIV, if tedious at times. A lot of quests are filler and don't quite focus on the information that would actually be interesting to hear, and the plot itself is barebones with minimal character writing and actual narrative moves, albeit with an awesome finale. However, I was drawn in by the sum of its parts. The feeling of its expansive world, the satisfying leveling and combat, the dungeons, exciting boss battles, and I was a huge fan of the lore and worldbuilding established by the MSQ as well.

It's really hard for me to say "stick with it" to most people because the harsh reality is, even if Heavensward is good, this is still a game that requires you to enjoy 50 character levels of fairly so-so story content before you can get to what everyone else says is "better", and not everyone has that kind of patience. I personally enjoyed it largely in part because the game is good at not making you feel pressured to do anything in particular, so I took it easy as I went through the quests, but I'm not everyone. Despite the funky reception of ARR's main story, as someone who has a very hard time committing to MMOs, this is still easily the longest I've ever been hooked on an MMO EVER. I do recommend it, but only to patient players who are willing to relax and enjoy the gameflow without necessarily feeling like they need to "stick with it" in the promise of something better.