Alright, I hit the 20 hour mark in FF11, i'm a lvl 9 Galka Monk and an experienced mmorpg player.
Things I enjoy about this game:
-Great graphics, landscapes, enviroments, character models, etc.
-The community, I've only met 1 griefer so far, everyone has been really nice and helpful
-Originality, every monster I see looks and feels great, good animation and fun to fight against
-Ok thats enough, the truth is I really enjoy this game!
But sadly it has a MANY MAJOR flaws, that I cannot ignore...:
-No character customization. Tell me, how is a lvl 15 Warrior is different from the other 1000's of lvl 15 warriors out there? NOTHING. There isn't any skill input, or skill trees or anything! Every single character is a cookie cut, drone, that
you are forced to play with no unique-ness.
-Monster AI issue, once a monster has engauged in combat with you... it will not give up. EVER. If you had 50 life, and decide to run from an Orc, it will chase you across the entire map non-stop and somehow attacks you while running, and your dead. There is no escape. Unless you make it to a town... ridiculous.
-Exp sharing in parties, no wonder everyone wants to solo!!! Cutting exp in half, is too harsh of a penalty. This game has no pvp, TEAMWORK should be encouraged... not PUNISHED. God forbid me and 2 other people want to play together and get smacked with a 1/3 exp drain. It's pointless, groups past 2 members just plain sucks, and makes no since in a non-pvp mmorpg.
-Constant nothingness, ok so I kill a Giant Sheep... now I'm waiting... waiting... ok now theres a goblin, ok i killed it. Now I have to wait again, and again... cmon 10 hp heal.. just to fight for another 15 seconds, to sit and do nothing. I spend more time reading the damn manual than playing. And excuse me, but potions cost what? 900+ gil? Insanity.
-Random level monsters, ok good idea in theory. But how is a 2 identical looking sheep, in the same area, standing next to each other... vary from such extremes as either you can kill it no problem, to killing you even if you use your TP.
Monsters spawning, if I had a dollar everytime one of my friends messaged me and said "a goblin spawned behind me while i was fighting some bats, and I died, $&@#* this game" /friend goes offline/
Disclaimer: I like this game, but it's far from perfect. I won't give up on it though, I can hope for it to change, just like I hoped for AC2... and look where that is now...
/me flame shield +1