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As you can read here, Final Fantasy XIV was not received well at launch, not even remotely. I experienced this version of the game myself since I bought it at launch, and as a player of FFXI, I was horribly disappointed and dropped the game rather quickly. Square Enix and the original producer of FFXIV, Hiromichi Tanaka, recognized the blunder immediately and actually cast the game as free to play for some time, along with showering the community with apologies you can read here and here.
Despite becoming free to play, the game was so unenjoyable to deal with at the time that most still didn't bother; I know I didn't. I personally largely ignored what changes were being made and doubted that the game could be fixed and believed that with so many problems being dug so deeply into the game, it would be better to start fresh and dismiss XIV as a failed title, which is why I had very little faith in A Realm Reborn when it was announced.
*Sigh,* Silly Squeenix, you can't fix this game.
I was wrong, though! I wasn't expecting the company to be willing to put so many resources into changing the game so thoroughly, and it was evident right from the very start that the re-release A Realm Reborn is a very different experience altogether.
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The new producer, Naoki Yoshida
I feel that the most important sign that the company was genuinely dedicated to bringing us a brand new title was this change right here. When I heard that there would be a completely new producer overlooking the game, that is when I turned my head and began to pay attention. See a short interview with him below.
Everything that Naoki Yoshida has to say is a breath of fresh air regarding FFXIV. I see him on the testing forums, and I see him actually testing the game during the beta phases, himself.
He has said that he's personally spent many sleepless nights in front of his computer enjoying titles like Guild Wars 2, Tera, and World of Warcraft just to name a few.
"From scratch" really seems to be the name of the game with this redesign.
True to what he has promised, the very gameplay design behind FFXIV was overhauled, genderlocks were lifted, an easier interface was adopted, along with countless other things in order to bring the game up to a modern standard. After playing it myself in this last phase I can comfortably say that I'm willing to pay to keep playing, but Naoki Yoshida is apparently not done, apparently suggesting that he plans to continuously patch the game, adding astounding amounts of content by the end of next year.
So if you're an original player of FFXIV and your expectations are as low as mine were, please try to give the game a chance. I definitely don't regret doing so. See you in Eorzea.
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