Disappointments:
-SMN. It was going to be my main and I loved it in XI despite its uselessness. I just loved the big bad avatars and the method of acquisition of said avatars. SMN in XIV is a decent dps and fun enough to play, but the avatars are SO DISAPPOINTING. What was this art department thinking? I do not think I'll ever get over this. It's just a cosmetic thing but the FF series is normally SO GOOD at being aesthetically pleasing that dropping the ball here was, for me, depressing.
-Chocobo Racing/Breeding. Okay, Triple Triad and the rest of the stuff in GS is fine. But what I was most excited about was chocos. Well, the breeding we got is too random and convoluted. The racing is jerky, the tracks aren't varied enough, the opponents are mostly NPCs. It doesn't feel like fun, it feels like tedious work, this entire system. They could have streamlined this so easily and instead I feel like they reverted back to XI methodology on this one.
-QoL adjustments. I could name about 50 right now off the top of my head that would help SO MUCH and they must have occurred to the devs but for whatever reason they just won't implement anything. Whatever, used to it by now from SE. No, it still stings.
-Fucking gilspammers. They're not even trying to ban them here. I guess SE will take the money any way they can while the funds are low. Banning paying customers - even if they are buying or selling billions worth in gil - isn't a good business strategy unless you're hoping to get sympathy donations from people who love to take the moral high ground. They were much more proactive about this with XI. But that's not really organic to the game, more an administration issue.
-Vertical gear progression. This one is probably the worst offender.
Player: Hooray, I finally geared out the 3 - 4 jobs I'm interested in!
SE: Great, here's the next patch, now replace all your gear with this new stuff. It'll take you until next patch because of arbitrary and quite frankly infuriating looting limitations. Look forward to it!
I see this as a major flaw in the game currently but it doesn't stop me from enjoying the game, it just keeps me focused on a main job while the rest of them kind of fall by the wayside. It's tough to be someone who likes all of the jobs because playing an undergeared job in party content doesn't sit well with me, but it's very difficult to gear them all with the caps in place.
Things I love:
-The world/lore. They usually do a good job on this, this time is no exception. I love the shoutouts to other FF games and I love the original stuff as well. It all feels intertwined like one big world rather than a bunch of disjointed areas. I'm sure they can keep this up for the rest of the game's life, it's kind of what they're good at.
-Housing! The amount of customization you can do, and it keeps getting better over time with more furnishings added. This is a great way to kill time, be creative and spend gil that would otherwise just be sitting around because there's really not much to buy
It's just too bad there's no way to show off your house except to leave it open for people to wander into. Housing has kept me entertained for a while - decorating my private house, my old FC's house and I just bought a large house under my personal FC to mess around with. I'm sure it'll get even better with Heavensward.
-Postmoogle quests: These are in the process of giving pretty much every minorly notable NPC a life and a backstory. They are amazing and they enrich the player experience in the world so much imo. Suddenly all these NPCs you've talked to once or twice randomly actually have identities. One of my favorite parts of every patch.
Overall the good really balances out the bad and XIV has so far been "okay". Mind-blowing? Nah. But I think it can get there with nudging in the right direction. I expect Heavensward to make some giant leaps towards the ideal community, mechanics and story balance for this game.