What it says on the tin, anything from the original you actually liked that either got removed or retooled into something different?
What it says on the tin, anything from the original you actually liked that either got removed or retooled into something different?
Worthwhile open world battle content (yes, even 'grinding'), definitely. That's the short of it. The long of it...
High level open-world monsters. Some monsters in 1.x were insanely tricky. They could one-hit the strongest characters in the game. Why do I like this? Firstly, the danger it gave to traveling, the feeling that the world was dangerous. In 2.x you can go into the heart of the enemy strongholds and just stand around doing nothing, or let the enemies hit you knowing that you don't have to really break a sweat to kill them. It's incredibly unrealistic. If I go into an enemy stronghold, I should have to bring friends or face almost certain death. I say almost because I like a stealth element to things - sneaking through dangerous areas you have no right sneaking through is really fun. Taking a L1 character to Coerthas feels like an achievement.
The second reason I want high level open-world monsters is because of the fun you can get from trying to take down the impossible with a massive group of friends. It's like Odin, but you can actually organise yourselves to some degree instead of waiting for days on end hoping that you'll be around at the right time. Tying all these monsters into FATEs is annoying and boring.
The battle system. I'm probably in the minority on this one, almost certainly. But I loved not having to do things in Exactly The Right Way. I prefer a little randomness, the ability to recover from unexpected changes and to feel great for it. Now, this might not fly in the most dangerous fights, sure, but to have every single regularly fought fight be a case of "don't screw up or we're all doomed" is annoying. It puts me off the game a lot.
I never did the hardest fights in 1.x so it's hard to say if it was always this way. It probably was! But every fight in 2.x is either extremely easy or extremely hard. There are few fights that have a good balance. I suspect, going back to the original point, this is down to the lack of decent open world content. In open world content in 1.x you could level up effectively and fight things as a group in dangerous places for good experience. The danger was that you could get linked mobs you didn't anticipate, or a spawn could come at a bad time, etc. You could cross that very vague line between what would maximise your experience and what would wipe your party. Edging around that line was massive fun for me. It was grinding, sure, but it was a fantastic way to make friends in the game and it was very effective at this. I met almost all my best friends in FFXIV by doing this.
This ties into the battle system because the best fun you have would be where you accidentally bite off more than you can chew, but you somehow manage to survive through effective use of the battle system. Everyone suddenly starts flicking off various actions and spells they were saving, and through your combined efforts and adaptability, you pull through, and you cheer and laugh at the end of it. Good times.
I prefer to grind by staying in one place with seven other people for an hour fighting enemies, learning the skills I have and getting to know people than grinding by running around dungeons with three other people for a few hours spending more time hitting keys to move around the dungeon than I do hitting keys to actually communicate with them.
Beyond that, it's all economy based.
Crafting & Materia
The METHOD of crafting is better now than it was then, sure. I like this little minigame. But the speed at which you can hit level 50 is disgusting. There's also that the (battle) materia is generally a waste of time, as is making materia. In the old game you would lose your weapon as well as the materia if you screwed up but that doesn't seem to happen anymore. I think it should happen again, because it's awesome for the economy if it does. I initially liked that the weapons didn't break but over time I've realised that this has really ruined things a lot. If anything, allow them to not break (as it is now) but allow us to put materia onto Relics and whatnot. Allow us SOMETHING to make crafting far better for making gil, because I hate making gil in this game. I could do it far better in the old game. There are still ways, sure, but the market is often flooded. I also liked it better when you got fewer weapon/gear drops in dungeons. Basically everything is said by SE to be "to stop RMT" - why not do away with crafting altogether, then? It's pathetic. If you want to fight RMT, fight RMT the way other MMOs do, don't smurf the players. x(
Gathering
I much preferred the old gathering minigame to the new one, which is dull and mindless by comparison and potentially bad for the economy, too, as it doesn't generate a flood of "excess" items. I also liked the fact that you could get dark materia when gathering. The speed that you can hit 50, like with Crafting, is also terrible for the economy because everyone has everything.
Crystal System
I liked getting shards and crystals when I fought enemies, when I gathered, when I did pretty much anything. It was effective. I dislike having to pay for / spend time gathering crystals/shards exclusively.