FFXI is more chaotic than FFXIV, which is a lot more orderly. Combat in FFXIV is more predictable, which sometimes also means more boring, even if it is faster paced. What you can and can't do is a lot more controlled in FFXIV, while you in FFXI actually have a very huge tool box for most jobs (I'm using the term jobs as a catch-all for both jobs and what would be "classes" in ffxiv). It's almost a bit paradoxal, that they made the armoury system in FFXIV to give you even more freedom than you had in FFXI, but it kind of turned out the opposite.

The world of FFXI is also more unique, and the races have more distinct features and backgrounds. FFXI has less direction, but that's not universally a bad thing. The game doesn't tell you what to do, it doesn't give you a tutorial, but if you start talking to nearby NPCs, you'll eventually figure out where to start.

Quote Originally Posted by Jessweeee♪ View Post
I was only subscribed to FFXI for two months, I just remember a lot of waiting around for parties for long long looooong periods of time and not being able to do a whole lot in the game while waiting around because everything in the area could kill me in two hits. But maybe I was doing it wrong. I've had a lot more fun with FFXIV.
No, that's how the game used to be. It's different now, though. You can still get killed in two hits if you run into high level areas without being high level, of course, but there's no waiting for parties just to level up anymore. It's pretty solo friendly now.