Freedom Figthers look away

Its been 5 years since the last FF MMO. I enjoyed FF XI for nearly a year before quitting. A lot have change since then especially with the inception of WOW and WOW-wannabe mmos. Let's just say the market now demands for more control over their avatar and more variety to the way they can play their avatar: solo, group, just craft, just sit in a bathtub all day long (Fallen Earth).

Had a few hours of FF XIV play under my belt. First impression is that the ambience have the same FF XI feel, which for me is a always good thing. Even the combat have a pretty similar feel as well.. Graphics is nice.. well according to the AAA MMO standards now, somewhat a little above average. IMHO Animation is always one of the best in the market. So the visual aspect of things all scored pretty high in my opnion. 

Now on to the mechanics of the control. Somewhat I feel like a stringed puppet. There's just so much constriction on my character. It is very irritating when you have to detour to the steps just to go up a 30cm tall platform. I feel like playing in a  cage when you can see the scenery off the main path but can't go into that because of invisible wall. The environment is constructed very linearly in today's context. I don't mean that a zone can't have walls.. well it has to, I am just saying that you can't sort of stay off the course and wander into the wildness hoping to encounter some new places or some strange mobs.  The map shows paths then maybe a small open area then maybe paths again. Thats all that your character can go. Everything is so "planned".  Maybe at the higher level the zones might change but I highly doubt that will be the case. I don't even wanna think about the posibility of being able to swim because I reckon either there's an invisible wall between me and the waters.. or I can walk on water.     

If you are someone who loves freedom in your game, able to jump, swim, explore what's behind that hill. This game will break you. The only freedom that I am experiencing from FF XIV right now is the freedom to train any skills that I wanted to regardless of my initial class choice which is the main reason why I buy.

To me FF is taking an old formular (FF XI), pumped in some changes to the combat and how the classes work, then presented to the public.