FFXIV is coming out soon

I've been following this game for a while now ever since I've heard about it. It's coming out on the 30th of September and it'll be a day one purchase for me. The reason I'm following this is because I had quite a good time with FFXI but it had a few flaws which my friends didn't like therefore they quit which inevitably caused me to quit. First the things I did like:

- Partying was generally encouraged(forced actually) and made you use your class efficiently
- Story was interesting and had actual cutscenes
- Raising your chocobo was kind of a fun mini-game
- Level sync so you could level with a friend even if they were a lot higher level and you would both make progress in levels
- The world was expansive and massive which was really immersive
- You could change job at a whim and experience all the classes on one character

I'm sure there are a few other things but those alone made the game stand out from other for me. You could also easily play this game with a controller which I found more comfortable. However there were a few flaws that made my friends quit:

- Traveling was a huge pain especially in the beginning where it seemed that you would spend half your time walking around
- Interface sucked, it was built for a controller and you couldn't change it at all
- De-leveling was probably one of the worst things in an MMO I've ever seen
- Starting a party and leveling takes at least 3 hours of your time to get anywhere
-Monster variety was lacking, I think I was consistantly fighting crabs till level 30... than you fought rabbits
- You couldn't level without a party at all unless you were a class that could solo
- Auction house could only hold 7 items at a time and the interface for that was also horrible

Anyways... yah, about FFXIV. So I've been following it and checking it out though not religious or anything like that. I've seen some of the new gameplay from the beta and the new graphics but otherwise I'm not 100% informed on it. People on the forums I read seem to be split on it with about half not liking it. I'm hoping to just play it an enjoy it, square enix has a hit it or miss it pattern lately so let's pray this one is a hit.