TLDR- good MMO to invest into. Devs try, Community is decent, story good, lots of jobs to grind & stuff to do.

I'm gonna break up my review into sections to try to do the game justice from my perspective

Story

The story is a long one, but a coherant and good one. post ARR expansion, and even during do you see the roots of a story arc that spans 10+ years in the FF14 universe. you meet the main cast, get use to the controls and combat and set forth getting invested into the story and the characters within. doesnt come off as cheesy and without spoilers , will tug on your heart strings. that's all i'll say for the main quest. I HIGHLY RECOMEND YOU DONT SKIP THE STORY IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME. the story is the crux of ff14. you skip this, it doesnt make that much sense to play ff14. but for job quest skips, its personal preference. there are some job quest characters that make their appearance outside of their questlines, but each job has their own subplot as you aim to be the best at them.

Side Content

My experience with side content is that it's there, and it could be a very fun distraction when you want to take a break from the main story of the game. each expansion brings a post expansion mini story, and a side thing you could get invested in, to grind for a cosmetic or an achievement if your into that. aside from the post expansion mini story, you arent getting the same repetitive content to grind or explore, and how you interact with each THING varies greatly. no spoilers but there is a decent bit of optional content to explore.

Higher End Content

it's VERY easy to unlock Higher end raids, and it's as simple as talking to a specific NPC post major fight. but the ultimates(high end content) is very hard to complete, and you will be looking up guides and will have to run with a dedicated group of people to learn and farm the fight. if you wanted a challenge, ultimates are for you.

Mini Games

quite a few mini games can be found at a specific spot called the golden saucer. pvp feels more like a side thing then a grindable thing, so its going to be included here.

Community

community is welcoming, i would reccomend getting into a discord, and feeling out a new clan. there is no public chat, but there is a novice network that you are auto joined into for a few months before you're auto kicked when you get to late game. if you get attached to it, you can rejoin as a mentor


MTX/Cash Shop

overall, the cash shop is for optional cosmetics, or job / main story skips. most of the stuff is reasonably priced, and you're not missing out on any functionality if you choose to skip, aside from bigger mounts for more people to tag along with you. you can get a bunch of stuff for a reasonable price.

(Other notable stuff)

Banking- you use "retainers" to hold your stuff. you can use more retainers for 2$ per month per additional retainer.

ERP- there's groups / discords for roleplay, as its a popular thing

Trading- you use your retainers to sell stuff on the Market board(MB to ff14 is what the auction house is to wow, what the grand exchange is to Runescape etc.). if you want to buy something, you go to the market board in one of the major cities, click the armour slot its for, and you can filter by class, tier, price etc. to sell stuff, you go to your retainer.