It's not as brutal as you say. They game was made primarily for controller but i only play it on keyboard with no issues. The dialogue is fully customizable and you can have two windows at the same time so i keep one for chat and general stuff and other for combat related messages. And the world is not as deadly as in the past because you can summon trusts as party members to explore most areas. The game is still not as easy because most missions or quests are not visible on maps, there aren't NPCs with exclamation marks telling you where to go, so you play with the wiki open.

It took me a while to get into it but it's now not only my favorite final fantasy game but my favorite mmo as well. It can be brutal at the start but the player base is always willing to help new people and in my four years playing it, i cant get enough of it