When are we as player going to demand from SE a better MSQ experience

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Originally Posted by Honalee

When I was watching this cutscene, I thought the exact same thing. What a huge waste. This could have been such a cool interactive gameplay quest. This quest and others similar to it, could be implemented into the game in such a way that they could end up being used as dailies after. We ABSOLUTELY need more "gameplay" quests in the MSQ.

I hope Dawntrail brings this need to light finally.

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Don't say that too loud! People are still complaining about "in from the cold" or the "this is Thancred" instance. Hells, people were malding over pre-nerf "Steps of Faith" being a bit of a challenge and requiring both cooperation, coordination and actually engaging with the mechanics of the instance.

Can't have gameplay potentially bar people from progressing, that is a big no no for this game - if people quit the game, they will never experience the story, so getting to the story needs to be as easy and straightforward as possible. Which is why some solo instances can be cleared without pressing a single button.

Its a shame, really.

I prefer this discussion over the Dawntrail story hate, like if you want a good parse of how bad the MSQ is , try replaying it. It's a drag to go through. You might pause at story moments you liked, but 90% of it is just fluff and padding.

8.0 can have a universally acclaimed story like Shadowbringers but if we keep this up I might as well watch it on youtube without having to pay 15$ a month.

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Originally Posted by ovIm

Don't say that too loud! People are still complaining about "in from the cold" or the "this is Thancred" instance. Hells, people were malding over pre-nerf "Steps of Faith" being a bit of a challenge and requiring both cooperation, coordination and actually engaging with the mechanics of the instance.

Can't have gameplay potentially bar people from progressing, that is a big no no for this game - if people quit the game, they will never experience the story, so getting to the story needs to be as easy and straightforward as possible. Which is why some solo instances can be cleared without pressing a single button.

Its a shame, really.

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Man, "In from the cold" was such a memorable quest and entire storyline for that... Truly one of the best ever in this game... And yes, we need more "gameplay" quests like this... And others where the player has to "do" or "fight" stuff...

And "This is Thancred" I was thinking of this exact one also... Like why isn't there anything at all like this in Dawntrail? Honestly they could have added HOURS of extra content to Dawntrail just by adding some engaging gameplay quests... We need more of this stuff, much more, not less.

What did they even change with that solo duty?
I really liked it, but I know people had trouble with it
It's a shame that we might not get another instance like it

It'd be fun to have more instances like it, and they could keep easy mode for people that just want to breeze though
because I believe failing a solo duty gives you that option

Other than that though, it'd be nice for all he cutscenes to be voiced
It can be kind of boring at times, and that's not even mentioning the whole "machinations" meme
which they really should give us more music variance for those types of scenes

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Originally Posted by Honalee

Man, "In from the cold" was such a memorable quest and entire storyline for that... Truly one of the best ever in this game... And yes, we need more "gameplay" quests like this... And others where the player has to "do" or "fight" stuff...

And "This is Thancred" I was thinking of this exact one also... Like why isn't there anything at all like this in Dawntrail? Honestly they could have added HOURS of extra content to Dawntrail just by adding some engaging gameplay quests... We need more of this stuff, much more, not less.

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Memorable, but also incredibly polarizing. Some maintain it is a gripping duty, full of tension and excitement, and the best in the game. Others regard it as completely implausible from a plot point of view, tedious, poorly explained, and the most unpleasant experience they had in MSQ.

That kind of polarized reaction to required content means SE is unlikely to repeat it. Consequently, those who enjoy such instances would do better to lobby for them as optional content.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Memorable, but also incredibly polarizing. Some maintain it is a gripping duty, full of tension and excitement, and the best in the game. Others regard it as completely implausible from a plot point of view, tedious, poorly explained, and the most unpleasant experience they had in MSQ.

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Its polarizing because Square Enix spent the last 9 years making sure that you do not need to actually play the game in order to watch the cutscenes.

So many solo duties can literally not be failed at this point that every time a duty can actually fail, people are complaining. Story progress is always granted, in a way.
As already written by other people in this thread, other Final Fantasy mainline games do blend actual gameplay and story, and unless you actually play the game, you will be unable to see what will happen next.

Granted, FFXIV is an MMORPG and needs to do some things differently (as expected because of the genre of game), but it begs the question if there is not a different kind of solution here.

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Originally Posted by CVXIV

What did they even change with that solo duty?
I really liked it, but I know people had trouble with it
It's a shame that we might not get another instance like it

It'd be fun to have more instances like it, and they could keep easy mode for people that just want to breeze though
because I believe failing a solo duty gives you that option

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I agree with this. And I don't think there's any reason they can't have a "ridiculously easy mode" for those that can't beat these's duties and quests. Overall a Dawntrail style coasting through the MSQ with next to no combat or gameplay leads to a just an absurdly dull experience.

This was the first expansion (including ARR) that left me feeling ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at the end of it... And that is horrible for a game like this. Who wants to invest time in an experience like that? There was nothing at all memorable in this Dawntrail MSQ experience, and with the potential that was there, it's honestly a real shame for all those who worked on it and played through it.

I agree with majority of the sentiments here. The MSQ was padded way too much with little gameplay. It feels disjointed as if they cut a huge portion out and shoehorned Alexandria in there. it feels like Alexandria was going to be more of patch content build up to 8.0. That stuff is the best part of MSQ imo but they spent too much time having us learn about culture of the people. It was boring. The entire MSQ up until Vanguard could have been condensed into a single zone. 2 tops.

If the vacation theme was really the thing, I would have prederred a shorter MSQ with a more localized villain durong the contest and then cliffhanger to the alexandria story line to develop over the patch msq. So much of nothing happens until Vanguard imo. I don't know how anyone could approve this as a compelling 75% of an expansion.

It won't change, the playerbase is still too divided. I personally hated Dawntrail, it felt infantile and a weird change of pace to an otherwise adult world. Like a neutered anime take. I'd say it's Disney, but even Disney can be darker and more realistic than this with more nuance.

But a lot of people like it, sadly. I think the only way SE is gonna change is competition or people voting with their wallets, I think even an overwhelming amount of negativity would be like.. "okay we'll change it in ... maybe three years?"
I doubt they are even in damage control, aside from Yoshi-P's haphazard P.R interviews, but even in most of them he's like "Yeah, everythings totally fine guys, we will show you the charm of Wuk Lamat"

Wuk Lamat is not the issue, she's just a scapegoat... or SCAPELAMA...tea for some horrible simplistic anime writing and game design for the MSQ.

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Originally Posted by Valkret

First off, I am not referring to the story. I am talking about the gameplay. We are now on the 5th expansion and the MSQ formula remains the same; talk to a couple of npcs, do some fetch quest, talk to more npcs, kill one or two mobs every couple of hours, rinse and repeat. It's feels extremely outdated. I think in the span of an expansions MSQ (excluding trails and dungeons) we probably don't get to kill more than 30 mobs.

We were able to overlook this in the past two expansions because the story being told was so good. In my opinion no matter how hard SE tried, they were never going to be able to to capture the magic in storytelling that we've had for the past several years with one single expansion. Just because these type of stories take time to build and it takes time to create an in depth world and complex characters. And I am ok with that, I went into dawntrail fully expecting the story to be average. But I did not expect to be so bored playing through it.

Part of me is actually happy that a lot of people are not liking the story, so we can finally realize that outside of the story, how boring and monotonous the MSQ content actually is. The other part of me is a little upset that SE actually thinks that 6+ hours of boring fetch quest is acceptable content.

When it comes to the MSQ, SE has been riding on the back of their brilliant writers and amazing storytelling. I am hoping that this less well received start to a new story serves as a wake up call for them to finally modernize the gameplay aspects of the MSQ.

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have we not BEEn doing this to be silenced by our peers for speaking out like were drinking the kool-aid. what more would you have us do. riot in limsa or mass unsub? until the community infighting over the game stop, the game will never change because yoshiP acts on the unanimous decisions of the players. and often with ill effect or poor results. DT is where we ar enow only listening to the super elite. 2 ultimates. criterion dungeon promised as ex level given as savage, but actually ultimate! Chaotic alliance raid promised ex, delivered as savage. Save the queen savage level progression thats hard to find a group for, taking a long prog period or the most heavy of carries. savages that's difficulty is either completely easy or ridiculously hard. no in-between because outside of ultimates.. no effort. Msq thats a complete snore fest you could leave on afk. no gameplay. no instanced duties no excitement on a casual level. this is a hardcore raiding sim now, and if you dont like it. well you clearly just have burnout! :p