Story quests

Main Story is fine. I have all character slots filled on one server just so I can go back and do the story again. In fact love the story so much I am hoping that it is weaved into Main story in 3.0 as well....only hope it will be much longer and more drawn out. (side note) I am not even kidding. I love story driven MMO's.

The part of the main story-line that had me playing until the end of the ark was the first time you're in Coerthas Central Highlands.

When I got to that bit for the first time, I powered through it because I wanted to see that asshole, who was slandering us at every turn, get his face shoved in.

the scions need an outfit change. seriously, they look like low-level players. Especially if you consider graha tia and moenbryda to have significanlty better outfits the scions

Grinding gear, leveling crafts, doing dailies.... Yeah, it's fun if your own story is interesting enough. By that I mean - people you hang out with in Eorzea. The most memorable times from FFXIV will definitely not be anything in the main story line. So far at least nothing grasped me in such a way. Hell, I'll even remember Hildibrand more. It'll be the time spent with friends that will stick in my mind for years. It's a bit unrelated perhaps but still.... had to bring it up.

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Originally Posted by BreathlessTao

- farm the same few endgame dungeons/raids over and over and over again, for gear that's gonna be obsolete in a few weeks (if it isn't already), just by the time you actually finish the set (also gear many of which is just a recolor or a reuse of a more common/special piece)
- farm the same ex primal(s) that literally do(es) not even have any story or lore to them, over and over and over and over again, for (overpriced glamour) gear that's gonna be obsolete in a few weeks (if it isn't already), just by the time you actually finish the set (also gear many of which is just a recolor or a reuse of a more common/special piece)
- farm hunts that literally do not even have any story or lore to them, over and over and over and over again, for overpriced glamour pieces that are already obsolete and nobody really uses them anyway
- do the relic questline that literally does not even have any story or lore to it beyond actually getting the weapon, but at least outright sends us back to old low level content, because we've not done those enough by the time we got to the relics themselves
- do the same 3-6 beast tribe dailies over and over and over again, to be able to spend a buttload of money on some mounts and minions
- spend even more money on / throw ourselves at RNG in crafting and gathering and in GS (for overpriced glamour pieces) and Sightseeing
- go back and level up other classes/jobs, rinsing and repeating basically everything that we surely have not yet done enough times, over and over and over again

...because all that is not boring and not bland and not all sorts of bad at all. Oh-kay...

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That's what MMOs are.. If you're not in it for the grind, well, you might as well just play a good single player RPG because most of the time you'll find better storyline and more challenges in those games than in a typical MMORPG. MMOs have ridiculously low skill requirements, but relatively high skill cap for the true hard-core endgame contents (TBH FF14 really doesn't bring too much hard core end-game to the table compared to others, but I digress) and that design is what keeps people going for months on end, sometimes even years.. Doing the same rehash of raids/pvp etc..

I think the reason for this debate to even exist is because in FF14, we have the MMO players on one side, and Final Fantasy players on the other, and we have different expectations of the game. I do wish that the main story was non-linear and parts of it was skippable with a side quest instead of being tied into the linear MSQ.. (Like how the extreme primals are, I like that once I got to 2.0 I could pretty much just choose what I wanted to do.. Although it looks like 3.0 will force me to catch up on the story again..)

Give us the freedom to choose what content we get to partake in.. Let's be honest here, you can say all you want about why somebody would choose to limit themselves to specific content instead of experiencing everything the game has to offer, but we ALL have specific likes and dislikes

If you don't like gathering, you can skip that, if you don't like fishing, you can skip that too. If you don't like crafting, same deal.. If you don't like doing quests that involve going from A to B to A to B to C back to A. With nothing in between but to talk to people (i.e. click click click click), why don't we have the option to skip that?

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Originally Posted by Gillionaire

If you don't like gathering, you can skip that, if you don't like fishing, you can skip that too. If you don't like crafting, same deal.. If you don't like doing quests that involve going from A to B to A to B to C back to A. With nothing in between but to talk to people (i.e. click click click click), why don't we have the option to skip that?

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Probably because the dungeons, raids, and trials are directly tied to the story. Asking to skip part of the story to get to the end would be like asking to skip crafting levels 20-30 while leveling up crafting to 50.

My opinion (spoiler)

Too much betrayal that makes me... cringy.

I only do it for free Savage Might IV >_>;.

The lore on offer is rather unparalleled for an MMORPG, that's for certain. The way the story is told however, unquestionably leaves a lot to be desired, that's for certain. I generally remember that long lull in the 2.0 storyline prior to Titan when the story simply ceases and just trolleys the player around in a long wild goose chase to find the supposed Company of Heroes as well as organise a banquet. Such moments simply had me wishing that the time could have been spent allowing us to learn a lot more about Gaius as a person and the characters of his Tribuni behind their helmets. The latter especially come off as a bunch of undercooked eggs, sans Nero's later CT side story.

The story scenario has certainly improved from subsequent patches. There is an irritating tendency to open up a litany of new plot threads without properly resolving any (haven't done the Patch 2.5 story content yet, so things might have changed), but I'll be lying if I say it hasn't kept me engaged. Thoroughly reading through text naturally comes to me as a life long RPG player, but recent patches have been able to sustain genuine interest from me as I'm reading. It's a welcome bonus. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for most of my friends in the game. They neglect to even read or watch the cutscenes. To them, it's a "non-story" not worth dedicating a minute through when they could be unlocking and tackling a new story dungeon or Primal that arises from the Main Scenario. Their loss, I suppose.

Somewhat related, but I recently discovered that there are players who skip through ALL of the Manderville cutscenes just to unlock the 3 trials on offer and the Expert Roulette. Do some people just eschew fun?

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Originally Posted by Aerowaffle

Probably because the dungeons, raids, and trials are directly tied to the story. Asking to skip part of the story to get to the end would be like asking to skip crafting levels 20-30 while leveling up crafting to 50.

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Well, technically speaking.. Getting your pre-relic is also directly tied to crafting.. But you can bypass it by having somebody else meld the materia for you.
Considering that in the game, you are the ONE AND ONLY, where would you get the materia melded from in terms of the lore?

Besides, the story being tied into dungeons are only that way because that's how SE designed the game, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way, like many of the sidequests. They could've made the journey to Ishgard a side quest endeavor just as easily by changing little bit of the story (like they did with the extreme primals), but they aren't going to because it's not part of their game design philosophy and that's the point I'm getting at..

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Originally Posted by Linnaete

Somewhat related, but I recently discovered that there are players who skip through ALL of the Manderville cutscenes just to unlock the 3 trials on offer and the Expert Roulette. Do some people just eschew fun?

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I would be one of those people :) I don't eschew fun, I simply don't find the dialogues and running around town to be very engaging.. But I do enjoy grinding dungeons.

On the same note, I can also speak of people who get to level 50, finish Ultima's Bane then make a new character just to start over fresh to play the story quest again instead of going into the end-game grind. Do those people eschew the fun of MMO that is the endless grinding wheel? :D

I love the stories, it's not that good but I liked it. I like Cid character, combination of Biggs & Wedge are fun, Papalymo & Yda are cute pair.
Tataru character more appealing to among Scions member in my eyes, She is said to be a keen judge of character, which makes her perfectly suited for deciding who is to be allowed to enter the Scion's base.
F'lhaminn... no comment.
I wish Minfilia are more appealing with the tactical characteristic or badass fighter, she just plain beautiful leader with some secret.
After Scion got kidnapped all I think is how dare you kidnap my adorable Tataru and I couldn't care less about Urianger and others.
Still not complete all yet but I will do, just done with Bahamut t5 and Syrcus tower.
Gonna continue with the Hildibrand Quests later, many people recommend me to complete that first.

But I love how SE made me look like a Hero and others as sidekick hahahahahah...

I must be one of the only few that's actively engaged in the story and never skips anything. Hell, even the stories within the crafting and gathering classes have me interested and wanting to see what happens next.

I don't skip the story either - the storyline is the main reason I play the game (that and I'm a FF fangirl anyway :p). The problem is not with the story itself, but it's execution in relation to gameplay - because Yoshi wanted to make the game about 'content based exp' (paraphrasing his words) instead of the old-style FFXI exp parties, the storyline was executed in such a way that story quests also levelled the player theoretically as they played. Of course this works well on paper, but in practice, it caused more problems that SE probably didn't anticipate (the quest window box requiring the player to accept or decline it each time is very jarring, and the big 'Quest accepted!' and 'Quest complete' titles are also immersion breaking (damn I was hoping not to use that cliched word, but, there you go).

I admit that personally I felt the story did drag a little in places because it had to be stretched in order to provide the required levelling curve for new players, meaning it was also padded with filler quests of 'speak to this person unrelated to the task at hand' - the Company of Heroes arc leading up to fighting Titan in particular was the worst incidence of this (even Y'shtola sarcastically quipped how the player was effectively wasting their time running around getting wine and cheese when the fate of the world was at stake!).

Having said that, I still love the storyline and cannot wait to see how Mr Oda, Ferne and the rest of the writing/translation and lore teams take the story into Heavensward, as the 'post game' story mostly avoided the filler quests (perhaps except for the 2.1 story which was almost the development team's 'take that!' to the community's stubborn snubbing of certain content, ala Guildhests and the Sunken Temple of Qarn at that time).

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

I must be one of the only few that's actively engaged in the story and never skips anything. Hell, even the stories within the crafting and gathering classes have me interested and wanting to see what happens next.

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Definitely not. I loved all the stories even the side stuff.

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Originally Posted by Atlaworks

It's pretty hard to tell a story to someone who doesn't want to listen.

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exactly this ^ i personally love the story cant wait for 2morrows patch to see how 2.0 story line ends

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

exactly this ^ i personally love the story cant wait for 2morrows patch to see how 2.0 story line ends

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Well, note that I've never once mentioned about the story being good or bad.. I'm simply uninterested in the story in general(no matter what game I play actually) and I know that I have no room to complain there :) Other than wanting to have it be an optional thing...

But I'm sure the people raising legitimate concerns about the lackluster story (according to them) gave it an earnest effort. I know SE can't please everybody but you can't just disregard other people's experience based on what you personally felt was a good experience.

And.. before anybody gets to "if you don't like it, then why do you play it blabbity blah" let's just say, the game as a whole has many merits that appeal to different types of people and we've all found parts of it that we enjoy. Hell, I know somebody who lives in Gold Saucer since it came out :D

So we're just voicing our opinion to hopefully have SE come up with a new direction on game design that'll please a broader customer base than currently.

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Originally Posted by Linnaete

Somewhat related, but I recently discovered that there are players who skip through ALL of the Manderville cutscenes just to unlock the 3 trials on offer and the Expert Roulette. Do some people just eschew fun?

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The reason is because they have to. In order to unlock expert, high level and trial roulettes once must do quite a few hours of gameplay upon reaching level 50. Hours spend doing nothing but main scenario and hildibrand. Without those many hours all of the roulettes apart from main scenario (which is only 8 man) and low level are locked.

By many hours Im talking about days doing nothing but the above content. Just to unlock roulettes.

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

exactly this ^ i personally love the story cant wait for 2morrows patch to see how 2.0 story line ends

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As will I...once I spend a few more hours catching up. (my third day of doing nothing but just that)

Gridania is boring, Limsa is generic. Uldah can be good at times but the Central Highlands is truly where the good stuff is at. Even the side-quest are enjoyable (Oh heretic is acting up again, just give him this dead rat). The story post-50 has been straight-up boring until you start bouncing from Uldah to Central Highlands (while going back home from time to time) and just pretend nowhere else exists.

Even pre-50 this was the case. After Ifrit in Uldah, the story becomes hella boring until you get to the Central Highlands making your way to Garuda.

Overall the story is pretty linear. Imperials are sadly more relatable(with their fear of primals and their inability to use magic for example) than the "good guy" cast. More than half of the cast starting with the Gridania leader could drop dead this next patch, and I literally will not have any f----s to give. That's bad.

Well some people more concern about the how engaging the content are and only care about their character gear and how strong they are, and they don't give a s**t about the content or lore. I play WoW like that before.
It happen to me at my first month while playing at NA\EU before, I just press ESC or ENTER at everything. After I moved out to Masamune all my friend in FC keep encouraging me not skip the dialogue or cutscene, so I do as they said and it's fun.

The content so far it's not hard to me and hoping it will be more challenging after The Binding Coil of Bahamut Turn 5.

But I'm hoping that SE can give us option to skip or not, in this way there is no issue with the player who got left behind because other player don't give a s**t about the cutscene. Skippable players can have faster run time while unskippable players can have their time to enjoy, win-win situation.

I enjoyed the story and watched all the cutscenes, and I'm ready to jump into the next update (I've basically been MIA for 2.51, nothing for me in there.)

As I'm going through with a second character and doing videos, I've taken to pretending my character points out the obvious solution only to get ignored.

"How are we going to find Iceheart in all these caverns?" "You could trick the Amal'jaa into summoning Ifrit right here. Not like I couldn't solo him by now." "Violyre, we need you to go into this ice cavern and track her down!" "Damnit."

The stories are pretty good, there are some dull ones but most are good.

The one thing I do not like is the endless back and forth quests...


Important NPC: "Hey Warrior of Light, mind running to tell Minfilia in Mor Dhona that this monster is a threat?"
(You run to Mor Dhona)
Minfilia: "Oh my that is news, do you mind telling Important NPC that he has our backing?"
(You run to Important NPC)
Important NPC: "Wow! The Scions are going to help us! Great, go back to Minfilia and set up a battle plan."
(You run to Mor Dhona)
Minfilia: "Okay now that we have the battle plan, go tell Important NPC that plan so he is also in the loop."
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ITS CALLED A LINKSHELL! EQUIP IT! >_>

If you can't tell whats going on then clearly you aren't paying attention!

Despite the numerous "filler quests" which you could argue, are in place so that we can get friendly with npcs etc, the story is really amazing and rather in depth! Perhaps if you complained less and actually read what was going on, you'd enjoy it a bit more.

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Originally Posted by ValyrianBlood

But I find actually the most irritating and annoying thing ever is that our characters are ALWAYS THE BEST IN EVERYTHING. Whether u speak to a NPC after defeating a primae or finishing a quest for a crafting/Gathering class.

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Do you even work leather? I'm 100% certain that the LTW guild master does not drop to her knees and worships the very ground we walk on when we show her a few bits of leather we crafted. In one of the quests she even tells us to go and apologize to a customer while she fixes our substandard craftmanship. I kinda liked the whole relationship we have with her purely because she does not pull any punches. :)

I do think this is one of the less interesting FF stories SO FAR.

"Before the Fall" lets things get a bit more interesting I think and I hope the expansion continues this trend.

I don't have any problem with the amount of text it's just that the writing really needs to be a bit better to hold my attention.

I found the main story borring too (the story itself is good but not how it's told), except certain parts but imo there are two principal things which increase this borring feeling :

1- all these shitty quests which are inserted in the main story line just for increasing in a fictive way the main story (you are a hero but please go collect some tea leaves in coerthas for my cup of tea! pick these things on the ground for me! go find the jewelry for my mum)

We have already this kind of random quests around we don't need that in a main story line!!

2- our character is a hero but he looks like a flower pot in 70% of cutscenes. he can just say /yes /no /shocked and stay like that by listening npcs. Our character should be in the action, casting or fighting next to main npcs, protect others, run, jump, cry, laugh, just act! and not just wait!

In the last part of the main story we have some action concerning our own character i really hope SE will continue in this way.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

The stories are pretty good, there are some dull ones but most are good.

The one thing I do not like is the endless back and forth quests...


Important NPC: "Hey Warrior of Light, mind running to tell Minfilia in Mor Dhona that this monster is a threat?"
(You run to Mor Dhona)
Minfilia: "Oh my that is news, do you mind telling Important NPC that he has our backing?"
(You run to Important NPC)
Important NPC: "Wow! The Scions are going to help us! Great, go back to Minfilia and set up a battle plan."
(You run to Mor Dhona)
Minfilia: "Okay now that we have the battle plan, go tell Important NPC that plan so he is also in the loop."
...
...
...

ITS CALLED A LINKSHELL! EQUIP IT! >_>

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SO MUCH THIS - one of the most annoying things in the entire game. I began to hate completing content (gotta do Chrysalis) just bc I know I will be running around for what feels like an hour just to speak to NPCs like above -.-

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Originally Posted by Natsuno

Do you even work leather? I'm 100% certain that the LTW guild master does not drop to her knees and worships the very ground we walk on when we show her a few bits of leather we crafted. In one of the quests she even tells us to go and apologize to a customer while she fixes our substandard craftmanship. I kinda liked the whole relationship we have with her purely because she does not pull any punches. :)

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Nope, but it seems like I totally should start! :D

I don't really get these people saying "if you paid attention more you'd perhaps like it better" .... Doesn't anyone think we tried? It's like telling me to eat dog food till I learn to love it :/ Just accept that some of us think it's just not that good.

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Originally Posted by Nuinn

I don't really get these people saying "if you paid attention more you'd perhaps like it better" .... Doesn't anyone think we tried? It's like telling me to eat dog food till I learn to love it :/ Just accept that some of us think it's just not that good.

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Because you have some people who either complain about how a story holds up or are confused by what happened, only to later admit they just breezed through all the text. Only rarely do people who dislike something can actually give good arguments on why they don't like the story.

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Originally Posted by Natsuno

Do you even work leather? I'm 100% certain that the LTW guild master does not drop to her knees and worships the very ground we walk on when we show her a few bits of leather we crafted. In one of the quests she even tells us to go and apologize to a customer while she fixes our substandard craftmanship. I kinda liked the whole relationship we have with her purely because she does not pull any punches. :)

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That particular guildmaster is overly harsh of your work actually. Compare it to a few of the others such as the Blacksmith guildmaster that takes note that for someone new to the craft your quite good at it.
Makes sense, just finishing an item at normal quality requires knowledge of the craft.

Your craftmanship for the LTW quest wasnt substandard, it was merely good. She was just being elitist and moaning about it not being HQ (actually, I did give her HQ in that particular quest, heh)

The story is alright. The only feelings I have towards the main npcs is that I want to give them all a swift kick in the pants. (Not the first time for Final Fantasy characters.)

The fetch quests suck. There's no two ways about it. :/

http://i.imgur.com/bUUpvxd.jpg

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Because you have some people who either complain about how a story holds up or are confused by what happened, only to later admit they just breezed through all the text. Only rarely do people who dislike something can actually give good arguments on why they don't like the story.

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That's fair enough too I suppose. I've breezed through the story in last 2 patches cause up to that point there was nothing that would story-wise keep me hooked. Somewhere along the way they've lost my interest I guess and I hardly retain anything (unless it's a "shocker" like -I can't believe they axed this NPC already!!! while leaving #@#$^$&ing Alphinaud still plague us with his horrid Elezen self!!!!! /fume). Such moments are rare, though. Very rare....

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Because you have some people who either complain about how a story holds up or are confused by what happened, only to later admit they just breezed through all the text. Only rarely do people who dislike something can actually give good arguments on why they don't like the story.

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No breezing from me. "That one story" really bugs me bugs me because of a few easily-skipped character and lore points that stuck with me, but would have ruined the tone they wanted for that forced "ending" if they were actually brought up again. If they had to force it that way to set up Part II, I suppose I can get over it when the time comes, but if that's really the end of that story completely...:mad:

And honestly, that cute-but-cool guy and that awesome lady had managed to make it to the top of my favorite NPCs list by the time 2.5 hit, so sudden tonal shifts are not something I feel like forgiving until sometime after I see what the expansion brings.

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Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Because you have some people who either complain about how a story holds up or are confused by what happened, only to later admit they just breezed through all the text. Only rarely do people who dislike something can actually give good arguments on why they don't like the story.

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This thread has been filled with great arguments. It seems you're the one who's failed to read and went on to complain about it.

Or maybe I was explaining why people said the things that person I quoted was talking about? Someone asked why everyone always says "Read the story and you might like it more" and I simply explained why that is. No need to act like I'm complaining for the sake of it.

For all intents and purposes...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7615/...fa2b6276_o.png

...they do get the message, apparently.