I am so freaking bored of Shadowbringer's story

i skipped all the cutscenes in this game and i still love it xD. There's a few bad things about skipping all the cutscenes thou like, do we shrink when we go underwater on Stormblood areas or why teen Minfillia's name changed to Ryne and her hair color going from yellow to orange.

I miss FFXI when they did not give us the option to skip cutscenes xD.

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Originally Posted by Selova

Real filler are a side stories and characters that have no actual importance or relevance to the story and its entire purpose is to arbitrarily extend a story to make it longer than it needs to be.

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Just about everything in Il Mheg and the western part of Amh Araeng falls into this. Please enlighten me how the Nu Mou are important to the story.

There are quite a large amount of busywork quests all throughout. In every zone you get to you have to go do tedious, meaningless tasks. The kobolds. Finding the "keys" to Titania. The magic trolley that allows us to get through a gate that we could have just jumped over.

That's not touching on some of the other issues with the story. Like the Deus Ex Machina at the end where we go to save Crystal Exarch. One moment he's not there, the next moment he is, then he solves all our problems.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Tbf, I still don't get why the trolley was made a huge deal of. We used it for all of, what, 30 meters, at roughly walking speed, and then just walked from there?

Feels more like we needed a magic rock to depress a floor-switch than an actual trolley.

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That is basically what we needed...but the purpose of that section was to give room for specific character development as a lead-up to the major events that happen after getting past the gate.

The reason for our delay in that area realistically could have been anything, so long as it served to set the stage for what came next.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Just about everything in Il Mheg and the western part of Amh Araeng falls into this. Please enlighten me how the Nu Mou are important to the story.

There are quite a large amount of busywork quests all throughout. In every zone you get to you have to go do tedious, meaningless tasks. The kobolds. Finding the "keys" to Titania. The magic trolley that allows us to get through a gate that we could have just jumped over.

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Without those interactions, you'd have a straight shot to whatever big problem/antagonist you're facing in every area you go to...and that's boring. A "story" where you just go straight to the big boss is no story at all.

Like this game has been doing since it started, it takes the time to show your interactions with various groups in the world the writers have created, allowing for character growth and character moments along the way - the kinds of things that end up making stories special to read, watch, or experience.

Also, in this particular expansion, a major part of the story is how you've managed to bring so many groups of people together to work toward a common goal to save their world...and that story beat falls completely flat if you don't actually go and do things that inspire the people. Kind of important that all that happens, and it's not going to happen because you waltzed through and jumped over a gate.

Arguments like yours remind me of those complaints about movies where people say "Well why didn't the characters just do this other thing that would have solved their problem/not caused an issue?" and the answer, obviously, is that if they did that then there would be no story.

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Originally Posted by Berethos

Without those interactions, you'd have a straight shot to whatever big problem/antagonist you're facing in every area you go to...and that's boring. A "story" where you just go straight to the big boss is no story at all.

Like this game has been doing since it started, it takes the time to show your interactions with various groups in the world the writers have created, allowing for character growth and character moments along the way - the kinds of things that end up making stories special to read, watch, or experience.

Arguments like yours remind me of those complaints about movies where people say "Well why didn't the characters just do this other thing that would have solved their problem/not caused an issue?" and the answer, obviously, is that if they did that then there would be no story.

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Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Tbf, I still don't get why the trolley was made a huge deal of. We used it for all of, what, 30 meters, at roughly walking speed, and then just walked from there?

Feels more like we needed a magic rock to depress a floor-switch than an actual trolley.

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its the character development (thancred) that they want to focus on, but yeah the trolley magic rock pushing and floor stepping plot is kinda stupid.

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Originally Posted by gumas

its the character development (thancred) that they want to focus on, but yeah the trolley magic rock pushing and floor stepping plot is kinda stupid.

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It was just kind of one of those "but...wait, what?" moments like the warring Au Ra tribes all being within a 5-minutes' walk of each other or Doma being shown as only one village large (just due to the borders drawn on the map, more so than the limited playable area).

I just figured, y'know, we'd have a FF7 throwback with a long trolley path, such that it would be untenable to cross the narrow, valley-bridging trolley path without being pushed to high speeds by the Talos for fear of, say, the birds knocking you off to your death below. Anything that would make the Talos relevant beyond 10 meters before the gate.

Altogether, I liked the character development that happened there at therefore that section of the plot. I even slightly cared about Magnus (though, mostly just Thancred). It just... it was doing so well and then it had to drop the feasibility/payoff ball there of all places? It just felt so weird to me.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

It was just kind of one of those "but...wait, what?" moments like the warring Au Ra tribes all being within a 5-minutes' walk of each other or Doma being shown as only one village large (just due to the borders drawn on the map, more so than the limited playable area).

I just figured, y'know, we'd have a FF7 throwback with a long trolley path, such that it would be untenable to cross the narrow, valley-bridging trolley path without being pushed to high speeds by the Talos for fear of, say, the birds knocking you off to your death below. Anything that would make the Talos relevant beyond 10 meters before the gate.

Altogether, I liked the character development that happened there at therefore that section of the plot. I even slightly cared about Magnus (though, mostly just Thancred). It just... it was doing so well and then it had to drop the feasibility/payoff ball there of all places? It just felt so weird to me.

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It was a Spyro reference. You know, "Trouble with the trolley, eh?"

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Please enlighten me how the Nu Mou are important to the story.

Finding the "keys" to Titania.

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There's that, and then there's the matter of them having ties to the tank story's Sin Eater, which in turn has ties to one of the local area's A rank hunts. World building is important.
If I'm not mistaken weren't they also planned to be one of the beast tribes we'll deal with? So an early introduction there would be important as well.

Greatwood and trolly were tough for me to get through. The only thing that got me through greatwood was Y'shtola, I didn't read a single text box during all of it though. And the trolly made me hate myself for a bit. The ending was good though for sure. A lot of people were talking about how great it is, but I just thought it was a pretty good story with its bad parts. Nothing mindblowingly amazing, nothing terrible. It gets better OP, just stick through it.

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Originally Posted by EusisLandale

There's that, and then there's the matter of them having ties to the tank story's Sin Eater, which in turn has ties to one of the local area's A rank hunts. World building is important.
If I'm not mistaken weren't they also planned to be one of the beast tribes we'll deal with? So an early introduction there would be important as well.

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Nu Mou and Pixies are indeed two of the beast tribes, Dwarves being the third and most likely the craft/gather one. On top of this the Amaro are shown to be on close terms with the Nu Mou meaning we'll also be getting more of them in the Nu Mou beast tribe story as well.

No one is forcing to play it.

I'm sorry you have bad taste in narratives OP.

This is where we start to see the "Myess, I preferred the gobbie-cheese arc of ARR to this tripe" hipsters start to show up. And then they'd shoot a condescending look while adjusting their scarf and sipping their free trade cappuccino.

Before they blast Seattle area indie flannel folk music on their iphone.

On the "repetitiveness" of defeating the Lightwardens, even that serves a story purpose - because it's just when you're settled into that routine that you absorb the fourth and you get that horrendous cracking sound as your soul struggles to bear it...

(It reminds me extremely strongly of Shadow of the Colossus which had the same "repetitive" cycle of defeating each colossus and absorbing its essence. The sequence never changed, but my sense of dread got higher each time it happened.)

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

Nu Mou and Pixies are indeed two of the beast tribes, Dwarves being the third and most likely the craft/gather one. On top of this the Amaro are shown to be on close terms with the Nu Mou meaning we'll also be getting more of them in the Nu Mou beast tribe story as well.

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I think it seems more likely that the Dwarves would be a battle tribe and either Pixies or Nu Mou as the crafters, otherwise we have two tribes doing the same sort of activities in the same zone. And there are plenty of reasons for the Dwarves to go looking for a fight or be under attack from the Goggs.

Mmmm... .Lunch! Seriously OP, part of why you're bored is that you're skipping the dialogue, on a second play thru on an alt I can understand, but you miss out on a lot of the story by skipping. Yes some of the scenes take awhile, but you can also use that time to chat with your FC, get a drink, bathroom break. But skipping it the first time is just silly. If you are that bored, it also might not be the story thats boring to you, you just may be ready to move on to another game or need a break from playing. I for one love the story. I have over 8 alts, and I still enjoy playing thru all of it, and yes, that means watching "Most" of the cut scenes again each time, just to see what my character does as a different race/gender. Hope you learn to enjoy the story OP.

Shadowbringers is the best FF XIV expansion and story by far and it is not even a contest. It is completely your fault for being bored of the story by skipping it. I mean really? You skipped the most exciting plot this game has ever had. You finally get to learn about the Ascians and Enigmatic Elidibus after all the years you got nothing but little cutscenes from them. You only have yourself to blame. The greatwood is NOT filler at all and has one of the most important plots.

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Originally Posted by Valira

just skipping through textbox after textbox.

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So when you skip all that stuff that matters for the story, how exactly you want to be able to say is it good or not?

I'm sure this is a troll post by the OP, who is sitting back smirking in a basement somewhere about all the attention that has come into their life.

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Originally Posted by Voodoo

No one is forcing to play it.

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And no one is forcing you to post in this thread.

I'm enjoying the story as it spans over all the previous stories and gives you an insight into the "real" story. It's unfortunate that people just skip through the dialogs and cutscenes as they are missing out on tons of stuff but I guess they are in a rush to get to the end for some reason.

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Originally Posted by ScarboroughFairy

That's the basic formula of the Hero's Journey, though.

It's predictable because there's only so many ways you can tell this particular tale. Don't @ me, that's a cold fact.

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HW and SB did a much better job of that. They both had variation and the groups plan had to be adapted on the fly all the time. In ShB you set your goal at the beginning, and it never changes or gets really expanded. "Kill all the lightwarden" and that's almost all of it.

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Originally Posted by ScarboroughFairy

We can't pretend that what happened after the Lightwardens didn't make up for further character development.
**Spoilers below**

Finding out that the WoL is Amaurotine and 9/14ths a "complete" being was a major bombshell. While I can't objectively say it was a twist that absolutely none of us saw coming, I can say that it has serious implications for the WoL, the Source, and the two deities. There is a massive problem with Hydaelyn being a Primal and calls into question whether or not we've been Tempered by her, which was something that was asked by Ifrit back in ARR. Bookends abound.

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Emet-Selch and/or Edlibus already made earlier comments that made it quite clear that the Warrior of Light has a split up Ascian's soul, one that is dear to Emet-Selch. So that was no relevation from after killing all the lightwardens, it was telegraphed long ahead. And i didn't get the impression that the WoW is now "complete", they are just more complete than before, complete enough to not succumb to the light. Hydaelyn being a primal wasn't a bombshell either in the game, it was a (potential, some people also figured it out before due to Ifrit's comments) bombshell in the trailer where it was revealed.
Nevertheless, this is all interesting for the overarching story, the knowledge we gained will lead to interesting developments, but that's what i already said in my first post. The expansion's story is very interesting for the greater storyline, but just taken for itself, the stuff that makes up the actual story of this expansion, saving the first by killing the lightwarden, is pretty bland and boring when compared to HW and SB.

I definitely agree with the criticisms you're getting (well on the front page at least /blush - I don't want to read all responses >.>;). I personally, -despise- urianger's dialogue. I honestly think... that's one of these reasons why I quit 1.x frustrated <.<. I seriously would just skip EVERYTHING he's ever said with a rage-filled button-smash. However, I made a point in this expansion to read 99.9% of every piece of text that comes on screen - even key items.

Urianger has gotten... better, but it's still painful. Still, I can say, the text is important. I"m also used to the text filled antics from older FF games. I think nostolgia has erased that from a lot of our memories, but I actually enjoy it. It takes me back. I personally didn't feel the padding as bad as you did, because the padding happened at appropriate times in the story. The pacing was done SUPER well in this expansion. When I wanted a break from the hardcore depressing loneliness of the first I'd have some world building quests.

I wouldn't write off the game just yet though. I honestly felt the same way you did with Stormblood. I despised that first group of expansion. I thought it was cringey and slowed me down right when I was building up steam. However, the patches totally saved that entire expansion's story imo, and I was able to really enjoy the lovingly crafted detail you could tell the dev team took pride in.

So tldr, I disagree, but maybe the patches will help :)

1- You were skipping, you lost the argue.
2- You should of added [Spoiler] to the title just in case people didn't want to be spoiled.

Beating a dead horse at this point: READ THE TEXT BOXES***** literally so much of the story is in those txt boxes and the Side quests fill out the voids. MSQ + Sidequests = Some goosebump inducing story telling. Do yourself a solid and go back and redo

I thought the story was great.

That said, there IS SO MUCH FILLER. So many quests that didn't need to be MSQs. Or quests where you are just shuttling back and forth between NPCs playing telephone.

As a person who had to catch up from ARR, the simple fact is that probably half of the MSQs could be cut out without any loss to the Main Story Plot.

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Originally Posted by Valira

I've been reading how amazing it was and how it rivals single player RPGs... and here I am, bored out of my mind, just skipping through textbox after textbox. And it doesn't even feel like I'm missing anything. It's just that boring and pointless.

The first few hours were amazing. I liked everything until the Greatwood. And since then it went downhill so hard that I can barely bring myself to continue. The entire Greatwood felt like filler to me - from start to finish. The only relevant parts were the very beginning and the very end. Everything in between had so much padding and felt like dozens of sidequests rather than the main story. And then I got to the desert... and it's the same thing again.

I'm about to start the golem duty, and everything that happened in this zone so far felt like 100% filler. I don't even understand how you can write a 'story' filled with so much trivial, menial and pointless crap. It honestly feels like they are trying to pad the hell out of this zone, as nobody can tell me that getting this golem was the best way to reach that area I'm supposed to go to. Every explanation for why I can't just go the simple route is idiotic and unsatisfactory to me. I just destroyed an entire army of sin eaters. Just let me go to my destination directly and find a more interesting way to extend game time, please.

I can honestly say that I'm just completely disappointed with the story so far. The main beats are there, and they are better than anything before, but the everything in between is so utterly pointless that I can't wait to get to the end of it. And I can say with 100% certainty that I could've skipped every single cutscene from the Greatwood until now and I wouldn't have missed anything substantial. I have absolutely no idea what you guys are seeing here, but to me this has the exact same problems every other expansion had as well.

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O.o The story is the best ever. I don't know why you play ffxiv then... The story is really not boring. It gave me smile, tears and laugh.

Loved the Shadowbringers story from beginning to end, and I'm one of the most critical readers out there.

OP is just thirsty.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

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Churning Mists (Moogles) and Hinterlands (Idylshire and doing some chores for Matoya) say hi. Vundu in the Sea of Clouds. Tailfeather and the dragons in Forelands. The formula was exactly the same back then. Why does it get a pass?

Hint: they're pink and you wear them on your face.

I loved the story and well if the story is not for everyone then that is up to them. Skipping the story then calling it boring is a bit of a silly argument as i feel Shadowbringers really dives further into detail about our character and it kinda brings out more character in the other Thancred being the 2nd(maybe 3rd?) biggest star in the story a lot of the expansion is about him and how his character evolves considering we hardly ever see him around before, we get to know him better and honestly I at times felt sorry for him.



Ok spoiler section

So the story if followed closely and Emet-Selc is a key character despite being the bad guy to us at least he holds most of the important information like for example telling us about the different reflections as they are called, his grand plan and revels who we truly are. Its not until the last seen we finally understand who the warrior of light and dark is truly. An Ascian! Yes we are an Ascian if you watched the scene at the end of the dungeon before the last trial we see Emet-selcs point of view and he sees a dark figure that we see in Amaourot. So we are on the side of Hydalyn but since the reflections split our soul into 14 bits including the source. We all ready merged 7 times all ready meaning 7 of our reflections have merged into us and Ardbert at the end is merely a reflection of our soul and when he hands us the Axe he binds with us increasing our power! Its a bit weird to follow at first but a wonderful story.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Yet Heavensward accomplishes the same things without a slew of pointless tasks.

Of course you place things in between. But you make them interesting and relevant.

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Lol ok.

You keep believing that. /pets

Also just because you didn't find something "interesting" doesn't mean it wasn't.

Story-based games may not be for you.

With only 4 posts on the forums.
When did you start playing FFXIV, Did you use story skip items to get into ShB?
If so you already missed the point because you don't know the back story.

The former leader of the FC didn't care for the story but did like the end game raids.
Do you like combat or raids?

If not I'm not sure what the game offers you.

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Originally Posted by JohnSpawnVFX

Churning Mists (Moogles) and Hinterlands (Idylshire and doing some chores for Matoya) say hi. Vundu in the Sea of Clouds. Tailfeather and the dragons in Forelands. The formula was exactly the same back then. Why does it get a pass?

Hint: they're pink and you wear them on your face.

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The only one of those that qualify as anywhere near what we have to go through in this expansion is the moogles. I've done HW story 4 times, I remember quite clearly what goes on in it.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

The only one of those that qualify as anywhere near what we have to go through in this expansion is the moogles. I've done HW story 4 times, I remember quite clearly what goes on in it.

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So did I recently on an alt. Seemed like the exact same kind of "filler". So I still don't understand why HW gets a pass on it, and ShB gets condemned...

Yeah bro you have to read to be engulfed in the story or your basically skimming through a 100 page book looking at only pictures.

I'm glad I enjoy reading, after the story is over I enjoy the various character reactions to what's going on in the world we just saved. An then there are those good multi-quest givers that usually help unlock beast tribes in the future. They have good stories as well... Reading is fundamental!! Lol

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Originally Posted by Valira

I've been reading how amazing it was and how it rivals single player RPGs... and here I am, bored out of my mind, just skipping through textbox after textbox. And it doesn't even feel like I'm missing anything. It's just that boring and pointless.

The first few hours were amazing. I liked everything until the Greatwood. And since then it went downhill so hard that I can barely bring myself to continue. The entire Greatwood felt like filler to me - from start to finish. The only relevant parts were the very beginning and the very end. Everything in between had so much padding and felt like dozens of sidequests rather than the main story. And then I got to the desert... and it's the same thing again.

I'm about to start the golem duty, and everything that happened in this zone so far felt like 100% filler. I don't even understand how you can write a 'story' filled with so much trivial, menial and pointless crap. It honestly feels like they are trying to pad the hell out of this zone, as nobody can tell me that getting this golem was the best way to reach that area I'm supposed to go to. Every explanation for why I can't just go the simple route is idiotic and unsatisfactory to me. I just destroyed an entire army of sin eaters. Just let me go to my destination directly and find a more interesting way to extend game time, please.

I can honestly say that I'm just completely disappointed with the story so far. The main beats are there, and they are better than anything before, but the everything in between is so utterly pointless that I can't wait to get to the end of it. And I can say with 100% certainty that I could've skipped every single cutscene from the Greatwood until now and I wouldn't have missed anything substantial. I have absolutely no idea what you guys are seeing here, but to me this has the exact same problems every other expansion had as well.

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https://media.giphy.com/media/XsUtdIeJ0MWMo/giphy.gif

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Originally Posted by JohnSpawnVFX

So did I recently on an alt. Seemed like the exact same kind of "filler". So I still don't understand why HW gets a pass on it, and ShB gets condemned...

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Same. Went through HW and SB yet again on a new tank alt just before ShB release. HW had objectively more filler than SB* or ShB (though ShB was a bit closer). I feel like the difference is just that ShB far more blatantly jokes about its own filler when it occurs.

*(Unless one *really* doesn't like the Au'Ra and considers the steps to winning them over entirely filler, instead of just the handful of quests that are more obviously so.)

Am I the only one that didn't think anything was a filler?
I felt like I was being shown how is life in the First, every region lived in a different way and had different beliefs. Sure, the trolley part was a bit... silly, but I had fun, and Ahm Araeng's theme is my favorite.

Oh, I do hate fairies though, so that part was annoying and I wanted it over quick (voice acting didn't help there), but that's personal preference.

I once met a guy who asked me what my favorite videogame was, and I mentioned a few FF games. So he went ahead and bought FF4 and tried it for maybe 40 hours before he asked me a bit frustrated: "What is it that you like about this? THe story is cheesy, the main character is annoying, Rosa is stupid, and I just can't feel any connection to the characters or story at all". I just told him we had a different taste, so he didn't have to like what I liked. He loved Pokemon, and I can't see why it's fun to some, but I respect it. Some people just try to hard to like a game that clearly is not for them. It's not wrong to not like Shadowbringers, what's wrong it's you forcing you to play through it and like it because other people do.

I will admit that once we hit Il Mhaeg the plot slowed to a crawl and now I am in the latter half of the Greatwood and it still is pretty dull. I love the new areas, characters and story and it began with a bang, but this middle slog is really not interesting. I've been playing since Early Access and I am only 1/2 way through the MSQ because I decided to level up GNB/DNC and MCH all to 80 concurrently. I know the story picks up later but I am in no rush to finish it at the moment.

I will say I like it more than SB, which I hated.

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Originally Posted by Kewitt

If not I'm not sure what the game offers you.

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Probably everything except MSQ Cutscenes ^^ The story is decent for an MMO, but it's not the 2nd coming of Christ or anything. Taste is still subjective, concluding that story based games are not for them just bc they don't like this particular story is a bit far fetched.

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Originally Posted by PharisHanasaki

Am I the only one that didn't think anything was a filler?
I felt like I was being shown how is life in the First, every region lived in a different way and had different beliefs. Sure, the trolley part was a bit... silly, but I had fun, and Ahm Araeng's theme is my favorite.

Oh, I do hate fairies though, so that part was annoying and I wanted it over quick (voice acting didn't help there), but that's personal preference.

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same here, i got hook with the shb story from start until finish, the only part that got my hype down a bit is the trolley part, the drama is fine but... of all thing and they pick a trolley as the story theme? lol