Too Many Mundane Quests

Quests in FFXIV guides character growth and carry the story line. Perhaps, it is one of the most influential aspect that contributes significantly to gamer's experience. There are quests that stay relevant to the main story line. Yet, too many other quest(s) serves little purpose, have little value in creativity, which discourages you with the its triteness and irrelevance that become tedious to get through. If we do have many quests, at least make them worthwhile and give them a good incentive for the players to follow through. Even the main storyline shouldn't have too many mundane quests. Rather just have a level restriction with less mandatory quests is even better. Many ways to resolve this.

I've found most of the "mundane" quests to actually make the world feel more full, more vibrant. We get to experience and learn about other people, it doesn't have to be something drastic, but each quest (at least for me) has made the world come alive a little bit more and I complete them all (except crafting quests, I wont craft). I can see the problems, but I think many glaze over the reading and personalities of the people giving you these quests and miss out on that subtle world building. (not saying the OP does of course)

I think nugenator is mundane

Ironically, when you first start the owner of the Adventurer's Guild informs you of exactly what you're getting yourself into by saying that helping random people with their problems will "rarely be of realm-shattering importance", but you have to also take it in context.

What sets an adventurer apart from a regular sellsword/mercenary is their potential altruism - adventurers are willing to do things for the greater good without usually thinking of their own well being or even a reward, where as sellswords only do it if there is a substantial paypacket at the end of it. And given the fact Eorzea is still recovering from the Calamity, altruism goes a long way to making Eorzea a better place.

Or at least, that's how I look at it.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Or at least, that's how I look at it.

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That's quite the enlightening post. Makes me feel a little guilty that I get annoyed sometimes at the main scenario trying to make me replay old content.

2.3's Storyline is a good example of mundane quests.

After defeating a Primal, they send you to recruit over a dozen of people spread out in Limsa, Gridania and Ul'dah and afterwards you gotta deliever clothes to 8 people. Really? Defender of Eorzea and Warrior of Light has to do such things? Doesn't feel very heroic.

If quests like these are sidequests, OK. But please leave those "walk around in every corner Eorza's" quests out of the main story. Intense dialoges and cutscenes and fights against big enemies is what I look for when I play the Main story. They did a good job with the 2.3 story but the side quests in it were meh at best.

TomTom, isn't the point of a good quest system to introduce the player to the world? Heck, as annoying as these quests are, you can't deny they teach you about the world your getting yourself into and the environment you're exploring. They aren't about the quest aside from the altruistic act, they are about the places, the little touches, the lore and to get people into the concept of loving the world, not just the fights.

I smile when NPCs refer to you as that fellow who helps everybody out.

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Originally Posted by TomTom1968

Intense dialoges and cutscenes and fights against big enemies is what I look for when I play the Main story. They did a good job with the 2.3 story but the side quests in it were meh at best.

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Sorta tangential for me to comment on this but I really would like it if they'd relegate the excessively drawn-out, on-the-nose recaps and over explanations to optional post-CS NPC conversations... Hasn't been a quest in the game yet that doesn't have at least some aspect of "yeah, I get it" to it. Does that make sense? How there's like 2min of dramatic, pertinent plot then 40min of the characters saying the exact same things over and over in different ways in case anyone didn't pick up on the plot. Doesn't seem like particularly compelling storytelling which irritates me because the story itself is compelling in its own right.

If by "mundane", you don't read the chat dialogue at all, that's one thing. If by "mundane", you're flat-out bored even with reading, you're having a bad time.

I'd have to say that a lot of it is storyline-driven (as in it has its own little story, obviously), so it depends on how you play. Try to approach it more casually, maybe. I don't know how you play, so it really depends on what you find mundane.

Otherwise, go find a DVD or Netflix if it's that bad. :)

With the quality present in FFXIV's writing and localization, I welcome more "mundane" quests. For an example of the awesome world building we're given, this is what we get for a simple kill quest in Eastern Thanalan.

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When the Calamity struck, it sundered life everywhere─and not only among our races. Look around, and you will see how things have fallen apart. Feet, claws, roots─all have been torn from the earth they were planted on. The dead goobbue was a child of Coerthas. The Calamity shattered its native mountains, and it fled before destruction as a caravan flies before a sandstorm. Years, it wandered. We found it dying and received its memories.

It had gathered seeds from every land it passed through, and they flower upon its corpse, a living map of its loss and exile. North to south, mountains to the desert...cloudberry and shooting stars, marybells and cliff roses, Althyk lavender from lower Thanalan, even roselles from Bloodshore.

To wander is a dream and a nightmare. Adventurers such as yourself must know it better than I, but I imagine there are days when the flame of adventure gutters, and you feel yourself to be as bereft as those in Lost Hope...and upon us, no flowers grow.

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And the thing is, almost every quest's dialog is of that quality. Sometimes epic, sometimes funny, but all very good. Makes me want to do the most boring of quests just to see what the writers have for us.

After getting killed by Halistropes all evening, I found locating the dancing girls, while relatively "mundane," to be a refreshing change.

The sort of quest that isn't very exciting and doesn't invoke the battle music is what adds realism to the game--most of real life is like that, after all, and even fantasies have to have some semblance of reality. All fighting would ruin the game's connection to reality.

Thats why you are force fed quests by them giving you the EXP you need to level and gear you will need to be initially passable once you start dungeons and than to open up the higher level dungeons. It's a boring story that has little eye popping moments. Hence why you have to do it to progress in the game. If it was optional, hardly anybody would do it cause it's boring at best.

If this is the best SE has to offer at this point, no wonder they arent the powerhouse gaming company they used to be.