Succinct Story Line summary?

Anyone got a quick link to a story-line summary fro 2.0-2.5? I am very guilty of skipping every single cutscene except T12, and not reading any chat boxes at all ever. I am looking to repent for my sins with the penance of reading a summary. Can anyone help?

You can see the cutscenes when you visit the inn.

Click on the book beside your bed and select the quest you want to revisit. :)

Inn only shows cutscenes though, not texts form NPCs outside them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Edeline

Inn only shows cutscenes though, not texts form NPCs outside them.

---

^^ Yup - I'm looking for like, 3 paragraphs per patch or whatever. Not sure if anyone is into the story enough in this game to have done that, was just curious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ehayte

^^ Yup - I'm looking for like, 3 paragraphs per patch or whatever. Not sure if anyone is into the story enough in this game to have done that, was just curious.

---

Clearly you are not (into the story - at all). Honestly, why bother playing an RPG if you don't give two craps about the story? I won't be providing your synopsis, mostly because I haven't completed the story yet - I like to take my time. That said, I wouldn't give a synopsis anyway, I don't see why anyone should facilitate you ignoring the story line of the game. Skipping all cut-scenes and dialog up to T12 is almost a text book demonstration of willful ignorance in this context.

They have a point there

I skip cut-scenes and dialogue because they're absolute garbage. Everybody talks like either Shakespeare or a pirate in a long, flowery style that I instantly tired of the day I bought the game. On top of that, none of it sounds at all natural. I have more to do with my day than read dialogue.

Even if I didn't skip the cut-scenes, the story is so watered down with pointless busy work that it would be very hard to provide any kind of summary that would be both coherent and succinct.

"Oh no! A primal!"
"Thank you hero of light!"
"Everything's ok now! But I hear the beast men are acting up..."
"Oh no! A primal!"

This is a repeating theme within the story. :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lun4tic

I skip cut-scenes and dialogue because they're absolute garbage. Everybody talks like either Shakespeare or a pirate in a long, flowery style that I instantly tired of the day I bought the game. On top of that, none of it sounds at all natural. I have more to do with my day than read dialogue.

Even if I didn't skip the cut-scenes, the story is so watered down with pointless busy work that it would be very hard to provide any kind of summary that would be both coherent and succinct.

---

Then, why do you bother to play? Seriously, you're playing an RPG in a fantasy setting, it should be obvious that the language used by characters will be stylized in a way similar to the way that it is in Eorzea, it's like that in every RPG with a fantasy setting.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to a watered down story line, if you expected gritty realism and more hard core action/intrigue, then you've come to the wrong kind of virtual world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Clearly you are not (into the story - at all). Honestly, why bother playing an RPG if you don't give two craps about the story? I won't be providing your synopsis, mostly because I haven't completed the story yet - I like to take my time. That said, I wouldn't give a synopsis anyway, I don't see why anyone should facilitate you ignoring the story line of the game. Skipping all cut-scenes and dialog up to T12 is almost a text book demonstration of willful ignorance in this context.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Then, why do you bother to play? Seriously, you're playing an RPG in a fantasy setting, it should be obvious that the language used by characters will be stylized in a way similar to the way that it is in Eorzea, it's like that in every RPG with a fantasy setting.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to a watered down story line, if you expected gritty realism and more hard core action/intrigue, then you've come to the wrong kind of virtual world.

---

Yup, not really that into it. I play an MMO because I likee doing raid content with other people and building a character up over time. I don't want your synopsis anyways because it will probably be mean-spirited and full of right-click-thesaurus word replacements. I'm not looking for someone to tell me the story so far I was asking if anyone knew of an archive that already exists that summarizes the story.

Because some people don't play for the story of an MMO, they play for the sandbox. Even though FFXIV isn't very sand-box-y, it still provides a good amount of "independent adventuring" for someone to be satisfied paying $15 / mo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eidolon

"Oh no! A primal!"
"Thank you hero of light!"
"Everything's ok now! But I hear the beast men are acting up..."
"Oh no! A primal!"

This is a repeating theme within the story. :p

---

Yeah I inferred that, haha. I'm more looking for the political struggles and anything ishgard related so that I can have some context for the end of the 2.X storyline.

To be clear, my motivation level is not high enough to actually read the 8 paragraphs of text that come with each fetch quest to understand what is going on in the story. I did it for the PLD job quests and most of the 2.0 story from level 1-50, but I reached my breaking point at 2.1 - too much text for a game in which I spend less than 5% of my time doing anything that has to do with progressing a story.

Also, no offense to anyone that loves the story but its not that good, and I don't like most of the characters. This coming from a huge fan of video games as a story telling medium and someone for whom FFVII changed my perspective of narrative.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Then, why do you bother to play? Seriously, you're playing an RPG in a fantasy setting, it should be obvious that the language used by characters will be stylized in a way similar to the way that it is in Eorzea, it's like that in every RPG with a fantasy setting.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to a watered down story line, if you expected gritty realism and more hard core action/intrigue, then you've come to the wrong kind of virtual world.

---

Playing a game isn't reading a book. I can still enjoy the game if I dislike the story.

And I don't know what game you've been playing if you can't see how thin the story is. It's not Final Fantasy caliber, that's for sure.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lun4tic

Playing a game isn't reading a book. I can still enjoy the game if I dislike the story.

And I don't know what game you've been playing if you can't see how thin the story is. It's not Final Fantasy caliber, that's for sure.

---

lol, Final Fantasy caliber? Let's see, evil empire invades, only you the young, fresh faced, newly anointed warrior of light can save the world? It's as standard a plot line as any fantasy game I can mention. Oh wait I forgot the political intrigue in Ul'dah, the threat to the elemental balance of the world, and of course the shadowy bad guys in capes who manipulate events from behind the scenes and can summon forth the voidsent, and the upcoming face off with the religious theocracy in Ishgard. Yes, very thin, and that ignores the individual storylines of some of the bad guys themselves, and the whole Coil story line, along with Hildebrand and the various smaller side stories going on with the class quests and other events in each city state. Yes, so very thin on story....

Most of what you've mentioned has such a non-presence in the game, due to being so poorly fleshed out, that I've forgotten they're things. As for the coil storyline, I'm on turn five and it's pretty much been this:

"Gosh! That looks like a wing! IT'S BAHAMUT'S WING!!!"
"Gosh! That looks like a claw! IT'S BAHAMUT'S CLAW!!!"

What is it even about? What is any of this about? Where are the compelling characters? Where are the hard decisions? The consequences of our actions? These are all things a Final Fantasy game should have, to some degree, but FFXIV lacks all of it. It's a Disney story about playing whack-a-mole with non-threatening primals and stopping the non-threatening, all-around evil invaders from hanging out. It was slapped together on a tight schedule and it shows.

I'd recommend using an alt and do the quests. You'll hardly need to do any leveling to be honest. if you do all the quests, that will provide you enough exp to be caught up with level requirements.

I like how the people who admit to not reading the story or dialogue are the ones that criticize it the most.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ehayte

Yup, not really that into it. I play an MMO because I likee doing raid content with other people and building a character up over time.

---

While Kosmos992k didn't need to be so mean-spirited and close-minded about it...

Just from pure curiosity, why make this thread then? I don't think your reasons for playing are invalid or anything--different people play for different reasons and raiding/progression is just as good as playing for the story or whatever other reasons people have. But I'm curious.

EDIT: I found a better link!

...although it's quite the read: http://gamerescape.com/2015/01/19/th...reborn-part-1/
This one is more up to date than the FF wiki, but it's still a patch or 2 behind. I imagine we'll get get a bunch of 2.x summaries once it's actually finished

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

While Kosmos992k didn't need to be so mean-spirited and close-minded about it...

---

I'm not being mean spirited or closed minded, I simply cannot understand why anyone would play a final fantasy game and ignore the story, or expect to play without reference to the story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I'm not being mean spirited or closed minded, I simply cannot understand why anyone would play a final fantasy game and ignore the story, or expect to play without reference to the story.

---

Pretty much the definition there. But I'll try to explain in the hope that all is not lost.

Some people play games for the game part of it. Mechanics. Being one of the highest skilled players. The prestige of getting a world or server first. Or more modestly, just the challenge. Or for social reasons: Having fun with friends (be that raiding, RPing, or who knows what else).

There are many other reasons to play that I haven't touched on, but which may lead a person to skip all story/cutscenes/etc. Some people just aren't here for it. This is not exactly uncommon. Yes, FF story tends to be a few notches above typical MMOs and all that, but it's still not going to appeal to everyone. Their reasons for playing are no less valid for it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bluevann

I'd recommend using an alt and do the quests. You'll hardly need to do any leveling to be honest. if you do all the quests, that will provide you enough exp to be caught up with level requirements.

---

That will take far to long and try my patience far too much.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Intaki

I like how the people who admit to not reading the story or dialogue are the ones that criticize it the most.

---

I gave the story what I considered to be a fair shake at each patch. I did read/watch up to Prae. Unimpressed and unable to get back into it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Risvertasashi

While Kosmos992k didn't need to be so mean-spirited and close-minded about it...

Just from pure curiosity, why make this thread then? I don't think your reasons for playing are invalid or anything--different people play for different reasons and raiding/progression is just as good as playing for the story or whatever other reasons people have. But I'm curious.

Anyway, this page has what you want: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/L...XIV_Storylines

---

Thank you for the link - I want to be able to catch up and get acquainted enough with the politics, etc, so that I can appreciate the transition into 3.0. I don't really have that big of an issue with the story, I don't think that its great, but I don't find it horrible or anything, I just have an issue with how much of my time it takes to experience it. I am here for raiding and challenging content and progressing my character. If I wanted a story I'd play a single player RPG. IMO this game is good enough to stand up without a specific story, I just like to play around in the world.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I'm not being mean spirited or closed minded, I simply cannot understand why anyone would play a final fantasy game and ignore the story, or expect to play without reference to the story.

---

That's fine that you don't understand but your reaction should be confusion and not anger. You decided that even though you weren't capable of providing a synopsis that I didn't ask for, if you were, you wouldn't give it to me because of my ignorance. That's pretty rude to have said. You could have just said nothing at all about that. I gave you, over 4 posts now, my reasons for playing FFXIV and not having enough motivation to experience the story as presented, so if you don't understand where I am coming from I have to imagine its on you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ehayte

That's fine that you don't understand but your reaction should be confusion and not anger. You decided that even though you weren't capable of providing a synopsis that I didn't ask for, if you were, you wouldn't give it to me because of my ignorance. That's pretty rude to have said. You could have just said nothing at all about that. I gave you, over 4 posts now, my reasons for playing FFXIV and not having enough motivation to experience the story as presented, so if you don't understand where I am coming from I have to imagine its on you.

---

How is it rude? You expressed willful ignorance of the story, I merely pointed that out.

Sometimes something is rude, no matter how correct it is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

Then, why do you bother to play? Seriously, you're playing an RPG in a fantasy setting, it should be obvious that the language used by characters will be stylized in a way similar to the way that it is in Eorzea, it's like that in every RPG with a fantasy setting.

I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to a watered down story line, if you expected gritty realism and more hard core action/intrigue, then you've come to the wrong kind of virtual world.

---

People play mmorpgs for different reasons. I have no idea what's happening story wise, it's not why I play the game. I play for the social aspect and sense of accomplishment you get from moving forward and getting better. And there's nothing wrong with the OP wanting to know if there was a summary of the storyline. Perhaps he'd like to follow the storyline from this point on so he'd like to catch up with a summary. I don't see why such a request gets you so riled up.

I read through the storyline and often enjoy it. I have the Japanese voices with English subtitles; I find that it encourages me to read through the dialogue. This is especially considering the gaps we have in the process of translation from the often concise and detailed Japanese dialogue to our 'accented' English translations.

I kind of see the story like a badly subbed Japanese animation piece, which is true. Listening to the distinctions between the Japanese dialogue and the English translations makes it obvious that we're missing out on a fair amount of detail; so I read as much as the character dialogue as possible to draw connections between the voiced and unvoiced sections of the story. It's kind of jarring to read a brief vague statement from a major lore character, while the Japanese actor continues on monologuing.

As someone said, you could always reroll a story-centered alt or watch youtube videos on the story. While there are consistent themes, the story has been getting somewhat complex recently, especially with the buildup to Heavensward.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ehayte

That will take far to long and try my patience far too much.

---

http://media.giphy.com/media/720g7C1jz13wI/giphy.gif

Eh, I tried. Personally, I find living a story a lot more entertaining than reading pharagraphs (the whole cinema industry revolves around this, not to mention the videogaming one). But if you really want to read, and not read the Journal...

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/L...XIV_Storylines

I hope you won't want someone to summarize that for you as well <.<

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bluevann

I'd recommend using an alt and do the quests. You'll hardly need to do any leveling to be honest. if you do all the quests, that will provide you enough exp to be caught up with level requirements.

---

This is actually what I plan on doing myself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kidblinks

This is actually what I plan on doing myself.

---

If I wanted to spend that much time doing it I would have just done that to begin with. Also, the xp from story quests will not get you to the level requirements for the next story quest all the time. I remember doing a fair amount of leveling to get to the next quest at launch.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lun4tic

it would be very hard to provide any kind of summary that would be both coherent and succinct.

---

I would expect you to realize your folly since you skip them all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ehayte

If I wanted to spend that much time doing it I would have just done that to begin with. Also, the xp from story quests will not get you to the level requirements for the next story quest all the time. I remember doing a fair amount of leveling to get to the next quest at launch.

---

Your also in a way, expected to do the side-quests. Some of the side-quests inform the reactions of certain characters when you meet them later in the story. Honestly, if you are that interested in the storyline, you could just level the alt in your spare time. If you don't have the time to do that, then you just won't experience the story to its fullest. It's just like farming gear, gil and progression; if you don't put the effort into it, you just won't get it.

It's interesting to me the different levels on which people enjoy the game. Like, if someone is just into the mechanics and skips everything related to the story and setting, more power to them I guess if they're getting what they want out of it. But to me, if story and setting are not what you're coming to a game for, then you made a very bizarre choice by getting invested in this one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LystAP

Listening to the distinctions between the Japanese dialogue and the English translations makes it obvious that we're missing out on a fair amount of detail; so I read as much as the character dialogue as possible to draw connections between the voiced and unvoiced sections of the story. It's kind of jarring to read a brief vague statement from a major lore character, while the Japanese actor continues on monologuing.

---

We're not missing out on anything. This may be surprising, but languages don't actually translate word for word. This is especially true when it comes to Japanese drama; in Japanese text, you'll often get entire paragraphs that do literally nothing but plainly restate information you already know (think back on those anime that constantly show and reshow the same flashbacks over and over).

You can always open your journal and read a summary of every single quest you've ever taken. Combined with the fact you can rewatch any cutscene, you can learn a lot more about what you've actually been doing than just asking for a "quick" summary of the story.

*Spoilers in a thread asking for spoilers*

From what I understand of the story...

Starting from after you kill Ifrit:

-Wooa u so strongk! join the scions to be an errand boy fight evil! and a grand company too!
-dem sylphs got issues. go do errand boy and politics stuffs
-sylph leader is kidnapped and in toto-rak. go halp
-hooray u halped! sylphs happy and give you lightning crystal
-little ala mhigo got issues. go do errand boy and politics stuffs
-little ala mhigo dun liek u
-go halp some ala mhigans in quarrymill so u can halp little ala mhigans
-hooray little ala mhigans liek u
-sum bad stuff happening around fallgourd
-go do some errand boy stuff and go to haukke manor 'cuz butler is wimp
-ohnoz titan is probably a problem
-gotta lern how to defeat titan from company of heroes
[errand boy nonsense & a dungeon later]
-hooray go kill titan
-hooray killed titan
-ohnoz livia killed most scions and some are missing
-go bury ded scions
-hooray cid remembers stuff and he has airship in coerthas
-go to coerthas and do errand boy politics stuffs & kill a dragon to get to airship
-do some errand boy stuff and get corrupted crystal to shield airship
-go smack garuda 'cause primals r bad
-smacked garuda but saw ultima wepon
-ultima wepon probably a problem, so gotta do sumting about it
-jack a magitek armor
-get sum paper thin disguises and rescue missing scions from castrum centri
-go smack ritalin sas arvina
-go to camp bluefrog and do some errand boy stuffs, then go to castrum meridianum
-smack livia
-smack nero
-smack gaius van ballser
-smack ultima wepon
-defeat hardes boss in gaem, lahabrea
-hooray u winner
-is peaceful now, sorta
-oh but scions are in bad location cuz girl scouts won't stop trying to sell them cookies. gotta move location and be independent of their money grubbing scehems
-go find ascilia's minfilia's mum cuz she got emotional baggage
-hay, the scouter has detected a power level
-ish probably a primal. go smack it
-smack moggle mog & friends
-hooray scions in mor donuts now
-some ppl from doma appeard on a ship
-try to halp them move to uldah
-uldah nut being a bro, so go halp domans move to mor donuts
-oh leviathan probably goin to be a problem
-go get sum corrupted crystals & duct tape two ships together and beat leviathan
-hooray leviathan ded & domans in mor donuts workin for rowena
-remember the sylphs? dey has primal too, ramuh
-ramuh's a coo' guy but he primal so we gotta kill him
-blah blah judgment, blah blah u strong enough to defend eorzea
-blah blah crystal braves formed
-so about dem crystal braves... they think there's a traitor in uldah
-it's probably raubahn's chick, so go follow her
-it's raubahn's chick, go smack her
-hooray, but dem crazy dragon guys in coerthas are probably a problem
-as it turns out, dey workin for iceheart, who is shiva, who is a primal, who is probably a problem
-oh and new chick moenbryda's got some sorta aether battery she wants to use to blow up ascians
-smack shiva
-hay guis, y'know that huge dead dragon in mor donuts' lake? it's probably not as dead as u think. go check it out
-rawwr thou hast forgotten the face of thy master, i ur master nao, says the sorta dead dragon *removes hydaelyn's feeble blessing*
-sorta dead dragon now follows u around as reborn minion
-remember dat aether battery thing? yeah moenbryda's doin some research in north thanalan and thinks it might werk
-ascian with sideburns appears, pwns moenbryda, and says that now u dun have hydaelyn's feeble blessing, so ascians can go into ur house
-and mr sideburns wants to steal louisoix's stick! go stahp him!
-so u go there and watch moebryda get owned again (krillin style), minfilia won't let go of stick, so sideburns takes her along with the stick
-go into convenient portal left behind by sideburns guy to stahp him
-u defeat him and use the aether battery thingie to kill sideburns guy, 'cept moenbryda needed to do the whole heroic sacrifice thing
-boo hoo moenbryda is ded, but we can kill ascians nao

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CGMidlander

snip

---

Gee... thanks. You could've at least used the spoiler tag. Even without intending to read your post, the end of the list jumped on my eye. Awesome...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bluevann

Gee... thanks. You could've at least used the spoiler tag. Even without intending to read your post, the end of the list jumped on my eye. Awesome...

---

may i ask what exactly you expected in a thread asking for a storyline summary?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CGMidlander

From what I understand of the story...

Starting from after you kill Ifrit:
**spoiler snip**

---

I saw your post before you added the unmarked spoilers and immediately thought of this quotation as a summation of what's happened so far....

Quote:

---

Well, let's see. First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil. And then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And Prince Charles started wearing all of Lady Di's clothes. I couldn't believe it.

---

- from Airplane II: The Sequel.

That said, you should/could have put a spoiler tag in there, glad I did not read your post after you added all those spoilers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bluevann

Gee... thanks. You could've at least used the spoiler tag. Even without intending to read your post, the end of the list jumped on my eye. Awesome...

---

The thread is asking for a storyline summary, genius.

Why enter a landmine field if you don't want to step on landmines?