Anyone gets tired of the level 50 main story quest? Is this a recurring thread?

Hello! Since i discovered the forum i love to participate in it.

I love FFXIV, there no lie in that affirmation, but i'm kinda getting tired of the lvl 50 main story quest moving the Scions of the Seventh and helping the refugees.

Will this take a loooong time, and should I just try doing some other stuff at the same time so i don't get bored on teleportation? Or get full focus on that?

Thanks!

Many people aren't fond of the level 50 MSQ progression exactly because of the running around. You should just hang in there and push through. It was improved a lot in the expansions.

You should do whatever you like, really. Unless you are in a hurry to get to 70, there's no reason why you can't take a break from the MSQ and do other stuff.

There was a period in there where I was tempted to tell Minfillia that the hero of light is not a post moogle... but.. yknow.. then I became a post moogle. Worth it for the hat though.

LOL yes it does drag a bit, but the ending is very cool if you're into story. It takes time and if you're getting worn out I would go try some other stuff. It's not a race and definitely not a competition. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

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Originally Posted by Krotoan

There was a period in there where I was tempted to tell Minfillia that the hero of light is not a post moogle... but.. yknow.. then I became a post moogle.

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I loled. XD

Never understood people complaining about that stretch. Maybe it's because I always ran all the sidequests and everything at the same time. Maybe I just have more patience. But I didn't find it any worse than any other quests. It's remarkably easy/quick, all you do is talk to people for most of it.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

all you do is talk to people for most of it.

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Exactly! I fell you, it's easy, but boring. I play to have fun, but as Krotoan said, you become a post moogle.

Might be you're in the wrong game if you're not into the writing. Characters/story/world building, decent chunk of the game.

Nah, is not that. I have played all the games since Cecil Harvey. I really love it :), and it's a great game! Fantastic, actually. It's just that that section of the game is kinda boring. I was just trying to know if other players feel the same.

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Originally Posted by CharIie

Hello! Since i discovered the forum i love to participate in it.

I love FFXIV, there no lie in that affirmation, but i'm kinda getting tired of the lvl 50 main story quest moving the Scions of the Seventh and helping the refugees.

Will this take a loooong time, and should I just try doing some other stuff at the same time so i don't get bored on teleportation? Or get full focus on that?

Thanks!

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That probably marks the lowest point in the level 50 story, it should pick up from there if I remember correctly.

Well you are squeezing two years worth of story content into one big gulp. Some of the missions were interesting, some not so much.

What seems to happen is that people get stuck in that longs stretch where they were filling in time before the HW launch with a lot of shallow quests. For people that experienced that part when it was new and did it little at a time as patches came out it was easy, but trying to get through all them at one time can seem like an eternity.

I think the stuff between ARR and HW is an absolute nightmare, and it's for that reason I've become conditioned to despise Minfillia, as well as the other Scions to a certain extent. It doesn't help that I've had to run through it multiple times on my alternate characters either (in fact it's become something of a deterrent for me to create more, which is kiiiind of a good thing I suppose). The only thing that makes it all worthwhile is the quest "Before the Dawn" at the end; that one never fails to get me hyped haha.

ARR was total crap. HW and SB? Now those are good. Keep at it and you'll eventually get over the hike.

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Originally Posted by CharIie

Exactly! I fell you, it's easy, but boring. I play to have fun, but as Krotoan said, you become a post moogle.

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Well, since the post-moogle quests are some of the very best quests in the game I do not quite see the problem with becoming a (virtual) post moogle. ;)

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Originally Posted by Dyvid

Well you are squeezing two years worth of story content into one big gulp. Some of the missions were interesting, some not so much.

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Indeed, when we did those quest, we had 3 months between patches to clear them, but those that are new in 2017, want to reach Stormblood content and this means that often they want to reach there as fast as possible. Rushing fetch quest will drain the soul.

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Originally Posted by Zfz

Many people aren't fond of the level 50 MSQ progression exactly because of the running around. You should just hang in there and push through. It was improved a lot in the expansions.

You should do whatever you like, really. Unless you are in a hurry to get to 70, there's no reason why you can't take a break from the MSQ and do other stuff.

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ARR really was a lot better after the 1-50 grind, I can't even bring myself to replay the story twice though. It's not even fully voiced, I'll rather play DOS2 or Dragon Age again :P.

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Originally Posted by Laerune

Indeed, when we did those quest, we had 3 months between patches to clear them, but those that are new in 2017, want to reach Stormblood content and this means that often they want to reach there as fast as possible. Rushing fetch quest will drain the soul.

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Those 130~ fetch quests between ARR and HW is awful&boring. There's almost zero rewards too.
It's about time they erased all fetch quests and increased EXP rewards from MSQ to compensate.

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Originally Posted by Zeonsilt

Those 130~ fetch quests between ARR and HW is awful&boring. There's almost zero rewards too.
It's about time they erased all fetch quests and increased EXP rewards from MSQ to compensate.

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This was suggested by the community, but SE decided that they rather give players the option to pay their way (jump potions) to HW and SB, then remove or change the quests.

Writing and pace of story in this game is not very good, most of the MSQ quests could be cut down and no one woild see the difference, even the latest patch MSQ is stretched to insane level, while being hellishly boring. SE, just stop, make FEW interesting voiced dialogs and cutscenes with few quest battles, thats all, no more this 10-20 "talk to this guy, then again, and again, AND AGAIN!" type of MSQ quests.

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Originally Posted by Zeonsilt

Those 130~ fetch quests between ARR and HW is awful&boring. There's almost zero rewards too.

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We must have been playing different games. I found the 2.x MSQ neither awful nor boring. You actually get lots of rewards from it allowing you to start HW with a full set (or two) of i110 gear. (Many of the rewards were probably not there originally, but added later.)

The MSQ between ARR and HW consist of multiple shorter stories, just like all of ARR. They are in no way worse than the earlier quests (or later for that matter) but are mostly just more of the same.

My biggest gripe with this long stretch is that in the grander scheme of things, it's pointless.

Raubahn lost his arm but he went right back to being Flame General. Nanamo is alive. The entire thing was kept secret as to not cause chaos in the populace in Ul'dah and the Flames and Blades are scared of you so you don't feel anything while running around in Ul'dah. Gridania and Limsa outright refused to acknowledge it so you don't feel anything there either until Lolorito realized this entire thing was stupid and did his best to retcon it out of relevance with the exception of Rauhbahn's arm - and when's he getting a magitek replacement, anyway? Long overdo, Cid, get to it. And if he won't, Nero would.

In light of this, even thinking about replaying that story-patch, regardless of how much or little I enjoyed it (Proper disclosure, The Striking Tree and Thornmarch are two of my favorite trials), leaves me with very little motivation to ever replay it again. Only reason why I would is because buying story potions for all my charas is a bit more than I care to spend on this game, and if I'm shilling out the cash, it would be on glamour and mounts.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

We must have been playing different games. I found the 2.x MSQ neither awful nor boring.

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Maybe.
In my memory 2.10 - 2.55 transition to HW was the worst experience. It took me 5 days just to complete them.

In entire FF Mainstory quest line there's too many quests that just sit there to waste your time and they add zero to main story.
Those fetch quests should be erased entirely, main storyline is even bigger now with Stormblood, we don't need those quests anymore.

p.s. Speaking of 2.10 - 2.55 maybe 1 from 10 quests was related to Main Story, the other 9 was "Get there, collect 3 dogs poop, back there, then go here, feed 5 soldiers, back, repeat, again".

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Originally Posted by Zeonsilt

Maybe.
In my memory 2.10 - 2.55 transition to HW was the worst experience. It took me 5 days just to complete them.

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Maybe this was the problem. You consumed the quests instead of enjoying the story. Focused on the tasks, instead of what the NPCs have to say.

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p.s. Speaking of 2.10 - 2.55 maybe 1 from 10 quests was related to Main Story, the other 9 was "Get there, collect 3 dogs poop, back there, then go here, feed 5 soldiers, back, repeat, again".

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Those tasks (not story) you also have in the HW and SB MSQ. Story is written in the NPC text bubbles, not in the quest journal.

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Originally Posted by Zeonsilt

Maybe.
In my memory 2.10 - 2.55 transition to HW was the worst experience. It took me 5 days just to complete them.

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5 days really isn't long at all. Sounds like you tried to rush through it - which would of course make it less fun.

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In entire FF Mainstory quest line there's too many quests that just sit there to waste your time and they add zero to main story.
Those fetch quests should be erased entirely, main storyline is even bigger now with Stormblood, we don't need those quests anymore.

p.s. Speaking of 2.10 - 2.55 maybe 1 from 10 quests was related to Main Story, the other 9 was "Get there, collect 3 dogs poop, back there, then go here, feed 5 soldiers, back, repeat, again".

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During the whole of 2.x - from the time we start the game until we seek exile in Ishgard - there isn't really a Main Story as such. The game through all that is really the story about how we became the Warrior of Light, and consists of multiple shorter stories that are mostly unrelated to each other. So it really doesn't make sense to say those quests are not related to the Main Story, since they are all equally much part of the WoL's story.

This is unlike HW which does have a clear Main Story - it is the story about the ending of the Dragonsong War.

Admittedly, yes a pretty good portion of the 2.x story after ARR does tend to drag on. The constant fetch quests and being forced to fight the three original Primals (but only slightly harder) come to mind. But there are some good parts, particularly imo once you get to the stuff that leads into HW as well as when the Ascians start getting involved again. The very end of this part right before HW is pretty epic, despite the impact of a lot of those events being lessened later on. It does actually set the stage for certain characters leading into the content much later in the story though.

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Originally Posted by DDkiki

Writing and pace of story in this game is not very good, most of the MSQ quests could be cut down and no one woild see the difference, even the latest patch MSQ is stretched to insane level, while being hellishly boring. SE, just stop, make FEW interesting voiced dialogs and cutscenes with few quest battles, thats all, no more this 10-20 "talk to this guy, then again, and again, AND AGAIN!" type of MSQ quests.

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Some of us enjoy a properly paced story with character development and plot points that happen without being rushed like a Saturday morning cartoon on fast forward.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Maybe this was the problem. You consumed the quests instead of enjoying the story. Focused on the tasks, instead of what the NPCs have to say.


Those tasks (not story) you also have in the HW and SB MSQ. Story is written in the NPC text bubbles, not in the quest journal.

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Can't agree with this. You can binge read/watch a story and really enjoy it. I'm sorry but I'm with Zeonsilt on this one.

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Originally Posted by Zeonsilt

Maybe.
In my memory 2.10 - 2.55 transition to HW was the worst experience. It took me 5 days just to complete them.

In entire FF Mainstory quest line there's too many quests that just sit there to waste your time and they add zero to main story.

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Try having to grind out the gear to meet the minimum ilvl requirements between story bits, as was the case between when 2.55 was added and before Heavensward launched. Also, you don't have to do the guildhests anymore, which added a bunch more time waiting in queue if you were DPS. The current version 2.x, with it handing out the gear you need, is trivial to get through.

As for adding to the main story...there's maybe 10 quests out of the 100 in 2.x that you could remove without it impacting something else in the main story. The primal fights introduce new elements of how both primals and the echo work. The refugee+political stuff in Ul'dah...well if you've played through Stormblood it should be obvious how 2.x was the foundation for that. And of course the lead-in to the Dragonsong War in Ishgard starting around 2.3/2.4. Character motivations and interactions are developed as the WoL and crew go through these things - without these, later developments don't have a chance at having any sort of real impact. There's more connective story tissue there than you give them credit for.

Should Square probably make it so going through those chunks of storyline are optional, meaning you can just pick-up with the start of Heavensward if you're at 50 and really want to instead of needing to do the 2.x quests? Maybe.

Should they remove a single word? Not a chance. Every line is part of an intentional pacing of the story (it's fine if you don't like that pacing) - it's not created to waste anyone's time.

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

Can't agree with this. You can binge read/watch a story and really enjoy it. I'm sorry but I'm with Zeonsilt on this one.

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On the not enjoying part? That's subjective, so that can't really be argued against anyway.

On the it adding "zero" to the main story? Pages can be written on how that's objectively wrong.

@OP - really the 2.x series had an unenviable task. It followed the clearer arc of becoming the Warrior of Light that lasted from 1 to 50 and also needed to set the stage for future story developments (in this case at least two expansions, and it's a big reason why HW and SB can get right into the action the way they do). That element of story pacing (especially in an episodic TV show-like approach, which is essentially what we have), by its nature, will tend to not be as full of exciting climactic moments...but at least in this game many of those story elements introduced in the 2.x series do end up leading somewhere.

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Originally Posted by SenorPatty

Can't agree with this. You can binge read/watch a story and really enjoy it. I'm sorry but I'm with Zeonsilt on this one.

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There's a difference in mindsets here. What you're describing is binge watching something because you enjoy it. What Zeon did was binge through the quests, because he was rushing to get to HW.

I'm not saying if he paced it a bit, he would have enjoyed it more. But what I am saying is that most players getting though several months worth of content in a matter of days really aren't interested in the story as much as they are getting to the content that is locked behind the MSQ, and it is really tough to take in what you're not really interested in.

I enjoy the story and I read it (or speed-read through it when in party), but that part was a pain. Not because there was a lot of story and little of playing. Because there was some story and a lot of pointless teleporting around. It would be a lot better if the text was long, with no need to go around so much only for some ridiculous reason.

And an organization that uses long-distance tool having their best warrior send MESSAGES of all things (not even top-secret) all around instead of just...like...using the linkpearl...is actually a plot hole instead of a proper quest. It's painfully clear that it is PURELY for the sake of stopping someone from progressing with the story and do something else. Except, that something else is the worst kind possible.

It wouldn't be nearly as bad if there were more quests about some sort of activity, like escorting a merchant (not even necessarily with an attack), getting some items (from mobs OR even from NPC...)...but nope. Go to X, pick an item that you cannot fail at picking (why isn't it automatic I don't know...), go back to Y, go to another guy (near X, far from Y) to tell him that you took that something to X...Damn, that's illogical!

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Originally Posted by Berethos

Some of us enjoy a properly paced story with character development and plot points that happen without being rushed like a Saturday morning cartoon on fast forward.

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But the story is still bad, most of character are writen badly and not believable, like Lyse, she is just empty forced annoying character. Its same cartoon, but its full of filler episodes instead of every episode being good and enjoyable.

I think the one slog which actually felt like a real slog in the MSQ was the wild goose chase of quests you have to do before fighting Titan for the first time. For the rest I was too busy enjoying the story.

While it did slow down in a couple of spots, I didn't mind the 1 to 50 journey, ending with The Praetorium.
The 100 quest slog(2.1 - 2.55), and I call it that because that's how it felt for the most part, had me questioning whether I would continue beyond the month that came with the purchase of the game.
Way too much time filler pushed in for what could easily be reduced to 5 missions max.
If I were the head of the studio, I would of allowed the player the choice of heading up to the gates of Ishgard after finishing Praetorium, with a pop up pointing them to the inn so they could watch the relevant plot changes to that point, and do the same with HW, allowing players to progress to SB after finishing Aetherochemical Research.
But eh, they couldn't sell the skip potions then. :P

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Originally Posted by DDkiki

But the story is still bad, most of character are writen badly and not believable, like Lyse, she is just empty forced annoying character. Its same cartoon, but its full of filler episodes instead of every episode being good and enjoyable.

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Disagree heartily on this (opinions are fun that way, aren't they?) Of course, I can actually articulate why I think the story is at worst acceptable and in many places quite good, but I get the feeling writing that up would end up being too long for you (considering you found even the short 4.1 MSQ to be "insanely long").

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Originally Posted by JCharms

Way too much time filler pushed in for what could easily be reduced to 5 missions max.
If I were the head of the studio, I would of allowed the player the choice of heading up to the gates of Ishgard after finishing Praetorium, with a pop up pointing them to the inn so they could watch the relevant plot changes to that point, and do the same with HW, allowing players to progress to SB after finishing Aetherochemical Research.

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While I agree with the option of allowing the player the choice after finishing Praetorium...

I would love to hear just how you'd reduce 2.x to 5 missions.

Wall of text incoming (going to hide since it will contain spoilers) as to why I think the idea it can be "easily" reduced that much isn't feasible and misses the point of that section of the story:

In short - there's a lot of stuff that happens in 2.x that's actually important to the ongoing plot or relevant to ongoing character development, without even taking episodic story pacing into account. You have the crew wanting to get out of Thanalan and into neutral territory - the Scions acting as a neutral third party organization with its own "army" of sorts ends up being important to the story, so you can't very well remove that. Minfilia not wanting to leave because of rumors about her adoptive mother and needing to seek her out isn't as strictly important, but it does make for some nice character development (again in the episodic sort of way - introduce a character in a smaller arc so you can use them more effectively in a bigger arc <--this happens quite a bit).

While each primal does sort of feel like a "monster of the week" annoyance, they also use them to introduce additional information and aspects about how primals work in Eorzea and more about how the metaphysical side of Hydaelyn works. With Good King Moogle Mog XII, we learn that myth can be made manifest into a primal and it doesn't take an established essence of a deity. With Leviathan, we learn about how the Echo can transcend mortality and transfer souls between bodies (information that is used later to defeat Ascians). With Ramuh, we learn that some primals can maybe be reasoned with to a certain degree, but that also once a primal is created its essence can carry memories between summonings. With Shiva, we learn that a mortal can summon a primal into themselves and if they have the Echo not be tempered by it (also reinforces the idea that it doesn't have to be an established deity). Those elements tie into dealing with Ascians at the time, Ravana later, as well as the Warring Triad, and continue to be relevant to our conflict with the Ascians.

The refugee stuff, both Ala Mhigan and Doman - you see the plight of the Ala Mhigans even more than before, and with it the political turmoil in Ul'dah that is tied up in it, and obviously that is important to setting up the betrayal by Ilberd and ultimately our moving into Ala Mhigo in the first place, as well as events after the liberation revolving around the Sultana and Rauhban. You meet the Domans and are introduced to their trouble while they are also being established as a stalwart ally, such that when we decide pushing to liberate Doma in a bid to distract the Empire and give the Ala Mhigan resistance time to recoup it doesn't come out of left field and is instead us looking to help the people that have stood by us since before we even thought about setting foot in Ishgard. A lot of that is setup for a believable way for Eorzea to get dragged into fighting to free Ala Mhigo - they hadn't done anything for 20 years and had clearly expressed a hesitance to engage in anything that the Garleans might perceive as an invasion (so as to avoid retribution), so really only a story arc that puts them in a political and military situation that drags them into unwillingly (through the machinations of one who has been established as one who will do anything to see Ala Mhigo free) is one that will feasibly work...and that's what we got. Good luck trimming that one down.

Then there's the lead-in to the Dragonsong War - we weren't going to just waltz into Ishgard and say "hey what's up Dragon Pope?" They'd kept their doors closed for sometime at that point, so the story needed a viable reason for us to be trusted enough to be allowed to enter. Dealing with bleed over from the actions of heretics and the dragons into areas outside of Coerthas, as well as the friendly diplomatic elements (with a non-city state aligned third party - not the only part that element ends up mattering in how the story plays out, plus giving the story creators more freedom with what the Scions can do) with Aymeric, serve to do just that, setting the stage for our dramatic assistance at the Steps of Faith...an act worthy of earning the sponsorship (with a bit of help from Haurchefant) of House Fortemps so that we can enter the city at all.

Mixed in there's various character moments to help establish or continue development of various motivations or personalities and such, and the occasional actual filler like assisting the newer members of the Adventurer's Guild in Mor Dhona by showing them how it's done, fetching tea (though this is clearly meant to be used for both pacing coming off a more action oriented bit and for some comedy - of course the hero of the hour shouldn't be running errands, but gosh darn it everyone is busy and Tataru asked so nicely, right?), and there's a lot of connective story tissue in 2.x...

So I'd really love to see how that would "easily" be trimmed to just five missions, without removing any of the important stuff and without the story playing out like the abridged children's book version of a Disney movie (if you've seen them, you know exactly what I'm talking about). Honestly, I'd love to see it done and being allowed to remove 50% of the important story stuff.

As someone who joined during HW and wanted to jump into HW to play with friends as soon as I could, 2.x's slog was about as enjoyable as a root canal- and I love this game's story. 2.0 had some weird paced bits, but overall msq was enjoyable. 2.x's story itself isn't bad, but the 100 something fetchquests in a row stringing the story along is god awful. I hate that part of the game so much, $18 skip is worth every penny on an alt lol

I am running a 3rd alt through it at the moment , and while it can be a bit tedious, doing a few quests and then something else along the way helps.
But could someone tell the other Scions we have link perls ? This run to one and speak there and then "lets all go back to HQ" is funny. ( in a bad way).

Ok , I confess , I am doing it for the Hildegard quests ....

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Originally Posted by Berethos

Some of us enjoy a properly paced story with character development and plot points that happen without being rushed like a Saturday morning cartoon on fast forward.

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Except it's not properly paced at all, and the characters often suffer from the problem of, "Oh this character is getting sudden development, yup dead"... It's got some good notes, sure, but let's not pretend that FFXIV's story (ARR post-50 especially) is well-written.

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Originally Posted by JCharms

While it did slow down in a couple of spots, I didn't mind the 1 to 50 journey, ending with The Praetorium.
The 100 quest slog(2.1 - 2.55), and I call it that because that's how it felt for the most part, had me questioning whether I would continue beyond the month that came with the purchase of the game.
Way too much time filler pushed in for what could easily be reduced to 5 missions max.
If I were the head of the studio, I would of allowed the player the choice of heading up to the gates of Ishgard after finishing Praetorium, with a pop up pointing them to the inn so they could watch the relevant plot changes to that point, and do the same with HW, allowing players to progress to SB after finishing Aetherochemical Research.
But eh, they couldn't sell the skip potions then. :P

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Agree 100%. I do not need to be playing messenger for the Scions when they can literally just call each other on their dang linkpearls themselves. I don't need a dozen quests dedicated to ferrying stupid "he said, she said" messages back and forth. While important plot points happen in the 2.0 post-50 story, the way they were delivered left a lot to be desired.

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Originally Posted by Berethos

While I agree with the option of allowing the player the choice after finishing Praetorium...
So I'd really love to see how that would "easily" be trimmed to just five missions, without removing any of the important stuff and without the story playing out like the abridged children's book version of a Disney movie (if you've seen them, you know exactly what I'm talking about). Honestly, I'd love to see it done and being allowed to remove 50% of the important story stuff.

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I suppose I wasn't clear in my meaning.
I realise there's no way to trim the existing to 5 missions/quests, my suggestion revolves around making 5 new quests that would be somewhat long with the cut scene, and that would be enough to address the key narrative points of the story, just without all the travelling, choco butt sniffing and bag carrying stuff that was bloated on purpose because they were content patches of the time for people that wanted stuff to do.

Honestly, I think devs could do a lot to streamline a ton of quests if they followed one simple rule.

If the character you are speaking to for step x of a quest, is the same character you need to speak to for step y of the same quest (or if they are at least present among those gathered at step y), just teleport the player along with the NPC and continue the quest dialog.

The back and forth messenger quests would go a lot quicker if they didn't stutter so much with stop and start steps. Not sure if they're trying to avoid putting quests on tracks or whatever, but many quests would just feel more concise and better paced if the player could simply travel along with NPCs for simple communication quests.

And yeah, the Linkpearls would've been a smart solution, too, but kinda hard to backpeddle on that now.