Feedback from a returning player

I came back to the game this weekend after being gone a few years. I just bought the new expansion and paid for a game sub (or course) I left off in the middle of patch 2.3 content at level 50.

Let me just say that getting through the 2.3 to 2.55 content to get to the expansion is one of the worst experiences I've had in an MMO. It is absolutely painful. So much fluff. So much pointless teleporting around. Very little combat or exploring the world.

The number of excruciatingly long and boring dialog cut-scenes is crazy! Usually voice acting denotes an important cut-scene, but not always. Sometimes, it's a meeting about politics and very dry.

The worst thing though is the quest structure. Go here, talk to person x, then go back to the Rising Stones. Over and over and over. Very tedious. This is an MMO, where is the combat? I did enjoy the fights with the Eidelons and the dungeons, I just wish there was more of that. I played about 10 hours Sunday, and about 2 of it was fun :(.

Also, the quests revolving around talk to x people in an area or find x or a hidden object in an area. These are just awful and need to go. They are not fun imho, just lazy padding designed to waste your time, not be fun.

Am I the only person that was kind of glad they "killed off" (probably not actually dead) the Scions of the 7th dawn at the end of 2.55? I really enjoyed that ending story sequence, it was well done.

My point is that 2.3 to 2.55 is mostly fluff that was added to tide hardcore players over until the expansion came out. It is in dire need of trimming down all of the fluff. Also, I refuse to pay $18 to skip this, as I feel like the money I have already spent on this game should be going toward the devs making an enjoyable experience. I shouldn't have to pay extra to skip this.

They realized this and mostly fixed it in 3.X and beyond. Don't worry, your pain is almost over. :D

Thank you for your kind reply! :D

If my brother hadn't been there to help me through it, I don't know if I would've stuck with it. When I finally got to the beginning of Heavensward, I was blown away.

I can't wait to dig into the expansion this evening.

I hope SE continues to refine the old content, because it may scare away new players. I'm a guy that started before A Realm Reborn, so the game has come a long way and the devs should be commended for their efforts to improve the game (which I cannot say about many other Square products these days; Dragon Quest 11 is amazing though guys, check it out in September).

Heavensward is a very fun expansion for me story wise. I think you're going to have a great time, esp after getting through the remainder of 2.X!

I wish they would revisit 2.X but it seems like their answer was just the story potion. It's lazy, but at the same time, I don't want them to take time away from 4.X either just to do so.

I am also very excited for DQ11 :D

Enjoy Heavensward!! ^.^

They did "fix" this in the sense that they made far more interesting filling-until-next-expansion quests for HW and the current SB post-expansion quests. But they haven't fixed it in the sense of going back to those quests and redoing them. All they did was add exp for most of them.

Unfortunately I don't think they're going to go back and condense those quests (I wish).

I constantly have to tell new people "don't worry it gets better". I wonder what happens to people who don't vent this frustration in their FCs and never get that opportunity to be told "I swear it gets better!!!!!!"

you kind of have to remember - a lot of us did it as it was coming out so it wasn't so bad. but yes it is a daunting task for a new player. They have said they would like to revise it somehow but doing so would take time away from developing new content, so unless there is like a giant lull i don't think it would happen anytime soon.

I hear you. That was the worst part of the game for me. It’s so long it almost feels longer than the actual ARR content, except obviously way more boring and tedious. I wish they could go back and trim that down somehow, because getting there definitely feels like hitting a brick wall, and over time more expansions will be added which will make that section feel worse and worse for new players who don’t want to shell out for a story skip. I know they’ll never touch it though.

Put it this way, the extra quests are free exp and gil for you. Also free gear for you as well. Take advantage of whatever rewards come your way.

Personally i thought the bit where you spent an eternity earning the trust of the company of heroes so you could fight titan was the worst stretch of the story, but the 2.x patch series has its low moments too. A lot of it is setting up things to come that arent always immediately obvious. You watched several scenes of political debate and scheming in Ul Dah which seemed to go no where, then you get invited to a dinner party by the sultana and a lot of things come to a head. You spent 2 patches doing jobs for the ishgardians and earning their trust, then you kinda get dumped into the middle of the dragonsong war(which is where a lot of their distrust for outsiders comes from). You spent a patch or two helping out the doman refugees in their journey to find a home and get settled, then the current expansion takes you to doma. A lot of important things actually happen or get set up in the 2.x line, it just isnt all obvious or immediate. And theres also a lot of filler.

The biggest change they made in 3.x and so far in 4.x is that instead of roughly 20 new steps in the MSQ per patch, we get more like 8-13 now. That allows for a bit more focus(there is still filler of course). The number of duties(dungeon, trial, solo instance) required to move on have stayed about the same, and the number of optional activities is similar as well. For now BigolBrute enjoy the HW portion of the story(many consider the players involvement in the Dragonsong War the highlight of the game so far). You have a journey to go on, with some twists and turns that will hopefully keep you entertained.

I am in the middle of the 2.4 quests and I have to agree. These quests are the most boring, tedious and time consuming quests I have ever experienced from a MMO - and I have played every major MMO since 2004. Hoping Heavensward questing gets much better.

oh yes definitely you will enjoy HW quests much better.

I don't make alts due to the time sync and tedium.

Had zero problem with the series of quests myself. But I don't go trying to rush through them all just to push for the next chunk of content. Which is what I suspect is the typical source of complaints. Players just want to get to the next thing, with no appreciation for a denouement before building back up again. You've just cleared Ultima, the story needs a chance to wrap things up. The big threat is over; naturally going to be a bit of a quiet period after that.

Start working on a Zodiac weapon. Finish off all your beast tribes. Clear some Coils in your down time. Enjoy some Crystal Tower runs. There's more to do at 50 than just rush into the next quest chain.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

A lot of it is setting up things to come that arent always immediately obvious. You watched several scenes of political debate and scheming in Ul Dah which seemed to go no where, then you get invited to a dinner party by the sultana and a lot of things come to a head. You spent 2 patches doing jobs for the ishgardians and earning their trust, then you kinda get dumped into the middle of the dragonsong war(which is where a lot of their distrust for outsiders comes from). You spent a patch or two helping out the doman refugees in their journey to find a home and get settled, then the current expansion takes you to doma. A lot of important things actually happen or get set up in the 2.x line, it just isnt all obvious or immediate.

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This! I dislike fetch quests and the back and forth tedium as much as the next person, but I think people forget, and/or don’t realize how much build up is in the ARR MSQ.

Just get through to HW - much better story. SB has way too many Japanese influences. I honestly didn’t feel like SB was final fantasy related in any way and this expansion could have done without the entire theme. SE tecmo called and wants the Ninja Gaiden theme back. Anyway, some of the gameplay is ok especially the delta and signascape routes. My two gill

I've found that if you play the main story quest with the outlook of constantly expecting the next level gain or big primal fight, yes it feels as fluffy with filler quests as it is. It's overflowing with fluff and fetch quests and can make things feel like a drag, and yet this is an improvement over the original FFXIV.

Alternatively, playing in the exact moment of whatever quest it is, shifting my focus to that exact story or motivation instead of anticipating the next big event or experience gain...I find myself having a wonderful time most of the time.

But thats me

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Originally Posted by BigolBrute

I came back to the game this weekend after being gone a few years. I just bought the new expansion and paid for a game sub (or course) I left off in the middle of patch 2.3 content at level 50.

Let me just say that getting through the 2.3 to 2.55 content to get to the expansion is one of the worst experiences I've had in an MMO. It is absolutely painful. So much fluff. So much pointless teleporting around. Very little combat or exploring the world.

The number of excruciatingly long and boring dialog cut-scenes is crazy! Usually voice acting denotes an important cut-scene, but not always. Sometimes, it's a meeting about politics and very dry.

The worst thing though is the quest structure. Go here, talk to person x, then go back to the Rising Stones. Over and over and over. Very tedious. This is an MMO, where is the combat? I did enjoy the fights with the Eidelons and the dungeons, I just wish there was more of that. I played about 10 hours Sunday, and about 2 of it was fun :(.

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While you may be a returning player I think you may have missed some points from the past.

Here are some points and hopefully will make more sense.

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Originally Posted by BigolBrute

Also, the quests revolving around talk to x people in an area or find x or a hidden object in an area. These are just awful and need to go. They are not fun imho, just lazy padding designed to waste your time, not be fun.

Am I the only person that was kind of glad they "killed off" (probably not actually dead) the Scions of the 7th dawn at the end of 2.55? I really enjoyed that ending story sequence, it was well done.

My point is that 2.3 to 2.55 is mostly fluff that was added to tide hardcore players over until the expansion came out. It is in dire need of trimming down all of the fluff. Also, I refuse to pay $18 to skip this, as I feel like the money I have already spent on this game should be going toward the devs making an enjoyable experience. I shouldn't have to pay extra to skip this.

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First for Heavens ward players wanted more options to level up beside dungeons and fate grinding. Hence the side quest. They were designed so that you were guaranteed one job to 60, and HQ gear without having to craft or go grind. Again an option. Some consider it fluff, some see it as feed back response.

Second; based on expansion feed back they leveled it to be friendly with other option in Stormblood. More options as well.

Third: New ways to level up have been introduced from Beastman tribes, to weekly crafting / gathering. By how I read your introduction seems that you were just too lazy to read trough the patch notes and just jumped into it -.-;

Lastly No matter how you look at it this genre of gaming will be fluffiness and repetitive no matter how much feed back we give. Look forward to it.

I agree that the teleporting back and forth thing is tedious and not very exciting. I don't really like games that make you go back and forth much and think of it as "filler" content or rather fake game time content. But I disagree and enjoyed the politics and other aspects of the quest-line to be interesting. It was like game of thrones in a sense, just not as well written but SE doesn't have the budget for that kind of production anyway. I've played many MMO's and FF14 is the one with the best story out of them in my opinion. I know there are people who don't care about the story or lore, just want to speed run dungeons, I'm not one of those people. But the story does keep getting better and better =)