NPC Following Quests - Overly complex don't we think?

So at this point these NPC Following quests where NPCs follow us are getting silly don't we think? At first I guess using a Crystal or Mount would lose the NPC and we would have to go back? So all the chitty chatty black boxes and warnings seemed necessary, But that seems to be fixed. Now we can Crystal and Mount all over the place without losing our NPC friends. Cool.

So why all the glowy circles and chitty chatty black boxes. How about we simplify this whole thing. No circles, just sparkly destinations. Like all the other quests with NPCs in the game. But instead of them just showing up at the destinations, they follow you. And if along the way, at any time, you feel like chatting with them they have something interesting to say. No [...] , no blue circles. Just have what they are going to say change along the way if you like.

At this point, aren't all these targets and circle animations just kind of silly? Let's just go back to the old way of showing quest targets and sometimes have the NPCs follow us. I Agree that's endrearing and immersive, but it sure does take me out of the immersion when all the glowy circles and black chat boxes show up.

Oh, and one more thing. How about if I use a Teleporter in a city, the NPC appears slightly later than me so I see them appear. Wouldn't that be cool and immersive? Looks like now they appear before I do so they are already there. So wouldn't it be better if I appear and then Woosh, they appear just after me.

And maybe if I'm not in a city and I use a mount, the NPC just mounts up on their ChocoChick and rides after me. Now they are willing the Sprint after me, so I would think that mounting them up would be no problem.

Just My Humble Opinion

Personally, I like them, and prefer how they are now. That and a large blue circle is easier to spot when you're sprinting past something, even if you're only half paying attention, than a small sparkly thing. The circle stands out more on most backgrounds than tiny white sparkles, but maybe that's just my eyesight. /shrug

The circles are your quest targets.

Also the game probably needs those defined talking-point circles to trigger the change in dialogue, and I certainly want them marked rather than to wander all over the map talking to my companions for the same dialogue over and over just to see if they say something different this time.

The one change I do want to see in the system is shifting the explanation to an active help window on the first instance instead of giving the same three boxes of system text every time someone joins you.

No if anything I want more of them in dungeons and npcs can voice their opinions of some detail in said dungeon would add a lot I think to npcs in dungeons.

The circles are fine. What's wrong with an obvious visual indicator?

I thought the NPC escort quest was kind of neat when I first got one.

By the end of Endwalker MSQ, I will admit that every time someone said we should go to a destination, I wanted to inwardly scream -- or breathe a sigh of relief if they then walked off on their own and faded away in the old manner.

Admittedly, this is because I was doing MSQ at launch, so anything -- accidentally ending up in water deep enough to swim, getting on a mount reflexively, using an aethernet shard, whatever -- would make you lose the NPC and have to go aaaaaaall the way back to the beginning and get them again. The changes make the system considerably less annoying.

(On the other hand, if when a certain grumpy NPC accompanies you to search for another NPC at a pivotal moment in the next-to-last zone, and specifically demands you not drag him through the water by a waterfall... his reaction if you do in fact cut across the water and then talk to him -- despite there being no glowy box there to trigger a different dialogue -- is priceless, and almost enough to justify all the annoyances of the system at launch.)

Don't you think your complaint about this is just silly?

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Originally Posted by YukiB

The circles are fine. What's wrong with an obvious visual indicator?

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We already have NPC following quests. Have had for years. They jsut disappear between WPs. which are sparkly destionations.
So why all the nonsense now that sometimes they walk along with you? Totally uncessary complexity and eye candy. Breaks immersion.

I actually prefer the escort system because it's more of a choice. If you just want to get to the end you can just run straight there (or wrap straight there) and be done with them. If you want to actually spend time with the character and have that extra dialogue (and gpose chances) then you can do that do. The "sparkly bread trail" just means you have to stop at every single point regardless of whether you are or not.

I do feel the 6.0 MSQ did have a few too many escort quests (and some people found them buggy with poor pathfinding) but I took that as more of the developers delighting in having a new toy to play with rather than an ongoing design choice.

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Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

Don't you think your complaint about this is just silly?

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Sure. But so is the Devs wasteing time on the eye candy. The whole NPC follow thing is a Gimmmick. So cool Let's have the gimmick without the eyecandy.

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Originally Posted by WindyGamer

We already have NPC following quests. Have had for years. They jsut disappear between WPs. which are sparkly destionations.
So why all the nonsense now that sometimes they walk along with you? Totally uncessary complexity and eye candy. Breaks immersion.

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On the contrary, I loved the fact that the characters were actually accompanying me rather than walking off and leaving me behind every time.

This is a game, I am here to be amused, and the eye candy is there to amuse me.

Yes, the follow quests are great. I wish there had been more following and optional side talk swirls in 6.1 MSQ and the role quest ending than there are.

Since they fixed it so you can't lose them as easily, I love them. I enjoyed them in 6.0 but that one part was annoying. They make the game feel like a real JRPG and there have been small improvements the past two expansion to do more and more of that.

I liked the part where I had to stalk a girl and pretend that was routine.

They're better for immersion and storytelling IMO.

I find most of the people that didn't like this new type of quest either played Endwalker right from the start of early access when the pathing was buggy and just about anything would cause you to lose the NPC and have to go back and find them, or they're people that just don't care about the 2 things I mentioned and are just trying to reach the end ASAP.

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Originally Posted by WindyGamer

Sure. But so is the Devs wasteing time on the eye candy. The whole NPC follow thing is a Gimmmick. So cool Let's have the gimmick without the eyecandy.

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What's easier to find, a clear visual indicator with a glowing circle and ... speech bubble indicating the NPC has special but optional dialogue at that location, or some sparklies at a place that is decidedly not the quest destination?

Also, waste time on it? They already made it. It would take more time to REMOVE it like you suggest. You might argue it was never worth the time to develop it in the first place, and I'd probably agree with you, but that ship has sailed.

I wish they went on a totally different path with this : you chose a NPC to follow you and it stay until you or it chose to part way (for story reason), with it you could do quest/fate and having it comment on what you are doing, res you and make fun of you if you die or be compassionate depending on the NPC etc etc ...

Basically a chocobo 2.0 that you could have with you everywhere and giving more spice to your adventure.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

On the contrary, I loved the fact that the characters were actually accompanying me rather than walking off and leaving me behind every time.

This is a game, I am here to be amused, and the eye candy is there to amuse me.

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Just to be clear. I'm not dissing the current scheme of the NPCs actually following you. I'm just pointing out that now that you can use a Crystal and Mounts if outside cities, we don't need the circles and black warning boxes. Just have the NPCs follow you. Great. I agree that NPCs following is cool.

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Originally Posted by Syln

I wish they went on a totally different path with this : you chose a NPC to follow you and it stay until you or it chose to part way (for story reason), with it you could do quest/fate and having it comment on what you are doing, res you and make fun of you if you die or be compassionate depending on the NPC etc etc ...

Basically a chocobo 2.0 that you could have with you everywhere and giving more spice to your adventure.

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This sounds super. A change to the gameplay rather than just a visual change.

I like the circles since it makes it easy to tell where you need to go to get some interesting dialogue. I don’t think it was necessary for the game to tell me how NPCs following me works every time they join up though. Once the first time it happened at the beginning of the expansion was fine but afterwards it seemed pretty repetitive. I’m fine with the way the gimmick works on the whole though.

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Originally Posted by WindyGamer

Sure. But so is the Devs wasteing time on the eye candy. The whole NPC follow thing is a Gimmmick. So cool Let's have the gimmick without the eyecandy.

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It's fun. It's less boring that talking to an npc they run off and you go meet them somewhere else. It's a lot more immersive you feel like they are part of your game.

I don't think they're really complex.

The sort of... gamey aspects of it are kinda funny, though, like the fact that you have to go to these really obviously demarcated circles to stand on and have the character comment on something.Another one that cracks me up is the fact that when a character follows you, you get this notification with a feel that goes "Y'SHTOLA IS NOW FOLLOWING YOU. IF YOU DO [X] OR [Y] ACTION SHE WILL DISAPPEAR. FAILURE TO COMPLY WITHIN 10 SECONDS WILL RESULT IN SPONTANEOUS SERVER EXFILTRATION."

Y'know, things that make you go "wow this sure is a video game" lol.

I enjoyed them especially on a first play through where you couldn't use a Crystal to hop from place to place. I also like the visual markers on the screen and on the map. Some of those areas give out nice little lore tidbits on certain areas, things and ideas.

I like them a lot. It's nice to engage the stuff I'm doing. It's why I like this game tbh. Feels nice.

Complex is not quite the word. More like... needlessly laborious padding.

At first I thought your party was going to walk around in a single file during certain moments, like a old school RPG, but the final implementation was more awkward than anticipated.

Main questing is already devoid of meaningful gameplay, save the dungeon runs and solo instances, so I would prefer them to just drop the pretense and cinematic me to wherever you need me to go.