Personally not enjoying the story currently but everyone keeps saying it gets better

So i just finished stormblood and personally im not enjoying the story currently. a lot of people say that Shadow Bringers is where it get really good but they said that with the other expansions as well. im just wondering if it does get any better or at least the pacing will be a little faster because im only now realizing how slow everything is going.

I am very thoroughly enjoying the gameplay though with the raids and dungeons and the sorts. doing that is really fun and is part of the game that makes me keep going.

edit: this is a personal opinion and i genuinely curious. i dont/didnt intend to offend anyone in anyway. and also i replied back on this thread

In my opinion, Shadowbringers is/was the peak of FF XIV's story telling. So yeah, it does (in my opinion) get better.

Not every story is for everyone. For me, Stormblood was still a good expansion on its own merits, but it wasn't as good as either expansion before or after it. I enjoyed Endwalker as well, although ShB and Endwalker had HUGE amounts of lore to assimilate along the way.

Only you can decide what's enjoyable for you, I guess.

Depends on why you didn't enjoy it. Did you not enjoy the pacing and way the story is told? Because that does not change at all, ever. Did you not like the actual plot? Because that does get better, though it's a matter of personal opinion of course.

When people say '' it gets better '' they mean the jump from ARR to Heavensward. If you didn't like Heavensward, there's very little chance you'll like anything that comes after, anything that'll justify your time spent on it that is.

The FFXIV story is a lot of text along with NPCs vigorously nodding in agreement. A certain handful of characters in Shadowbringers just have the best dialog text and the most vigorous nodding compared to other expansions. It's like a good portion of any of the other single-player Final Fantasies (all of which have a better overall story than this one).

It really gets better at the very end, though, where you don't have to do it anymore and can actually play the five hours of endgame content that we have.

It would have been helpful if you had told us what parts of Stormblood and Heavensward you didn't enjoy and any that you did. Enjoyment is subjective. Many didn't enjoy 4.0 as they didn't like the story split or forgot why you went to Othard. Some didn't enjoy the political aspects. Some only enjoyed the post expansion stuff. Same with Heavensward where some didn't like 3.0 but really liked the post expansion stuff. Then there are those who don't like the main story line stuff but throughly love the side quest stories.

Honestly it might just not be for you. Not trying to run you off or anything, just saying that you might not find what you're looking for enjoyment-wise since I don't feel the game will ever meet your expectations.

I love this game, I just know that nothing clicks for everyone. So don't feel like you need to force yourself to like every aspect of the game or even most. Just enjoy what you do like and spend minimal time doing what you don't where possible. Life is short.

I played on and off since 2013, and I like the story overall, but the length, slow pace, and amount of padding makes it difficult for me to recommend this game to anyone at this point in its lifespan, so I understand where you are coming from.

For me it’s the constant stream of small cutscenes with your character that makes things take longer than they need to and contributes to the slow pace. I am not sure what they plan for the next decade, but if it continues in the same style, then I feel bad for new players and don’t blame them for not sticking with it.

Depends on what you like, personally I really enjoyed Heavensward and found the pacing in Stormblood less to my liking, then again I really liked Shadowbringers and found Endwalker not as well done. However I did like all of them.

However, i enjoy playing a story-driven game, it's a core element of the game and I don't rush through it. I want to read the dialogue and go through the cutscenes, and I don't feel pressured or anxious if I haven't completed a patch within a specific period when it is released.

If you aren't enjoying the story as of that point I don't see it "clicking" for you later. You can either skip the story bits if you just like the gameplay but of you also don't enjoy that then it's perfectly ok to quit.

The game just might not be for you.

The funny thing is that to a lot of people Heavensward was supposed to be the hook that catches you after going through ARR. Me personally I thought ARR was fine with the story scaling upwards starting from post-ARR.

But if you somehow didnt find the meme worthy critically acclaimed story of Heavensward, then youll most likely not enjoy Shadowbringers at all. It heavily relies on your attention to whats come before in terms of conflict and parallels, by itself its just an average story without 1.0, ARR, HW and SB to back it up.

Its honestly fine to just story skip and focus on the gameplay if thats what you prefer. Theres quite a few people that have done so while still enjoying what they like to engage with this game.

if you haven't been liking the stuff up to stormblood, this game might just not be for you sadly.
But, the story does improve in shadowbringers. Whether that'd be to your liking or not though, no one knows

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Originally Posted by hagare

if you haven't been liking the stuff up to stormblood, this game might just not be for you sadly.
But, the story does improve in shadowbringers. Whether that'd be to your liking or not though, no one knows

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Well the thing is, the story is constantly improving on itself. Sure it has its snags here and there within every expansion, but I think its kinda detrimental on trying to sell a new player that the game's story only gets important in Shadowbringers. Thats stupidly disingenous and its another reason why I feel that expansion is too overrated.

The point of FFXIV' story is that you find something that you found interesting or engaging even if its little right from the beginning in ARR. Whether its the world, the lore, the characters and the conflicts you go through. Its honestly why HW sells hard for people because it makes all those smaller moments previously matter and pay off.

Anyway obviously this take of mine is one of many for a lot of people and understandably not everyone feels the same way with this games story. Just wanted to give my 2 cents on the matter

Disregard the story. Acquire glamour.

Liked ARR, didn't like HW with pervy elves and emo dragons, liked Stormblood, Shadowbringers was best, Endwalker was fine.

Did you enjoy Heavensward? Legit curious.

Stormblood is... ok for what it is, but I have a lot of issues with it. In trying to split the story between Doma and Ala Mhigo, both feel rushed. Lyse was meant to be the focus, but she gets buried beneath other characters. The whole Ala Mhigo section of the story never did anything for me, and Hien bothers me. Stormblood has a lot of World Building, but its characters suffer imho. If you enjoyed Heavensward, you'll really enjoy ShB/EW. If you thought HW was ok, then you should at least still enjoy ShB and EW.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

If you aren't enjoying the story as of that point I don't see it "clicking" for you later. You can either skip the story bits if you just like the gameplay but of you also don't enjoy that then it's perfectly ok to quit.

The game story just might not be for you.

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Slight correction. They said they were having fun with the gameplay so I wouldn't be so quick to show them the door. It's perfectly fine to not like the story but still enjoy the game as a whole.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of MSQ for many, many reasons, but I'm still here all these years later still spending money on a game whose story I generally dislike.

Now if story IS a massive deal to someone and they've not liked it up to the half-way point in the game, and they also dislike the actual gameplay, they may need to sit down with themselves to decide if they want to continue XIV. But that doesn't sound like the boat OP is in at this point.

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Originally Posted by hagare

if you haven't been liking the stuff up to stormblood, this game might just not be for you sadly.
But, the story does improve in shadowbringers. Whether that'd be to your liking or not though, no one knows

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To me, ARR-SB Story were all pretty bad outside of maybe 1-2 hours for each expac. Also not counting the Trials themselves. I did typically enjoy the story for Alliance/Raid though.

It wasn't until Shadowbringers that I actually started to enjoy base MSQ, and I've been playing since 1.0. :eek:

The pacing probably feels slow because this is a rather lengthy story that's been told over the past 10 years. Take some breaks if you need to. Worry less about other people's opinions of the story because they really don't matter. Tune people out as much as you need to and just play through it. There are payoffs at different points and especially towards the end.

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Originally Posted by Poporito_Popoto

Liked ARR, didn't like HW with pervy elves and emo dragons, liked Stormblood, Shadowbringers was best, Endwalker was fine.

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You go somewhere with that those pervy elves are best and those Emo dragons will eat u lol

Personally, I even enjoyed ARR. There are plenty of people who do as well. But ARR isn't for everyone, and usually Heavensward is where people start to like it a lot. If you don't, then maybe it's not for you.

It could also be your approach to it. If you skip all the unvoiced interaction, then you skip some of the bond forming between other characters and yourself.

If you are in a rush to get to 90 and not taking your time, then it can feel like a chore. If you stop seeing the story as an obstacle and just enjoy the journey through it however many months it takes, it's easier to take it in.

But some people are just not story people and wouldn't go to see Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter either. Or they have friends who are max level and want them to join them for raids as soon as possible. If it's really not for you, you can always skip through it and replay it later with New Game+ if you change your mind, but by then you will have spoiled some story events for yourself, what future areas look like and all the dungeons, trials and bosses which are characters in the story.

As someone who loved Heavensward to then be completely disappointed with the Stormblood story, to the point of taking a break from the game, I would say it gets a lot better with the Shadowbringers prepatch and its main story.
Funny how I disliked the story of Stormblood but came to absolutely love its content instead, like Eureka, Deep Dungeon, glamour, and certain dungeons/Extremes/Omega.

I'm currently having the same issue with Endwalker's story, of being really meh but hoping for its content to deliver in some areas at least, like we are finally getting a new Deep Dungeon soon! And also the Alliance raid so far has been phenomenal, Extremes been enjoyable, while Island Sanctuary and Criterion have been complete duds.

Stormblood story really had some glaring issues with pacing and some of its story just being a mindboggling mess of an affair. I sometimes wonder why they chose to change Yda into Lyse, and propel her infront of someone else, like say, Raubahn? Raubahn seemed like the perfect character to venture into all of Stormblood to reclaim it and come to terms with his own views and Ilberd's points of views and his clear anguish leading to his down maniac actions and death. Could have been an amazing retread of Raubahn's past, with some better threads between him and the villains, past and present, it could have been a very interesting path of reclamation and reflection.
Not to mention that Gosetsu and Tsuyu could have been so much more, within the main story arc as well.

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Originally Posted by twenty2

So i just finished stormblood and personally im not enjoying the story currently.

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No worries, many didn't liked the end of Stormblood.
It's considered the "worst" expansion for many.

It's not bad, it just wasn't up to Heavensward.

If you liked Heavensward then yes, you'll enjoy what comes next.

For me shadowbringers is where ffxiv “jumped the shark”. Up to stormblood the story is mostly grounded in national politics and warring factions with an evil shadow organisation pulling the strings. There’s a few fantasy elements like heavensward being about dragons but you could replace the dragons with people and it wouldn’t change much.

Then in shadowbringers

suddenly you’re pulled into another dimension for a huge lore dump on what the evil shadow organisation is and find out about ffxiv’s multiverse theory and then in endwalker you fight space ghosts on the moon.

What I’m saying is, the last 2 expansions are very different to the base game and first 2. If you didn’t like those then maybe what comes after will be more up your alley.

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Originally Posted by Moebious

Stormblood story really had some glaring issues with pacing and some of its story just being a mindboggling mess of an affair.

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If it were a lot of other game developers, you would probably walk up to someone and say "hey, wanna liberate this place from the garleans?" and they would say "sure" and then you'd go to war and win, instead of drawing it out over an expansion.

I was really happy that they chose to be realistic and make the story about how it's not as simple as that and how people are afraid that if they fail, they will be thrown in jail and lose everything. It's like that in real life. If you were to go to your government's main building and try to revolt, you would probably be thrown in jail and lose everything. It's a huge risk and that's why people don't usually dare, unless they feel the odds are in their favor like in 2010-2012 or they have nothing to lose anymore.

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I sometimes wonder why they chose to change Yda into Lyse

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Character development. All of the scions were bland and samey, so they had them all disappear in ARR and return with unique injuries and characteristics that make them unique, such as Thancred being unable to use magic, Y'shtola being blind and using her magic to see aether and Urianger's frequent change of attire. When Yda returned, she needed a similar change as well, so they made her passionate about Ala Mhigo.

The timing seemed like they were explaining the voice actor changes. They did this for main characters when they weren't able to do a similar voice, such as when Yugiri removes the mouth mask or when Yda stops pretending to be someone she's not. Alphinaud changes a lot and although that wasn't explained, you can try to imagine that his voice was breaking.

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and propel her infront of someone else, like say, Raubahn?

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I don't believe that she is propelled in front of Raubahn. They probably just wanted her to get some character development out of it.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Well the thing is, the story is constantly improving on itself. Sure it has its snags here and there within every expansion, but I think its kinda detrimental on trying to sell a new player that the game's story only gets important in Shadowbringers. Thats stupidly disingenous and its another reason why I feel that expansion is too overrated.

The point of FFXIV' story is that you find something that you found interesting or engaging even if its little right from the beginning in ARR. Whether its the world, the lore, the characters and the conflicts you go through. Its honestly why HW sells hard for people because it makes all those smaller moments previously matter and pay off.

Anyway obviously this take of mine is one of many for a lot of people and understandably not everyone feels the same way with this games story. Just wanted to give my 2 cents on the matter

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that's why I didn't say the story only gets important in shadowbringers. That's on you.
I only said it improves. Which does not mean the previous expansions are bad.
And which is why I said the game might not be for him if he hasn't been enjoying it up to stormblood.

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Originally Posted by hagare

that's why I didn't say the story only gets important in shadowbringers. That's on you.
I only said it improves. Which does not mean the previous expansions are bad.
And which is why I said the game might not be for him if he hasn't been enjoying it up to stormblood.

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Its just a weird thing to say that it gets better in Shadowbringers. Its already getting better so it feels like youre saying the story is crap until Shadowbringers when youre trying to sell somebody on its plot.

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Originally Posted by twenty2

So i just finished stormblood and personally im not enjoying the story currently. a lot of people say that Shadow Bringers is where it get really good but they said that with the other expansions as well. im just wondering if it does get any better or at least the pacing will be a little faster because im only now realizing how slow everything is going.

I am very thoroughly enjoying the gameplay though with the raids and dungeons and the sorts. doing that is really fun and is part of the game that makes me keep going.

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Not everyone has to enjoy the story, people have different tastes and that is alright. If you don't like it you don't like it, that is ok and totally valid.

What is not alright is just rubbing your own opinion (not saying you do that here) in other peoples faces. And that goes both ways. If you like the story then great, share your enthusiasm for it with others that like the story too and don't try to convert others who don't like it. The other side of the coin is the same, if you hate the story then great. Rage about it with those who also dislike it and don't try to convince people who like it that it is in truth shit.

Fact is that both sides can be intentionally kupoholes cause people always try to convince others that they are in fact right, when there is actually no right and wrong when it comes to subjective taste.

When people say FFXIV has a good story, they mean in comparison to other MMOs, where the bar is so low you basically have to pick it up off the ground.

Compared to other games, or other mediums at all really, the story told in FFXIV is nothing special. Very anime trope-y, lots of padding/filler, ect.

Fun fact: everyone likes different things. I liked Stormblood and Endwalker more than Shadowbringers, lol. :D
If you don't like it, you don't like it. There are many other things to enjoy in XIV besides the story!

If you've not enjoyed the story thus far, you might not enjoy ShB. It builds on previous knowledge, and while yes it has a new writer, it might not be for you because it builds on previous knowledge.

Honestly though, not everyone is going to enjoy the story and that's okay. Just uh, don't be that d-bag who goes around huehue-ing about how little they enjoyed the story and how much better that makes them than everyone else.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

When people say FFXIV has a good story, they mean in comparison to other MMOs, where the bar is so low you basically have to pick it up off the ground.

Compared to other games, or other mediums at all really, the story told in FFXIV is nothing special. Very anime trope-y, lots of padding/filler, ect.

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Please don't claim to speak for other people, because then you go into the realm of just saying things that are flat-out false.

Take me. I've loved the FFXIV story. And that's not just "in comparison to other MMOs." That's compared to anything. I've thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I get confused when I see the whole "ARR is bad and it gets better in HW," because frankly I felt ARR was great. I've been invested in it from the beginning. Perhaps it's because I'm a long-time fan of the FF series in general (and particularly the earlier games). Maybe it's because FF6 is my favorites game of the series and I saw a huge connection between the Garlean Empire and Gestahl's Empire from FF6. I don't know - what I do know is that I've been hooked from the start.

The biggest thing is just being aware that we're all offering opinions, and nothing more. That I really enjoyed ARR doesn't make it objectively "good"; it just means it appealed to me personally. Likewise, if the next person to post here found ARR wasn't appealing - that's perfectly fine...it just doesn't mean that ARR was objectively "bad" - it's their own personal opinion, nothing more.

The issue is too many people - and on this forum, it's predominantly the naysayers - trying to masquerade their opinions as if they're facts. Which they're not. At all. Such as your own comment about the story being "nothing special." Why claim it as if it's a fact? It's not. It's your personal thought, and nothing more. You can go to one single YT video and find hundreds of people on that one video alone talking about how meaningful and special the FFXIV story was for them. That doesn't make it objectively "special", either - it's their own opinions, nothing more. The difference I've found is that the people who have enjoyed the story tend to be more willing in their commentary to express their thoughts as opinions, while the detractors have a greater tendency to act as if they are some sort of majestic arbiters of what is "good" or "bad." Just give your opinion. That's all we have.

I could have fallen asleep throughout Stormblood, Shadowbringers was a really really good surprise.

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

I could have fallen asleep throughout Stormblood, Shadowbringers was a really really good surprise.

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Shadowbringers smells

Just remember that 'story' is subjective for everyone . If you like it, great. (I liked most of it.) If you don't, great. Just don't start thinking because you didn't like some part of it, that you're suddenly the voice of some 'majority'. I don't claim to be that, either.

I also see complaints about story from people who think every MMO should be a speedrun from start to endgame. If that's what you're looking for, you're probably playing the wrong MMO with FFXIV.

YMMV.

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

I could have fallen asleep throughout Stormblood, Shadowbringers was a really really good surprise.

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I'm a big fan of anyone who likes to solve things with punching it. So I really liked Lyse. I just hated what they did with her though.

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Originally Posted by Striker44

Please don't claim to speak for other people

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No, actually I think I will. I'm going to speak out on behalf of the vast majority of gamers and the majority of MMO players who don't care to play this game. Here's some facts: Final Fantasy XIV is a video game. It's not among the most popular online video games. In fact, it's not even the most played MMO. It's not the most played JRPG. It's not the most well-received JRPG (Endwalker is #70). It's not the most-watched video game, JRPG, or MMO on YouTube. If we define "the best" as one which excels in any of these categories, then FFXIV is most definitely not it. Why not? Games with a good story have sold more. Games with better gameplay have sold more. World of Warcraft had far more enduring popularity than our game.

These aren't to say that FFXIV is a bad game. But I hope this can humble some of the FFXIV acolytes who come rushing to defend our game whenever something benign (like the post you quoted) is posted online.

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Originally Posted by caffe_macchiato

No, actually I think I will. I'm going to speak out on behalf of the vast majority of gamers and the majority of MMO players who don't care to play this game. Here's some facts: Final Fantasy XIV is a video game. It's not among the most popular online video games. In fact, it's not even the most played MMO. It's not the most played JRPG. It's not the most well-received JRPG (Endwalker is #70). It's not the most-watched video game, JRPG, or MMO on YouTube. If we define "the best" as one which excels in any of these categories, then FFXIV is most definitely not it. Why not? Games with a good story have sold more. Games with better gameplay have sold more. World of Warcraft had far more enduring popularity than our game.

These aren't to say that FFXIV is a bad game. But I hope this can humble some of the FFXIV acolytes who come rushing to defend our game whenever something benign (like the post you quoted) is posted online.

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What the user was replying to was a completely false, inaccurate statement made by another user who claimed '' when people say that the story is good, they meant only by MMO standards '' as if everyone has come to the agreement that FFXIV's story is shit if it's actually compared to REAL games or something dumb like that. That is why the user replied that it's an inaccurate statement and made a point on how people on these forum speak of their opinions as if they were true facts. They also make a completely rational statement that their good experience and feelings regarding the story and the game aren't factual either, merely opinions as well.

I'm not sure what exactly prompted you to make a comment like this to a pretty sensible commentary on another users way of posting their opinions.

EDIT: Also funny you posted Endwalker's metacritic score, where the game ranks up with some of the greatest RPGs of all time. Not only that but Endwalker isn't really at #70. There is one game in 98 MC, one game in 97 MC, 4 games at 96 MC, 6 games at 95 MC, 19 games at 94 MC, 21 games at 93MC and and 25 games at 92 MC, so really it is tied at 7th place. And when it comes userscore, a much more important metric, Endwalker, Shadowbringers and Heavensward are tied at 5th place.

So if you are posting metacritic scores to prove something, idk. Metacritic scores as well as twitch views and the like are only vague metrics of a game's popularity and quality in the end.

It's all up to personal taste, I thought Shadowbringers story was really good. And I thought Endwalker after that had a horrible story.