What is the story the quests are trying to tell?

[Bombast]

I haven't atempted leviathan yet because I find the quest line to be an obstacle to game play rather than enriching it

Why on Earth would you choose a FF MMO to play if that's your opinion?

That's like playing a Bioware game and being annoyed by side quest and character development.

[Rex]

Why on Earth would you choose a FF MMO to play if that's your opinion?

That's like playing a Bioware game and being annoyed by side quest and character development.

That's like playing call of duty and hating first person shooters

And Simaril, define "enriching" because by your description, most MMO's "story" would be considered an obstacle then.

It's not a race. Enjoy the game. Because I have a feeling you'd be one of those people who rush through everything to get to end game and then complain there's not enough content because you blew through it all in a week.

[gornotck]

Basically the solution to this "problem" and all the people who have this so-called "problem" is, and always will be, unskippable cutscenes that you can't speed up or skip the text to. Possibly a secondary solution would be people not coming into 'literature' expecting a coloring book's level of entertainment value.

[Nana_Balthazar]

Don't worry OP, you're not missing that much.
And, as you noticed, FFXIV totally fail on the "show, don't tell" part, with its overdose of dialogues and botched cut-scenes.
The NPC in FFXIV aren't characters. They don't speak naturally like normal people. They're a bunch of soulless narrators, dictating the story to the player.
Also, quests are made to be short and to allow the player to understand them after a break, thus there are many quests and each quest starts with a summary of the previous one, weighing the narration down even more.
So it's totally understandable you don't want to read the text.

[Ilitsa]

Don't worry OP, you're not missing that much.
And, as you noticed, FFXIV totally fail on the "show, don't tell" part, with its overdose of dialogues and botched cut-scenes.
The NPC in FFXIV aren't characters. They don't speak naturally like normal people. They're a bunch of soulless narrators, dictating the story to the player.
Also, quests are made to be short and to allow the player to understand them after a break, thus there are many quests and each quest starts with a summary of the previous one, weighing the narration down even more.
So it's totally understandable you don't want to read the text.

Really? We must have played two different "A Realm Reborn" games then, cuz I didn't experience any of this. At all.

IMO, the story is rather strong. I remember playing through it and being like "Holy shit, this doesn't feel like an MMO, this is like a standard single player FF game!" it kept me drawn in, and when I hit the parts of the story that I had to raise my level to continue, I was actually upset, cuz I didn't want to stop! In the end, the game is what you make it to be. if you let yourself enjoy the story and get into the characters, it will be great, if you go into it all jaded and expecting absolute crap, that's what you'll see.

[Almalexia]

So it's totally understandable you don't want to read the text.

It's the text I enjoy. I can make it sound natural in my head. But hired VA do not live in my head, so it comes off as stilted and unnatural when read aloud. For example, Urianger is written a certain way that can only be captured by maybe four of the most skilled actors in the entire industry. Anybody else sounds like a high school drama student reading a translation of Beowulf. Most of the cast sound like amateurs.

That said, I'm disappointed OP wouldn't want to read the text as the localization team does a first-rate job on this stuff.

[Simaril]

Don't worry OP, you're not missing that much.
And, as you noticed, FFXIV totally fail on the "show, don't tell" part, with its overdose of dialogues and botched cut-scenes.
The NPC in FFXIV aren't characters. They don't speak naturally like normal people. They're a bunch of soulless narrators, dictating the story to the player.
Also, quests are made to be short and to allow the player to understand them after a break, thus there are many quests and each quest starts with a summary of the previous one, weighing the narration down even more.
So it's totally understandable you don't want to read the text.

This is sort of what I was getting at...

I want to care about the story like I have in other FF games and other MMOs, but this story has been very dense and hard to get in to. The way the story has developed has been like reading an encyclopedia rather than something entertaining that I want to read and understand.

[Simaril]

That said, I'm disappointed OP wouldn't want to read the text as the localization team does a first-rate job on this stuff.

I half agree... I think if you took the text and made a novel out of it, it might be really good. But short scenes spread out over a long period of game play are hard/impossible to follow. Imagine reading one page of LOTR once a week... you'd always be lost, and never be able to get into it.

I'm perfectly willing to accept that the way I play the game is part of the problem, but it seems like it would be a problem for anyone more casual than me, and also the people who want to push through progression quickly. It seems like the remaining target audience is incredibly small. And again, previous FF games have had plots/characters/settings that were rich and easy to follow and enjoy - I wanted to advance the plot and see what happens more than I wanted to get to the net bunch of content/challanges.

[givemeraptors]

I will say, the sideplots and world-building as well as some of the class/job quests are much more enjoyable than the main storyline. If all you're looking at is the Main Scenario, you're missing a lot of good stuff.

[Kabooa]

Story basics: "You're the god damned Batman of Light."

This story basic will basically be the foundation of the entire story until the game shuts down. MMOs do not have an end.

The several hour storyline of Leviathan is about as entertaining as slamming my head into the wall. You aren't required for most of it, and you, despite everyone saying "i'm sorry, someone else should really do this", are basically an errand person.

Go here.
Watch me talk.
Bring me soup.
Watch me talk.
Follow me here and watch me talk.
Nod your head.
Nod your head.
Watch me talk.
Go talk to the funniest Roe in the land.
Watch me talk.
Watch everyone else be awesome but you.
Watch me talk.
Watch us plan.

And so forth.