this game is NOT friendly for those who return after long absence

[Pulsahr]

This design "everything is locked behind main story" is good for hardcore players who wants to "get rid of the cutscene BS" to go grind uber stuff (that's exagarated I know, but you get the idea).

I'm not this kind of guy ! I'm not here to play a grind game, I don't want to rush story to be able to do everything else !
I'm here to enjoy a great story, and gather, and craft, and prepare myself at my own pace.
But I can't. I need to rush the MS to access everything else.

That's not cool. That's not entertaing for me when I'm forced to do what I love the most to be able to do other things.
It's like being forced to eat my favorite dessert before I even start the full dinner.

You lost a player SE, goodbye.

(3/3)

[Tamlin]

This design "everything is locked behind main story" is good for hardcore players who wants to "get rid of the cutscene BS" to go grind uber stuff (that's exagarated I know, but you get the idea).

I'm not this kind of guy ! I'm not here to play a grind game, I don't want to rush story to be able to do everything else !
I'm here to enjoy a great story, and gather, and craft, and prepare myself at my own pace.
But I can't. I need to rush the MS to access everything else.

That's not cool. That's not entertaing for me when I'm forced to do what I love the most to be able to do other things.
It's like being forced to eat my favorite dessert before I even start the full dinner.

You lost a player SE, goodbye.

(3/3)

You say you don't want to play a grind game? IMO, the oposite of that would be a story-driven game, which is what FFXIV is.
Not wanting to grind, but complain that you have to go through the MSQ to be able to grind the new gathering points...

I can understand that people don't like the gates that MSQ is. On the other hand: If I entered HW areas without having the prior MSQ completed, or came to a new area within HW-areas without the pre-req's, I would have felt somewhat confused I think, as the story then wouldn't have made sense at all.

When it comes to be able to craft gear to be able to process through the story: The materials needed for crafting up to lvl 52-53 is from the first area you get to in HW, which only requires you to get out of Ishgard in the first place. After that, you can gather the lvl 50 nodes for mats needed for 50-52 gear. As soon as you get 51 BTN and MIN, you unlock the 55 nodes which gives you mats to craft even more. Then when you unlock churning mists and get flying there, you get the last remainig mats to craft gear up to lvl 56-57 (iirc). So basically you can get your crafts and gathering classes up to lvl 55+ (heck, even up to 60 if you don't mind grinding exp on mats that gives less exp when you advance). And if you only keep to the MSQ, you will have unlocked the areas for the mats needed for higher crafts as you're reaching that lvl in the first place.

So there's a reason behind it, and I think all the gates are perfectly placed, but it still gives you decent enough freedom without turning the game into a sandbox-game.