MSQ Meridianum + Praetorium: A self-imposed dilemma

[Phydeaux]

I like you. I wish more people would realize the truth in this statement right here.

Also: You can re-watch cutscenes in the inn room.

You, on the other hand, are unlikeable.

The "truth" you speak of is nil. People going through stuff on their first time do have the right to watch the cutscenes - this right is non-negotiable. Who says? Common sense, empathy, a minimum of "human" dignity, things like that.

If folks that talk like you like playing on a calculator mashing the buttons to make numbers pop, cool, it is their right - but do not ignore there's a story aspect in the game. These people with your mindset are getting extra tomes already - don't try to make others miserable as a plus for enjoyment.

[Auxilio]

Let's not bother about that individual player..

To OP: I was in your position once, but I am not sure if I consider myself lucky or not...

Being totally new, I went through Castrum / Preatorium without knowing there would be THAT many cutscenes, and long ones in fact. And since I enjoyed the story too, I was practically doing nothing the whole fight and just watching cutscene after cutscene as the other 7 members rushed through it. While I didnt get kicked.. I later realized some cutscenes were skipped due to the progress of the team being too far ahead, I saw them eventually when going through the 2nd time but it just felt a little different.

When new players go through this, it helps to have the cutscenes have some relevancy with regards to the battle (eg. approaching an area and speaking to people) instead of me standing at the area where the first cutscene was and POOF another cutscene from the next room.. finish that and POOF another cutscene from 429502462464 rooms later which I had no idea what was going on there to trigger the cutscene. Sad that I didnt enjoy this process but oh well, it's been done.. I went to youtube to see it properly :/

I hope you find a nice group to do it with soon ^^

[Lucke]

snip

I'm writing this post before I read the rest of this thread so I can keep what I want to say fresh in my head. Forgive me if I reiterate some points.


-If you are going in as PLD: don't worry too much. People outgear this place so much (even with level sync) it can be solo tanked for the most part.
- If you watch CSes, you probably won't be able to experience any fights the first time through since everyone (for the most part) is in "Gotta go fast!" mode.
- Do not let punks tell you to skip CSes. Some can't be seen in the inn room for whatever reason. Fight that peer pressure. Again, no offense, but if people wanna charge ahead, let them.
- 2nd time through the dungeon(s), you'll skip the CSes and actually get to participate in the bosses! Don't worry about any strats as I pointed out, most people outgear this place so much, the strat is the same for every boss, which is: Brute force it down.
- This dungeon is really bad if you succumb to peer pressure. Again, if the group is giving you grief F*** 'em and tell them to go on ahead.
- Thankfully SE learned their lesson here. These last 2 MSQ dungeons are the only dungeons with CSes midway through.

[Shiki_Lockhart]

You like to get immersed in the history, well so I. If I were in your shoes I wouldn't care and still watch them. The difference as first timer is:

If you want to watch then do it, but you will end not being part in any fight or get lost. If that happen don't worry, enjoy the cutscene because later on the road will be your turn running them through roulettes and at that time you will enjoy those fights.

What I said for those cases applies to all content. If you like to read the story and watch cutscene do them because like others guys are saying to skip and watch in the INN are forgetting small details.

First, the cutscenes are divided in 2 categories so you cant watch whole dungeon in one go due them being in main scenario and dungeon categories. You need to watch ones then watch others.

Second, some cases there are cutscenes that will not be in the INN so if you skip, you are fucked up.

[Altena]

Not sure if you found your PF but I have a suggestion for you..

There are a lot of people doing their Anima quest chains at the moment..
Do a shout / put up PF that they will have a "First time bonus".. People will generally jump on that.
Just put in the condition that you wish to watch all of the cutscenes, and ask politely if they will hold off on pulling the bosses until you're out of them.

Pretty certain you will be able to find 7 other people willing to do that - especially if you highlight the "first time bonus".

[Colt47]

Yeah, this is one of those situations where eventually the majority of players that put time into the game have passed a specific point and, due to how the developers try to keep the stuff even doable via dungeon queue, are sticking players that are there simply for the keys to the castle while someone else hasn't even gotten through the vineyards in the far off hills yet. If people are wondering what I mean by the previous statement, the game has a plethora of content that players can do, but only has about 5% of that content being relevant at any one point to people playing. In the case of older dungeons, most players are only after the dungeon queue bonus and care little for the content anymore.

Basically, it's the typical themepark MMORPG content heat death cycle. Only in this case SE went overboard on cutscenes without realizing that no one would have time to look at it in context this far after launch. They might as well time lock some cutscene stuff and just have the time lock stuff get unlocked for people to view in the inn.

People would have a lot more time to enjoy this game if they didn't have to spend so much time getting to cap on gear. There's a lot of horizontal progression in the game so there's very little reason to have to produce overly grindy systems to increase ones item level in a vertical fashion like in the days of old.

[Mkei]

No luck last night, as FC was mostly offline, but the weekend is still young. I'll have more time to try again tomorrow and Monday.

[Belhi]

No luck last night, as FC was mostly offline, but the weekend is still young. I'll have more time to try again tomorrow and Monday.

Hang in there. Its worth doing properly.

Do remember, if you have a few FC members willing to help you can do it Unsynced and so do it with less members. That's what my FC does sometimes for new players who want to see the cutscenes. It can trivialise some of the fights but generally they are very easy anyway so you won't be losing much.

[alimdia]

You, on the other hand, are unlikeable.

Can we not have this argument every single time a thread like this appears? After all this time I thought people would realize neither side is going to change their mind and we need to "agree to disagree" here, in the end neither side will be able to impose their view to the rest of the party so majority will always win, and I've seen each side being majority in different scenarios. Let it go.

[Lithe]

Can we not have this argument every single time a thread like this appears? After all this time I thought people would realize neither side is going to change their mind and we need to "agree to disagree" here, in the end neither side will be able to impose their view to the rest of the party so majority will always win, and I've seen each side being majority in different scenarios. Let it go.

This please! I wish we could just put an end to these threads to begin with. I skipped the cs going in the 1st time and watched later at the inn. You aren't really missing anything by skipping. Just saying.