For stormblood do you want the gated conten path of hw, or the free roam path of arr?

[bswpayton]

So this is just a question on peoples opinion not exactly another storm blood thread at least not intending it to be. So in my experience I started playing the game this summer sometime I loved it, still do love it. Of course I have my issues with it, but I still love the game and its my number one game now. So when playing Arr content the only thing I felt gated from was chocobo mount after that , it was open to pretty much do whatever I wanted other than access to hw it was free game. So I did the msq when I wanted to did my job quest, leveled jobs past 50 before I even finished the arr msq, I could visit any place in arr that I chose. I loved this it gave me the sense that I was in control of how I played the game it allowed me to drag out the story exactly how I wanted at the pace I wanted.


Fast forward now I'm a trade craft mentor and working on hw content. Here I thought that hw just had the jobs locked behind it , boy was I wrong everything is locked in hw and gated behind msq and even the optional dungeons are gated, my job quest are gated every single thing is gated behind msq. To me thats just not right because what it is doing is making players play the game like its an rpg instead of just a big sandbox game that you can get to things whenever you want to. I have to say this really upsets me when I finally realized how gated hw was when I tried to do my level 56 pali mission I cant until I catch up in story.

So heres my question I know most people dont like dragging things out like I do , but which did people prefer the most did you like the way arr was set up to where you could go to pretty much anywhere you wanted, no area was off limits are gated. Or do you like the hw path of everything being tied to doing the msq, as I have found on the forums their will be mixed reviews. But I honestly don't see the value in things being gated if your of the right level to do certain thing. Because once you do the story they force you to do all thats left is gearing your jobs, or raiding so for those who chose not to do that then what do they have left to do? Which of the paths would you rather see in storm blood the more straight forward path of content locked hw , or the more open options paths of how arr is set up?

[Aramina]

It plays like an RPG rather than a Sandbox because it IS an RPG, not a Sandbox. I didn't find either the base game or HW to be more or less restrictive than the other.

[bswpayton]

It plays like an RPG rather than a Sandbox because it IS an RPG, not a Sandbox. I didn't find either the base game or HW to be more or less restrictive than the other.

Id have to disagree with that, in arr you could level simply by unlocking The Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, The Aurum Vale, all of these could be done without being caught up in the msq. Also your job quest for all jobs could be done without msq. You can go to any area you want, without needing a flying current, you can get tomes gear if you are the right level , instead of having to be at the end of the game as you have to be in hw. Hw is 100 percent gated every step of the way Arr wasnt like that and you have alot more freedom outside of the path of doing msq.

[Ragology]

Gated content helped keep the rmt from flooding the heavensward areas.

[Aramina]

Id have to disagree with that, in arr you could level simply by unlocking The Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutter's Cry, Dzemael Darkhold, The Aurum Vale, all of these could be done without being caught up in the msq. Also your job quest for all jobs could be done without msq. You can go to any area you want, without needing a flying current, you can get tomes gear if you are the right level , instead of having to be at the end of the game as you have to be in hw. Hw is 100 percent gated every step of the way Arr wasnt like that and you have alot more freedom outside of the path of doing msq.

Disagree all you like, but my opinion stands as it is.

[JunseiKei]

Eh? I wouldn't call ARR free roam at all. Back when it was actually 2.0, when everyone was at level gear or under with hardly any experience buffs, you might have actually been hard pressed to meet the level requirements for content gated behind MSQ in ARR. It's just nowdays, people have FCs with tons of credits and buffs going 24/7. HW also cut out a lot of the annoying fetch quests that heavily plagued the ARR storyline. A majority of dungeons, unlocking job skills, even getting additional classes, primals, etc., were still all locked behind MSQ in ARR. You just have so many boosts going on now that you can easily out level MSQ just doing the MSQ itself that hardly anyone remembers this stuff.

[bswpayton]

Disagree all you like, but my opinion stands as it is.

Not giving players options is never good in my opinion , simply because when I actually did the msq for arr it took me less than three days, so the hw story line could literally be done in like less than a week with the other thing on the otherside of that content being, waiting on the devs to make new content every three months. Trying to raid, spamming the same two dungeons over and over again, and farming for gear there is nothing on the other side that would actually make things worth rushing the story so whats the point in gating it?

[JunseiKei]

so whats the point in gating it?

Except it has always been gated. There's just more distractions in ARR for you to forget it's gated in the first place.

[Belhi]

I was fine with how HW was. In truth only 2 zones were truly gated and they made a lot of sense. As much as I love crafting and gathering, the game wasn't designed for those two aspects to be done in a vacuum. The MSQ is the main structure of the game. The gating is an intentional design feature to facilitate that structure.

[bswpayton]

Except it has always been gated. There's just more distractions in ARR for you to forget it's gated in the first place.

Anyone coming to the game will notice the difference, in Arr now you can be level 50 and still be on the level 25 quest in msq, but still have access to a ton of content like all the dungeons i mention 4 dungeons, that arent tied to the msq. And you can travel to any area you see fit thats in arr you cant do this in hw, also your job quest wernt locked behind what areas you where in within the msq, like it is in msq so I dont see the similarities here, with how easy it is to level now I see no reason for the things to be gated like they are now in hw.