We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Bahati]

I've not cared about the story since 2.0 after certain revelations in 3.0. I still enjoy the game and I can't be the only cutscene skipper who is happy to spend my time on other things. Perhaps it's a Balmung (and Mateus?) thing as RP servers tend to have a ton of player interaction both running content and purely social.

[Magic-Mal]

I wish the developers had been bold enough to kill off Nanamo. It's becoming a little too predictable to work out who is likely set to be on the chopping block and who will be spared again and again.

Still hoping Y'shtola gets the axe.. The backlash would be glorious!!

[SenorPatty]

I really dislike the argument of "If you don't want to enjoy the story, XIV is not for you". What that fails to take into account is that XIV is an MMO, not a single-player game. If anything, we should be comparing how story is handled with SE's only other MMO, XI, as these are actually in the same game genre.

XI has a massive story, which has stretched over each of their expansions, but most of it is entirely optional. Normally you would just need to do a handful of quests to unlock the latest endgame content, then you were on your way. You could unlock what you wanted, and leave everything else alone. They never forced the entire backlog of MSQ on players just to give them access to the latest things. In this case, XI seems to have understood the spirit of an MMO far better than XIV does. Options in an MMO are rarely a bad thing.

Seeing that XIV is the shiny new MMO, you'd think that they would have continued along that line and improved upon it. Instead, they forced full MSQ completion on players. But hey, I guess they were kind enough to introduce paid MSQ skipping potions. -.-

I dislike it that argument as well. I've seen this line so many times uttered by people as if it was the only and/or best thing the game had to offer. If the story was the game's only and/or best selling point, then there'd be no point in tacking on the myriad of features that the game provides.

You'd just be playing FF13-4, the interactive story redux, now with some form of multiplayer coop.

[KisaiTenshi]

I play FFXIV for the story, mostly. I can't invest in a game that doesn't have a decent story.

With that said, the biggest mistake of the slow burn in ARR is that there isn't really any payoff. How much time was spent on Ul'dah at the expense of Gridania and Limsa only for the Ul'dah story to end in a way that was both predictable and wrapped up a little too neatly?

I wish the developers had been bold enough to kill off Nanamo. It's becoming a little too predictable to work out who is likely set to be on the chopping block and who will be spared again and again.

See I enjoy the story, but I dislike how stop-and-go it is. I want the pacing of FF5/FF6, not FF7/8. With FF5/FF6/CT/MRPG/SoM/etc the typical quest chain is begets combat, and the side-quests you actually have to find. So you could actually miss things, and find new things on a new playthrough. You could also just grind a little to get past spots you have trouble with, and you likely saved the game before hitting that combat segment rather than a sequence of non-combat things followed by "haha you died" wall of death. With FF7 and FF8, you had long sections of combat, cutscenes and combat again all. You know the thing that players complained about with the MSQ Roulette in FFXIV.

FFXIII, I was less impressed with because it felt like the game never got to the "overworld", and by the time you get to Pulse, you never go back to Cocoon. Thus 90% of the game was this linear thing that pushed you along without really getting to explore anything. Sure the characters and story were pretty good, but once you're on Pulse, it seems like the developers just gave up and filled it with hunting quest beacons with no real payoff, almost the entire game is done already, why bother with these?

To which I find when people complain about the storyline of a MMORPG, yet continue to play it, do realize that you're playing a storyline-intensive MMORPG. Where there is common ground between people who don't care for the story is with people who have already played the story and don't want to sog through it again at the pace it was originally. I created two characters (one on each data center) and played the same way on both, and I found that there was nothing wrong with the pacing until about level 35-40, which is right after the Company of Heroes MSQ sequence comes up. I don't think this quest chain really deserves the flack it gets, seeing as how they are supposedly "the guys who defeated Titan before", but the way it's setup as "fetchquests for your own banquet" comes off as intentionally bad comedy, to which Y'shtola calls out the pointlessness of it, and they respond with "we'd only give the information to one who is worthy" aka, someone willing to do pointless quests for total strangers. The irony is lost on those who didn't read the text of it.

Lv. 33 A Final Ignominy

Wheiskaet requires your assistance with the banquet.

Lv. 33 As You Wish

Wheiskaet truly intends to tell you how you may face Titan this time.

Ignominy = Humiliation.

Anyway, all things considered equal, I'd rather take a game with an entertaining storyline over one that put the lore in as an after-thought, or opted not to have any. A MMORPG that is all combat and no lore, really is just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. The result is always messy.

[Alleo]

I do love a good story and FF14 is alright in that part since its a MMO (but if FF14 was a single player I would find it more medicore) but a MMO cant survive on the story alone. Its something that is done once and then people need other stuff to continue to sub. And this is were I find FF14 lacking. Especially in the long term content that is also still fun even if it would be a grind.

(And to be honest after some stuff in HW and now SB I do find the story even less interesting because we are railroaded into this and have to accept that our character acts in a bad way just so that the story can happen...)

[Magic-Mal]

(And to be honest after some stuff in HW and now SB I do find the story even less interesting because we are railroaded into this and have to accept that our character acts in a bad way just so that the story can happen...)

What I always hated was how our character was written to like and dislike certain people and things. Our characters are written to have certain moralities and ethics..

When special-elezen-guy died, I felt completely detached from my character when I saw her react. I was thinking "I don't even like this guy... Why is my character acting like this? This looks weird.." If it was Aymeric, I'd probably be fine. I like Aymeric and our characters have way more interaction with him.

I really wish we had more choice when it comes to the personality of our characters. We can't say no or yes to certain things. It would be nice if there were branching story paths that all come back together regardless when something important is supposed to happen. Or give us choices to react in ways that don't really change the story. It's hard to be immersed when your character that you create isn't really controlled by you.

[Alleo]

@Magic-Mal: Interestingly the death of that certain elezen guy was one of the reason why I like the story less. But unlike you I really loved his character and found it really stupid how he died and how we let it happen because the story wanted it to happen that way and not because it was a logical conclusion of it. It was only there to create some drama and I dislike such deaths a lot...

FF14 really has a conflict between them keeping us a blank slate so that we can play our own character and giving them their own view of things which makes the WoL less of our character. Blank slate characters only truly work (imo) if you play a game that has choices. FF14 does not have that and it IMO really shows in SB. You just gave Isghard its freedom back, lost some good people and yet you are just forced into another conflict. I honestly was asking myself "why is the WoL, the only barrier between the Ascian and their goal, forced into another human conflict instead of trying to find a way to defeat those Ascians and still maintain the balance that is somehow needed to not destroy the worlds?" FF14 still only tells the story of its creators with a character that should be us but that is forced to do things a certain way.

[Magic-Mal]

snip

Yeah at least when we went to Ishgard, we had a very specific reason. We

became wanted criminals in Ul'Dah and were wanted with the Crystal Braves at the same time. So we escaped out of Eorzean Alliance territory and went to Ishgard to seek refuge. They let us stay in exchange for helping them

and then found out about the Ascians being involved and doing a Rejoining so we had to stop them. That was our real kind job. Then our friend got "mentally captured" and tried to start a war. Had to stop that and free him.

With SB it was that we as the Warrior of Light felt that we needed to get involved for whatever reason. And then the Far East we got involved 100% because we just felt we should. It wasn't even needed. We just went there because Garleans.

[MoroMurasaki]

Yeah at least when we went to Ishgard, we had a very specific reason. We

became wanted criminals in Ul'Dah and were wanted with the Crystal Braves at the same time. So we escaped out of Eorzean Alliance territory and went to Ishgard to seek refuge. They let us stay in exchange for helping them

and then found out about the Ascians being involved and doing a Rejoining so we had to stop them. That was our real kind job. Then our friend got "mentally captured" and tried to start a war. Had to stop that and free him.

With SB it was that we as the Warrior of Light felt that we needed to get involved for whatever reason. And then the Far East we got involved 100% because we just felt we should. It wasn't even needed. We just went there because Garleans.

Is that bad?

I don't know, I feel like the we have a reason to oppose Garleans at this point given what we've seen and with the power we have there is also a responsibility to make sure we're putting it to use. Hydalen didn't choose us for us to live a quaint life out in a cottage.

[Ilan]

Is that bad?

I don't know, I feel like the we have a reason to oppose Garleans at this point given what we've seen and with the power we have there is also a responsibility to make sure we're putting it to use. Hydalen didn't choose us for us to live a quaint life out in a cottage.

Well we (the characters) stick our nose in a lot of things that don't concern us...and people complain if they get unasked advice...cough