FF14 Companion app Premium Service

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I'd also point out that these are especially egregious. Not only are they the closest XIV has come to P2W, but the story jump potion in particular was also built as a solution to design problems that SE neglected to properly fix. Newcomers to FFXIV right now have to navigate literally hundreds of quests before they can access one iota of current content. It'll be even worse come 5.0 if they don't change tactics. They're implicitly compelling newcomers and returning players to spend significant sums of money in order to return in a relatively painless fashion.

They have mentioned going back and trimming things down. Unfortunately, that is no small undertaking. And while they should do so eventually, it means their budget is being allotted elsewhere instead of into new content. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer things I can do at current max level rather than the devs focus on content I've long since completed years ago.

Even if/when they do reduce the amount of quests required, jump potions don't impact much. People who aren't interested in the story are going to skip it all anyway and powerlevel through PotD/HoH. Square may as well profit on it. Most who opt to do so are usually leveling an alt.