New player here, currently I've arrived to shadowbringers content and I'm doing the MSQ. All I can say is that being forced to follow the story only to unlock new dungeons or classes (AST and MCH) was the worst experience that I had as a player. It's not that I don't like the story of this game, but I don't care for that at all, I just want to play this game with my friends at my own pace, and I wanted to be free to skip contents or maps if I want to, yet I'm still playing because of the friendships that I've made, not because the story of the game, even if it's a Final Fantasy, it doesn't mean that you have to make the story of the game a chore, it should be optional, as many MMO's do.