I am so freaking bored of Shadowbringer's story

[MitsukiKimura]

I know my opinion is going to trigger a lot of people, but I honestly don’t enjoy final fantasy’s story either. I just skip every cutscene. Been doing it since ARR. I prefer a final fantasy single player’s story, as it feels more personal and immersive. Like FF7, FF8, and FF10. Something about a customizeable character with no voice actor, just nodding and making facial expressions, just seems lack luster.

I play FFXIV mainly for the content rather than the story, and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. Not everyone has to like what you like.

You can't really expect there to be voice actors for each different race. I honestly prefer it because it feels like you're part of the story and not just playing another character through their story.

[Mansion]

With a bit of distance and after reliving the MSQ through streams videos etc, I still think ShB is good but there is a good chunk where the pattern is repeating itself and you guess pretty much everything that will happen. I'd say the whole Amh Araeng part 2 to Innocence (with the exception of the "raid" on Eulmore) is not as good, you know that you'll get a Sin Eater at the end of the dungeon of the zone, and everything leading up to that moment is shameless filler (that goddamn mines part in Amh Araeng). Also the second part of RakTika in Fanow is a bit meh.

Yet the story is strangely focused and far more engaging for me than StB when I precisely remember asking myself "why am I doing this already?" several times (hello Lakshmi ark).

Perhaps ShB suffers a bit of the "New World" treatment, where we get to that new place and to make the story engaging there is a lot of lore dumps in fetch quests to set a tone (Nectarine part, Kai Shir part) in the first third/ half of the MSQ. So in a way it can be harder to digest, but I personally did not feel it was too much and it was well written compared to how disjointed Stormblood is (even if it was enjoyable).

[Tlamila]

Oh, look, someone I agree with. A reason why I came back to the game is because everybody said how awesome ShB story was and "even better than HW!" so I was expecting some awesome things.
The first part, where you go pick the twins, was nice, but after that it went downhill and never went back up for me. I haven't finished it yet but almost, and I doubt those few quests can change a whole expansion of boredom. It has some nice points, but very small ones. The whole plot feels very "catch them all", and ever since Il Mheg I wanted to skip (but I never did).
the trolley part was funny, the ruins were interesting, Ardbert is cool and I think the Exarch has a crush on me and so maybe Ardbert, the twins grew up a lot and I'm proud of them. But for the rest meh. I just can't wait to be done with it and move forward, so far I've been dvancing pretty slowly with it cause I can't tolerate more than a small chunk at a time. I hope it's not the way forward from now on.

And I say this as someone who loved ARR, which everybody seems to hate, cried profusely for HW, and so for SB, longing to meet the characters of those expansions again, always. Going from the heartbreaking Tsuyu's storyline to this was a huge fall for me.

If people disagree is fine, no point in insulting people because they don't like what you like though. I never got angry at people saying ARR and SB are meh, even though i consider it heresy.

[LaylaTsarra]

I've been reading how amazing it was and how it rivals single player RPGs... and here I am, bored out of my mind, just skipping through textbox after textbox. And it doesn't even feel like I'm missing anything. It's just that boring and pointless.

That's what makes the world go around. Not everything if for everyone. For me personally it's the best xpac to date and I've enjoyed playing it multiple times on a number of my alts. Overall Shadowbringers got great reviews from the media and I agree with them.

[Bright-Flower]

Oh, look, someone I agree with. A reason why I came back to the game is because everybody said how awesome ShB story was and "even better than HW!" so I was expecting some awesome things.
The first part, where you go pick the twins, was nice, but after that it went downhill and never went back up for me. I haven't finished it yet but almost, and I doubt those few quests can change a whole expansion of boredom. It has some nice points, but very small ones. The whole plot feels very "catch them all", and ever since Il Mheg I wanted to skip (but I never did).
the trolley part was funny, the ruins were interesting, Ardbert is cool and I think the Exarch has a crush on me and so maybe Ardbert, the twins grew up a lot and I'm proud of them. But for the rest meh. I just can't wait to be done with it and move forward, so far I've been dvancing pretty slowly with it cause I can't tolerate more than a small chunk at a time. I hope it's not the way forward from now on.

And I say this as someone who loved ARR, which everybody seems to hate, cried profusely for HW, and so for SB, longing to meet the characters of those expansions again, always. Going from the heartbreaking Tsuyu's storyline to this was a huge fall for me.

If people disagree is fine, no point in insulting people because they don't like what you like though. I never got angry at people saying ARR and SB are meh, even though i consider it heresy.

It's mostly the 'first' and 'final' acts that people love. For me SHB drags a bit in the middle but the beginning (up through the fallout from the first dungeon) and the final stuff (level 79-80) was really good, and the ending leaves a hell of a good final impression. But the middle does drag a bit when it's in full video game formula mode of 'go to new place, kill a light warden' for a few zones.

[Tlamila]

It's mostly the 'first' and 'final' acts that people love. For me SHB drags a bit in the middle but the beginning (up through the fallout from the first dungeon) and the final stuff (level 79-80) was really good, and the ending leaves a hell of a good final impression. But the middle does drag a bit when it's in full video game formula mode of 'go to new place, kill a light warden' for a few zones.

I guess it's true, though people seem to love the whole fairies thing that I hated.
I'm also thinking that most people are into something very different than I'm into. People love reveals and all, of which this is indeed full, while I'm more about small things like personal connections, emotions and all. This expansion is more focused on the former, though I'm seeing that in the last part it gets kinda emotional.

[He-Saiyan]

Wait.....people actually read FF stories? Been playing games seen the 1980s, & I do not know what one single FF game was about.....

[Valic]

Why did people feed this stupid troll of a thread lmao.

[HyoMinPark]

I'm glad I found this thread, because I feel like I've been taking crazy pills. I have NOT skipped the story, and I am deeply regretting not doing so. This is the MOST boring stuff I've seen in the game since ARR. Aside from the moments we get to see Ran'jit or Ardbert, it's all SHAMELESS filler, like they're deliberately trying to pad it out to get more MSQ skip sales. The characters are utterly forgettable, the Ronkan ruins are a joke of quest design, it just keeps going how dull everything is for the most part. I want to spoon out my eyeballs. Nothing in this story means anything. It's so sugary and vapid. There's no nuance. So black and white -- literally and figuratively. Stormblood was full of consequences and hard choices. This expansion has nothing of the sort.

It’s funny that you talk about the story being so “black and white” when quite a few things were muddied with ShB, the largest one being

Emet-Selch’s reveal that Zodiark and Hydaelyn are primals, which we’ve spent the last 6~9 years fighting against and believing are bad.

There was also the exploration of Light and Dark, and how a balance must be maintained between the two; because too much of one has catastrophic consequences—which is embodied by the First in its entirety.

SB didn’t nearly have the depth you’re claiming it did. We were basically hired muscle behind a subpar lead character that got outshined by literally every other character that showed up. Oh, and we spent the entire expansion fighting a villain who was mustache-twirling levels of evil and had about as much depth as a teaspoon.

[Mahoukenshi]

Wait.....people actually read FF stories? Been playing games seen the 1980s, & I do not know what one single FF game was about.....

And..your point is?