ARR: new player perspective

[TeraRamis]

I can't drag my fiance through it kicking and screaming - like she simply doesn't like the story.

I'm sorry. I know ARR has its fans... but it's a garbage narrative, particularly when compared to HW and ShB. Honestly, I wonder how many people don't ever really get into the game because of the monotony of the MSQ for those first 50 levels.

[LaylaTsarra]

I can't drag my fiance through it kicking and screaming - like she simply doesn't like the story.

I'm sorry. I know ARR has its fans... but it's a garbage narrative, particularly when compared to HW and ShB. Honestly, I wonder how many people don't ever really get into the game because of the monotony of the MSQ for those first 50 levels.

I think we need to see what they do with the ARR revamp coming soon with 5.3. One has to hope they've spent a good amount of time deleting and redoing quests. It's too much of a slog for new players who I'm sure would like to get to newer content.

[TeraRamis]

I think we need to see what they do with the ARR revamp coming soon with 5.3. One has to hope they've spent a good amount of time deleting and redoing quests. It's too much of a slog for new players who I'm sure would like to get to newer content.

There's definitely a lot of fat that could be cut. You could probably streamline the story down to about 8-10 hours without losing anything profound.

[Klaleara]

I think we need to see what they do with the ARR revamp coming soon with 5.3. One has to hope they've spent a good amount of time deleting and redoing quests. It's too much of a slog for new players who I'm sure would like to get to newer content.

Honestly, I think the actual gameplay needs to be done before the quests. The quests can be a drag, but hte fact that you only get 2 abilities for the first 20 levels for many classes is outrageous.

They need to add in at least 2 types of directions a player can go by 20, AND have a class mechanic of sort to at least keep combat interesting. Give Lancer a buff they also want to keep up, and give them the high attack, and the dot combo MUCH sooner as an example.

[Klaleara]

Honestly, I think the actual gameplay needs to be done before the quests. The quests can be a drag, but hte fact that you only get 2 abilities for the first 20 levels for many classes is outrageous.

They need to add in at least 2 types of directions a player can go by 20, AND have a class mechanic of sort to at least keep combat interesting. Give Lancer a buff they also want to keep up, and give them the high attack, and the dot combo MUCH sooner as an example.

Too add to what I said. As I jsut got the best example, why the hell does AST lose their card draw ability at lower levels!? It makes no sense to me at all why they do this. Not saying classes need their super nukes at level 10, but give em SOMETHING to enjoy.

[MsMisato]

I can't drag my fiance through it kicking and screaming - like she simply doesn't like the story.

I'm sorry. I know ARR has its fans... but it's a garbage narrative, particularly when compared to HW and ShB. Honestly, I wonder how many people don't ever really get into the game because of the monotony of the MSQ for those first 50 levels.

I mean I haven't played a FF game that wasn't heavily story-driven and content that was gated behind the story itself. Its what the series is known for and honestly it shouldn't be a surprise by the amount of story involved. As for the narrative being garbage, ARR story was being driven by 1.0 and the aftermath of the calamity essentially, so it sort of won't make sense if the person wasn't there so that part I get. I do believe intro video for brand new people upon starting up FFXIV but it only plays once. I also like to point out, it's easy for people to also not realize that ARR is about 2 years' worth of content with just the base game alone.

I do agree that some of the quests in 2.0 to 2.4 needs to be streamlined and hopefully, 13% of quests they are streamlining (honestly that's not a whole lot) are the silly fetch quests.

If one doesn't want to wait for the patch to drop and truly are not here for the story they can simply buy the MSQ skip pot and be done with it that is always an option and go to HW or Storm Blood and not worry about it.

Honestly, I think the actual gameplay needs to be done before the quests. The quests can be a drag, but hte fact that you only get 2 abilities for the first 20 levels for many classes is outrageous.

They need to add in at least 2 types of directions a player can go by 20, AND have a class mechanic of sort to at least keep combat interesting. Give Lancer a buff they also want to keep up, and give them the high attack, and the dot combo MUCH sooner as an example.

It's funny, the skills from the base class like lancer use to have debuffs attached to them (leg sweep was a good example as it placed a slow buff) for example and we had some cross-class skills we could use to add small variety.

I also think its harder to strike a balance without having to redo all the dungeons in ARR to compensate for adding an additional weapon skill. I mean honestly its all burned through in DF I think thousand maws is the only place that is freaking slow due to the slime you have to walk through.

[basketofseals]

It's funny, the skills from the base class like lancer use to have debuffs attached to them (leg sweep was a good example as it placed a slow buff) for example and we had some cross-class skills we could use to add small variety.

I thing feint was the slow. Leg sweep was always the stun, although it had damage attached to it.

Funny enough that you mention LNC though, since that was one low level experience that actually improved after pruning. Previously you spammed impulse drive from level 12(I think?) to level 34.

Well, that is your opinion, and I disagree with it. The storytelling in ARR is not bad, and the number of fetch quests is no worse than in most other MMOs.
The story is a bit unfocused because it is "our" story - the story of how we go from unknown adventurer to famous Warrior of Light. It also has to do a lot of worldbuilding and introducing characters and events that will become important later on. A few too many "pray return to the Waking Sands", but even that does not actually happen all that often.

There's definitely a couple times that the story takes a giant stomp to the face in terms of pacing for not very good reasons.

The company of heroes fetch quests made little sense in universe(although I'll give them credit for pointing that out), and it was all for some shallow vapid reason that I can hardly remember, but I do remember my reaction to wanting to grab my face and go "OH MY GOD GUYS THAT WAS SOOOOOO DEEP" melodramatically.

The getting the wrong aspected stone to pierce Garuda's wind barrier made zero sense in game and out of game. It serves literally zero purpose but padding.

Both of these moments happen right in the middle of an arc climax and just totally ruin things. Especially since you're likely to get 3 overgeared allies with you that will just trounce the boss for you without you even understanding what happened. Then you'll wonder why everyone was even worried the Primals in the first place when you could have just ordered a pizza and had some randoms take it out for you.

[MistakeNot]

I can't drag my fiance through it kicking and screaming - like she simply doesn't like the story.

I'm sorry. I know ARR has its fans... but it's a garbage narrative, particularly when compared to HW and ShB. Honestly, I wonder how many people don't ever really get into the game because of the monotony of the MSQ for those first 50 levels.

If people dislike the MSQ for the first 50 levels that much, they won't like the rest either.
Sure, the storytelling is a bit more focused in HW, but it is not all that different.

[TeraRamis]

If people dislike the MSQ for the first 50 levels that much, they won't like the rest either.
Sure, the storytelling is a bit more focused in HW, but it is not all that different.

Actually, I detested the MSQ of ARR so much that I quit the game for 2 years shortly after finishing it the first time - despairing of the game ever being more than this wooden vehicle for bad storytelling. It's only because I'm a bored MMORPGer who occasionally revisits stuff that I came back.

HW and ShB might be slower than some stories, but they at least have the same level of depth and character development that you see in other Final Fantasy RPGs, replete with some really interesting plot twists and turns. ARR is almost devoid of any of these things - the only time the story really pays off is the banquet sequence, and I imagine that most people who were unmoved by the narrative (or not at least stubborn enough to finish in spite of it) didn't get even half that far.

[MistakeNot]

Actually, I detested the MSQ of ARR so much that I quit the game for 2 years shortly after finishing it the first time - despairing of the game ever being more than this wooden vehicle for bad storytelling. It's only because I'm a bored MMORPGer who occasionally revisits stuff that I came back.

HW and ShB might be slower than some stories, but they at least have the same level of depth and character development that you see in other Final Fantasy RPGs, replete with some really interesting plot twists and turns. ARR is almost devoid of any of these things - the only time the story really pays off is the banquet sequence, and I imagine that most people who were unmoved by the narrative (or not at least stubborn enough to finish in spite of it) didn't get even half that far.

Well, that is your opinion, and I disagree with it. The storytelling in ARR is not bad, and the number of fetch quests is no worse than in most other MMOs.
The story is a bit unfocused because it is "our" story - the story of how we go from unknown adventurer to famous Warrior of Light. It also has to do a lot of worldbuilding and introducing characters and events that will become important later on. A few too many "pray return to the Waking Sands", but even that does not actually happen all that often.