MSQ

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

I just mash the escape key and click that skip cutscene button that shows up. Fixes the problem.


Flight was really the only thing they needed to add to ARR zones as that alone speeds up the post ARR quest-line immensely. That and adding very easy to solo duties.

[Penthea]

Like, I'm confused why people are surprised at the length of the story when this is an FF game and they genuinely are story focused over anything else.

/person plays a game part of a series well known world wide for its very long storylines

"Why does this game have so much story???? WTH????"

It's like being surprised that CoD has guns.

[GeminiReed]

/person plays a game part of a series well known world wide for its very long storylines

"Why does this game have so much story???? WTH????"

It's like being surprised that CoD has guns.

Absent any other consideration there is absolutely nothing wrong with a deep storyline. However this is an MMO and that self-same story is an enormous roadblock to a sizable enough demographic that Square themselves went out of their way to attempt to mitigate it. Their first attempt was characteristically conservative and treated one of the symptoms their metrics told them (too many people gave up in 7th Astral). Whether or not anybody thinks those quests were just grand is immaterial. Square was demonstrably losing potential customers. I suspect them opening up the free trial through HW was another mitigation effort.

Very few people are concerned with the amount of story, just why they have to suffer through it. Convincing people to play is hard enough, telling them they have to pay extra just to play at the level their friends are playing at? "LOL, nope" is probably a much milder version of the response you can reasonably expect. The darker side of skips is that there's no going back. Yes there's New Game+ but there's zero reward for doing it. IMO that lack of reward is why having to trudge through the patch stories is so reviled.

If XIV was some weird niche MMO, then sure, it can get away with the gating. But it's not, in fact it's one of the very few MMO's worth playing and Square's investors know this. Be prepared for further measures.

[Penthea]

Very few people are concerned with the amount of story, just why they have to suffer through it. Convincing people to play is hard enough, telling them they have to pay extra just to play at the level their friends are playing at? "LOL, nope" is probably a much milder version of the response you can reasonably expect.

That's the case for every mmo though. No mmo provides you with the option to pay for getting an up to date well geared max lvl character. The best you can get is to pay to skip a lot of the lvling process but you still have to do some work to even reach endgame. Although it may be different for P2W games but I don't consider them to be in the same category as FFXIV.

Furthermore we have lvl sync in this game which means you can play with anyone who has unlocked any group content without depriving them of a good lvling experience by boosting them through one-shotting mobs. Lvl sync is a feature that can bring players together regardless of their lvl which is a wonderful thing. You don't have to wait a long time to be able to play with someone. Many mmos don't have a feature like this at all.

If XIV was some weird niche MMO, then sure, it can get away with the gating. But it's not, in fact it's one of the very few MMO's worth playing and Square's investors know this. Be prepared for further measures.

I strongly feel anyone who doesn't like gating should stay away from mmorpgs. They all have gating whether it's story based, gear based, faction reputation based or lvl based. Gating is one of the main aspects of mmorpgs that make them what they are. They're known for needing a lot of time to achieve goals and this is hugely because of the various forms of gating you encounter.

If XIV was some weird niche MMO, then sure, it can get away with the gating. But it's not, in fact it's one of the very few MMO's worth playing and Square's investors know this. Be prepared for further measures.

I think at most we will see players being given the option to start a new character further in the story. SE said Endwalker is the end of the Ascian arc. Which means whatever comes after is a totally new story arc, which would give the chance for SE to give players the choice to start their new characters in whatever comes after Endwalker instead of only being able to begin in ARR.

I don't see the story losing its place as one of the major core features of the game because it is one of the strongest selling points of the game. I truly believe why FFXIV is so successful is because it wasn't trying to be a WoW killer, it's just being its own game. Unlike many other mmos it never tried to shove WoW from its place, it's instead providing a different type of mmorpg experience. One of the biggest things that sets FFXIV apart from WoW is how the story is told. And given the tremendous success of not just this game, but the FF series as a whole, it's clear that story driven games are not some weird niche. If SE removed the storygating from the game the lvling experience would become very similar to WoW and frankly one WoW is enough.

If anything SE wouldn't be able to get away with storygating if it was a weird niche because that would doom the game to have a tiny playerbase. And well I don't need to tell you that this game's playerbase isn't tiny.

If people don't like dealing with a story fine that's cool we all like different things. What I'm not okay with is people coming to a story driven game...and complain that it's story driven. It really is like complaining that CoD has gunplay. There are plenty of other games out there without storygating to play. I can't play first person games because they make me feel sick but you don't see me demand that the devs make a third person mode which would completely change the gameplay of many first person games. I just don't play them. The people who can't stand storygating need to realise that this game isn't for them, just like how I understand that first person games are not for me.

[WhiteArchmage]

I feel its quite the oppisite, the Warring triad, omega, Ivalice should have been MSQ stuff as well, it is first and foremost a storydriven game and they limit and handycap themselfs so much by making so many things "side stuff" only... we loose out voicing bc of that as well...

Seeing how many plot points come out of THOSE "side stories"

Unukhalai's entire existence, the backstory of the Thirteenth, the Dalmascan Resistance which cameos in the MSQ and returns in Bozja, the whole Alexander and Omega storylines which become relevant in the Twinning and as such are relevant for ShB backstory... Heck, Eden itself follows MSQ by responding to the events of 5.2 and 5.3.

I feel the MSQ would benefit from acknowledging them instead of trying to write around them.

[TheMightyMollusk]

The only big "side story" content that really feel entirely irrelevant to the MSQ are the Shadows of Mhach and the Four Lords (which gets a lead-in during an MSQ quest, but hasn't come back into anything since). Even Hildebrand has a fairly important bit of foreshadowing, at least in the level 50 quests.

Gilgamesh summons a primal of Enkidu just by standing near a pile of crystals and wishing really hard. At first glance it seems like just another non-sequitur joke, but it foreshadows all of the revelations we get in Heavensward and beyond about the true nature of primals. To a lesser degree, Enkidu being so weak for a primal also shows that the quantity of crystals available determines a primal's power, setting up Shiva losing to Ravana because she didn't have enough power handy.

[Vidu]

You're absolutely right about! Thank you so much for your generosity of spirit.

I've had too many old school gamer friends quit this game, prolly because they know better.

I've been playing Final Fantasy since it was on the 8-bit Nintendo and absolutely loved them, so really want this game to work.

But at the end of the day, those of us who watched a stump for days in our early days of MMO gaming, can easily recognize it for what it is.


Edited Note: FF14 is still much better than WoW, which is probably the only MMO it can compete with, which isn't saying much. But even WoW at first, was a huge improvement over Everquest.

Whats wrong with ending up not liking on of the Final Fantasy games?

I kinda understand where you're coming from - if you've always thought of yourself as a person who likes Final Fantasy it might not be that eayy to admit to yourself "Yep, this Final Fantasy just isnt for me". But thats still okay and frankly its a natural part of life in general - something at least I've come across a few times in my life (having to admit to my 6 year old self that I dont like orange lemonade anymore, having to come to terms with accepting that while I would like to think of myself as someone whos dressing in a "goth-style" it doesnt suit me, and - to get back to FF - dropping FF3, because it really wasnt my cup of tea).

So maybe you've recognized that FFXIV isnt a game for you. Maybe some of your friends came to the same conclusion for themselves. But thats all there is to recognize: That this game isnt the game you want it be - nor a game you want to play. Which is fine. I have no intrest in playing FFXV - I wouldnt consider myself less of a Final Fantasy fan because of it.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, things stop working for you - and thats okay. In my experience its better to let go and find something new and different to enjoy than clinge to something thats just not enjoyable anymore.

[thephantom007]

I've been playing Final Fantasy since it was on the 8-bit Nintendo and absolutely loved them, so really want this game to work.

But at the end of the day, those of us who watched a stump for days in our early days of MMO gaming, can easily recognize it for what it is.


Edited Note: FF14 is still much better than WoW, which is probably the only MMO it can compete with, which isn't saying much. But even WoW at first, was a huge improvement over Everquest.

Im mean due to what you said I am having a really hard time understanding your point of view at all, as you clearly dont know what your talking about.

1. "So really want this game to work" - The game obviously does work, it has a very large playerabase, and is coming into what? its 4th expansion, not counting 1.0 as the base game. The game obviously works and very popular.

2. "Edited Note: FF14 is still much better than WoW, which is probably the only MMO it can compete with, which isn't saying much." - QWow being the biggest Themepark MMO there is pretty much, properly has more subs even now after going down hill than any other theme park MMO out there and your saying its not saying much when FF14 is better than wow? I think you have your wires crossed somewhere.

Obviously your proplem with the game is a you proplem, not a game proplem. Yeah the game isnt perfect, the ARR MSQ isnt as great as the rest of the game which is a good point BUT saying you want the game to work, implies that you think the game doesnt work which is obviously not true.

[Penthea]

Whats wrong with ending up not liking on of the Final Fantasy games?

I kinda understand where you're coming from - if you've always thought of yourself as a person who likes Final Fantasy it might not be that eayy to admit to yourself "Yep, this Final Fantasy just isnt for me". But thats still okay and frankly its a natural part of life in general

I didn't enjoy FFXII or FFXV and it didn't affect me much. Sure I was disappointed but it never occurred to me to even suggest that those games need to be changed. Other people enjoy them just fine. They're just not my jam. I just put them down and played something else. Plenty of other games for me to enjoy, including other FF main series titles. Ever since I experienced WoW change for the worse in my opinion I just don't waste my time with games I don't enjoy anymore. It's not worth it. I really regret staying with WoW as long as I did. Never again. Better to move on to something else that makes you happy. A much better use of time.

[Shougun]

Probably not until the end of the saga, so at 7.0, but I imagine if they keep ffxiv as their flagship that there will be a sort of alternative intro, option. 200-300 hours to get to content someone was actually interested, and content designed more modern and competently, is going to become increasingly unacceptable to many types of players who would have otherwise been interested in the game.

On a personal evaluation of the game(s), I felt ARR had some interesting moments, many generally fun moments, usually story was interesting, minus getting people soup.., but there were a few moments I pushed through both in gameplay and story (absolutely not the worst mmo experience I've had, obviously what would be the point of playing a game you think was bad lol, but there were sections or moments that I did because I needed to do them, as the primary reason for engagement). Overall I also don't think the intro, past the cool cutscenes, is as engaging as one might hope. Imo FFXIV ages (evolves) well, improving and getting better as you go. Probably a primary reason I want to see the team with all their experience make a new one, right from the beginning. But it's fine if they want to carry on, they can obviously, just that I don't think all their best ideas and experiences are represented in earlier work and making that mandatory tunnel longer than the longest most well received sRPGs out there doesn't seem like the brightest idea to me.

To be clear I don't regret doing all the MSQ, lol, I enjoy the story- I can just see this sales pitch getting worse and worse each time they stack more onto it (better if you're deeply invested into stories first, worse if you're into gameplay and getting to the best experiences you had invested money for- since most hear about an mmo during media pushes like expansion releases), and I think utalizing MSQ+ replayability with a different intro could be good benefit (optionally). I bet the free to HW feature has helped a lot though, made the pitch far less aggressive sounding.