ARR needs two simple fixes until an actual revamp

[Caurcas]

galaxy brain: remove msq

Good take, uncouple side content from msq.

[TheMightyMollusk]

True enlightenment: Drop a moon on the servers. All is an illusion.

[lezard21]

It would be nice if Squarenix eventually stopped the MSQ circlejerk. Yes you tell story very nice good yes, congratulations Squarenix, but if I want to play as a merchant that just gathers and crafts I get roadblocked from going to Ishgard, Kugane and Novrandt till I pick up a weapon and cutscene skip through the critically acclaimed MSQ.

[MistakeNot]

How about LITERALLY the first scenes in the game?!?!? There is no actual voice acting outside of the old guy who gives like a 10 second intro to the cities. I just find it strange they have not thrown some cash at this to fix such a blatantly obvious issue.

ARR is basically a long form novel.

Voice acting isn't important, and lack of it is not really any issue at all.

[Lanadra]

"The voices are great if you don't understand what they're saying" isn't exactly a ringing endorsement, you realize.

I'd rather hear Japanese voices and get the gist of what's meant to be said through the English text than to subject myself to the cruel and unusual punishment that is English dubbing in this game.

[Iscah]

I'm right there with you. I grew up the 80's and 90's, so having.... to put it politely, questionable graphics and almost no voice overs aren't really a big deal. Anyone that was around during that era, knows exactly how far gaming has come. The thing that baffles me regarding the ARR story is your own character has nothing to say, notably on the Minfilia quest chain. You would think, the character would at least have some voice overs, other than a few grunts and/or hand gestures... lol It is what it is, not a big deal, just strange.

I also come from that era of gaming, but I'm on the opposite train regarding silent protagonists because that was pretty common in that era of games too. You just imagine what your character is saying in response; at least that's how I've always worked with it.

The game does get a bit better with letting you pick text responses in some key moments, particularly Shadowbringers.

In any case, the sheer range of characters and voices available would make voice acting for the player character very expensive, and they'd need to add recordings for new races as well.

[Tlamila]

ARR is fine.
Voice Acting is also fine if you play it in Japanese. Back when I didn't know that was an option I just played the game completely muted and that helped against awful English VA.

[Puremallace]

Voice acting isn't important, and lack of it is not really any issue at all.

Voice acting honestly is important. I am not asking for every single line to be voice acted but come on there are so major moments LIKE THE ENTIRE CRYSTAL TOWER questline that is not voice acted that without a doubt would be voice acted in the later expansions.

[DPZ2]

It would be nice if Squarenix eventually stopped the MSQ circlejerk. Yes you tell story very nice good yes, congratulations Squarenix, but if I want to play as a merchant that just gathers and crafts I get roadblocked from going to Ishgard, Kugane and Novrandt till I pick up a weapon and cutscene skip through the critically acclaimed MSQ.

Welcome to the World of MMOs.

And, if you do not find it to your liking, I'm sure you could find another game that will let you do exactly as you desire. Mostly. You'll still have to pick up a weapon and level up.

Or, you could go directly to every single one of those areas you mentioned by using a job skip to level 70 and a story skip through all of the SB content with no cut-scenes nor MSQ nor dungeon instances required.

Until you hit ShadowBringers content and, darn it, you have to take up a weapon and skip through 10 more levels of cut scenes to be able to get to Eulmore as a level 80 Warrior.

But then, if you don't want Story, why are you playing this particular game?

[SilverObi]

It would be nice if Squarenix eventually stopped the MSQ circlejerk. Yes you tell story very nice good yes, congratulations Squarenix, but if I want to play as a merchant that just gathers and crafts I get roadblocked from going to Ishgard, Kugane and Novrandt till I pick up a weapon and cutscene skip through the critically acclaimed MSQ.

1.0 allowed players to do just that, but as we've seen they moved away from that concept. It would be interesting to see if they could tackle that idea again but considering how they neutered and phased out the Companion system that paired with it, I'm not sure they even want to at this point.