Anyone else feel like the expansion is slow to start?

[VirusOnline]

The beginning of the MSQ is what writers would call the infamous info dump.
Too much information. Too much backstory. It wasn't broken up properly and I can almost bet a lot of people ended up skipping a lot of text and cutscenes.

[Clicked]

The beginning is a lot of dialogue and very little action. Yes.

But the writing is great and I like the new characters in this story so I don't mind too much.

[Bhearil]

Personally the beggining had an horrendous info dump. Im an avid lore fan and despite this I struggled to get pass through the humongous info dump that made me level up to 82 before having to start fighting.

The pacing was horrendous at the start and even the last zone (which I wont name to avoid spoiling) feels super rushed in stark contrast of the huge slog of the two firsts , when in comparison last ShB zone pacing was far more pleasant and fullfilling.

Was a good story but generally speaking imo was inferior to ShB due that horrible pacing issues that plagues a good part of the expansion.

First area was painful, second area was okay, third area was interesting, fourth area okay but a bit dissapointing, fifth area was glorious and last area felt more of a minimap than a real area

[Pavise]

Depends on which split path you chose to do first dictated how the pacing felt, having gone with the bro sqaud over the bookworm club first up i had a lot more enjoyment with the bro squad, however the bookworm club had a slow first half and then increased it's momentum in the later half. Once you got those two paths done and the first dungeon was available it was all uphill from there.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

The beginning of the MSQ is what writers would call the infamous info dump.
Too much information. Too much backstory. It wasn't broken up properly and I can almost bet a lot of people ended up skipping a lot of text and cutscenes.

Maybe it had been too long since you finished Shadowbringers? Most of the back story and character development has been done in earlier chapters of the story. Thats all been established. Endwalker is the last chapter of the book.

[_Pigzig]

i stopped at the first quest in the city atm
all that running around to different parts of the city hearing explanation from krile. showing off the npc following tech i get it but i needa pew pew some peeps

[falroth]

I don’t think the story is bad. FF14 has years of detailed world-building and intricate story threads that it has woven throughout the world and its plot. This is no small accomplishment.

When I say “not well told” I am commenting on the moment-to-moment execution of cutscenes, with their (in my opinion) slow pacing, odd camera direction, and unrealistically verbose dialog that ends up making me feel distant from the characters.

But I don’t want to harp on this too much and ruin anyone’s enjoyment, so I’ll leave it at that.

Regarding killing 30 bears, etc., I don’t think anyone wants that. This is what I want: our jobs are designed to function in a party of other jobs, so give us many more opportunities to experience that as we travel through the MSQ. Let us stretch out and enjoy our jobs and our function in a group of other players. This is an MMO, after all. The job design doesn’t map well to solo duties or wiping out three underpowered overworld enemies nearly instantly. It would be a paradigm shift for FF14 perhaps, but I feel like we need far more designed combat encounters. Why not have 20 MSQ dungeons, or some other kind of group combat scenarios? Seems ridiculous within the current structure I know, but you’d need about that much to begin approaching the cutscene-to-gameplay ratio of other FF games. Combine that with a tighter story presentation and the game could be a lot more engaging, in my opinion.

Yes! This exactly, I'm not saying I want to have more combat thrown in for no reason. But I would absolutely love more Dungeons to play in.for me, Having those dungeons break up the story and really help with all that information they just dump on you. It's a chance to let that digest and have some fun learning new dungeons/mechanics.

Admittedly dungeons are my favourite part of the game, but I thoroughly enjoyed Shadow bringers. Even the slower parts I didn't mind because I was so enthralled in everything, I guess I'm just kinda sad this expansion hasn't gripped me like SHB did.

But that's fine, maybe it will be redeemed by the rest of it and I would say the first part is worth the slog.

[Silver-Strider]

That's about a week. Considering the story is dozens of hours of cutscenes and questing, this means you got dozens of hours ingame in a week. And you're... complaining about that?

I'm complaining that queue times made it longer than it really needed to be.

[Remish]

I'm actually shocked at how much story hate is in here. Like, I thought the story was amazing and everything was fine. Pacing was never once a concern of mine through the whole thing. I thought this expansion knocked Shadowbringers out of the park. Guess I must be blinded by the new expansion hype or something cause I'm extremely at a loss for words with a lot of the expressions I've seen here.

[VirusOnline]

Maybe it had been too long since you finished Shadowbringers? Most of the back story and character development has been done in earlier chapters of the story. Thats all been established. Endwalker is the last chapter of the book.

Well, it has been 2+ years lol

Although backstory and character development is great, it's done in such a way that there are no breaks in between what's being dished out. To avoid spoilers, there's really no true mystery, tension, or conflict given where we left off from the story in Shadowbringers. Sharlayan, beautiful as it is, was dreadfully boring. To counter, the Crystarium had much better pacing and was quicker and more to the point.

And I love the story. For me, Endwalker outdoes Shadowbringers and that's saying a lot considering the writing in Shadowbringers was excellent and had great pacing. I'm a bit dubious about Endwalker pacing, it wasn't bad but it wasn't even