the normal content is too easy

[ForteNightshade]

Quite honestly as we played the amount of excuses I kept having to make for the game even made me realize wow.... this sucks for new players.

I've frequently asked myself if I would have stuck around if I started today instead of nearly seven years ago. Sad to say, I can't with any certainty I would have. On the one hand, I typically love story driven games and JRPGs as a whole was my go to genre for years. I've beaten games like Lunar:SSSC, Suikoden, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon and Final Fantasy 7 onward more times than I care to count. The problem is all of them have a sense of progression and challenge, albeit that can vary depending how you approach them. None of them demand 50 hours of my time before they pick up.

Early game FFXIV simply lacks that in almost every facet. ARR is decent in terms of storytelling but it bogged down hard with incredibly dull quests and gameplay that only begins improving once you're approaching 60-70. Even then, stuff dies so comically fast in ARR and HW nowadays that it's hard to call it engaging.

[MiaShino]

ARR is decent in terms of storytelling but it bogged down hard with incredibly dull quests and gameplay that only begins improving once you're approaching 60-70.

Wait wait, wait are you telling me that no one enjoys;

*talk to npc* > *telewarp to location then walk/fly to spot* > *click spot and look left then right for fifteen hours* > *fight one incredibly weak enemy* > *go alllllll the way back to quest giver* > *go back out because quest is three parter* > *receive nothing because skill no longer exists*

Believe of all the things said by the friends the number one complaint was quest design and padding. That one quest mister Bolder foists onto you involving the scientist you must follow drove my uncle fricken bonkers! He hath just made it to Heavensward after "tanking" Steps of Faith which he called and am quoting; "Kinda dumb." Cannot repeat here what was said about the following quests without receiving ban.

[Aiscence]

Wait wait, wait are you telling me that no one enjoys;

*talk to npc* > *telewarp to location then walk/fly to spot* > *click spot and look left then right for fifteen hours* > *fight one incredibly weak enemy* > *go alllllll the way back to quest giver* > *go back out because quest is three parter* > *receive nothing because skill no longer exists*

Believe of all the things said by the friends the number one complaint was quest design and padding. That one quest mister Bolder foists onto you involving the scientist you must follow drove my uncle fricken bonkers! He hath just made it to Heavensward after "tanking" Steps of Faith which he called and am quoting; "Kinda dumb." Cannot repeat here what was said about the following quests without receiving ban.

I thought you described Endwalker at first. 2h before hitting your first mob in the expansion, very rarely you need to kill a very weak enemy, tell you "several cutscene will play in succession" when you already have been doing that for over an hour. The game is basically a visual novel at that point.

[MiaShino]

I thought you described Endwalker at first. 2h before hitting your first mob in the expansion, very rarely you need to kill a very weak enemy, tell you "several cutscene will play in succession" when you already have been doing that for over an hour. The game is basically a visual novel at that point.

Might explain why the census shows twelve million characters but somewhere umm abouts 400 thousand end game. Sadness inducing too because they can do so much of the better. Summoner boss battle quests, Sage first and final quest, first Gunbreaker quest enter the mind. Love the game but am not to fond of quest design myself either.

Josh Strife made very very good video covering what he called "I quit moments" and wish we could see graph of when this happens in FF14 land. Can imagine there would be sharp downward plummet around post ARR then again during Rhalgr's Reach early Stormblood grind.