The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[Faafetai]

The story is the game. There are other things to do, of course, but the story has always been the focus.

This as well if you need to take a break for a bit you can do some of the side content to not burn out on the story.

Back to FFXIV : I think, more than anything, is that people ranting about ARR or post ARR being this awful slog taints the well, so to speak. Person A says it's horrible, person B hears this and goes into the game already biased against it and has a negative experience as a result. Are there parts that are a bit slow? Well certainly, but they aren't even close to being as terrible as certain folks have made them out to be.

I do not speak to many people. My mom and dad told me final fantasy has a good story. So we all played through 15 and 7, we all decided to try out 14 with the impression of 'critically acclaimed story'. going into the game I love it. I played the non trimmed down arr and post arr after my 3rd month of constantly being talked down to by the characters I was suppose to like, I was very close to skipping at a part that was cut that was a rehash of the quest you hand out mudpuppy steaks to everyone in coerthas. It was the same quest literally the same with different dialogue as the one from the pre stone vigil grind. however I didn't skip, kind of wish I did because it was literally the same quest. Than you get talked down to by the domans they play a prank on you to sniff a chocobo all the while making fun of you and talking down to you and having a good laugh at your expense. Maybe I am playing an entirely different game, but I came into the game expecting to like it and until I reach some parts of the story it was just busy work mmo grindy busy work. There wasn't much story until an info dump. this is post arr and some of arr, not all is bad but the quest design was just the same thing over and over again. It was designed to keep you subbed regardless of story. The good story beats are what kept me playing and I know they used that as a carrot on a stick.

EDIT: There's also this bizarre idea people have that they need to rush to end game, which... again, the story is the game. Why would you cut out a huge chunck of it to experience a (comparatively) minor part of it? Doesn't make sense to me. This just isn't that sort of game.

Most of this comes from the fact that many people have friends at end game. They don't want to sit in ARR for months they want to play with their friends where they are in the story. It is a consequence of coming late to the party. I still feel this way still being in shadowbringer while many brazillian friends are progging savage together and hanging out. While I can not be the fill in for their lack of tank, I am still stuck in post shadowbringer. It is a bit of a catch 22 because I take my time through the story, but if the option was there to unlock content and than enjoy the story at my own pace and still get to not be left out. I would do it. That is the reason at least personally.

Though I also don't believe people should rush to fast through leveling. Buying a jump pot will only leave many confused and the process of leveling is needed to get better acquainted with your tool kit. not just have a hotbar fill up with a million skills you have no clue what to do with.