FFXIV is a terrible coop game to play with your friends.

[dspguy]

I've played this game (and other MMOs) with my wife for 20+ years. Maybe the OP has different wants/needs. We run MSQ together, along with whatever dungeons/raids are necessary. Obviously, the solo instances are solo, but we are running them simultaneously so we talk about what's going on. Palace of the Dead, Heaven on High and Eureka Orthos are "co-op" - albeit, with higher difficulty because they are meant to be run with 4 players, not 2. Variant Dungeons are co-op.

When we are learning BLU skills, some of the content we can duo. Some we can't. Then we hop in party finder and run it with a few other strangers.

[Avoidy]

It would be cool if you could watch cutscenes together. I was partied with a friend while he finished shb and was just kind of sitting there bored af while he finished up the cutscenes before the trial. Would've been cool to watch them alongside him or something, like a synced viewparty.
MSQ is basically a solo slog and anyone who pretends like partying with someone and running alongside them between cutscenes is "multiplayer" is coping hard tbh

[Denji]

I like it because unlike my friends, I can't do 8 hour sessions so I do a dungeon I unlocked or a few roulettes and then say "I'm gonna do my job quest and then go do <insert other thing here, like eat or sleep or draw or walk or whatever>"

PVP tho... Yeah. Hate it. The netcode alone is bad enough as it is with or without friends but the weird limitations on how many people you can party with or the inability to party at all really sucks. I know its because they don't want roaming gangs in VC ruining it for everyone else but just implement a rudimentrary ranking system based on how many recent wins/losses you had a la splatoon tbh.

[KooriGraywolf]

The one thing I do wish was updated is with the solo instances. I don't mind waiting or doing something else while my new player friend is doing the instance, but at the very least make it so that you don't have to disband the party. It really breaks the flow of playing together.

[SieyaM]

I do agree that this is mostly because of the story they've chosen to tell. Instead of framing the character you create as just an exceptionally talented adventurer or even just a normal adventurer involved in these plot points, you are the one and only chosen warrior that can save all of existence. It means that content has to be designed in such a way that any time it intersects with the narrative you have to be the only one they are speaking to or the only one seen achieving things.

[Valence]

I'm all for making the whole experience solo if there is a market for it, as YoshiP already explained (and this is why they're implementing duty support everywhere). But only as long as they also make the whole experience multiplayer/coop friendly, which isn't the case for the content you cited (quests, pvp...).

[Striker44]

I do agree that this is mostly because of the story they've chosen to tell. Instead of framing the character you create as just an exceptionally talented adventurer or even just a normal adventurer involved in these plot points, you are the one and only chosen warrior that can save all of existence. It means that content has to be designed in such a way that any time it intersects with the narrative you have to be the only one they are speaking to or the only one seen achieving things.

For most of the game's life, they've framed us exactly as a random adventurer with the "talent" of the Echo that leads us to being pulled into the Scions. But even there, we're just a regular Scion doing standard investigations and the like.

The thing is, over time in any story of this sort, you have to get more powerful and take on bigger tasks. At some point, your list of accomplishments grows so large that it just doesn't make sense for you to still be doing only menial odd-jobs like a rookie. So the stakes have to get larger. But even then, the other Scions are doing similarly important things right alongside us. In EW, Alisaie and Alphinaud are in charge of establishing and growing ties with the remnant from Garlemald. Krile helps us obtain the Sharlayan Forum's help to change the purpose of their starship. ALL of us go to Ultima Thule together.

And even having done all of that, there are still plenty of "normal" people in the world that have heard of us, but have no clue who we actually are, what we look like, and so on.

To give an analogy to politics, people tend to steadily move "up" the ladder over time. When was the last time you saw the POTUS leave office and become Mayor of some random town? It's just the natural progression of any such story for people to start as random folk but become more important over time.

[caffe_macchiato]

Yeah. The game never advertises itself as 'coop'. Its a solo story experience and then social hangout simulator AFTER youre done with the story.

This. FFXIV is a great way to network and meet other people who play the same other games that you do. In fact, for just $13 a month, you can play other games that are actually fun (sold separately). Try doing that in WoW. Game over, Bobby Kotick!

[strawberrycake]

This. FFXIV is a great way to network and meet other people who play the same other games that you do. In fact, for just $13 a month, you can play other games that are actually fun (sold separately). Try doing that in WoW. Game over, Bobby Kotick!

Not Only Can you Meet People on FFXIV to ERP with or Play HellDivers 2 with! You might even network and find your next sloppy Breakup! Play The Critically Acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV ™ Today!

[Haru304]

I do frontline with my friends all of the time. It's pretty fun once you get into the swing of it, honestly. I also do map parties, deep dungeons, criterium dungeons, bozja/eureka, Golden Saucer, etcetera, with one or more friends, routinely. That's putting aside just what most would consider to be the normal dungeon/trial/raid content which are things you can also do with a friend.

It's not a particularly great experience if you want to play out the 'story' aspects of the game with a friend, no, and tbh unless something is explicitly tailored for that, like, say, a co-op game, it's hard to pull off. But there are various content avenues within FFXIV that you can enjoy with a friend. I suppose you do have to unlock most of that content as a solo player but I don't think the game really has the capacity for a seamless, linear 'co-op' experience.

On the PvP front, I do wish you could at least queue with friends for CC casual matches if not a specific team based mode ranked, and I wish Rival Wings was not dead. But Frontline, while lacking in maps, is decent to play with buddies.