Is there a way to buy a story skip for "Just" Heavensward? (Spoilers)

[SannaR]

The people defending their favorite expansion here lol... Just finally grow up and understand that everyone has different tastes. Topic should be closed by now.

I'm not even trying to sell them on the expansion. For me and probably Talera it just feels a bit odd to be wanting a skip at where they are in the post 3.0 patches. It would be like if someone had watched a season of a show and told their friend they couldn't watch that season anymore because they couldn't stand it anymore with only two more episodes left in the season. Two episodes that make the start of the next season make sense.

Considering how Stormblood is seen as fairly divisive amongst the fan base. It's either way better than people make it out to be. Feels majorly disjointed due to how they handle how the story plays out or up to that point the worst thing since the original Titan and Garuda parts of 2.0. That and the "main" subject of Stormblood isn't everyone's tea.

[Infindox]

If you're as far in as you say you are, I would suggest actually not skipping it because the patches set up what happens in Stormblood, and another one makes Shadowbringers hit harder. I don't mind when people skip if something is boring, but I really feel like you're the meme of the person digging a tunnel and they stop right before they hit the good stuff.

[Kira619]

I'm not even trying to sell them on the expansion. For me and probably Talera it just feels a bit odd to be wanting a skip at where they are in the post 3.0 patches. It would be like if someone had watched a season of a show and told their friend they couldn't watch that season anymore because they couldn't stand it anymore with only two more episodes left in the season. Two episodes that make the start of the next season make sense.

I wanted to skip because i was running into way too many instances of cognitive dissonance. I didn't want to only play a small portion of the expansion and then write it out without the possibility of most of my criticisms being corrected. But that never came. There were no main story quests where Ishgard is trying to make amends with the dragons. Instead, it was constantly Ishgard asking the dragons for help. It was too one sided, and with the way they try to match it to real life counterparts such as racism, it was incredibly offputting. The main character I related to in the entire expansion, Iceheart, gets black widowed. Like Tony Stark, our Ishgard friend gets a full blown memorial while Iceheart gets words referenced too. My character would have made a memorial right beside him. On the other end, I could literally care less about the azure dragoon, he was an absolute douche in my eyes, and yet the story wants me to care about this guy like we go way back since the beginning. I'm like I don't care about this guy, why is the game trying to force me to view him as a friend.

You combine that with the fact that they were forcing me to be with Ishgard's team, which I said, I couldn't care about at alll as a city as a whole, and there were too many instances of me brute forcing the expansion and playing something that my character mostly wouldn't do. I wouldn't have side with Ishgard. I would have side with Gridania. Unlike Ishguard, where I care about maybe 3-4 people in the entire city, Gridania, (and to a lesser extent Limsa) are much more my home.

What they should have done, is allow you the opportunity of either siding with Ishguard or Iceheart, with both coming to the eventual conclusion of needing to take out Nidhogg and the Holy See. That would be the best option. But if they couldn't do that, at least have some quests where Ishguard is helping the dragons with content. And again, I'm talking about Ishguard, not the warrior of light. Ishguard constantly keeps asking for everything under the sun, a request for peace where you're ancestors were the perpetrators needs to be a give/take relationship, and the value place on dragons seems to be incredibly lower than that of Ishguard itself.

So yeah, I'm definitely glad I'm done with this chapter. Seeing as my mount speed indicates cities like Hingashi, I'm hoping the Ishgard chapter is over lol.

[TaleraRistain]

Yeah exactly, Sanna. My comment was more than it sounds like if you've gotten to Vidofnir saving the child then you're nearly out of the places you don't like, Kira, so a skip probably isn't worth it. Patch 3.3 is the official end of HW. And patch 3.4 has a story point that will gain significant relevance later and you won't want to miss it.

[Jojoya]

There were no main story quests where Ishgard is trying to make amends with the dragons.

Before amends can be made, a truce must exist.

That couldn't happen while Nidhogg exists. Nidhogg's sole purpose in life became to destroy Ishgard and nothing could stop him from trying to do it. Not his own siblings at the time he started his vengeance, not his father once his father recognized the new Ishgardian leadership was ready to end the conflict and seek peace with the dragons.

So 3.2 and 3.3 deal with the efforts to establish a truce and peace.

As for amends, how could either side make amends for the past slaughter that can't be undone? They can't. All they can do is change their ways and do better in the future.

Which would have seen in the MSQ if you allowed yourself to experience all of it instead of skipping it.

Remember this is fiction. It is a story, not real life, and one that is interwoven so initial events have an impact on events yet to come. You may not like the story that is being told, but it is written that way for reasons that become apparent later.

Skipping is going to cause you problems because you won't have context for where you find yourself when Stormblood begins. You won't know who a couple of the characters are even though the story is written as if you're very familiar with them. You aren't going to have context for your WoL's opinions about historical villains in Shadowbringers.

That the story can provoke the current response you're having to it out of you that you're having shows how well it's actually written. If it wasn't well done, you'd be feeling bored instead of upset. You may want to reconsider skipping any of the MSQ if story matters to you.

[Chrisie]

To answer SannaR's message,

it's odd for you, but not for them. Just simply don't care about such small things. They made their choice and they're happy with it, as you can see below. That's all that should matter. OP's question is resolved. Let's move on with our lives.

[Malthir]

I wanted to skip because i was running into way too many instances of cognitive dissonance. I didn't want to only play a small portion of the expansion and then write it out without the possibility of most of my criticisms being corrected. But that never came. There were no main story quests where Ishgard is trying to make amends with the dragons. Instead, it was constantly Ishgard asking the dragons for help. It was too one sided, and with the way they try to match it to real life counterparts such as racism, it was incredibly offputting. The main character I related to in the entire expansion, Iceheart, gets black widowed. Like Tony Stark, our Ishgard friend gets a full blown memorial while Iceheart gets words referenced too. My character would have made a memorial right beside him. On the other end, I could literally care less about the azure dragoon, he was an absolute douche in my eyes, and yet the story wants me to care about this guy like we go way back since the beginning. I'm like I don't care about this guy, why is the game trying to force me to view him as a friend.

You combine that with the fact that they were forcing me to be with Ishgard's team, which I said, I couldn't care about at alll as a city as a whole, and there were too many instances of me brute forcing the expansion and playing something that my character mostly wouldn't do. I wouldn't have side with Ishgard. I would have side with Gridania. Unlike Ishguard, where I care about maybe 3-4 people in the entire city, Gridania, (and to a lesser extent Limsa) are much more my home.

What they should have done, is allow you the opportunity of either siding with Ishguard or Iceheart, with both coming to the eventual conclusion of needing to take out Nidhogg and the Holy See. That would be the best option. But if they couldn't do that, at least have some quests where Ishguard is helping the dragons with content. And again, I'm talking about Ishguard, not the warrior of light. Ishguard constantly keeps asking for everything under the sun, a request for peace where you're ancestors were the perpetrators needs to be a give/take relationship, and the value place on dragons seems to be incredibly lower than that of Ishguard itself.

So yeah, I'm definitely glad I'm done with this chapter. Seeing as my mount speed indicates cities like Hingashi, I'm hoping the Ishgard chapter is over lol.

Personally I hated the gate guard that's forced upon us(I refuse to use his name), he's a pointless character you interact with for 1 quest chain at level 30 odd, then again for 5m at the beginning of heavensward, sadly they drag his memory about like he was your best friend since childhood. I detested the story of heavensward so much it was genuinely a chore to get through (I played on it's release, many many moons ago). Luckily for me back then the classes were in a much much more enjoyable state and the game was heather as a whole imo.

[Kira619]

Before amends can be made, a truce must exist.

Disagree, amends can be made to show a truce is authetic and not paperweight. Now I'm not saying the amends would disolve the long history of war they had, but the amends need to be displayed from both sides instead of Ishguard saying "gimme gimme gimme" all the time. Now how could Ishguard show they want peace? Simple, the dragons had a Gnath issue. Instead of relying entirely on the warrior of light, they could have send a small battalion to aid in the dragons dealing with the Gnath. It shows the "give" part of a give/take relationship. It shows Ishguard is willing to come to the dragons aid instead of it always being the reverse, and with the warrior of light leading the battilion, it gives an inroad for both sides to help show the dragons that they mean business. But as I said, the storyline was mostly under the lenses of Ishguard and how the dragons had to bend over backwards for there to be peace, which again was offputting.

LOL I think we disagree heavily on a game making me want to quit shows how well written it is. The only reason I'm continuing with the game is that I regularly see folks say Endwalker and Shadowbringer are the top tier of MMORPG content and often I see folks say FF14 has the best story out of any FF, including 7. Seeing as 7 is my favorite, I had to check it out. This isn't publicity where folks say bad publicity=good publicity. If a game makes you want to quit, it's not a good game in that person eyes. Fortunately, I have the ability to skip lol. For any parts I miss, I can always watch on Youtube and then it's someone else's character going through it instead of my own.

I detested the story of heavensward so much it was genuinely a chore to get through (I played on it's release, many many moons ago).

Thank you, I'm not saying everyone needs to agree with me. I just found it shocking that I kept seeing heavensward being the turnaround for FFXIV when for me it felt a step backwards from ARR. I can respect the story's attempt for nuance, but then you get whiplash by the pidgeonholing you get associated with that nuance which = cognitive dissonance. Especially when it's supposed to be "your character" that's in this role. If this was the story of say "kratos", I wouldn't have cared anywhere near as much because it's not supposed to be my character. And when you say the classes were in a much more enjoyable state, were you talking about the change to summoner? Because coming back to that was another shocking change lol.

In any case, thanks again for the info, and it's been a lot less stressful and more enjoyable now I can definitely say that.

[colby0]

I remember really disliking earlier HW, I was complaining about it to people and was basically coming back every few minutes to be like AND ANOTHER THING. it wasn't until near the end that it became one of my favorite expansions. But if you're upset with these topics, you may also dislike Stormblood, there's sooo many racist microaggressions and red flags throughout it in the actual writing/art, I remember just having my mouth drop open at a few points, and the playerbase really, really prefers to never, ever talk acknowledge that.

Regretfully, Shadowbringers and Endwalker are so good in part because of what they're building on from these earlier expansions, so trudging through them is a bit necessary to really get that truly wow factor out of the later parts.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Disagree, amends can be made to show a truce is authetic and not paperweight. Now I'm not saying the amends would disolve the long history of war they had, but the amends need to be displayed from both sides instead of Ishguard saying "gimme gimme gimme" all the time. Now how could Ishguard show they want peace? Simple, the dragons had a Gnath issue. Instead of relying entirely on the warrior of light, they could have send a small battalion to aid in the dragons dealing with the Gnath. It shows the "give" part of a give/take relationship. It shows Ishguard is willing to come to the dragons aid instead of it always being the reverse, and with the warrior of light leading the battilion, it gives an inroad for both sides to help show the dragons that they mean business. But as I said, the storyline was mostly under the lenses of Ishguard and how the dragons had to bend over backwards for there to be peace, which again was offputting.

In this particular issue, there's one big reason that Ishgard couldn't send help: Ravana. Throwing troops without the Echo into battle against a primal is just handing the primal more conscripts. It's even noted that Ravana is a big reason the dragons are struggling with the Gnath at all, because they're not protected against tempering either and don't dare get close to the hive.