This story is really underwhelming - it's opened to mixed reviews.

[Themarvin]

I think you completely missed what I was trying to say.

Yes, the Ascians are always in the background. But EW was (like Stormblood or Heavensward) it's own self-contained story/episode in a bigger narrative arc. That arc is driven by the Ascians. But in ShB itself your main adversary for most of the game time is Vautry, culminating in him becoming Innocence. Only then the Ascians really become relevant in terms of actual gameplay.

And yet, all the way from lvl 70 to 79 the Vautry-centric and lightbringer-centric story is really compelling in its own right.
The premise of "light-themed horror/demons" was fascinating in itself and would not have been any less so if it has been caused by anything else than the Ascians.

71 to 79 all about fixing Ascian problems including face off with Emet Selch, that is one of the worst mass murderes in FFXIV history.

[Malthir]

I think you completely missed what I was trying to say.

Yes, the Ascians are always in the background. But EW was (like Stormblood or Heavensward) it's own self-contained story/episode in a bigger narrative arc. That arc is driven by the Ascians. But in ShB itself your main adversary for most of the game time is Vautry, culminating in him becoming Innocence. Only then the Ascians really become relevant in terms of actual gameplay.

And yet, all the way from lvl 70 to 79 the Vautry-centric and lightbringer-centric story is really compelling in its own right.
The premise of "light-themed horror/demons" was fascinating in itself and would not have been any less so if it has been caused by anything else than the Ascians.

You mean to say you're not finding Yawntrail an engaging delight. I'm truly shocked surely the holy one Yoshi-P didn't make an cosmic blunder in spending his budget on a mid graphics overhaul instead of engaging story and decent job design/gameplay.

[Fortecael]

Level 96, went into the 4th zone. I will only say this. This is the worst MSQ XIV ever had. It's boring, tedious, there's no reason to care about anything and Wuk is annoying. The world building is bad. If you're gonna do world building you're supposed to give me a reason to care not throw it all at me and hope it sticks. Also what happened with WoL's agency? Why are we acting like hired muscle for Wuk? Why did WoL become a non-character? It's worse than ARR in that regard. Actually it's worse than ARR ON ALL FRONTS. ARR had better quests, better writing and actually let you play your job more than once every 5 hours. The writing team should feel bad, this is really bad and I can't believe it was shipped as a product. Yoshida and team should come forward in an emergency live letter and apologize. Then they can go ahead and fix the game.

[Kefzka]

It started getting some side narrative focus when BLU came out(and I think at least mentioned in item descriptions before that), it was just always as the New World.

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll go and see what’s out there. There is so much lore that is so easy to miss, especially if you don’t know it exists to begin with lol.

[SillyCrow]

I'm roughly halfway and there's been 0 dynamic between Krile and Alphinaud.

[Kefzka]

71 to 79 all about fixing Ascian problems including face off with Emet Selch, that is one of the worst mass murderes in FFXIV history.

Kefka was my favorite FF villain of all time until Emet-Selch. What a great story that was

[Aniise]

Currently I'm just done with the third dungeon and the story is simply...exhausting. It's hard to stay motivated to continue. I hope to finish tomorrow or on monday, and I'm hoping it will pick up the pace a bit, because until now, it has been a very rough ride.

For one, if my WoL had a choice, Wuk would def not be the candidate he'd support. That's the first thing that's egging me on. Also, we are back to the days of "I just stand here like pretty decoration, while our hero Wuk does her thing. If things get tough, I'll save the day, but she'll get the praise for everything."
I mean, sure, we are in Tural for an adventure on the lighter side, not something that will decide the fate of the whole planet. Okay, granted.
But...ugh...still... You can't imagine how often during those long first hours, I've felt like I could understand Zenos to an extent. XD
I just wanted some action. Desperately, PLEASE! Let me draw my weapon, let me fight something! Anything but do trade quests or listen to Wuks ramblings for another 20 Minutes. I think I fought my first mobs after at least 2-3 hours. Then it was back to Visual Novel mode.

I'll only hope things will get better from now on, and I'm avoiding spoilers left and right, but whew. I miss Shadowbringers.

[AnnRam]

Imagine playing ffxiv for the story when the main focus its erp/mare/night clubs etc.

[LalafellDown]

I can’t stomach the story. First zone find things. Second zone find things. Where is the action? On top of the slow mount and aether currents I’m having to force myself to get through this without skipping. They also added cutscenes you can’t skip.

[Kuroka]

I honestly feel its ok, i just really thing they needed the .4 and .5 patch to gently get us into Tural and then start the game with faster pace...