FFXIV And Quest Design

[Balmung_Griffin]

Pretty much on point diagnosis on why the questing experience is lacking.

And indeed, Gold Saucer minigames CAN be repurposed into actual MSQ minigames. I think the cooking trial is the most egregious example of this... You should control Wuk Lamat in that minigame! Since the WoL can have an advantage being a potential CUL. Currently the single one 'quest-game' we have is that one with the reticule target to find something on the screen. It could work the other way too: brand new minigames designed for the MSQ could be featured in the Gold Saucer later.

Now... even the actual active part where you get to fight things, is not good either! "Clear the roads of monsters, for the HanuHanu parade."... then clearing the road is fighting 2 spawned mobs in purple danger markers that die in 3 GCDs. And ironically they do have interesting "kill <x>" challenges in FATEs where you can see how far you can push pulling things. Why that kind of thing isn't translated to those quests? They're so afraid that players can't kill a handful of enemies that are perfectly doable if single pulled?

I feel if at least the questing experience was enhanced, the actual story, while still filled with a share of issues, wouldn't be as poorly received.

Oh, and by the way, they DO have different instances for roles. IIRC in the FF16 collab, if you're a healer, you get to see an extra tidbit of the WoL healing Clive, and I think something like that happens in Stormblood too. They can do it, they just don't for whatever reason... Is it time? Too time consuming to add those small bits to the cutscenes? Or different objectives on solo duties for other roles?

I think there's too much riding on the quality of the plot and storytelling, y'know? And it really shouldn't be that way, if a game is fun, it's fun period.
And even if not for that, these little interactions and details really draws you in and actually enhance the story you're telling.
It's not all about the destination, but the journey itself.

Yes, I love every idea you've put forward here, if only we could send this to the devs to read.

I know, right! Making a thread like this is actually pretty time consuming (and English is not my first language so I try to double check if I'm getting my point through correctly)
I find FFXIV DEV / player interactions kinda weird, almost weekly I get an email reminding of in game events, or cash shop items, but I never, EVER received an email asking what I thought of the game, if there was something I really looking forward... (Capcom does this all the time)

Also, (and that's a thread I want to make sometime), I find really strange that SQEX don't make beta features and let us test and give our thoughts, they just commit to a line of thinking and hope for the best.

If Island Sanctuary, Lord of Verminion and Chocobo Racing had a beta period I guarantee you they would not be dead and forgotten like they are now.
But those are thoughts for another thread! I hope we can get this one through!

I really like these ideas! I would’ve loved to operate the train cannons a la Air Force One!

The important part is that these are all fun things. Unlike the “follow this person without being seen” quests we got so many of! lol

Yeah, we need more variety, there's so many things they could easily do, optional ways to go to the same place:

- We need to get an item from an NPC, you could do a favor to him (like a normal quest), but maybe he's a Triple Triad enthusiast and we could challenge him to a mach and win the item.

The possibilities are endless, and honestly, this line of thinking would do wonders to SQEX as whole, they're really behind comparing to pretty much any great RPG from the last 15 years and from their Squaresoft days.