ARR Needs Significant Cuts to the MSQ

[Aidorouge]

I hate when people are this cruel. "gO bAcK tO wHeRe yOu CaMe fRoM" should be reportable.

Whether you like it or not, World of Warcraft offers some valuable insight on what works and what doesn't. Square-Enix SHOULD be listening to their competitors to develop a well-rounded game.

WoW lets you select the expansion you wish to play and level syncs to everything. That's a lesson that FFXIV could definitely benefit from instead of raising the level cap to 3,000.

Eh, I stopped playing WoW for a reason, so I'd rather FF14 didn't just turn into "Weeb of Warcraft" by turning into another mindless raid simulator where everyone rushes to endgame with zero plot and dumb lore but it's just anime styled aesthetics instead of cartoon style.

[Bubert]

I can tell that most of you who support msq butchering don’t even love this game. Makes me wonder why you all are here and why you all paying the sub if this game is so “Horrible”. Lol

[ReynTime]

The MSQ length isn't the problem, A lot of that worldbuilding is why so many people praise and get so attached to FFXIV's story. The problem is the lack of gameplay variety.

Every one of the 240 pre-HW quests is either:

• Click on an object/NPC
• Walk to an NPC/object somewhere else and click on them
• Kill some fodder mobs in the open world
• Kill some fodder mobs that appear when you go to a certain location
• Kill some fodder mobs in a solo instance
• Walk to and complete a dungeon

So much text and nothing interesting to break it up, eventually it all starts to smear together.

Why specify pre-HW when nothing changes for the better in the gameplay department after?
In fact there is less and less MSQ combat outside of the solo duties (which are also a thing in ARR MSQ since pre Lv10) 3.1 onwards.

[Valence]

I can tell that most of you who support msq butchering don’t even love this game. Makes me wonder why you all are here and why you all paying the sub if this game is so “Horrible”. Lol

Genuine question: why are you here

[NegativeS]

Why specify pre-HW when nothing changes for the better in the gameplay department after?
In fact there is less and less MSQ combat outside of the solo duties (which are also a thing in ARR MSQ since pre Lv10) 3.1 onwards.

Because the thread is specifically about ARR.

I know it doesn't get better after, but at least the story starts to pick up (e.g. WOL actually has a stake in the story rather than just following one or more Scions in a circuit around Aldenard) somewhere around Shiva, which is enough of a hook for most people.

[Bubert]

Genuine question: why are you here

To read ya’ll nonsense

[Sunhwapark]

Say whatever you want but ARR is still a player filter, unless the person can make it to post ARR/Early HW without uninstalling.
Also they compacted some of the ARR MSQ once before in 5.x, so I guess anything is possible.

[Supersnow845]

Say whatever you want but ARR is still a player filter, unless the person can make it to post ARR/Early HW without uninstalling.
Also they compacted some of the ARR MSQ once before in 5.x, so I guess anything is possible.

That’s less because of the story and more because of the jobs and quest design

ARR should be redesigned to be more active and jobs should be designed to not be as terrible as they are at early levels

Skipping it by cutting half of it doesn’t fix the problem

If we cut all off ARR as a theoretical example then HW would just become the “great filter”

[NegativeS]

Say whatever you want but ARR is still a player filter, unless the person can make it to post ARR/Early HW without uninstalling.
Also they compacted some of the ARR MSQ once before in 5.x, so I guess anything is possible.

A 'player filter' should be gameplay related. ARR being a slog is more akin to One Piece fans saying it gets good at episode 500.

[PaulusHamsteru]

If we start trimming too much from the MSQ, then don't we remove the player's immersion from the world where said story actually takes place in?

Sure some stuff is not important, but it gives it the extra flavoring doesn't it?

People love saying this, but they need to understand that a lot of new players give up on the game because of ARR.