SE stop doing the "norm"

[Nix]

so ...has nothing to do with not wanting to read them ..it's how they introduce them into the mmo and how good they are. it's not like i buy a rpg that is offline and don't read them, i read every npc ...and even these days offline rpg jump you straight to the quest or main story npc most the time.

Your post resonated with me a lot!

I do enjoy a good quest grind but I find XIV's and WoW's not so much hard to get into... but maybe not as appealing in their presentation.
I'll still religiously read all the text and enjoy the stories that go along with each quest but it feels like there's something 'extra' missing.

FFXI had it down pat, it had the text but it also had engaging mini-CS that would help to immerse you. I think the best MMO that I've played that /really/ had the immersion down was SWTOR, especially with their interactive cutscenes.

I'd love to see more things like that from developers nowadays instead of the lines upon lines of flavorless (I'm not sure if that's the right word) one-way dialogue.

I looking forward to more engaging quest chains where it revolves around more than just "Kill 8 dodo", mini storylines, more prominent characters and a whole new level of immersion.

I've thoroughly enjoyed XIV's storyline so far but the sidequests have left me feeling a little hollow (if that makes sense at all?)

[KiriA500]

FFXI had it down pat, it had the text but it also had engaging mini-CS that would help to immerse you.

Not to say it hasn't happened to you...but I've felt the exact opposite with all of these cutscenes. Having my character stumble around like an idiot who has no idea what's going on is hardly immersion in my opinion. Final Fantasy XI was notorious for this as well... You'd have an awesome cutscene, and all you can do is scratch your head and walk slowly.

Let's use the Futures Perfect cutscene as an example. What happens in this cutscene? EXPLOSIONS! FLIPS! MAGIC! BULLETS! Then there's you...literally standing still the entire time...half the time you aren't even on the screen. Your NPC helper is a swappable model, so why can't Square-Enix have an animation for our characters doing something more interesting than "be there?" I'd like to see my character be awesome every now and then...

[Elexia]

Let's use the Futures Perfect cutscene as an example. What happens in this cutscene? EXPLOSIONS! FLIPS! MAGIC! BULLETS! Then there's you...literally standing still the entire time...half the time you aren't even on the screen. Your NPC helper is a swappable model, so why can't Square-Enix have an animation for our characters doing something more interesting than "be there?" I'd like to see my character be awesome every now and then...

Because they use live rendering for player models, there's a reason pretty much every MMO that actually has cutscenes the player model isn't as dynamic as the NPC models. They could do more with it but not too much more unless the new engine can handle it.

[KiriA500]

Because they use live rendering for player models, there's a reason pretty much every MMO that actually has cutscenes the player model isn't as dynamic as the NPC models. They could do more with it but not too much more unless the new engine can handle it.

But they're all on the ingame engine. I pointed out the NPC helper in that exact cutscene because you choose how they look, yet their animation is still the same regardless. Our characters can have set animations too, as it just loads our current model. I see no point in having us just stand around like an idiot when we're the one "saving the world."

[Soukyuu]

But they're all on the ingame engine. I pointed out the NPC helper in that exact cutscene because you choose how they look, yet their animation is still the same regardless. Our characters can have set animations too, as it just loads our current model. I see no point in having us just stand around like an idiot when we're the one "saving the world."

I think the reason behind this was, that you could finish the main story using a DoL/DoH. Being heroic with a needle is a bit hard, don't you think?

I remember in one of the interviews, Yoshida-san said that the reason they decided to restrict story to battle classes was because otherwise they would have to make 2 separate stories for battle and non-battle classes and that with us switching freely between those would lead to inconsistencies.

tl;dr: I don't think we will be as passive in ARR.

[Nix]

Not to say it hasn't happened to you...but I've felt the exact opposite with all of these cutscenes. Having my character stumble around like an idiot who has no idea what's going on is hardly immersion in my opinion. Final Fantasy XI was notorious for this as well... You'd have an awesome cutscene, and all you can do is scratch your head and walk slowly.

Let's use the Futures Perfect cutscene as an example. What happens in this cutscene? EXPLOSIONS! FLIPS! MAGIC! BULLETS! Then there's you...literally standing still the entire time...half the time you aren't even on the screen. Your NPC helper is a swappable model, so why can't Square-Enix have an animation for our characters doing something more interesting than "be there?" I'd like to see my character be awesome every now and then...

Haha I totally get what you mean! I gotta admit it was bad when in wings of the goddess, ragelise is being all basass and shieldbashing sh*t while davoi burns, but you run to a screeching halt and then ......nothing

I'd love to see our characters be awesome! You're right Kiri!