Story quests

[Nuinn]

Grinding gear, leveling crafts, doing dailies.... Yeah, it's fun if your own story is interesting enough. By that I mean - people you hang out with in Eorzea. The most memorable times from FFXIV will definitely not be anything in the main story line. So far at least nothing grasped me in such a way. Hell, I'll even remember Hildibrand more. It'll be the time spent with friends that will stick in my mind for years. It's a bit unrelated perhaps but still.... had to bring it up.

[Eul]

My opinion (spoiler)

Too much betrayal that makes me... cringy.

I only do it for free Savage Might IV >_>;.

[Linnaete]

The lore on offer is rather unparalleled for an MMORPG, that's for certain. The way the story is told however, unquestionably leaves a lot to be desired, that's for certain. I generally remember that long lull in the 2.0 storyline prior to Titan when the story simply ceases and just trolleys the player around in a long wild goose chase to find the supposed Company of Heroes as well as organise a banquet. Such moments simply had me wishing that the time could have been spent allowing us to learn a lot more about Gaius as a person and the characters of his Tribuni behind their helmets. The latter especially come off as a bunch of undercooked eggs, sans Nero's later CT side story.

The story scenario has certainly improved from subsequent patches. There is an irritating tendency to open up a litany of new plot threads without properly resolving any (haven't done the Patch 2.5 story content yet, so things might have changed), but I'll be lying if I say it hasn't kept me engaged. Thoroughly reading through text naturally comes to me as a life long RPG player, but recent patches have been able to sustain genuine interest from me as I'm reading. It's a welcome bonus. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for most of my friends in the game. They neglect to even read or watch the cutscenes. To them, it's a "non-story" not worth dedicating a minute through when they could be unlocking and tackling a new story dungeon or Primal that arises from the Main Scenario. Their loss, I suppose.

Somewhat related, but I recently discovered that there are players who skip through ALL of the Manderville cutscenes just to unlock the 3 trials on offer and the Expert Roulette. Do some people just eschew fun?

[Aeyis]

Somewhat related, but I recently discovered that there are players who skip through ALL of the Manderville cutscenes just to unlock the 3 trials on offer and the Expert Roulette. Do some people just eschew fun?

The reason is because they have to. In order to unlock expert, high level and trial roulettes once must do quite a few hours of gameplay upon reaching level 50. Hours spend doing nothing but main scenario and hildibrand. Without those many hours all of the roulettes apart from main scenario (which is only 8 man) and low level are locked.

By many hours Im talking about days doing nothing but the above content. Just to unlock roulettes.

exactly this ^ i personally love the story cant wait for 2morrows patch to see how 2.0 story line ends

As will I...once I spend a few more hours catching up. (my third day of doing nothing but just that)

[nuyu11]

I love the stories, it's not that good but I liked it. I like Cid character, combination of Biggs & Wedge are fun, Papalymo & Yda are cute pair.
Tataru character more appealing to among Scions member in my eyes, She is said to be a keen judge of character, which makes her perfectly suited for deciding who is to be allowed to enter the Scion's base.
F'lhaminn... no comment.
I wish Minfilia are more appealing with the tactical characteristic or badass fighter, she just plain beautiful leader with some secret.
After Scion got kidnapped all I think is how dare you kidnap my adorable Tataru and I couldn't care less about Urianger and others.
Still not complete all yet but I will do, just done with Bahamut t5 and Syrcus tower.
Gonna continue with the Hildibrand Quests later, many people recommend me to complete that first.

But I love how SE made me look like a Hero and others as sidekick hahahahahah...

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I must be one of the only few that's actively engaged in the story and never skips anything. Hell, even the stories within the crafting and gathering classes have me interested and wanting to see what happens next.

[Elusana_Celah]

I must be one of the only few that's actively engaged in the story and never skips anything. Hell, even the stories within the crafting and gathering classes have me interested and wanting to see what happens next.

Definitely not. I loved all the stories even the side stuff.

[Enkidoh]

I don't skip the story either - the storyline is the main reason I play the game (that and I'm a FF fangirl anyway ). The problem is not with the story itself, but it's execution in relation to gameplay - because Yoshi wanted to make the game about 'content based exp' (paraphrasing his words) instead of the old-style FFXI exp parties, the storyline was executed in such a way that story quests also levelled the player theoretically as they played. Of course this works well on paper, but in practice, it caused more problems that SE probably didn't anticipate (the quest window box requiring the player to accept or decline it each time is very jarring, and the big 'Quest accepted!' and 'Quest complete' titles are also immersion breaking (damn I was hoping not to use that cliched word, but, there you go).

I admit that personally I felt the story did drag a little in places because it had to be stretched in order to provide the required levelling curve for new players, meaning it was also padded with filler quests of 'speak to this person unrelated to the task at hand' - the Company of Heroes arc leading up to fighting Titan in particular was the worst incidence of this (even Y'shtola sarcastically quipped how the player was effectively wasting their time running around getting wine and cheese when the fate of the world was at stake!).

Having said that, I still love the storyline and cannot wait to see how Mr Oda, Ferne and the rest of the writing/translation and lore teams take the story into Heavensward, as the 'post game' story mostly avoided the filler quests (perhaps except for the 2.1 story which was almost the development team's 'take that!' to the community's stubborn snubbing of certain content, ala Guildhests and the Sunken Temple of Qarn at that time).

[Wizarus]

Gridania is boring, Limsa is generic. Uldah can be good at times but the Central Highlands is truly where the good stuff is at. Even the side-quest are enjoyable (Oh heretic is acting up again, just give him this dead rat). The story post-50 has been straight-up boring until you start bouncing from Uldah to Central Highlands (while going back home from time to time) and just pretend nowhere else exists.

Even pre-50 this was the case. After Ifrit in Uldah, the story becomes hella boring until you get to the Central Highlands making your way to Garuda.

Overall the story is pretty linear. Imperials are sadly more relatable(with their fear of primals and their inability to use magic for example) than the "good guy" cast. More than half of the cast starting with the Gridania leader could drop dead this next patch, and I literally will not have any f----s to give. That's bad.

[nuyu11]

Well some people more concern about the how engaging the content are and only care about their character gear and how strong they are, and they don't give a s**t about the content or lore. I play WoW like that before.
It happen to me at my first month while playing at NA\EU before, I just press ESC or ENTER at everything. After I moved out to Masamune all my friend in FC keep encouraging me not skip the dialogue or cutscene, so I do as they said and it's fun.

The content so far it's not hard to me and hoping it will be more challenging after The Binding Coil of Bahamut Turn 5.

But I'm hoping that SE can give us option to skip or not, in this way there is no issue with the player who got left behind because other player don't give a s**t about the cutscene. Skippable players can have faster run time while unskippable players can have their time to enjoy, win-win situation.