this game is NOT friendly for those who return after long absence

[Cooperal]

I love the way he says "a year of main story". Like it takes as much time to play as it does to develop...

Three or so days of effort could have saved a lot of embarrassment. Less by skipping the cutscenes, since he seems to treat story as some nuisance addition that he doesn't want to do. I mean if he did want to do it, where's the problem, right?

[seraseth]

I love that this game has a main story, it makes it very unique to me, and I love playing the main story. I have no problem with dungeons, and flight, and access to other areas being locked behind it.

The only minor issues I have with it, was there was too much boring little fetch and carry crap quests between 2.0 and 2.55

I was deeply enjoying the story, only to have to stop and do crap filler for 5-10 quests before I could continue with the story. It probably wasn't as bad for those who did it as it came out, because it was your only new content in small doses over the space of months, but doing it all at once, you feel the filler.

The other issue (which isn't really one for me personally since I finished all the msq, but a friend, and likely quite a few others) is all 3 new jobs being locked behind 2.55 msq.

I have a friend who just got the game and loves dark knights in other games and wanted to play it... I had to tell him he had to go play something else for 50 levels, finish all the msq from original, unlock drk at lvl 30, and then get that to 50...

He was less than impressed with the idea.

[Blanchimont]

The game's 2.1 to 2.55 story could also be saved some embarrassment by reducing the number of random fetch quests and talking with someone in multiple places. There is just a ridiculous amount of nonsense and pointless quests in the story that do nothing to advance the main story once you have finished the Main Scenario ones. They should push them off to side quests and make optional character development quests for these characters instead.

Heavensward also barely ties into the old quests as well which makes me wonder why they even bothered making clearing "Before the Fall" a requirement when it has almost nothing to do with resolving those issues with the exception of like 3 small parts. One because they just happened to find out by luck. One because some dude managed to find a specific person in the middle of nowhere who knows what happened and what to do. And one more just so that they could bring you to a 3rd NPC when they could have just told you the name of the NPC to just look for the person. With the pace that they were moving they should have just separated them into an entirely different quest chain instead of breaking up the main story with "hey remember that guy from before the expansion? let's go help them" instead of forcibly jamming them in so that it would connect to the old story.

[File2ish]

Heavensward also barely ties into the old quests as well which makes me wonder why they even bothered making clearing "Before the Fall" a requirement when it has almost nothing to do with resolving those issues with the exception of like 3 small parts.

Before the fall is the entire reason we got into Ishgard. They lessened the seriousness of the consequences of the events by doing some stuff i'd rather not spoil (stuff that would have been politically interesting for the realm), but nonetheless it is the reason we got into Ishgard as guests of House Fortemps. Had said events not occurred, we could have been accepted anyway because of The Steps of Faith battle (which happened in Before the Fall and gave reason for the next events to transpire), but at the very least it provided a more dire setting for the start of 3.0.

[Blanchimont]

Before the fall is the entire reason we got into Ishgard. They lessened the seriousness of the consequences of the events by doing some stuff i'd rather not spoil (stuff that would have been politically interesting for the realm), but nonetheless it is the reason we got into Ishgard as guests of House Fortemps. Had said events not occurred, we could have been accepted anyway because of The Steps of Faith battle (which happened in Before the Fall and gave reason for the next events to transpire), but at the very least it provided a more dire setting for the start of 3.0.

The problem for me was that throughout most of the story, it never really felt dire. Instead, I felt like they pushed a reset button twice. Once for the Scions and once more to make sure that Heavensward ended exactly where it began.

EDIT:
Meanwhile, Alexander has reintroduced something I hated. It's going to take at least 4 weeks and a lot of lucky rolls to get the items to trade in. I was extremely disappointed when I found this out.

[Cooperal]

Heavensward also barely ties into the old quests as well which makes me wonder why they even bothered making clearing "Before the Fall"

Well actually... there are plenty of glaring things which tie in. Things that are far too important to the story to skip those phases.
-Lady Iceheart
-Your relationship with House Fortemps
-The near-abolishment of the Scions (as well as the revival of one member)
-The fate of the Sultana (though that one's quite short-lived to be fair)
-The way that new NPCs recognise your god-like accomplishments (as well as in the story of new jobs)
-Midgardsormr

They could have got rid of all the things leading to these if they thought way ahead but their storyline would have been extremely weak unless they placed down some near-as-long alternative. I agree there should have been less fetch stuff, I never exactly feel like a traveller as it is with so many aetherytes being placed so generously (and for the same reason it wouldn't feel any more enriching to ignore teleports). I just wish they flashed forward to after we already arrived at the next destination more often. I don't think it would work to well to cut certain quests into side ones however, since some are time sensitive and plenty of quest-givers get cut out of the story later on.

[Blanchimont]

That's the problem. I never felt like you actually needed to have any of those in 2.1 to 2.55 to actually make it work. Lady Iceheart shows up, but they give a good explanation of who she is so you could literally skip it over and still understand who she is and what she did. It never felt like I needed to have played out the Shiva arc to understand. House Fortemps is probably still the strongest tie, but overall it felt kind of weak. Any of your other achievements along the way during the main quest storyline could have worked. I believe you already befriended them in the Main Scenario Quests. No need to have actually slain a dragon. You also already wiped out 3 Primals in the main story and single handedly stopped an invasion of the imperials. I think that is already enough. The fate of the Sultana felt like it was forcibly thrown in much like rescuing her #1 fan and I believe one of the groups of people responsible for this was also eliminated off screen. The same for Y'shtola who only reappears to help you find someone. Midgardsormr barely made an appearance and was rarely referenced to at all. In fact, I felt like you could have taken him out of all of the times he talked to the other dragons and such and it would not have made much of a difference since the dragons that you talked to were all fairly cooperative.

I don't mind the lack of aetherytes, but the map designs were terrible. They kept dividing the maps into random sections with random height differentials just to make sure that you have to get flying in order to access those regions. They should have just divided the maps entirely with an Eastern and Western Hinterlands or a Northern and a Southern Sea of Clouds rather than make it so that it is only accessible after a certain part of the story. They're big and empty enough as it is.

[I_Punch_Bees]

I came back after a long absence as my husband talked about it. I was disappointed the new jobs had to be unlocked after 50, which almost put me off, but I love the new Au'Ra race.

And who says the main story HAS to be done in a year? Yes it's a lot and I have to do the same thing. Since I know most of it, I just SKIP the cutscenes, do the stuff, then SKIP again. But I'm also having a blast doing dungeons, getting jobs to level 30 and seeing the stories there, and more.

The game is what you make of it.

I'm returning after a year of absence, eager to test new jobs, new areas, exp some jobs to 60, test flying mounts and all the new stuff. So I bought the expansion, early access, and got in, looking for new fun things to do.
But I can't.
< snip>

[Skypirate]

Anything you haven't experienced is new. Therefore all the Content you have to clear to reach heavensward is "New content.