Into Ishgard

[Jybril]

ARR is the worst because it has way too many filler quests.
On the bright side, they stopped the large amount of fillers.
There's still some in the next expansions but it's much more exciting
because it kinda gets to the point much quicker.
In SB, there's really no "breathing" room so you'll have more fun.

[RichardButte]

The texts are not the bad part, more the running around between the texts

The walking to one end of a zone only to talk to one NPC and then walk back definitely sucks, yes, but there's too little story scraped over too many fetch quests in that whole sequence, really...

Once you hit the HW quests it slows down again with a bunch of boring, fetch quests and mind numbing running until you get to 60, then the same in Stormblood from 60-70. It's only after you get past the introductory quests in an expac that the quests become less errand boy and more heroic. That's the nature of the FFXIV beast.

I dunno, I thought the story throughout HW was much more focused and interesting. Plus, Alphinaud and the crew actually start fighting alongside you instead of just sending you places to kill things and showing up all, "Oh noes! Did we miss the fight? Too bad!" afterwards.

[Dark-Saviour]

In SB, there's really no "breathing" room so you'll have more fun.

Disagree, but to each their own.
ARR did have a lot more of the pointless "Go talk to X, then come back so I can send you back to verify what X said, so you can then come back and confirm/deny what was previously reported, etc." thing going on, especially considering linkpearls are a thing*, but SB relishes the "It's a new village! Ingratiate yourself via mundane tasks!" trope.

*Find it especially amusing they eventually started just going with "Linkpearl communications can be intercepted, so we can't use those!" as a justification to avoid that argument going forward...

[Jybril]

The walking to one end of a zone only to talk to one NPC and then walk back definitely sucks, yes, but there's too little story scraped over too many fetch quests in that whole sequence, really...



I dunno, I thought the story throughout HW was much more focused and interesting. Plus, Alphinaud and the crew actually start fighting alongside you instead of just sending you places to kill things and showing up all, "Oh noes! Did we miss the fight? Too bad!" afterwards.

HW had a much more "Final Fantasy" feeling for me...because it actually felt like a journey with friends.
They did the same here, but for me, the characters weren't that great...Lyse turned out to be terrible.
SPOILERS:

Things just happened to fast and appointing her Leader after whatshisface died was random. She just didn't do anything but
go all in and wanted to rush and beat heads. Trying to step away from her "Yda" self it was weird.
They should of made Pippin lead or someone else or that one Miqote chick, not her or give her more time to develop.

I'd take Hien, Alisaie, Yugiri and Gotetsu anyday. Much more interesting. I would say after the whole war between dragons, HW got boring with WoD lol.

Disagree, but to each their own.
ARR did have a lot more of the pointless "Go talk to X, then come back so I can send you back to verify what X said, so you can then come back and confirm/deny what was previously reported, etc." thing going on, especially considering linkpearls are a thing*, but SB relishes the "It's a new village! Ingratiate yourself via mundane tasks!" trope. *Find it especially amusing they eventually started just going with "Linkpearl communications can be intercepted, so we can't use those!" as a justification to avoid that argument going forward...

Well that's what I meant, ARR took too long to get to the point because we continuously had to go A/B/A/B/A/D/C/A all the time...
ARR is what stops people from continuing this game because it's drawn out. I don't think SB has done that but I was
far more interested in the story so I felt like everything was a snap of a finger. Was fun.

[MicahZerrshia]

I dunno, I thought the story throughout HW was much more focused and interesting. Plus, Alphinaud and the crew actually start fighting alongside you instead of just sending you places to kill things and showing up all, "Oh noes! Did we miss the fight? Too bad!" afterwards.

We will have to agree to disagree here lol I found heavensward so absurdly boring. After waiting to get into Ishgard since 2010 it was a big disappointment imo. Plus none of the characters were really personable, they wrapped up the cliff hanger from ARR way to quickly and easily and every story ark was a bit blah and rushed. And compared to Coil, Alex (and now Omega) was just something you could use the CS skip feature on and miss nothing important. Same with Void Ark. So much potential, so rushed and a big swing and miss story wise. Don't even get me started on how they failed horribly with all the potential that was the warring triad which they failed horribly to capitalize on.

HW was a big disappointment for me. Likely why I went from spending most my gaming time in XIV to just here and there. Fingers crossed for SB but I'm not expecting miracles.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

They could add an introduction story where you start at Ishgard (just for unlocking DRK/AST) but no job quests accessible until ARR msq is done.
For starter, we get kicked out because we found ourself stranded in foundation without proper papers. I can't think of a story for MCH since we need Cid to be there.

[Hycinthus]

Just slog through it. I did it too one weekend for like 15 hours straight. No other way.

[Lambdafish]

I can't think of a story for MCH since we need Cid to be there.

And thats the point, it is a very difficult problem to fix. Jump potions are the immediate solution, but the devs will have to prune ARR for the problem to truly be fixed.

My advice to the OP is to just get it done, you said you are enjoying the story so enjoy it. Before you know it you will be done and you can get DRK.

[Velaethia]

And thats the point, it is a very difficult problem to fix. Jump potions are the immediate solution, but the devs will have to prune ARR for the problem to truly be fixed.

My advice to the OP is to just get it done, you said you are enjoying the story so enjoy it. Before you know it you will be done and you can get DRK.

The story is kind of dull at the moment but I still want to experience it. I'm big on story lines in games. I don't like just skimping them, or not paying attention.

[Rymm]

The story is kind of dull at the moment but I still want to experience it. I'm big on story lines in games. I don't like just skimping them, or not paying attention.

Since you like the story part of the game, I don't want to give you any spoilers so I will be as vague as possible.

The DRK job quest chain is AMAZING, by far my favorite one out of all the classes and jobs in the entire game. It also has ties to other parts of the story quest and really digs down into what makes the WoL tick, as much as any and more than most of the job quests. Familiarizing yourself with Ishgard and their lore/mindset will also give the quests extra dimension. Skipping the story leading up to it, or even doing the quests out of order (unlocking DRK and then going back to the MSQ) will absolutely be cheating yourself out of a lot of the emotional impact of what is easily one the of the best quest chains in the entire game.

The ARR MSQ takes forever and a day and really needs to have a lot of the filler pruned from it, but just slog through it. It'll be worth it, I promise.