Is there anything meaningful/gratifying to do in this game that's not MSQ?

[Ayer2015]

Citation needed.

read his interview from Gamescom, the future of 14 seems rather underwhelming. You can find the full interview with a quick Google search.... but this part interested me.

"For me, I kind of feel that 5 years doesn't really matter. I mean, it's been 8 years since 1.0. What's more important is how FFXIV is going to evolve next. I think we're running out of features that we're missing as far as the global standard for MMORPGs goes. If I had to say, I think that in order to prevent other MMOs from catching up, we should flesh out what it means to "live" in the world of FFXIV with things that only FFXIV can do, like Perform and the housing roleplay stuff."

[Lunavi]

read his interview from Gamescom, the future of 14 seems rather underwhelming. You can find the full interview with a quick Google search.... but this part interested me.

"For me, I kind of feel that 5 years doesn't really matter. I mean, it's been 8 years since 1.0. What's more important is how FFXIV is going to evolve next. I think we're running out of features that we're missing as far as the global standard for MMORPGs goes. If I had to say, I think that in order to prevent other MMOs from catching up, we should flesh out what it means to "live" in the world of FFXIV with things that only FFXIV can do, like Perform and the housing roleplay stuff."

Underwhealming? That sounds exactly like the kind of stuff an MMO should focus on in my book as that is something only an MMORPG can do.

[Aylis]

read his interview from Gamescom, the future of 14 seems rather underwhelming. You can find the full interview with a quick Google search.... but this part interested me.

"For me, I kind of feel that 5 years doesn't really matter. I mean, it's been 8 years since 1.0. What's more important is how FFXIV is going to evolve next. I think we're running out of features that we're missing as far as the global standard for MMORPGs goes. If I had to say, I think that in order to prevent other MMOs from catching up, we should flesh out what it means to "live" in the world of FFXIV with things that only FFXIV can do, like Perform and the housing roleplay stuff."

I need to bring up the full interview to see for myself o.O but that one snippet comes out as half really arrogant and half total ignorance and out of touch on the state of current MMO's. Running out of features to meet the global standard? Ummm, I as well as plenty others can come up with lists of things FFXIV is lacking as per the global standard. Prevent other MMO's from catching up? Yeah, quite the opposite. Things only FFXIV can do? Perform? Ummm yeah wasn't it Archage that had a similar thing? Housing roleplay stuff? Right >_> hello every MMO ever created that had player housing or even just buildings players can enter in general.

It feels like he's saying "Pfft, It has Final Fantasy in the name! They'll play it no matter what!"

[OurMom]

It feels like he's saying "Pfft, It has Final Fantasy in the name! They'll play it no matter what!"

And he's not wrong, a friend of mine was just talking about how this game is boring and he doesn't do much in it but he's going to keep playing simply cause it's a FF game. And yes Archeage had a "perform" type feature that's way better than the one here.


On topic: Honestly, just power through the cut scenes, as someone that likes story but now how it's done here, just skip it all. It's super predictable and you aren't missing anything. The fun honestly doesn't start until end game, you've made it through the truly awful part, ARR, you can do it.

[Gemina]

No one can tell you if there is more gratifying things to do in the game. Everyone playing this game finds what they enjoy, set goals based on that and pursues them. Some people are all about EX/Savage clears, some spend all their time crafting/gathering/housing; some (like me) are glamour chasers and will do anything to get what they want; some enjoy getting all jobs to max level; some are big game fishers and aim to close out all the fishing holes, and some are trying to clear all floors of PoTD and now HoH as well.

The one thing that is common for all of these players doing different things is ALL of us have to go through the MSQ. Nearly everything is gated behind it in one way or the other, and if you don't enjoy progressing the main story and seeing your character develop with the others you are going to have a really tough time achieving your other goals in this game.

So what's your niche? What are you here to do? Without a sense of direction, frustration sets in easily. Whatever it is, there is no getting around the MSQ.

[Claviusnex]

This game is driven by the MSQ and pretty much everything is locked behind it. The only way I know to skip is to buy a tails of adventure from the mog station for $25. If you don't want to spend extra then grinding the MSQ is your only alternative.

Edit:
Here's a link to the description page.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/tales...ture#mainquest

[Aylis]

So should I just bite the bullet and play through at least another dozen hours of this grind before I encounter a zone where there are other people and rewards are useful and progression feels meaningful or is there some obscure system that I've overlooked that offers some sort of reprieve from this endless tedium?

There are a few things yes. Granted yes the MSQ quest is a slog and yes there are no really meaningful things going on in terms of character progression while going through it aside from what dungeons you unlocked to keep a feeling of progression in the currant. FFXIV doesn't function as a normal MMO and makes you think outside the box and more or less think ahead in terms of progression and does have things on the side to help that. Even if they don't seem meaningful in the present they do offer small breaks or just for the sake of something else to do to prevent MSQ slog burnout.

Old dungeon farming: While yes the drops from the dungeons themselves are basically junk gear (unless you're really into glamor, then that's another story) they do give tokens at the end that can be saved forever. When you do finish the MSQ you'll have a good amount of them to whale out at the token vendors for some nice things.

B and C rank Hunts: C rank daily quest hunts are unlocked fairly early and while most hunts need flying to really take advantage of. In the early stages C and B rank hunts fall into the same bracket as dungeons. Meaning "do what you can do because it adds up" If you're at a point where you can only do say 3-5 of them a day? That's still an extra 3000-5000'ish gold per day and more importantly Hunt Mark collection which can also be used at the hunt vendors and rather early on to buy some nice things. Using what I did as an example, I had a full set of item level 310 hunt gear ready to go before I was even halfway through the SB MSQ and long before I could actually wear it. All just from doing daily C ranks and weekly B ranks. Then I took the money earned and started building an item level 350 set.

Red and Blue Scripts: Since you mentioned crafting and gathering and while this is unlocked later in the MSQ it's basically the hunt equivalent for crafters and gatherers. As with PVE hunts, some nice things to get if you're interested in pursuing crafting and or gathering.

Timeworn Maps: While were on the subject of gathering, these also exist in the world and as far as I know have zero ties to the MSQ (minus the one exception of needing to get to other zones) However if you do get one. Its one per day rng chance at any gathering node. If the map happens to be in a zone you do have access too. Is a chance at some rare crafting goodies that sell for a good chunk of change on AH. Later on come the Timeworn Dragonskin and its SB version. Full party maps that have a chance to open up a portal to Aquapolis for more rare drops and this really is a lot of fun to do with friends.

3.0 and 4.0 follow the same identical formula in these systems and share pretty much everything between the two. So SB is a bit more bearable in a sense. Using hunts again as an example once you do get to SB its easy to go back to HS to double up on the farming and use what you get there to further yourself in SB. No doubt 5.0 will be exactly the same too when its time. So then we can triple up on our farming to help make 5.0 progression more bearable.

This is a think ahead, plan ahead game after all.

[Zsolen]

You can do pvp. If you want it to be more challenging, you can do ranked pvp.

[Rufalus]

All of the major content is gated behind MSQ. If you're skipping all of the cutscenes out of an expectation that they will be bad then you're skipping the heart of the game and where a large amount of the developer resources have been spent and will continue to be spent. There's an extension to MSQ every major patch and a huge amount of story added on an expansion pack.

[Rowde]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post4759793