Why do you like this game?

[Iscah]

Story and lore - for my first time through the game, I didn't even notice a lot of the 'tediousness' of the MSQ and fetchquests (some more than others) because it was revealing the world to me bit-by-bit. I ran all the sidequests as I found them, and I liked how they filled in details of the world. The free trial segment of the MSQ is capped off with discovering the aftermath of the Garlean attack on the Waking Sands, which was a potent moment of storytelling, and I was eager to see what came next.

At this point there are so many characters I care about (my natural setting is to like them and get attached to them unless they're shown to be unpleasant people) and I like to see their stories unfold across the various plotlines. Shadowbringers was fantastic for getting into more depth with the Scions and bringing back a certain side character I liked in their original story but wasn't expecting to see back.

I spend a lot of time over on the Lore forum, and I really enjoy having an ongoing narrative to 'pick over' and figure out clues about what's going on and what it all means.


World design - it's beautiful.


Character designs - I love the design options for playable characters. People complain so much about the limitations, and sure there are some additional things that would be nice to have control over, but they're not necessary. The characters look appealing and I've made designs that I like for nearly all the playable races. (Perhaps because I start from the point of playing in the character creator and finding designs that I like, rather than having an image in mind first and being frustrated that I can't match it?) I just love playing around and seeing what combinations of features work well together, sometimes with a general concept of what the character will be like, or sometimes make the design first and then work out 'who they are'.

The side-effect of playing with character concepts is that I then want to see them all "come alive" in game so I end up with alts... which is a good and bad thing. Mostly good. And a lot of that is to do with....


Glamour - interlinked with character design, dressing them up and finding outfits that suit them is great fun! Also a fair bit of why I end up making alts rather than simply admiring them in the character creator where you can't try on anything except the relic gear. I see them as individuals with their own tastes in clothing, so figuring out how each of them would dress for the same role is interesting, and costume ideas are usually going to look good on one of them. (Also different ways to combine with a set piece, like last year's Hatchingtide jacket that you had to wear to progress the event - I spent more time at the marketboard than doing the egg hunt. And have added two more characters since then, and a third is eager to get out of my head...)


The battle system isn't a specific draw for me - it's just what you have to do to level your character. I don't mind it, but I'm not especially keen on it either - I'd prefer a lot less abilities and simpler intuitive rotations, putting more emphasis on the individual fights than having to keep pressing the right complex sequence of buttons while you do it.

I do enjoy dungeons in general though, especially ones with good music. The pace of the music makes a big difference to how the dungeon itself feels.

"Endgame content" isn't a draw at all to me. I'd rather spend my time in the game leveling other classes or playing on my alts.