Im getting tired of the MSQests that kill you at the end every time [SPOILER ALERT]

[Rhus]

You have 4 skills!
1 is a heal and the other is a LB button...so 3 skills that do damage.
The characters even tell you to use the LB before he attacks and even if they didn't he charges it up for about an hour before attacking and you have a full LB gauge by then...instinct should say to use it like in every fight where that happens.
Mind you I can't sound too surprised. I've had 2 or 3 instances of players this past few weeks who don't know how LBs (caster) work or what LB even was. Even had to walk someone through where to find the LB buton in the Actions menu to add it to their hotbar in Lvl roulette the other day. So this just seems par for the course.

[Ceridwenae]

If you've played all the MSQ content to this particular point, you've seen this sort of thing before, unless you have jump-potioned the previous expansions and filler content and somehow didn't figure you played for a bit as Tankred (his new name, shush) in Shadowbringers. You have used LBs as other chars before, or finished you-as-the-player's side of the fight before they AI - LB. Each time these RP sections occur, you can stop up before fighting, read any blurb and skill tips newly presented, and because the game does it so much, you should then be somewhat able to keep one eyeball on the text box and on your hotbars, and the other eyeball on the mobs/tells and on-screen text and/or duty buttons. My suggestion in light of this is if you keep running into walls where you're finding this stuff problematic to complete, stop running. Slow up and do that walking thing. Deep breaths, patience and time*. It helps lots. Hope this doesn't come off as condescending, I'm being as genuine as I can as I know what it's like to have issues with something others seem to be fine with (and I, too, am mostly fine with now, I think), but this works for me when finding something difficult.

However, if you're simply finding these role play scenarios old hat, then fair enough. Horses for courses and I'd possibly even agree to an extent. I don't think Estinien's fight was anywhere near as long for getting through as the Will of the Moon if the length of the duties is a bugbear (but I'll happily be corrected). I liked Will of the Moon, even if the first half took three or so attempts and it really needed a waymarker between the two halves. I liked Estinien's fight despite a couple of caveats (see below); it was - okay! I know how to DRG (the mileage of RealDRGPlayers may well vary on the truth of that), I can do this no problems! Which was how it went. Jump stabbity, stabbity, dodge jump dodge stabbity stabbity for a bit, repeat x2, LB, or some such. I don't really remember, it was the other month.

My most pressing issue with that encounter - at least the bits I remember - having played a little DRG, was I needed more buttons to press. The lack of buttons disturbed me. The shoulders on his armour were also quite distressing. Please let me design this armour instead, thank you. This was my general takeaway from the whole thing.


*try fishing in this game if you haven't already. You will suddenly look up from your computer and realise it's 6 months later.

[Mansion]

Troll thread (I hope) but there is a bit of a point. Even without dying, these fights are quite pointlessly lengthy. Although the 5.1 one was the best by far (it had a small dungeon feeling), and I enjoyed the Qitana one (I felt like Lara Croft a bit), most scripted encounters (role play or solo) sometimes lack of a certain kick to make them thoroughly enjoyable.

I'd say if we control a NPC, either give us more actions (without starting in medias res so we have a chance to take a look at the actions), or make the fight quick or engaging. The Thancred vs Ranjit was such a pain.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

So I just tried the Estinien quest in 5.1 and guess what? YOU GET KILLED AT THE END. This is if you don't bother looking it up and studying it in detail before you try it. Which shouldn't be necessary.

Well, speaking from personal experience, I cleared that solo duty in one shot. Mainly because Estinien's abilities are absurdly overpowered and offer you a great deal of mobility, but also mainly because he outright says "I will show you the power of Nidhogg" or something right before the game expects you to use the Limit Break and oh would you look at what just popped up on my toolbar?

[LaylaTsarra]

I had trouble with the end quest until I realized I could kill all the adds with one of the skills. My fault for not paying attention closely enough and for simply trying to dodge AOE's. i will say it was frustrating until I discovered that.

The difficulty options do not show up until you've wiped once.

[Noitems]

The login process for getting into this forum using a security token is harder than that solo instance.

[Bright-Flower]

I have the opposite issue. I find these quests where you control an NPC to be boring because they're too easy. They're in a tough spot where they can't be too hard really because they're giving you a new character to control with just a handful of buttons. Which turns out being really simple, and even simple jobs like red mage and dancer are more engaging to play than some combination of the following.

1. Main attack button. (A combo rolled into one button for this latest fight.)
2. Dot
3. OGCD attack
4. Self heal.
5. Limit break.

The Hien one was particularly annoying because it was just Hien and friends trying to hold the line until the WOL shows up and then we fight Elidizenos for real so the fight really served no point story wise to show us events we weren't present for. Honestly though I feel like story wise these npc battles don't offer anything we couldn't get through cutscenes.

[Crushnight]

I have the opposite issue. I find these quests where you control an NPC to be boring because they're too easy. They're in a tough spot where they can't be too hard really because they're giving you a new character to control with just a handful of buttons. Which turns out being really simple, and even simple jobs like red mage and dancer are more engaging to play than some combination of the following.

1. Main attack button. (A combo rolled into one button for this latest fight.)
2. Dot
3. OGCD attack
4. Self heal.
5. Limit break.

The Hien one was particularly annoying because it was just Hien and friends trying to hold the line until the WOL shows up and then we fight Elidizenos for real so the fight really served no point story wise to show us events we weren't present for. Honestly though I feel like story wise these npc battles don't offer anything we couldn't get through cutscenes.

Still more interesting than instances for healers now unfortunately.

[WhiteArchmage]

Short of someone else playing the game for you I'm not sure what you expect Square to do for you.

Why, make if a full-blown FMV displaying the awesomeness of our damn-near-impossible-to-render-in-an-FMV PC, so then people can complain about how those skills aren't actually used in-game and it took 1 year per patch to get the aforementioned FMV in. /s

TBH, I think it's a catch-22 on this. If the fights are short, there will be complaints that they're too easy and boring and don't convey the "epic" feel they're supposed to. Them being longer brings complaints that they break up the pace and are a pain to complete if you (somehow) die.

EDIT:

I have the opposite issue. I find these quests where you control an NPC to be boring because they're too easy. They're in a tough spot where they can't be too hard really because they're giving you a new character to control with just a handful of buttons. Which turns out being really simple, and even simple jobs like red mage and dancer are more engaging to play than some combination of the following.

1. Main attack button. (A combo rolled into one button for this latest fight.)
2. Dot
3. OGCD attack
4. Self heal.
5. Limit break.

The Hien one was particularly annoying because it was just Hien and friends trying to hold the line until the WOL shows up and then we fight Elidizenos for real so the fight really served no point story wise to show us events we weren't present for. Honestly though I feel like story wise these npc battles don't offer anything we couldn't get through cutscenes.

This I can understand and get behind, while I get that the skillset is too small because it's throwing you into a completely different gameplay, it doesn't end up conveying the "epic" feel I was talking about because you really don't have THAT much to do...

[Novae]

When the MSQ offers you to LB as Estinien, you just do it.