Should I insist in the game?

[kadriel]

So, after dropping the game a couple years back, I decided to give it another go.

I enjoyed the combat (it starts slows but gets better as you get more powers), the aestethics... but, around the time of my tenth "run half way across the world to talk to some guy just so he can tell you do go back all the way and talk to the other guy" kind of quest, I pretty much gave up on the story. I decided to just watch a video or something and try to rush it to reach with my friend who have more time to play and finished arr quest to unlock jobs.

I am currently lvl 42, doing the lvl 28 msq, and I am pretty much burnt. I can't handle the fetch quests, I missed most of the story, and find myself in the same spot I was the first time I dropped the game (coincidently I checked and my character was 37 at that time, so probably around the same place in msq).

Long story short is: if I get a story skip potion, will I be able to enjoy the game? Do the quests after ARR change from the unbearable fetch quests? Or is this game just not for me?

From reddit it seens even though most people thing arr msq can be quite dragged, a lot of them also say that this is a story game and If I am not enjoying it so far it might not be for me. And I don't want to dish even more money on the game if I am past the point of enjoying it.

[KageTokage]

The questing experience does get more stream-lined and has less filler and fluff post-ARR, but if you find it totally unbearable I doubt you'll enjoy the expansions, especially if you're not particularly invested in the story or lore.

Then again, there are some people who just skip through literally everything because only the actual gameplay in dungeons/raids/trials appeals to them.

[StriderShinryu]

It's pretty much generally accepted that once you get into Heavensward content proper the game not only improves but feels a little more streamlined in it's questing/presentation.
Also, the early game material is supposed to be updated with the next major patch (late July, maybe?) so if you really are interested in the early material but just want it presented in a more streamlined manner you could wait for that.

So, yeah, you could skip or just wait a little longer (or push through it as it is right now).

Now, all that said, it's still an MMO. You're always going to be getting quests to "go talk to that guy way over there and come back" or "go there and kill 5 things then come back." FF14 does a pretty reasonable job of dressing them up and not throwing too many there and back quests in your face (without at least giving you good reason). It's always going to be do some busy work-ish questing, do a dungeon/boss fight, get some story, repeat to some extent. So if it's the MMO formula that's bugging you then maybe you should cut your losses. FF14 is a great MMO, but it's still a fairly standard MMO.

[SamRF]

Now, all that said, it's still an MMO. You're always going to be getting quests to "go talk to that guy way over there and come back" or "go there and kill 5 things then come back." FF14 does a pretty reasonable job of dressing them up and not throwing too many there and back quests in your face (without at least giving you good reason). It's always going to be do some busy work-ish questing, do a dungeon/boss fight, get some story, repeat to some extent. So if it's the MMO formula that's bugging you then maybe you should cut your losses. FF14 is a great MMO, but it's still a fairly standard MMO.

Other MMOs usually have much more interesting quest design. Just looking at other major MMOs like WoW, GW2, ESO. Quests there are much more interesting and they give you more autonomy and variance. They don't feel as much of artificial step by step triggers like in FFXIV. There's also extremely low amount of combat in FFXIV quests, you usually won't be required to kill more than 3 mobs per given quest, not even sidequests, which makes you long for any combat at some point.

Let's take WoW quests for example, from excort missions on vehicle to litteraly turning into a flying elemantal and killing a giant boss on top of a huge volcano I was astounded by fun I had with quest objectives in that game compared to FFXIV (I played FFXIV first).

Examples:

• There could be a quest in which you have to collect 10 items by killing mobs, then combine the items to perform a ritual for example, then after you do the ritual a huge demon spawns. This all as 1 objective which you can all do without interacting with anything specific which makes it much more immersive and gives you a feeling of having autonomy.
• A quest you sometimes get on your own without the involvement of an npc, you might have to investigate a crime scene or something and you keep going further on the investigation (which you accept and complete on the go).
• Quests in which you have to talk to npc's in which you can choose dialogue that can turn the NPC against you.
• Small bits of parkour
• Converting mobs and making them follow you and help you with ongoing fights.
• Having to escort NPC's, going to fight some kind of boss together with your questgiver.
• Having to steal a key from guards to open the locks of prison crates to free your allies (and in return they help you fighting for example).
• Quests in which you transform in some different entity in which you travel and fulfill some duty
• etc, probably other stuff as well since there seems much more possible in terms of variance.

Things like this are unheard of in FFXIV. Compared to this, our quest objectives feel incredibly boring imo. Likely has to do with the instanced nature of this game, scripting and engine that may make it impossible to have too much variance or mechanics in open world content. You can see that there's an attempt to introduce more variance and interesting quest mechanics in later expansions, but they feel and play kind of awkward imo.

I took WoW as an example, but the other major MMOs and others might have even more interesting quest design. ESO is a pretty unfair comparison I guess since it's basically an Elder Scrolls game disguised as an MMO.

Bottom line imo is that FFXIV is notably lacking in this aspect.

[Lersayil]

...

I guess some people care about it, but a quest is a quest is a quest. MMO mechanics are generic, hard scripted and boring no matter how much frosting you plaster on them. I'm actually thankful that FFXIV (usually) doesn't pester me with clunky mechanics in the quests and focuses on writing. It's almost refreshing that they don't try to dress up quests as something interesting when really, they aren't. I'm also guessing that many of these mechanics would turn out even clunkier than usual with the spaghetti engine.

Maybe ESO is different though, didn't play that one.

As for the OP: Personally I would advise grinding it out to HW (which is admittedly a lot to ask for) and see if you like it or not from there. Buying a skip potion is arguably quite the gamble if you don't know what you're in for. Unless the skip price counts as negligible to you, in which case go for it.

The story is a sizable draw to most people, so if you don't like or care about it, you are purely betting on the mechanical and social enjoyment. Both quite subjective.

[SamRF]

I guess some people care about it, but a quest is a quest is a quest. MMO mechanics are generic, hard scripted and boring no matter how much frosting you plaster on them. I'm actually thankful that FFXIV (usually) doesn't pester me with clunky mechanics in the quests and focuses on writing. It's almost refreshing that they don't try to dress up quests as something interesting when really, they aren't. I'm also guessing that many of these mechanics would turn out even clunkier than usual with the spaghetti engine.

Not sure what exactly you're implying. A quest is a quest.. yeah but do you not want it to be as enjoyable as possible? Or will you always only see quests as a means to an end? In other MMOs, those "clunky" mechanics as well as autonomy give the quests more immersion and makes you actually enjoy the open world to a greater extend as well as develop a closer bond with it while you engage in more unpredictable activities with greater variance. Only reason I can see for not wanting this is that you just dislike questing in general and perhaps only care for story. That's okay I guess but that's not everyone's priority and many sidequests don't even have any story. Imo you just can't get around the fact that quests lack engagement in this game and aren't as fun.

I'm sure the devs acknowledge this since you can clearly see there's an effort to increase quest mechanics and adding variance in ShB.

[Lersayil]

Not sure what exactly you're implying. A quest is a quest.. yeah but do you not want it to be as enjoyable as possible? Or will you always only see quests as a means to an end? In other MMOs, those "clunky" mechanics as well as autonomy give the quests more immersion and makes you actually enjoy the open world to a greater extend as well as develop a closer bond with it while you engage in more unpredictable activities with greater variance. Only reason I can see for not wanting this is that you just dislike questing in general and perhaps only care for story. That's okay I guess but that's not everyone's priority and many sidequests don't even have any story. Imo you just can't get around the fact that quests lack engagement in this game and aren't as fun.

I'm sure the devs acknowledge this since you can clearly see there's an effort to increase quest mechanics and adding variance in ShB.

I'm implying that to me, MMO quests don't give any immersion via mechanics. Its just smoke and mirrors, and once seen through, they're just extra mechanics without any enjoyment. I played most popular MMOs in the last two decades (ESO aside) and no matter how much they try, MMO quests ARE a means to an end. Either to tell a story, or to get rewards. To me neither requires the mechanics you mentioned, and often serve only to annoy. The MMO genre just comes with inherent limitations that make these efforts a token gesture, and never truly successful.

I actually prefer the old, cut-and-dry kill x to collect y quests without any of the new "innovative" objectives popularized since... one of the WoW expansions? Or GW2? Can't recall which started it first. Anyways, I like it when mechanics don't try and pretend to be something they are not: fun.

And yes, I'm aware that I most likely represent a minority view.

[kadriel]

I come from DDO which is a complete instance based MMO (Just dungeons, with lore either included in the dungeon or given by the quest giver), that I enjoyed quite a bit. Might explain some of it.

I think I would be ok with fetch quests every now and then, but from the responses I am guessing they make up most of the content of the game, so yeah, maybe I should cut the losses

[EaMett]

I come from DDO which is a complete instance based MMO (Just dungeons, with lore either included in the dungeon or given by the quest giver), that I enjoyed quite a bit. Might explain some of it.

I think I would be ok with fetch quests every now and then, but from the responses I am guessing they make up most of the content of the game, so yeah, maybe I should cut the losses

Going to repeat what others have said and add tidbits. The Lvl 1-50 (+100 Lvl 50 quests) are tedious, that is a fact. BUT, they are world building and honestly you'll be very confused without them. Also if you like to run content, a lot of content is locked behind the MSQ so by buying a skip you'll miss running those organically, (mostly all the primals and some dungeons). That being said you have a couple of options.

1) You can wait until 5.3 (june/july) as they will have reworked the msq and it should no longer be fetch hell and be way more streamlined. I would recommend this as option 2 is tedious in it's own way.
2) You can find the story on youtube, watch that and then story skip. This comes with a few caveats. First one is that if you skip the story you lose your main source of xp up until 50. The second one is that watching the story and playing it are different enough that you won't feel invested as much and you won't experience the story to it's fullest. The third one is that the story videos on youtube are pretty long and sometimes incomplete. Here's a playlist with all of the cutscenes up until where the story skip should land you : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxF...YN4uaM&index=1
The first video in there is missing cutscenes from the two final dungeons around the 3:06:14 mark. You can pause that video once you get there and find those extra cutscenes here and here then go back to the first video to finish it up and continue with the rest of the playlist. All in all you're looking at close to 10h of viewing.

If you skip without looking up the story you will be lost without a doubt, you can't make up for the loss of 10h of story buildup. I would personally just bite the bullet and do the content, put some music on, find a nice FC and chat away with people while you do it.

Skipping anymore than ARR (as suggested above) would land you in real deep waters for no reason. Don't do that to yourself.

[SamRF]

Only thing potentially interesting about the questst in this game, is the story. The objectives will be very streamlined and boring throughout the whole game, they take your hand along every step of the way and nothing exciting happens, even when you're about to face an enemy they will almost always give a purpe indicator warning to put the final nail in the coffin on your immersion. There's also usually very little variance in quest objectives, although it does get better with later expansions. Only time something exciting happens is during cutscenes. Solo instances you come along the way for some quests can be nice, but all quests and gametime considered, there are very few of those.

So yeah, only thing making the quests worthwile is the story. If that doesn't interest you, you'd be in for a long grind for many hours even when you skip every cutscene. Buying a story skip could perhaps be worth it if you're strictly interested in high-end raiding, other than that I really wouldn't bother since this game is kind of lacking in endgame combat content for casuals, especially if you skip all story.