Comparing HW MSQ to ARR MSQ and should I buy the HW MSQ skip?

[EmmetOtter]

I just finished ARR and entered HW. So far, there's a lot I like about this game but the story telling isn't one of them. I kind of liked ARR's story up to "Ultimate Weapon" (even as cheesy as it was) but it's my understanding that's the part of the story revamped with 5.3 (the only patch I really have played in) and everything that followed was untouched by 5.3's quest pruning. Frankly the Before The Dawn series was nearly unbearable and seemed to emphasize creating as many tediously time consuming steps as possible at the expense of telling a good story. I would rank it as the absolute worst MMO story experience I have ever endured and I will never replay the ARR MSQ ever again under any circumstances.

I wasn't aware of a MSQ skip until I nearly finished ARR but now I'm seriously considering it for HW.

How does HW's msq compare to ARR's? While I would like to know "is the story better" but more than that did SE do the same thing in HW as they originally did in ARR: chop up the story into as many pointless steps as possible in a blatant time sink?

If I buy the HW MSQ skip is there anything that becomes more difficult to get in game or that I lose out entirely on? Are things unlocked by completing MSQ like the Black Chocobo and compass mailed to me?

Thanks

[Zaddi]

I found the HW story way more enjoyable than the ARR story. There are a couple of fetch quests and slower parts, but not at all as bad as in ARR (pre-revamp, I've not tried the revamped ARR).

EDIT: If you buy a story skip, I think you get all the rewards from the MSQ, but I've never bought one myself, so I'm not sure

[Infindox]

I don't want to sound like an annoyance but please do not skip HW. ARR is quite a bore and I wouldn't be fussed if someone skipped it,but they definitely fixed issues with the flow of the quests. There are a few annoying bits, but nothing compared to ARR.

[Doozer]

If you're still on your first character ever in the game, I would never recommend a story skip. Even if you just skip HW and not SB, ShB, or any future expansions, you'll be at a disadvantage because you won't know a huge chunk of the story. And that really does matter.

[Frizze]

The short answer is that most of your fears are unfounded. You can certainly find some people who disagree(you always can for any topic), but most would tell you that the story does get better. The 2.0 story was rushed, and the early patchline quests were written before they really figured everything out. Most people who complain about the patchline(those quests between ultima and the dawn) get so fed up with the early quests(inconsistent tone, poorly paced, unimportant seeming) that they just want to be done with it and some dont notice that the writing/pacing/etc has already gotten a little better in the 2nd half. This improves even more getting into the expansion content. The Dragonsong War is a story worth playing.

Other questions, yes i do believe that a skip still gives you the rewards from the story but i havent bought one and cant confirm. And one crazy rumor id heard was that they originally wrote quests under the general guideline that they should rarely take more then 8 minutes to complete. If true, that could lead to the feeling of chopping everything up into many steps feeling. But i cant confirm if that is true or not. I can just say that some later quests do indeed take more time.

[Hasrat]

First point, some of the post-ARR quests were indeed pruned out. So, if you cleared Ultimate Weapon since 5.3, you might've benefited from that. About 20 quests removed.

Personally, while everyone will say "it gets better" and, admittedly there is a bit of streamlining along the way, I sorta find no part of the story completely free of tedium. That's just the nature of the game. The entire genre, surely. It's a subscription-based game. Naturally keeping you subscribed is the goal. If you can race through quests and be done in a month, they're losing out, compared to throttling player progress enough to drag that process out.

So, yeah. There's arguably less of the "why am I even doing this?" moments. But, I'm up here progressing 5.0 story and I'm still passing out food and hand-delivering messages.

As a silent protagonist with no personality, you're a glorified errand runner. And occasionally they let you kill things.

In conclusion. Heavensward has dragons. So, it's not all bad.