Does FF14 get faster?

[Snowdove]

I just finished going through the first part of ARR. Killed that big boss in that Full Party group. (Can't remember his name.) The one with the loooooong, unskippable cut scenes.

Question:

So far it's been feeling like 5-10 minutes of cutscenes and quest text, then 30 seconds of actually doing something. (Not counting having to travel to 50 different places.)

Does it get better? Because I'm having a hard time logging in, knowing I'll have to slog through another 10 minutes before I get to do something interesting.

I know FF games are known for their storytelling. So I am not asking for changes or anything like that.

I'm just saying...for me...it's getting tough to get through.


Look at my join date. And I'm only this far because of this.

[Mimilu]

Luckily, those two 8-man dungeons are the only places with unskippable cutscenes. Things should start to get quicker for you, especially once you hit HW content and up.
(I personally think the story picks up right before HW with a big plot twist.)

[Roda]

Yes and no.

There are still parts where it's a bunch of cutscenes, then kill x of y, or do a dungeon and then more talking, but the pacing does get better as you progress. (ARR is kinda them figuring out their flow, so it's a bit wonky compared to the more recent stuff.)
Those two full party dungeons are the only two of their kind. You won't see any more cutscene dungeons like that. But do be warned that post ARR/pre HW is a little notorious for not being so good on the pacing. But it does pick up right beefore you head into ishgard. (though, if you're adverse to long cutscenes, do be warned, the cutscene at the absolute end of post ARR is Very Long. It's good, but loooooooong.)

[Xandos]

It does get a bit better but not much. It is still a very story driven game with lots of cut scenes and dialog. There won't be too many like the ones you just endured though. They are broken up a bit more now.

[Puremallace]

Prae and Castrum were one time things. The questing gets far more refined in the expansions. ARR used to be far far worse less then 3 months ago actually lol

Some quest are now one step that used to be 3 steps.

[van_arn]

I just finished going through the first part of ARR. Killed that big boss in that Full Party group. (Can't remember his name.) The one with the loooooong, unskippable cut scenes.

Question:

So far it's been feeling like 5-10 minutes of cutscenes and quest text, then 30 seconds of actually doing something. (Not counting having to travel to 50 different places.)

Does it get better? Because I'm having a hard time logging in, knowing I'll have to slog through another 10 minutes before I get to do something interesting.

I know FF games are known for their storytelling. So I am not asking for changes or anything like that.

I'm just saying...for me...it's getting tough to get through.


Look at my join date. And I'm only this far because of this.

I’d say just purchase a skip to Shadowbringers. You’re a long way away from anything that isn’t depreciated.

[SturmChurro]

Luckily, those two 8-man dungeons are the only places with unskippable cutscenes. Things should start to get quicker for you, especially once you hit HW content and up.
(I personally think the story picks up right before HW with a big plot twist.)

If new players aren't having fun, thinking things are dying too fast, or the gameplay is slow. Shadowbringers is actually where the game picks up, frankly.

[Snowdove]

I’d say just purchase a skip to Shadowbringers. You’re a long way away from anything that isn’t depreciated.

It's a good story, even if "Steven King" length.


I guess this all came to a boil when I heard the announcement for Endwalker and they said the MSQ was going to be about 50 hours. I thought, "Oh my gosh, is this going to be 49 1/2 hours of quest text and cutscenes and 30 minutes of actual fun?!"

[van_arn]

It's a good story, even if "Steven King" length.


I guess this all came to a boil when I heard the announcement for Endwalker and they said the MSQ was going to be about 50 hours. I thought, "Oh my gosh, is this going to be 49 1/2 hours of quest text and cutscenes and 30 minutes of actual fun?!"

Think of the story content as the tutorial. It becomes an MMO once you’re caught up.

Shadowbringers is actually a decent place to skip to, too, since you get reintroduced to a lot of the important characters. You’ll have a few minutes where you’re not sure what the big fuss is about, but it being in another world helps limit the number of times that happens.

More importantly, you’d not have to quest through two more expansions of content that has been indirectly nerfed by the release of Shadowbringers. You’d have a more interesting rotation, and the boss fights your experience In Shadowbringers are generally pretty clever.

I’d still recommend you watch a video to catch you up on your job’s rotation before driving in, but you should be fine just skipping if you do your mechanics homework.

Keep in mind you’d need both a story skip and a job skip, assuming you don’t already have a level 70 character.

[MikkoAkure]

I wouldn't really recommend a story skip unless you REALLY don't like main scenario stuff or single-player games. Heavensward was a really great expansion. Stormblood is forgettable. But skipping both to get to Shadowbringers will leave you not getting the full picture of what's going on and it's not the same if you just watch a video to catch up. It's like skipping most of a book just to get to the climax and not really knowing who the characters are or why they're doing things. The rest of ARR is a bit of a slog, but as soon as you get to the final (like 45 minute long cutscene) and then start Heavensward, the game picks up more and you can tell that they learned how to pace better.

But I don't personally believe the end game in FFXIV is good enough to justify skipping the rest of the content. I look at FFXIV as a longer FF game that has multiplayer elements and weekly tasks for in-game currency.