Does FF14 get faster?

[van_arn]

Awful advice.

Jump potions were intended for veterans who want an alt, not for new players who want to pay to not play the game.

If you don't like the game, don't play it. Not everyone likes final fantasy's style, and that's just fine.

What’s awful advice is to say everyone should do the story from the beginning. Shadowbringers is an excellent starting point, and that’s by design.

If you’re going to quit if you have to play through hundreds of hours of cutscenes and mindless fights, I’d rather you skip them and enjoy the actual game instead.

Provided you do your gameplay homework. I also expect players to kick you if you haven’t done your gameplay homework.

I like the story myself; I log in at patch drop just so I can have everything done before spoilers hit. I have the presence of mind to realize not everyone is like this, though, and encourage them to play the game the way they like.

That means encouraging skips if that’s what it takes to get to the “fast bit” which is exactly what Shadowbringers is right now. They’re not going to get that until late Stormblood otherwise.

[Jeeqbit]

I understand and accept that FF is always story-driven. As I mentioned in the OP, I am not asking for changes.

I just was hoping that the game gets to a point where 99% of the time isn't just quest-reading/cutscenes.

While doing the main story, no, it'll be mostly reading quest text and watching cut scenes.

The main scenario spans ARR (1-50) and its 5 patches, Heavensward (50-60) and its 5 patches, Stormblood (60-70) and its 5 patches and Shadowbringers (70-80) and its 4 patches. That's a very long way to go and could keep you busy for months or years depending on your pace, and doesn't even touch upon all of the great sidequests and side content that also has this sort of story.

Of course, when you do finally get through it, there is high-end content like extreme trials, savage raids and ultimates, and the glowing relic weapon content.

You can do a lot of other content without being max level, such as dungeons, pvp (level 30+), the gold saucer (15+ I think), palace of the dead (17+), normal mode trials, normal mode raids, crafting, gathering, ocean fishing, open world content like treasure maps, blue mage and hunts.

Castrum Meridianum and Praetorium had these long cutscenes mid-fight and were obviously a mistake, so they didn't repeat it. That's the last it happens (beside coils but these are optional).

If you’re going to quit if you have to play through hundreds of hours of cutscenes and mindless fights, I’d rather you skip them and enjoy the actual game instead.

That means encouraging skips if that’s what it takes to get to the “fast bit” which is exactly what Shadowbringers is right now.

Although I personally encourage enjoying the story, especially as the content's mechanics is inspired by the story, if you really can't get through it then skip packs are definitely an option for some people. Once you've skipped, you can use New Game+ to slowly re-experience the story quests when you can be bothered, whilst still having access to max level areas and content.

[Realism_Snide]

What’s awful advice is to say everyone should do the story from the beginning. Shadowbringers is an excellent starting point, and that’s by design.

If you’re going to quit if you have to play through hundreds of hours of cutscenes and mindless fights, I’d rather you skip them and enjoy the actual game instead.

Provided you do your gameplay homework. I also expect players to kick you if you haven’t done your gameplay homework.

I like the story myself; I log in at patch drop just so I can have everything done before spoilers hit. I have the presence of mind to realize not everyone is like this, though, and encourage them to play the game the way they like.

That means encouraging skips if that’s what it takes to get to the “fast bit” which is exactly what Shadowbringers is right now. They’re not going to get that until late Stormblood otherwise.

Here is the problem with skipping: Its not just skipping important story beats. Its also skipping the chance to get used to the pacing of ffxiv that will keep going after the skip. They still have to go through the entire Shadowbringers and post Shadowbringers content, which consists mainly of cutscenes, dialogues, and boring fetch quests. Its still going to be a long while before they reach the "fast bits", and new expansions and patches are just going to add more and more until they reach end game.

The other problem with skipping is that now you spent an extra 50$ or so on a game that you have a hard time logging in to go through the story that you find to be a slog, and can't enjoy it. Skipping is not a cheap thing.

The best suggestion I can give, really is to tough it out until you reach Heavensward. Or buy an ARR skip (its only 11$) to see if the Heavensward story is good enough to motivate you to play a bit more. There isn't really anything important that happens between the place you're currently at and the start of Heavensward (other than 1 major event that happens in 1 or 2 quests before Heavensward starts) So, your not left too confused about what is going on in the story, but there will still be some confusion. A lot less than skipping to Shadowbringers, completing it, and then meeting a bunch of characters that were previously introduced in the past, and being left completely confused about who they are and why they are so important.