How to make the game better for new players?

[Seraphor]

They could cut a lot from the msq and it wouldn't change the story in any real way.

However the cross roads idea could work and allow sections to be skipped. Like those annoying bits where you've just defeated a mighty primal and then Alphinaud says "Hey, want to come run some errands with me?"
Click no skip the next few filler quests and leave Alphinaud to go and pick some crops, deliver a letter, kill some bugs or other such filler that has no real impact on the actual plot..

Where as now Alphinaud asks you, you click NO and Alphinaud just says "Oh how you just" and you end up going any way.
And the point of the choice was???

We already have that, it's called sidequests. You can choose to do them, not not.
This 'optional fetch quest' feature would simply relegate a portion of the MSQ to being sidequests, and in turn, they'd likely make the mandatory MSQ just as long to make up for it, and there would still be portions that people find boring.