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  1. #1
    Player
    Tommara's Avatar
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    Lady Liralen
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    MSQ

    There are some important story elements in it, but a lot of it is filler that the devs promised between expansions.

    For new and returning players, it's a serious drag which has caused me to leave the game several times now, the worst of which is was at the end of ARR (I paid for Shadowbringers before it was released, but have yet to play it). Heavensward was fine, Stormblood not nearly as bad as ARR, but, well...let's just say I spent my day playing No Man's Sky (where building your own custom house is not savage, and actually serves a useful purpose. OK, so gardening is useful in both games. But in No Man's Sky, I didn't have to spend any time clicking on a sign, the cost was trivial, and I got to actually build my own house exactly how I wanted - although the textures aren't so great).

    My suggestion: Move what is not important story elements from the MSQ into Side Quests. Don't gate the MSQ behind group dungeons unless necessary but by all means, gate the group dungeons by some other means, just not the MSQ.
    (5)
    Last edited by Tommara; 04-25-2021 at 08:24 PM.

  2. #2
    Player
    VelKallor's Avatar
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    Vel Kallor
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    Having done MSQ at least three times, twice pre and once post patch changes, i found the ARR setup well paced and enjoyable. What you dismiss as "filler" has important elements that cant and should not be skipped as unimportant sidequests

    The leadup to Heavensward, the missions prior to Stormblood are essential for the integrity of the entire experience, the msq prior to Shadowbringers should not be missed under any circumstances as it is essential for the storyline

    Curious: What do you see as "filler'?
    (42)

  3. #3
    Player
    Tommara's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by VelKallor View Post
    Having done MSQ at least three times, twice pre and once post patch changes, i found the ARR setup well paced and enjoyable. What you dismiss as "filler" has important elements that cant and should not be skipped as unimportant sidequests

    The leadup to Heavensward, the missions prior to Stormblood are essential for the integrity of the entire experience, the msq prior to Shadowbringers should not be missed under any circumstances as it is essential for the storyline

    Curious: What do you see as "filler'?
    80 quests before you can play Heavensward. Some are interesting story, most could be moved to side quests.
    (3)

  4. #4
    Player
    MistakeNot's Avatar
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    Auriana Redsteele
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tommara View Post
    80 quests before you can play Heavensward. Some are interesting story, most could be moved to side quests.
    No. No, most of it couldn't be moved to side quests. Some of it could of course be made a bit shorter and more streamlined, but very little of it could be outright removed from the MSQ.
    (11)

  5. #5
    Player
    Shibi's Avatar
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    Lala Felon
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    Quote Originally Posted by MistakeNot View Post
    No. No, most of it couldn't be moved to side quests. Some of it could of course be made a bit shorter and more streamlined, but very little of it could be outright removed from the MSQ.
    I don't really see the purpose of things like ... "Forsooth, I need cheese, and wine for my party. Runeth to wineport and collect me a bottle, then runneth to the goblin and get some cheesy scrapings from his underwear".

    I mean, i understand they open up things like Brayflox, but surely the warrior of light could get a more engaging story to enter the Longstop, than "get me some gobbiecheese so we can have a party".

    Same with minfilia's deliveroo orders over linkshell. Running back and forth to do the most menial boring tasks. I was glad to see the end of her.
    (2)

  6. #6
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    wereotter's Avatar
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    Antony Gabbiani
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tommara View Post
    80 quests before you can play Heavensward. Some are interesting story, most could be moved to side quests.
    Having played through all the story to this point, and having replayed ARR since the culling of the quests, sure there's a lot of quests in there, but very little is just filler at this point. In fact, I'd counter that there's more filler in the quests within and immediately following Heavesnward have more fluff than ARR at this point. Like there's a whole series of quests in Heavensward about how Emmanellain can't seem to take no as an answer from Laniaitte feels more like side quest filler than anything that has any relevance to the main quest... and that's just one example.
    (5)

  7. #7
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    Shougun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wereotter View Post
    Having played through all the story to this point, and having replayed ARR since the culling of the quests, sure there's a lot of quests in there, but very little is just filler at this point. In fact, I'd counter that there's more filler in the quests within and immediately following Heavesnward have more fluff than ARR at this point. Like there's a whole series of quests in Heavensward about how Emmanellain can't seem to take no as an answer from Laniaitte feels more like side quest filler than anything that has any relevance to the main quest... and that's just one example.
    Haven't done it since the trimming, are those, imo, annoying food and 'go fetch Minfila' quests still there? I'm aware they were trying to say you start out as a nobody, but personally at the time they were current content I still found those quests very "I don't care, I reeaaallly don't care". I try to read everything, unless massively sleepy or too immersive accent lol (I do not like Limsa pirate talk .. XD, if it was spoken I bet I would love it though), but some of those quests had me a bit eye rolling "this is clearly side quest material, kill 10 basement rats". In a more polished single player setting they would often have nice comedy and "pizzazz" (or not exist at all), but I'd not give those quests that award of great moments of levity (I know someone was making the example of contrast, which is a good thing to be considerate of, might see that in like a Ghibli film where they spend some time looking at the environment for zen, but I don't think the moment was good enough to call it a good use of zen). Maybe semi goofy but purely memorable (for myself) by how annoying they were- they really felt like "go pick up the book on the shelf opposite to me". Some of that may have lended to why I felt Minifila was just whatever, taskmaster sure.. and perhaps realistically so, but I'm trying to play a game not experience the hyper-realistic internal growth of the coffee boy rising up through the ranks lol. You can tell that story more excitingly, and still not miss the notes of starting out as a small town boy (thankfully this phase fades, for the most part, they happen less and are more memorable in good ways later- I think it was last expansion had a really cute dinner moment).

    If most of that was trimmed, then that's amazing lol.

    Though I still stand by the collective amount, regardless of any trimming, in the long run, is going to be an issue. Say, as at least Yoshida has said so much, they keep FFXIV the flagship- meaning maybe another 5 years at least. Give each expansion 50 hours, if you're not beelining, ignoring everything else, and skipping all the cutscenes / dialog, and ARR which is a bit longer like 75 hours (or more). 75 + 50 + 50 + 50 = 225 hours to get to Endwalker. Hey Endwalker does cap off all those previous hours though, so that's good. So + 50 more though to the next expansion where it should be starting a new story. 275 hours. You can watch Friends, the entire collection, twice, before you could catch up to current content. I wouldn't be too shocked if they don't do something about this in Endwalker, especially given they're giving away ARR and HW for free, but I would really be baffled if they did it for 7.0. Some of 'the best' single player games to have ever existed, where every moment is a treasurable moment, take less time to 100%.
    (1)
    Last edited by Shougun; 04-27-2021 at 03:37 AM.

  8. #8
    Player
    wereotter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shougun View Post
    If most of that was trimmed, then that's amazing lol. .
    Oh for sure. There are far fewer quests and many quests that are there also had the number of steps within them cut down. I can think of an example around level 25? There's a bartender in South Shroud that wants you to throw a bucket of cold water on one of the drunken patrons. Originally this quest involved going behind the bar, interacting with the bucket to pick it up, interacting with a point in the stream to put the bucket down, interacting with the bucket to fill it with water, interacting with it again to pick it up, then interacting with the patron to throw the water on him. Now, the bartender just gives you the bucket full of water to go throw on him.

    The quest is still a bit filler-y in the "before I help you, I want you to help me" kind of way, but they cut down the time it took to do it dramatically.

    Another one that really upset me was a 2.1 quest where you spent several quests helping F'lhaminn make a bottle of perfume before she'll agree to follow you to go see her daughter. Now when you find her, she mentions that she wants that perfume before going to see her, but then says that she doesn't need your help and will just pick it up on the way, cutting out all those quests where you were out gathering water and picking flowers, which was absolutely filler fluff. They maybe could do more... but I think they did a fine job so far and potentially they could look to other expansions now to see what can be cut back.
    (3)

  9. #9
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    AngelCheese77's Avatar
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    Bjartur Arnason
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    Quote Originally Posted by VelKallor View Post
    Having done MSQ at least three times, twice pre and once post patch changes, i found the ARR setup well paced and enjoyable. What you dismiss as "filler" has important elements that cant and should not be skipped as unimportant sidequests

    The leadup to Heavensward, the missions prior to Stormblood are essential for the integrity of the entire experience, the msq prior to Shadowbringers should not be missed under any circumstances as it is essential for the storyline

    Curious: What do you see as "filler'?
    I'm curious as well. Did you know that much of not all of the side quests themselves have wonderful lore and stories about the town or area you're in?

    Granted, the quests post ARR to Heavensward could def be cut down (I did those all, but I think some was cut?) or just move them to side quests or something. But I also came into FF14 knowing this is a game about telling a story, and that is what the MSQ does.
    (2)

  10. #10
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    Arkevorkhat's Avatar
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    Arkevorkhat Caelras
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    Quote Originally Posted by VelKallor View Post
    Having done MSQ at least three times, twice pre and once post patch changes, i found the ARR setup well paced and enjoyable. What you dismiss as "filler" has important elements that cant and should not be skipped as unimportant sidequests

    The leadup to Heavensward, the missions prior to Stormblood are essential for the integrity of the entire experience, the msq prior to Shadowbringers should not be missed under any circumstances as it is essential for the storyline

    Curious: What do you see as "filler'?
    I'm curious what you define as essential.
    I ran through ARR for the first time the day patch 5.3 dropped, and there were dozens of main story quests in A Realm Reborn alone that felt entirely gratuitous. Like watching a half-naked Roegadyn grovel at my feet for something he did some 40 quests prior. Or the many quests where I am a glorified courier, taking items to people who I never speak to again in MSQ nor Side Quests.

    Or how about Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, Cutters' Cry, Aurum Vale, and Dzemael Darkhold? Four dungeons that are required for character progression in some way or another during A Realm Reborn, and are among the most reviled duties in this entire game. Oh, and those four duties were also pulled forward from the abject failure that was 1.0.
    (2)

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