Role quest in Endwalker worry me. Job quest make this an RPG

[Wilford111]

Whenever I hear people complaining about the state of WoW, it's never been about how the game no longer feels like an RPG or that jobs don't feel unique anymore due to not having their own class quests.
idk though I've never played WoW but what you're saying about it is news to me.

[Jandor]

Whenever I hear people complaining about the state of WoW, it's never been about how the game no longer feels like an RPG or that jobs don't feel unique anymore due to not having their own class quests.
idk though I've never played WoW but what you're saying about it is news to me.

To be fair though, something can be a contributing factor without being the primary identified reason.

World building is important in an MMO, in my humble opinion at least, and its decline contributes to the decline of the game as a whole, albeit in a rather intangible way. An MMO is a world that you do things in, too much streamlining removes that world feel and leaves you with a fancy content selection menu and waiting area.

That said, I still prefer role quests with a job quest cap. All the old classes and jobs still have their quests, and new jobs are still receiving new sets of quests in order to establish them. It's a perfectly fine balance.

[Cetek14]

Its no longer RPG. Calling it MMORPG is false advertising.

[Jandor]

Its no longer RPG. Calling it MMORPG is false advertising.

What is it then?

[Vyrerus]

need to be made

Ten level quest lines in the past had 5 quests a piece, and sometimes a 6th quest that was merely a, "point the player in the next direction dialogue box." I think it'd be a simple affair to cut it down to 3 to 4 quests per job, removing the silliness that is the quests which are fluff between levels, every job has a few fluff quests that add nothing to the narrative.

Along with that, the majority of the playerbase doesn't do zone oriented sidequests. They could easily eliminate half of all the sidequests they make, and take that work to job quests.

It's quite feasible for them to still do job quests, but they take the path of least resistance. We all know Square Enix corporate ain't doing them any favors, slashing their budget and staff constantly.

Massive Mistake

Unfortunately, no MMO is made with the design mindset that it should last forever. The corporate side of things wants to invest just enough to keep us subscribed and/or buying from the Mog Station. They don't care about the quality of the game, and they've already been draining its budget and staff for years. FFXI was their first golden goose, and it's still making them a fantastic profit vs. what it costs to maintain it. They want XIV to do the same, basically become passive income for the company.

Like, I'd love a return to form with some job quests. As things stand though, it was likely part of a long term plan to phase them out eventually, given the power and skill scaling they apply to the WoL. We are the WoL first, and our chosen job(s) second. The dev team for XIV really does its best to deliver a good product to us, and they certainly show that they care. Keep in mind though, that they are also planning around having staff taken from them, getting less of the company's budget, and releasing things on a set timeframe. If they tried to sustain the effort demanded with no sacrifices, then it'd still fail. Something's gotta give.

[Payadopa]

Have you played the job quests?
I'd say many of them are very shallow and have no room to breathe. SAM from 60 to 70 was boring. Every WHM quest is painfully generic. You can't tell a decent story in the odd 5 quests or so you get from old cap to new.

The ShB option is the way to go. They tell a way, way better story, are interconnected and more than the sum of their parts on top of a nice incentive to play different roles to see all aspects of it. I'm more than happy we get that.

[Vyrerus]

Have you played the job quests?
I'd say many of them are very shallow and have no room to breathe. SAM from 60 to 70 was boring. Every WHM quest is painfully generic. You can't tell a decent story in the odd 5 quests or so you get from old cap to new.

The ShB option is the way to go. They tell a way, way better story, are interconnected and more than the sum of their parts on top of a nice incentive to play different roles to see all aspects of it. I'm more than happy we get that.

Have you? Not on that character, it seems.

Not all job quests are created equal, but many of them tell excellent stories and involve NPCs related to the MSQ and other parts of the game as well. You haven't even done every WHM quest, lol, though I will admit overall WHM's arc is one of the weaker ones.

Ninja, DRK, RDM, AST, DRG, DNC, MCH, SMN, SCH, and BLU all had pretty good stories in my opinion. MNK, SAM, GNB, and WAR were decent. WHM, PLD, BLM, and BRD were kinda subpar, but memorable with high points.

Gatherers aside from Fisher I struggle to recall. All sorta ehh.

Crafters though... I thoroughly enjoyed CRP, LTW, ALC, CUL, ARM, and BSM. Clothcraft was a miss for me, though funny at points. Goldsmith... it's honestly been so long, because it was my first crafter, I'd have to take a look at it again. I vaguely remember Serendipity, her puppets based on TOAU puppets, a music box or two, and a Miqote that could craft well if they had glasses. OH yeah and really hawt Highlander woman with a name that's a couple consonants and a vowel from being Emmerololth.

[Payadopa]

You prove my point then. AST and NIN I enjoyed because the overall plot actually lasted for more than old lvl cap to new lvl cap. SAM from 50 to 60 was a nice exception, though (I think it was that range). 60 to 70 in comparison was very boring for me. Character gets introduced, has like 3 lines of dialogue and then dies. And I am supposed to care? It's just not enough time to tell something compelling every expansion.

There is a reason why Emet is such a compelling villain. He got time to, y'know, develop.

Same can be said for Stormblood and why so many felt it's the weakest expansion.

[Mikey_R]

The problem is, not all job quests are created equal. Just comparing DRK and PLD as an example. PLD has never really had an engaging story, whereas DRK is widely considered one of the best stories to go through and I think alot of that has to do with how the jobs are in the lore of the game. Dark Knights are old Ishgardian Knights that were not happy with the corruption going on behind the scenes. They took their inner anger and used it against the corrupt. This inevitably causes the negative emotions inside to start sprouting and threatening to take over. The DRK story is all about trying to control these emotions and learning it is not just the negative ones that fuel your power, but off of them.

Paladin, on the other hand, you are a Royal Knight of the Sultanate. Normally, you would be bound to the Sultanate and be unable to leave, however they have granted you permission to continue to explore the world, as long as you continue to uphold your morals as a knight. That is basically it. The jobs quests themselves are dull and even in Stormblood, the make you play as a Gladiator again. The sole quest in ShB was also a let down. They big up a fight with Aldis and then he runs away when the time comes. It is just a complete let down to hype up a fight and then not have it happen.

However, going to the Role Quests, while, yes, they did not have much to do with your job, it does kind of tie into your role, though they could make the connection stronger in EW. They were much better stories and they all had a big fight at the end. Which is another thing that Job Quests don't do. Not all of them finish in a big fight. The discrepancies between the quality of the job quests (even between themselves) and the role quests are miles apart and I for one would rather have the better story in the role quests than the potentially half assed job quests that will probably disappoint you.

[Puremallace]

You prove my point then. AST and NIN I enjoyed because the overall plot actually lasted for more than old lvl cap to new lvl cap. SAM from 50 to 60 was a nice exception, though (I think it was that range). 60 to 70 in comparison was very boring for me. Character gets introduced, has like 3 lines of dialogue and then dies. And I am supposed to care? It's just not enough time to tell something compelling every expansion.

Then step up the story telling but combining the quest is a MASSIVE MASSIVE mistake. Want an example? In World of warcraft you used to have to actually go through a quest as a Warlock to learn how to summon your pets. It created a class identity and gave depth to the lore of the class.

In FF14 there are similar quest for Summoner that give you a history. Now imagine in Endwalker if you now have to share a generic quest with other Magic Ranged classes. It is just shallow development that I promise you will slowly chip away at the RPG part of the MMORPG.

No matter how popular FF14 is right now we cannnot sit back and allow Square Enix to think this decision is ok. Just because some job quest were not as cool as the Dark Knight quest does not mean anything to me. You cannot use that as a justification for stripping job identity out a final fantasy game.

This current game direction flies in the face of everything this franchise was built on. I am LITERALLY begging Square Enix to not go down this path because I have seen how it ends. Just because the salty FF14 veterans players are jaded about this system does not change the fact it is core to job identity to a lot of people and creates a sense of RPG feeling in an MMO world becoming more obsessed with saving a dime in the short term and missing out on a dollar in the future.

If it continues then this Paladin is just going to feel like Generic Tank Role #1 that I can care less about and is easily swappable with no attachment and at that point I have to ask myself why am I still playing if I have no attachment to my primary job.