I tried but its not the game for me

[Lersayil]

... it is unambiguously lazy delivery. And it's hard to blame people for decoupling from it.

I slightly disagree on the lazy part. As you said, conventional story telling dictates a lot more show over tell, yet a non-insignificant number of people still massively enjoy it, to a point that its marketed as a major selling point both by SE and the fans. At this point I am more impressed with how they manage to keep the story engaging and interesting, even with it mostly conveyed with conversations. That's a feat I feel they'd struggle to accomplish if they were lazy about it.

[IckeDerTyp]

Can I have your gold... I mean gil?

Jokes aside, take care you and have a nice day ^^

[Wavaryen]

All final fantasy games stories have been sub par to be honest, but FF14 is the best out of the bunch for sure. I mean compare Final fantasy story to dragon quest, or even Xeno gears. Kinda below par.


However, I will say ff14 is top final fantasy story.

[SturmChurro]

I actually liked ARR, and it is what hooked me to FFXIV and got me to purchase HW. However, ARR does seem to filter a lot of potential players out. The thing is, in this situation, even with a boost purchased, EW is coming out, so there will be another full jrpg worth of story to get through again. Generally, I think the story is pretty good, but if someone is having trouble even getting through the story after a boost, it really might be too much to get through, at this time, and would probably require another boost through ShB, just to probably end up in the exact same situation.

That being said, I don't like the saying "this game isn't for you", but if there are seemingly no redeeming features - at all - for any particular player, or if even recent updates only serve as a blocker, it might actually be the case.

[Atreides]

Kay, well, you're free to disagree. But people seem to just casually gloss over the fact that about half the media this company has ever released has been about one step short of garbage. And FFXIV, as much as I might like a lot of what it has to offer, is one of their weaker story efforts.

By the way, while we're talking movies, I seem to recall them struggling to do one of those at some point...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXVOfdGE4o

This is a hard disagree from me. I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan and also played most other SE titles and FFXIV is by FAR the best Final Fantasy story ever told. It even has my all time favorite FFVI beat.
This is all but lazy, anyone who put some time and thought into the story agrees that FFXIV is all but one of their weaker story efforts.

The only weak thing I'd agree uppon here would be that some quests take longer than they should but thats mostly due to the MMO aspekt of the game.

[Neoyoshi]

Came here from WoW, bought the basic game, my 30 days is up today and I am taking a break.

I really love the professions, in ARR anyways, people say they changed things a lot in the future expansions. I could do nothing but the professions they are so perfect. Had every gathering and crafting profession to 50 and a million gil. It was fun.

But I just cant stand the main story quest. People keep saying how amazing the story is, just so many people keep saying that. I wish I could see why they say that, are they just parroting what other people say or do they really believe the story is great? To me its just suckfest of crap.

Gave up half way through ARR and bought the story skip from the store then just ground out the levels in Fates. Started next expansion story quest and just more of the same. Port to this place talk to a guy port another place talk to a guy, enough already.
Its very difficult to believe they are not making the story frustrating on purpose to get you to buy a skip.

Well I really like the game better than WoW otherwise. So maybe I will just take a break and come back once in awhile and try to get through the story quest. I know I have the option to buy more story skips but that feels like I am just paying a company for crap product.

Sorry for the rant. I know this is going to trigger some people, and I am sorry, because I really do love the game aside from that.

Good luck in your travels.

No worries, I hope you have fun in whatever you do. Have a great journey!

[KizuyaKatogami]

Okay, go play another game, why do you need to tell us?
When I take a break from FFXIV, I don't come and say it...

Funny how no one says this about the dozens of posts of people talking about how 14 saved them from Wow yada yada….

This is a hard disagree from me. I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan and also played most other SE titles and FFXIV is by FAR the best Final Fantasy story ever told. It even has my all time favorite FFVI beat.
This is all but lazy, anyone who put some time and thought into the story agrees that FFXIV is all but one of their weaker story efforts.

The only weak thing I'd agree uppon here would be that some quests take longer than they should but thats mostly due to the MMO aspekt of the game.

I kind of agree with some of the other people here. I think other ff's were far more engaging and fun while also keeping darker themes. The benefit of them being single player game sis that they dont have to worry about trying to appease a certain community. They can write the story the way they want to instead of having to write around certain players. Thats the biggest weakness of 14's story.I havent played other mmo's besides eso so i cant really say much on comparing stories between mmo's. I think earlier 14 was great like ARR and HW when the writes werent afraid to write what they wanted to. But now it feels like theyre trying to appease the community as best as possible with their writing and its just turned into a huge hugfest.

[Eien713]

I kind of agree with some of the other people here. I think other ff's were far more engaging and fun while also keeping darker themes. The benefit of them being single player game sis that they dont have to worry about trying to appease a certain community. They can write the story the way they want to instead of having to write around certain players. Thats the biggest weakness of 14's story.I havent played other mmo's besides eso so i cant really say much on comparing stories between mmo's. I think earlier 14 was great like ARR and HW when the writes werent afraid to write what they wanted to. But now it feels like theyre trying to appease the community as best as possible with their writing and its just turned into a huge hugfest.

I'm sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about here. I don't recall people ever complaining and telling the devs what to put in the story. Everyone just lets the devs and writers do their thing, and then we all discover the story together. I've never seen feedback about the direction of the story and how to write it. I also have to disagree about the other FF games being more engaging and fun. The games are good with some of them being meh, but FF14 is definitely among the best story-wise.

[SpanishInkwehsitor]

To a point, yes. However, 99 percent of the time, FFXIV's plot delivery vehicle of choice is the "conversation." The conversation - by its very nature (at least how its handled in FFXIV) - pauses any action. The characters sit down or stand, typically in a rough circle, and chat. And chat. And chat.

While this may be at least in part reflective of the real world (I'm not sure that most people rattle on in quite the same way that the key players in this arc seem to), it's a methodology that's pretty much absent in just about every other form of entertainment. Oh, yes, characters in books, movies, TV, etc. all talk to one another, but they generally do it while on the move - shooting at bad guys; getting ready to jump out of a plane; sneaking through sewers; walking to their next magic class, etc. This is not only more interesting for the reader/viewer/consumer, it also allows scenes and settings to contribute to the narrative, and the plot to progress at a far faster clip than simply sitting down for a 10+ minute pow-wow every time some little detail floats to the surface. It's showing and not telling.

FFXIV tells. There are action scenes, yes, but even when they occur, we have to have a good little chit chat afterwards just to make sure everyone absorbed things properly. I understand that this game is - at times - telling a very heavy and complicated story. But there's absolutely no justification for unfolding events in this manner. When we're in a cutscene, we might as well be playing one of those single-player games. And, given that, we don't require these ludicrous breaks every so often to 'talk shop' with the class. People aren't accustomed to that approach, and, what's more, it's dull; it is unambiguously lazy delivery. And it's hard to blame people for decoupling from it.

Bingo. They keep throwing the brakes on the flow of the game to group up and discuss what happened far too often, and that discussion usually just recaps what the player just inferred from the previous quest.

As I mentioned when I started FFXIV: “in games like WoW a quest means I talk to 2 people then farm 20 Wolf livers, in this game I get 2 Wolf livers then talk to 20 people”. These characters chat so much I’m surprised anything gets done...

Oh wait no I remember how it gets done: a tertiary character was magicking up the next plot mcguffin out of the ether while everyone was having their powwow...

[KizuyaKatogami]

I'm sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about here. I don't recall people ever complaining and telling the devs what to put in the story. Everyone just lets the devs and writers do their thing, and then we all discover the story together. I've never seen feedback about the direction of the story and how to write it. I also have to disagree about the other FF games being more engaging and fun. The games are good with some of them being meh, but FF14 is definitely among the best story-wise.

The constant fanservice. The lack of consequences because people are sensitive and can’t get over their beloved characters dying. People themselves have said it. Can’t kill off some of the mascot characters as it would just cause anger and would probably make people unsub. Hard disagree with 14 being the best story wise. It’s subjective anyways. But 14’s story barring like, maybe base shb is pretty meh. Full of plot armor and plot holes. Other ff’s don’t really suffer much from this.