Anyone else feel like the expansion is slow to start?

[EorzeaWanderer]

Nobody is upset that there are cutscenes in their final fantasy. But I gained 2 whole levels from 80-82 without fighting maybe more than 10 creatures in the wildlife. That is ridiculous. At some point the game stops being a GAME and becomes a movie. The same thing happens later on in the story where I've spent hours just listening to people talk, escorting them around, listening to more talking, etc.

And I LOVE JRPGs. I turned off Endwalker yesterday and spent the rest of the day playing Dragon Quest XI S. Why? Because I wanted an actual JRPG, not a movie. There are a ton of cutscenes and story in that game, but the pacing is excellent always giving you time to run around, explore, fight things, craft new items, find hidden treasures, etc. I also played FFX again a few months back and, again, lots of cutscenes and dialog, but plenty of battling, exploring, mini-games, etc in-between all the heavy dialogue scenes so that you still feel like you are a part of the interactivity of the story.

Thank you for this. It's exactly what I've been thinking about FF14's MSQ (even before Endwalker). FF14 is extremely atypical in terms of presentation compared to other FF games, so comments like "It's a Final Fantasy game. What did you expect?" always struck me as odd. Well, yeah, FF games have rich storylines, but they focus on gameplay, in a context of story. Even FF13, which was (rightly) criticized as funneling players through a storyline and areas that were very linear, was *mostly* combat gameplay.

If you focus only on MSQ, the vast majority of your time is watching people talk. I'd say 90%. This is way beyond the experience of any other FF game. Six dungeons and three trials are the only places where gameplay is relevant, and that is about 4 hours altogether. The individual cutscenes are glacially paced, and I am getting tired of not encountering any characters who speak in a human, relatable way. Imagine if a TV show or movie had the camera slowly go around to each member of the team, where they dryly and verbosely described whatever administrative task they are next going to be responsible for. The director of the cutscenes also has some weird preference for bringing characters on-screen by having the camera focus on their feet. Then they do the thing where they pan up from the feet, letting the camera sit on the upper body so you can't see the face yet, in an effort to build suspense. But this is just absurd, because all of the other characters in the scene, including the WoL, are already seeing and conversing with the newly introduced character! They do this time and time again, it is so bizarre.

Anyways I am getting frustrated with MSQ myself and needed to vent. FF14 has an excellent world and story in general, but it is not well-told. The FF series are *games* first and foremost, not visual novels, TV shows, or movies, and they need gameplay.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Perhaps I am of the rare mindset of preferring it this way. I could watch hours of cutscenes of FFXIV consecutively, even ones Ive already seen (actually done this more than once) and still be very entertained. This game is thankfully very story driven and id never want it any other way. If you want to spend an hour killing 30 bears to collect 10 bear asses, there are games for that.

Also, hard disagree that the story is not well told. It is up there in the top 3 for stories told in games to me, alongside jewels like the original Koto, Baldur's gate 1, and and Dragon Age Origins.

[EorzeaWanderer]

I don’t think the story is bad. FF14 has years of detailed world-building and intricate story threads that it has woven throughout the world and its plot. This is no small accomplishment.

When I say “not well told” I am commenting on the moment-to-moment execution of cutscenes, with their (in my opinion) slow pacing, odd camera direction, and unrealistically verbose dialog that ends up making me feel distant from the characters.

But I don’t want to harp on this too much and ruin anyone’s enjoyment, so I’ll leave it at that.

Regarding killing 30 bears, etc., I don’t think anyone wants that. This is what I want: our jobs are designed to function in a party of other jobs, so give us many more opportunities to experience that as we travel through the MSQ. Let us stretch out and enjoy our jobs and our function in a group of other players. This is an MMO, after all. The job design doesn’t map well to solo duties or wiping out three underpowered overworld enemies nearly instantly. It would be a paradigm shift for FF14 perhaps, but I feel like we need far more designed combat encounters. Why not have 20 MSQ dungeons, or some other kind of group combat scenarios? Seems ridiculous within the current structure I know, but you’d need about that much to begin approaching the cutscene-to-gameplay ratio of other FF games. Combine that with a tighter story presentation and the game could be a lot more engaging, in my opinion.

[Thoosa]

The pacing seems weird to me (when I can actually log in). I’m up to the third zone and it’s picked up slightly, but no way does it feel as good as shadowbringers (I guess it gets better later).

The first zone is pretty, but the second feels very bland and boring, plus imo the questing in the second zone (and to some extent when you return to the first) felt a real slog with lots of filler. The solo duty and dungeon was fun though which was a much welcome change of pace.

I seem to remember in shadowbringers that you had to grind dungeons between certain levels to continue the story, with EW it feels like they added bloat in the place of doing that.

[Shin96]

Don't like the beginning. It's too boring and I was just waiting to actually play a dungeon. I don't mind cutscenes all that much but the first two branching quests have way too many for my taste.

[MilkieTea]

Savor the calm.

[Missbone]

in my opinion the first half until you reach the 4th zone (around lvl 85-86) including the first 2 dungeons and trial is total garbage and then its like some turnt the switch on and the game finally is getting good. But the first half was atleast for me an absolut pain and not enjoyable at all. Thinking about doing this again with my alts gives me nightmares.

[Rae88]

I also played FFX again a few months back and, again, lots of cutscenes and dialog, but plenty of battling, exploring, mini-games, etc in-between all the heavy dialogue scenes so that you still feel like you are a part of the interactivity of the story.

FFX has the opposite problem. It and FFX-2 are my favourite single player FF's but the random battle every 3 steps made me hate running around. It just gets obnoxious after a while

[Lium]

That's one hell of a strawman you built up to knock down.

Nobody is upset that there are cutscenes in their final fantasy. But I gained 2 whole levels from 80-82 without fighting maybe more than 10 creatures in the wildlife. That is ridiculous. At some point the game stops being a GAME and becomes a movie. The same thing happens later on in the story where I've spent hours just listening to people talk, escorting them around, listening to more talking, etc.

And I LOVE JRPGs. I turned off Endwalker yesterday and spent the rest of the day playing Dragon Quest XI S. Why? Because I wanted an actual JRPG, not a movie. There are a ton of cutscenes and story in that game, but the pacing is excellent always giving you time to run around, explore, fight things, craft new items, find hidden treasures, etc. I also played FFX again a few months back and, again, lots of cutscenes and dialog, but plenty of battling, exploring, mini-games, etc in-between all the heavy dialogue scenes so that you still feel like you are a part of the interactivity of the story.

Endwalker's pacing is atrocious. Even if I like each individual section of story on it's own, together it feels disjointed and so much time is wasted running errands and escorting people rather than actually doing something interactive. And every time the story begins to jump into high-gear, the rug is pulled out from under it and you go back to dialogue-heavy cutscenes like the crap didn't just hit the fan two minutes ago.

It's a slow, badly paced expansion. That doesn't mean that aspects of it aren't great. Some parts of the story are excellent. The dungeons and trials are fun. The zones are neat. But the pacing of the story could have used some polish from some editors.

This is exactly how I feel. I've been holding off on posting any of my opinions because I'm not done with the story yet. I just finished the level 85 trial where things seem to be ramping up. But even after that, I wasn't really engrossed despite the implications of that trial, which I'm obviously not going to get into here.

By contrast, in Shadowbringers, after Holminster Switch, and you see the light in the sky split, revealing the night for the first time in 100 years, I was completely and thoroughly enthralled. It had me. Totally.

In Endwalker, I feel like I'm just going through the motions. Parts of it have definitely been good, but midway through and I'm just kind of like, "It's okay." And the first part of the expansion I legitimately feel asleep through some of the cutscenes, only to wake up in a panic that I'd been AFK too long and booted. Fortunately, that never happened. But this expansion has been more of a slog than anything else. Also, I'm wondering if they did some of the voice acting from home again. Because it really seemed off to me. And Fandaniel was just way over the top. But that's just in my opinion.

Hopefully it ends on a high note.

[Schwarzwind]

The only parts of the MSQ that felt a bit slow in my opinion were the parts on the moon and Labyrinthos. Could SE have done better with more development time? Probably. But let's be honest this would have taken another year.

At least to me Endwalker was a worthy end to an amazing journey. I really enjoyed the load and quality of cutszenes we got this expansion, even in early zones. This helped flesh out the world, lore and to wrap up loose parts of the story. I also really appreciate that they put in so much voice acting and small nods to sidequests, beast tribes and jobquests which helped to keep me interested. It was nice to see all those characters come together to help save the world.