Anyone else feel like the expansion is slow to start?

[falroth]

I don't know if its just me and I'm not very far in, maybe 6 hours and cleared first dungeon.

But overall I feel like I've just been watching Cut-scene after Cut-scene and I haven't actually been playing the game.

I know they need to build the story, but I can't help but think Shadowbringers had a MUCH more interesting start. I was instantly interested in Shadowbringers and the new world, I actually wanted to explore and I was eager to play.

But this time around the story is just kind of, I don't want to say Boring but it's really teetering on that.

I hope it gets better

[Puremallace]

Basically a Stormblood start with a Shadowbringer middle and ending if you ask me. They did introduce multiple new zones so it required extreme set-up. It seemed longer because 6.0 is just ridiculously large for an expansion.

Not going to lie I hated the pixie part of Shadowbringers. I thought it was pointless and needlessly childish injection into an otherwise serious MSQ. I really hated the zone design of Khoulusia and The Tempest with an utter passion because it was so devoid of life and boring.

[falroth]

Basically a Stormblood start with a Shadowbringer middle and ending if you ask me. They did introduce multiple new zones so it required extreme set-up. It seemed longer because 6.0 is just ridiculously large for an expansion.

Not going to lie I hated the pixie part of Shadowbringers. I thought it was pointless and needlessly childish injection into an otherwise serious MSQ. I really hated the zone design of Khoulusia and The Tempest with an utter passion because it was so devoid of life and boring.

Ahhh! okay that makes sense, I will look forward to the rest of the epxansion Thanks!

You do have some valid points there, Shadowbringers wasn't perfect but it was pretty dang good!

[Illmaeran]

It is really slow in the beginning as they try to tie up stories and build the foundation of the narrative going forward. The easiest way to do this is through cutscenes so we get a lot of them. I do mean a LOT of them this expansion. It's like writing the final book of a series with multiple main characters and four massive tomes preceding it. We've been lucky with past, especially with Shadowbringers, that conflict has either been built up to previously or we're dropped into the middle of it from the start.

If the nuances and details of the story aren't as important to your enjoyment of the game, I can see how the deluge of cutscenes would be tedious. I hope you're able to find enjoyment in this going forward!

[AnnRam]

I couldn't digest the first hours without a few cups of coffee to be honest.

And for some reason (again) SE released a tremendous city (Sharlayan) where you can't use mounts, I swear to god I tried to avoid the Crystarium as much I could.

Kugane and Ishgard were perfectly designed to don't use mounts but they weren't insanely big nor tedious to walk around.

[iVolke]

Watching cutscenes is playing the game. I've never understood this complaint as, this is a final fantasy game.

Yeah the start is slow, but it's just setting the stage. You're only past the first dungeon.

Shadowbringers had a more intense start because, as you said, we're thrown into a completely foreign world/dimension coupled with the mystery and urgency of finding your missing friends.

Endwalker is slower because everyone is safe at the start and there is no immediate peril.

Why assume the entire expansion will be slow after playing a few hours? That just seems kinda silly to me, especially if you've seen the trailers.

[Rhysati]

Watching cutscenes is playing the game. I've never understood this complaint as, this is a final fantasy game.

Yeah the start is slow, but it's just setting the stage. You're only past the first dungeon.

Shadowbringers had a more intense start because, as you said, we're thrown into a completely foreign world/dimension coupled with the mystery and urgency of finding your missing friends.

Endwalker is slower because everyone is safe at the start and there is no immediate peril.

Why assume the entire expansion will be slow after playing a few hours? That just seems kinda silly to me, especially if you've seen the trailers.

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.

[falroth]

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.

Yeah! this is exactly the issue I'm having, and I'm so glad you mentioned the first 2 levels with zero game-play aside from some fetch and escort quests.

I know the story is going to be good and I'm not trying to complain about that, but it's just so dreadfully boring game-play wise and so far the story hasn't gotten me fully interested.

There's a lot of talking, I just wish it was a little more interesting, or they trimmed some of the fat so it didn't feel like so much all at once.

[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.

[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