Never followed the story (Up to ShB spoilers)

[HyperSMB]

Just kind of seeing if there is anyone else like me out and about?

I am just, for literally the first time since HW, trying to pay attention to the story. It is actually kind of hilarious to see all these people, who I am positive are supposed to be important banter on about things I don't remember. My group on discord does not believe me when I say:

* I have no idea who G'raha Tia is beyond something to do with the Crystarium.
* I have no clue who Emet-Selch is/was. (Later learned from a friend he was an ascian)
* The Grand Companies are apparently still a thing that somehow matters?

Like when I say I skipped every cutscene after that horrible post ARR grind, I freaking mean it.

For anyone in my boat, try paying attention to the story now. It is really a fun sort of mystery novel and exercise in inferencing to try and grasp what on god's green earth is going on right now.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

That's like skipping to the last season of a long running show. Why would you do that?
I mean I get it, you want to be at max ASAP, but then I7d make a new character just for the MSQ.

[Asari5]

yeah there are more people like you out there. altough most of these people who i know personally regret it and used one or the other way to catch up with it for EW or even ShB two years ago

[NegativeS]

In your defense, I needed to remind myself who the red-eyed catboy was when his hood flew off on Mt. Gulg. Even when it said 'say his name' all dramatically, they didn't actually say his name.

I love that they brought him back since I loved his character in post-ARR, but... damn if they didn't wait their sweet time to do so.

[Rhysati]

To be fair, I did pay attention to the story and this expansion is still one weird as can be fever dream of a FF story.

[HyperSMB]

yeah there are more people like you out there. altough most of these people who i know personally regret it and used one or the other way to catch up with it for EW or even ShB two years ago

I got absolutely torched by the ORIGINAL post ARR 180 quest nightmare slog of nonsense. It ruined the story for me.

[_Pigzig]

dont worry I forgot most of the story it was 10 years ago

[Ardeth]

My friend who used to play this game is a notorious cutscene skipper and he marked out when they revealed G'Raha. I told him to try to pay attention with Shadowbringers and he did up until after you fight the last boss. After that he went back to not caring again. But that was a cool moment because like you he hit that ARR wall and stopped caring and bought a skip to Shadowbringers. Granted it didn't last long, but he seemed like he got into it for him. But he was always a big Wow player anyway which is why he hasn't come back.

[Tyjacon]

The Final Fantasy RPG series has always been story driven. It's as much about the journey as the destination.
Agreed, there is a lot of filler content in 2.0 that feels like a slog when you're progressing through it, but it's important for world and character building.

Not only that, but at the time the dev team was essentially working on 2 mmos. They were simultaneously adding 1.xx content and creating ARR so there wasn't a lot of end game content.

And it wasn't only 1.x content they had to create but also fix the game mechanics like no auto attack or mini map to name a few. Which is why I quit 1.0 after a couple of months.

I agree that running back and forth across all of Eorzea collecting food for a banquet while Tidus, err Titan was reeking havoc seems unproductive but they needed some way to slow the progression of players while more content was being created.

The ARR slog is still better than the fatigue system from 1.0 in my opinion.

[GrizzlyTank]

To be fair, I did pay attention to the story and this expansion is still one weird as can be fever dream of a FF story.

To be fair, FF do tend to become fever dreams.