More Content, Less Narrative

[TheMightyMollusk]

But the narrative IS content. Please be more specific.

[Caurcas]

But the narrative IS content. Please be more specific.

Using EW as an example, its more watching cutscenes than playing. I am fine with a story, its nice even but when that gets in the way of gameplay then it chaffs something fierce. Going forward, instead of epic narratives that require dozens of hours of cutscenes why don't they give us simple stories with alot more gameplay and less just watching/reading.

[TaleraRistain]

Using EW as an example, its more watching cutscenes than playing. I am fine with a story, its nice even but when that gets in the way of gameplay then it chaffs something fierce. Going forward, instead of epic narratives that require dozens of hours of cutscenes why don't they give us simple stories with alot more gameplay and less just watching/reading.

Simple answer? Because epic narratives and dozens of hours of cutscenes are bread and butter in single player Final Fantasy games and that's going to be one of their focuses going forward.

[EorzeaWanderer]

epic narratives and dozens of hours of cutscenes are bread and butter in single player Final Fantasy games

People say this quite a bit on these boards but this isn't really true...the single-player FF games have cutscenes, no doubt, but the majority of your time with them is gameplay (battles, mini-games, exploring areas for treasure, etc.).

I love the story overall but I sympathize with OP. There is too much time with the controller down watching people talk. And simple cutscenes with people talking is how they choose to craft most of the cutscenes in MSQ. The ratio of watching to doing is a bit off. And saying this doesn't mean I hate the story, far from it. As an alternative, I take the "Four Lords" questline as an example. 2 dungeons, 3 trials, some story/cutscenes, and the ratio of "watching" to "doing" felt good. With the MSQ we get dozens of hours of cutscenes and dialog, and 4-5 hours or so of combat duties (the actual gameplay), if you count the solo instances. So, it's not unnatural to say that something feels off.

Although OP, another way of looking at it, I suppose, is that the story is mostly front-loaded for an expansion. It's mostly done for the next two years when you get right down to it. I was happy to see a variety of content announced in the live letter last night and that's the content we get to enjoy over the next two years or so.

[SenorPatty]

Using EW as an example, its more watching cutscenes than playing. I am fine with a story, its nice even but when that gets in the way of gameplay then it chaffs something fierce. Going forward, instead of epic narratives that require dozens of hours of cutscenes why don't they give us simple stories with alot more gameplay and less just watching/reading.

The first part of a new expansion ffxiv is always the meatiest. I agree that EW being a tad much with cutscenes but we were warned that it would be for very obvious reasons. Recall that post-expansion, we get our stories in small doses, typically being able to complete those msqs in an hour or so. As such, I don't expect future releases to be this heavy, unless it's to tie major events like EW did. With that said, I would very much like to either have both or if not possible, rather retain more narrative when new expansion hits, because I trust the predictable nature of ffxiv to release gameplay content evenly after is done.