The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[Tychonius]

So, I've been playing this game for the last two weeks about. I've owned it for longer than that, but never really got into it until some friends told me they were really enjoying it so I resubscribed and gave it another shot.

For the most part I've been having a lot of fun, but I have run into a problem that really annoys me: The way the main quest gates access to the expansions makes your progress grind to a complete halt in an obnoxious way at several points of the game.

For example, the ARR storyline has 80 (!!!) quests in a row at the end of it that are all level 50. I understand that this made sense when these quests were released episodically with game updates when the max level was 50, but from the perspective of a new player it's absolutely ridiculous.

You can't make any real progress on any classes you have at 50 with those quests.

You can't use the quests to level other classes up to level 50 either, because they are too low level to do them.

The only thing you can do is just accept the fact that the game randomly completely stalls out your progress until you've completed the quest chain.

The same thing happens at level 60, 70 and 80 again.

This is honestly the only thing in this game for me so far that has stuck out as a genuinely negative experience.

I enjoy the story, but I also enjoy leveling up and exploring other aspects of the game. I want to get to the content my friends are playing. Suddenly the story goes from being something I was enjoying at my own pace to something that is blatantly getting in the way of me accessing the other content. It takes a lot of the fun out of of the story when you feel pressured to just grind through it to be allowed to access the rest of the game.

[Larirawiel]

Hey. You should make the duty roulette. There is a point labeled with "Leveling". This gives you a lot of Exp.

Cheers

[Lambadelta]

No offence. If your not enjoying the story in a story focused MMORPG then is this the MMO for you? They've already trimmed alot of the quests after Level 50 MSQ, and these quests are the story that lead into the expansions so can't be trimmed more.

[MiaShino]

No offence. If your not enjoying the story in a story focused MMORPG then is this the MMO for you? They've already trimmed alot of the quests after Level 50 MSQ, and these quests are the story that lead into the expansions so can't be trimmed more.

Hey! Handing out those uniforms was thoroughly enriching content I truly hope is never cut from the experience. They hath already removed the real bangers such as "sniff the chocobo". Must also say that "Recruiting the Realm" was real hit amongst the friends as it was for me. By the twelve you do exactly that! Every starter town. Talk to five people. Mmm. Then, then oh my you can battle the big dargon on the bridge later! Which is promptly followed up by two quests that are also peak story telling. The way that scientist just insults you over and over and over while you follow him around South Shroud because mister Bolder could not be bothered to do his job.

This several hour post ARR harang brought to you by the umm.. the leader of the Scions deciding to allow a 16 year old to form one entire Grand Company as if that was going to end in anything but dumb. Yeah.. perhaps the writing is not always the best, no?

[Faafetai]

Sorry in advance minor rant I had to get out over this. TL;DR at bottom of rant. Also everything is better with friends and others who may also be frustrated. Hearing FC mates also have similar frustrations when going through the post arr bits was very 'misery loves company'

I genuinely think people have purged the horrible quest design in many places to the deep recesses of their minds. The story is good at many times, but there are also many times it feels vindictive. Standing and waiting for a bar to fill up over and over again. The WoL is an excellent tracker, but if I wanted to follow footprints another 30 times I would go play a hunting/tracking game. It was all put in to waste the players time until the next expansion, but now that is no longer reasons for them. I would honestly be happy instead of traveling everywhere and talking to 3 people or recruiting the relm for alphinaud and his really dumb idea to make another grand company that for every moment up unto he says 'it's okay if anyone tries to do anything to me my WoL will be at my beck and call' just no. It made me hate Alphinaud until he redeemed himself in post stormblood. I legitamatly wished to punt him to space.

This is a story driven game but there are times I do wish it did the role playing thing it does for later parts of the game where you play through a flash back. I wish it would also play cutscenes similar to the ones recommended when the domans wish to ask you for what gift to get someone, or even some of the events where you stand and hand out things and have dialogue boxes. They can also be kind enough to teleport you to every single place that is in between two Aetherytes because everyone is always standing in the most inconvenient place they could possibly stand. There are ways they could present the story better than making you walk and do everyones dirty work like a slave. All the way back with Buscarron and him extorting you for more wine just to tell you he didn't have any information and to go find it yourself during the lead up to toto rok.

I needed to post here because everyone will always say it's so amazing, but it really isn't, I am sorry. Yes the story as a whole is amazing. I love the characters, there is alot of important story beats in between the run around and doing the scions dirty work in ARR while they sit around doing literally nothing.

I think the thing you are experiencing is how I felt post ARR. I want to play my class and do something other than fight one enemy and talk to a million people who all tell me the same thing 'I don't know anything but go over there and that person MIGHT know'. I would feel differently I think and have less contempt for the story if I wasn't FORCED to do it. It is like when I was in high school. I hated high school. I wanted to be home schooled but I was forced to go. That is the ARR story to me. If I had the choice to go through the story at my leisure I would be more excited to. When I go through for new game plus I will be able to enjoy it more because it isn't holding content hostage. My advice is skip everything that is boring, or just everything ARR and just new game plus later so you can actually enjoy the story instead of feeling trapped. Many things will also make more sense if you get the later bits of the story and than go back to that part. I am finding the story being way better with knowledge you get later on in the story. There is ALOT of info dumping.

Heavensward, you wont be able to skip that, it is too good except for maybe a few parts where you are taken away from heavensward to go back to Uldah again. I think what would help the story more would be maybe just better pacing in all honesty. There is far too much jumping around and plot threads thrown at you sometimes when it should be more focused. There are ways to still present the story, but right now you will have to wait if you are still in post ARR. It is the post ARR grind. Very good bits though are the side stories for every level 50 dungeon the blue plus quests. They are really good like tam tara deepcroft, wanderers palace, amdapor keep, and the lost city of amdapor to name a few that are important, interesting, or just silly.

TL;DR: Skip post ARR grind and new game plus later. You wont feel confined to the story and actually be able to enjoy it more with later knowledge given in the story. Just don't skip some of them like after shiva, keeper of the lake, anything with Moenbryda, the end where it splits into two quests do the one with tataru and watch the cutscenes for sure, and side content including hildibrand. If anything you can always replay and watch everything later after you unlock everything so you can enjoy current content or do dungeons with friends.

I also know it's a big meme but the story for the most part gets better for real. They aren't just telling you that as a conspiracy to keep you playing or sub longer. There are some low notes post heavensward but for the most part thats where I started having the most fun save for the big praetorium, castrum, biggs, wedge extravaganza at the end of ARR

Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-Vafj6AKY he gives a youtuber that does story summaries and things to catch people up if they want a refresh of the story beats. and addresses some of the feelings some have about the story of ARR

[ShadowyZero]

you should probably study up on final fantasy there friendo, its a franchise that is very story rich and they will always prioritize it over everything else. gameplay wise its pretty much the best thing SE has going for their FF franchise alot of game mechanincs end up being a hit or a miss most the time. and its very heavy on the roleplay aspect part. giving you various side activities to do in the event you want to take a break from story questing etc such as hunting, minigames, or just looking for easter eggs/references to things final fantasy related, or just hanging out with your crew and snapping photos here an there as you immerse yourself in the world and such.
if you're looking for a game thats heavy on challenges, unique encounters, and overall grinding your time away for hours on end to achieve something then maybe seek other games out there and i dont say this to be rude or condescending it is encouraged by even the developers of this game that if you get tired of playing then its ok to stop playing for awhile and to come back when you feel like it would be worth playing again etc. not too mention if story really is not your thing the developers have been kind enough to offer a skip of it should you choose to go that route.

[Mirhd]

The story is the game. There are other things to do, of course, but the story has always been the focus. The moment this changes will be a clear signal that the devs no longer care about delivering a cohesive narrative and will result in a loss of subs. When you change your target demographic, such a loss is inevitable, and this (among other things...) is what led to WoW being the mess it currently is.

Back to FFXIV : I think, more than anything, is that people ranting about ARR or post ARR being this awful slog taints the well, so to speak. Person A says it's horrible, person B hears this and goes into the game already biased against it and has a negative experience as a result. Are there parts that are a bit slow? Well certainly, but they aren't even close to being as terrible as certain folks have made them out to be.

EDIT: There's also this bizarre idea people have that they need to rush to end game, which... again, the story is the game. Why would you cut out a huge chunck of it to experience a (comparatively) minor part of it? Doesn't make sense to me. This just isn't that sort of game.

[Faafetai]

you should probably study up on final fantasy there friendo, its a franchise that is very story rich and they will always prioritize it over everything else. gameplay wise its pretty much the best thing SE has going for their FF franchise alot of game mechanincs end up being a hit or a miss most the time. and its very heavy on the roleplay aspect part. giving you various side activities to do in the event you want to take a break from story questing etc such as hunting, minigames, or just looking for easter eggs/references to things final fantasy related, or just hanging out with your crew and snapping photos here an there as you immerse yourself in the world and such.
if you're looking for a game thats heavy on challenges, unique encounters, and overall grinding your time away for hours on end to achieve something then maybe seek other games out there and i dont say this to be rude or condescending it is encouraged by even the developers of this game that if you get tired of playing then its ok to stop playing for awhile and to come back when you feel like it would be worth playing again etc. not too mention if story really is not your thing the developers have been kind enough to offer a skip of it should you choose to go that route.

I wouldn't recommend a story skip. Especially if they are literally near the end of post arr. That is by far the worst part to get through. After that they will feel as though a very heavy weight is lifted and gets access to new classes to play around with and the story picks up a bit. And xp is no longer being limited. Everyone who has tried to get to level 60 but have not completed post ARR take literally triple the time it takes after wards. Even doing the same leveling roulettes. Unless they get robbed with four man trials every time.

[hagare]

I don't think this game is for you mate.
May I direct you to another? WoW perhaps? I have a good feeling about the coming expansion

[Faafetai]

The story is the game. There are other things to do, of course, but the story has always been the focus.

This as well if you need to take a break for a bit you can do some of the side content to not burn out on the story.

Back to FFXIV : I think, more than anything, is that people ranting about ARR or post ARR being this awful slog taints the well, so to speak. Person A says it's horrible, person B hears this and goes into the game already biased against it and has a negative experience as a result. Are there parts that are a bit slow? Well certainly, but they aren't even close to being as terrible as certain folks have made them out to be.

I do not speak to many people. My mom and dad told me final fantasy has a good story. So we all played through 15 and 7, we all decided to try out 14 with the impression of 'critically acclaimed story'. going into the game I love it. I played the non trimmed down arr and post arr after my 3rd month of constantly being talked down to by the characters I was suppose to like, I was very close to skipping at a part that was cut that was a rehash of the quest you hand out mudpuppy steaks to everyone in coerthas. It was the same quest literally the same with different dialogue as the one from the pre stone vigil grind. however I didn't skip, kind of wish I did because it was literally the same quest. Than you get talked down to by the domans they play a prank on you to sniff a chocobo all the while making fun of you and talking down to you and having a good laugh at your expense. Maybe I am playing an entirely different game, but I came into the game expecting to like it and until I reach some parts of the story it was just busy work mmo grindy busy work. There wasn't much story until an info dump. this is post arr and some of arr, not all is bad but the quest design was just the same thing over and over again. It was designed to keep you subbed regardless of story. The good story beats are what kept me playing and I know they used that as a carrot on a stick.

EDIT: There's also this bizarre idea people have that they need to rush to end game, which... again, the story is the game. Why would you cut out a huge chunck of it to experience a (comparatively) minor part of it? Doesn't make sense to me. This just isn't that sort of game.

Most of this comes from the fact that many people have friends at end game. They don't want to sit in ARR for months they want to play with their friends where they are in the story. It is a consequence of coming late to the party. I still feel this way still being in shadowbringer while many brazillian friends are progging savage together and hanging out. While I can not be the fill in for their lack of tank, I am still stuck in post shadowbringer. It is a bit of a catch 22 because I take my time through the story, but if the option was there to unlock content and than enjoy the story at my own pace and still get to not be left out. I would do it. That is the reason at least personally.

Though I also don't believe people should rush to fast through leveling. Buying a jump pot will only leave many confused and the process of leveling is needed to get better acquainted with your tool kit. not just have a hotbar fill up with a million skills you have no clue what to do with.