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

[DezereDawn]

It's one thing to enjoy the content of the story and another to dislike the way the story's presented deeply enough to no longer enjoy the game.

Having the story presented in quests and cutscenes ties it to processes that the OP is finding unenjoyable; namely the massive number of quests needed to complete in order to make further content available. Having capital cities and access to Poetics gear locked behind MSQ progress was incredibly frustrating for me when I started replaying the game. Imagine starting Heavensward at two levels higher than that expansion's max level (62) and not being able to get lvl 60 Poetics gear because you couldn't get to Rhalgr's Reach, or being level 89 when just starting the final zone of 5.0 Shadowbringers and not having access to the full array of vendors in Eulmore. It's a similar situation; I love the game and story, but being held back due to prior design decisions can be extremely frustrating.

Not everything is for everyone. I enjoy cola drinks, but given the choice of having Coke or Pepsi, I'll choose Coke every time. In fact, I'll choose a different drink if Pepsi's the only cola option. I'm very happy that so many people are trying XIV after all these years; however, it's an old game with a lot of content designed with a story-first philosophy that's different from most MMOs. That's not going to be to everyone's taste and there's nothing wrong with that. Life's too short to spend time on something that's intended to be fun doing, even though doing it isn't fun enough to warrant the doing of it. If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd probably be having the same experience; this is a hell of a lot of game to get through to reach current content and play with friends.

Around Christmas 2018 I picked up WoW again to give BfA a try before Classic launched. Having not played since the initial Cata release, I had 7 years of content to get through. Going through all of that was a huge slog that was just barely enjoyable enough to keep me playing, but not fun enough that I wanted to keep playing it after catching up on what I missed. If I'd had friends waiting for me at endgame I'd probably have put it away out of frustration at how long it was taking and how much stuff was locked behind that massive wall of content.

Such is the risk and cost of starting a 10-year old MMO from scratch.

This is pretty understandable, thank you for the response c:

[Lecru]

i'd recommend you maybe take a mild criticism of a large game that isn't perfect a little less personally, this garbage attitude you're presenting is a great way to drive off new players. might wanna drop it <3

Frankly idc about that either lmfao It's the truth. If you don't like the story. Hit ESC. Slam it over and over. Run from point A to poitn B. But coming onto the threads of an established game and complaining about how you don't like ACTUAL CONTENT is going to garnish attitudes. <3 live with it

[HisShadowX]

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.

So the only Questline I believe that is not required for to move on is Bahamut. Honestly I soloed that after I was done with Shadowbringers and man does it add certain elements to the story.

[Eelanos]

There's really no reason to level faster on the patch content, though. Even if each single quest gave you several million EXP, what would the point be? You're still gated by the MSQ, and you have to accept that the story is the main selling point of the game.
You can rush through the content or buy a skip, but there's no reason for you to be level 90 on level 50 content because you're gonna get scaled down anyways. Hell, sometimes the game forces you to get scaled up for certain content like PvP and Bozja.

If you really want to grind levels faster, your best options are the daily roulettes and some other content meant for leveling that you'll unlock as you go, but even if that halt in experience feels odd, you're really not missing much. Eventually you'll get the full kit, but the game will force you to be at the level you have to be for the content you're tackling, so there's really no point on worrying about it.

[Skivvy]

I don't care for most of XIV's story. I'm not a fan of how it presents itself, how many filler quests are shoved into it, how CSs are quite often "show a fist angrily being clenched", "pan over to MC, see her make an angry emote, then show 4 other Scions make the same emote in turn", it feels clunky and it's not my thing.

I would love if they added in more "jumping in points" to the content. If someone is interested in a specific fight/raid/whatever, let them do a few quests to unlock it, then they can be on their way. This is an MMO, and as we all should know, MMOs draw people with a lot of varied interests. Forcing people to suffer through hours and hours and hours of MSQ they may not be interested in at that moment isn't great. Giving people the option of where their time is spent is not a bad thing.

If someone is OK with jumping in mid-way to the story, I feel like that should be left up to the player if it's worth doing or not. The story may not make sense, but the story may not be their jam anyway. XI and GW2 are the two other MMOs I've spent most of my time in, and both of those games give you a decent amount of flexibility in how you unlock your content. You are able to do the story out of order there if you prefer, but in doing so it lets you focus on what you want. And you can always go back to the story when you're ready for it.

With NG+ constantly being expanded, I feel that makes an even stronger point for unshackling a lot of the content being behind full MSQ completion. Let people do what they enjoy in an MMO, and if they decide they do want to partake in the full story, they have the option right there in the form of NG+.

[Theodric]

how CSs are quite often "show a fist angrily being clenched"

Yeah, it's a parody of itself at this point on some fronts. I've followed the story for years and enjoyed bits of it but especially in recent expansions it seems to have become especially predictable and 'safe'. A lot of what is said could be relayed in far fewer words and we certainly don't need to see characters repeat the same information to other characters that they've just told someone else. I think it was telling that the only combat in the latest batch of MSQ's was within the dungeon itself. Would the single player Final Fantasy single player games be as popular if you spent hours at a time not being able to fight anything? I don't think so.

[Carin-Eri]

I'm quite the opposite of the OP. I absolutely loved the story.

In fact, the story was what kept me pressing on with the game. I've admitted in other threads that I'm pretty dreadful at the actual gameplay element of the game and I struggled with this whilst playing through the MSQ. However, the quality of the story was such that the desire to 'see what happens next' meant that, despite getting my ass kicked 25 times by Zenos for example, I tried one more time and blundered my way through it. And I'm really glad I did as it was an incredible journey that I really did savor.

And much like the OP, I have friend who play the game too - at least one of whom I knew from another MMO I used to play and who encouraged me to play FFXIV. I didn't feel any particular rush to get to Endgame and, if anything, they enjoyed seeing me play through content that they'd already enjoyed playing through themselves.

[Illmaeran]

I would love if they added in more "jumping in points" to the content. If someone is interested in a specific fight/raid/whatever, let them do a few quests to unlock it, then they can be on their way. This is an MMO, and as we all should know, MMOs draw people with a lot of varied interests. Forcing people to suffer through hours and hours and hours of MSQ they may not be interested in at that moment isn't great. Giving people the option of where their time is spent is not a bad thing.

I think skips are the best we're going to get. All told, they're actually a pretty good deal. In addition to not wanting to waste all the XP I'd lose due to being maxed before SB was over, I've got personal reasons for not wanting to play SB, so I got a skip. I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I'm glad I did. With all the extra things you get with it; dungeon/raid unlocks, Gil, poetics gear, chocobo feathers, etc, $20-25 is a bargain. Considering I paid $50-60 each for 2.0 through 6.0; $50 for a skip to (through?) Shadowbringers with a level skip to max is actually pretty sweet.

Being one myself, it does take a "Special kind of crazy" to enjoy the MSQ slog. However, just because I enjoyed the grand scheme of it doesn't mean I didn't really struggle to get through certain portions of every expansion. The (original) end of ARR was tough and Stormblood in its entirety was a generally awful experience, that actually did cause me to stop playing part way through the 4.0 content. Certain latter portions of Heavensward and Shadowbringers were merely unpleasant and not horrible to get through. The only thing that got me through them was knowing I had to in order to continue doing things I enjoyed doing post-MSQ and to play with my FC mates.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

Oh look the typical "this game just isn't for you" responses. Guess I can scratch that off my bingo card.

I don't care for most of XIV's story. I'm not a fan of how it presents itself, how many filler quests are shoved into it, how CSs are quite often "show a fist angrily being clenched", "pan over to MC, see her make an angry emote, then show 4 other Scions make the same emote in turn", it feels clunky and it's not my thing.

I concur. The MSQ scenes are starting to show their age and they're aging like a fine milk. I still remember that one scene at the end of a specific expansion between NPC 1 and NPC 2 not having seen each other in a long time and that absolutely stunning emote exchange.

[IkaraGreydancer]

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.

I'd say go play Phanatsy Star Online 2 New Genesis. Story is pretty non existent there