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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[IkaraGreydancer]

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



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.

Also how can you rag on those responses? It seems to be the truth. Also cutscenes have been better than ever in xiv so that a VERY odd take

[Vahlnir]

You could do what I did when i first played through ARR. (that was before they shortened it)
watch youtube summaries of the story. or just buy a skip. but everything after arr is pretty good, i see no reason to complain..

I'd normally suggest playing the game, but I don't fault anyone who wants the Cliffnotes version of ARR or simply wants to skip it completely. It's a bit of a drag compared to what comes after.

[Skivvy]

Also how can you rag on those responses? It seems to be the truth. Also cutscenes have been better than ever in xiv so that a VERY odd take

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

Using myself as an example, I don't like XIV's story, but I've been around since ARR launch and beyond. I've also spent faaaar too much money on this game, which I think SE probably appreciates, but with that advice, I should have packed up 10 years ago and spent my money elsewhere.

MMOs have a lot of features, all designed to lure in different kinds of players. The MSQ is only a portion of what makes up this game. Now, for some people, hating the MSQ may be enough to make them go to another game, but for others, it's just a negative mark on a game they otherwise enjoy. It's going to vary by person as we all have different interests and expectations for a game. But to tell someone this game isn't for them solely because they dislike the story? That's just dumb.

[Mirhd]

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

It is a valid reply, and it applies to every hobby in life. Don't enjoy something for one reason or another? Stop doing it, otherwise you're just wasting your time and making yourself frustrated for no reason. What isn't valid is expecting the foundations of something to change because you don't like it. We aren't talking QoL or class changes, etc, we're talking "tear out the skeleton of the game and put something else in." That is absurdly arrogant and delusional, and it always baffles me that people think this is a reasonable approach for the devs to take.

I used to bounce back and forth between WoW and FFXIV (Wow since 2004, FFXIV since HW) before I acknowledged during BFA (well before the crap show hit), after years of decisions I didn't agree with, "ok, this just isn't for me anymore" and left. Never looked back, and the newest expansion doesn't interest me in the least. It's ok to stop doing something if you no longer derive entertainment from it. Sunk cost fallacy can take a hike.

You hate the story (questionable since it's the focus, but fair enough) yet still find things you enjoy about it, and that outweighs what you don't like enough for you to continue playing. Genuinely, good for you. You're a minority, though, and no, the forums are not the bulk of the player population and are a poor indicator of anything; the bulk never visit forums (as with any game or other hobby). If this were not the case, the devs would focus less on story and more on other things... and they don't, yet continue to gain and maintain a stable sub base, which is telling enough.

Funny thing is... the devs acknowledge there are some people that don't care about what they care about, so gave people an option to skip the story on the online store. "But people shouldn't have to pay to skip!", you might say. Hard disagree. Again, the story (whether one likes it or not) is the foundation everything else is built on. They never wanted story skip to be a thing and encouraged people to play normally, so outside of that, if you want to skip, better pay up. Seems reasonable to me. I've also seen on these forums (and elsewhere) that many newer players regretted buying a story skip because they had no idea what was going on and as a result had no investment in anything. They realised exactly what they were missing upon doing New Game +, and wished they had simply played through normally the first go, rather than souring their original experience due to a missed placed desire to get to "the real game" (lol?), or what have you.

One final thing... If one is rushing to "the real game" (again... what. the entire story is "the real game") so one can play with ones' friends... I have to ask : why aren't ones' friends playing with them? Make an alt, go through the story with your newbie friend(s), and relive your first time through the game by proxy. I did that with my sister, and it was great. Her genuine excitement made me excited, and her various "Oh damn" moments, etc, were hilarious. If a supposed "friend" isn't willing to do the same, well... that's a poor friend, imo.