The MSQ defeated me

[Atelier-Bagur]

For those of us who started from ARR, we only had to do one expansion at a time and then we had 2 years of mostly doing content. You can actually play it the same way by stopping the MSQ after each expansion and doing all of the endgame content that was released in that expansion. That content all has a story as well but they are probably shorter than the the MSQ.

Each expansion has 12 8-person raids, a trial series consisting of 3 trials, a series of 3 alliance raids, a relic weapon grind which in Stormblood and Shadowbringers includes vast areas with interesting actions, bosses and raids. There are the deep dungeons Palace of the Dead or Heaven-on-High and 3 beast tribes for each expansion. There are a lot of sidequest dungeons up until Shadowbringers too. We also had other content released through these expansions, such as new triple triad NPCs to fight, blue mage updates, new games in the gold saucer and plenty of mount grinds from all of these things.

This is actually what I did with my whole run of FFXIV, all the way till I was ready for Endwalker. I didnt rush through the entirety of the msq, I went for every side quest, dungeon, trial and raid by release to get the full expansion's experience which know that you bring it up, is probably WHY I didnt mind the slow msq progress. Since I went to do other things that was based on that expansion and had a lot more fun taking breaks.

[DBriggs304]

EW is waaaay more CS heavy

[kpxmanifesto]

I made it though part of Shadowbringers. The story is great. But I finally admit defeat to the MSQ. Two hours of cutscenes and dialogue text (only a slight exaggeration) between getting to kill maybe two enemies is just too much.


I think FF14 is great. I love the combat. I love the community. Far better than WoW's community.


But this MSQ...I just can't do it.


So I lay down my sword and give up.


I'll be back one day. But for now, I need something that is paced a bit better between story and actually getting to do something.

Yeah... one of the more significant complaints about the game. It takes a while for things to get sort of interesting.

[Azuri]

It's really not a stretch to state that MSQ now has more in common with visual novel genre than MMORPG or even JRPG.

[Tehmon]

It's really not a stretch to state that MSQ now has more in common with visual novel genre than MMORPG or even JRPG.

It's pretty on par with other JRPGs, especially Final Fantasy games.
But FFXIV's story-oriented approach to MMO is it's uniqueness and it's strength.

[Azuri]

It's pretty on par with other JRPGs, especially Final Fantasy games.
But FFXIV's story-oriented approach to MMO is it's uniqueness and it's strength.

You can tell a good story without turning it into a movie. XIV has spectacularly failed at that.

[RyuDragnier]

You can tell a good story without turning it into a movie. XIV has spectacularly failed at that.

You have examples of games that do this? Genuine question here.

[Theodric]

It's pretty on par with other JRPGs, especially Final Fantasy games.
But FFXIV's story-oriented approach to MMO is it's uniqueness and it's strength.

I disagree. There's by far more combat in the average JRPG than what FFXIV has on offer. In the most recent patch the only mandatory combat takes place in the dungeon itself. Whereas if I fire up, say, the FFVII remake there's a much healthier balance of combat and story to be found.

[Tehmon]

I disagree. There's by far more combat in the average JRPG than what FFXIV has on offer. In the most recent patch the only mandatory combat takes place in the dungeon itself. Whereas if I fire up, say, the FFVII remake there's a much healthier balance of combat and story to be found.

And if I fire up Final Fantasy 10 I'll be stuck watching unavoidable, unskippable cutscenes for hours and hours and spending most of the time outside of cutscenes fleeing from battles and dealing with arbitrary boss encounters that are easily cheesed.

[Kyrj]

And if I fire up Final Fantasy 10 I'll be stuck watching unavoidable, unskippable cutscenes for hours and hours and spending most of the time outside of cutscenes fleeing from battles and dealing with arbitrary boss encounters that are easily cheesed.

And yet FFX still offers more combat inbetween cutscenes than FFXIV. So..bad example.