The MSQ defeated me

[Tehmon]

I mean the good thing is you can just drop the MSQ at any point and go do something else.

[Syln]

I simply skip the dialogue.
I still don't fully understand what we did in Stormblood. XD
But I at least promised myself to watch the cutscenes that are voice acted.

I think there was something about an overpriced Katana and the urge to be step on by a dommy mommy or something.

[Snowdove]

I simply skip the dialogue.
I still don't fully understand what we did in Stormblood. XD
But I at least promised myself to watch the cutscenes that are voice acted.

I could have skipped the cutscenes. But I did want to know the story. Just wished the ratio between storytelling and actually doing something was less than 1000:1

[Jeeqbit]

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.

[TaleraRistain]

That moment when you thought OP was talking about a WoW xpac in FF14 forums in the first half only to realize they meant Shadowbringers lol.

Glad I wasn't the only one

[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.

[Jybril]

I am playing so many games these days that I completely missed this. To this day I am still calling Endwalker Shadowbringers..

I do this and keep trying to check myself lol.
I also play WoW as well so there's that.

[DBriggs304]

EW is waaaay more CS heavy

[ryouma17]

I could have skipped the cutscenes. But I did want to know the story. Just wished the ratio between storytelling and actually doing something was less than 1000:1

you can always skip th dialogue and cutscenes and rush to the endgame and then later on come back to the story via newgame+ and finish it at your leisure so that your also not locked out of content, NG+ saves the quest your on so you can turn it on and off when you feel like it instead of being forced to do it all at once

[Sqwall]

The ARR portion is rough...and before the changes made with 6.1....it was even more rough....

It was.... padded. We should call it what it is. But should be aware it was WAY worse, and they have taken steps to remove most of the boring bits.

Heavensward is where the rubber meets the road. Sadly you must make it through ARR. Heavensward (and i'm not afraid to say this) is the first time this game made me tear up. It's that good. When a story can make you involved with the plot, characters, and stakes presented....you start to stick with it. The Final Steps of Faith.... *chefs kiss*

......Then the car comes to a screeching halt with stormblood....THIS is where I took my first break from FFXIV. Stormblood was incredibly dense with multiple storylines, factions, characters, motives ALL happening at the same time. If I were to categorize stormblood's story I would say...."overly ambitious and should be chewed slowly". It was just un-focused and jumps around... a lot.

Shadowbringers.... just... WOW. I wasn't ready! The story had me hooked from get go....and it had me blubbering like a fool with the end of 5.3.....and it was all set up back in 2.0 in ARR.

Endwalker is literally the peak of EVERYTHING that has come before it. Essentially the "bow" on the gift. Endwalkers story is told as if it's the climax...so it's very fast in how events unfold, and it expects us to understand the unexpected things that happen through it's telling. At times I didn't have time to process information, as it subverted my understanding with "shock and awe" moments that had me gasp. I was just in the mode of "disbelief" as things unfolded. And the cherry on top...the ending....I felt the 10 years of EVERYTHING that came before and just smiled from ear to ear. It felt vindicated....complete....satisfied. And where we go from here is uncharted, new, fresh....and I love it. Sign me up for another 10 years.