The MSQ defeated me

[EagleDynamics]

i agree. it was really a slog at some points and the story wasnt that good imo. i think EW was the worst expansion to date.

[Amenara]

Can't see how bad gameplay is while leveling up if there is no gameplay while leveling up.

[RayneBoemir]

You know you don’t have to read or see every scene for all the story parts that unlock dungeons/raids etc

I just came back after I stopped playing at the beginning of ShB, and while I definitely payed attention to the main story and other tidbits, I didn’t do that for a lot of side content like raids and stuff as long as I got the gist of it I am good.

I only read and see each scene if it pertains to the main characters for the other stuff as long as I got the general idea of what’s going on I am good.

Of course that said the game is incredibly lengthy, and hoping to start from the very beginning and all the way to where we are now is incredibly draining so breaks are warranted.

[Cach]

OP is right, not because there's too much story, but because the story -> gameplay ratio is getting very silly and the gameplay parts are getting very... not good. The game is just zipping around between cutscenes.

To be fair, they tried to add variety with the escort/follow thing, the """stealth""" segments and the occasional (bizarre) first person segment... and I'm sorry, but they are very bad. Solo duties are very hit and miss as well.

IMHO they should have made side-quests more integral to the game's progress and perhaps design the maps in a way that encourages exploring instead of just making a bee line directly to the next MSQ marker (aether currents are a nice start, but it could be better).

[Kozh]

As an old school jrpg fan and as someone who actually enjoy ARR pre-nerf, unfortunately I have to agree with OP. It's not the matter of "lot's of combat", but it's a matter of cutscene:gameplay ratio. Personally, ShB is fine, if not a little to dragged on in certain parts. Endwalker though? Even for me who thoroughly enjoy long cutscene, it was rough. I probably have around a dozen times I lost focus during the cutscenes. Hell, I even skip one halfway through, and this is the first for me.

And to someone who said "well, old jrpg comes in 4 disc", isn't that due to one disc not enough for the entire game, so they need to split it up? Not always because it got lengthy cutscenes?

I think persona series manage to keep a good balance between story and action. The new tales of arise is quite good at it too.

[Atelier-Bagur]

As an old school jrpg fan and as someone who actually enjoy ARR pre-nerf, unfortunately I have to agree with OP. It's not the matter of "lot's of combat", but it's a matter of cutscene:gameplay ratio. Personally, ShB is fine, if not a little to dragged on in certain parts. Endwalker though? Even for me who thoroughly enjoy long cutscene, it was rough. I probably have around a dozen times I lost focus during the cutscenes. Hell, I even skip one halfway through, and this is the first for me.

And to someone who said "well, old jrpg comes in 4 disc", isn't that due to one disc not enough for the entire game, so they need to split it up? Not always because it got lengthy cutscenes?

I think persona series manage to keep a good balance between story and action. The new tales of arise is quite good at it too.

I said that because yeah it was due to that obviously but the devs still spaced out the story to cater to having an act structure between discs which I thought was a great detail. At least with FFIX's case

[VirusOnline]

Now lets not use WoW as a good example for anything, least of all storytelling. WoW doesn't tell you a story at all, it just has you skip 90% of it to get to the latest expansio and basically gives you next to no context for what is even happening, relegating much of the actual plot into external media. That is probably the absolute worst way of telling a story. XIV just needs to learn to interweve story and gameplay better, or just keep the same amount of cutscenes but insert more gameplay segments into the MSQ.

I'm talking about the entirety of XIVs MSQ from start to end.
I loved ShB story but the cutscenes and copious dialogues are a drag.

From ShB to EW, innovation took a deep dive into wtf land.

At some point we need an MSQ TLDR and allow new characters to play/start at the expansion before the current.

WoW doesn't force that on you.
I should clarify that I meant zone quests in terms of storytelling.
IE Kul'Tiras storyline is quite enjoyable and you can level in that entire story plotline from 10-50 and start the most current expansion at 49 and be able to experience all plotlines in each of the new zones.

Neither side is perfect, but there is one I personally prefer.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The devs did say they are thinking about how a possible new player starting experience from 7.0 an onwards we just dont know how it'll be implemented but all I know is that it wont be a thing anytime soon since we're currently still on 6.x story

[YukikoKurosawa]

At some point we need an MSQ TLDR and allow new characters to play/start at the expansion before the current.

No that's absolutely atrocious. Why would you even care about the story if your experience is through a TL'DR? Do you approach a several-installment-long novel series and go "I want to skip to the latest book and just have a TL'DR of the previous installments?". You want to just be able to jump in at any random part of the story you feel like and experience in completely seperate and out of context? This story, and any properly told story, doesn't work that way. It's a long, overarching narrative, it's not meant to be experienced at whatever moment in the several-years long storyline you feel like, it's a start-to-finish type of story.

On top of that, unlike WoW, you are playing as the canonical main character. It wouldn't make any sense for a new player to just jump in whatever random zone in whatever expansion because not only would it be completely out of context it wouldn't even make any sense to them. You're not playing as some random, faceless adventurer you're playing as the main character who has an actual face and name. That type of approach works when there's basically no story at all and you aren't playing an actual character, or you just don't care about the story and just want the option to play whatever content straight from the begining. This isn't a proper theme-park game so that's not going to work.

If you actually care about the story than why would you want to experience it in such a way? May as well just buy a skip at that point. While yes, it's gotten very long, but if you're actually playing the game for the story it's just more content to experience and not an obstacle. The game up to stormblood is completely free, the story and all the other content prior to that expansion. I'm sure what they'll do is start making even more expansions free. Why does a new player need to jump to the latest expansion? There isn't any rush, the content isn't going anywhere, it's not like WoW where content becomes irrelevant permanently after the next patch.

This entire "gotta get to the latest expansion ASAP" argument that's been repeated ad infinitum throughout MMO's in general is predicated on FOMO, a consequence of games like WoW which make all their content irrelevant as soon as the next patch arrives so as to encourage you to FOMO in so you don't miss out. FF doesnt have that problem since they have managed to do what every one of these games should have done all along and keep their content relevant. You aren't forced to do anything, either go through the content as it was meant to be experienced (half of which is completely free), or just buy a skip. But WoW's approach to storytelling is objectively horrendous, it fundamentally fails at basic storytelling and no game, least of all FF, should be trying to replicate it.

[Cubsbane]

I'd advise you to take breaks by doing other content, but I'm a big fan of a lot of story, so my "breaks" from the MSQ (I started in 2019) generally also involved me reading text. And there is a lot of text in this game!

Honestly, if it feels overwhelming but you want to play more, please don't listen to the loud minority and feel like you must read every little thing and watch every cutscene. Skip the dialogue, go back and watch important MSQ stuff later if you want. If there's lore you're curious about but missed, you can probably read or watch one of a bazillion things about it, as fans of this game love writing and talking about it.

The majority of people do not care unless you start going THE STORY SUCKED RIGHT GUYS I SKIPPED IT ALL or HAHA I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING THIS GAME IS TERRIBLE. In which case people would get mad, because FFXIV players are notoriously terrible at not taking bait, especially in these forums.