Real talk; the lack of Job-specific STORY content is really hurting my excitement...

[RaideDuku]

Yeah, I'd say that EW's Role Quests could've made the actual roles a bit more important, I kinda saw it more as a way to hang out with the city-state leaders one last time. If the story is anything to go by, it seems like we're pretty much done with them. At least for awhile.

[Payadopa]

Ok Time Out. Brother, what in the hell are you talking about that the job quests were getting too samey? Heck the flippin role quests are purely the same premise; they just dress it up with some specific character flavor lore. Not trying to say these were worse...they're fine.

But saying that job quests were all the same has got to be one of the most out of touch takes Ive ever heard yet.

I found a lot of them follow the same formula. It's not enough time to introduce a new character and let them have anything meaningful within 5 or so quests. I'd rather have the MSQ introducing parts of it and go from there. I also like that they are interconnected and lead to a small surprise if you do all.

In contrast I find the job quests a bit on the shallow side. It's character introduction, introduction of a problem, either a switcheroo because good was bad or vice versa or power of friendship,
followed by the resolution and a post credit scene. And while that is true for a lot of stories at least the role quests do a better job at hiding it. Tying them together gives you way more to work with and more time to develop something. I don't need yet another WHM quest that heals the fwowest. Give me 5 good stories than 20 bland ones.

[Terin]

The thing is those Job quests help sell the “fantasy” of each Job. Without them, you just feel like a generic adventurer, and that “jobs” are just different equipped weapons.

I think the game is much worse without their presence. Especially just being GIVEN your artifact armor, with zero fanfare.

[Mayhemmer]

The thing is those Job quests help sell the “fantasy” of each Job. Without them, you just feel like a generic adventurer, and that “jobs” are just different equipped weapons.

I think the game is much worse without their presence. Especially just being GIVEN your artifact armor, with zero fanfare.

Agreed. Much of the identity of jobs came from their personalized quests that delved into their lore and themes, and I miss having those.

[Raven2014]

Agreed. Much of the identity of jobs came from their personalized quests that delved into their lore and themes, and I miss having those.

The thing is ... under the ideal condition that would be the case, but things haven't been ideal.

For example, the 2.0 PLD quest wasn't great, but was ok, and like you said decent enough to establish the job identity. But the PLD quest line in HW got so stupid that the writing became self-aware with the NPC said - quote "it's the most stupid thing I have ever heard!" at the conclusion of the question. The MNK questline was decent enough in 2.0 and 3.0, but by stormblood it feels more like babysitting a complete wuss that just happen to be the last hope of the "order". I don't remember much but yeah, I don't there is much hope there.

By stormblood, the amount of bad vs good job quests were at best: 50-50 and I feel the trend would only get worse as more and more job added for each expansion. Just like good quest can be a possitive for the lore, bad quest can also damage it, to which not having them at all is actually is the better option.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The thing is ... under the ideal condition that would be the case, but things haven't been ideal.

For example, the 2.0 PLD quest wasn't great, but was ok, and like you said decent enough to establish the job identity. But the PLD quest line in HW got so stupid that the writing became self-aware with the NPC said - quote "it's the most stupid thing I have ever heard!" at the conclusion of the question. The MNK questline was decent enough in 2.0 and 3.0, but by stormblood it feels more like babysitting a complete wuss that just happen to be the last hope of the "order". I don't remember much but yeah, I don't there is much hope there.

By stormblood, the amount of bad vs good job quests were at best: 50-50 and I feel the trend would only get worse as more and more job added for each expansion. Just like good quest can be a possitive for the lore, bad quest can also damage it, to which not having them at all is actually is the better option.

Gonna be real with you here. The only insulting job quest here WAS and IS the HW Paladin questline. Every other job quest was fine. I dont expect to like or connect with every job quest but I appreciate and enjoy the world building aspect of them regardless.

Saying that them contuining the quests in the future would just make them worse is a poor excuse for them not to do better and not build on their own world and I wont have that. I like FFXIV's world and characters and I want to see more of what was established long ago

[Raven2014]

Saying that them contuining the quests in the future would just make them worse is a poor excuse for them not to do better and not build on their own world and I wont have that. I like FFXIV's world and characters and I want to see more of what was established long ago

You can call it excuse if you like, I think I'm just being real. We're getting 2 news jobs every expansion, the game is slated to run for probably another 10. Even if this second story arc gonna be shorter than the Ascian/Hyadelin arc, we're still looking at like 4 expansions. When quantity increase, quality will suffer, that's just how thing is. It's the samething with job balancing. Ideally I prefer we get fresh new MMO every 10 years, but sadly with the cost of developing them we never gonna get that. And eventually an MMO will always gonna buckle under its own weight.

That's why I favor compromise. Instead of stretching the resource to maintain a "token" appearance for each job, if I can have 5 elaborate, meaningful, well-written quest line for each role, I'll take it. NOT because I prefer role quest to job quest, but because I believe the probability of getting better quests are much higher with the role quest.


Another issue I have with the majority of job quests (and this extend to even story beyond them) is how much copy and paste they are. Now don't get me wrong, I think FF14 have a fantastic writing team and they write good story, the issue I have is it seems they can only write ONE type of story. Part of the reason I think the DK quests line was popular because it's one of the very rare and few quests that actually mostly about your character. Tell me, if I make the statement "we gonna help someone overcome an identity crisis", how many of these job quest you can apply that statement to as a blanket/overall description? For me, the answer is: almost every single one of them. Even the DRK used the same premise, it was just a bit better because the WoL also have fairshare of the focus. I probably miss one or two because it has been so long, but from the top of my head the only job quest line that focus entirely on the role instead of an NPC's crisis is the SMN quest line.


Which is again, by itself, that format is not a bad thing. In fact, in term of average video game story, you can even consider it high level. But just like anything, too much of the same is never a good thing. Even a 5star iron chef dish gonna get stale if you have to eat the same dish every single day. For the majority of the (job) quest, I feel I'm there to observe the NPC's stories, the story is always about them and their grow while I'm just there to provide the necessary stimulant to move it forward. And frankly, I'm at the point where I can say it's hardly matter how good the writing is anymore, I'm simply "bored" of that framework.

[Arzalis]

I definitely miss the old job quests. They were/are some of my favorite quests in the game.

I know the new jobs get some, but we're at the point where we're basically playing a new job with barely any idea what it's even about beyond a quick blurb and some inferences based on the skills.

It's kinda sad to me that something like Reaper will never get the same level of job identity/lore development as say, Dark Knight, because it only gets a couple quests.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Are we getting the same quest ? I mean, most of them are F-tiers in term of storytelling. And pretty much the same : help PNJ n°10 000 discover their affinity with the job you're playing, "damn WOL you're a natural at this", and... well, that's all. Special mention for the PLD, WHM, WAR, and BLM quests, which are really poorly written.

+ Shb role quest were a lot better than all the job quests we had. Interesting development, characters, and some lore ? Perfect. Meanwhile, job quests were always kinda... Well, weird. They don't blend in the general lore, at all : for instance, I loved the DRG story, but it always seemed weird to have two celestial dragoons.

Shb role quests were extremely formulaic. You already knew what the end was going to be theyre all just flavorfied hunts.

Same thing with EW role quests, they were all just the same coat of paint of monster of the week just with old characters tagging along (which is fine! Im not going to say that it was not).

But youre lying out of your butt if you seriously are telling me that the role quest story formula is more interesting than the individual job stories.

You know honestly its funny. Its super funny how the homogenization of jobs started with how they even homogenized the class quests by dumping every job into their single role with Shb.

I want to say this is the other half of why current jobs feel boring, not only gameplay wise but also story wise because they jusy stop expanding on the lore

[Mayhemmer]

You know honestly its funny. Its super funny how the homogenization of jobs started with how they even homogenized the class quests by dumping every job into their single role with Shb.

I want to say this is the other half of why current jobs feel boring, not only gameplay wise but also story wise because they jusy stop expanding on the lore

That's what I'm saying! The early job quests brought themes and lore to their jobs, and I feel like with them missing it allows job design to drift further into blandness and lack of identity.