I am extremely concerned about this

[sindriiisgaming]

this is yoshiPs current comments on a skip from ARR to Void ark in endwalker
i want to voice many concerns i have regarding this

i am concerned about this idea to skip all the expansions too. there are a couple of reasons why im against this.
1 and this is my weakest point. when i buy an expansion, Shb/Ew. im expected to finish that msq to unlock the endgame. i invest hours into that game that while Im ok with it. i am sadly having to do as part of what i paid for. to see somebody come into this game, whod essentially get 3 expansions for free is kinda a kick in the teeth to those who had to pay for it and grind through it.

2. and this is my strongest point. its not about msq, its about the things u learn through the msq. u learn ur job, and basic mecanics. jumping right into 6.1 is going to birth an insane amount of "skippers" who know literally nothing about the game, its core mecanics and thats going to be reflected in your roulettes. tanks who are sprouts but on the same level dng as you with nowhere near the experience you do. Healers completly overwhelmed by the sheer number of buttons. the current experience, is just the skipping of cutscenes. not entire dungeons, trials. and core gameplay experiences like Grand company ect. a player skipping the expansions is going to also find the amount of "backwards" content daunting. and ultimatley, since through your basic grind your going to win up, still needing to 1-90 whm. youre still going to have to do all this... so its completly pointless and a literal detrement to your ability to grasp the insane number of systems and mecanics in this game. the only way they could save this idea is by still forcing you to do every dungeon and trial. except that you get exp from msq.. if they impliment a new character that can instantly skip to level 90 class. im sorry thats just insulting to those who had to work for it

3. starting from 6.1 is an even worse idea than ARR. the story in 6.1 is GARBAGE and also doesnt make sense to anybody who didnt play half of heavensward and ARR (tlaking about void lore) starting players here, will only increase the number of people leaving the game, or giving up any hope of the msq being worth watchin... which only further trivializes the entire point of FFXIV. I get this game is emulating wow more and more. but this is the ONE place you SHOULDNT copy wow. as this is the one place with the most criticism.. that the story is disjointed and skippable...there are so many voices screaming this game keeps shaving content down. and removing all this content will further send messages that give the wrong idea. wanting to buy a game and just not engaging with 80% of it.. whats the point

[Espon]

You're like one of those people that goes out of their way to be unhappy about something.

1. I fail to see the issue with this since you can already buy skips on the store. Just because someone can skip previous expansions doesn't trivialize the fun I had in the past.

2. Honestly they need to release an updated Hall of the Novice that teaches you what the various symbols that frequently show up in encounters mean as well as a quick play guide for a high level job. This is one of my gripes with the release of new jobs as you're given 20+ abilities and need to figure out what they all do and how it all fits together before being thrown into a solo duty.

3. It's an option, unlike WoW. If someone wants to play FF14 for the story they're not going to use the skip to jump to patch 6.1. WoW's story already stopped making sense when they wiped out all the vanilla content with Cataclysm, resulting in new players doing quests dealing with the aftermath of the fall of The Burning Legion and The Lich King, and then leveling through two expansions where suddenly those enemies are alive and well. FF14 keeps all its old story available (aside from trimming some of ARR).

[Iscah]

3. It's an option

It's not even an option, it's the floated concept of an option from a dredged-up interview from months ago, as the future-tense description of the Unending Codex should make clear.

[sindriiisgaming]

You're like one of those people that goes out of their way to be unhappy about something.

1. I fail to see the issue with this since you can already buy skips on the store. Just because someone can skip previous expansions doesn't trivialize the fun I had in the past.

2. Honestly they need to release an updated Hall of the Novice that teaches you what the various symbols that frequently show up in encounters mean as well as a quick play guide for a high level job. This is one of my gripes with the release of new jobs as you're given 20+ abilities and need to figure out what they all do and how it all fits together before being thrown into a solo duty.

3. It's an option, unlike WoW. If someone wants to play FF14 for the story they're not going to use the skip to jump to patch 6.1. WoW's story already stopped making sense when they wiped out all the vanilla content with Cataclysm, resulting in new players doing quests dealing with the aftermath of the fall of The Burning Legion and The Lich King, and then leveling through two expansions where suddenly those enemies are alive and well. FF14 keeps all its old story available (aside from trimming some of ARR).

You can story skip on the store yes. And even buy a road to 80 book. But it's paid for to deter you from doing so. Also players who skip jobs like whm stick out like a sore thumb. God just the other day I had 1 in the last stb dungeon and they had no idea about regen/cure3 or medica 2. You could also tell because they were in full tome gear and accessories. We shouldn't keep encouraging this as it will have a detrimental effect on player skill level ... and honestly. After having done my 2k grind.. its already shockingly bad

[Boblawblah]

2. and this is my strongest point. its not about msq, its about the things u learn through the msq. u learn ur job, and basic mecanics. jumping right into 6.1 is going to birth an insane amount of "skippers" who know literally nothing about the game, its core mecanics and thats going to be reflected in your roulettes. tanks who are sprouts but on the same level dng as you with nowhere near the experience you do. Healers completly overwhelmed by the sheer number of buttons. the current experience, is just the skipping of cutscenes. not entire dungeons, trials. and core gameplay experiences like Grand company ect. a player skipping the expansions is going to also find the amount of "backwards" content daunting. and ultimatley, since through your basic grind your going to win up, still needing to 1-90 whm. youre still going to have to do all this... so its completly pointless and a literal detrement to your ability to grasp the insane number of systems and mecanics in this game. the only way they could save this idea is by still forcing you to do every dungeon and trial. except that you get exp from msq.. if they impliment a new character that can instantly skip to level 90 class. im sorry thats just insulting to those who had to work for it

You wanted more challenge/stress, well there you go

[Fyrebrand]

"Welcome to our awesome story-driven RPG, where we put in lots of extra work to allow players to do dungeons solo so they can enjoy them at their own pace. Also, don't do that. Skip the entire story. Don't play it, it's bad."

For sake of argument, though, here's an idea: how about instead of the usual black-and-white "skip everything" or "skip nothing" options, why not just a "skip ARR" option? Most people seem to think that's the biggest sticking point, and I can somewhat see why. I still feel like new players would be missing out on a lot without ARR under their belts, but at least vanilla ARR is fairly light in terms of really meaningful "story." For a lot of it, you're just doing random fetch quests, killing primals, then storming the empire's base. Maybe they could make an optional "ARR Lite" tutorial experience where you get the gist of the story explained through cutscenes, but interspersed with single-player gameplay "highlight moments" where you learn your job and play some combat, get told about various game features, get your chocobo, etc. The game proper would start of at Heavensward... or, maybe a couple quests before that so you can see THAT scene from the end of ARR.

[Avoidy]

Honestly I'm all for it. This story is "okay" and has some bursts of really good moments, but it's weighed down hard by the padded mmo pacing. There are so many great parts that happen and then get followed up with like 4 hours of picking up trash off the ground. Or awfully animated cutscenes where players /handover air to another character. Or the endless recycled fist-clenching in endwalker like a kid who just learned how to use semicolons so now he uses them all over the place; like he can't stop using them; he loves using them because it's still new to him; he's so proud of what he just learned how to do; naturally he has to show everyone. Like, they could've told EW's story in a fraction of the hours if they cut out all the running back and forth stuff, but then they wouldn't have been able to brag about "40 hours of content." They would've had a well paced story but it would've been significantly shorter. So we get "low points" that people will actually defend saying that stories can't be climaxing all the time, and that's true, but several hours of fetch quests and running from npc to npc (when that running could've been a cutscene, for example) is not even enjoyable to play. It's just a slog. Post-ARR loses so many people that it's memed as a filter. It's so hard to get friends into this game because they realize there're 80 fetch quests standing between them and the next expansion, and the payoff for that slog is an emotionally charged finale that leads right into more running back and forth and more fetching items off the ground... only this time, in Ishgard! If people want to skip this whole thing and jump straight to the end to play current content with their friends, I wouldn't blame them at all. I would warn them though, that this game's on such a drip-feed of content pacing that they're rushing to an end where there's nothing to do except stand around and ERP.

"Welcome to our awesome story-driven RPG, where we put in lots of extra work to allow players to do dungeons solo so they can enjoy them at their own pace. Also, don't do that. Skip the entire story. Don't play it, it's bad."

The funny thing is, by selling MSQ skips in the cash shop, this is what the devs have been implicitly saying all along.

[DrForester]

Admittedly a much smaller scale, but they made it work with all the players who didn't complete 1.0.

I think it could work. The Hydaelyn/Zodiark story is pretty much done with (I'm sure the 4 outstanding Convocation members will show up at some point). They can start a new story with 7.0 and just adjust dialog like they did with the 1.0 WOL for all the people who aren't the 1.0 WOL.

I do question 6.1 as a starting point though. I did enjoy 6.x's story, but even though it's not something major to the story, I feel like Zero's backstory as Zeno's familiar will be tough to explain.


In the end, there will be many, many people urging players to complete the MSQ from the start. At the same time, every expansion makes it a bit tougher sell to say "Hey, try out this game. There's a few hundred hours of MSQ to get caught up with!"

[Iscah]

Admittedly a much smaller scale, but they made it work with all the players who didn't complete 1.0.

I think it could work. The Hydaelyn/Zodiark story is pretty much done with (I'm sure the 4 outstanding Convocation members will show up at some point). They can start a new story with 7.0 and just adjust dialog like they did with the 1.0 WOL for all the people who aren't the 1.0 WOL.

I do question 6.1 as a starting point though. I did enjoy 6.x's story, but even though it's not something major to the story, I feel like Zero's backstory as Zeno's familiar will be tough to explain.

Nothing Yoshida has said on the matter suggests that a jump to 6.1 (if implemented) would involve an ARR-style alternate narrative if you didn't play the preceding storyline.

Additionally, unless starting in such a way would also lock people out of accessing NG+, it would cause a narrative mess if someone started to go back and play those quests if they're not supposed to be part of their character's backstory.

It's not at all the same situation as 1.0 where everyone is equally and permanently barred off from ever accessing it again, and with a relatively small amount of story lost.

I expect and hope that any potential "story skip" is exactly that – a skip and not an erasure of the past games' storylines, no different functionally from the story skips sold in the online store.

[Mosha]

The practical reality is that the MSQ up to 7.0 is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong

6.1 is an odd starting point tho, though I feel 6.5 would be the better option.

But I haven't played 6.5 yet (Too busy fighting for manged democracy)