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).

[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

[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.

[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.

[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!"

[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)

[Supersnow845]

1.0’s story was a bit different because nobody remembered that you were the original WOL (except Minfillia and Cid in the legacy cutscenes) everyone remembers you after prae but by that point even ARR WOL’s are famous so them suddenly dropping the original WOL plot works fine

The H+Z story has shifted the entire 7 remaining worlds in a massive way, if they altered dialogue based on if you skipped or not they would be writing functionally two seperate games

[Swordsman]

I'm still for a story skip because all that MSQ is just too much. Just have SE implement some kind of tutorial and I think it'll be fine.

[DrForester]

1.0’s story was a bit different because nobody remembered that you were the original WOL (except Minfillia and Cid in the legacy cutscenes) everyone remembers you after prae but by that point even ARR WOL’s are famous so them suddenly dropping the original WOL plot works fine

The H+Z story has shifted the entire 7 remaining worlds in a massive way, if they altered dialogue based on if you skipped or not they would be writing functionally two seperate games

The remaining shards won't know who we are. Based on what we saw on The First, the Final Days didn't impacts the shards. Ryne could sense something was up, and had a vision, but that's it. We don't really need to be introduced as the Savior of the Star every time we meet someone. With Dawntrail being a new adventure, I don't think it will be too hard to let our future fame rest on what we do now.

Really the only people who will REALLY care about what we've done are the 4 remaining ascians, and who knows if they will be antagonistic or not (if they're not tempered following Zodiark's demise, who knows what their reaction will be).