When are we as player going to demand from SE a better MSQ experience

[RubyNights]

Nonsense. FF is not known for being some sort of visual novel series. FF games have a focus on story, yes, but the question is how said story is presented. And it's disingenuous to claim that other FF games lack gameplay. We went from turn based combat focused games with party management to mixed combat systems, to action combat focus, to something like FF7 Rebirth that is more minigame than story. FFXIV is really the odd one out in how 90% of the game is clicking through meaningless, repetitive dialogue and waiting out cutscenes that have 10 NPCs slowly nodding one by one and then slowly walking off the scene... one by one. Sorry, but no other FF game does anything like this.

The only one that maybe got closeish is ironically FF16. Because despite the flashy action combat, CBU3 still has some sort of issues figuring out how to put any real substance behind the cool stuff. So you yawn your way through all the glowy screen explosions and have to manage anger issues when the game constantly kills bosses for you once they reach 25% hp, because everything good must be a cutscene or something? But even ignoring FF16 issues (that I personally had, subjective and all, I'm not here to attack anyone's favorite game), at least there the combat still makes up more than 4% of the entire game.

Whereas FF14 sometimes feels like they are trying to copy the worst games gacha market has to offer. Yapfest on top of yapfest, constant repetition of what was said a minute ago, stupidly lengthy explanations of the most simplistic of concepts, etc. We could only dream of CBU3 taking a look at other FF games and copying some gameplay from them.

EXACTLY.

Most golden age FF games started off by putting the player directly in the action. They didn't start off with mountains of text, mundane cutscenes, and lore exposition. They began at a critical moment as a way of getting you a taste of the gameplay while hooking you into the story and the world. FF7 started you off blowing up the Mako Reactor. Dawntrail starts off by giving you a history lesson on the journey of the Dawnservant.

When FF8 had a train setpiece, it made it interactive. When Dawntrail does it, it's just a cutscene! It being FF is not an excuse. CBU3 needs to learn to rely less on cutscenes.