/r/ffxivdiscussion: The format of the MSQ lacks gameplay and should change

[AnnRam]

To be frank, if you don't care about the story and just want to get to combat, then there's the option to skip.

One of the HUGE selling points of FF14 and makes it so successful is the rich story. And telling a story takes time... like that "1.5 to 2 hours" that you had to "wait" until you got to the bam bam, smash smash.

Agree.

In fact the next expansion should remove trials and dungeons once for all, this game should be a Visual novel, no more engaging in combat,exploring new zones etc.

[KurenXIV]

To be frank, if you don't care about the story and just want to get to combat, then there's the option to skip.

One of the HUGE selling points of FF14 and makes it so successful is the rich story. And telling a story takes time... like that "1.5 to 2 hours" that you had to "wait" until you got to the bam bam, smash smash.

They can't have feature length movie gaps of play time when the story is absolute garbage like it is in DT.

It's also NOT a good selling point for your game to say "yeah you have to wad through tons of boring story to even get to anything decent . . .". If that's what the word of mouth becomes for the game then it's going to slow to a crawl when it comes to getting new players.

Keep in mind, you can skip all the cutscenes in the world but you still have to do all the boring quests in between which still takes a good chunk of time.

ARR is already a barrier to entry for many players because it's more boring than the expansions. HW got a lot better, SHB was a bit of a mixed bag but it's content was strong and the gaps between actually playing the game was much smaller than it is now. Then SHB came along and knocked it out of the park with the story and the game design was largely still fine but starting to show cracks. EW then happened and it was extremely similar to DT; the big difference there though was that it was wrapping up the story so I felt the length it took to get to combat was somewhat warranted.

Starting a new chapter of the story should be that where they could apply everything they learned from what makes a good MSQ and what makes engaging content and make the story + gameplay something truly special. And they didn't. They completely missed the mark and as someone who used to be this games biggest cheerleader to their friends, I can simply no longer recommend it unless they change things up in meaningful ways.

[Magikazam]

One of the HUGE selling points of FF14 and makes it so successful is the rich story. And telling a story takes time...

Yea cause it not like we had any good story telling during the 8 years prior to Endwalker, when Story and cutscenes took less time to go through.

[Kaedan]

Yea cause it not like we had any good story telling during the 8 years prior to Endwalker, when Story and cutscenes took less time to go through.

Rose colored glasses. It's been the same formula with an average of 1 new mechanic during MSQ per expansion.

[Magikazam]

Rose colored glasses. It's been the same formula with an average of 1 new mechanic during MSQ per expansion.

Unfortunately for you, 2 of my friends started playing FFXIV in the last 2 years and I've seen both of them stream their experience of the MSQ on our discord server. So my memories of the older xpac ain't tainted in some nostalgia. In fact it did let me make a new opinion on some part of it, and to experience the new post ARR MSQ since it got reduced in length.

[KageTokage]

More solo duties and meaningful combat in general would be nice because running to point A then killing whatever monster spawns in two or three GCDs isn't exactly riveting.

[Turtledeluxe]

You mean you don't enjoy

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[ConantSivrha]

You mean you don't enjoy

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How could you forget exciting gameplay experiences such as “click sparkly point and wait for an animation to complete” and “click purple smoke and kill a single trash monster”?

[Ranhansha]

You mean you don't enjoy

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[Isala]

You mean you don't enjoy

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Am I missing any major MSQ mechanics?

Escort NPC that walks slower than you and gets stuck on terrain.