FF14 Needs To Change Its MMO Formula

[RemyDracthon]

And let me say first I am still very new to the MMO RPG genre FF14 being my first real playthrough of one. And so far, the story has been really good, but it really has had its downsides as well. During the MSQ missions there just seems to be too many errand missions and not enough really good story parts. Some people may say errand missions are a tradition of MMOs but really, they are really annoying and bothersome. Myself I just finished Dawntrail and I have a mixed opinion on it.

The time spent doing MSQ to get to the finale of the Dawnservant arc felt like a post MSQ storyline not an actual MSQ line. The last half of MSQ when you go to Alexandria that felt like a proper storyline. And don't get me wrong here I dont mind a story unfolding and developing, however when it came to Dawntrail's MSQ it felt like quantity over quality. And also, maybe the producers need to cut down on MSQ in a level section. Maybe instead of 20 plus missions in a single go maybe there can be 10 really good ones.

But this is just my opinion take this however you will, and feedback is most defiantly welcome!

[Kaurhz]

Errand missions are just generally a staple of any game that needs to buffer out its story. It's more of a tradition for gaming wide, than specific to, say, MMOs.

Dawntrail story is one of those.. Sometimes less can be more situations. They tried to do far too many things, and in doing so stretched the substance very thinly.

This is one of those... It's a good game if you aren't a vet/longstanding player, or if you're able to find goals to work towards that you're interested in, but as far as being an MMO and feeling like one.. It doesn't really do a very good job at all.

So yeah, I do agree that it needs to change its formula.. But at this point asking for that is akin to screaming into the void. Like, there's a better chance in winning the lottery than deviation from the formula.

[Jeeqbit]

During the MSQ missions there just seems to be too many errand missions and not enough really good story parts. Some people may say errand missions are a tradition of MMOs but really, they are really annoying and bothersome.

That's how traditional MMMORPGs always were. They were very grindy and spaced out their content with errands, randomness and grinds that take months/years. This game is comparatively little in this area, but it's still there a bit.

It was always annoying. It was always bothersome. Even in those more grindy games. And usually developers did not seem to care that it was the case.

It was worse in ARR (they had you getting a bucket, filling a bucket, etc and they revamped that in Shadowbringers). It still has you handing out pizzas if you start at Ul'dah though which is tedious.

Often a common thing they do now is to "gain trust" of a community by doing quests for them, which I can see their logic of. There was another where we do quests to help someone succeed at business in Urqopacha. But they need a way to say that you influenced this, otherwise it's just yet more cutscenes and you may as well just watch a film at that point, given how close the game is to that already.

[Mirikh]

I like filler quests. I like world-building. I just re-played ARR up to Stone Vigil. While Alphinaud is standing around complaining in the freezing snow the WoL is running hither and yon, fetching, delivering, meeting almost everyone in the area. By the time its over you have a pretty good idea of the factions, the local leadership, and the life of ordinary soldiers. I would have been pleased had Dawntrail done its world building that well. I also enjoy the slow pace and did all the side quests. For me classic MMO narrative is unique in giving one the feeling of living through an experience in time which only works if you have a lot of filler and slow pacing.

[Wasselin]

I think it’s worth considering the role of 'filler' content in storytelling. These quieter moments let the story breathe, giving players time to process major events and emotionally invest in the narrative. They also provide opportunities for character development and world-building, making the world feel alive and the characters more relatable.

They’re not just padding—they’re the glue that holds the story together and makes the world of FFXIV feel alive.

[Red-thunder]

I think it’s worth considering the role of 'filler' content in storytelling. These quieter moments let the story breathe, giving players time to process major events and emotionally invest in the narrative. They also provide opportunities for character development and world-building, making the world feel alive and the characters more relatable.

They’re not just padding—they’re the glue that holds the story together and makes the world of FFXIV feel alive.

That doesn't work when 99% of the story is filler

[Red-thunder]

it felt like quantity over quality

In some sense gamers got themselves into this mess. This isn't just a problem with MMOs. Games advertise themselves as having hundreds of hours of content and "replayability" even when 90% of it is just filler trash.

When a quality game comes out with a short campaign, gamers freak out and start raging over how short it is. Polished, exceptional 4-hour games get lambasted, and they don't sell.

Because at the end of the day, the species Homo Gamer value cheap junk food style entertainment that can keep them occupied for 100 hours over something deep, innovative, and concise.

I recently finished Metaphor: Refantazio and this game does not deserve the praise and the GOTYs. It's a 20 hour game bloated into an 80 hour one, with every single side mission dungeon being some of the worst dungeons I've seen in modern gaming. Even worse than Draugr dungeons from Skyrim. Certain plot points get repeated again and again and dragged on for too long. Endless fetch quests. Recycled enemies and assets with nary a change in gameplay.

I would have loved this game if it was a 20 hour game (rushing the main story still makes it 60 hours), but no they had to stuff it full of lard. But then when you think about it, 90% of AAA games suffer from the same cancer these days. Assassin's Creed games are some of the worst offenders. But even highly praised games like Elden Ring is full of recycled generic dungeons just to pad out the play time. FF7 Remake padded a 10 hour game into a 50 hour one, causing poor pacing and nonsensical story beats.

Some games make it more subtle. The Witcher 3 is also extremely bloated but for its time they hid the bloat well by making each sidequest have different unique quirks. Other games, like FF14, are terrible at hiding it. But in the end all of them suffer from the same tumor, and we only have Homo Gamer to blame.

You know what we should have more of? Titanfall 2. A short, innovative campaign full of brand new ideas, innovative gameplay, and a simple, concise, but touching story. All in a nice package of 6-7 hours. It's the best game I've played in the past 8 years. It beats all these bloated pieces of garbage we call modern gaming (yes, including Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, Metaphor, BG3). When even previously esteemed studios like FromSoft are going towards the trend of quantity > quality it's hard to have hope for this industry's future, particularly when gamers are the ones cheering for 300 hours of copypasted dungeons.

[Valence]

And let me say first I am still very new to the MMO RPG genre FF14 being my first real playthrough of one. And so far, the story has been really good, but it really has had its downsides as well. During the MSQ missions there just seems to be too many errand missions and not enough really good story parts. Some people may say errand missions are a tradition of MMOs but really, they are really annoying and bothersome. Myself I just finished Dawntrail and I have a mixed opinion on it.

The time spent doing MSQ to get to the finale of the Dawnservant arc felt like a post MSQ storyline not an actual MSQ line. The last half of MSQ when you go to Alexandria that felt like a proper storyline. And don't get me wrong here I dont mind a story unfolding and developing, however when it came to Dawntrail's MSQ it felt like quantity over quality. And also, maybe the producers need to cut down on MSQ in a level section. Maybe instead of 20 plus missions in a single go maybe there can be 10 really good ones.

But this is just my opinion take this however you will, and feedback is most defiantly welcome!

This has been a problem since ARR and nothing new in DT, just been made more obvious by the expansion other failings. Like everything in XIV it stems from a very formulaic creation process. Every expansion must have 6 areas, 5 leveling dungeons and a final dungeon + trial. When the player arrives first in an area, the first thing the party almost always does is explore around and requires you to go talk to NPCs to gather clues and info. I'm sure you'll find an exception (like Elpis) but most areas work like this, and it can take more than half of the area's msq. Some may work better than others, but the fact remains that this bloats the story with a lot of tedious blabla, for which the writing of XIV has always been pretty verbose and infamous for. They sometimes takes 10 speech bubbles to say one little thing. In the EN version, they also speak in ye old english and render everything even more dry and formal to read, but it's written by people that obviously write english very well and have a solid grasp of the language. This leaves the second half of each area for whatever drama or actual story development to happen, because the whole first part is exclusively dedicated to exposition. The problem with this is that they do exactly the opposite of "show, don't tell", and spend an incredible amount of time actually telling because they're not showing. In media res? Never heard of it.

Then we get to the scions and the party. The villains of XIV can be top notch (nod to Emet or Hermes), but the main characters are afflicted by serious problems that keep them back. They're not bad characters, but they're mostly held by their super heavy tropes that define them: Alisaie is a tsundere, Thancred is a womanizer, Urianger is a socially awkward nerd that talks like a book, Y'shtola is sassy but she's just a little girl inside, etc. Don't get me wrong, some of them have actually had their character development like Alphinaud or Thancred (shb), but scenes where the Scions actually interact for character development are sparse and few, and it's too bad because they're great: Alisaie in post HW under the moon talking with Gabu, Urianger and Thancred talking about Ryne in SHB, Urianger and Thancred talking together in Many Fires in DT... And that's the problem because most of the msq is again spent doing formulaic things in a very robotic manner. Most of the time, Scions are laser focused on the task at hand and act like quest giver NPCs (which they technically are in the game). Most of the msq talk is always about the current hurdle to overcome or solve, how to save this area or the world, how to deal with that threat or another... It's almost never about emotions, it's almost never about casual talk or character building interactions like those mentioned above. This tends to make the whole msq progression artificial and dry, and the characters have trouble going past their defining stereotypes, and it will look very obvious when you compare it to other classic titles of the franchise. It's pretty blatant in older games where when the party gets into a new town, they all go wander around, some just try to enjoy life or little moments they do have, they're not always laser focused on the world's predicaments like robots. They do talk about their backstories or open up to their companions, they bicker, in short, they're human.

In sharp contrast, take ff16, which is always, always all about the main character Clive, you'll see that in most quest cutscenes and dialog, it's the NPC talking to Clive, back and forth, giving info or speaking about their woes, while the rest of the party quietly stands around. The rest of the cast is exclusively here to serve as quest giving NPCs, they almost never have scenes between each other, they're here exclusively to service the main protagonist and the player, and it's a real disease in a lot of other RPGs, not just this one, but it goes to show how CBU3 designs their story quests. XIV does the exact same, you'll speak as the WoL to any NPC or any of the Scions that give you quests, but NPCs will extremely rarely interact with each other, as their main purpose is to always service the WoL, and keep the WoL at the center. Even in expansions others than SHB/EW where the WoL is less centric to the piece, notably in SB and DT, they do not talk much with each other, only to the WoL. In DT where Wuk Lamat is the main focus, it's always you and her talking, and it occupies most of the story time and spotlight. Again, compare with older titles from the franchise and you'll see what I mean, as the difference is night and day.

This isn't to say that those are the only problems of the msq, and in terms of gameplay it definitely is all about "go talk to X, go talk back to Y, speak to Wuk Lamat, cutscene, go back talking to X" with the occasional solo duty where it's all about dodging the same mechanics and DDR/AoEs. But when you put them together in combination, it tends to just... drag on, get tedious, remove all the surprise, until one of those unicorn, epic fueled events like In From The Cold come out of nowhere to break the formula and actually do some good storytelling).

[ovIm]

There is this thing I notice with so many criticisms - its all about the story, and how they experience it. Its never about the gameplay.
Whats the difference of helping a lowly farmer take care of couple of thugs, or take down a despot with an insanely massive army if all that I got to show for it is me pressing A to advance the bloody dialogue box reading a dialogue speaking of understanding?

Playing a video game means pushing buttons and interacting with gameplay mechanics. Give me a good experience where I feel like I did something, where I can say that yeah, that was time well spent. No need for a monumental length story if you can put the impactful fun things into a shorter frame.

Additionally... FFXIV is an MMO. MMOs live through repeatable content. Storyquests, like the MSQ, Hildibrand, or the Cornservant are one and done ordeals. Why are we wasting so much time getting hyped or riled up over single use gameplay storyquest experiences in an MMO?

Doesnt matter if the story feels like its a sidestory thing or not - if other games push hours upon hours of cutscenes between very short bursts of gameplay, they get rightfully criticized. Dawntrail gives you 4-6 hours of cutscenes in between a singular dungeon, which are 20 minutes long by design (and the occasional follow NPC shit), and other FFXIV expansions don't fare much better.

[dspguy]

I like filler quests. I like world-building. I just re-played ARR up to Stone Vigil. While Alphinaud is standing around complaining in the freezing snow the WoL is running hither and yon, fetching, delivering, meeting almost everyone in the area. By the time its over you have a pretty good idea of the factions, the local leadership, and the life of ordinary soldiers. I would have been pleased had Dawntrail done its world building that well. I also enjoy the slow pace and did all the side quests. For me classic MMO narrative is unique in giving one the feeling of living through an experience in time which only works if you have a lot of filler and slow pacing.

In my experience, it depends on how the player views it. When they see everything in the MSQ between one dungeon/trial to the next dungeon/trial as filler, then they will be disappointed. But, if they spend the time to read the "errand quests" it does contribute to the "feel" of the region. And in turn, if a player does the sidequests in that area, it fleshes out the zone even further.

But when I read the OP's thread title, I assumed what they had meant is how formulaic each patch is. We all know X.0, X.2 and X.4 is new gear tier. And X.1, X.3 and X.5 are 24-man dungeons and gear upgrades via uncapped tomes, hunt marks or 24-man tokens. And we know that the relic will likely start in X.25. And we know that society quests are coming in patch X.whatever and that in between ranks 4 and 5, make sure to only turn in 2 quests, then do the reputation-up quest before turning in the third to save a day.. etc etc etc.

We barely need to even read the patch notes most of the time. Players that have been here for a few expansions could probably guess about 90% of it.