The early game experience

[Amoc]

I finally downloaded FFXIV on the raving recommendation of a friend. I was a bit hesitant because he's a self-admitted FF fanboy, but I wanted to check it out anyway. I'd read lots of good reviews.

When I downloaded it and made my first character, my first impression couldn't have been much worse. The most generous way of describing the introduction to Limsa Lominsa is "dull". The starting quests were painfully tedious and every time the game moved me into a dialogue screen just to complete or take a quest and show a chat box made me grind my teeth.

I've been reading that this continues for quite some time. I only played for maybe an hour to start but I'd have to give it 1/10 so far. This is easily one of the least flattering and least interesting introductory experiences to an MMO I've ever played, and I've tried quite a few over the years. I almost feel like SE is actively trying to make me not want to play.

When do things actually start getting interesting? I've read that hours and hours of fetch quests and travelling back and forth await, and if it's anything like the intro, I'm dreading rather than excited about what's ahead.

[galacticcorgi]

Originally posted by Amoc:

Originally posted by The Mayor of Murder Town:

Skip the sidequests unless the icon has a plus mark on it. That's probably your issue. There's no other reason it should take that long to get to a combat mission.

I was assigned a mission to kill some stuff finally...but they were squirrels or rats or something. Logged off at that point. I'll wait for the patch in the summer and try again. No point powering through this sort of tedium now if it's supposed to get much better soon. Game's been around for awhile. It'll still be here in a month :)

"Hey Square, why can't I be a badass from the start? Why can't I go directly and kill Ifrit as a fresh, new, wife-eyed adventurer?"

[Aethervox]

It's so weird to me that everyone's saying that the early game is SUPER awful blabla and then new players go into the game and instead of actually experiencing and appreciating it for what it is they dread it and automatically feel like it's ♥♥♥♥ because that's what's been planted in their mind beforehand.
I went into this game without hearing about "how bad" arr is and I enjoyed it quite a lot, I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases. It's so weird that people can appreciate the early game of those games as part of the journey but when it comes to ffxiv it's just "omg it' so bad, when it's going to get better??!!". It's weird.

But to answer the question at hand, Heavensward is a big improvement (obviously since it came out years after the base game) and generally every expansion is an overall improvement so here's your answer. It'll get better after reaching Hw (aka after lvl 50).
How much time will that take? Depends, as a first timer anywhere between 50-100 hours.

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

If you want instant action play a moba or a team fps game, if you don't have the patience at the very start of the game then this isn't the game for you. This game is very story heavy and if you're grinding your teeth at the story then geez man gotta go to the dentist if you are thinking of continuing, the Cheese questline will make your teeth crack.

[Crystal Goddess]

Originally posted by Krila:

I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases.

I'd agree there with Tera and BDO, their early game is what one would call dreadful, I'd also put DCUO and Scarlet Blade in that category, hell, I'd go so far as to say DCUO doesn't improve at all, unless you're willing to pay through the nose for the premium subscription, which is actually far more expensive than FFXIV's subscription.

ARR early game's (lack of) quality is largely exaggerated by the player base, yes, it isn't as good as Heavensward onward, but part of that is attributed to the shoestring budget they had to work with at the time.

[Aethervox]

Originally posted by Crystal Goddess:

Originally posted by Krila:

I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases.

I'd agree there with Tera and BDO, their early game is what one would call dreadful, I'd also put DCUO and Scarlet Blade in that category, hell, I'd go so far as to say DCUO doesn't improve at all, unless you're willing to pay through the nose for the premium subscription, which is actually far more expensive than FFXIV's subscription.

ARR early game's (lack of) quality is largely exaggerated by the player base, yes, it isn't as good as Heavensward onward, but part of that is attributed to the shoestring budget they had to work with at the time.

Ohh god DCUO I don't even know where to start... I was rather hyped about that game but turned out to be such a disappointment especially in the long run.

[galacticcorgi]

Originally posted by Crystal Goddess:

Originally posted by Krila:

I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases.

I'd agree there with Tera and BDO, their early game is what one would call dreadful, I'd also put DCUO and Scarlet Blade in that category, hell, I'd go so far as to say DCUO doesn't improve at all, unless you're willing to pay through the nose for the premium subscription, which is actually far more expensive than FFXIV's subscription.

ARR early game's (lack of) quality is largely exaggerated by the player base, yes, it isn't as good as Heavensward onward, but part of that is attributed to the shoestring budget they had to work with at the time.

TBH early game here is just a lot of worldbuilding, but people hype up HW to such a large degree that people end up hating early game for the sin of not being HW.

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

Many players have that: "Gotta get there fast mentality." Skip all the other content and just sprint and power through to the end game content because many MMORPG's advertise their games like that.

"Wanna get to the good stuff? Wanna be where your friends are at? Rush to end game and ignore all other content."

[Krausser]

It's pretty bad, it's not hard to admit. Even the developer has realised it at this point. The story does get better once you reach Heavensward, maybe Stormblood though with Shadownringers hopefully being a template for future expansions on how to do story/post story related content and how to pace it right. Not everybody will enjoy gating a lot of stuff behind main quest, I certainly didn't, but once you get to around 50(maybe 60~) the game does open up with a lot more unlockable side content if you get tired of grinding the MSQ, including old raids and new jobs from expansions prior that start at level 30/50/60 for HW/SB/ShB respectively.

[Tito]

During the early period of COVID isolations I got really into this game and finished the base game (A realm reborn) in a couple weeks. But then I quit and played wow instead from the end of march all the way to a week ago. Trust me there are some good parts but it does NOT get any less tedious. Apparently the dev team is supposed to be dropping an update soon where they streamline the early levelling process(1-50 quests) so that you dont have to play through the filler quests of the base game and get to the expansions quicker though.

Took me about 50-60 hrs to get through the main scenario quests and into heavensward btw. But i burned myself out so hard i just quit and tried out WOW for the first time and found it much more rewarding since everything isnt progression-locked by the main story like it is in this game. AND the class progression and ability unlocks are PAINFULLY SLOW in this game. your class's optimal rotation doesnt flesh out until deep into level 50,60, and 70.

Now that i have several max level characters in WoW and just 1 level 55 character in FFXIV. Definitely gonna tell you that if you don't feel invested now, you are NOT going to be invested 20 hours from now. Trust me. Especially once you finish the main story line and get to those 100 quests between the end of A Realm Reborn and the beginning of Heavensward. It is the worst ♥♥♥♥ i have ever put myself through. So much so that i just quit.

Also i didnt just try to speedrun the MSQ and that's it. I joined a guild, participated in some activities, did some other activities etc. Still, the game content-locks SO MUCH behind the MSQ that you are FORCED to play it in order to unlock side content, dungeons, etc. Not a very good game in terms of just being able to log in and get to an exciting bit quickly (unless youre into the plot which i was only slightly invested in a few times)

You can wait until the early game fixing patch comes out, but if youre expecting to not be killing x mobs and picking up x thing, you should just not play an MMO. That's the basic formula they all follow. Or just find an MMO that has stories you like to give meaning for killing x mobs.

[Tito]

Originally posted by Krila:

It's so weird to me that everyone's saying that the early game is SUPER awful blabla and then new players go into the game and instead of actually experiencing and appreciating it for what it is they dread it and automatically feel like it's ♥♥♥♥ because that's what's been planted in their mind beforehand.
I went into this game without hearing about "how bad" arr is and I enjoyed it quite a lot, I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases. It's so weird that people can appreciate the early game of those games as part of the journey but when it comes to ffxiv it's just "omg it' so bad, when it's going to get better??!!". It's weird.

Not really that weird.

Biggest difference between WoW progression and FFXIV progression, and my biggest issue with FFXIV is that so much of the game is locked behind the MSQ that catch-up mechanics that work in other MMOs to help noobs skip outdated content/ play through it quickly is impossible to implement in FFXIV.

In WoW, when you meet the level minimum to unlock a dungeon, the dungeon immediately shows up in your dungeon finder. When you reach the level minimum to move to another expansion, the game immediately notifies you to move to that location if you want.

In Final Fantasy 14, you can be level 50, but you cannot play the level 50 dungeon until you play through AAAAAALL of the main story missions up to the one that unlocks said dungeon. You are forced to play through the main story, meaning you HAVE to hop on the rails and play through the quests. You have no other choice but to do it whether you decide to do it now or later.


It leaves noobs feeling like they have to work their ass off going back and forth, to and from the waking sands doing grunt work, just so they get a single new dungeon to have 30 minutes of interesting gameplay in. Then back to the slave work it is.

[Aethervox]

Originally posted by Frogmin:

Originally posted by Krila:

It's so weird to me that everyone's saying that the early game is SUPER awful blabla and then new players go into the game and instead of actually experiencing and appreciating it for what it is they dread it and automatically feel like it's ♥♥♥♥ because that's what's been planted in their mind beforehand.
I went into this game without hearing about "how bad" arr is and I enjoyed it quite a lot, I've played wow, swtor and Tera, Bdo before coming to ffxiv and to be honest their early game is just as "bad" or even worse in a few cases. It's so weird that people can appreciate the early game of those games as part of the journey but when it comes to ffxiv it's just "omg it' so bad, when it's going to get better??!!". It's weird.

Not really that weird.

Biggest difference between WoW progression and FFXIV progression, and my biggest issue with FFXIV is that so much of the game is locked behind the MSQ that catch-up mechanics that work in other MMOs to help noobs skip outdated content/ play through it quickly is impossible to implement in FFXIV.

In WoW, when you meet the level minimum to unlock a dungeon, the dungeon immediately shows up in your dungeon finder. When you reach the level minimum to move to another expansion, the game immediately notifies you to move to that location if you want.

In Final Fantasy 14, you can be level 50, but you cannot play the level 50 dungeon until you play through AAAAAALL of the main story missions up to the one that unlocks said dungeon. You are forced to play through the main story, meaning you HAVE to hop on the rails and play through the quests. You have no other choice but to do it whether you decide to do it now or later.


It leaves noobs feeling like they have to work their ass off going back and forth, to and from the waking sands doing grunt work, just so they get a single new dungeon to have 30 minutes of interesting gameplay in. Then back to the slave work it is.

Ohh I know people prefer instant gratification, don't worry.
The real problem is that you look at it as slave work. Have you ever played any jrpg games?
They are quite grindy at times and ffxiv is suprisingly mild in comparison, and even so people complain about.
Yeah, dungeons unlock in wow instantly but is that's really something positive?
Ohh hey, something popped up on the list, I have no idea why I'm supposed to be there but hey, I can mindlessly grind instanced content without any world building... yay?
I might be oldschool in this regard but I much prefer ffxivs' approach. I expect a good and extensive storyline from a rpg. Sandbox mmos are there to satisfy people who don't.

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

Problem with WoW is that the dungeons are very disconnected to the story, I had to literally look up online what the deal is with the specific dungeons, I enjoy knowing what is going on in the story. Also the fact that the moment you over level in the dungeon then that is it, that dungeon is forever forgotten because you have no point in going back. WoW's Normal and Heroic modes are boring and lazy, it is the same place but enemies are harder hitters and more damage sponges while in FF14 the dungeons normal and Hard modes are very different.

Take Wanderers Palace, normal mode you are exploring an ancient palace that is populated with Tornberries, there are adventurers that you can either help (not recommended) or just run past them to get to the boss.

Hard mode you are actually helping the Tornberries fight against these fish people that are trying to imprison them. It's different enemies, different bosses and it is a different story.

But yeah it's an MMORPG no one cares about story, it's all about end game and big boy numbers. FF14 is about the journey with amazing dungeons, raids and of course the trials like an RPG is suppose to be, other MMO's like wow is about the end game content and the big race.

[Amoc]

Originally posted by Anakha:

"Hey Square, why can't I be a badass from the start? Why can't I go directly and kill Ifrit as a fresh, new, wife-eyed adventurer?"

Because there's nothing in between THAT, and what they're currently feeding you?

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

Ifrit is an inbetween, he is the 1st trial you encounter, smarty.

But you wouldn't know.

[Amoc]

Not sure what that means, but my point is that this is a game, not a dangerous new job. We don't need what feels like 2 hours of workplace safety training just to go out and start doing stuff.

Other games do it much, much better. I've played enough WoW over the years to agree that the need for casuals to get instant gratification for little/no effort has diminished the game to the point where it's not worth playing, but even Vanilla WoW or older games did the beginning experience much better.

This game might be amazing, but having to peel away hours of exceptionally tedious chores before you even get to start exploring (not fighting primals, just exploring) I imagine turns a lot of people away.