Most overhyped crap, the story does NOT get better

[The Watcher]

The fans as whole kept saying "Oh don't worry about ARR, it gets better, after like 100+ hours once you reach 'Heavensward'!".
(Seriously they said it and they expect players to endure 100+ hours they pay sub for!).

I was never a fan of MMOs but of certain Final Fantasy games. The fans as a whole also kept saying "This can be played like a single player RPG with great story. Best story. Of all time!".

Naive Zahramar in desperate craving for good story writing fell for it, and endured this painfully tedious snoozefest game.
Fast forward, Zahramar is now in Heavensward.

Now that background is given: So when does the story get better? It's kind of has poor and stupid writing, at times making no sense.

I as of now just finished "Sohm Al" dungeon after defeating the lord of Gnaths "Ravana". So let's not discuss further than that.

Anyways, back to the story. Sultana is dead JK haha she is not dead but maybe your friends are dead? When I am starting to feel like no one ever dies because plot armor even though they tried hard to copy the Red Wedding and Tyrion's trial.
That was the only non-mediocre story event so far and the peak by far. Made completely pointless now not so far into Heavensward.
Okay. Sure. Let's move on.

Why are we even in Ishgard? Does not make sense. We already went back to the old world to save Raubahn and it felt pretty safe to me.

So, why am I doing those stupid quests in Ishgard now, exactly? Shouldn't I save my friends and look for others who are totally-not-dead? Shouldn't I exact revenge on people who killed my Sultana oh actually they did not kill anyone but hey they cut off Raubahn's arm? Kill all the evil Ascians and Primals?
I am perplexed.

Let's now talk about the "Gameplay" that isn't even remotely good at all, with a lot of anti-fun game design.

Dungeons are not challenging at all, and the Quests are just a repeated chore of following loop: Walk 5000 miles, [talk to X or kill Y], walk 5000 miles again, [talk to X or kill Y] again, etc.
Only know I also have to collect dumb "Aether Currents", even doing optional Quests for them, because Quests in this game are so fun!!! (Seriously?!).
I am paying monthly subs for this^. Total disrespect to my time and money.

Only parts I enjoyed were: TITAAAAAAN. Midgardsormr dungeon and the "Red Wedding".
That's all!

So, the point of this discussion: When does the game get better? Why is the fanbase blindingly worship this game and pretend that it is so perfect? Can someone please clarify this for me?

I feel like I have been dragged into a Cult that's anyone with common sense can see its charade.

[Johny_Geth]

Ill give this topic 4/10 on antiscale of uselesness. It has to be 3/10, but op is writing a lot, so he gets little extra. Still, mediocre. And thats bad, cuz its not even funny, its just pointless whining.

[Sigvuld]

Any betrayal in a setting where people have swords is now a Red Wedding ripoff

Sometimes I wish Game of Thrones and Dark Souls didn't happen not because I hate them but because they've plagued mediums with unnecessary comparisons and accusations of plagiarism for even the most minute of similarities

Ignoring that, hope they enjoy their time with XIV after the changed perspective - overhype is a thing for any experience, no matter how good it may be

[Ruffio]

Първоначално публикувано от Sigvuld:

Any betrayal in a setting where people have swords is now a Red Wedding ripoff

Sometimes I wish Game of Thrones and Dark Souls didn't happen not because I hate them but because they've plagued mediums with unnecessary comparisons and accusations of plagiarism for even the most minute of similarities

Ignoring that, hope they enjoy their time with XIV after the changed perspective - overhype is a thing for any experience, no matter how good it may be

Applies only if you compare what came after, not what was before the red wedding was a thing at all. Just about anything in like Game of Thrones you could draw nods to things from other fantasy works that came before it.

[Arxie]

I dunno man I liked ARR

[weiss]

Първоначално публикувано от Sigvuld:

Any betrayal in a setting where people have swords is now a Red Wedding ripoff

Sometimes I wish Game of Thrones and Dark Souls didn't happen not because I hate them but because they've plagued mediums with unnecessary comparisons and accusations of plagiarism for even the most minute of similarities

Ignoring that, hope they enjoy their time with XIV after the changed perspective - overhype is a thing for any experience, no matter how good it may be

hype is poison for any game or any movie/series etc. peoples expect too much, then get disapointed and bashing the game down. believe me, no publisher or developer is happy when their game gets too much hyped. cause it will often end in a disaster.

yoshida said in interviews aswell that he isnt thaaaat happy about the hype of FF14. and that ppls should stop to compare FF14 to WoW. everyone should know that FF14 is inspired by WoW etc.

[The Watcher]

Първоначално публикувано от Ruffio:

Should be enough XP gained through the msq (going all the way through shadowbringers), to level 2 professions to 80.

Първоначално публикувано от MOSLEY:

What the other person said is correct. You should be able to level 2 characters while you progress the MSQ. You can probably stretch that to 3 if you get the Endwalker pre-order earring (+30% XP) and replay some dungeons on one of the jobs for some extra XP. Might not wanna go for that yet if you're still making your mind up about the game though.

Interesting, how do I do that? I have 30% earring from Endwalkers.
I am interested in Dark Knight and have leveled-up Rogue a bit for Ninja.

[Ruffio]

Първоначално публикувано от Zahramar:

Първоначално публикувано от Ruffio:

Should be enough XP gained through the msq (going all the way through shadowbringers), to level 2 professions to 80.

Първоначално публикувано от MOSLEY:

What the other person said is correct. You should be able to level 2 characters while you progress the MSQ. You can probably stretch that to 3 if you get the Endwalker pre-order earring (+30% XP) and replay some dungeons on one of the jobs for some extra XP. Might not wanna go for that yet if you're still making your mind up about the game though.

Interesting, how do I do that? I have 30% earring from Endwalkers.
I am interested in Dark Knight and have leveled-up Rogue a bit for Ninja.

Alternate characters and don't overlevel on the msq. Dark Knight start at level 50 afaik.

[Naaka games]

Just get good noob

[Hobo Misanthropus]

For some reason, the writers of these games are very fond of the deus ex machina device. It seems there's always someone or something saving you in a cutscene at the last minute.

[Ruffio]

Първоначално публикувано от Hobo Misanthropus:

For some reason, the writers of these games are very fond of the deus ex machina device. It seems there's always someone or something saving you in a cutscene at the last minute.

You are new to the Final Fantasy franchise ain't you?

[Ruffio]

Първоначално публикувано от Naaka =DD:

Just get good noob

Such a insightful masterpiece of a response. DId you think long and hard to come up with that contribution to the thread?

[The Watcher]

Първоначално публикувано от Ruffio:

Alternate characters and don't overlevel on the msq. Dark Knight start at level 50 afaik.

Sadly it started as Level 30 to me, I really hoped he would be Level 50 for variety sake, but at least Samurai is starting at Level 50. I would rather have Dark Knight or Ninja though.

Първоначално публикувано от Hobo Misanthropus:

For some reason, the writers of these games are very fond of the deus ex machina device. It seems there's always someone or something saving you in a cutscene at the last minute.

I think it boils down to the writers' confidence and boldness. It takes courage to kill off characters.

Or perhaps we are seeing it in hindsight; they didn't know the game would be this big and that they could afford to kill off characters because they will get many opportunities to introduce newer ones.

I really think the story would have been better if most of the Scions were killed along with the Sultana. I must be honest that event makes me not have high hopes for the story anymore.
As it stand out I enjoy the story of Final Fantasy Tactics way more and this game is taking a lot of influences from it, seems to me (being a "pawn" in political game, civil wars/conflicts, etc.).

Първоначално публикувано от Ruffio:

You are new to the Final Fantasy franchise ain't you?

But not all FF games have that: Just of the top of my head. FFX: Aaron and Tidus. FF7: Aeris/Aerith. FFT: Delita's sister (major event). And I don't remember more.[/spoiler]

Първоначално публикувано от Ruffio:

Such a insightful masterpiece of a response. DId you think long and hard to come up with that contribution to the thread?

I just ignore them and I do not care about them. I know a large subset of gamers are manchildren who haven't developed emotionally sadly so to them: he is attacking our games, therefor, attacking us!

Even though I never said FFXIV is a bad game. I just said not the best story or quest structure to me, especially as someone who is not an MMO person.
And even the devs themselves improve on things that I talked about (ARR cut content, Aether Currents easier to find just doing MSQ in later expansions. This is all from research/reading so I could be wrong).

---

Anyways there's still some interesting story points that I hope the writer take better approach than what they did with the "Red wedding". Top of my head: Ala Mohgr or whatever called, the feud between Ilbred and Raubahn. The Ascians. Garlean empires. Revenge of the Scions and civil war in Old World (forgot name). Maybe even past Astral/Umbral eras.
However, I really don't think the player (or me personally) would be very interested in Ishgard and its history, war with the dragons, or why spending too much time in Ishgard even if the reason is to win them as an ally when they seem weak and needing our help. And do we need to "win them as ally" when Garlean empire threatens them as well if I am not mistaken?.
Oh yeah and now I am spending time with Moogle crap, lol.

[NRieh]

Първоначално публикувано от Hobo Misanthropus:

For some reason, the writers of these games are very fond of the deus ex machina device. It seems there's always someone or something saving you in a cutscene at the last minute.

As if rest of the MMO\RPGs, films and books normally have their protag killed asap...
Tropes are tropes. They are not bad or evil, they just are. An essential part of heroic storytelling. E.g. Gwaihir had snatched Frodo&Sam from the errupting volcano long before it became mainstream. In case you've missed it, most of the modern religions and cultures had been evolving around the idea, that Good Guys are always rewarded, and they overcome Death itself (because they're good and because there's a Divine Intervention).

FF series follow the storytelling patterns which had existed since Odysseus. All the archetypes work as intended. And I'm fine with that. When game writers try to be "creative" and non-conventional, there's a high chance of ending up with ME3 ending. Oh, and there's a case of Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who had been "resurrected on demand".

[The Watcher]

Първоначално публикувано от NRieh:

...

What do you think of the examples I gave in my last post?
Also in FFXIV: No one is complaining about protag getting killed. I don't even consider Sultana and most of the Scions (up to this point of story) to even be major characters. I think they seriously should have left it as "Red Wedding" and got most characters killed and focus on revenge or whatever instead of roaming in Ishgard.

Man, I am rewatching Heavensward cinematic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4phUCJlomPo @ 1:30) and I am so disappointed and frustrated. How could they ruin it so hard? Totally destroyed it. This just killed all my hopes for the story and it's the main reason I am here. :(

---

Anyways I came to the conclusion that:

This game don't really have good story at all, and the quest design/structure is most of the time a tedious chore. So if you are in it for _only_ those things, don't bother at all.

HOWEVER, it's still a good game when you take it as "full package".

I had great time with it, even as a person who don't really enjoy MMOs.. It had great memorable soundtrack (Ishgard Night Theme, Ul'Dah Night Time Theme, etc. Great tunes that I will still keep listening to) and an awesome community, and the dungeons/raids are mostly fun. I honestly made so much great memories in just close to 2 months.

So in conclusion I think what I need is a break after my sub is done.
It's easy to get burnt out in this game because a lot of it feels like a chore that the fun is locked behind.
For example, Dark Knight seems so fun but I get it at Level 30 (wish it was 50 for Ishgard) and now I have to level the class to start enjoying it. And then there's fishing, gold saucer, crafting, lots and lots of content.

I think it's made for people who play mostly only one game, and it's perfect at that.

I am thinking of buying a "pass" when I come back from the break. What do you guys think of that? I feel like it makes sense since I have general understanding of the game and its world.

[Estheliel]

Първоначално публикувано от Zahramar:

I think it's made for people who play mostly only one game, and it's perfect at that.

I've no idea what the previous discussions were all about, but I completely disagree with this, it's the polar opposite of what you're saying.

I can afford to play other games because this MMO doesn't require me to be on every day else I fall behind or whatever. And honestly as I get a bit older, I just can't be bothered with developers who design their games for FOMO and other "clever tricks" to keep you playing for no reason.