Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

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sakkath

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This is as riveting as watching Lanx shit up the FF7R thread with how much he hates it while forcing himself to play through the whole game for reasons nobody but he understands.
 
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Chris

Potato del Grande
19,436
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I'm like 30 minutes into this cutscene out of however long it is. please tell me all these npcs are dead and stay dead? fuck alphinaud survived, damnit he was one of the more annoying ones I hoped he died.
They realised that all these NPCs were annoying as fuck which is why this plot happened. I also hated them.

Half don't come back much and half get developed to not be annoying, you'll mostly get two expansions off from them, then they seem to be universally liked. Alphinaud has his character development and new voice actor first.
 
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Sylas

<Gold Donor>
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They realised that all these NPCs were annoying as fuck which is why this plot happened. I also hated them.

Half don't come back much and half get developed to not be annoying, you'll mostly get two expansions off from them, then they seem to be universally liked. Alphinaud has his character development and new voice actor first.
The plot happening or them being annoying isn't exactly my gripe. This plot, a band of bad anime style writing overly optimistic yet incompetent buffoons gets "betrayed" in such an obvious set up that you could see from a mile away is at least consistent with there story, they were completely inept and got exactly what was coming to them.

Shit early in the story they all get merc'd or kidnapped with lots of implied rape and your character doesn't give a shit, he just shrugs continues on saving the world without them, its actually easier with them out of the way, less menial fetch quests between primal slaying. Another example, they introduce thancred once, he has you do a stupid fetch quest then he disappears. Oh wait wow he was the bad guy all along? oh wait no, he's not, he was possessed by the bad guy! omg, what a twist. Don't give a shit. Don't even remember who the fuck he is. The game at no point gives me any story worth investing in to give a shit about these people at all. These characters contribute nothing, you are barely introduced to them, they are irrelevant. I could not care less what happens to them.

My gripe is the game taking control of my character and making him an even bigger buffoon than the rest of these idiots so that they don't look so incompetent by comparison. I guess my real gripe is the story is not internally consistent. As far as the story is concerned I am single handedly slaying primals that wipe out cities that their armies stand no chance of defeating, I get sent against legions of soldiers and slaughter them all. But somehow I get captured by a fucking toddler and 3 dudes? the fuck am I? getting captured is what my useless psions do so I can have quests to go rescue them. Multiple questlines involve teleportation, far more than just player convenience, its part of the world and its lore, but I gotta run away and hitch a ride in the back of a wagon to escape? I passed fucking 7 aetherytes on the way out here man Why am I not just teleporting away?

Not to mention we are the bad guys. The story as presented thus far, The Garlean Empire are the good guys, we are a band of savages making up a few quasi-allied quasi-warring city states who can't get their shit together and are stuck in a never ending cycle of devastation warring with beast tribes who constantly summon their gods which lay waste to any forward progress these cities have built, constantly resetting their civilizations back to the starting point. So much that it's been 5 years since the last cataclysm (in a world where like 9 of these great cataclysms have happened, get over it and move on ffs) and they still haven't managed to rebuild their first ship yet. The Garleans are the romans trying to unite the world under their empire and bring them peace and prosperity, technology, medicine, magic. They built/discovered a machine that can single handedly end the threat of primals forever and bring peace to the land, and the only time us savages can ever unite for anything is to ensure that the Garleans don't come and infest us with the evil of Civilization.



edit: Also clearly the writers haven't figured it out yet, if these twiddle dee and twiddle dumb twins i'm now doing quests for in Heavensward are any indication it seems like the game is just replacing annoying band of psions with annoying royals who I already hate.
 
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Chris

Potato del Grande
19,436
-10,732
The plot happening or them being annoying isn't exactly my gripe. This plot, a band of bad anime style writing overly optimistic yet incompetent buffoons gets "betrayed" in such an obvious set up that you could see from a mile away is at least consistent with there story, they were completely inept and got exactly what was coming to them.

Shit early in the story they all get merc'd or kidnapped with lots of implied rape and your character doesn't give a shit, he just shrugs continues on saving the world without them, its actually easier with them out of the way, less menial fetch quests between primal slaying. Another example, they introduce thancred once, he has you do a stupid fetch quest then he disappears. Oh wait wow he was the bad guy all along? oh wait no, he's not, he was possessed by the bad guy! omg, what a twist. Don't give a shit. Don't even remember who the fuck he is. The game at no point gives me any story worth investing in to give a shit about these people at all. These characters contribute nothing, you are barely introduced to them, they are irrelevant. I could not care less what happens to them.

My gripe is the game taking control of my character and making him an even bigger buffoon than the rest of these idiots so that they don't look so incompetent by comparison. I guess my real gripe is the story is not internally consistent. As far as the story is concerned I am single handedly slaying primals that wipe out cities that their armies stand no chance of defeating, I get sent against legions of soldiers and slaughter them all. But somehow I get captured by a fucking toddler and 3 dudes? the fuck am I? getting captured is what my useless psions do so I can have quests to go rescue them. Multiple questlines involve teleportation, far more than just player convenience, its part of the world and its lore, but I gotta run away and hitch a ride in the back of a wagon to escape? I passed fucking 7 aetherytes on the way out here man Why am I not just teleporting away?

Not to mention we are the bad guys. The story as presented thus far, The Garlean Empire are the good guys, we are a band of savages making up a few quasi-allied quasi-warring city states who can't get their shit together and are stuck in a never ending cycle of devastation warring with beast tribes who constantly summon their gods which lay waste to any forward progress these cities have built, constantly resetting their civilizations back to the starting point. So much that it's been 5 years since the last cataclysm (in a world where like 9 of these great cataclysms have happened, get over it and move on ffs) and they still haven't managed to rebuild their first ship yet. The Garleans are the romans trying to unite the world under their empire and bring them peace and prosperity, technology, medicine, magic. They built/discovered a machine that can single handedly end the threat of primals forever and bring peace to the land, and the only time us savages can ever unite for anything is to ensure that the Garleans don't come and infest us with the evil of Civilization.



edit: Also clearly the writers haven't figured it out yet, if these twiddle dee and twiddle dumb twins i'm now doing quests for in Heavensward are any indication it seems like the game is just replacing annoying band of psions with annoying royals who I already hate.

"Are we the baddies?" is an intentional theme which becomes more explicit and complex as time goes on :)

Alphinaud and his sister being pampered brats is also on purpose and you see them grow out of it in various ways.

There's some great plot twists built off these two things later.
 

Sylas

<Gold Donor>
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well it's clear as fucking day from the moment you are introduced to the empire in ARR that you are clearly playing for the wrong team. I'm sure it could get more complex but I doubt it could become more explicit. If I get to join the empire, lead the legions into conquering these cities and personally get to execute the pirate bitch, the druid bitch, and that stupid ass toddler sultan then I may change my tune about this game's later story. For now though it's still garbage.

Alpino has a sister? my god I don't think I can handle 2 of them. btw, until NPCs are more than 1 dimensional pains in my ass they don't get the proper respect of remembering their name.

Same is true for the entire falafel race. fuck them toddlers they make me want to punch children IRL.

I would of given ARR a 2 out of 10 on story and been satisfied with a 5/10 story in HW assuming things improved but the post ARR story drove that score down to -5 out of 10 and Heavensward has a massive hole to climb out of before I can forgive this drivel.
 

Chysamere

FF14 Free Company Master
<WoW Guild Officer>
3,489
3,200
The plot happening or them being annoying isn't exactly my gripe. This plot, a band of bad anime style writing overly optimistic yet incompetent buffoons gets "betrayed" in such an obvious set up that you could see from a mile away is at least consistent with there story, they were completely inept and got exactly what was coming to them.

Shit early in the story they all get merc'd or kidnapped with lots of implied rape and your character doesn't give a shit, he just shrugs continues on saving the world without them, its actually easier with them out of the way, less menial fetch quests between primal slaying. Another example, they introduce thancred once, he has you do a stupid fetch quest then he disappears. Oh wait wow he was the bad guy all along? oh wait no, he's not, he was possessed by the bad guy! omg, what a twist. Don't give a shit. Don't even remember who the fuck he is. The game at no point gives me any story worth investing in to give a shit about these people at all. These characters contribute nothing, you are barely introduced to them, they are irrelevant. I could not care less what happens to them.

My gripe is the game taking control of my character and making him an even bigger buffoon than the rest of these idiots so that they don't look so incompetent by comparison. I guess my real gripe is the story is not internally consistent. As far as the story is concerned I am single handedly slaying primals that wipe out cities that their armies stand no chance of defeating, I get sent against legions of soldiers and slaughter them all. But somehow I get captured by a fucking toddler and 3 dudes? the fuck am I? getting captured is what my useless psions do so I can have quests to go rescue them. Multiple questlines involve teleportation, far more than just player convenience, its part of the world and its lore, but I gotta run away and hitch a ride in the back of a wagon to escape? I passed fucking 7 aetherytes on the way out here man Why am I not just teleporting away?

Not to mention we are the bad guys. The story as presented thus far, The Garlean Empire are the good guys, we are a band of savages making up a few quasi-allied quasi-warring city states who can't get their shit together and are stuck in a never ending cycle of devastation warring with beast tribes who constantly summon their gods which lay waste to any forward progress these cities have built, constantly resetting their civilizations back to the starting point. So much that it's been 5 years since the last cataclysm (in a world where like 9 of these great cataclysms have happened, get over it and move on ffs) and they still haven't managed to rebuild their first ship yet. The Garleans are the romans trying to unite the world under their empire and bring them peace and prosperity, technology, medicine, magic. They built/discovered a machine that can single handedly end the threat of primals forever and bring peace to the land, and the only time us savages can ever unite for anything is to ensure that the Garleans don't come and infest us with the evil of Civilization.



edit: Also clearly the writers haven't figured it out yet, if these twiddle dee and twiddle dumb twins i'm now doing quests for in Heavensward are any indication it seems like the game is just replacing annoying band of psions with annoying royals who I already hate.


Can't teleport in combat :)

Get someone to carry you through the coils of bahamut for the story if you can. I'd do it myself if you were on Aether.
 

Neranja

<Bronze Donator>
2,635
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Alpino has a sister? my god I don't think I can handle 2 of them.
I think I know why you can't appreciate the story: You don't get half of it. You basically see Alphinaud and his sister in the wagon right at the start of the game, and you hear him talk to her in the level 15 MSQ celebration cutscenes.

You've been skipping on all those cutscenes, right?
 
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Sylas

<Gold Donor>
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Unfortunately no, some lying piece of shit assholes in this thread told me that the story was boring, but it was important backstory that I needed to understand the later story so I have suffered through all of this dogshit story cutscene by cutscene.

I just met his sister, she mentions that we had only met one fucking time previously so hopefully I haven't forgotten about her. so clearly the game knows how shitty it is about introducing people for 1 sec 80 hours ago and doesn't expect you to remember them either.
 

Groove

Trakanon Raider
98
216
Goddamn you are a whiney little bitch...

I play the game casually (for this board) and even know about his sister, and no, I don't play MMO's for the story.

You must be a real riot at parties.
 
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Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,442
7,139
Unfortunately no, some lying piece of shit assholes in this thread told me that the story was boring, but it was important backstory that I needed to understand the later story so I have suffered through all of this dogshit story cutscene by cutscene.

I just met his sister, she mentions that we had only met one fucking time previously so hopefully I haven't forgotten about her. so clearly the game knows how shitty it is about introducing people for 1 sec 80 hours ago and doesn't expect you to remember them either.

Nah, if the ending of ARR wasn't doing anything positive for you, I'd just say quit now.
 
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Sylas

<Gold Donor>
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about halfway through heavensward and the story finally has found a coherent narrative to follow. I wouldn't call this good story telling so far, 2/10 maybe but its a far cry from the garbage from before. I think the main issue I have with ARR is the schizophrenic storylines. collect 1 bearass so you can fight this primal, then teleport to the other side of world to collect 1 bearass to fight the empire, then teleport around talk to 50 different npcs so you can progress Uldah politics whatever, then collect 1 bearass to fight ascians, then back to primals, and on and on it goes. it never settles in to a coherent storyline or spends time with any npcs to flesh them out and make them more than 1 dimensional quest markers you click to collect to pass go and collect 200 dollars. The only time the storyline focuses for more than 3 seconds on a single objective is when the dumbass scions are dead or kidnapped and you can actually focus on progressing the story without being bothered by menial side adventures.
 
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joz123

Potato del Grande
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about halfway through heavensward and the story finally has found a coherent narrative to follow. I wouldn't call this good story telling so far, 2/10 maybe but its a far cry from the garbage from before. I think the main issue I have with ARR is the schizophrenic storylines. collect 1 bearass so you can fight this primal, then teleport to the other side of world to collect 1 bearass to fight the empire, then teleport around talk to 50 different npcs so you can progress Uldah politics whatever, then collect 1 bearass to fight ascians, then back to primals, and on and on it goes. it never settles in to a coherent storyline or spends time with any npcs to flesh them out and make them more than 1 dimensional quest markers you click to collect to pass go and collect 200 dollars. The only time the storyline focuses for more than 3 seconds on a single objective is when the dumbass scions are dead or kidnapped and you can actually focus on progressing the story without being bothered by menial side adventures.
Season 10 Story GIF by Curb Your Enthusiasm
 
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Neranja

<Bronze Donator>
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"Why is playing a game that I don't enjoy making me angry?"

It's a total mystery. Maybe we should ask the CIA.
 
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Rali

Trakanon Raider
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1645440273540.png


I'd say that if you still aren't enjoying the game after 3 fucking weeks, then maybe it's not the game for you. Keep on with your long diatribes about how you're not enjoying it though. We're riveted I assure you!..
 
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Ehrgeix

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I can’t believe you guys are trying to put him off reaching shadowbringers / savage raids. Don’t let them win, Sylas Sylas !
 
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Sylas

<Gold Donor>
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"Why is playing a game that I don't enjoy making me angry?"

It's a total mystery. Maybe we should ask the CIA.
mistaking story for gameplay again, what is it with you guys? The whole time i'm leveling with zero gameplay you guys say at least you have the story (what a garbage story it is) but that's the excuse on why there is no gameplay. Now that I have gameplay "oh you just don't enjoy the game" Every other post is telling me to quit the game and stop trashtalking your fucking 'precious.'

To start off this game had no actual game to it. No gameplay, and no real story. After much whiteknighting and apologetics from FF14 fans throughout this thread, dig through all the bullshit and we come to two conclusions.
1) Gameplay starts around 45-60 depending on the class, and 2) everyone agrees "yes the ARR story is garbo but stick with it and it gets better in HW and beyond"

I'm about 2/3 of the way through HW now, and I can finally say this game has a story, well a plot is probably a better term to use. nothing to write home about but at least it finally has one. Maybe it will even become a good story? who knows? One thing I can say about it is it's definitely not what you would consider an RPG. You have no agency, you make no choices, no branching narratives, no input from the player, nothing I do really matters, not even an illusion of choice, which most computer based RPG are limited to given programming restraints. You just play the role the game has designed for you, and sometimes your role is gullible buffoon ie the Post ARR storyline.

Here's the thing that maybe you guys just can't understand, let me try and break it down for you:

It's 2022. The game came out 12 years ago, got tore down and rebuilt and relaunched again 8 years ago. Anyone who knows what a chocobo or a moogle is or gives a shit about Final Fantasy has already played this game. They aren't starting this game now, they aren't in this thread asking you questions now. Anyone starting this game now, like myself for example, has played MMOs, they are interested in this game as an MMO, they want to know about the gameplay, content, the systems, the replayability, the core content loop. Is this a game where you grind for 2 weeks for max level then do a handful of boring dailies while waiting to raid once a week? Games been out a while, does every expansion obsolete everything that came before it, are you stuck with whatever the last expacs 1 zone is to play in? How is the combat? is there any depth? is it fun? twitchy or tactical? Are there other things to do in this game other than dailies/token grinds?

Starting at level 50, you actually get to see the gameplay, it's starting to come together. it's easy, dumbed down, and very forgiving compared to other MMOs (this is designed for consoles after all) but you can see what combat and gameplay is going to be like. It's kinda relaxing actually, been enjoying myself doing the dungeons and raids and stuff. And man, does this game have content. a fuck ton of content. And it's designed in such a way that all the content remains relevant. 3am server time I can queue for a level 27 dungeon and it will pop within 5 minutes, usually within 45 seconds. 24 man raids from 5 expansions ago I can queue in 15min. The way the party finder works in combination with the roulettes is very clever design. This game, when you focus on the actual game part, has a lot going for it. Tons of great, great shit. I'm having a great time with the game. If I listened to you idiots I would of wrote this game off a week ago.

You fucktards are the worst ambassadors ever. No one starting the game now gives a fuck about the story, stop making up excuses for why it's so shitty. stop making excuses for why 1-50 has no gameplay to speak of. Stop making excuses and just be honest with new players.

Think about this. Lots of older games offer new player boosts, catch up mechanics to join your friends in current content. This game is no exception. What's unique about this one is, despite all the hooplah about what a great story it allegedly has, this game also offers story skips in addition to straight up character boosts. You can start off level 1 and turn off the entire story and just play the actual game.

Don't you find that to be a strange option to offer if this game's main focus is it's story? If the story was the only reason to play it? Maybe, just maybe people are interested in the game for the gameplay? What you fail to understand, is players coming in now want to know about what appears to be an amazing game locked behind all that "story" that this game and only this game allows you to "skip".
 
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Rali

Trakanon Raider
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357
So buy a boost and play the parts you enjoy? Most people in here have been straight up with you in which parts of the game they enjoy, and which parts they don't. Even Chris, the most pro-FFXIV person in this thread, has written about things that he dislikes or thinks the game fails on (including the ARR story).

Meanwhile, here you are, playing something you're not enjoying (the story, by your own admission), yet blaming everyone else for it.

Me personally, I currently enjoy playing it. I found some parts of the story utterly tedious, and skipped them, other parts were very enjoyable. When it stops being fun, to me, I'll stop playing it and find something else much like I did when I stopped enjoying WoW during BFA. However, I won't come here to tell others why they are wrong to still keep playing even though they are enjoying themselves or talk continuously about how I find something shit (that other people continually agree on) and carry on playing that same shit.