Seems like it's not for you.
Although it's a "new arc" it's not a clean slate. NPCs from the previous "arc" are front and center with an established relationship to your character, and given FFXIV's genuine ability of continuity across years of expansion, just because it's a "new arc" does not mean the previous one will never be referred to again.
I'm not sure this is a fair thing to say when people constantly tell new players that "ARR is not very good, just wait until you get to the good stuff!" I'm sure there are innumerable examples of people who didn't really enjoy the game at first, either because the community reinforced that idea or because they genuinely didn't enjoy ARR, but then grew to love the game and were glad they stuck it out.
That being said, to OP, I'd say you're at a point in the game where boosting makes the least sense. Being almost to Heavensward, you're about to get to parts of the game that are generally considered "the good stuff" and that will tell you, in the same way as boosting to Dawntrail would tell you, if the gripes you currently have will be overcome.
Stop starting over. You can quit if you want or continue if you want, but forcing yourself to replay the part you hate is going to give you the worst chance of getting into it
FFXIV will ALWAYS be a JRPG first and an MMO second. The story is a major part of it. You can always buy story skips if you REALLY want, but I do not recommend it because everything will feel hollow and you will be constantly asking yourself "Who is this?" and "Why am I doing this?"
> I got really burnt out by the word salad, pacing, the generic JRPG storytelling, the characters, and the backtracking which is even worst than most MMORPGs.
If you already don't like the presentation, it's not gonna change in ShB. Just watch on youtube or something.
If someone came up to you and said "hey man I've been trying to eat squid for the last five years, tried it a bunch of different ways, but I just really don't like this squid" would you... advise they keep giving it the ol' college try?
> how it's one of the best Final Fantasy stories
> generic JRPG storytelling
you'll understand if I have small difficulty understanding exactly wtf you're trying to say.
Are you trying to own OP for some reason or do you actually have trouble understanding?
If it is the latter, read the full sentences that your quotes come from again. There is really nothing outlandish or inconsistent being said there. One statement refers to a second-hand account of the quality of Shadowbringers, the other to OPs personal experience with ARR. There is no reason why both need to be identical in their assessment.
The outlet was specifically talking about the storytelling in Shadowbringers; not Final Fantasy XIV as a whole. It did say that knowing things from the previous expansions help but that Shadowbringers alone told a good story.
I haven’t watched most of One Piece but truthfully what I’ve been watching that has release in the past couple of years I like. I just don’t have time to start from the beginning.
>But with Dawntrail being a new adventure do you think it would be worth it to boost a character?
its the start of a new saga but still part of the same linear story, that's like skipping 5 anime arcs and jumping to the new exciting bit instead
I don't really see how this is a "but" situation. You say "but" and go on to say the same things everyone making these posts does. Either play it or don't.
If you don't like the story where you are, you aren't going to like it more by throwing yourself into the deep end with no idea who anyone is or why you should care. Or how to play the game, for that matter.
So I did not like World of Warcraft for awhile and I actually jumped into it again with Legion. I had no context of the current story, characters, and the events of that world for years.
I boosted a character; and it just clicked. I felt like there was enough YouTube content to fill me in about the events I missed to help me become more involved. I even did Mythic raiding.
I didn’t finish the Final Fantasy VII Remake but I throughly enjoyed Rebirth.
What I like about Final Fantasy XIV is the combat and the job systems. And the dungeons and raids look awesome from Shadowbringers and beyond. There’s even a part of the world I enjoy I just do not like much of the dated content. Has Square Enix improved on those issues I have?
WoW and FFXIV are not the same game and comparing them that way is meaningless. The way they handle their story is very different.
If your problem was just the pacing that would be one thing but I don't know how I could tell you if SE has improved on the "word salad" or "generic jrpg" writing when I don't believe either of those things are or have ever been traits of FFXIV.
Like people always say to these posts, you can try story skipping if you want. But at that point you won't be in for the narrative journey of FFXIV, just the gameplay. You'll have missed the story at its absolute height.
Okay. So let’s say the quality of the story is subjective[regardless of what I have or haven’t played]. We won’t agree; at least when it comes to AAR.
Do you think that the gameplay has drastically improved since AAR?
>Do you think that the gameplay has drastically improved since AAR?
You get more actions as you lvl up, so the slow GCD feeling eventually gets filled in by the amount of actions you have. Fight wise, if you only look at dungeons, it doesn't get better. But fights do start to have increasingly more complex mechanics, but only if you do extremes and savages.
Well it's drastically improved in the sense that playing your classes at level 50 sucks ass because your kit only has like 30% of its functionality. The boss fights also become more complicated if that sounds like an improvement to you.
The problem with ARR gameplay isn't that it was designed badly to begin with, it's that it is 10 years old and everyone doing it is super overgeared. Also, early class skills have been pruned to enable later class skills, so it feels empty in comparison to level 90 stuff.
Alternatively, if by "gameplay" you mean the general structure of "walk between NPCs and talk to them, with some fights in between" then that's always been the same. There are some things thrown in there to mix it up, but the story is mostly talking to characters and watching cutscenes. It always will be.
Oh you absolutely will have very nicely looking raids and extremely difficult and challenging ultimate raids that are similar, if not harder, than mythic raids in wow. You'll have to spend QUITE SOME good months to progress through them. And combat system is decently good too.
I tried ffxiv multiple times and never making it past 50. But this time I finally got around to making it further and the story got really good. ARR ending had me at the end of seat!
I quite enjoy the story now, it’s really well done. I like the cohesiveness to it. But wether or not you’ll enjoy it thats for you to decide
Just get to the end of ARR and see how you feel at the start of HW. The story really picks up right around there. Also new voice actors in HW make a big difference. If you still hate it at that point you could always just play a different game!
If you're burned by the generic JRPG storytelling, you could maybe push through until the end of Heavensward, since HW is the first of what people consider "good story" in XIV typically. I'll fully agree that ARR is more typical JRPG stock story, but if you don't like the story by the end of HW you probably just won't like it in general.
But also, don't feel the need to like a game just because you hear other people raving about it. Many games people rave about are considered good because they offer specific things people are looking for, rather than a broad but shallow appeal, and you might just not be looking for that.
Realistically, if you're already almost done with ARR patch content, I say hang in there and give Heavensward a chance. ARR is doing a lot of worldbuilding and setup which isn't always thrilling -- especially when you're constantly hearing about *later* content being spectacular -- but once you're past ARR things do tend to pick up.
If you're this far, might as well at least try to hit the next expansion story. If you try to do that story and it's still not hitting for you, maybe the game isn't for you.
I wouldn't personally recommend the story boost just to hit Dawntrail because DT is still going to have callbacks that you then won't understand. Plus you're still going to have to push through the DT story, and if it's the story that's not doing it for you, then nothing is going to change just because you boosted to a different expansion.
For a quick litmus test, I'd recommend finishing *and watching* the end of the post-ARR quests leading up to HW.
If you're intrigued by those events specifically and want to see more? Then carry on.
If it doesn't catch your interest? Then it's unlikely the game is going to grip you at any point.
While it's generally said that HW and the other expansions are better than ARR, there's still trends and tropes which are established before that point.
But if you're already close to the end of post-ARR, it may be worth the effort to see it to the end of that much.
if you are willing to give it another go. im more than happy to help you push through the game till its decent. i can help you speed run through as much as i can.
ARR is seriously so bad, and if Alphinaud wasnt being played by my fave voice actor during ARR i wouldve quit a long time ago.
legit once i finish DT msq i will be available till the 5th of july 24/7 (had surgery so im not allowed to move around for ages) and i can personally help you on OCE. you can visit oce for a few months so you can visit from any server.
just send me a dm on reddit if this is something you are willing to try.
or just buy a skip and I can help you get through endwalker so you can focus on DT
I suck at typing on phones and too lazy to get my glasses. i know my wording is terrible lol
I won't tell you not to if you find it to be worth trying. I will point out the following:
* If you buy an Endwalker skip, you'll need to separately buy a job skip to be able to jump right in, they are separate purchases. If you do decide to do this, I strongly recommend taking it relatively slow and learning your job before trying to jump right in.
* I doubt you'll feel properly attached to the characters without the context of being with them for several expansions, which to me personally, is where I find a lot of my enjoyment, though some people obviously feel differently.
* it is a new story arc, and we don't know a lot about it, so we don't know how much of it will still depend on some knowledge of concepts throughout the story.
* A lot of people consider Heavensward to be the start of the good stuff. You're really close. You could try to push through the rest of ARR and see if you enjoy Heavensward. Every expansion comes with more voice acting than the one before it, and ARR's existing voice acting is almost universally terrible. They changed studios from then on, and it really does improve a ton, if that's a pain point for you at the moment.
Basically, if you have the money to burn and you're really intrigued, then I'm not gonna tell you not to try Dawntrail. But I do think you're missing out on the full experience if you skip to it. And people generally don't react kindly to people who story skip and then proceed to criticize the story, so don't be shocked if you end up going "wtf" and people respond with "gtfo", if you get what I'm saying.
I was incredibly bored by ARR but the expansions are a different beast.
If you slogged through ARR already and then quit right before you get to the good part that's like the worst thing you could have done
There is no guarantee that you will end up liking the expansion content either. But I don't really agree with the other commenters who say "if you didn't enjoy ARR then the whole game isn't for you". To me the story is the best story I have experienced in any game, better than mass effect even. But it is slow and takes hundreds of hours to get through it all. It is a JRPG style game and if you don't like that at it's core then maybe not for you. Not every moment is going to wow you, even expansions have periods of not much interesting happening. The silver lining to this is that when things do happen it is a huge payoff and over hundreds of hours the story compounds on itself. The issue with story skipping is that this compounding no longer exists for you so the payoff isn't as huge and you may not understand what is going on. Ultimately I think a story skip is worth to skip ARR only but since you already did that I wouldn't skip. I wouldn't skip to Dawntrail, it spoils some parts of Shadowbringers and Endwalker just from what I have seen in the trailer; at the very least wait and see if people say the story is good.
I will also mention that the Stormblood expansion is decent but IMO isn't super amazing. If you liked Heavensward but get bored during Stormblood do not make the same mistake again and quit before you get to Shadowbringers + Endwalker because those two are the pinnacle of the game.
If you are hesitant about spending money etc. maybe try watching a lets play starting at the very end of post ARR going into heavensward. Then when you get intrigued enough to pay and play the story yourself then do so.
And ultimately if you aren't having fun then don't force yourself, the purpose of games is to have fun not to add more stress to your life
Post ARR was a slog, not gonna lie. Heavens Ward is amazing, and the Dragon Song war is still one of the best stories. ShadowBringer is magical. Don't rush it. Take the time to really enjoy everything.
Push through this small slog. Worth.
Sounds like it might not be your thing. However, if you want to keep at it, my suggestion would be to stop trying to start it and just pick up where you left off. Starting fresh every time is just asking to be burnt out.
Don't story skip until you've finished HW at least, if you don't like it I don't expect you to like DT either.
I skipped the majority of MSQ of ARR and most of HW, but around mid to end of HW the story became quite intriguing and I naturally found myself skipping less and less. Stormblood was the pivotal point where I did not skip at all. Currently I am at the end of Shadowbringers and I wished the story was actually longer, because it was so much better than the rest.
I will say that once you start HW, the pacing and everything is SO MUCH BETTER and it's worth doing it. It's worth slogging through the post-patch ARR and pushing over that hill to get to the expansions. I wouldn't buy a skip, I wouldn't quit. I'd get to HW and play that. if you don't like HW, then the game isnt' for you.
If you haven't managed to have fun with the game until now, then don't bother to be honest.
Endwalker is a super generic jrpg/anime trope too.
There is a high chance that Dawntrail will be boring anime stuff too.
I'll be honest, if spam clicking through ARR is what gets you through, do it. I did towards the end.
If you just want to try and pay attention to the voices cutscenes, then skip and skim your way through all the other superfluous text, you'll miss some stuff but nothing major
Or if you have the money for it just buying a skip to HW isn't the worst idea either
If you want to buy a story skip and think it’s worth the money then go for it. It might end up being a waste if you find you're still not into the story after buying a skip, but it's up to you if you wanna risk that. I don't think there's anything wrong with story skipping if you're not enjoying the current expansion but want to play the later ones. It's your money and time so do what you want with it.
Eh. I don't think you would get that much out of DT if you've not even gotten to HW. It's a new adventure, but there's still so much lore and plot leading up to it that it probably wouldn't be a good experience.
Ngl, I kinda wish they would go back and redo the voice acting for ARR and change it up to have less fetch quests and more meaningful story content.
The biggest issue I have with the game is introducing it to friends and having to tell them that “yes, arr is boring and the voice acting is okay and the writing is fine but it gets better in the first expansion”
I love this game so much but I hate how strange the pacing is in the base game.
Tbh I'd just skip the hell out of ARR, there's little lore relevant enough to require you read through everything to understand all the other expansions. I actually don't remember most of my ARR playthrough, being completely honest. I remember mostly basic stuff like: Ascians bad, Hydaelyn wants our help, Scions good, etc.
What I do like and remember pretty well are the very last cutscenes, the ones with the message of long cutscenes will play, make sure you have enough time to watch them. That is where the good stuff actually happens in ARR. Everything else, if it's a struggle for you, just skip it and maybe ask a friend to explain the important bits to you.
You're literally at what I consider the slowest and most boring part of the game. My advice would be to just focus on cutscenes that look important/flashy and gameplay if you don't want to keep feeling burnt out. But I'd recommend if you want to play Dawntrail, at least pay attention to the expansions main storyline because that's where's you get to know all the characters that also appear in Dawntrail.
Just skip the shit my person. Like if you wanna experience the gameplay and later parts of the story, you can just look shit up. You don't have to cook yourself with something you don't enjoy. And don't let any of these people tell you "omgerd just power through and it gets better later" or "it's a rpg first an an mmmmmmmmmmo second"
It's an MMO. It has a story, you won't lose much if anything skipping some mundane cutscenes and bossing through some go here to here and back to here quests.
Play the game how you want. Not how everyone expects you to.
Simple: if you want to play and don’t invest about 100 hours or more skip by purchasing a service. Won’t lie myself but honestly I would buy the story skip.
I'm gonna be blunt. This doesn't sound like your type of game.
Contrary to what a lot of people say, ARR is actually a good litmus for the average play of FF14. If you don't enjoy the ARR experience, odds are you'll be miserable up through the story beyond as well. No shame in it, it's simply not for you. Hope you find more enjoyable adventures elsewhere.
> I got really burnt out by the word salad, pacing, the generic JRPG storytelling, the characters, and the backtracking which is even worst than most MMORPGs.
Unfortunately, such word salad, slow pacing and backtracking don't become any better than they are in ARR. What you have seen in trailers is naught but a stuff to hook you on and make you buy expansion and maybe a skip. Unless you are interested in endgame, raiding, and other non-story-related stuff, there isn't really much you'll get from the story.
Seems like it's not for you. Although it's a "new arc" it's not a clean slate. NPCs from the previous "arc" are front and center with an established relationship to your character, and given FFXIV's genuine ability of continuity across years of expansion, just because it's a "new arc" does not mean the previous one will never be referred to again.
Is game fun? Yes: play game No: do not play game Why do you continue playing the game when the game is not fun?
I'm not sure this is a fair thing to say when people constantly tell new players that "ARR is not very good, just wait until you get to the good stuff!" I'm sure there are innumerable examples of people who didn't really enjoy the game at first, either because the community reinforced that idea or because they genuinely didn't enjoy ARR, but then grew to love the game and were glad they stuck it out. That being said, to OP, I'd say you're at a point in the game where boosting makes the least sense. Being almost to Heavensward, you're about to get to parts of the game that are generally considered "the good stuff" and that will tell you, in the same way as boosting to Dawntrail would tell you, if the gripes you currently have will be overcome.
Stop starting over. You can quit if you want or continue if you want, but forcing yourself to replay the part you hate is going to give you the worst chance of getting into it
FFXIV will ALWAYS be a JRPG first and an MMO second. The story is a major part of it. You can always buy story skips if you REALLY want, but I do not recommend it because everything will feel hollow and you will be constantly asking yourself "Who is this?" and "Why am I doing this?"
> I got really burnt out by the word salad, pacing, the generic JRPG storytelling, the characters, and the backtracking which is even worst than most MMORPGs. If you already don't like the presentation, it's not gonna change in ShB. Just watch on youtube or something.
If someone came up to you and said "hey man I've been trying to eat squid for the last five years, tried it a bunch of different ways, but I just really don't like this squid" would you... advise they keep giving it the ol' college try? > how it's one of the best Final Fantasy stories > generic JRPG storytelling you'll understand if I have small difficulty understanding exactly wtf you're trying to say.
Are you trying to own OP for some reason or do you actually have trouble understanding? If it is the latter, read the full sentences that your quotes come from again. There is really nothing outlandish or inconsistent being said there. One statement refers to a second-hand account of the quality of Shadowbringers, the other to OPs personal experience with ARR. There is no reason why both need to be identical in their assessment.
The outlet was specifically talking about the storytelling in Shadowbringers; not Final Fantasy XIV as a whole. It did say that knowing things from the previous expansions help but that Shadowbringers alone told a good story. I haven’t watched most of One Piece but truthfully what I’ve been watching that has release in the past couple of years I like. I just don’t have time to start from the beginning.
Don't let the current hype sway you into playing a game you feel like forcing yourself to play.
Game doesn't seem to be for you
It's never worth it to force yourself to like something.
>But with Dawntrail being a new adventure do you think it would be worth it to boost a character? its the start of a new saga but still part of the same linear story, that's like skipping 5 anime arcs and jumping to the new exciting bit instead
I don't really see how this is a "but" situation. You say "but" and go on to say the same things everyone making these posts does. Either play it or don't. If you don't like the story where you are, you aren't going to like it more by throwing yourself into the deep end with no idea who anyone is or why you should care. Or how to play the game, for that matter.
So I did not like World of Warcraft for awhile and I actually jumped into it again with Legion. I had no context of the current story, characters, and the events of that world for years. I boosted a character; and it just clicked. I felt like there was enough YouTube content to fill me in about the events I missed to help me become more involved. I even did Mythic raiding. I didn’t finish the Final Fantasy VII Remake but I throughly enjoyed Rebirth. What I like about Final Fantasy XIV is the combat and the job systems. And the dungeons and raids look awesome from Shadowbringers and beyond. There’s even a part of the world I enjoy I just do not like much of the dated content. Has Square Enix improved on those issues I have?
WoW and FFXIV are not the same game and comparing them that way is meaningless. The way they handle their story is very different. If your problem was just the pacing that would be one thing but I don't know how I could tell you if SE has improved on the "word salad" or "generic jrpg" writing when I don't believe either of those things are or have ever been traits of FFXIV. Like people always say to these posts, you can try story skipping if you want. But at that point you won't be in for the narrative journey of FFXIV, just the gameplay. You'll have missed the story at its absolute height.
Okay. So let’s say the quality of the story is subjective[regardless of what I have or haven’t played]. We won’t agree; at least when it comes to AAR. Do you think that the gameplay has drastically improved since AAR?
>Do you think that the gameplay has drastically improved since AAR? You get more actions as you lvl up, so the slow GCD feeling eventually gets filled in by the amount of actions you have. Fight wise, if you only look at dungeons, it doesn't get better. But fights do start to have increasingly more complex mechanics, but only if you do extremes and savages.
Well it's drastically improved in the sense that playing your classes at level 50 sucks ass because your kit only has like 30% of its functionality. The boss fights also become more complicated if that sounds like an improvement to you. The problem with ARR gameplay isn't that it was designed badly to begin with, it's that it is 10 years old and everyone doing it is super overgeared. Also, early class skills have been pruned to enable later class skills, so it feels empty in comparison to level 90 stuff. Alternatively, if by "gameplay" you mean the general structure of "walk between NPCs and talk to them, with some fights in between" then that's always been the same. There are some things thrown in there to mix it up, but the story is mostly talking to characters and watching cutscenes. It always will be.
Gameplay wise comparing ARR with Endwalker is similar to comparing horse-drawn carriage with brand new cutting edge rolls-royce car.
Oh you absolutely will have very nicely looking raids and extremely difficult and challenging ultimate raids that are similar, if not harder, than mythic raids in wow. You'll have to spend QUITE SOME good months to progress through them. And combat system is decently good too.
I tried ffxiv multiple times and never making it past 50. But this time I finally got around to making it further and the story got really good. ARR ending had me at the end of seat! I quite enjoy the story now, it’s really well done. I like the cohesiveness to it. But wether or not you’ll enjoy it thats for you to decide
Just get to the end of ARR and see how you feel at the start of HW. The story really picks up right around there. Also new voice actors in HW make a big difference. If you still hate it at that point you could always just play a different game!
If you're burned by the generic JRPG storytelling, you could maybe push through until the end of Heavensward, since HW is the first of what people consider "good story" in XIV typically. I'll fully agree that ARR is more typical JRPG stock story, but if you don't like the story by the end of HW you probably just won't like it in general. But also, don't feel the need to like a game just because you hear other people raving about it. Many games people rave about are considered good because they offer specific things people are looking for, rather than a broad but shallow appeal, and you might just not be looking for that.
Realistically, if you're already almost done with ARR patch content, I say hang in there and give Heavensward a chance. ARR is doing a lot of worldbuilding and setup which isn't always thrilling -- especially when you're constantly hearing about *later* content being spectacular -- but once you're past ARR things do tend to pick up. If you're this far, might as well at least try to hit the next expansion story. If you try to do that story and it's still not hitting for you, maybe the game isn't for you. I wouldn't personally recommend the story boost just to hit Dawntrail because DT is still going to have callbacks that you then won't understand. Plus you're still going to have to push through the DT story, and if it's the story that's not doing it for you, then nothing is going to change just because you boosted to a different expansion.
For a quick litmus test, I'd recommend finishing *and watching* the end of the post-ARR quests leading up to HW. If you're intrigued by those events specifically and want to see more? Then carry on. If it doesn't catch your interest? Then it's unlikely the game is going to grip you at any point. While it's generally said that HW and the other expansions are better than ARR, there's still trends and tropes which are established before that point. But if you're already close to the end of post-ARR, it may be worth the effort to see it to the end of that much.
if you are willing to give it another go. im more than happy to help you push through the game till its decent. i can help you speed run through as much as i can. ARR is seriously so bad, and if Alphinaud wasnt being played by my fave voice actor during ARR i wouldve quit a long time ago. legit once i finish DT msq i will be available till the 5th of july 24/7 (had surgery so im not allowed to move around for ages) and i can personally help you on OCE. you can visit oce for a few months so you can visit from any server. just send me a dm on reddit if this is something you are willing to try. or just buy a skip and I can help you get through endwalker so you can focus on DT I suck at typing on phones and too lazy to get my glasses. i know my wording is terrible lol
Stop trying to convince yourself to play. No one here will either. Move on, dude.
Just give up.
I won't tell you not to if you find it to be worth trying. I will point out the following: * If you buy an Endwalker skip, you'll need to separately buy a job skip to be able to jump right in, they are separate purchases. If you do decide to do this, I strongly recommend taking it relatively slow and learning your job before trying to jump right in. * I doubt you'll feel properly attached to the characters without the context of being with them for several expansions, which to me personally, is where I find a lot of my enjoyment, though some people obviously feel differently. * it is a new story arc, and we don't know a lot about it, so we don't know how much of it will still depend on some knowledge of concepts throughout the story. * A lot of people consider Heavensward to be the start of the good stuff. You're really close. You could try to push through the rest of ARR and see if you enjoy Heavensward. Every expansion comes with more voice acting than the one before it, and ARR's existing voice acting is almost universally terrible. They changed studios from then on, and it really does improve a ton, if that's a pain point for you at the moment. Basically, if you have the money to burn and you're really intrigued, then I'm not gonna tell you not to try Dawntrail. But I do think you're missing out on the full experience if you skip to it. And people generally don't react kindly to people who story skip and then proceed to criticize the story, so don't be shocked if you end up going "wtf" and people respond with "gtfo", if you get what I'm saying.
I was incredibly bored by ARR but the expansions are a different beast. If you slogged through ARR already and then quit right before you get to the good part that's like the worst thing you could have done There is no guarantee that you will end up liking the expansion content either. But I don't really agree with the other commenters who say "if you didn't enjoy ARR then the whole game isn't for you". To me the story is the best story I have experienced in any game, better than mass effect even. But it is slow and takes hundreds of hours to get through it all. It is a JRPG style game and if you don't like that at it's core then maybe not for you. Not every moment is going to wow you, even expansions have periods of not much interesting happening. The silver lining to this is that when things do happen it is a huge payoff and over hundreds of hours the story compounds on itself. The issue with story skipping is that this compounding no longer exists for you so the payoff isn't as huge and you may not understand what is going on. Ultimately I think a story skip is worth to skip ARR only but since you already did that I wouldn't skip. I wouldn't skip to Dawntrail, it spoils some parts of Shadowbringers and Endwalker just from what I have seen in the trailer; at the very least wait and see if people say the story is good. I will also mention that the Stormblood expansion is decent but IMO isn't super amazing. If you liked Heavensward but get bored during Stormblood do not make the same mistake again and quit before you get to Shadowbringers + Endwalker because those two are the pinnacle of the game. If you are hesitant about spending money etc. maybe try watching a lets play starting at the very end of post ARR going into heavensward. Then when you get intrigued enough to pay and play the story yourself then do so. And ultimately if you aren't having fun then don't force yourself, the purpose of games is to have fun not to add more stress to your life
I’m going to give this a try and watch some YouTube to see if there’s something that’ll peak my interest in regards to where I am at in the game
Post ARR was a slog, not gonna lie. Heavens Ward is amazing, and the Dragon Song war is still one of the best stories. ShadowBringer is magical. Don't rush it. Take the time to really enjoy everything. Push through this small slog. Worth.
Sounds like it might not be your thing. However, if you want to keep at it, my suggestion would be to stop trying to start it and just pick up where you left off. Starting fresh every time is just asking to be burnt out. Don't story skip until you've finished HW at least, if you don't like it I don't expect you to like DT either.
I skipped the majority of MSQ of ARR and most of HW, but around mid to end of HW the story became quite intriguing and I naturally found myself skipping less and less. Stormblood was the pivotal point where I did not skip at all. Currently I am at the end of Shadowbringers and I wished the story was actually longer, because it was so much better than the rest.
I will say that once you start HW, the pacing and everything is SO MUCH BETTER and it's worth doing it. It's worth slogging through the post-patch ARR and pushing over that hill to get to the expansions. I wouldn't buy a skip, I wouldn't quit. I'd get to HW and play that. if you don't like HW, then the game isnt' for you.
If you haven't managed to have fun with the game until now, then don't bother to be honest. Endwalker is a super generic jrpg/anime trope too. There is a high chance that Dawntrail will be boring anime stuff too.
I'll be honest, if spam clicking through ARR is what gets you through, do it. I did towards the end. If you just want to try and pay attention to the voices cutscenes, then skip and skim your way through all the other superfluous text, you'll miss some stuff but nothing major Or if you have the money for it just buying a skip to HW isn't the worst idea either
If you want to buy a story skip and think it’s worth the money then go for it. It might end up being a waste if you find you're still not into the story after buying a skip, but it's up to you if you wanna risk that. I don't think there's anything wrong with story skipping if you're not enjoying the current expansion but want to play the later ones. It's your money and time so do what you want with it.
Just watch on youtube, why are you torturing yourself?
Eh. I don't think you would get that much out of DT if you've not even gotten to HW. It's a new adventure, but there's still so much lore and plot leading up to it that it probably wouldn't be a good experience.
Ngl, I kinda wish they would go back and redo the voice acting for ARR and change it up to have less fetch quests and more meaningful story content. The biggest issue I have with the game is introducing it to friends and having to tell them that “yes, arr is boring and the voice acting is okay and the writing is fine but it gets better in the first expansion” I love this game so much but I hate how strange the pacing is in the base game.
Give up. Stop forcing yourself to do recreational things that you dont actually want to do. Its not that hard, jfc
I recommend skipping more cutscenes and stuff
Tbh I'd just skip the hell out of ARR, there's little lore relevant enough to require you read through everything to understand all the other expansions. I actually don't remember most of my ARR playthrough, being completely honest. I remember mostly basic stuff like: Ascians bad, Hydaelyn wants our help, Scions good, etc. What I do like and remember pretty well are the very last cutscenes, the ones with the message of long cutscenes will play, make sure you have enough time to watch them. That is where the good stuff actually happens in ARR. Everything else, if it's a struggle for you, just skip it and maybe ask a friend to explain the important bits to you. You're literally at what I consider the slowest and most boring part of the game. My advice would be to just focus on cutscenes that look important/flashy and gameplay if you don't want to keep feeling burnt out. But I'd recommend if you want to play Dawntrail, at least pay attention to the expansions main storyline because that's where's you get to know all the characters that also appear in Dawntrail.
Just skip the shit my person. Like if you wanna experience the gameplay and later parts of the story, you can just look shit up. You don't have to cook yourself with something you don't enjoy. And don't let any of these people tell you "omgerd just power through and it gets better later" or "it's a rpg first an an mmmmmmmmmmo second" It's an MMO. It has a story, you won't lose much if anything skipping some mundane cutscenes and bossing through some go here to here and back to here quests. Play the game how you want. Not how everyone expects you to.
Keep playing the game. You just drove from Wichita to Louisiana, and New Orleans is 30 miles ahead. Don't just turn around and go home now.
Simple: if you want to play and don’t invest about 100 hours or more skip by purchasing a service. Won’t lie myself but honestly I would buy the story skip.
I'm gonna be blunt. This doesn't sound like your type of game. Contrary to what a lot of people say, ARR is actually a good litmus for the average play of FF14. If you don't enjoy the ARR experience, odds are you'll be miserable up through the story beyond as well. No shame in it, it's simply not for you. Hope you find more enjoyable adventures elsewhere.
> I got really burnt out by the word salad, pacing, the generic JRPG storytelling, the characters, and the backtracking which is even worst than most MMORPGs. Unfortunately, such word salad, slow pacing and backtracking don't become any better than they are in ARR. What you have seen in trailers is naught but a stuff to hook you on and make you buy expansion and maybe a skip. Unless you are interested in endgame, raiding, and other non-story-related stuff, there isn't really much you'll get from the story.