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I've been playing this blind for a while now. Played FFXI a lot back in the day, and that's my only real experience with MMORPGs.
It's a weird experience as a new player. I'm getting close to the first expansion (I think), having just done one of the Crystal Tower raids. I guess the learning aspect of the game got thrown out the window somewhere with the Duty support thing. Now, it's very convenient that it's there since it allows you to not sit around and wait and just keep going. But the dungeons are horrendously boring. And once you get into the forced group content it's, well... what I've seen so far has been very easy but I found it was hard to keep track of wtf was going on. Maybe I'm getting old. But yeah, the whole progression of how you learn the game seems to be completely fucked. Especially the Crystal Tower raid, I had absolutely no idea of what was happening, especially since players who have run it a million times (I'm guessing) rush through it. Just makes for a strange experience, especially since it's required content for the main story. It's like you could sleepwalk your way to level 50. But then you get into content that you can, well, still sleepwalk through but all of a sudden there's a million flashy things going on at the same time also.
Speaking of, I though the main ARR quest was... well, I wouldn't say good. But the world is very pleasant and fun to explore at first, so that helps. But good god, the quests after the conclusion of that and leading up to the expansion are so horribly designed with the "go there, talk, now go back across the map, talk, then head to other side of the world, talk, then go there, then back" shit that it made me completely lose any interest I had in the story. And apparently it used to be even worse but got patched?
When the ARR main quest concludes, you kinda expect things to go someplace new but it all moves so goddamn slow.
I did quite enjoy the initial exploration of the game and I'm also sort of enjoying the crafting/gathering side of things. And I'm playing Ninja which is quite fun to play mechanically I think (and the job quest for it was probably the best I've seen in the game thus far). But holy hell, the quest stuff after the credits roll of ARR is definitely not doing the game any favours. I can enjoy a slow-burn story, even the typical sort of bloated jRPG style, but there is so much "go back and forth" fetchquesting that it gets quite mindnumbing after a while. The entire design of it is extremely annoying.
It's a weird experience as a new player. I'm getting close to the first expansion (I think), having just done one of the Crystal Tower raids. I guess the learning aspect of the game got thrown out the window somewhere with the Duty support thing. Now, it's very convenient that it's there since it allows you to not sit around and wait and just keep going. But the dungeons are horrendously boring. And once you get into the forced group content it's, well... what I've seen so far has been very easy but I found it was hard to keep track of wtf was going on. Maybe I'm getting old. But yeah, the whole progression of how you learn the game seems to be completely fucked. Especially the Crystal Tower raid, I had absolutely no idea of what was happening, especially since players who have run it a million times (I'm guessing) rush through it. Just makes for a strange experience, especially since it's required content for the main story. It's like you could sleepwalk your way to level 50. But then you get into content that you can, well, still sleepwalk through but all of a sudden there's a million flashy things going on at the same time also.
Speaking of, I though the main ARR quest was... well, I wouldn't say good. But the world is very pleasant and fun to explore at first, so that helps. But good god, the quests after the conclusion of that and leading up to the expansion are so horribly designed with the "go there, talk, now go back across the map, talk, then head to other side of the world, talk, then go there, then back" shit that it made me completely lose any interest I had in the story. And apparently it used to be even worse but got patched?
When the ARR main quest concludes, you kinda expect things to go someplace new but it all moves so goddamn slow.
I did quite enjoy the initial exploration of the game and I'm also sort of enjoying the crafting/gathering side of things. And I'm playing Ninja which is quite fun to play mechanically I think (and the job quest for it was probably the best I've seen in the game thus far). But holy hell, the quest stuff after the credits roll of ARR is definitely not doing the game any favours. I can enjoy a slow-burn story, even the typical sort of bloated jRPG style, but there is so much "go back and forth" fetchquesting that it gets quite mindnumbing after a while. The entire design of it is extremely annoying.
Val the Moofia Boss
Learned
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- Feb 3, 2022
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- 989
Yeah. That's fundamentally what the game always is even through the expansions.
You're maybe halfway to the Heavensward expansion.
ARR's post-game is very long, as it sets up Heavensward, most of Stormblood, and a good deal of stuff that only gets resolved in Shadowbringers' post-game.
If possible, I would recommend doing the dungeons with other players instead of Duty Support.
It's just not worth using unless queuing for the dungeon takes more than 30 minutes to pop for you.
The addition of 'Duty Support' resulted in a lot of the old content just being gutted, and reduced to pale imitations of their former selves.
Their addition basically made the devs remove EVERYTHING that added any element of surprise or unpredictability, just so their brain dead official bots could do it.
So if you want to blame something for making all the dungeons boring, blame Duty Support.
Don't worry about the Crystal Tower raid series, it is the absolute worst raid series in the game.
Everyone is so overleveled, you actually skip all the mechanics, and everything just dies in an explosion of flashy fireworks.
That said, you may want to go poke around the options and see if you can set the particle effects to 'Limited' for others.
You'll want to see what's going on when you get to the actual fun raids like Shadow of Mhach or the Return to Ivalice series.
I do agree that the amount of backtracking is awful in this game.
It's one thing that FFXIV really should learn from other games: if you're going to make the player backtrack long annoying distances, at least offer them a free teleport.
Back in the day we didn't get teleport tickets to the Waking Sands, we had to make our own way there every time, and we couldn't fly in the post-game either.
ARR's post-game is very long, as it sets up Heavensward, most of Stormblood, and a good deal of stuff that only gets resolved in Shadowbringers' post-game.
If possible, I would recommend doing the dungeons with other players instead of Duty Support.
It's just not worth using unless queuing for the dungeon takes more than 30 minutes to pop for you.
The addition of 'Duty Support' resulted in a lot of the old content just being gutted, and reduced to pale imitations of their former selves.
Their addition basically made the devs remove EVERYTHING that added any element of surprise or unpredictability, just so their brain dead official bots could do it.
So if you want to blame something for making all the dungeons boring, blame Duty Support.
Don't worry about the Crystal Tower raid series, it is the absolute worst raid series in the game.
Everyone is so overleveled, you actually skip all the mechanics, and everything just dies in an explosion of flashy fireworks.
That said, you may want to go poke around the options and see if you can set the particle effects to 'Limited' for others.
You'll want to see what's going on when you get to the actual fun raids like Shadow of Mhach or the Return to Ivalice series.
I do agree that the amount of backtracking is awful in this game.
It's one thing that FFXIV really should learn from other games: if you're going to make the player backtrack long annoying distances, at least offer them a free teleport.
Back in the day we didn't get teleport tickets to the Waking Sands, we had to make our own way there every time, and we couldn't fly in the post-game either.
- Joined
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- 4,487
It's good that you enjoyed the world building and exploration because you pretty much got through the worst side of it and it only gets better from now on. Heavensward is a very good expansion with interesting, good looking locations and awesome story so I think you'll enjoy that much more than the ARR stuff.
Quests are sadly designed in a way that's not interesting from a gameplay perspective. A lot of them provide interesting stories and nice flavor to the world but on the other hand some of them are just nonsensical dogshit. And I'm only talking about the MSQ stuff. I personally skipped almost all side quests since the MSQ gave me more than enough story content, I'd rather play the game instead.
I don't really use duty support because I think I can experience the dungeon/trials well enough even if playing with other players. Especially as DPS.
Val the Moofia Boss
Learned
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- Feb 3, 2022
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- 989
Pictomancer looks like splatoon, doesn't look like Final Fantasy.
Final zone looks like Honkai Starrail, doesn't look like Final Fantasy.
Also, this is the THIRD expansion in a row where the final act is about discovering the ruins of an ancient precursor civilization.
No Garlemald restoration?
Welp, the FFXI alliance raid is about beating up the Shadowlord yet again. Would be nice if the Star Onions arrange of it played this time. Doubt a FF14 remix would be half as cool.
Finally, we're getting endgame grind zones like Eureka again, though no word on how many zones. Hopefully it's at least 4.
Beastmaster is the new limited job. WoW and GW2 let you fight alongside your beloved pet as hunter/ranger in current content, but apparently that's too much to ask for in FF14.
The new female character faces look uncanny.
Everyone gets a free fantasia per character or account?
Will all old gear get two dye channels?
Xbox open beta begins February 21st.
Aw, they didn't implement the pretty female Hrothgar from the book. Well, I guess it's something rather different from the pretty races we have already, for the people who want that niche.
That's it? No discussion about gameplay?
Cover looks like a rehash of the Endwalker cover art. (first three expansion covers also had character stacking but this composition is pretty egregiously the same). I'm guessing the girl at the top is either another ancient precursor or the new queen of Tural.
Final zone looks like Honkai Starrail, doesn't look like Final Fantasy.
Also, this is the THIRD expansion in a row where the final act is about discovering the ruins of an ancient precursor civilization.
No Garlemald restoration?
Welp, the FFXI alliance raid is about beating up the Shadowlord yet again. Would be nice if the Star Onions arrange of it played this time. Doubt a FF14 remix would be half as cool.
Finally, we're getting endgame grind zones like Eureka again, though no word on how many zones. Hopefully it's at least 4.
Beastmaster is the new limited job. WoW and GW2 let you fight alongside your beloved pet as hunter/ranger in current content, but apparently that's too much to ask for in FF14.
The new female character faces look uncanny.
Everyone gets a free fantasia per character or account?
Will all old gear get two dye channels?
Xbox open beta begins February 21st.
Aw, they didn't implement the pretty female Hrothgar from the book. Well, I guess it's something rather different from the pretty races we have already, for the people who want that niche.
That's it? No discussion about gameplay?
Cover looks like a rehash of the Endwalker cover art. (first three expansion covers also had character stacking but this composition is pretty egregiously the same). I'm guessing the girl at the top is either another ancient precursor or the new queen of Tural.
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They've got at least 5 more months before the actual release.
Plenty of time for more live letters to build up hype.
I also want to know how the jobs and gameplay will evolve.
But that's more because I want to know if there's any hope of improvement, or if I should just give up.
I'm not tolerating another 2/3 years of Shadowbringers' design paradigm.
Plenty of time for more live letters to build up hype.
I also want to know how the jobs and gameplay will evolve.
But that's more because I want to know if there's any hope of improvement, or if I should just give up.
I'm not tolerating another 2/3 years of Shadowbringers' design paradigm.
Late Bloomer
Scholar
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Val the Moofia Boss
Learned
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Pictomancer looks out of place but not nearly as much as the gunbreaker (can't believe that shit exists). Maybe it will play similar to dancer?
Viper looks very very cool though.
I like the locations revealed, especially the modern looking city. Reminds me of Amaurot and that was my favorite part in shadowbringers. Also, the mesoamerica theme is extremely boring to me so it's good there's other stuff as well.
Female Hrothgar... wish we could hunt them all down, I'm not looking forward to seeing one in the wild.
Viper looks very very cool though.
I like the locations revealed, especially the modern looking city. Reminds me of Amaurot and that was my favorite part in shadowbringers. Also, the mesoamerica theme is extremely boring to me so it's good there's other stuff as well.
Female Hrothgar... wish we could hunt them all down, I'm not looking forward to seeing one in the wild.
Late Bloomer
Scholar
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Furries are so fucking disgusting. I feel sorry for your pets.
Anyways, female Hrothgar announced. Gee I wonder which of you will be making these....
Anyways, female Hrothgar announced. Gee I wonder which of you will be making these....
Trithne
Erudite
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2008
- Messages
- 1,200
Well I think I've checked out of the game at the right time. This feels like jumping the shark.
Tural would've been interesting to see if the game still felt like it did in HW/StB , but the game has gone so far from the fairly grounded geopolitics that it started with (with a B-plot of shadowy shit going on) that I can't see it staying in "holiday adventure" for more than a few levels.
Solution Nine looks so out of place. But fuck me if you try to point that out, the defence force will jump down your throat with "But Final Fantasy has always had Sci fi!", completely failing to understand that it's about consistency.
Same shit with Pictomancer. The effects look cheap and don't match the game, but they're pretty so get bent.
Tural would've been interesting to see if the game still felt like it did in HW/StB , but the game has gone so far from the fairly grounded geopolitics that it started with (with a B-plot of shadowy shit going on) that I can't see it staying in "holiday adventure" for more than a few levels.
Solution Nine looks so out of place. But fuck me if you try to point that out, the defence force will jump down your throat with "But Final Fantasy has always had Sci fi!", completely failing to understand that it's about consistency.
Same shit with Pictomancer. The effects look cheap and don't match the game, but they're pretty so get bent.
Mebrilia the Viera Queen
Self-Ejected
Furries are so fucking disgusting. I feel sorry for your pets.
Anyways, female Hrothgar announced. Gee I wonder which of you will be making these....
At least they don't look like deviant art furries unlike another game :D
I am not very interested in the pictomancer even tho visually is cute. More interested in the Viper job.
About the tone of the story for what yoshi.p said gives me strong el dorado vibes wich i honestly quite dig.
This confirm my theory that the Void arc will end soon with the patches before the expansion.
Loved the new zones i admit the cyberpunk esque city taken me a little aback.
But i have to say i am excited for the expansion quite a lot.
And no i will not making a femme Hrothgar. Viera for life.
About the last zone don't looking like final fantasy. You realize final fantasy games have wide different settings right?.... One can't claim such a thing.
Mebrilia the Viera Queen
Self-Ejected
Actually for what yoshi.p explained there is plenty of geopolitics going on there. Mainly a struggle of power for a vacant throne. Also someone missed it but there will be another limited job ala Blue mage, Beastmaster but that will come in a patch after Dawntrail. Lore wise the new world is very interesting and i dig it a lot. Still... i would had prefered to have Dalmasca.
Delterius
Arcane
did you not make it out of ARR or something
this game has been going full retard with sci fi since coils of bahamut, at the very least. consistently.
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