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Story worth playing through?
Isometrix
Member UncommonPosts: 256
Hi guys,
I've been hopping in between MMOs like many. My last attempt was GW2 which I really liked, for a short period of time. Now, I'm not really looking for an MMO anymore and I know FF14 isn't going to hold my attention for long. What I'd like to know is if the story alone is worth a playthrough for you guys. I need something to pass the time while I'm doing other stuff on my PC, and have read some research, but some say the story is good enough for a numbered final fantasy title, while others say it's terrible.
If you ignore all the endgame stuff which I have no real interest in, would the story warrant a purchase of the game? Additionally, I read dungeons are required for the story. Can you still find a group for these or has everyone leveled out of them; or are they on their 5th character and will insist me to skip every cutscene?
Comments
[mod edit]
To OP:
The story is alright I guess, but will mean a lot more if you'd played the original FFXIV.
Try it out, you might find you like the game more than you'd think and decide to stick around. Sure there are still a few issues to be worked out, but I really like it, and by the time you reach endgame, the problems that people complain about it will have been fixed.
Saying the story is alright but will mean more if he'd played the original doesn't answer his question?
if your sick of "will I like this game" posts why waste your own time posting in one instead of acting like that and being insulting to him
PS the game with the story he is talking about was released like less than 2 months ago. How have you been subbed for 6 months?
Thanks for your reply, the only one so far that's useful.
I don't know why this forum is so foul. All I asked is if the story is worth playing through and people seem to engage in a flame war over nothing.
Thanks for your reply, the only one so far that's useful.
I don't know why this forum is so foul. All I asked is if the story is worth playing through and people seem to engage in a flame war over nothing.
Ok I'll indulge you since its late and I have some time to kill.
You want a decent answer, I'll need to know a few things.
Why didnt you like GW2?
Why are you interested in playing an mmo if you're really not looking for an mmo anymore?
How do you know FFXIV isnt going to hold your attention for long?
If you want to play a game for the story, why choose an mmo and not a single player game? After all, this game is 30 bucks while other great single player games are going on sale for black Friday for a fraction of the cost.
You seem like you are open to suggestion. From the little bit of info you have given, may I suggest you not play an mmo and in fact play a story driven single player game for a fraction of the cost, does not require a group (which you are worried about), and you can complete in a short amount of time (which is important to you).
Thanks.
I liked GW2 but it did the same thing other MMOs did; burn me out lategame. The dungeons were a grindfest for gear, the public quests were not nearly as epic as they were propped up to be and little more than repetitive killquests. I had my hopes set on GW2 and when it let me down, I gave up on MMOs alltogether.
Ive played a lot of single player games but they lack interaction, social aspects. Additionally, an MMO allows me to do other stuff, like browse, watch series, play simple games, while I'm out in the world doing the always present busy-work. I'm just setting myself up for quitting at endgame because I've done so the last 7 or 8 MMOs and since this one doesn't do that much different, I know I won't continue it for that long, I'm not interested in doing dungeons 20 times for armor anymore.
I'm just looking for something with a persistent world, social interaction that I can still enjoy myself by following a story that's actually worth playing through. GW2 tried this with the personal story but it was a really badly written one. SWTOR tried it but the story got stuck in one of most boring MMOs I'd ever played.
That's why I asked. I like playing an MMO even if I don't necessarily want to play them anymore. I'm not against grouping, but I am against waiting 60 minutes to form a group and then have everyone else rage when you watch the cutscene, which is what happened in SWTOR, that's why I added the grouping question. If they force dungeons during the storyline, and youre forced to speedrun them robbing you of necessary cutscenes, thats no fun to me.
I avoided posting this in the opening topic to avoid the TLDR responses.
Thanks for the tldr version.
The storyline is ok. It carries you through all the zones and dungeons and unlocks most of the game's other content. Create a tanking class and the dungeon queues will be short. The cutscenes are mostly short and most people will think you just have a slow computer if you take the time to watch them.
This is a persistent world mmo with a diverse economy and interesting crafting/gathering classes and mechanics. If you want to ignore all that and cruise through the story by all means go for it.
If you want my opinion on whether its worth 30 dollars to play the storyline. Nope. The game shines when you are done with that aspect and can be part of a bustling economy. This game tends to cater to crafting, gathering, and raiding. Guild housing coming dec 17th. If you play it exclusively for the story, you're probably gonna end up being here in a month proclaiming how this game is not worth it just like the rest.
So i guess in retrospect. Do us all a favor including yourself and play something else. It will serve you much better and spare you the flames from the folks who play this for its strengths.
Thank you.
If you thought SWTOR is the most boring MMO you have ever played, then dont waste your money on this. The story is way worse. I suppose if your a fan of Final fantasy you would like it, but that would say that you would like a final fantasy book, that was written terribly. If you want a MMO with a fun story, and quests that arent normal in the mmo world. Buy secret world, that has a really fun story line. Dont expect more then that from it though.
The story is vaguely passable in an MMO filler kind of way. Buying the game with the intent of the story carrying the purchase is going to lead to you being very disappointed.
The story itself requires a lot of reading and is very gated in terms of progressing through it. It's tied into the Duty Finder tool (unless you have a group of friends playing with you) that could take hours for you to even get into the dungeon to be able to get on with the story.
Though as a whole I've yet to be proven wrong in saying that those who have fully completed the story say it's at least passable as a good JRPG game. Those who say otherwise usually haven't finished the whole game and get caught in the above or hate as much reading as the game has, saying there's a large disconnect. In truth, the game's story doesn't really take and shortcuts in it's story telling and you will be doing everything that you would expect yourself to do whether it be through investigations or other things to figure out what is going on and going to the next step.
Once you beat the game's initial story and look back to remember all the things that happened and put everything together, it is a great experience as a whole. The game is just really quest / level grindy to get to the interesting points and most don't last the first ten levels due to confusion of not knowing what to do or letting their past bias of how the games they used to play were make judgments as to how this completely different game is (different in that it's a different title that has it's own rulesets).
Playing casually it may take a few months to fully get to level 50 and finish all of the storyline quests. I know people who play a few hours a day and still are at level 35 and level 28 of the story quests. I'd say it's an improvement over Guild Wars 2 simply because it's what I wanted Guild Wars 2 to be, minus the item grind (which GW2 is quickly becoming anyway). Though over all is like a marriage of FFXI, Guild Wars 2 and WoW as a whole in terms of how you it plays out.
This is a great game for a $29 purchase to be sure. Though I'm not entirely convinced it's worth paying monthly yet, since the only real end game is out of reach for the majority of players to this date (though the Crystal Tower is supposed to help with closing that gap. In addition so are the new elite dungeons and primal battles). It also has a lot of bugs or annoyances it needs to clear up. It's annoying going back to old dungeons since you aren't able to use the hotbar you're used to at max level. You have to rearrange everything again since you can only use level appropriate skills as the skills themselves aren't scaled down. There is also no trading between your characters for some insane reason. You have to rely on friends to transfer items and money to your alternate characters if you have them. The class balance is also a joke, but is being worked on for the next patch. The grind on your second class is basically just fate running until the next patch when they make dungeon running be the best way to level and offer better rewards for going back to improve queue times.
It was said that they're adding more storyline and tying up loose ends in the patches, so we'll have to see if they're beefy enough for people who only play for the story to come back and subscribe to play. The game, the music, and the beautiful scenery and graphics are great in themselves. The classes are fun once you get past the slower style combat (which isn't really all that slow as you progress and depending on the class). It's a great game to play to pass time until the next expansion or big update of your main game. Leveling my chocobo on my alts at the moment. Kind've a grind, but I like my feathered companions.
They took a game that was bad and invested the time and money to completely remake it. That deserves at least a year of my attention on my money to see where their patches take it. It's already proven to be profitable for them in the end, getting the company out of the red when they originally anticipated to lose out for the year in terms of profit. It has a lot of nice little details like character's heads moving to you when you get near them (and chocobos!), the weather effects like blazing heat and thunderstorms (thunder and lightning are amazing!) and many other things such as laying in beds and sitting in chairs that other games ignore. The housing looks to be really great as well.
Well if you're going to play FF 14 you're going to have to play through the story, and yes, you are going to be required to do dungeons. You're also going to be required to do quite a few quests solo, without the option of grouping.
In order to unlock basic aspects of the game like airship travel, dye, class progression, etc., you are indeed going to have to do the main story quests. I suppose you could run around and grind FATEs and whatnot for some time, but you wouldn't actually be progressing much so at some point you would be basically forced to return to the main storyline.
The group finder apparently works well in and of itself but there are already quite a few reports of 90-minute queues for the lower-level dungeons because there isn't any reason for higher-level players to come back and do the old content. Not sure how healthy the player base is here in the West; if new players aren't trickling in then the lowbie dungeons could theoretically become a problem to complete, unless you're playing with friends.
"Why would I want to loose a religion upon my people? Religions wreck from within - Empires and individuals alike! It's all the same." - God Emperor of Dune
I'm really enjoying the dramatic parts of the story, but unfortunately many of the "transition" parts are uninteresting and add nothing to the story. There are multiple times when you end up in a long series of "prove your worth to us before we will agree to help you, adventurer" quests that drag on for a while. But yes, I would say that if you enjoyed the other FF series' for their stories, you will also enjoy this one. Some of the cutscenes and plot twists put me right back in the FF mood, and I've gone back to rewatch many of them. As long as you're not completely burnt out on MMOs to the point where running around killing 5 rats will be painful, you can buy this game and have a great time playing through it for the story.
The English voice acting isn't very good. You can switch it to Japanese if you're into that.
A lot of the writing is top-notch, even in the descriptions of filler quests that few people even read. The localization team really outdid themselves. On the one hand you have a lot of Eorzean slang ("yalm" and "malm" for yard and mile, "bell" for hour, references to their pantheon) to make the speech sound like it comes from a real world with history, and on the other hand they still sneak in a lot of puns and references to other games, movies, and geek culture.
Dungeons are required for the story but there is a cross-server dungeon finder. If you play as a tank class or make a friend who can play as a tank, you'll get in in under a minute every time. Even someone who is too high level for the dungeon can level sync to run it again as an appropriate level.
You definitely will not encounter people asking you to skip dungeon cutscenes on the trek to the level cap. I've never seen it happen even once. It might happen in some of the final dungeons that people speedrun for endgame tokens, but most people doing that will put a group together rather than using the queue and risk getting someone who is new. Since you can switch between classes on the same character, people who are leveling a new job will not have to play through the story again and will probably choose not to do dungeons if they're the impatient type (since there are some faster ways to gain experience). So any dungeon party you get thrown into should be either new or open to guiding new players.
When I was still in the romance stage of the game ( first two weeks ). I liked the story, I did not mind reading it, it was no big deal to read everything as the npc's just stand their. But after about three weeks the entire game started to take a nose dive in my eyes.
I found myself skipping the story and not reading it. I just got tired of reading an ENTIRE BOOK !....I'll be honest I don't think I could ever go back to FF14 no matter how much content they give.
I'm bouncing too and from Vanella WoW and Guildwars 2.....Both are much better and free untill another real mmo gets released. I'll pay top dollar for a real mmo, all we need is someone to make one !!!!
Just hit 50 this weekend and completed the main storyline. I thought for an FF game it was a pretty good story....not one of the most memorable but I enjoyed it. So, if you're a fan of the Final Fantasy games then I would say its definitely worth playing through. SE knows how to do cinematics and they do them very well....my only gripe is they didn't use voice acting in all the cut scenes. You'll go through 3-4 of them with no voices, just reading text, then you get one with voice. It was kinda annoying. Maybe it was a budget thing, who knows. Also, you will have join a raid group for the last 3 encounters to finish the story....can't be finished solo. In fact, there's quite a bit you'll have to group(small 4 man party) up for in order to advance the storyline. That wasn't an issue for me but it may be for some.
No.
If you buy the game solely for the storyline, you're going to be disappointed. The storyline itself is alright, but the presentation is unbearable IMO. Watching a bunch of NPC's flap their mouth in the most unrealistic manner possible while reading quest text just doesn't do it for me after playing a game like SWTOR. The English voice acting (what little you get) sounds like they rounded up some developers from the office.
Some scenes literally made me shake my head because they were so bad. Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LgG-SgOXhE
It's just awful lol. My expectations were probably far too high for the storyline in this game, but can you really blame me when it's a game coming from SE?
Also, the storyline is padded with very mundane quests like, "Go hand out pretzels to some guards." Real heroic stuff.
Personally I found it boring and tedious.
I love the FF franchise and have been playing FF all my life starting with FF3 on the SNES.
Yet for some reason the story just petered out for me, I was disappointed in the fact that it did not hold my interest. It's just rote storytelling, if you have played games or read books for years you've heard it before...
The story is worse than many single player FF title, and worse than FFXI. Most of the characters are pretty shallow, good guys are awesome and bad guys are your classic bad guys, there is a twist but in turned out to be a twist that's not very meaningful, unlike FFXI. The story seems good because 95% of titles have terrible story so players have low expectation.
Can i just pick up on this.
This is *in my humble opinion* a load of codswalop
The economy doestn exist, there is not a decent economy in this game and will never be, when items are being sold for vendor value on the auction house, when you are charged a tax for both listing items and also BUYING items this will not create a market economy, to do that you need to do things like add a WTB section, allowing people to set their buy prices will then eventually lead the market to find a steady equilibrium .
Crafting - I have in my shortish (8-15) MMO never seen such an aweful short mindedness in terms of hte crafting, the fact that EVERY character will get EVERY craft and gathering skill maxed out makes for a VERY bad game, see point about market, if everyone can make everything then who will buy when you can make- the only times trade will happen is if the cost of production out-weighs cost of purchase - why make something for 10gil if you can buy it on AH for 9gil
If you dont think this will happen you are blinded by the GMs falacy, think of games like WoW / LOTRO that have been going for years and think of the player base if this option was open back then then all older toons would have no reason to buy anything, and the newer toons wont have the wealth to buy them as no way to create wealth when a market ceases to exist.
Whilst i have no 'real' issue with the one character can do all classes, why did they not just make it so as you can only craft 2 and gather 2 - this way the market would be there (see some other posts about he interdependence)
Now the mechanics of the crafting are ok, however, why does the game feel the need to force me to craft lots of lower level items to make a single highter level item but fail to give me the tools to do it suitably, think of the crafting mods in WoW you can say you want to build item 1 - it then automatically queues up all the pre-requisite items.
But what further annoys me about this is that i might need say 500 items of a lower level to make enough to level up higher, but then using the auto-craft zergs your XP big time, - Dont tell me about the best way to level crafting is through quests, because a simple response is I want to craft and not quest why should i be forced to do both if i dont want too.
So whilst i have tried (REALLY) tried to like the game something that keeps me in game is the market and industry and this game has failed badly on both. All they required are some basic changes to make it much much more.
Back to the OP - If you like the final fantasy story from past then you will most likely like this story, but be warned when you get to last few parts of the story be prepared for lots of cheese in the storyline in fact the last cutscene has made many of guildies run to the bathroom to throw up its that cheesy
(not thats not literally ofc)
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
The only items being sold for vendor value are: A.) NQ equipment, and B.) gathered/dropped mats that are used in only a few recipes, and C.) items that vendors already sell (e.g. Copper Ore). C is obvious, and both A and B are due to supply severely outpacing demand. Quests give out NQ equipment for every slot like candy on Halloween; there'll never be a shortage as long as people do quests while they level. Harvesting Belladonna for 5 minutes will give you enough supply to craft Sleeping Potions for well over half an hour unless you're using Rapid Synth. This disparity between "How long does it take to get the mats" and "How long does it take to use the mats" is part of what makes the price so low, along with the fact that nobody needs the items that they craft into.
Dirt Cheap is the equilibrium price for such a mat because it will never be scarce. There will always be people leveling BTN who harvest a full stack while grinding and then have nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with market board taxes. As an aside, the taxes charged for buying accomplishes something you don't see in other MMOs' economies: product differentiation. In any other MMO, if you're selling a shield for 10,000 there's little reason for me not to sell my shield for 9,999. It's the same shield, but mine is hands-down more desirable to everyone on the server now that I shaved 1 gil off the price (and then the next guy posts one for 9,998). But if I'm selling in Limsa and you're selling in Gridania, nobody cares about the 1 gil difference except the people at the Ul'dah market. A buyer in either city will prefer the shield that's tax-free for them, so I have little incentive to undercut at all unless I'm going to go lower by at least 5%.
A better question is: why make something for 10 gil if you can buy it for 15 gil?
I buy items that I could craft myself for less. I do it all the time. The cost of production includes the most critical price: your time. If I want 20 Woolen Cloth, I'm not going to buy—or farm—a pile of 80 Fleece and make it myself, even if that would cost me less money. My time is worth money, and if I can make several thousand gil of profit in 5-10 minutes by buying the cloth and crafting it up into endgame gear, it probably doesn't make financial sense to spend an extra hour making it from the rawest materials to save myself a few thousand gil.
To someone, somewhere, their time is worth less money than mine, and I buy from them.
Having an economy where players occupy vastly different tiers of crafting expertise—some don't craft at all, some do a little in one craft, some max one craft and do a little bit of others, some dabble equally in several, some max all crafts—ensures that people have very different needs and put different values on their time. This helps the economy much more than trying to make labor scarce.
I think that the situation where "all the older toons" have all crafts maxed is beside the point. In a game that has been out for years, scarcity of labor is a non-issue whether you restrict the number of professions or not. If there are 2,000 max level Blacksmiths on the server due to crafting restrictions, that's not an improvement over having 10,000 max level Blacksmiths on the server. Either way, there's little room to profit because someone else is always willing to charge less than you. It is very hard to imagine a situation where someone on an old game could continue to make a good profit with crafting despite the fact that a significant percentage of the server has that craft maxed.
This is simply part of the time = money formula. The XP you gain has value to you. The finished products you produce also have some value to you. If you use Rapid Synth, you gain less XP per item and some synths will be failures. If you craft manually, it will take longer but you gain more XP per item, (should) have no failures, and get some HQ. If Rapid Synth didn't have these drawbacks, Manual Synth would take more of your valuable time without giving you any additional benefit.
With all due respect, I don't think you have fully experienced all of the facets of crafting, gathering, and how the economy works in this game.
This game is worth it. THe only thing I regret is that patch 2.1 is a month late.
I enjoy the dungeons and class design in this game. I enjoy the challenge. The economy/market is very strong.
This game appeals to FF fans at heart. If you are an FF fan, then the fan service is worth it. IF you're just an mmo hopper that wants the second coming of your favorite mmo, then it will disappoint.
I already know this is the game for me, hence why I went for the 6 month sub. I'm really looking forward to the crystal tower. I'm not an end game progression player. I play the game casually and 2.1 is a casual players wet dream. PvP, Housing, new raids, new dungeons, boost in crafting from the housing and pvp gear, treasure hunts, beastment dailies, and a lot of quality of life changes.
This patch is laying the ground work for the future of the game.
As for story, I enjoy it immensely. It's not the strongest FF story but it's very FF. Memorable characters, very nice boss fights along the way, and a lot of surprises as well. Go read all the reviews, one of the strongest points of the game is the story.
If you don't like reading, lore, etc... this game isn't for you. But if you enjoy learning about the deep world and reading dialogue, you'll be presently surprised to see that this game's dialogue and quests are the best in the genre. IMHO.
I have played 2 toons to max level - not 1 toon with 2 classes, but 2 toons, in terms of basic MMO economics you must concede that this game is poor..
I have 2 gathering skills on each toon maxed out, and mostly mid levelish crafting on both toons 2/3 i have spent probably in region of 100hours in game doing gathering and crafting,
Any game where auction house prices = NPC sale prices is not economics its just people CBA to sell for trash
(or dont know how to)
My primary job in my main MMO {eve} is market / industry which it has been for the last 3 years so these are my stripes and what i believe allows me to comment on how poor the market and industry in this game. Compare it against any 1/2 decent thought out market / industry and the game falls badly down
Final point from me is see my autosignature, this is of course my opinion, but i believe the previous few paragraphs gives me some insight, and my personal experience gives me plenty.
but if i may jsut link this
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/446/feature/7766/The-FFXIV-Economy-Issue-Gil-Sinks-Gil-Fountains.html/page/1
Now some of hte issues bougth up here were 'softened' IE reducing teleport costs, but the long term is still the same
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
Honestly, playing MMOs purely for the story is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to this genre. This is not to say that some MMOs don't have decent stories, but when's the last time you've played an MMO with a story as good as games like Chrono Trigger, Heavy Rain, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7, Parasite Eve, Last of Us, Bioshock, Mass Effect, etc. etc. etc. Truth is, you haven't, because MMOs will never reach that point of story telling, as they have to focus at least some of their efforts on making the MMO part decent.
That said, there are a few decent story driven MMOs, and FFXIV is indeed one of them. SWTOR & TSW also have fairly good story elements (even if the rest of the game isn't all that awesome).
Problem you're most likely going to run into, though, is that most players have been done the story for months now. Finding groups may be painful. I just helped a friend of a friend through it the other night, and our group was 90% people with maxed content / gear. Many were surprised to see someone needing to run through parts of the story for the first time again.
So if you do decide on picking up FFXIV, go with a high-pop server, and try and find a linkshell / freecompany that is both friendly AND helpful to new players. Good luck!
I have played 2 toons to max level - not 1 toon with 2 classes, but 2 toons, in terms of basic MMO economics you must concede that this game is poor..
I have 2 gathering skills on each toon maxed out, and mostly mid levelish crafting on both toons 2/3 i have spent probably in region of 100hours in game doing gathering and crafting,
Any game where auction house prices = NPC sale prices is not economics its just people CBA to sell for trash
(or dont know how to)
My primary job in my main MMO {eve} is market / industry which it has been for the last 3 years so these are my stripes and what i believe allows me to comment on how poor the market and industry in this game. Compare it against any 1/2 decent thought out market / industry and the game falls badly down
Final point from me is see my autosignature, this is of course my opinion, but i believe the previous few paragraphs gives me some insight, and my personal experience gives me plenty.
but if i may jsut link this
; return false;" rel="nofollow">http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/446/feature/7766/The-FFXIV-Economy-Issue-Gil-Sinks-Gil-Fountains.html/page/1
Now some of hte issues bougth up here were 'softened' IE reducing teleport costs, but the long term is still the same
I have played mmos exclusively for crafting, gathering and playing the market for the past dozen years spanning just as many games.
You say that crafting and economy are poor because someone can be 100% self sufficient. Yet the fact of the matter is that the time it takes to grind out every crafting and gathering profession to level 50 is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the time involved in bonding and melding your own gear. Maybe you'd have 3-4 pieces fully melded in the same amount of time. Takes about two days to bond a full set of gear yielding about 10 materia in which you need about 55. After the first 33, you only have about a 7% chance of success in capped crafting gear (which you'd have to make first).
That argument is just silly tbh.
So then you reference an article from two months ago and multiple patches to support some gil fountain problem which has been addressed.
A good economy ebbs and flows. It has spurts and lulls just like a real one. People like you think an mmo economy has to be this never ending seller's market need to wake up. Same with the people who insist on crafters making 100% of the best of everything in the game. As a pure crafter, even I know that is death to an mmo. Just like if you make crafting awful from the first patch.
Fact is a dev needs to carefully monitor a game's economy, adding and subtracting as the game matures and new content is added. This is exactly what SE has been doing with this game and the economy is alive and well despite the detractors.
Two weeks from now, we get an influx of furniture and home decor, most of which will be crafted (around 85%). There are so many ways to approach and play the market already and now we are getting yet another layer.
This is easily one of the best crafting, gathering, economy systems Ive seen in an mmo in a long time.