 | It was a good run. Shame I'm forced to run uphill at an 80* degree angle. |
… Well to be specific, you can’t really ‘finish’ an MMO since they’re generally a never-ending game but you know what I’m getting at. Let me preface this by stating that I don’t think FF14 is bad or is a game of poor quality; I actually recommend it in terms of an MMORPG when something like World of Warcraft has overstayed its welcome and refuses to get with the times. FF14 gives players the freedom to play any class with a few mere button presses, to gain experience in a variety of ways and be an enjoyable game to return to. However I won’t be returning to FF14, and to that I ‘blame’ the recent expansion Heavensward and the narrative that you’re forced to go through.
In other MMORPGs, you’re typically given a main storyline that is the crux of what story the game has to tell, but you’re more or less allowed to wander off that main path and do what you please and you’d end up accessing later content. FF14’s main storyline is what unlocks future content in ways of dungeons and gameplay mechanics, so you have to stick with it in order to access what the game has to offer. The storyline quests often culminate into major events/boss battles that can be dispatched relatively easily, then the quests return to diversions until another major story event pops up. You’re free to wander off at any time of course to do sidequests or whatever else, but that main story won’t be going anywhere until you finish it, and finishing one chapter unlocks the next big angle that your character has to tackle, with new chapters being added by Square-Enix to both add content and lore. The kicker is that buying Heavensward doesn’t mean you can immediately access its content even if you’re at the original level cap of fifty - You have to finish the story quests up to Heavenswards release to access its content, and these story quest chapters go on for a long time with a lot of needless filler between boss battles in order to pad out game time. Even in World of Warcraft all you need to access expansion content is to be at the needed level and maybe have twenty to thirty minutes of quests to do, not hours of fetch and kill quests. Worst of all, I could not give any less of a damn about the storyline in FF14, especially when quests important to the story are ridiculous chores for the so-called legendary hero that your character is. At one point you have to fetch a group of kids who are playing hide-and-seek so a convoy can leave for another town. Really.
Really. #wherearetheparents
Credit where due, there IS a story in FF14 that takes you around the world and has impact involving a wide cast of characters, not just being a string of quests that takes you zone to zone with limited narrative. There has been mention of future expansions not needing to have story completion in order to access the stuff you’ve paid for, but Heavensward hasn’t been mentioned in terms of being opened up yet. I’m certain there are people who enjoy the story, but I picked up FF14 for the positive sides of its gameplay, not to chase around a scam artist adventurer who is withholding information regarding a big bad boss who could -destroy half of the freakin’ world- and I can’t just break his ankles to make him squeal. I had been looking forward to Heavenswards for the new jobs like a card slinger mage or a mechanical maestro, but with each completed chapter in the story another one takes its place, and I seem to have multiple hours ahead of me still before I can even go to the floating zone and hang out with dragon buddies. FF14 is still a great MMO amidst the sea of poorly created cash-grabs, but if it wants to keep me from reaching content I had put money down for, then I’m turning in my lalafel’s little boots for good.
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bbbmoney - May 03, 2016 (03:55 PM) Totally with you on this. It's unforgivable how bad the forced story progression is in FFIXV. Single player stories in MMO worlds are a trend I hope to see end. SWTOR suffered the same issue. The bottom line is that -- even if the plot is decent -- the presentation is inevitably watered down to poorly produced cutscenes and private player instances that make zero sense in the context of an MMORPG. Hell, cutscenes in FFXIV are nothing about mute NPC avatars using their built in emote animations. How anyone praises this kind of work is something I'll never understand. Regardless of whether it's good writing or not, it's downright tedious to watch unfold. FFXIV is such a massive shame it hurts to think about its potential. I played through A Realm Reborn AND Heavensward to end game, for the record. However, I skipped every single cutscene because I wanted to play the MMO, you know, the game. The game that had 1000x more work put into it than its force fed story board of a generic 'adventurer.' Which is charming if you're still writing for games on the SNES but in the scope of an MMO that takes 100s of hours, it comes off as nothing but juvenile and corny. Oh we're all legendary heroes? Really? Oh wow this is powerful stuff. Of course, skipping isn't enough in FFXIV, since all content is locked by mind numbing story quest chains and forced group instances. I think it's one of the worst PvE experiences in an MMO I've ever experienced, in what is simultaneously one of the most polished and enjoyable MMO games I've yet to play. It's an absolute travesty when you can't invite a friend to play a game with you because "oh hey, hope you like immeasurably corny cutscenes and quest lines you can't bypass. See you in a few months when you're where I'm at!" The game also meets new problems at end game with the total lack of content, as well as its dependency on token farming the same daily instances. It's a real slog and lacks an engrossing reward system, and instead preys on players who are obsessed with maxing out achievements, extra classes, and professions, for what really yields no tangible benefits. Not to say the game isn't beautiful and full of wonderful dungeon and boss mechanics. I played an Au-Ra Warrior and loved the game as much as I could, but FFXIV tries its hardest to burn you out and it eventually did so for me. Anyone who gets through the storyboard is a hardcore player in my eyes. Takes a lot of tolerance. |
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Never3ndr - May 04, 2016 (02:15 PM) Interesting. I used to actually play WoW religiously several years ago, but me being a lot busier in real life coupled with just a lack of interest in the MMO gameplay really makes it a chore. Occasionally I still try to get back into an MMO...I usually at least try every new WoW expansion, I tried SWToR as well, but I just think that some sort of core aspect to the gameplay itself needs to change to really hook me back in. Storylines in MMO's are generally a joke...the lore of the world, in general, though is usually unbelievably awesome. |
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Dinoracha - May 14, 2016 (12:17 PM) @holdthephone - I had been suckered into slogging my way through the campaign by friends to reach Heavensward's content, and I eventually began to feel like I was being trolled to the umpteenth degree on how finishing a chapter would unlock another one, and another and another, only for my colleagues to urge me on claiming I was nearly there. Blech. @Never3nder - WoW and I are like oil and water. It's refusal to fix its unbalanced PvP, exploitable dungeons and hateful community chat makes me unable to take it seriously, even with my enjoyment/challenging hate of being a healer. |
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