Will I never have fun? Do you know a better solution for me?

[wiffl]

I can't believe it.

First time i played the game was with Heavensward release and i quit at Level ~30 when i got my Job-Crystal (Conjurer/White Mage) and figured out that nothing really changed for me and i keep on

• returning to the waking sands
• teleport around
• talk around
• and do literally nothing.

• Whenever there is a fight in one of the MSQs it's so easy and simple..
• Whenever i want to enjoy gameplay, i have to watch slow paced cut scenes and read boring dialogues i am tired.
• Whenever i am in a dungeon, people rush the hell out of it or are slow and don't understand the simplest mechanics of the enemies.

But what did I like? The presentation, armors, classes and jobs, races,... but i can not enjoy any of these because i have to wait, read and walk around for 90% of the time. And most of the interesting stuff is locked behind these MSQs.

So a little bit later, i gave it another shot with the release of Shadowbringers.
This time as a Warrior to reach Ishgard and switch to Dark Knight.
I did not have a lot of fun because of the same reasons as mentioned above, but i read alot of times that it will get better when you leave ARR.
And at the beggining of HW, it was a bit better.
But now i am level 56 with the Dark Knight and i can't do my Job-Quest because i miss 12 Quests in the MSQ. And the last Quest I did was like this:

• Cutscenes
• 3 Enemies
• Run to the end of a dungeon-like map
• 3 Enemies
• Run to the beginning of the map
• 3 Enemies
• Collect Key
• Run to the End of the map again and release the npc

are.. you.. kidding.. me... hitting 1,2,3,.. for the 9001th time for what exactly..? Can't I just rescue this idiot in the first run? I've got a big sword. Let me slay the chains and get the fk out of this cave and rescue the world man.
best part.. guess what.. my next task is.. RETURN TO THE WAKING SANDS.

So i guess i will never have fun with the game.. right? I don't have to wait for SB-Content or SHB-Content because it will forever be like this.. or will it really change? I am so sick of using only 3 spells with maybe 2 in between of them. It's so easy and boring and slow paced i have the feeling of getting insane. It's cockblock the videogame. Is there any challenge in this game waiting for me?

What do I want from a mmo?

• I want to spend time with the game and have the feeling of getting a reward for spending time with gameplay and not bad written storys.
• I want to collect gear and improve my character for gameplay.
• I want to have a challenge in Dungeons and Raids and have the feeling of doing well when you finally kill the boss.

And all i get at FFXIV is a boring story hidden behind the task to run/teleport around and do.. nothing!?

maybe you know a game which suits me better or can explain me what i miss here.
the reason why i write on mmo-champion and not reddit: alot of people on reddit are hardcore fanboys and never played something else and can't understand that it's boring to play the msqs when you ever read or play something else in your life - it's just nothing new here.
and maybe you know a gameplay-focused mmo i could enjoy. i am open for anything but wow and gw2.
thanks in advance and when you hate my post: sorry i will leave soon <3

[Super Kami Dende]

Do you know a better solution for me?

Play a different game? If you aren't having fun why keep pushing at it hoping you'll have fun?

[PenguinChan]

The long and short answer is: No, you won't enjoy it. You dislike the majority of the content the game is giving you, and the content you want out of it is at max level and locked behind everything you despise AND needing premades for it. I'd just stop pushing yourself to try and enjoy something you're clearly not having fun with and go play something else.

[Shibito]

Its a terribad game what did you expect?

[Ladey Gags]

It’s pretty awful if you’re wanting action, yes. Took me about a year (with breaks here and there once the dialogue fatigue set it) to get through the whole MSQ. Sounds like you’re only halfway through Heavensward. People praise it but IMO other than the cozy zones and music, it only got interesting at the end, so keep that carrot on a stick in mind. Stormblood is trash, excluding one storyline during the post-4.0 patch quests. Even then, it was the hardest for me to get through without a doubt, all I can say is good fucking luck with that slog. But shadowbringers really is as good as everyone says it is. And it was more than worth the absolutely horrific 200 hours of “questing” (reluctant to even call it that, more like reading a long repetitive graphic novel) it took to get there.

Idk what to say other than buy the MSQ skip and job level boost potions, but honestly doing that would take away from the beauty of Shadowbringers because of the characters.

The only thing that I can say got me through the MSQ was reading how great Shadowbringers was. I spent a year doing stuff I wasn’t enjoying just to get that story, and I refused to use skip potions because I don’t even play single player video game sequels before playing the previous ones.

It’s worth it. Accept that it may take you a long time (like I said it took me a year, may take you longer) to get through it, and take breaks. Doesn’t have to be intentional, just don’t play when you get the sinking feeling in your chest...

I’ll just say it one more time for good measure, if you have ANY interest in the story whatsoever, Shadowbringers MORE than makes up for the painful MSQ leading up to it. Use this to motivate you. And avoid spoilers at all costs. I wish I could go back and experience it for the first time again. You’re very lucky that you have the chance to.

[lakylog]

I bought the game during Heavensward and finally reached max level in Shadowbringers patch 5.3. The MSQ will be the same deal the whole way through, but if you can push past it the game gets better. The pre-50 dungeons are pretty bad compared to the expansion dungeons. It probably helps having friends who also play the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

FFXIV is an epic JRPG first, MMO second. If you don't like JRPGs but want a good MMO, FFXIV probably isn't for you.

What do I want from a mmo?

• I want to spend time with the game and have the feeling of getting a reward for spending time with gameplay and not bad written storys.

FFXIV has relatively little skinner box elements or rewards to work for. There are optional grinds for glowing weapons (called Relic weapons)... and that's pretty much it.

• I want to collect gear and improve my character for gameplay.

FFXIV has minimal gear treadmill compared to WoW.

In WoW, when you reach level cap, you have to spend three hours a day doing your world quests, and then you have to do your mythic plus run, and then you have to work your way up the open world content doing Nazjatar and Mechagon stuff and then Visions for gear. And then once you're high enough ilevel to be able to do Nyolotha, you then have to farm that raid over and over again. Once you're high enough ilevel to pug normal difficulty, you start doing that. And you do it over and over again until you can do heroic. And then mythic. It's four levels of loot of you have to climb up. And then there is the titanforging and the corrupted gear RNG and stuff.

Compare that to FFXIV. Once you reach the level cap of 80, you can get geared up in a few days, either buying Neo-Ishgardian gear off of the marketboard, or by doing roulettes and buying tomestone gear. At that point, all that's left is to just run the latest four raid bosses on savage difficulty to get BIS gear. That's it.

Don't play FFXIV if you want a gear treadmill.

• I want to have a challenge in Dungeons and Raids and have the feeling of doing well when you finally kill the boss.

The only challenging fights in FFXIV are the four latest raid bosses on savage difficulty, and the three ultimate mode fights (but those don't give gear, only vanity items).

maybe you know a game which suits me better or can explain me what i miss here.

You're not missing anything.

People play FFXIV because it is an epic JRPG, with a touch of lite MMO elements. To them, the story and characters are interesting. The sidequestlines are fun. The music is cool. If you make friends, it's fun to stick around and casually raid for a few hours a week. It's fun to decorate a house and show it off. It's fun to collect glamours. It's fun to do Gold Saucer minigames like the jumping puzzle or the card game or mahjong.

FFXIV simply does not have a comprehensive endgame built around a challenging raid experience.

the reason why i write on mmo-champion and not reddit: alot of people on reddit are hardcore fanboys and never played something else and can't understand that it's boring to play the msqs when you ever read or play something else in your life - it's just nothing new here.

You should never go to reddit looking for indepth, nuanced discussion on anything. The very nature of the upvote system means that the majority eventually squashes out the dissenters and it becomes an echo chamber.

maybe you know a gameplay-focused mmo i could enjoy. i am open for anything but wow and gw2.

If you want a raid focused endgame, WoW is your only option.

If you want a treadmill that isn't raid focused, Black Desert has you covered. Grind out in the open world all you want.

[Byleth]

If you don't like the story, FFXIV is not for you - Like, not at all.

This is a story driven MMO.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The MSQ will be the same deal the whole way through, but if you can push past it the game gets better.

I don't think this is good advice. Yes, the MSQ gets a little more interesting later on when you have more investment in the story, but that isn't the OP's problem. The OP doesn't care for the very style of the game at all. He wants a challenging endgame experience. Telling him to slog through a story he doesn't care for... only to find that there is no challenging endgame experience at the end, that's no good. That's deceptive.

[Byleth]

You're not missing anything.

People play FFXIV because it is an epic JRPG, with a touch of lite MMO elements. To them, the story and characters are interesting. The sidequestlines are fun. The music is cool. If you make friends, it's fun to stick around and casually raid for a few hours a week. It's fun to decorate a house and show it off. It's fun to collect glamours. It's fun to do Gold Saucer minigames like the jumping puzzle or the card game or mahjong.

FFXIV simply does not have a comprehensive endgame built around a challenging raid experience.

This person gets it.

The game is just not made for you or your style of play, and that's ok. Not everything has to be for you

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think this is good advice. Yes, the MSQ gets a little more interesting later on when you have more investment in the story, but that isn't the OP's problem. The OP doesn't care for the very style of the game at all. He wants a challenging endgame experience. Telling him to slog through a story he doesn't care for... only to find that there is no challenging endgame experience at the end, that's no good. That's deceptive.

I think you've touched on an interesting point here. There are a tonne of people (myself included) who love FFXIV, and because we're human we encourage our friends to play by pointing out all the shiny wonders it has to offer.

But maybe that's the issue here. We keep telling them it will get better, so they kept slogging through the stuff they hate. But then it never gets better for them, and we just get more and more angry threads like this.

The bottom line is, if they don't like the ARR story. If they skip every cutscene, then what are they left with? Just an empty soulless husk of a game that they hate.

I think from now on I'll just keep my friends seperate, and just make friends in-game with people who enjoy the game

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This person gets it.

The game is just not made for you or your style of play, and that's ok. Not everything has to be for you

- - - Updated - - -



I think you've touched on an interesting point here. There are a tonne of people (myself included) who love FFXIV, and because we're human we encourage our friends to play by pointing out all the shiny wonders it has to offer.

But maybe that's the issue here. We keep telling them it will get better, so they kept slogging through the stuff they hate. But then it never gets better for them, and we just get more and more angry threads like this.

The bottom line is, if they don't like the ARR story. If they skip every cutscene, then what are they left with? Just an empty soulless husk of a game that they hate.

I think from now on I'll just keep my friends seperate, and just make friends in-game with people who enjoy the game

I've seen something similar happen with the more hardcore elements of the Trails fandom. The Trails series is made up nine, 50-100+ hour long JRPGs, with the gimmick being that they each take place in the same universe. The die-hard members of the fandom keep insisting to people that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that in order to "properly enjoy" Trails. They insist that you must start with the oldest (and worst) game and slog through several hundreds of games that you might not enjoy, just to get to the game that originally piqued your interest in the first, to get to the game you wanted to play in the first place. In my experience, this has done more harm than good. People are put off by the immense "requirement" that they "have" to play hundreds of hours of a game that they have no idea whether or not they will like. When people give in and try the first game, they are put off by it, but the hardcores keep insisting "NO! PLEASE STICK WITH IT! IT GETS BETTER WE PROMISE YOU!". There is an element of truth to it, but it's not helpful advice at all. People are smart. People don't waste their time on something they aren't enjoying. People have a discerning eye and prefer to play games they think they will like. Just let the person play the game they think they might like and let them decide for themselves. If they stick with it, then great! Tell them about the other games. If they're not feeling it, then stop trying to pretend that it "oh my gosh no please stick with it!". Just let them go.

I think people get too emotionally invested in franchises. It's like a secular religion to them, with the lore being biblical canon to them and stuff like Disney decanonizing the EU creating a religious split like the Catholic Church and Protestantism. If you don't adhere to the fandom or criticize the thing the fandom is centered around, you're a filthy heathen. They're like those radicalized evangelicals who keep pestering people after they've said "no".

I have no problem recommending the things I like - FFXIV and Trails - to other people, but I prefer to be honest about what those games actually are. If people don't like it, no problem. Not the end of the world. It's just a game. Some people just say "no", okay? Can't get them all. Don't get hung up on it.

[CerealLord]

This person gets it.

The game is just not made for you or your style of play, and that's ok. Not everything has to be for you

- - - Updated - - -



I think you've touched on an interesting point here. There are a tonne of people (myself included) who love FFXIV, and because we're human we encourage our friends to play by pointing out all the shiny wonders it has to offer.

But maybe that's the issue here. We keep telling them it will get better, so they kept slogging through the stuff they hate. But then it never gets better for them, and we just get more and more angry threads like this.

The bottom line is, if they don't like the ARR story. If they skip every cutscene, then what are they left with? Just an empty soulless husk of a game that they hate.

I think from now on I'll just keep my friends seperate, and just make friends in-game with people who enjoy the game

My most recent friend quit after ARR MSQ because the patch content was god-awful. I finally convinced him to slog through it and he just finished HW and bought the expansion (was on f2p).

But I think you’re right. Because he rolled on preferred he could just do MSQ the entire time and hasn’t done a single side quest so he isn’t getting some of the burnout.

Me on the other hand cannot see an undone quest marker and leave it there. Drives me mad haha

[lakylog]

I don't think this is good advice. Yes, the MSQ gets a little more interesting later on when you have more investment in the story, but that isn't the OP's problem. The OP doesn't care for the very style of the game at all. He wants a challenging endgame experience. Telling him to slog through a story he doesn't care for... only to find that there is no challenging endgame experience at the end, that's no good. That's deceptive.

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to be advice as much as opinion. I was also unaware that there is no challenging endgame content?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to be advice as much as opinion. I was also unaware that there is no challenging endgame content?

There is relatively little challenging raid content. You have the latest raid tier (which is just four bosses, equivalent to heroic difficulty in WoW), and then you have three ultimate difficulty fights (which is equivalent to mythic). You can easily gear up for the current raid tier within a few days, look up a Youtube guide, and then complete it with a PUG. That just leaves the Ultimates. The Ultimates sync your ilevel, so you can't overgear them, and they don't drop gear. They only give you vanity items, so what you do is you join a team that practices the Ultimate fight over and over and over again, and then you do it, and then you have your achievement and that's that. And then maybe you farm it for the vanity stuff.

The only other meaty "endgame" content in FFXIV are the relic weapon grinds, but they aren't really challenging. It's just a long, long, long grind for a weapon that is BIS for the current patch only. The relic weapon only really has value as a vanity item.

[Hyral]

maybe you know a game which suits me better or can explain me what i miss here.
the reason why i write on mmo-champion and not reddit: alot of people on reddit are hardcore fanboys and never played something else and can't understand that it's boring to play the msqs when you ever read or play something else in your life - it's just nothing new here.
and maybe you know a gameplay-focused mmo i could enjoy. i am open for anything but wow and gw2.
thanks in advance and when you hate my post: sorry i will leave soon <3

I'm glad this isn't the typical hate thread, surprisingly so from an account with 1 post.

You are mostly right, the problem is people keep implying this game competes with WoW or make the mistake of not explaining it's really a JRPG with MMO aspects tacked on. If you don't like FF games or story driven games then this game will have nothing for you, you might enjoy end game Savage and Ultimate content but you'll probably just despise the game by the time you get there and/or be put off by the lack of options in character builds like other pve-focused games do with talents and specializations, etc.

Blade & Soul, BDO and PSO2 are action focused MMOs that I can think of right now. As for traditional gear treadmill games I can only say Rift and GW2 but you don't want that one and I think Rift is dead because of P2W changes. Other names off the top of my head: Aion, TERA, Skyforge, ArcheAge, SWTOR. They are mostly really old and janky. Hope the thread has more suggestions.

[gd8]

the game is boring and terrible and never gets better

[The Oblivion]

the end game is fun, but horribly short and the jobs are the most imbalanced in any mmo i have ever played. fun, but not even 1/3 as good as wows raid and balance. Jobs in FFXIV will do 40% less dps compared to their counterparts. Killed the game for me.

[wiffl]

thank you all for the interest in my topic.

the deal with me is, that i do like the JRPG-Genre alot on the one hand, but i am tired of a few aspects on the other hand.
I am 28yo and played my first JRPG with around 12. Tales of Symphonia and after that Baten Kaitos. I played alot retro games after that like Suikoden, Star Ocean, Final Fantasy VI and later those titles like Nier, Resonance of Fate, Xenoblade Chronicles. I took a break from gaming for 1,5years in the hope to get hyped again from games.

Whenever i play something new like Persona 5, i am really hyped for the world, art, characters, fighting and so son. But i just can't stand the insane amount of stupid, boring and absolutely unnecessery amount of text. I got it: We will save the world with the power of friendship. again.
And this stupid cat just won't let me do whatever i want so i had to quit. Same with like 50% of all the other JRPGs.. they won't stop talking and they won't give me any challenge. You can literally play through the whole games with just the simplest attacks.

And i studied Philosophy and have to read texts all day long. Sometimes i just want some gameplay and not being forced to watch something boring.

Demon's Souls and Monster Hunter are the games fitting my taste 100%. gear up as you want, grind as you want, collect as you want and whenver you feel like it: just go out there and slay something. But i got them all, played them all, got a platin trophy in a few and maybe i thought that FFXIV is more gameplay-focused bc it is a MMO. My gametime expires in 3 days and i think that's it for me. Maybe i come back later this year but i am so tired of those stupid textboxes..
I'll go check Warframe out or maybe do something else like sports or drinking coffee all day.

ok enough of it. thanks again for all the kind words and ideas. i finally understand that i am not doing anything wrong, i am just not the kind of guy who should play this game like he played burning crusade.

But maybe that's the issue here. We keep telling them it will get better, so they kept slogging through the stuff they hate. But then it never gets better for them, and we just get more and more angry threads like this.

The thing is, that nobody of us could have imagine the insane and sick amount of that. You keep telling: stick with it, it will get better.
And I think: Yeah OK.. what could go wrong.. a few cutscenes here and some talking there. maybe a bit more over here.. ok. i think i can go into a dungeon in between some talking and that will spice the things up.

But then.. you encounter.. the amount.. of text.. words.. emotes.. slow paced moments where nothing happens you didn't see in an episode of naruto before. holy.. shitcow it is so much text i can't believe it. It's really like 20 times the amount i could have imagine in the worst case scenario. and then you can enter a new dungeon, rush it in 8 minutes and don't think you can get that excitement again in the next 20 hours.

[VinceVega]

I can't believe it.

First time i played the game was with Heavensward release and i quit at Level ~30 when i got my Job-Crystal (Conjurer/White Mage) and figured out that nothing really changed for me and i keep on

• returning to the waking sands
• teleport around
• talk around
• and do literally nothing.

• Whenever there is a fight in one of the MSQs it's so easy and simple..
• Whenever i want to enjoy gameplay, i have to watch slow paced cut scenes and read boring dialogues i am tired.
• Whenever i am in a dungeon, people rush the hell out of it or are slow and don't understand the simplest mechanics of the enemies.

But what did I like? The presentation, armors, classes and jobs, races,... but i can not enjoy any of these because i have to wait, read and walk around for 90% of the time. And most of the interesting stuff is locked behind these MSQs.

So a little bit later, i gave it another shot with the release of Shadowbringers.
This time as a Warrior to reach Ishgard and switch to Dark Knight.
I did not have a lot of fun because of the same reasons as mentioned above, but i read alot of times that it will get better when you leave ARR.
And at the beggining of HW, it was a bit better.
But now i am level 56 with the Dark Knight and i can't do my Job-Quest because i miss 12 Quests in the MSQ. And the last Quest I did was like this:

• Cutscenes
• 3 Enemies
• Run to the end of a dungeon-like map
• 3 Enemies
• Run to the beginning of the map
• 3 Enemies
• Collect Key
• Run to the End of the map again and release the npc

are.. you.. kidding.. me... hitting 1,2,3,.. for the 9001th time for what exactly..? Can't I just rescue this idiot in the first run? I've got a big sword. Let me slay the chains and get the fk out of this cave and rescue the world man.
best part.. guess what.. my next task is.. RETURN TO THE WAKING SANDS.

So i guess i will never have fun with the game.. right? I don't have to wait for SB-Content or SHB-Content because it will forever be like this.. or will it really change? I am so sick of using only 3 spells with maybe 2 in between of them. It's so easy and boring and slow paced i have the feeling of getting insane. It's cockblock the videogame. Is there any challenge in this game waiting for me?

What do I want from a mmo?

• I want to spend time with the game and have the feeling of getting a reward for spending time with gameplay and not bad written storys.
• I want to collect gear and improve my character for gameplay.
• I want to have a challenge in Dungeons and Raids and have the feeling of doing well when you finally kill the boss.

And all i get at FFXIV is a boring story hidden behind the task to run/teleport around and do.. nothing!?

maybe you know a game which suits me better or can explain me what i miss here.
the reason why i write on mmo-champion and not reddit: alot of people on reddit are hardcore fanboys and never played something else and can't understand that it's boring to play the msqs when you ever read or play something else in your life - it's just nothing new here.
and maybe you know a gameplay-focused mmo i could enjoy. i am open for anything but wow and gw2.
thanks in advance and when you hate my post: sorry i will leave soon <3

That is the reason i quit too. Thought it would be a good wow alternative. I liked the visuals a lot.

But after a while it was just boring combat and soooooo many boring ass filler quests. Lets go kill the big bad evil. We have everything we need and recruited everyone who wants to help us, but first: Lets prepare a fucking feast that will take you hours to complete and sends you off all across the world for no reason at all... nevemind, that everything i brought would be spoiled by the time i finish collecting the stuff...
But the main reason was probably the boring bloated rotation of the classes. It looked good in the beginning... many abilities. But no... variety?

So i ended up getting back to wow. Again^^

Maybe i try it in a few years again. Same problem with eso and swtor btw

Edit: ALSO: Lalafell are the worst abomination of a race i have ever layed eyes upon. So bad it is not even funny. Gnomes are a masterrace in comparison. And genderlocked races.... so stupid.

[Byleth]

thank you all for the interest in my topic.

And thank you for not being just another bait thread.

I have to admit that my gaming tastes too have changed over the years. Like you I can no longer stand hours of text walls, and even when playing FFXIV, which I still enjoy, I often find myself wondering when I'll get to control my character again.

I truely hope you find the game you're looking for. And when you find it let us know, maybe I'll check it out

Note: I started Genshin Impact yesterday, it was actually really good. Lots of letting you play, minimal text so far. But it is a Gatcha game - Nothing is perfect though I guess.