1. #48781
    Quote Originally Posted by grandgato View Post
    All the time. I have a friend who is way better at keeping up with the lore, he keeps me on track.
    Isn't New Game+ a good way to refresh oneself of the lore? Although, I guess it takes time.

  2. #48782
    Quote Originally Posted by RampageBW1 View Post
    Isn't New Game+ a good way to refresh oneself of the lore? Although, I guess it takes time.
    I actually leveled a new toon through the ARR MSQ again to help refresh my memory for Endwalker. Amazing how much I forgot.

    It's also a way way better experience now going through the 1-50 content then when i did originally. I barely needed to do anything but MSQ quests/dungeons and the occasional hunting log entry to keep up with the level requirements.

  3. #48783
    I actually did the same thing myself recently. I made an Au Ra starting out as a Lancer/Dragoon. He's now in Heavensward while my main just got done with the MSQ of Stormblood (the 60-70 content still need to do the post SB stuff).

  4. #48784
    Quote Originally Posted by RampageBW1 View Post
    Isn't New Game+ a good way to refresh oneself of the lore? Although, I guess it takes time.
    Yes, New Game+ is an option but it's one I personally feel is not very rewarding or worthwhile. If they let you get xp from it, I'd have used that almost exclusively to level alt jobs. As it stands now I'll never use New Game+ because it just feels useless on my main character because of the complete lack of rewards, I'd rather just start a new character and level it normally while seeing the story again and getting all the rewards.

    If I don't feel like doing that I'll just watch the stuff on YouTube or something rather than "waste" my time on New Game+.

  5. #48785
    Quote Originally Posted by Katchii View Post
    Yes, New Game+ is an option but it's one I personally feel is not very rewarding or worthwhile. If they let you get xp from it, I'd have used that almost exclusively to level alt jobs. As it stands now I'll never use New Game+ because it just feels useless on my main character because of the complete lack of rewards, I'd rather just start a new character and level it normally while seeing the story again and getting all the rewards.

    If I don't feel like doing that I'll just watch the stuff on YouTube or something rather than "waste" my time on New Game+.
    This. In the same time, i can just join Main Scenario queue and watch some youtube video on the story, while the queue runs and the what feels like 5 hours of cutscenes runs when the invite pops
    I think instead of NG+, they should've done some sort of log where you can read the story in a bit summarized way (just a bit summarized). Maybe like how it was in Kingdom Hearts where you have a log of all the characters and what their deal was, a summary of the happenings in each world and where the story stuff was also put in when you found the "Ansem Reports"

  6. #48786
    Last year, I started a new character and went through the story (stalled out at level 75 at Rak'Tika in Shadowbringers).

    I think both New Game + and starting a new character have their pros and cons.

    Starting a new character has the downsides frontloaded. As @grandgato said, you have to constantly put the story on hold and run back to your class guild or job trainer, or doing a blue icon unlock quest like chocobos, materia, etc. Then, everytime you finish the base X.0 story of an expansion, you have to do some tomestone farming to buy gear so you can meet the min ilevel requirements for the patch instances.

    New Game + let's you skip all of that extraneous stuff and get an undiluted story experience. However, the biggest problem is that sidequests don't reset. Most of the sidequests in ARR are pretty meh (aside from the Central Coerthas quests, which have some good stuff in there), but starting with HW you start seeing some actually interesting sidequests show up. In Western Coerthas, you have those guys at the Convictory who are trying to kill dragons so they can gain glory and climb up the social hierarchy of Ishgard. Or the hunting village in Dravania. Or learning how the M tribe of Miqote live in Ala Mhigo. Or all of the interesting stuff about the Confederacy and the Xaela tribes in Othard. There were some pretty interesting quests in Yanxia where you learned about how an old man made bells for the Namazu, or helped an outcast Lupin regain the trust of his village. Etc. I think I was most immersed in FFXIV when I was doing the sidequests as went along in each zone.

    So... I guess if you want the complete FFXIV story experience, I'd recommend starting a new character. But if you just want to see the core story without strings attached, just do NG+.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Shakzor View Post
    This. In the same time, i can just join Main Scenario queue and watch some youtube video on the story, while the queue runs and the what feels like 5 hours of cutscenes runs when the invite pops
    I think instead of NG+, they should've done some sort of log where you can read the story in a bit summarized way (just a bit summarized). Maybe like how it was in Kingdom Hearts where you have a log of all the characters and what their deal was, a summary of the happenings in each world and where the story stuff was also put in when you found the "Ansem Reports"
    I think recap summaries usually do the story and characters are disservice.

    The only recap summary I could think of that really got across the feels and the importance were the recaps for the first two Trails of Cold Steel games on the CS3 website. The recap is very indepth and has pictures and really takes you on the journey (it'd be really cool if FFXIV had something like this). Whereas the actual ingame recap was just a few paragraphs of text summary that went "blah blah blah", but never really got across how important something was or how it felt.

  7. #48787
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    So... I guess if you want the complete FFXIV story experience, I'd recommend starting a new character. But if you just want to see the core story without strings attached, just do NG+.
    This is pretty accurate, but for me, the complete lack of rewards from NG+ makes it feel like wasted time. Whereas with a new character, everything you do has a reward attached to it and you can skip the vast majority of the Blue icon quests, the gear ilevel to do the patches is a relevant point though. If all I really wanted to do was see a story recap I could YouTube it and spend FAR less time getting updated on the main story beats than in NG+ because when playing NG+ you have to do ALL the MSQ quests in that particular NG+ section, including the fetch quests and pointless kill quests, not just the big story beats.

    It's obviously there for people who want it and I think it's a great addition, but for me, the amount of time necessary to go through NG+ and get absolutely no rewards for it feels far less efficient and therefore "wasted" in comparison to the other options available.

  8. #48788
    As usual the Nier raid was a lot of fun but the story around it was bad and lazy, except for some of the dwarf stuff.

    Diamond weapon was good. After you do all the Werylt quests, go back to Terncliff. Look for a bunch of little au ra children running around and follow them and read their popup text bubbles.

    MSQ was interesting. Zenos is still boring to me but Fandaniel is starting to grow on me a little. He irked me last patch with how his big evil plan seemed to pop in out of nowhere too quickly after we took out Elidibus but it was nice seeing us actually deliver a setback to things and him not flinching when Zenos threw that sword into the wall by his head.

  9. #48789
    By the 12, finding all the exploration Aether Currents in The Lochs was an endeavor, one I do not wish to repeat. Whomever thought it was a good idea to put them in places that you need to go on a long roundabout trip can kiss my ass.

  10. #48790
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RampageBW1 View Post
    By the 12, finding all the exploration Aether Currents in The Lochs was an endeavor, one I do not wish to repeat. Whomever thought it was a good idea to put them in places that you need to go on a long roundabout trip can kiss my ass.
    I found it to be rather painless, compared to all the shit Blizzard puts you through. Yes, you do riddle about the one on the pillar for a while but it is SE's MO that you get flight once your main quest is done with a zone anyway, so I always would play through it first and then grab the "not so clear" currents.

  11. #48791
    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    I found it to be rather painless, compared to all the shit Blizzard puts you through. Yes, you do riddle about the one on the pillar for a while but it is SE's MO that you get flight once your main quest is done with a zone anyway, so I always would play through it first and then grab the "not so clear" currents.
    I've always grabbed them as I'm going along for the most part so I don't end up doing huge roundabout pathing through the zone, so that once I do finish that last story quest in the zone that gives you an Aether Current, it unlocks flying. Not a lot of time saved either way, but I love the way SE does this.

  12. #48792
    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    I found it to be rather painless, compared to all the shit Blizzard puts you through. Yes, you do riddle about the one on the pillar for a while but it is SE's MO that you get flight once your main quest is done with a zone anyway, so I always would play through it first and then grab the "not so clear" currents.
    Normally, I find the exploration Aether Currents rather painless too. However, The Lochs was rather frustrating in terms of these Aether Currents.

    Imagine you, being at Point A, and you see an Aether Current at Point B like 25 yards above your head. Normally you would think, "Oh good, this one is relatively close by, just need to get up there." Except the path to get up there involves a long ass trip that spans like (at least) 25% of the map because they made it that way on purpose.

    I mean, yes, it's no Pathfinder in WoW, but it's still frustrating.

  13. #48793
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    It's not frustrating at all. I don't know why people are always this impatient and want everything "NOW NOW NOW!".

    Yeah sure, I stood there for a few minutes and it was a head scratcher, then I made a mental note of it's position and said: "I'll take care of you later".
    Got a chuckle out of it when I saw how the DEVs trolled the players in the end.

  14. #48794
    I'll always take popping the aether compass over and over to grab some currents like its a GPS instead of the pathfinder system.

    The main story has been interesting in 5.X stuff as we are finally solving one of the over arching problems by curing tempering.

    For the Nier Raid story It only really makes sense if you actually played the Nier Automata AND Drakengard games BUT ALSO were paying attention to those storylines and can connect the dots without it explictly being told to you here in 14. Otherwise its one of those storylines that leaves you scratching your head on what just happened.

    With Bozja Story is interesting, but its so boring to grind mettle that it makes leveling a fisher look like more fun.

  15. #48795
    I am Murloc! Wangming's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    So... I was doing the latest Ishgard Restoration quests, when this line was dropped and confounded me (5.5 MSQ spoilers)
    Spoiler: 


    "The situation at the Ghimlyt Dark remains at an impasse." Um... what? You're still locked in a stalemate with the Garleans at Ghimlyt? That's... impossible. Provinces have been rebelling left and right, such as Nagxia and Dalmasca and Bozja, and presumably provinces in the West as well. And then Varis died and then it became a free for all as Legions were breaking away left and right. The VIIth and the IVth don't give a crap about Garlemald's Western borders. Nerva and his IIIrd Legion were busy in the capital trying to assert control, and then they got wiped out. There is no one left who has the forces to - and is interested in - holding the line at Ghimlyt. Zenos certainly doesn't care ; he is chopping up his own people! Almost everyone in the capital city has either been brainwashed into being a tower builder, or has been fed to the tower! There is literally NO ONE LEFT! There is no central command that can give orders or organize supply chains to keep a Western front sustained! And even if there was an organized central command that could organize supply chains, those supply convoys and reinforcements would never reach Ghimlyt, as they would have to pass through through the hostile territory of rebelling provinces and rogue legions. If anything, Artoirel should have been coming back from Ghimlyt to say "oh yeah, I just finishing organizing our prison camps for the Garlean soldiers".


    Anyway, (Durendaire subplot) I was hoping that Carvallain was going to reunite with his father... maybe it will happen at the end of Count Durendaire's custom deliveries questline?

    Nice to see the dragon guy again.

    Also, really sucks that the Firmament isn't phased like the Doman Enclave. New players won't get to see it evolve over time and missed out on the earlier quests.
    The spoiler stuff I would write up to the time bubble. One of the very few problems I have with the story is how they are all over the place chronologically. You can run Palace of the Dead during your first job to level, but it is actually set after Tam-Tara hard mode for example. I would say Ishgard restoration is between 3.5 and 5.0 timeline wise. When it was added is another matter.

  16. #48796
    Quote Originally Posted by Wraethion View Post
    For the Nier Raid story It only really makes sense if you actually played the Nier Automata AND Drakengard games BUT ALSO were paying attention to those storylines and can connect the dots without it explictly being told to you here in 14. Otherwise its one of those storylines that leaves you scratching your head on what just happened.
    They've also tried to cram a lot into it with the Dwarves too. Which I get, it's so people who've not played Nier have something to latch on to. I stand by what I said way back when the cross over was announced - It's not something that should not have ever been attempted.

    I couldn't be bothered with Nier Automata. For lack of better phrasing it was a game that was too far up it's own arse to be worth my time. I skip through the story at the best of times but I still know whats happening and why most of the time. This time I had no idea at all what was going on. There was something about a giant ball of wool and hacking into the Matrix to fight a red mage?

    Also the lack of colour is very disorentating. White on white while fighting white enemies is just... Ugh. I'm sure theres some half arsed explanation for it, but a white void isn't exactly the most thrilling or interesting environment to host a raid in. It's somehow even blander than the previous two Nier raids - Which is an achivement in itself!

  17. #48797
    Quote Originally Posted by Monkeymootwo View Post
    I think Shadowbringers really dropped the ball after its release patch.
    The Weapon storyline was pretty good and Bozja has been decent, but yeah the Nier raids were a dud for me.

  18. #48798
    I hope they make any more crossovers more like the MH version -- after playing through the story of the raids in ShB, its just really lackluster and kind of pointless in retrospect on many aspects of the story.

    I think FF14 works better in crossovers with short moments than full storylines. That being said -- YoRHa having a bad storyline (and Paradigm being somewhat worse than Puppets Bunker imo) doesnt ruin the storytelling high of Shadowbringers. I still think it has the best storytelling out of all the expansion.

    I just wish they put some more of that effort back into the battle systems.
    Last edited by TidalConflux; 2021-05-03 at 06:24 PM.

  19. #48799
    Nier was a letdown for me. The glamour is the best thing I've gotten out of it. Though I have friends that are really into Nier and they LOVE it. Like brought to tears during the city part kind of love. Sure wish it could have resonated with me the same way, but it's a franchise so disconnected from FF it felt like crossing Vagrant Story with Sonic The Hedgehog. A Chrono Trigger crossover revealing the Sound as being a spawn of Lavos would have made more sense. And even that would be stupid.

  20. #48800
    Quote Originally Posted by Monkeymootwo View Post
    I think Shadowbringers really dropped the ball after its release patch.
    No arguements there - The content I've enjoyed this expansion has been very threadbare. They've been making some very noticable cuts to group content and it shows. Only one expert dungeon per patch and no Deep Dungeons is very telling and all of the Ultimate content has been recycled from Heavensward and ARR.

    Quote Originally Posted by TidalConflux View Post
    I think FF14 works better in crossovers with short moments than full storylines.
    Oh absolutely. Short, memorable and self contained works far better than what they've tried to do with the Nier content. The MH crossover is a boss fight which kept most of its mechanics from MH. You don't already have to be invested in both games to enjoy it for what it is.

    With the way the game is set up now with Shadowbringers, and the idea that you can travel through to different shards of the star, opens up a lot of options for smaller crossovers without breaking canon.

    Quote Originally Posted by Merie View Post
    A Chrono Trigger crossover revealing the Sound as being a spawn of Lavos would have made more sense. And even that would be stupid.
    I'd be on board with this. Chrono Trigger has a straight forward and simple enough story that you could convey it all in FF14 without too much effort and the game itself offered some highly varied and interesting locations.

    Mostly because Chrono Trigger is a game that's got very little filler and enough plot points to fit into 3 raids plus some fluff side content. Have each of the raid sections be set in a different time period and throw in the boss from each. Combine that with mechanics that would be easy to move over to FF14 and you're onto a winner.

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