Which category do you fall in?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

How have you played the game so far? Do you care for the story or not?

I've played a lot of long winded JRPGs and visual novels like Trails, Utawarerumono, etc. Some were decent enough I finished them, others were so boring I dropped them.

The quality of FFXIV's story really varies. ARR does not have engaging characters. The pacing fluctuates and there are long stretches that are boring slogs. The presentation of the story with cutscenes and voice acting is pretty meh at first and doesn't get decent until Heavensward, but again your investment in the characters and the storylines will vary. There is also a noticeable writing shift around Stormblood. If you liked ARR and HW's storylines you might dislike the direction of FFXIV's latter storyline, and you might like that but the early stories might turn you off. The main story alone is 300+ hours long so it's a tall ask. If you want to play a game for the story, I'd probably recommend that you play other games first, before working your way down the list to FFXIV.

In the latest expansion, Endwalker, there were a LOT of tedious, repetitive speeches about hope and friendship. I started fast forwarding through the speeches towards the later half of the expansion's storyline.

There are side storylines, like the raid storylines. Their quality varies. The Warring Triad storyline is a boring exposition dump that sets up a plotline that was never followed up on and was eventually canned. The Four Lords is forgettable. Sorrow of Werlyt is actually 7/10 very good. Omega is fine. The first 2/3rds of Eden were okay but then the story goes bad in the last tier. The Void Ark storyline is forgettable. Return to Ivalice was fine. Save the Queen was good-ish. I dropped the Nier raids at the second raid and never finished them. The ARR Hildibrand storyline is good. The HW is... okay, borderline forgettable.

Most of the job storylines range from "okay" to bad. The only vaguely good ones are the Lancer 1-30, Samurai 50-60, Dark Knight 60-70, and Gunbreaker 60-70 storylines. Individually, none of the Scholar storylines were good, but the overall 30-80 story was good. I would hesitate to say that any of those job storylines I just listed were worth the time required to grind up a job to see them.

The role questlines are overall meh, just like the job questlines. The only decent one thus far has been the Endwalker melee DPS one. The only rolequestline I haven't done yet is the Endwalker ranged DPS one, but given the quality of the other questlines I doubt it will be particularly good.

Most beast tribe questlines are forgettable. There are some that have some moments of comedy and are above average, but again not really something I'd say was worth the grind just to see the story for. Same with the custom delivery questlines.

Almost all of the sidequests in this game are bad, not even on the same level of interest as your average WoW sidequest. If you want a story worth your time, don't do them. If you're going through the game for the first time, doing a few questing hubs along the way through the MSQ might help build atmosphere, but if you've already passed thus hubs then don't bother going back. They are as follows: Whitebrim Front in Central Coerthas Highlands. The Convictory in the Western Coerthas Highlands. Some of the Confederacy Quests in the Ruby Sea. Some quests in Garlemald were good but they are mixed among a lot of filler. Almost all of the sidequests in Elpis were somewhat interesting.

The story is honestly the best MMO story ever told, but in that aspect it acts more like a single player RPG than anything else. Even among single player games, FFXIV's story ranks incredibly high in quality, especially when considering the medium through which it is told. They use sight, spectacle, setting, even music and sound incredibly well to evoke feeling.

Eh. The MMO format of FFXIV gets in the way of FFXIV's storytelling ability. The zones are cramped and are filled with repetitive events, and don't effectively convey the setting like the levels of singleplayer JRPGs do. There are a lot of narrative disconnects, like you canonically travelling with party members but they do not appear with you outside of cutscenes, and you don't get to actually adventure with them in gameplay outside of duties, or until you reach Shadowbringers (at which point they start showing up in dungeons in the place of other players). Etc.

You cannot judge FFXIV in a vacuum. As a JRPG, other games offer more effective experiences for your time and money. As an MMO, yes it's the probably the best alternative to WoW atm but has a lot of things that get in the way of the user experience (having to go through a 300+ hour long story you are mostly doing by yourself to reach endgame).

[Byleth]

The Warring Triad storyline is a boring exposition dump that sets up a plotline that was never followed up on and was eventually canned.

No argument about the exposition dump. However this storyline was picked up on again in ShB if you managed to unlock it. The plotline is still very much 'on the shelf' but far from canned.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

There is no story building added by the cinematic writing of this scene;

This is direct from FFXIV ARR full voiced cutscenes.

-Camera pans in > 'hero character' walks towards player.
-Short pause
-Dialog begins with a small hello.
-Short pause
-Dialog continues introducing who this hero character is
-Dialog finishes and there is another pause while the character blinks and smiles
-Dialog continues thanking the player for doing something
-Another pause, character gesticulates
-Guard moves towards player while hero character and guard stare creepily at player for a moment.
-Dialog continues "here is your reward"
-Another pause
-Camera focuses on player who gesticulates
-Camera pans back to hero character
-Another beat of nothingness
-Dialog continues

This is a 30 second snippet of a scene which is typical of the ARR cinematic "experience". As I said, fair enough if this improves after ARR, but this isn't even anywhere near the worst of it. Anyone seriously comparing this to a movie's dialog and storyboarding mustn't be watching the same movies as I am.

It's funny, because watching the cutscenes for 1.0, they overall have far more effort put into them than almost any cutscene in the current game. Only one cutscene in the ShB patches even approaches the same level as those 1.0 cutscenes, and certainly nothing in Endwalker.

- - - Updated - - -

No argument about the exposition dump. However this storyline was picked up on again in ShB if you managed to unlock it. The plotline is still very much 'on the shelf' but far from canned.

The Warring Triad storyline set up a character drama plotline that looked like it was going to have a climatic confrontation, but it never came to pass.

[Lane]

Most of the job storylines range from "okay" to bad. The only vaguely good ones are the Lancer 1-30, Samurai 50-60, Dark Knight 60-70, and Gunbreaker 60-70 storylines. Individually, none of the Scholar storylines were good, but the overall 30-80 story was good. I would hesitate to say that any of those job storylines I just listed were worth the time required to grind up a job to see them.

My main issue with the job quests is that you have to do them for abilities, they're not just something for flavor or gear sets. They also happen with far too much frequency, especially if you have Road to 70. There were so many times I spam clicked through the dialog because I just wanted my new ability, I didn't care about the quest line to get it. Adding to the annoyance is the quest givers frequently move. I had to keep a notepad for each job and where the trainer was last seen every time.

Overall, they felt like a chore and the storylines didn't help with most not being interesting (and some the characters weren't likeable either). I disagree about DRK though, I thought 30-50 was the best part of that arc, it felt the most realistic and relatable to me, while 60-70 had a faulty premise that the WoL ever has a choice. Even on the rare occasion that there's a dialog option to not fight, it doesn't matter. It felt like being chastised for things that were out of my hands.

My main regrets are NIN and SCH, the latter just because I missed a lot of lore for not caring about tonberries. The former was partly due to reading pirate speak being taxing, I need a translator for that nonsense. :P I liked DRG, MCH, and at least SMN had some Ascian action. A lot of people seemed to like RDM that I didn't find that compelling, maybe I missed something.

It's funny, because watching the cutscenes for 1.0, they overall have far more effort put into them than almost any cutscene in the current game. Only one cutscene in the ShB patches even approaches the same level as those 1.0 cutscenes, and certainly nothing in Endwalker.

1.0 cutscenes were amazing, so much unique and simultaneous movement. 2.0+ can't seem to handle more than one character doing a basic standing emote most of the time.

[Ryzeth]

I'm in it for the ERP.

[Tekko]

In the latest expansion, Endwalker, there were a LOT of tedious, repetitive speeches about hope and friendship. I started fast forwarding through the speeches towards the later half of the expansion's storyline.

I have to agree here, I enjoy the story for the most part, but I found it frustrating to level, with so much pointless dialogue. I found myself bored out of my mind so often, I try not to skip as I don't like to miss anything, but for my own sanity I started skipping parts also.

[Dejiko]

I would say i skim rather skip.
I`m someone with a strong dislike for smalltalk, so whenever there`s an exchange of formalities
or just characters catching up and talking about things that have happened, i more or less left click
like a mad person to get past it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I absorb it all. I even run around and talk to the npcs around before I hand in the quests to get to see what they have to say and what their thoughts are.

[VinceVega]

Quite simple honestly: Do i see a Lalafel? SKIP

Horrible race. Pedo chibi doll looking loli shit... sry... i really dislike them in every single way. The fact that there are some rather prominent Lalafells in the story makes it rather hard for me to get through the game tbh^^

Oh: And if i see these stupid unnatural anime moves lik weird fistpumps and stuff. I roll my eyes and skip if possible...

[Selah]

So OP, I feel you on the wanting to skip a lot of the story bits. I definitely had that inclination when I started too. It doesn't help that ARR and a solid bit of HW are very slow and tedious. And, there are parts of each expansion that are for certainly painful here and there.

However! All of that lore is very key to being able to enjoy the rest of the story that'll be presented in the game. On top of that, ARR and the world building within it will be called upon multiple times in the expansions going forward. The internal logic of the world makes sense, even when you encounter the more "cosmic" (to use a WoW term) elements are at play. Those grand and wild plot elements are still very much grounded in the rules set up by the game in ARR. Keep in mind, this isn't WoW where they just throw the rules of and internal logic of the world when something cool pops into the head of Danuser.

And I will say, the pay off with the initial investment of ARR and some of HW is well worth it. At the time it kind of hurt to go through it, but now at the end of EW I'm so so grateful I just bit the bullet and did it.

Keep in mind, that the pain points doesn't last forever and are broken up with other things like dungeons and actually great story moments.

What I did (no joke) is when playing through the bits that hurt a bit I would go make some popcorn and just sat back and changed my mindset from "I'm playing a game" to "I'm being told a story." When I shifted my mind set to something more appropriate for what was being done I found myself really enjoying the game in those more "painful" moments.

At the end of the day though, it's not for everyone. If it doesn't work for you then it doesn't work for you. Either way, good luck!

[Boricha]

TBH I skipped through most of ARR, but stopped towards the end and haven't kipped anything in Heavensward so far.

[PenguinChan]

I think the majority of people playing FFXIV fall in the barely skip anything or nothing at all category. At least when it comes to the major storylines - sidequests can differ, as some are forgettable or just not up to par. Regardless though, anyone who tries to play this game just to skip everything are strange. I understand Ultimate and Savage can actually be quite enjoyable without even caring about the story, however... That's a lot of money just to down and get there. You still have to DO the current expansion's content which is a slog if all you do is skip cutscenes.

[Advent]

Quite simple honestly: Do i see a Lalafel? SKIP

Horrible race. Pedo chibi doll looking loli shit... sry... i really dislike them in every single way. The fact that there are some rather prominent Lalafells in the story makes it rather hard for me to get through the game tbh^^

Oh: And if i see these stupid unnatural anime moves lik weird fistpumps and stuff. I roll my eyes and skip if possible...

I actually feel similarly to you on the unnatural, stylized "Japanimation" gestures. It often causes me to just get up and do something else. But I don't skip whole scenes generally, except for the Stormblood expansion. That one dragged hard.

For me it's primarilythe facial animation and emote system that drag the story down. I'm not overly moved by music so I generally turn that off. Compelling voice acting can work in lieu of excellent or passable face animations and gestures, but that's incredibly rare. The only one that comes to mind was the story of Ardbert and his Amaro-thing in Shadowbringers. Aside from that, I have serious troubles relating to most anyone else who plays the game. We just see things too differently to connect on that level.

[Mojo03]

I watch them. I like knowing what’s going on and I want to judge the game for what it is.

I often find I get annoyed with the way they do storytelling. The pacing is too slow and stiff and the dialogue feels artificially over extrapolated the vast majority of the time.

I also struggle to care about the characters because the character animations come off so animatronic to me. Though the acting is decent usually, they still just come off so inorganic that I don’t care about them.

This is an issue in 95% of the game for me.

On the other hand, it’s more thought provoking and intelligently worded than pretty much any other game.

And the highs are high.

I found EW more tolerable overall, I felt engaged during a lot of it, though they way overdid it on the sheer length and amount of cutscenes to the point it felt like I was playing a visual novel and not an RPG.

I also don’t like how you finish 15 minutes of cutscenes and they put you next to the quest giver to turn the quest in and then boom they auto start another 15 minutes of cutscenes.

That happens a lot and it kind of pisses me off.