Which category do you fall in?

[Tekko]

I try to read all dialogue, but a lot of the time it's pointless crap. I fail to see need to read everything, when I do, which is a lot of the time, I find myself thinking, why did I bother.

It's completely fine if you skip all, or read all.

Some people want a story, some people want to play a game. If you judge someone on whether they skip or read all, you are the problem.

I like a mix of story and gameplay, so I completely understand why people skip a lot of the dialogue, because there is more of that when levelling, and so far in Endwalker, I've barely killed anything, it's just story (still like it).

For people who are after gameplay only, they have to go through a lot to get to the fun end game of gameplay.

[Donald Hellscream]

I skim and click through stuff that isn't voiced, but I do not skip cutscenes.

To be honest I think the way the story is presented in FF14 is good enough that you could understand even if you paid the barest minimum of attention to the dialogue, like the action that is happening outside the dialogue more than adequately paint a picture of what is going on.

[Tojara]

I skim and click through stuff that isn't voiced, but I do not skip cutscenes.

To be honest I think the way the story is presented in FF14 is good enough that you could understand even if you paid the barest minimum of attention to the dialogue, like the action that is happening outside the dialogue more than adequately paint a picture of what is going on.

Pretty much.

I can however read a lot faster than the voiced sections so if I get the point of what's going on, I'll even skip some voiced cutscenes if what's going on isn't particularly interesting.

It's rare but on occasion a story beat happens that I might have glossed over, to where a quick trip to the wiki basically clears up any story confusion I might have.

[Confucius]

I was a mega skipper in wow mainly because of the rush to get to the end game but in FF14 I read all the msq quests and watch the cut scenes because you can only experience the novelty of it once

[ercarp]

Shed off your expectations that this is like WoW and try to approach the game for the first playthrough (msq) like you would a normal rpg, worked wonders for most of them.

I don't really bother with "normal RPGs" as I think story games are slow and boring. So if I treated the game that way, it would mean not playing it at all.

[Caprias]

I don't really bother with "normal RPGs" as I think story games are slow and boring. So if I treated the game that way, it would mean not playing it at all.

Thats fine and the limit/echo boys have shown that you can also just boost to endgame and enjoy the raids as alternative (even though you'll likely not get as many hours out of that compared ot WoW if it's the only thing that interests you).

Even though I've never known someone who doesn't like a good story haha

[Stormspark]

Thats fine and the limit/echo boys have shown that you can also just boost to endgame and enjoy the raids as alternative (even though you'll likely not get as many hours out of that compared ot WoW if it's the only thing that interests you).

Even though I've never known someone who doesn't like a good story haha

The story IS the game in this case. I don't understand why someone would get a game only to not play it.

[Tojara]

Games can be whatever you want them to be. There are people who play MMOs just to RP because they like the setting or they play it to collect stuff. I think neither of those things are worth my time personally, but can see the merit of catering to those types of players.

I personally like the story but to say the only thing this game brings IS the story does a disservice to the rest of the features of the game. The story is absolutely slow and a lot of people don't want to put in the massive time investment to actually understand aspects of it. There are mainline FF games that have far less story elements (granted it's hard to have more story elements than a game with 5 installments dedicated to it) that I didn't really pay much attention to because it wasn't all that interesting. The gameplay loop and the universe was enough for me to stick with it though. Some people just watch TV shows for action, violence or boobs without any regard for the story. It's not a difficult concept to grasp that some people might just play FF for reasons that aren't tied to the story.

Telling people how they should play the game is just silly. It might be hard to believe but the FF14 story while good (IMO) isn't going to be for everybody, and that includes people who pay attention or like stories in general. I know plenty of people who skip through the quests and give zero shits about the story, and are only playing it because they like the housing system and the raids.

To each their own.

[Tsarez]

I used to skip nothing. Then I realized I didn't even get through half of ARR in 6 months. Now I'm somewhere between skip everything and watching only voiced cutscenes, since I found Storm blood and after the war extremely boring and long winded.

I plan on not skipping anything again once I reach Shadowbringers so that I'm not confused with the story that leads to end walker.

[kaminaris]

Since every dialog and cutscene is voiced for me i dont skip anything.

[Wrecktangle]

Since every dialog and cutscene is voiced for me i dont skip anything.

Is someone reading it to you or are you reading it aloud?

[ek0zu]

I started the game by skipping many things but as i progressed through the MSQ and seeing that i actually enjoy the story and the lore i stopped doing so and i started reading every line. I guess i have to start a new game+ at some point to read those things that i missed during the ARR. Obviously the WoW mentality does not apply on this game and that is a very good thing.

[Caprias]

Is someone reading it to you or are you reading it aloud?

It's this weird voice in my head

[xmirrors]

The story IS the game in this case. I don't understand why someone would get a game only to not play it.

Yes and no, but mostly no. Yes, it is indisputable that the story is the main selling point of FFXIV and its focus, but endgame literally exists. For a niche crowd that is all they need and all they care about. With all content from previous expansions being available and still providing challenge (min ilevel/no echo) there is a place for people that don't care for story.

I'd definitely warn such people so they know what they're getting into but yeah. I don't understand it personally and the idea of playing Endwalker by skipping cutscenes amuses me (quests provide very little combat so how boring must that be...?) but the two new extreme trials are great and there is more coming with Pandaemonium. There is definitely content for skippers.

[Garretdejiko]

Never bought a skin and never will.
When I first played, I skipped most of ARR and HW cause I didn't had much time to play. Thank god for NG+.

[kaminaris]

Is someone reading it to you or are you reading it aloud?

Automatic TTS.

[GreenJesus]

Is there a back button setting for dialogue boxes? My right hand often gets trigger happy and right clicks without me intending to and I skip a dialogue. I'd rather not have to fully take my hand off the mouse every dialogue box to make sure I don't accidently click.

[kaminaris]

Is there a back button setting for dialogue boxes? My right hand often gets trigger happy and right clicks without me intending to and I skip a dialogue.

You can make quest text output to chat box, so if u miss dialogue you can read it from chat box. Dunno where that setting is tho.

[GreenJesus]

I totally get why you're skipping all the story. As a former WoW person (and hopefully I'll return once they get their house in order), that was my inclination too. However, one big thing to note here is that FFXIV is truly a JRPG first and an MMO second. The story is such a huge part of the game and EVERYTHING is going to have story in it. All the raids, all the alliance raids, dungeons, ect. If you're trying to just skip through it, it is still going to be time consuming. When you come to FFXIV and you choose to skip the story, it's kind of like going to play Halo for the story but not wanting to play the shooter aspect of the game.

Of course, don't take me saying that as giving you shade. How you're playing is a totally legitimate way to play the game, it's obviously how you want to enjoy the game. I just can't stress enough how good the story is and how much more impactful the dungeons and raids are if you're caught up with the story. There's been a couple of raids where what was happening in the raid brought me to tears while I'm trying to do my rotation... which was a first for me lol.

The good news is, you only have to do the story content once and then never touch it again if you don't want. Either way, I hope you enjoy your time. Good luck!

Tsukuyomi trial in SB really hits hard for me.

[Selah]

Tsukuyomi trial in SB really hits hard for me.

Yeah, that was rough. Eden raids hit hard too, it's amazing how I can be mid-raid and mid-pull and trying to not ball my eyes out.