Why japanese mmo have to be so story focused?

[Vampiregenesis]

I played both phantasy star online and final fantasy xiv and man...the dialogues are endless and can't be skipped, I'm 34 years old and I have watched tons of movies, series, mangas, animes, single-player games (ps2 golden age), I cba to read another random story in a game with cat girls and the typical Asia sexualized/cartoonish stuff, if it's something big and hyped like Game of Thrones then yes I will see it or something with really developed lore such as witcher but in the end, those are series or single-player games, not RPG MMO where the main goal should be your character build-up and the adventures you go for. WoW has a much better way to present its story without interrupting your gameplay even though this has become too much of a hollywood game.

I'm kinda sad because ffxiv has the best animations I have ever seen, they are by far better than wow and both pso2 and ffxiv are playable on consoles which is also a bonus for me. Nevertheless, I can't bear this dialog thing, I guess these games are not for me. I will have to stick with eso who in my opinion is doing a much better job with the story and it's less annoying.

[8bithamster]

Because different people like different things..

/thread

[PenguinChan]

I have to assume ESO is less annoying because it’s all voice acted, not because it’s better. I’ve had my father and a few other people who are older mention similar woes with FFXIV and then go play ESO.

[Vampiregenesis]

I have to assume ESO is less annoying because it’s all voice acted, not because it’s better. I’ve had my father and a few other people who are older mention similar woes with FFXIV and then go play ESO.

Yes, the voice acting is fantastic, actually, I kinda like the story element of ESO.

[PenguinChan]

Yes, the voice acting is fantastic, actually, I kinda like the story element of ESO.

I personally don’t think the main story in any scrolls game to be good, but the stories along the way are good to great. Thankfully ESO is mostly that, and agreed, the voice acting is nice.

[Airlick]

I have to assume ESO is less annoying because it’s all voice acted, not because it’s better. I’ve had my father and a few other people who are older mention similar woes with FFXIV and then go play ESO.

More like because it's written fairly well. I didn't play much of FFXIV, but every JRPG I've played were horrendously overwritten. Talk about discussing the proper thickness of a slice of bread for 5 pages straight while repeating the same arguments in different wording for the latter 4 pages. It's not a problem with random catgirls or lack of VA, but an extremely poor style of writing that is typical of Japanese writers in general. There's few of them that aren't guilty of this, and it influences other medias as well. Games are probably the worst in this regard because they often make those dialogues unskippable to artificially inflate gametime. There's also the issue of Chinese characters, which carry far more meaning than Western languages and the beauty, metaphores and references to Japanese/ancient Chinese writings are inevitably lost in translation.

[Theangryone]

Because rpgs are story driven. They are supposed to have strong story elements and the story is supposed to happen in game. WoW has forgotten this. MMO means nothing

[Cwimge]

Gameplay always wins. Final fantasy is a visual novel first, a walking sim second, rpg DISTANT third and somewhere after that, an mmo

[Accendor]

WoW has a much better way to present its story without interrupting your gameplay even though this has become too much of a hollywood game.

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.

[Traveler Voltin]

Japanese like to tell a story.

Their manga and light novels prove it

[Redroniksre]

I played both phantasy star online and final fantasy xiv and man...the dialogues are endless and can't be skipped, I'm 34 years old and I have watched tons of movies, series, mangas, animes, single-player games (ps2 golden age), I cba to read another random story in a game with cat girls and the typical Asia sexualized/cartoonish stuff, if it's something big and hyped like Game of Thrones then yes I will see it or something with really developed lore such as witcher but in the end, those are series or single-player games, not RPG MMO where the main goal should be your character build-up and the adventures you go for. WoW has a much better way to present its story without interrupting your gameplay even though this has become too much of a hollywood game.

I'm kinda sad because ffxiv has the best animations I have ever seen, they are by far better than wow and both pso2 and ffxiv are playable on consoles which is also a bonus for me. Nevertheless, I can't bear this dialog thing, I guess these games are not for me. I will have to stick with eso who in my opinion is doing a much better job with the story and it's less annoying.

FFXIV is far less of an MMO and more of a Single player with MMO features. But it definitely could include a little more gameplay with the story telling. One of the best RPG stories I have ever played through, but yeah, there is an ass load of dialogue. The majority of the MSQ gameplay is going from A to B with occasional killing things and a dungeons here or there.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

FF14 isn't a MMO. It's a singleplayer game with a glorified multiplayer component.

If you want an actual Final Fantasy themed MMO, then play FF11. You have to slog through some cutscenes to unlock certain content and zones but for the most part you can do whatever you want.

- - - Updated - - -

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.

I think he meant how in Vanilla, you weren't playing through a main storyline or following Anduin or Thrall or whatever superhero. You just picked a direction and went, and did quests that interested you, and gradually absorbed the lore of the setting, but you weren't on rails. Whereas in Shadowlands you have to play through the main story in order like you are playing a singleplayer game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

As for FF14 as a JRPG, it's a mixed bag. As aforementioned, there is a lot of padded dialogue, and it gets especially worse in later expansions. Once a cutscene starts, you can predict everything that will happen. Characters will meet up, introduce themselves, gratuitously pat each other on the back, talk about technobabble, then some guy comes running in screaming for help, the characters walk outside and see the problem... it's incredibly repetitive. JRPGs began having a lot more superfluous once they weren't restricted by cartridge limitations, but FFXIV is exceptionally bad at times.

[Goatfish]

Because rpgs are story driven. They are supposed to have strong story elements and the story is supposed to happen in game. WoW has forgotten this. MMO means nothing

I personally think the biggest difference is that Asian RPG's seem primarily to set up the player as primarily a viewer of a story, whereas western RPG's want you to create your own story as much as possible. Final Fantasy games and modern WoW has been a pretty linear experience where you follow a certain character who does certain things and your influence on the story is minimal. Western style RPG's like Everquest, Elder Scrolls, and D&D have been about creating your own story within a framework.

It might stem from cultural differences, but the way that RPG's play and what it means is interpreted differently. One side thinks you should play the role as if you are the character making the decisions the character would make, and the other side thinks you should insert yourself into the characters position and make your own decisions about where to go and what to do. It's not a universal rule or anything by any means, but it does seem to be the trend. This is why JRPG is often considered its own term in the western market, it's nothing to do with it being specifically Japanese, and more to do with how the RPG genre is designed for the Japanese market.

To put it simply, no matter what decisions you make in FF, you are the funneled along to beat the big bad at the end, your decisions don't really matter in the long run. In a D&D game or Elder Scrolls (which is probably the best implementation of D&D in video games) you get a story shown as an option, but you can run off and make your name as a notorious broom thief instead of being specifically funneled to be the heroic dragon slayer.

Edit: I think the popularity of JRPG style is primarily that they aren't as punishing for mistakes. If anyone remembers those old choose your own adventure RPG books, more often than not you ended up dead, and to properly complete one you either needed luck, a lot of notes, or an eidetic memory. I also imagine most creators get frustrated when they spend all this time to create a story that they think is really cool, and the player would rather go around collecting every cabbage in the kingdom just to roll them down the tallest mountain in the land.

[Utrrabbit]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.

They are correct. FF14s way of doing it is so bad. Everytime it starts up I literally get out if my chair and walk away till it's done. Though I personally think FF14s stort is trash in everyway.

[Aliven]

Mostly because they found out early what works (tactical combat system) so they spend less time in reinventing the wheel and were more focused in creating stories, worlds and lore. Western RPG were mostly focused on mechanics and hack and slashing, and every RPG got like new and exclusive mechanics.

[oplawlz]

Gameplay always wins. Final fantasy is a visual novel first, a walking sim second, rpg DISTANT third and somewhere after that, an mmo

Probably the best summary I've seen of FF14.
OT: I agree that it's annoying in eastern games. I'm all for including a good story in your mmo, but man you have to make that optional because what makes a "good" story is totally subjective. Let your gameplay stand on its own for the people who just want to kill some dragons.

[Tiev]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.

It really is. I have to say that the best MMO for story out there to me is SWTOR, but WoW doesn't even come 5th.

[Bladesyphon]

What kind of blows me away about how badly paced FFXIV is, is how FFXI, a game twenty years older, managed to not only tell stories that are far and away superior to XIV, but also didn't bog them down with endless cutscenes.

Most cutscenes in XI are, at most, a minute or two long, with a few (usually the ones containing major plot beats, or the endings) being the ones that stretch closer to the ten minute mark. The biggest difference, however, is that these cut-scenes are often rewarded after large stretches of game play. Either going through a big 'ole dungeon, adventuring through a giant zone, or at the end of a sequence of boss fights or enemy encounters.

I recently finished Seekers of Adoulin in XI for the first time, and and holy hell I was blown away by not only how good the story was, but how much fun the expansion was to play through. Every zone and dungeon fit the theme of Adoulin being an untamed wilderness that was a living, breathing thing, the boss fights all felt both important to the story, and each unique enough to stand on their own two feet, Ra'Kaznaar felt like a proper final dungeon, the final boss was legitimately challenging, and the story was presented to me in a way that always ensured I was playing the game more than I was watching it. Everything about Seekers shit on anything XIV has managed to accomplish in the ten years it's been around - and Seekers is only ONE expansion, with a single, self contained storyline.

Somewhere between Seeker's release and now, SE has lost the talent of being able to marry story and gameplay together, and instead simply opts to make people suffer through medicore storylines with horribly written dialogue, and minimal moments of gameplay. It's why I've almost no interest at all in XVI - I know it's going to likely be less like XI and XII, and more like XIII and XIV - filled with cutscenes and characters wrapped around a boring story that gets in the way of me playing the video game.

[Zenfoldor]

Because they release a full game instead of a lazy half game with parts missing.